The Flower Cart #theblogginglounge

Standing at the back door looking out to the greenest of green grass while my coffee brews

 makes the morning feel fresh and new. Maybe makes life feel fresh and new.

Yes, a new start. A new chance.

Not that life has been bad to this point, not at all.

Yet, since the goal is to be a better person each day, the green-ness is a reminder.

The little cart with ivy growing and blooms just about to open is alone in the center of the yard.

It sits with no distractions.

Seeing it feels warm. Seeing it feels as if nature is tapping on my shoulder. Come play!

And play, I shall.

I am not able to refuse the call of sun and warm air and green things growing.

I will tend to the flowers and the pristine water in the pool.

I will sit near the bird bath and hummingbird feeders and enjoy their chirps.

I will sip my coffee in silence just soaking in all that makes me happy about my own 

little piece of the earth.

Just the sight of the little cart I filled with growing plants will be enough to step into this day 

with a smile of summer's promises.

Jo

Busy Blog Pages

I write this piece as a blogging service announcement. You may agree or disagree or just think I'm nuts in the head. All fine with me. I'm going to write it anyway, cuz I feel like it needs to be said.

My expertise comes from being a professional (albeit unpaid) blog reader and commenter. I read and comment a great deal more than I write. I love a well laid out blog page that makes reading easy and commenting easy breezy.

Some of the biggest problems I, as your reader, have encountered involve the junk on your page other than your blog. The ads that pop up and have to be removed so that I can read on. The left side list of places you want me to share your blog that interfere with your words. The badges that take up a quarter of your page that I have to scroll through to get to the comments. Typing my name, email and website addy every time I want to comment. Captchas! Music that plays automatically when I open your blog. I like quiet. A blog written around pictures which don't show on a mobile FB platform. Subscribe to me pop-ups while I'm reading in the middle of the page.

One or two of those don't really bug me that much, but dang, if you want readers you really have to think about someone who is trying to read your words being able to actually read them without a bunch of stuff to work around. Your readers are lazy and they came for your words. Not for your extra add-ons.

Just suggesting here that I'm probably not the only reader who doesn't come back often if it's too distracting to read. And I don't comment where there is a captcha and often don't comment if the site can't remember my email or web page addy after I type in my name.  Ain't nobody got time for that!

Just sayin' make it easy for the people you are trying to attract! Doesn't that make sense?

Or no? It's your blog and your readers. It's just my opinion.

Jo

SAD Update

January 17, 2014

We are in the midst of a horrible winter, weather wise. We've had a record snow fall and an epic ice storm and we have seriously just begun the season. It's tough to even watch the forecasts because, honestly, I don't want to know what's next. What I smile about is that over 100 days have passed since the SAD season has launched and this sufferer is not suffering. I am looking at each day as it comes and I am facing each one as happily as I can manage because, after all, it's only one day. I can do anything for one day. And the tomorrow? I'll do it again.

Each morning starts with a smile to me. Just because I like who I am. Then a quick look at the days motivational phrase. Today it was, "There is comfort in familiar places and good friends."  That's a nice thought for any day. From there I give myself a quick list of blessings in my life and finish my first cup of coffee with hazelnut coffee mate.

All of this is done inside my head, privately to me. Except the coffee, that's a nice warm and fresh cup in my hands and warming my chilly body while settling and setting my mind for this day.

I cannot recall another Michigan winter that has been so calm. I can't think of any other cold, dreary or stormy season that I could easily laugh everyday. Nor another fall/winter that I could curl up with a book because I wanted to get lost in the story and not because I couldn't face reality, just because I wanted to enjoy fantasy.

2014. Welcome and bring it! I'm good. I'm grateful. I'm strong and I'm winning!

Jo

WHO AM I?#theblogginglounge

So okay...my name is Jo. I am, like most people, very complex. I can be different things at different times.   

I am a daughter. Momma is 91. Dad passed away in 1978.

I am a sister. I have one brother and one sister.

I am a wife. Roomy has been with me over 31 years.

I am a mom. I gave birth twice, one girl and one boy. I also inherited four children when I married Roomy. He had two girls and two boys. Life happened and the girls divorced us. The boys are still part of our lives, but one more than the other, partly because one moved out of state and isn't interested in what is going on here. We have adjusted to this. Can't say we ever really accept it, but it is fact and we can't dwell on what we've lost because we have three families who need us to dwell on them and we happily do so.

About 2 years ago I retired for the second time and finally last December, a year ago, Roomy retired for the third and final time. It's been a year of adjustment for us and honestly, it's been pretty easy in most areas. Probably the hardest part has been finding our alone time. Or should I say my alone time. He goes to the downstairs "sports arena" to watch TV every evening and has done so for many years. We cannot watch much TV together because there are very few shows we both like. That's fine because I'm usually on FB and watching anyway, so there wouldn't be much conversation. It's the morning time that was hard. He likes to get up EARLY and I'm a night owl and sleep in. I also like to quietly drink my coffee and NOT TALK. He is a chatty boy in the morning. He has learned to sit quietly until I speak. It's all good. :-)

I write in streaks. I have a lot to say now and then, yet other times I feel mute. I suppose it has a great deal to do with how busy I am with household projects or family business or just grand kids. I don't like to write in small windows of time. I like to write when I can write until my head is empty. It fills with stories and characters and ideas and blog thoughts and eventually ~ I just have to sit and purge the gray matter until I am clear headed once again. That's when I HAVE to write. My goal has always been to be disciplined enough to sit for at least an hour a day and write SOMETHING. Alas, I am not that disciplined. I apparently am a writer of need. Full head...write. It works for me, so...

