One Word

For Cheryl

You
Can
Only
Type
One
Word
It's not as easy as you might think.
Remember, one word answers:
1. Where is your mobile phone? Purse
2. Your significant other? Friend
3. Your hair? Natural
4. Your mother? Busy
5. Your father? Sad
6. Your favorite thing? Pool
7. Your dream last night? Weird
8. Your favorite drink? Tea
9. Your dream/goal? Peace
10. The room you're in? Kitchen
11. Your ex? None
12. Your fear? Many
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Elsewhere
14. Where were you last night? Here
15. What you're not? Motivated
16. Muffins? Apple
17. One of your wish list items? House
18.Where you grew up? Farm
19. The last thing you did? E-mail
20. What are you wearing? Casual
21. Your TV? Loud
22. Your pets? Cat
23. Your computer? Favorite
24. Your life? Full
25. Your mood? Even
26. Missing someone? Yes
27. Your car? Toyota
28. Something you're not wearing? Ring
29. Favorite Store? Stew Leonard's
30. Your summer? Beach
31. Like someone? Husband
32. Your favorite color? Blue
33. When is the last time you laughed? Yesterday
34. Last time you cried? Friday
35. Who will/would re-post this? Someone

If you play along let me know. I would enjoy seeing your answers.

My Little

I became a Big Sister with the Big Brother/ Big Sister Organization a few years back. My "little" was in 7th grade when I met her. The day I met her, I brought her a bouquet of flowers that I had picked from my garden. Her mom and her grandmother were there also anxiously waiting to meet me. We all got along right off of the bat and it was the beginning of a long friendship. My "little" got along great with my sons and my husband so on occasion we would do some things together with them.

As most children and adolescents involved in the BB/BS organization, home life was not so good for my young friend, but she was an amazingly strong girl and determined to succeed in her own life. She is a very smart girl and loved school so she did well there. I believe that she is one of the few kids I ever met who loved school so much and always worked for perfect attendance. She was lucky that that school work came easily to her, so school was a happy and safe place for her to be.

The past few years I haven't seen my little very often as she was now working and has a boyfriend. Hard as it is to believe, she went off to college this year.

I just ran into her at the store today because she is home for the weekend. She is loving college and made the Dean's list. She promised to call next time she is home so we could get together and catch up. I don't worry about her, as she has her head on straighter than most grown ups I know. She was like that when I met her at 12 years old. She was an old soul and it served her well considering the unfortunate circumstances she had to deal with in her life.

Her mother once told me that she was surprised that her daughter wanted to hang out with me because she thought I was too old for her. But it was funny, we had so much in common, that age never was an issue. I thought that maybe her mom was a little jealous. But it was OK, I understood and always changed my plans if her mother wanted to be with her, because in the long run I knew that the mother and daughter relationship was the most important one. And I am glad I did as it wasn't too long before that her mother made some bad choices which put a terrible strain on their relationship.

When I was driving home today, I felt my eyes tearing up. It was good to see my "little sister" and witness how grown up and confident she has become. I am glad that I followed my gut when I decided that this was something I wanted to do, because I enjoyed the time with her and I feel like we will have a lasting friendship.

The Secret

We joined Netflix finally and it really appeals to me to have movies delivered right to my mailbox. Sure can't beat the price and it saves gas, too!

Last night I finally watched The Secret. I enjoyed the reminders about the law of attraction and I decided I would work more on my vision board today. I have a hard time knowing what I want. I also get stuck in that place of being careful what you pray/wish/ask for, because once you get it, it may not be what you expected. I know that thought can be limiting and I need to let go of it.

On some level I don't think I deserve abundance, another limiting thought. I remember a few years back when we put an addition on our house that I ended up with a horrible stiff neck that lasted for days and when I got to the bottom of the pain, I realized it was all about not feeling like I deserved it. I am better since then, but still have a ways to go with that issue.

