Author: admin

Take Notice

I live in a part of the country where a lot of people come to vacation. We get people from all over the United States, actually citizens from all over the world, visiting our neck of the woods. Currently, I am spending some time in one of the resort towns near to my home. There are advantages and disadvantages to living in an area like this.

I don’t love the crowds, nor the drivers who seem perpetually lost. I do appreciate the revenue and the jobs that are created for the people, like me, who live here. What I love the most, though, is the constant reminder of just how lucky I am to live in my lovely space on this Earth and that fact, is often reflected back to me, when I see the happy, excited faces of the people who have journeyed here, pointedly, to visit my home. Whenever, I stroll along one of our beach roads, I hear the happy chatter of love and excitement, no matter what language that chatter is being spoken in. I often see speechless wonder and awe reflected in lovely faces, young and old, particularly around sunset time. I experience renewal of my own wonder and awe and my own joy of being, when I take the time to see my living experience reflected back to me by a new, fresh outlook of a person’s eyes, who is visiting my town for the first time.

This isn’t an isolated experience for people who live in vacation land, though. I have visited lots of different towns, with many unique climates over the many decades of my life, and I have enjoyed every single experience. The novelty of a place different than my own experience is always so refreshing and revitalizing. When we go to somewhere new to us, it’s like we get to be babies again, looking at everything with a new found amazement, fascination, reverence . . . .

What is the best lesson about this experience, is that we can choose to live our own lives, in this frame of reference, every single day, if we just slow down and really experience how truly breathtaking it is to be alive. I hurriedly took my dogs out into our back yard the other day, thinking about my long to-do list in my head, and trying to get the dogs to rush to do their business quickly. Ralphie, our Labrador retriever, got stubborn and he refused to move. Luckily, I took that as a clue for me to slow down, too. I started noticing just how beautiful a small snippet of nature is and just how much life is teeming in just one little corner of a yard. The grass, the flowers, the wind, the insects, the birds, the rocks, the soil . . . . .

I think I am going to try to live my life like a newcomer more often. I’m so thankful for the perspective change, visitors to my town, give back to me. Life is such a blessing, if we pull out the lens and slow our strides and just take the time to take notice.

Refreshed and Renewed

I’m baaaack! This past weekend is the first weekend that I took off from writing my blog since I started writing it back in July 2018. It felt strange. I automatically sat down to my computer Saturday morning, but then laughed at myself and forced myself to get back up and to do something different. What I learned from this little experiment of mine, was priceless. I missed writing my blog. I missed my readers. A lot.

Sometimes, we fall into patterns and habits and schedules and we wonder how we even ended up in certain “ruts.” I think that I was afraid my writing had become rote to me and to you. But what I learned is, that this writing is necessary for me right now. It is a passion for me. It makes me feel more alive. It is not a habit, but now, almost a necessity for me. It has become part of my breath of life.

This past weekend was a little emotional for me, for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons, was that for the first time, I didn’t celebrate Easter with our six-person nucleus family. My eldest son lives in a different state now and luckily, he was able to spend the holiday with family members and even had other offers for celebrations, that he had to turn down. So he was fine and the rest of us were all together, so we were fine, but it was one of those acute moments of understanding how much our family life is changing and how much it will change, in the years to come.

Building up to Easter, is when my emotions were escalating. I bought so much candy for our kids’ Easter baskets, that the checker asked me if we were having a party. I had to put it on two credit cards. (okay, the credit card part isn’t true, but the first statement IS, pathetically, true) I was obviously in overcompensation mode. The funny thing is though, when Easter rolled around, I felt good. I felt calm. I felt peaceful. I felt hopeful. I felt the promise of the holiday.

Thank you for your understanding my need for a break. Thank you for still coming by to read past posts. (I see the stats.) I hope that whatever your traditions and beliefs are, that you were able to celebrate a beautiful spring weekend with people who you love. I hope that you feel refreshed and renewed. I do. And it feels good.

Seek and You Will Find

Happy Friday, dear readers! Happy Good Friday!! In honor of the holiest days of the year in the Christian faith, I am going to take some time off from writing this weekend to enjoy some more just “being” and reflecting. Thank you for your loyalty and understanding. I treasure you, my readers. Have a wonderful, hopeful, redeeming, restful Easter weekend! I shall be back on Monday with more musings! In the words of Jesus:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8 NIV

And This is Eternity

I am at one of those particularly poignant, bittersweet times in parenthood. It is one of those times that almost every moment feels like an ending and a new beginning. My eldest son is now completely and totally independent of us, starting his new adult life, in his new state. My second son is almost halfway done with college. My youngest son starts college in the fall. My daughter just completed her first year of high school and is ready to practice driving.

The first couple of years of a child’s life feels like this – the feeling of constant endings and new beginnings. There are so many milestones that happen almost on a daily basis, it makes your head spin . . . and your heart overflow. Then there is this long period of late elementary/middle school years, where, as much as the changes are still happening in your family, they are not nearly as obvious and confronting, as times like these.

