We've gotta stop meeting like this

You may (or may not, depending on how often you come by here) have noticed that I haven't been around much lately. That hasn't been intentional, and won't be forever. It's the same old excuse: no time. Things have been crazy-busy around here, with me forging ahead with plans to slightly rehab my home for sale. I'm also getting things ready to launch an Etsy shop soon. Yay! And there is work. Yay! for money! And....I am restructuring things on the blog slightly. It won't even be (all that) noticable, but I feel it is a necessary step towards this blog's future.

Regretfully, I've missed a few Music Mondays, Coffee Chat Tuesdays, Thriftscore Thursdays, and now the first half of the Battle of the Bands month. But I will be back soon! Be sure to come by Thursday for Thriftscore Thursday and April's Mix Tape Shuffle :)

And in the meantime, I am trying to still keep visiting all my favorite blogs. See you soon!

High five!

I may have just blogged yesterday about how it smelled like springtime outside and I was hopeful that the groundhog wouldn't see his shadow, but that adorable yet evil bad-news-bringer let me down. And like clockwork, it got cold here again. Not as cold as it has been (::runs off to check forecast to make sure I'm not jinxing myself yet again::), but cold enough to kill my giddiness at a possible early spring and inevitable warmer weather. Hey, all I know is that we'd better not have another year like last year, when we had cold temps all the way into May! Because that seemed like being in Winterfell in the middle of the long winter.

But I digress. My point was that winter, which should be the ultimate ideal time to get focused on living better and doing a variety of intense indoor workouts to get a jump start on being healthy and looking good in the spring, is depressing. So depressing that it renders many of my good intentions useless - all I want is comfort food, hot baths, to be with family, and snuggling my doggies. But since gratitude is a huge part of my personal overhaul, I am thankful for those occasional glimpses of hope that remind me that spring is coming. Warmer weather, longer days, and hopefully better times are coming.

Every now and then I need to remind myself that I actually enjoy living, so this week's coffee chat theme of "Gimme Five. Reasons for Living that is." is quite timely. I may not have figured my purpose out just yet, but I know I am lucky to be relatively healthy and mobile and financially stable when so many are without. I owe it to myself to commit wholeheartedly to a more resourceful, creative, and abundant life. My five biggest reasons for living are family, pets, friends, a passionate love of learning, and myself.

What do YOU live for?

Today's music: Switchfoot, "Dare You to Move"

Brief update

Music Monday (and the rest of the blog, and return blog visits) will be back soon. Between work and travel, I am now on about day 15 of non-stop go-go-going without adequate downtime and am exhausted beyond belief at this point. And I still have three more days to go. I have lots to get caught up on here at this blog as well as a review to go up at Girls at the Rock Show. Here's to hoping I make it through this almost three week stretch with my health and sanity intact!

Happy Monday!

The Times They are a-Changin'

If there is anyone still reading over here, HELLO! (waves hello) And a heartfelt thanks for sticking by me despite there being no new content here for quite some time.

As some of you know, this year has been beyond tumultuous for me. While I have had many hard lessons to learn, I am happy to be able to finally spread my wings and pursue a more purposeful and meaningful life. Unfortunately, during the struggle to find my footing financially and physically, I have neglected the blog. And I have decided to send it on an even more extended vacation until 2014. Until then, I am going to do my level best to get my categories/tags/labels rearranged and streamlined, a project I am sure will actually take all that time.

But the changes. Oh, right. There have been lots of them in my personal life and that has translated to my online presence as well. I think in the coming year I'd like to take the blog in a slightly different direction. Of course, there will be music. There is, and always will be music! But I'm really going to try to focus on reclaiming my life via my other loves: reading, fashion, beauty, fitness, food, home improvement and learning - on a virtually non-existent budget. My new goal with this blog is to grow, learn, share, and be inspired. To build a new and improved life.

This isn't anything new; I've tried my best to commit to the blog before and failed miserably. It's just so much easier to interact with people via social media (BTW, you can LIKE my Facebook page here if FB is more your thing), but hopefully '14 will be my year to pull it all together.

In the meantime, I may pop in with a post from time to time, but if I do, they will be few and far between. I look forward to seeing you in 2014!

Image Source: quotesstack.com

Oops, I did it again!

(And I'm not talking about that annoying Britney Spears song, either, though you're welcome for the earworm!)

So this was the week I just couldn't get it together to participate in anything, let alone post anything on my own. To be fair, I've been battling a sinus infection, lady issues, going to the gym, and working - thankfully, lots of working. In retail, I have learned to grab hours when and where I can, so this week that's meant I worked twelve hours one day, ten hours another day, and six + hours the remaining two days. I have tomorrow off, but I'm going out of town, so there is a LOT to do before I head out around noon.

