life – Page 2 – Thoughts From The Passenger Seat

2025, Gardening, hobbies, life

Yard Work

Posted on August 31, 2025 by nancyb422

I’ve talked about my yard before and the history of my home.

Over the last six months, my husband has been adding landscaping to all sides of the house. My father, not having grown up in a family without a home of their own said, “why do I want to plant something when I’ll have to take care of it”. Anything that grew wild, stayed wild and any spot with nothing, stayed that way.

We had discussed landscaping in the front of the house but I grew up with a father who didn’t plant anything remember? It all feels so permanent and “what if it looks bad, doesn’t grow, etc.”, is my school of thought.

Thankfully, my husband ignored me! We now have a variety of plants along the house including, azaleas, Joe-Pye Weed (fun name!) and Little Pye, Goldenrod, and Panicle Hydrangea. Most were purchased at our local nurseries and a few at Lowe’s.

My project this Labor Day weekend is to take pictures of, and lay out on paper, the plants and their locations. I (don’t think my husband cares) want to know what they are and what the colors are going to be. Some that have already bloomed, I forgot what they looked like!

The landscaping around the house and seating area

This was a fun one when it bloomed! Poco Sunset

I’m not going to go for perfection, just a sense of what we have!

All the colors have such nice green foliage too

I’m hoping that cooler and moister weather will green things up again!

2025, life

9:37 AM

Posted on August 30, 2025 by nancyb422

If you were to look at your clock on this Saturday morning and it said 9:37 am, would your brain say, “ONLY 9:37 am yay!” Or “OMG already 9:37 am!” ?

I am in the camp of “OMG Already?!”, but I literally have nothing planned for the day, nothing to do except work out (heading there now), hit the Farmers Market (open til 1 or 2pm), read, and do some ancestry research.

I make myself crazy.

2025, life, thoughts

What I DIDN’T Do

Posted on August 21, 2025August 21, 2025 by nancyb422

I walked into the bank today and waited for a teller to call me over. There was one other customer there.

I handed my teller the deposits and walked to the counter to grab a lollipop. As I turned back, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I recognized the woman. When I heard her voice, I knew who it was. Someone from high school. Someone who was on the cheerleading squad with me. Someone who I’d call an acquaintance, or someone that I used to know.

Hmmm….do I just kept my head turned and sneak out after my transactions are done? Or do I find my friendly face and say hello? What to do what to do!

I turned toward her and said, “I’d know that laugh anywhere!”. We shared a hug, had a small conversation, I collected my receipts, and left with a breezy, “It was nice to see you!”.

It would have been so easy to just ignore her, and go on my way. I feel a smidge better that I didn’t.

2025, Healthy Living, life

Fall Is Around The Corner

Posted on August 19, 2025August 19, 2025 by nancyb422

It never fails. We have days and weeks with 100 degree heat and suddenly we wake up one morning and it’s cool and breezy!

Today is that day. But I confess, it feels beautiful, albeit a little chilly as I’m in a tank top and shorts here on the porch.

I actually wore something other than a summer dress for work and took a nice 20 minute walk around our complex. I think it’s 5 times around for 1 mile but I forget to count…

On my way home from work, I stopped at the library to pick up the DVD Troy (it’s only for rent on Amazon), and stopped at the bank and post office. I really had a spring in my step!

I think the hot weather has finally broken and we’ll see some cooler weather moving forward. Central Air is still on for bedtime though!

2025, Healthy Living, life

Advice From One Who Knows

Posted on August 16, 2025 by nancyb422

I may be 65, but sometimes I think my mind is stuck in my teens. Or maybe it’s because I’m a Taurus?

Anyway, I’m like a dog with a bone. If I get a thought, especially a negative one, I can’t let it go. Money, bills, employees – it’s what swirls around my head all day. And if there’s a comment from someone rebutting me on a Facebook post about creating affordable housing in my town (I’m for it by the way) – yikes!

But then, I watched the New Heights podcast with Taylor Swift as their guest. It was one of the most entertaining and enlightening two hours I’ve had staring at my screen in a long time.

What snapped me to attention was when she said, “What you spend the energy on, That’s the Day!”. THAT’S THE DAY.

I have to say in my defense, I am only a week and a half back from a 10 day vacation cruising along the coast and inside passage of Alaska but even I’m saying to myself, Enough’s Enough!

I currently say a morning prayer to get myself right with the day and try to get a 5 to 10 minute meditation in, but, it looks like I need to add an additional mantra to the day.

*Yesterday’s monarch butterfly flitting around me*

What do you want to spend your energy on?

2025, Healthy Living

It’s Been a Minute

Posted on July 13, 2025July 12, 2025 by nancyb422

We went on our boat the other day. As I walked along the dock, trying to reorientate myself to the layout, I realized it had been 11 months since I’d been on the boat and probably a year since I’d been to the marina we dock it at!

How could that be?? Well, last year we took it out of the water and up to Lake Winnipesaukee the second week of August. We brought it home and, whether the weather was just ok or life got in the way, we never put it back in the water! It just sat in our driveway until it was time to winterize it.

