My word for 2011

I have finally decided on my word to live by in 2011.

My word is REVIVE !


This took quite a bit of thought. Last year was the first year I tried this, rather than a resolution. Or what I did in 2008/9 was a bucket list. I very much enjoyed completing my bucket list. I do not know what to put on another one. So I will try to use my word for 2011 to make this an awesome year.

I have included 3 forms of the word as they all have some meaning to complete the theme, These words will not only apply to me, my home, my life. But how I look at every thing to come this next year. I will see new possibility in every thing.
Transforming all to a more positive outlook.


Definition of
REVIVE: become active or flourishing again
1: to restore to consciousness or life
2: to restore from a depressed, inactive, or unused state : bring back
3: to renew in the mind or memory
refurbish- taking what's already there and transforming it into something better, brighter, and more appealing.
RENOVATE
1: to restore to a former better state (as by cleaning, repairing, or rebuilding)
2: to restore to life, vigor, or activity

Merry Christmas to all!

It has been such a blessing to get to know you.
I have made a number of friendships here on this blog.
Every comment you leave is very heart felt. It brightens my day. And I am so sorry I have not been around much this year. But I plan to try harder next year.

I so wish for you all a day full of family love and friendship for this holiday session. And a joy filled new year.

Will the silence be broken ?

That is the question I ponder at this time.
This was to be the year of bliss.
But my word to live by this year turned into silence.

Bliss definition
1. can be a state of profound satisfaction
2.a constant state of mind, undisturbed by gain or loss.
3. happiness and joy

I would have to say yes to #1. I have never experiences anything like this before.
I would say in silence I did achieve #2. as it was no ups or downs. no drama. What ever happened , happened. With out my input.
So silence can be bliss.

I would have to say no to #3 there is peace in silence. But happiness and joy no.

In some ways silence is just letting the days go by with out living them.
And for this reason I will search for a new word for next year.

He's here

Rebel is here. Born at 12:30 pm 6lb 13oz 21in

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

time capsule

My life has been filled with kid fun this weekend. We were able to have both the oldest grand sons. So I planed a scavenger hunt. It turned into works of art.

You can see the family resemblance in this photo. : )

The weather was perfect today. Not to hot or cold.
The trees are starting to tun color. The walnuts are falling.
This photo was taken during this years antique tractor pull. Remember the alligator I was holding last year. Look how big he has grown. Click here to see last year photo again.

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Oh to dream

You would think this a simple thing to do.
What will I be doing in 5 years ???
Will I still be married?????
Will I still live here ?????
Will I be happy and healthy?????

I have pondered these thoughts all week.
So I will just start letting word flow at this moment.

Some facts" I do know is I will be eating chocolate."
I will love my family and friends. And treasure every moment I have with the grand kids.

But to dreams as if I were a child again. I will be age 55 at that time. So I would love to be traveling with the one I love. One who makes the sun shine and set with there happy smile. One who loves to laugh. I would love to be living on the beach some where that the temperature is always perfect. Not too hot & not too cold.
Now for some real dreaming I would like some one else to cook and clean and take care of all of life's needs. So I am really in a fantasy mood now. You can just imagine the rest of this story. To be pampered and loved.

But to tell the truth, I have no clue what choices I will make as yet. For today I live day by day. And will make wise choices as to what path lies ahead of me.

Live and let live is a saying I will always live with.
And I will continue to reprogram my self to live happy.
May you all find your path and enjoy every moment.

Lets dance.

This Week's Happy Book Assignment is to create a list of songs that make you want to get up and dance.

This brings back such wonderful memory's. My friend Anita and I would go to most of the places her cousins were playing. This was so much fun. They were called : The shades of country" We did every thing from swinging to the 1o step. But The song Old time rock and roll was my favorite. Like it says. The kinda music that soothes my soul.
So what song gets u up to dance?

Wishcasting Wednesday

What do you wish an abundance of?