When I started my vision board, it was sort of sorry looking. But then I added a little bit more, and this weekend I will add more and tell myself that I deserve abundance and act as if I have it already.

I also made up a list of the components of perfect job for myself to see if I can attract more of the kinds of things that I feel passionate about in my day to day position. I do find that when I start to make lists like that, that it is way easier for me to start with the I don't wants and harder to frame what I do want. It is good to think about what you want out of life, but for some reason along the way, I came to believe that it wasn't good to do so. It is never to late to change how you think about things, and I am finding that a mind shift is critical for inner peace and happiness.

Saturday

Ah, Saturday morning, nothing like it and a day with the sun a shining!

The shake down at work has people uneasy, understandably so, and also left them with many unanswered questions. So a few people came to me thinking I would clarify the situation. I could not do so. I don't even have the complete picture, as I am just as much in the dark as they are about many things. It is hard when people come to you fishing for information. All I could share was my intention to take each day as it comes, trust that the right decisions are being made, and that I will move forward with a positive attitude. I encouraged them to do the same.

Taking Eckhart's class is helping me to stay more focused, balanced, and non-reactive. I need to keep my eyes on myself and focus on the present despite all the unknown factors. Everyone is afraid of change, but once things begin to change it usually turns out to be not as bad as everyone thought it would be.

The Big Give

My son and I just finished watching Oprah's new show, The Big Give. It is very moving at times to see how much people not only enjoy receiving, but giving as well. Tonight the contestants were giving away $100,000 each (but only $10,000 in a particular area and $500.00 per person) to people and organizations in need.

My favorite part was when one girl bought $2,000 worth of flowers from a street vendor, and then gave all of the flowers away. She looked like she was having the time of her life giving away all those bouquets to everyone passing by.

The show is inspirational and I know that the point of it is that all of us can give in small ways that can make just as much of an impact. It feels good to help out one another in any way we can.

Easter Eve

We went to see Nanci Griffith in concert tonight. I am not very familiar with most of her music, but have always enjoyed her song called, On the Radio, so I agreed to go with the husband to see her in person for the first time.

I was not disappointed as she sang the one song that I wanted to hear, and I enjoyed the rest of her repertoire as well. The genre is somewhere in between country and folk, but I would say she leans more towards country. She has a beautiful strong voice, a good band, and the house was packed. We hung around for a little while after the show, but it didn't look like she was coming out to give autographs, so we split.

We stopped by to visit my father in law in the convalescent home before the concert. He was looking much better! My mother in law was able to take him home for an outing this afternoon and he did very well. He may be discharged early this week.

Well, it is off to bed for me... after all the Easter bunny does not show up until everyone is asleep. Good night!

Happy Easter to All

I spent all morning cooking up a storm for Easter dinner. My mother is making lasagna and you would think that would be enough, but she asked me to make chicken caccaitore, from my grandmother's recipe. It has become a family favorite and one dish that I can make as well as my grandmother did. So we will bring it up to my parents house for Easter dinner over there. We are also making extra to send over to my in-laws who will be eating at the convalescent home, so I made quite a bit to go around.

I was thinking that I was doing a lot of work today, but it pales in comparison to what my grandmothers would have done. They would be making home made dough for Easter bread and would braid it and place a hard boiled egg in the top center of it and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

They would also make home made Italian cookies. My grandmother had a special cookie machine that she would put the dough into and turn the crank and the dough would come out the bottom. She would lay the dough pieces onto the cookie sheet in the shape of the letter S. I haven't even tried to duplicate them, don't know where the heck her machine even went. But right now as I write, I can imagine what they tasted like when they came right out of the oven. After they cooled down she would then send them over to our house in a clear plastic bag with a white draw string. They were great to dunk in coffee.

Of course my grandmothers did not work outside the home and I think they spent the entire week before a holiday cooking.

We didn't even take down one Easter decoration this year. The holiday sort of crept up on us with it being so early I guess. And since we are not going to be here for dinner, neither one of us felt much like decorating.

