This is the song in my head today..
Short and sweet…things are pretty fucking cool. Can’t wait to see how it all goes down. I’m healthy, happy, and hopeful.
Blueberry Fields Forever August 5, 2012
A random assortment of photos from my blueberry adventure with my mom and the Z yesterday. I volunteered at the Friends of the Library booth for a bit, took photos of amazingly cool stuff that I wanted to buy and a few more things that randomly caught my eye. We had lumpia, I ate the best cupcake EVER, and saw people I only see on the 4th of July or at the Blueberry Festival…even though we are on the same island.
To the Blueberry Arts Festival! First weekend in August every year…rain or shine. I didn’t get any good pics of the Battle of the Bands, my favorite event. Next year?
While I was watching some of the musicians, someone licked me.
This outfit was my favorite of the day:
The best blueberry cupcake EVER…
On the walk back to the car, we stopped in at the Main Street Gallery to vote for our favorite art and cool off…and for a photo opp with my baby Z. I was distracted by all of the blue balloons that someone released!
Walking back to the car & contemplating cotton candy..
Her awesome (fake!) sailor tattoo
The new fire station
The view from our parking spot
Random daisies on the street corner
It was a great day.
Just Can’t Get Enough
My Personal Mission Statement – My mission is to live a healthy, happy and simple life full of fun, love, and laughter while being the best mother I can be and offering service and inspiration to the world through writing and teaching.
I was wondering something silly this morning as I was lying in bed this morning, contemplating a cup of coffee. I was wondering what another woman (and honestly, I wasn’t thinking real people, I apparently only recognize women that I admire in books or TV – I was thinking of characters – Cally, Margaret(s), Starbuck, Maureen, Hutch, Friday, Hazel, all science fiction heroines of course) would do if she were to be ME suddenly.
I opened my eyes and pretended that Friday looked around my room and at my flabby belly and mentally reviewed the boring ass day I had planned. Laundry, exercise, video games, coffee, maybe a book…. What would she do differently? What would she think about my life? What do I think about my life? What do I feel is missing?
This led to another line of questioning: Do I feel as if I am living up to my full potential? Am I living how I want to? What do I want to do that I am scared of? What would Mama Maureen say? What would she tell me to get off my ass and do?
I haven’t been awake long enough to fully address this question. It’s a thought in process.
This is a list of changes & upgrades & dream-following & non-negotiables.
Exploring & Doing & Learning & Failing & Succeeding…Always Trying
- Meditate
- Exercise
- Write Daily – Journal or Blog
- Write Six Hours Weekly – Professionally
- Sleep Restfully
- Yoga
- Drink More Water
- Find Employment that is Challenging & Rewarding
- Be The Best Mom I Can Possibly Be
- Enjoy Nature
- Relax and Relieve Stress
- Spend Time With Z Daily
- Blog Weekly 2x
- Nurture Relationships
- Read
- Write Poems
- Learn to Cook and Bake
- Eat More Vegetables
- Grow Herbs and Veggies
Blueberry Hill August 4, 2012
Blueberry Festival today! So many wonderful things to look at and buy. For me, it was all looking. Here are some of the awesome locally handmade things I saw today….
Addicted To Love July 28, 2012
Might as well face it…. I am coming to some amazing realizations about life, love, and happiness. I am in a strange place, but it is all about learning. Damn all of those newfangled FB quotes and memes.
Nothing to See Here, Folks June 27, 2012
So move along if me talking about my boring old life is lame to you 
For real though…it’s been a wildly boring yet eventful time since I started this blog in 2010. One one hand, not a hell of a lot has changed. On the other, I am a completely different person. There is a time and a place for change, and I’ll talk about it on the other blog where I can contain my crap LOL. This blog is just me checking in with the world, an online log of my life that I look back on and laugh at myself with.
One area of my ramblings that seems especially helpful for me and potentially interesting for others is the management of chronic conditions. I am very off and on about sharing what I am doing, but DAMN it is handy for me to look back and see when I started trying something new or made a discovery about my health when I did write about it in here. It’s so funny – I used to consider myself an incredibly healthy person.
It seems strange to write about “normal stuff” in the week after so much stress and sadness, but I have to get past it. I let my health suffer and as a result I literally collapsed. I didn’t eat well, I didn’t exercise, I slept poorly, I didn’t take vitamins or meditate or stretch – less than a week of lapse in my self-care routines and I fell to shit.
Despite that harsh little lesson, I am determined to live a healthy, full life. I was intending to stay ‘unplugged’ until tomorrow but writing a post from my phone is just so damn easy and my journal is full. I “practice” writing every day, and it feels necessary. Especially since I intend to be a badass writer some day.
Ah, back to unplugged for the rest of the day and back to work tomorrow. Life has taken on some subtle differences for me due to the happenings of the last 2 weeks – I will never again put anyone else (except Z!) ahead of me. I will always take care of myself, especially if I am trying to take care of other people. I will never ever let a relationship become more important than my own life 
I will take care of my daughter until the end of time. I will physically move myself and my little family to be closer to our extended family (OK, not such a subtle change there!) because I see how badly we need that support in our lives..and I see the multitude of advantages in making that move.
I will continue to learn and educate myself about my health and I will probably ramble on here about the diet and the activities and the medications that work. One thing I have not shared in here are the dietary adventures I have attempted in an effort to lessen pain and keep some of the weight off that I lost when I had the h.pylori infection (remember when I thought I was dying? Yeah, that.)
I have an appointment with a doctor I have never even heard of today. My regular doctor isn’t available for weeks and my “back-up” doctor is out of town. Gotta love Ketchikan’s health care options.
My personal life mission statement is in the works but this is a reminder to myself and it illustrates perfectly the changes I am making and have made. Sadness is a part of life, but it will not rule my life. I learned a lesson about extreme self-care and I wouldn’t feel so silly if I hadn’t already read the book LOL.
Much love to the people that have stood by me throughout the past 2 years. Thanks in advance for supporting me over the next 6 months as I work on those big ol’ changes.
A favorite blog post I re-read this morning.
Lucky June 16, 2012
Lucky to be alive, lucky to have a wonderful child, lucky that I am finding my happiness (it was right here all along)
Lucky to have fun ideas, lucky I have read life-changing words, lucky to be me. Lucky I am here right now, for whatever reason. Lucky.