For me it would be vision. Both sight and foresight.
In the past I was able to do well at knowing, what will happen or what is needed in the future. Along with that gift came worry and anxiety.
Now I have no clue what I will do. No ideal what will come. Or how soon. But I now have the gift of living in the moment. No worry. So it is a trade off.

But to create a vision of a happy, loving life to come would be awesome.



Please visit Jamie for more wishcasting Wednesday posts.
Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

The Next Chapter: The Happy Book

It has been a long time since I have been in Jamie's Book blogging group. I really miss all the fun. So tonight I put in my order for the book.
And I am doing this weeks assignment.

With the suggestions given by Jamie. I will write a story using these words. circle, tree, smile, sparkle, heart, clean, treasure, red, fresh, sky, yum, toes, morning, home.
And the theme of being thankful.

I am ever so thankful for my home. I no longer have a circle of trees. They are more in a row and sprinkled here and there. They have long been a treasure to me. I love waking up and watching there leaves sparkle with the morning dew. Some seem to be ever reaching to the sky. Some grow yummy red apples and nuts. This yard is quite abundant with pecan, and walnut. Soon the squirrels will be going nuts themselves. Both running here and there. Throwing nuts at my cat and my truck. But it is so much fun to watch. I do not worry about cleaning up the mess. As it is hubby who complains about that. lol. I get to sit back and wiggle my toes. Smile to my hearts content. And watch him pick up the walnuts. My self I would just leave them lay. As some day the squirrels will take them all away.

Now for my thankful list. To sum it up I am thankful for every one and every thing. I have spent the last 2 years letting people know how much they mean to me. And how grateful I am to have them in my life.

My family and friends are on the top of the list. Life would be nothing with out my grand kids. They are the true joy in my life at this time. They make you smile and give such joy. It is an amazing feeling.
When your kids have kids. They are a true treasure of love.

This video is a sample of simple fun watching the Grand kids run circles around one of my walnut trees.

It is already the end of August. I think I missed the whole summer. Where did time go. I have never had a summer like this one. We had Jeremy a week or so in June.Then he was home to take swimming lessons. Then the month of July he spent in St Louis . This was his first time to stay with his dad. And then back to visit with us a week. Before you knew it School has started. Now we have him on the week ends again. He is such a blessing to our life.

My oldest is having a bbq baby shower in Sept. It will be coed. And it is byob and diapers. I laughed . She said she found that men have this and get enough diapers to take care of the baby for 6 month. So the invites went out on face book and I was amazed. Some of my friends may drive all the way 170 +/- miles to attend.

I have been spending a bit of time writing in a journal. I have had so many thoughts, that I decided to write them down before I forget them. I also am thinking about joining another book blogging club. Like I did with the WTJ. This book is called The Happy Book by Meg Leder and Rachel Kempster.


Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Time to break the silence

My writing may come and go . but my silence in life still goes on. I was reading on another blog the other day. And the words in silence we find peace stuck with me. I do feel peace. By not talking to others about things that have happened, I allow them to just go away. No drama no anxiety. Therefor I now live in peace. This also clears the mind chatter. I assume by playing games on face book this too keeps my mind busy. No chatter no Drama. Life goes on.
But this is no different than my own form of meditation.
But I do have times of communication now on face book.
Where before I played in silence. Now I say a few things. Write a few things. And wish I could help a few people.
Affirmation of the Day
My life and my health are becoming better every day.
____________________________________
Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

The verdict is in

IT"S A boy.

Due Oct 24, 2010.
so our next grandchild will receive the title of the youngest boy. And Jozlyn will still hold her title of only girl.


Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Retirement 101-2

Angela said...Why not approach it with excitement rather than with fear.
That is a great question !

The simple answer is " It's all about the money.