In the meantime....



You get Monday's Music Moves Me on a Thursday! This week's theme was "commercial jingles." I loved this one so much, and loved to sing along with it. Anyone remember this one from WAY back?



Well, as I mentioned before, I'm heading out of town and am currently trying to get some content scheduled to post. I will be back Monday evening, so I don't think I'll be able to get my link submitted for Monday's Music Moves Me/Music Monday till later in the evening. Hopefully there won't be an issue getting a current Coffee Chat post linked up properly for Tuesday, but I'm going to belatedly submit my first post of the year there because the theme is important to me.

Obviously, I'm sitting out Wordless/Wordful Wednesday and Writer's Workshop and any of the Friday memes I was considering for this week. I would normally say hopefully next week is calmer, but I really don't care if it is or not. I just hope I manage my time a bit better!

Have a great weekend!

Is it too early for a drink yet? (It's 8:43 A.M.)

Because I could sure use one! I may have been able to ring in the new year quietly, but three days in (or not even, seeing how this is still morning!) and I am already ready to scream "STOP!!! I WANT OFF THIS RIDE!!!"

We had to call a locksmith first thing this morning. Seems my son's truck Christined him when he sent his brother out to crank it. So we sat for about an hour with a locked, running truck while waiting on the locksmith. Fortunately, it was too cold for the truck to run hot, but he was nearly out of gas by the time all was said and done.

The most comical thing? These places do not accept debit cards, only cash or personal checks. How on earth do people who don't travel with cash pay for these services in an emergency? Anyway, I told the locksmith service's receptionist that we only had a $100 bill, and she said they'd send someone who could break it. So after the truck was unlocked? My son had to follow the locksmith to the store to break a hundred. Sigh. I mean, I know he had to get gas anyway, but I thought the whole point of telling the company we only had a hundred was to prepare the guy they sent out.

I am just beyond thankful that we had the money to see to this, because I'm afraid if it had been any later in the week, we wouldn't have.

Those of you who have little ones? Let me assure you, the fun does NOT stop when they get older. In fact, as teenagers, there are many, many more creative ways guaranteed to give you a panic and/or heart attack and/or stress you out. I'm telling you this so you can go ahead and start planning your coping mechanisms now. I wish I'd had someone to guide me into this when mine were littler!

So, it really is too early for a drink. And this was to be the day that I started WW again, and got up in time to work out before work. But screw that. I'm going back to bed, and not waking up till I have to.

Image Source: Ann The Gran via Google image search

Bye-bye, 2011

It's that time of year again where I should have already written and published a post "reflecting" on the past year, but the closest I got before now was a recap of 2011's shows over at The Music Mamas. (PLEASE go over and have a look. And leave a comment. And tell your friends? Pretty please?)

I almost typed out that this year has been a year just like any other, with the same highs and lows that come with the passage of any other year - but that just wouldn't be accurate.

Truth is, it was pretty eventful. We started the year out with my youngest son having to go in for ACL and meniscus reconstruction surgery. Then a week or so after that, those of us here in the southeastern US got our beautiful "snowpocalypse". School was out for a full week, and this will probably be the only time during my children's school years (as one graduates this spring, and the other next year) that they'll be out of school for snow. And, while it was a huge inconvenience, it was also a lot of fun, and I'm glad they got to have some snow days. I loved getting snow days when I was in school!

In late March, my youngest son got very sick, developed myopericarditis, and had to spend some time in a children's hospital in Birmingham. It was very scary, even though it was mainly for observation and we've thankfully had no issues since.

In April, the southeast - Alabama in particular, was ravaged by a series of catastrophic and deadly tornadoes in what was the worst tornado outbreak in recent history. May, June, and July were pretty quiet, but August saw me facing quite the life-changer. Fortunately, it was one I saw coming from a mile away, so I wasn't completely caught off guard.

Also in August, I became the parent of a high school senior. And a high school junior. They've been making wonderful grades and making me really proud! This Christmas was the last one, as far as I know, with both of my sons still living at home.

There have been lots of endings, new beginnings, and it's been pretty bittersweet all around. I can't really complain about 2011, though. I saw many good friends, good movies, good concerts, and had many good times. I lost 30 pounds, and gained some self-respect.

Not bad.

But 2012? I need to make it even better.

Image Source: Jonathan Tyler - Sound Check Mama; Mark Hoppus, Dave Grohl, MCR - Laura
 

Another week has come to pass

And unfortunately this means another week has gone by that I did not participate in any of the online workshops/memes/hops I had hoped to be participating in by now. Another week that lots and lots of good intentions have fallen by the wayside, and believe me, I have lots of excuses.

I've been busy fighting off the sick.