But we needed to keep some traditions, so my husband and my son, took a ride to our local candy factory to buy some chocolate Easter bunnies! They taste nothing like the candy you buy in the stores because it is fresh right off of the assembly line.

I didn't mean to make this post so food oriented... lol.. but food is the center of so many traditions at holiday time.

The best part is that it is a time for family to come together and as always, it is a blessing to be together.

It's the weekend

Oh grateful for the weekend.

There are many interesting and concerning changes happening at work right now. I don't blog about work issues for a variety of reasons. But I can say that it will be a bumpy the next few months at the work place and I don't know how that will affect me personally and professionally.

What I do know for sure is that I am trying very hard to stay in the now and be true to myself. I know there will have to be compromises made along the way, but I am only prepared to make the compromises that I can live with and not any that will eat me up on the inside. In saying that, I need to be ready to make some important decisions as things unfold. We will see what happens, if anything.

Yesterday was a nice day off. I went to have a manicure in the morning and then made the mistake of going to the grocery store around noon. It was mobbed with people like myself, who waited until the last minute to shop for Easter dinner. But I managed to get through the lanes quickly and a new register opened up as soon as I got up to the front so I got out of there in record time.

Last night we watched the DVD of Across the Universe. The woman who wrote this movie, also wrote the Lion King. I knew that a movie written around Beatle music just had to be good, and so it was. In fact the music was just phenomenal, like hearing some of the songs for the first time.

Everything Joni

It has been a very laid back Saturday. One of the first things I did when I got up this morning was to catch up on LOST on the computer. It felt sinful to watch a show first thing, but I thought it would be a nice lazy way to start the weekend after a running around crazy kind of week.

After that I did get some house work done and by the afternoon we decided to take a ride down to the beach (which is something we do often on a Sat.), take a few pictures and then head to our favorite seafood place for dinner.

When we got into the car, my husband surprised me by putting a CD in the player that he had burned for me. Two Joni Mitchell albums on one CD. For the Roses and my favorite, Court and Spark. I sang along with every song all the way down to the beach and back and that was most enjoyable part of the afternoon for me.

Sometimes it is just the little things that make a day!

Busy day

Yesterday was a very busy and emotionally draining day. As I got out of the shower in the early morning, my phone was ringing. It was my mom. She had been up all night and she was crying because of severe eye pain and feeling very sick. I needed to get her to her eye doctor.

I flew up to her home which is about 20 minutes away. To make a long story short, we got her to the doctor and he said that her eye pressure had sky rocketed which caused her to feel so sick and have the intense pain in her eyes and head. The doctor needed to lower the pressure in her eyes by giving her eye drops as well as draining them. We were there for quite awhile because he needed to do the draining procedure twice, and it took her quite a while to feel better. The doctor was very concerned about her because he did not want her to have another bad night, so he asked me to bring her back later in the afternoon to be sure that her pressure was not going up.

So I took her back home and put her to bed and waited there until it was time to take her back to the doctor. Fortunately, she was doing much better by the afternoon!

She sure has had her share of complications with this procedure!

I was able to get to work around 3:00 P.M. and stay long enough to take care of all the messages that piled up during the day, so that was good.

Around midnight we were sound asleep and the phone rang. My head flew off that pillow because I thought it was my mom calling and I was frantic when I answered the phone. But it wasn't my mom, it was my mother in law. My FIL was being rushed to the hospital from the nursing home because of a problem.

The husband had to run up to get his mother and get to the hospital to be with him. He didn't arrive back home until 4:00 A.M.

Two emergencies in one day is a bit much!

As for today, FIL back in the nursing home, things all taken care of. My mom had a good day today and is feeling much better aside from a very sore eye.