We are programed from early on to plan and save for retirement. Our goal is to build a nest egg. Most people are unable to save. Some people are unable to buy a home and have it paid for by this time in life. Some are forced into early retirement. And are not prepared to have to live on any where from $600- 1400 a month. for example our house payment in St Louis was over $800 a month. Where most 3 bedroom homes in the area rented for over $1000.00 a month. Home tax's were $1400.00 a year. there is car insurance. medical insurance or bills. utility's. food. our total cost per a month was near $2000.00 a month to live in our old home.

Where now this house is paid for and tax is only $240.00 a year for near the same square foot home. And a 1/4 acre less yard. Sales tax is higher here. But personal property tax is lower. After medical cost are paid we have a little over $800.00 a month to live on. So you see if we were still in St. Louis we could not even make our house payment.

The question how do we survive on so much less income is the biggest fear of retirement.
In the past family's were still on family land and grew or hunted food. The grocery store replaced this for most people. And we are a spoiled nation. We use to much credit to buy things we want. And do not really need. So we spend most of our life paying off loans and credit cards. This prevents saving.

Another fear is the reality of getting older. We do not want to give up our life as it is. Hubby did not want to accept the fact he is not able to do his job any more. This hurts the ego. And made him feel like a failure. This starts depression.

Some people like my parents were lucky to get a pension along with Social security. At first is was not easy they had to pay allot to keep there medical insurance. Then time wise 1 year to 18 month later Medicare was available to them at a bit less money. So now they live comfortable. When there home is paid off. They then will have no worries.

We also had 2 cars. Now we have just 1. So car insurance is reduced. Once you make a budget and stick to it you can survive on retirement.

But I have not met any one yet who plans for happiness.
I know there are many living there retirement well.

It is a mind set. you have to plan for it.
Know in your heart this will be a time of doing things you enjoy. Spending quality time with your spouse, family and friends.

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Retirement 101

Note : This story will have a happy ending. But the story may never end , as I am still living the life of retirement.

Today I was talking to a close friend about there fear of retirement. The choices to be made. The worry of will we make it. Or should you keep trying to work. She motivated me to start writing again.
So maybe I can share there is nothing to fear. Things will work out. This is just the next chapter of your life. And it is not the end of it.

It is the beginning of what we all worked all of our life for.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Retirement has changed from the good life, to what is now the how do we make it life. We work all of our life now, planning and saving. That is how 401k came about. company's played on our fear of social security not being there any more. or it was far from enough for us to live out the rest of our life on. Some people are lucky to have a pension paid by there work. Some people like me and my hubby do not have any thing but social security. His health forced us into early retirement. Which was devastation for us. As we had to sell our home and every thing we had of value to make it more than a year with no income. We had to find free clinics to get prescriptions for hubby's medicine . We paid the price for the med's at the pharmacy. There was no hope for me till I was able to find a doctor that would give me samples as my medication because it was over $100.00 a month.

Now to get to the point of my story. Why am I writing this and sharing it with you.

Well to begin with your life story is different than mine. You will see that you should not pre-worry about what has not happened yet. Or feel secure that you have nothing at all to worry about. Or I so hope you do not go through what I did. And allow this time in your live distroy you mentaly.
I did the last statement. I broke down mentally and hurt my self. Because I did not know all this is temporary. I did not plan for happiness. I planned for failure. So in my mind I failed.


But in reality I should have planed for good things, like in the old days. The picture of retirement was lazy days at the fishing hole. A life of travel in there RV. Days on end of sun shine. Growing closer to your spouse. Live one day at a time with joy, love and happiness. knowing all you need in life is your loved ones. Having a roof of any kind over your head. And enough food to sustain you both.
This in it's self is success. Having your health is the ultimate achievement. Not many have this. But you can work on it and allow retirement to heal you. As there is no longer the pressure of working 40 hours or more a week for that pay check.

I will continue with this story. but for now this is page one of ? on my lessons to help You plan for the best retirement possible.

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Things to do

While it storms out side
1. have fun with the oldest 2 grandsons
2, feed a wabbit

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.