I was for many years a hairdresser and I always said that, right after my name. Now, I just say my name. I am kind of happy about that. I feel like I am a woman without a title and I am good with that because, as I said earlier, I am complex and many different people. So I'm now just Jo. The girl with many hats and a smile for everyone. And a hug for most!

Jo

Looking Back? Forward? Happy New Year!

Not one to lounge around rethinking what is done and can't be undone, I look forward, most often if I'm thinking of anything other than now.  On the brink of a new year, I wonder what is in store for "us"as a couple, "us" as a family and "us"as friends.
Taking a moment to look back, it's been a stressful time for my family with many good and love-filled times mixed in. Life is often that way. At the end of 2013 I see little changing except acceptance of things that cannot be changed. Making new plans for the new life that has had alterations that were not wanted, but were applied. We will find our way and we will survive and might even find a better life, at the end of the day.
All in all, 2013 brought the couple a wonderful amount of family time and grandkids time and Momma had a fairly good year with only one tiny medical scare, which turned out to be age related and at 91, she is in good health. The couple began retirement life with a full lower level remodel and we have enjoyed it every day since it's completion last April. The retirement life has gone quite well so one year in, I'd say this is going to be a good way to face the golden years. Just walking through them enjoying the life we've built.
What does 2014 hold for any of "us"?  I don't know, but I see another opportunity to grow as people. Another chance to be a better person. Lord knows, I have a great deal of room for improvement.  I think it's the year of finding who I want to be for the rest of my life. I am realizing that I have spent a lot of energy and time climbing mountains for people I care about and for people who needed a friend only to find that they don't cross the sidewalk for me for any reason. I'm not willing to do that any more. I'm still willing to be there for anyone who needs me and I will give whatever I have to give, but it will not be available on a let me drop my life right here and run to you, basis. It may be a little more on my schedule. I'm not going to find this change easy, but I'm going to work on it.
I am personally going to lower my expectations. I have begun this long lesson and it has worked for my level of happiness and relationships have gotten better because I am just accepting people I really love for who they are without expectations of them doing what I'd like. But, rather being overjoyed at what they do.  It turns out to be better all around that way. The less you ask or expect, apparently, the more you actually receive. I will work on spreading that no expectation thing to everyone in my life.
As long as I can feel loved by those I love, it's a good life. As long as I can feel the sun and not live in eternal winters, life is good.

Happy 2014 to you all and if you'd like,  leave a comment about your "new" plans!

Jo

HAPPY. ENDINGS.

FINAL POST. FOR. GBE2.  -  HAPPY ENDINGS

As I started my evening browsing through the days postings on December 29, 2013, I was stunned, saddened and totally drenched in my own tears. The wonderful administrators of my original blogging group announced they were closing the group. Done. Finished. Elizabeth "Bethie" Grace and Stephanie Decilva Cardinale have been co-admins of the site Beth started in 2011, for the past year or so.  It's been much less active since Beth took a sabbatical and her loving and complete involvement became nearly non-existent. Others followed her example and though the prompts were posted weekly and were picked up by some writers, the large number of bloggers we were all used to reading and commenting with, slowly dissipated. The leadership personality was not present and we missed that. We apparently wrote for Beth!  We wrote for approval of our leader, as it were. Maybe not, but it felt that way. Actually what I think happened was that when we saw her step away, really step away, no blogs and no comments, we felt it was okay to do that as well.  We felt it was okay to not write for each other or to read each other or to comment on each other's work because, this was the new group personality.

Now, I'm not BLAMING Beth for the end of life of our close and brilliant group, though it reads as if I am, I am BLAMING us, the members who let her down and then let Stephanie down even more. When she tried to help Beth and keep us actively writing, we walked away. We stopped supporting each other; we didn't support Stephanie nor did we support Beth's life choice, though we said we did.
We didn't write. We broke the wonderful supportive and encouraging bond we had developed under Beth's tutelage.  I'm so sad about that.

Beth says it's the natural life span of a group to be born. To thrive and to die.  Maybe. But, I'm sad and like an old friend who has moved away and forgotten my name or that I love her, I will sorely miss this writing group and will never forget the experiences I've had here. The things I learned here and the friends I will always have because we met here.

I love you, Elizabeth Grace for all you have done for me since we met and for taking my friendship and reading my wordy and sometimes ridiculous blogs. And I wish you a future filled with love, kids, hubs and a little red barn with a black and white cow in your own back yard.

Jo

Holiday Gift

As we draw ever closer to Christmas, my birthday, New Year's Eve, New Year'sDay and my sister's birthday...holidays are on my mind. Here is my gift to each of you, my faithful readers and my 2 or 3 faithful commenters.

From this day forward, may you look in the mirror daily and see the beauty and uniqueness that is you.

May you remember that giving is how you teach others to love.

May a shield of peace and comfort engulf you today and most of your days.

May your life have just enough sadness to remind you of your blessings.

As you walk through the remaining years of earthly life, may you always feel the hand of God in your own. His arms always snugly holding you in times of stress always calming your heart.

May you be mindful of the importance of family and love in your life. Without it, life is hollow. Family isn't always blood, but it is always support and warmth on a cold night.

Merry Christmas and a bright and shiny 2014. May all your dreams come true.

Thank you for reading, sharing, tweeting and commenting...it's food for my soul.

Jo