I've been busy fighting off the tireds.

I've been busy with work.

I've been busy trying to get and keep my house clean around work.

I've been busy stressing over my teenagers not having jobs and not helping out around the house enough.

I've been busy stressing over (my half of) the bills, and those bills which are solely mine.

I've been busy trying to find full time employment in addition to the part time job I already have.

But I guess in the long run, those are all still just excuses. Excuses for why my living room floors still are not finished, why my other household projects are still largely unfinished, why I don't write and network that much anymore, and why I don't start or complete any number of things which could be therapeutic or make me happy.

Truth is, I just really struggle with letting things go. Once I've done all I can possibly do to take care of things, I worry. Then I shut down. And that? Needs to stop.

I'm hoping that despite the chaos of this month, I will put forth the effort to do the following small things which could make a huge difference:

-eat better
-exercise
-meditate
-submit resumes daily
-make an appointment with the local employment office/recruiter
-complete at least one large chore, or several small chores, in the house daily
-cook several meals in advance, so that I don't spend so much on convenience foods for the boys when I have to work
-cut out junk food
-be stricter with the budget
-work on a re-purposing project for a while daily
-send out the bills that I can

And the most important thing: after I've done all I know I can do, let go of the worry.

Image source: Google image search

Long time, no blog.

I've fallen way behind - not only here, but at The Music Mamas, and I plan to rectify both this weekend, when I have some time off. I can't even blame work for this lapse in writing. Truth is, work is manageable at the moment. I've just been in super-ultra-nesting mode (and no, I'm not pregnant!) when I'm not fighting off a persistent and recurrent sinus infection, trying to get this place clean. And? The more I do, the more there is to be done.

But I am attempting to at least get the main living areas decent so that I can FINALLY get a plumber in here to fix the shower/tub in the main bath. And an electrician in here to look at my back kitchen wall, where none of my electric outlets work anymore. To that end, I've gotten a good bit done. And for today, at least, I've gotten my sleep schedule back on track.

So my plans for the weekend are to: finish flooring in the living room, get my Christmas tree up, get some bills paid, groceries bought, and maybe, just maybe....get some spray paint so that I might finally get some of my unfinished projects done a step further.

Oh....and there will be lots of DIY Network, HGTV, and Hallmark Channel Countdown to Christmas viewing this weekend as well!

Image source: Get Glue (via Google image search

Not funny, Halloween. Not funny!

Yesterday, what should have been my favorite day of the year, was instead.....quite a day. It would literally be a comical farce to someone who isn't me, to whom these events didn't happen. But they happened to me, so I don't personally find them all that funny.

I actually thought I was going to have a good day when I woke up on time, not overly groggy, and eager to get ready for work. Then? I burned one of my eyes REALLY REALLY REALLY bad. Shampoo got in it. I've gotten shampoo in my eyes before, but I don't remember it ever burning quite that bad. (In case you were wondering, that's so bad I yelped and whined loudly enough to make the dogs bark and come running to check on me.) I had to jump out of the shower to flush the eye before I could even finish the shower. Geez.

It was hours before the burning sensation in my eye went away, and even for hours after that, it still felt burned, scraped, and bruised.

I finished getting ready and headed to work when I noticed I needed gas. I pulled into the convenience store I always use because it's got the cheapest gas in town. I slid my debit through, and pumped gas. And pumped. And pumped. And pumped, because the damned handle was stuck and wouldn't stop pumping! I began frantically hitting the call button on the pump to no avail, and then began waving my arms to try to get the attention of the cashier to shut the pump off from inside - also to no avail.

I know that the pump should automatically shut off once your car has all the gas it will hold, but since this one was obviously malfunctioning, I didn't know if it would shut off like it was supposed to and I could just envision gas either rolling out of the gas tank and down the sides of my car and/or spraying wildly, all while being steadily deducted from my checking account. Instead of the $15 in gas I meant to get, I ended up with nearly $36 after finally getting the Pepsi vendor to come to my rescue. For the record, even he had trouble getting the handle unstuck. All I know is those folks better be damned glad there was enough money in my checking account to cover that gas. If not, they'd have been paying my overdraft fees!

And that was just the beginning of the day. Add in retail + Halloween and you get a busy, busy day. Then add to that many people being bitchier than usual and you've got yourself .... a day.

Here's to hoping today is better!

I got a good night's sleep last night, woke up early, got a good breakfast, and now I think I'll start the day off with a bit of meditation and exercise. Today is my last shift before having three glorious days off in which to get caught up on my housework, bills, grocery shopping and car maintenance, and I refuse to spend it as stressed out as I was yesterday!


Image source: found at Lululemon Athletica's Flickr photo stream and issued under Creative Commons license.