Happy New Year 2024

Happy New Year to you all. How you’ve missed me! And how I have missed YOU 🙂

I am looking forward to the new year filled (not fraught) with endless possibility. Unicorns, rainbows and the like.

At 11:59pm on New Year’s Eve I opened up my front door to clear the way for a fresh, untainted new year. Like vitamins and God, superstitions can’t hurt. You know, just in case. It was a cold night but beauty is pain.

While I still have a few things from the old year needing my attention and care I am quite ready to embrace the new.

I am decluttering, planning and organizing. It’s slow going on some days but that is still the goal. I will be back to volunteering at the food pantry by the end of this month. Wrapping up correspondence. Have booked a couple of plays I am eagerly anticipating. I hope to get on the open road (or in the friendly skies) for some travel. Maybe one day sit in the middle of a bird migration. Be mindful of how I can continue to advocate for those suffering in other countries while actual governments are looking the other way. Deep dive research on all the politicians (local, state and country) who are supposed to represent me/us. Catch up with some old friends. Try something new. Spend time with family. Read lots of books. Have some rooms painted and replace pieces of furniture I don’t like-or never liked-it’s time. Complete Hannah’s scrapbook (she’s now twenty-five) that I quit working on somewhere around her eighth year of school.

Hopefully, I haven’t taken on more than I can handle. With the scrapbook 🙂

I am sharing these goals so they fly out into the universe. Chances for success are greater if I release them from the matted gray matter.

I’ll keep you posted.

Until then, I wish you all good health for the new year. Anything after that is gravy.

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Turn It Around

My youngest daughter, home for the holidays, walked out of our pantry and commented, “Really, Mom?”

She had a glass jar in her hand. In black print was a single word.

“Flour.”

Wait. That’s not unusual for a pantry staple, is it???

Except, to her dismay, it didn’t actually contain flour.

I glanced over and said, “Ah. Never mind. Just turn it around.”

She turned the container around and it now displayed, “Light Brown Sugar.”

All was right in the world again.

Got me thinking. What a great piece of advice for this new year. For you and me.

Just turn it around. 

It might be about making small changes. Or big!  Could be our attitude or how we are dealing with something.

Just turn it around.

It’s not just for pantry items anymore.

 

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Happy New Year 2019!

Wishing you all a new year filled with promise and good health.

Out with the old and in with the new!

I’ve always adored the holidays but I am perfectly fine when they have passed. Perfectly fine.

I love the clearing out, organizing, nesting and looking forward to the stagnant months ahead. When I once again own my schedule! No more pressure. Totally enjoy ripping up the store receipts, recycling Xmas cards, dumping last year’s calendar and making plans to positively pass the winter.

Reflecting on the last twelve months, taking stock and thinking about how I can be a better me.

Hoping the holidays were gentle on you all and wishing you the absolute best in 2019.

 

 

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Just GoOgle

One evening we were sitting and chatting.

Someone asked, “How did Google get its name?”

My daughter and I spit out answers at the exact same time.

She says, “It is a math term that represents 1 followed by 100 zeros.”

I said, “Go ogle. Go look. It makes perfect sense since the origin of the word ogle derives from a word for eyes. Go look.”

We immediately googled how Google got its name.

Of course, my daughter’s answer immediately popped up as a result of the search. All those zeros representing the endless information on the web.

I couldn’t find my wonderful answer anywhere. 😦

Instead of declaring defeat I stated, “Well, I like my answer better. I’m using it.”

My brother said, “And you’d be wrong.”

I reverted to my ten year old self and retorted, “So what? I don’t care. I’m using it anyway.”

No, I won’t pretend my answer is how Google actually got its name. If that math thingy is their story and they’re sticking to it then I can’t really argue with them.

But when someone’s asking who is knocking at the front door I will just have to spew, “Google!”

If the kid can’t find her homework I’ll say, “Just Google!”

Husband wondering if a program is on the television? Ummm, “Google.”

I might not ever have to utter the phrases “Go look” or “Just go look” again.

New year. New possibilities.

Wishing you all a new year filled with possibility, imagination and humor. And don’t forget, every once in awhile, to give a nod to your ten year old self.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Aged Spirits

Happy New Year to you all!

This year will  be my fiftieth year. Not sure how that happened but I like to think my spirit is still young. While being cognizant of the fact that the aged spirits are the best kind. Passing years allow the harshness to be leached away and new characteristics and tastes to appear. Like whiskey in a barrel absorbing surroundings, environment and experiences along the way. Ultimately forming the final product. To be nostalgically sipped every now and again.

No grand resolutions for the beginning of my fiftieth year. I am just going to do my best.

And when I spray my hair with whitening anti-perspirant, I won’t worry about whether I look like a gray-haired granny. I will laugh and think that this might be just the trick for my hair in a harshly humid climate. Yes, this actually happened.   

Not Hairspray!

I wish you all good health, good families and good friends. Those three things will help you with this year’s challenges. And if one of these three is the challenge then I wish you the other two. They will help with the one.   

Happy New Year!

Many blessings,

Mary

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