This and that

I left work early today to take my mom to the eye doctor. Seems that there is still a piece of the cataract in her eye and she will have to go back tomorrow for a quick laser treatment that should take care of the situation. We have a relative that will drive her tomorrow, as I need to take Friday morning off to take her and my dad to other Dr. appointments.

I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but I find myself feeling like I did when the kids were little and I had to juggle all their appointments between me and my husband. I called my sisters so that they can take care the appointments next week that our parents need to get to. At their ages, there are so many Dr. appointments...

I am feeling grateful that I have flexability at my job. They are really very understanding about family concerns and never give anyone problems for taking time to attend to family! I can go in later in the day and make up my time.

FIL is doing well with his rehab in the nursing home and may come home next week. This is amazing because only one month ago, the doctor said he would probably never go home again.

Last night the webcast for Tolle and Oprah's class on the New Earth was great. The webcast worked perfectly, and I found the discussions very mindstretching!

And for tonight... American Idol...doing Lennon/McCartney... who could ask for more?

Cooking up a storm

Beautiful weather today, felt like spring and it felt so good.

We got up early and got our son to connect with his ride and then we stopped for breakfast at a local place a couple of towns away. They make the best crepes!

After not being home all last weekend, it felt good to have some time to get things done. I made and froze turkey soup, and I am baking an eggplant Parmesan right now. It is late to be cooking, but when I got home from my parent's house I took a nap that lasted quite a while. I am wide awake now and thought I would cook up those eggplant!

Back to work tomorrow. I am in the middle of coordinating a big speaker presentation. I have 300 seats to fill, but I think if we can fill 200 I will be happy.

Rain, rain, go away.

Gloomy day outside with rain, flooding, and high winds. It will be noisy out side tonight!

I started off my day by meeting two friends from my old job for breakfast. We try to get together once and awhile and stay in touch. We have known each other for about 20 years, which does not seem possible. So many funny memories of when we worked together and when ever we get together we just laugh and laugh. It always feels so good.

Later we were planning to go and see my FIL in the nursing home. My son and his girlfriend were going to come and bring the dog to cheer him up, but we found out there was a flu outbreak in the home and they were discouraging visitors. So we all hung around here talking and having coffee. My other son had a friend here from college, and it was nice to have a houseful of young people!

Later in the evening we took my son and his friend out to dinner.

Having my son home from college this week was so nice and turned out to be so helpful. My mom had laser eye surgery, but had complications, so he has been taking her back and forth to the doctor and taking her grocery shopping. It gave him some extra quality grandparent time, and helped me out a great deal.

Tomorrow morning we are driving him early to meet up with a friend that will give him a ride back to VT. But he will be home for Easter in 10 days!

500,000 Strong

500,000 people were on the Eckhart Tolle and Oprah live web cast on Monday night to discuss Tolle's book, A New Earth. Isn't that absolutely amazing? The Internet could not handle all that traffic and in my area the video/audio stalled and we were not able to view the web cast live after about 15 minutes.

Fortunately, the video was loaded on the Oprah website and we could view it the next day. I enjoyed watching it and listening to questions about the book from all the participants.

I was satisfied that in some areas my thinking from the past few years would be considered "awakened". But I know that while I am more conscious, I am not free.

Tolle talked about how hard it is once awakened to go forth and put into practice these new concepts in your day to day life around others who do not understand and may even make fun of you. Been there, done that. It was very difficult for me to put new concepts into practice and there were times, many times I am ashamed to say, that I just decided that I wanted to forget the things I learned and behave in my old ways. I kept negativity going, because everyone else was doing it. It did not serve me well. I am trying to forgive my self for that.

Paul Potts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxOytYLlhiQ&feature=related

Sorry folks, I don't know how to upload U -Tube videos other than pasting the link. I hope it works.

Some of you may have heard of Paul Potts before now. He is the winner of Britain's version of the American Idol show. This link shows his audition, and it is one of the most inspirational videos I have seen in a long time.

Enjoy and I would enjoy comments on your reaction.