I’m sifting through the 29,000 photos in my IPhoto app and came across photos from a trip to South Carolina in 2016.
We went to Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet twice during out time there. It was early May and really beautiful, full of sculptures and flowers.
In addition to the gardens, we took a carriage ride around the gardens and to the river and marshes where rice was planted and harvested.
I don’t know about you, but my Sunday into Monday sleep can be a little rough.
Then after waking up, my mind is on every little thing I have to do from now until Christmas.
I drink my coffee and head out the door to workout and as I walk I say, Dear God, help me to slow down and appreciate the moments and I turned the corner and he says,
Be present.
What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?
In the past year, we’ve begun the process for our son to purchase our remodeling company. He’s been with us since 2012 and for the last 2 years, has worked in the office estimating and running projects. We’ll start the buyout as the calendar turns to January 2026.
My husband and I have owned the company since 1999. It’s been 25 years of hard work building it from the ground up starting out in our basement to now in an office with nine employees.
When you work for yourselves, you wonder as time passes, “will I be at work until the day I die?” Terrible thing to think of but, it’s your business, not some corporation that you hit retirement age and leave. What option is there other than to find a buyer or close the doors. My husband has retired from the office and I’m starting to work four days a week and come and go a little more freely because I know our son and our client manager have everything under control.
It’s a remarkable feeling to know that our son is incredibly capable of owning the business and he’s already running it. I picture my 3 year old with a plastic hammer in his hand pounding on a piece of sheetrock with dust on his nose and marvel at how accomplished he is today.
January 1, 2020 was brisk and bright when I set out for the guided first walk of the year with my sister and niece.
Machimoodus State Park was the location and it took us through the woods and towards a view of the Salmon River before it meets up with the Connecticut River in Haddam, Connecticut.
“Machimoodus” is an indigenous term for “place of bad noises” because of noisy rumblings and echos heard by the Pequot, Narragansett, and Mohegan tribes. The sounds were real and in 1981 geologists determined “micro earthquakes” were the cause amplified by a nearby cave!
We didn’t hear any rumblings, but we saw some beautiful scenery and had a brisk hike to start out the new year!
Does your sleep pattern change often? Mine drives me crazy sometimes!
I know it’s the weekend because I will sleep through the night and wake up at 6am. But as soon as Sunday night rolls around I wake up at 1am, 3am, and 5am! My alarm goes off at 5:45 and I’m always tempted to get up when I wake up from a doze around 5:30. But I stick it out and wait for the alarm.
I try to figure out if it’s related to something I eat, or don’t eat, at dinner or afterwards. Is the room warm or cool? But there’s no clear answer.
I must get enough sleep because I’m not tired during the day or nodding off in front of the television!
The holidays stress me out.
I try to be chill but once we turn the corner from Thanksgiving, I feel like a train is rushing down the track. Am I on it? Or is it heading towards me? I haven’t quite decided.
I have hosted our family Christmas Party for 10 or 15 years always the second or third Saturday in December. Throw in a work party we host on the first Saturday and a trip to New York to shop in whatever week doesn’t contain a party at the end and there’s December, done and dusted.
Gift-giving has slowed down, which is a good thing. My husband and I shop for ourselves in New York, and our son and daughter-in-law usually receive something large during the year. Now it’s gifts for our great niece and nephew and something for the grab bag at the party.
This year’s election has f*cked it up a bit as some people don’t want to be around other people and it’s enough that I try to make everyone feel welcome regularly to now have to worry about who’s ignoring whom and what will they mutter under their breath.
I will be sure I do my daily meditation, get enough sleep and exercise, select my menu, and buy a big bottle of wine for myself and hide it away!
I like to be warm and cozy as we head into the COLD time of year. Right now I find myself wearing my Lands End down vest in the house and under a jacket when I’m outside. It’s handy at work too!
At home, I have my favorite pair of pajamas and they are so comfortable the only time I don’t wear them is in the dead of summer! They were from Victoria’s Secret many years ago and look like long underwear! On weekday mornings I’m in my workout clothes but, on the weekends, I like to wear these pajamas.
What technology would you be better off without, why?
I have a love/hate relationship with social media.
Social media refers to “the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks”. Maybe that’s what it was intended for, maybe some sites are still for that intended use, but for me, it’s an absolute time waster!
I’ve spent so much time doom scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Will I miss something if I don’t swipe up one more time? I don’t know! Let’s find out!
On the flip side, I use it for our remodeling business by posting projects we’ve completed to entice people to call us! I try to post often enough so we show up in feeds and cross post on a variety of sites. I’m hoping people keep scrolling until they come across my posts.
I’ve deleted Facebook from my phone and IPad for the tenth time in a couple of months so if I want to check our business account, I access it from my computer and quickly switch accounts. I’m hanging on to Instagram because of family chat and if I have to set a timer I will!
What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? Why?
I left a full-time with benefits job to start up a remodeling company with my husband.
12 year prior I had moved cross country to live with my soon-to-be husband, so I know about making a big leap of faith. But now we’re talking about income, and we have a mortgage and a son to provide for!
For him, he was not happy with the new home builder he was working for, and as an “independent contractor” (really, just a carpenter that back then a company could get away with not putting them on payroll), the builder could make his own rules for paying for their work.
For me, our son was turning 9 and would be heading into 4th grade in September. I had had the week between Christmas and New Year off and Oh Boy, I had a taste of time off, just being home and I wanted more of that!
We got him licensed and insured, he worked on and off for the home builder and, we advertised in the local weekly newspaper that got delivered to homes.
I left my job in early June and we worked out of our unfinished basement. I took care of business and set up appointments during the day for him to go on after his work day. I also picked up a part-time job at our son’s school in the library! I worked from 9 to 1, worked the school schedule, and was in our office in the afternoon. It was a dream setup!
Over the 25 years, we built a garage at our home with office space above where we worked for 12 years, and in 2018, we bought a unit in a business complex for our office. We went from my husband working alone to present day, he’s retired, I’m semi-retired, our son runs the business, we have a great person in the office, and we have 5 employees out in the field.
It was a tough decision, but I had faith that we would succeed. There were a lot of hills and valleys over those years, but we did what we set out to do.
Cody, Charlene, and Jessie on one of our many camping trips to Hammonasett State Park over the years.
Out of the thousands of sunrise and sunset pictures I’ve taken, this is one of my favorites.
Thoughts From The Passenger Seat 