Fast forward to 2025 boating season – my husband and son brought it up to the marina and launched it and they’ve been on it a couple of times. You’d think with the weather so incredibly hot since early June, we’d be there every weekend. But…we’re not…. “It’s TOO hot”, “it’s supposed to rain”, “it’s raining again”. There’s always been some obstacle. There’s even been talk of downsizing and trailering it to different lakes for finishing.

I took Friday off so we could go to the boat. Instead of heading out early in the morning, we took our time and didn’t leave the house until 11. We got there, uncovered the boat and headed out at slow cruising speed.

*Inn at Candlewood Lake where the best wedding ever took place in 2018* 😍 */ a view of the lake*

We hit every cove on the southern end of the lake and ate our sandwiches as we motored around. Once we headed north, we anchored at our favorite spot and spent about four hours reading and swimming around. After a month of such hot weather, the water temperature was perfect!

*Our anchoring spot with a view of a town’s beach and home at the point*

It was so relaxing and I remembered how much I enjoyed it! Maybe it was the shift in the time? The gorgeous weather and warm water? Sadly, not having our dog Wally to have to get home for which allowed us not to have to rush home, played into it as well. We headed home around 6, and ordered sushi to pick up as we got closer to home.

Here’s to (hopefully) a longer boating season this year!

2025, Healthy Living, life

If…

Posted on July 12, 2025July 12, 2025 by nancyb422

If I say the number on the scale is “just a number” when it goes up, why don’t I say the same when the number goes down?

Here I am again analyzing what I ate that would cause the scale to increase by .6, yes, half of a pound. It never ends.

Does it reside in my head past the weight check? Really, that’s all it is, it is a weight check.

No, I realize it doesn’t. There are so many factors that can cause it to shift. The delicious sourdough cinnamon raisin bread with butter I had after dinner last night comes to mind….

But I drink my coffee, fill my water bottle, and head out the door for my morning workout.

2025, life, Memories

KFC

Posted on June 21, 2025 by nancyb422

Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?

I grew up in a traditional household in the 60s and 70s. Sundays involved the 9:15 mass, picking up newspapers (New Haven Register, New York Daily News, Boston paper) with the possibility of a comic at Boylans, and a stop at my aunt’s house before we were home. Once home, we read the papers, and waited for Sunday Dinner which happened anywhere between Noon and 2 p.m. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating, but some Sundays it felt like it was that late because everyone else was out playing while we were still waiting to eat!

Except for that rare Sunday when we got Kentucky Fried Chicken….

Kentucky Fried Chicken. There was a store across the street from our church that opened at noon. On those Sundays (usually during the summer), my mom would head back out to pick up a box or bucket. They would also get the cole slaw and mashed potatoes and gravy that went with it.

Oh that chicken! So crunchy and greasy. I probably ate it for the skin more for the chicken. You can have those big old chicken breasts at the bottom of the box or bucket! Give me a leg or thigh for that juicy dark meat. As a last resort, I’d eat the breast but I’d need a lot of cranberry sauce to wash it down.

My father would jokingly swear that the cole slaw tasted “just like ice cream” and I’m sure we choked it down. Not like now – I love cole slaw!

Stores still exist, but the one across from our church is long gone and it’s probably a good thing because, like anything else that tastes so delicious, that skin is not good for you!

The last time I had it was in 2022 when we were traveling in California to visit my father in law and we stopped to pick it up and bring it for a dinner with him. It was as good as I remembered it and I’m sure as I did every other time I ate it, I told my husband the stories of my families KFC Sunday dinners.

2025, family, Home, life, Writing

This Weather!

Posted on June 9, 2025 by nancyb422

Here in Connecticut, it has rained at some point during 15 consecutive weekends. Maybe one day, maybe both days.

When we moved back here in 1995, me, the Connecticut native, told my husband, the California native to expect at least one day on a summer weekend to be rainy. I think I did pretty good with that assessment. Overall, this has been a Really Wet Year and it doesn’t look like much is changing.

Now that we are in “summer”, the humidity rises. And falls. And rises. I can handle it but my poor husband suffers from the Jekyll and Hyde atmospheric pressures. Vertigo, sinus conditions, headache – he’s had them all!

Do you have constantly changing weather where you live?

Books, family, Home, life, Memories, thoughts, Writing

My Road to Motherhood

Posted on May 11, 2025 by nancyb422

It wasn’t a smooth path. There were bumps, and potholes, and, what felt like, a mountain to climb.

But in the end, there he was.

“Motherhood is seeing your heart walking around outside your body and hoping the world is gentle with it” – Elizabeth Stone

I was not prepared for a boy. I thought “ugh, messy, muddy, eating everything in sight”. But he was not.

He was sweet, not messy/muddy, but still had a mind of his own. He would tell me how pretty I looked and ask, “is that a new dress?”

I’m now a mother of a 35 year old married man.

He is still sweet and thoughtful and I’m grateful to be his mother.