As we were driving home from my daughter’s high school tennis tournament yesterday, she and I were reflecting on her first year of high school and how well it went for her, despite the normal fears and hesitations that she felt at the beginning of the year. We laughed at how worried she was about making the tennis team and how now, it feels like “old hat”. High school, in itself, will be more of an “old hat” for her in the next three years before she departs for journeys further away from home.

My parenting style is doing a major shift right now, too. It is much more “hands off”, freeing of the reigns. I am much more of a sideline advocate and “wise” counsel (when sought) these days. I suppose my job is to worry less about their lives and to put the focus more on my own life now, so that they can worry less about me.

This passage is from a beautiful, enchanting old book by Gwen Frostic. The book, A Walk With Me, is printed by block carvings and it is as lovely to look at, as it is to read. Here it is:

The squirrels jump from limb to limb high in the trees that are ever the same . . . and . . . never the same . . . for each day . . . each hour . . . . all things change. . . . . .the trees . . . the flowers . . . rocks . . . .the sand and the waters . . . the birds and all the animals of earth . . . .

. . . .yet – life goes on unchanged . . . . . . . nothing is new

. . . . . . . nothing is old

this is life . . . . . . . .

and this is eternity . . . . . .

And Another Thing . . . .

Yesterday, I spent all day in a small town located over an hour away from our home, at a high school tennis tournament, with my daughter. We left our home at 6:45 a.m and we returned home, exhausted, sweaty and cranky, at about 6 p.m. My daughter played two matches. We spent all day in the sweltering Florida heat, cheering for her friends and team mates and waiting for her two turns to play. This isn’t anything new. I have four children who, among all of them, have played and/or participated in tennis, football, baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, robotics, academic teams, track, numerous clubs and honor societies, etc. etc. over the decades that we have spent raising them. The list of sports and activities goes on and on and on. This is nothing unusual. My friends with kids would have the same miles-long lists of activities that they have supported their kids with, throughout the years. These activities all take an inordinate amount of effort, time, money, emotion and sacrifice, from every single member of any family unit. There were many, many evenings and weekends that my husband and I barely saw each other, as we were really just ships passing in the night, going to support different ones of our children, at different events, which happened to fall around the same dates and times as each other. I’m not going to get into whether all of this focused, structured activity is/was really even good and/or necessary for children or for society, as a whole. That is a whole different retrospective argument/analysis for a whole different blog. What yesterday’s experience did, though, was got me to thinking about the whole college scandal thing again, and I felt angry, very angry, all over again.

Some of the children whose parents paid to “cheat” their childrens’ way into college acceptances, faked their kids being part of teams, crews – basically members of all of the types of activities that I listed above, and some. They made pretend photo-shopped pictures of their kids participating in events, like the tournament that my daughter and I spent all day yesterday at and also, will spend all day today attending and performing in. I wonder if any of their cars sported stickers like “Soccer Life” or “Proud Football Mom”, even though instead of waking up in the wee small hours of the morning to travel several hours away, paying for pricey travel expenses and accommodations, and spending countless time and emotional equity, consoling and hugging and cheering up a kid who has spent thousands of hours tirelessly working at and practicing a skill that means more to that child than playing video games or hanging out with their friends, these parents instead, decided that they could just cough up one big, fat check at the end, to make up for the fact that neither they nor their kids, really put in any of the time, effort and frankly, overall life force that participating in today’s kids’ sports and activities really require???? (okay, take a breath) The arrogance of these parents appalls me, again and again, in so many regards!!! Thank you for letting me rant. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a cooler to pack before we take off on our early morning journey to the second day of the tennis tournament and I have to fish a uniform out of the dryer before we leave and I have think of the right words to help calm my daughter’s nerves before we arrive for her playing time. These are all efforts that require sweat equity, courage and stretched heart strings, by all parties involved, and these are things that can’t possibly be duplicated by an expensive, fake photograph.

What Still Stands

My heart is breaking for the people of Paris, the French people, and all of us, really. How incredibly sad about the burning of the Notre Dame Cathedral! My husband and I were fortunate enough to tour the beautiful, awe-inspiring church not long ago, in the spring of 2018. It was absolutely amazing and breath-taking. Notre Dame Cathedral was one of those incredible architectural masterpieces that makes you so amazed and impressed by what we humans are able to create and to manifest, into this material world. What is even more amazing is that the church was created and brought into fruition over 800 years ago, long before the ages of modern technology and machinery. As painful of a loss, as this is, I have no doubts that the people of France will resurrect Notre Dame to its previous beauty and standing, and soon. Losses like this remind us that nothing is permanent in the material world. Everything is fleeting and yet the energy, the creativity, the vision, the teamwork and most importantly, the nurturance and love that makes it possible for monuments of this beauty and magnitude to even be conjured and built, is what remains forever in the hearts and in the imaginations of our human race. These internal drives, propelling us to express ourselves outwardly in the forms of astonishingly amazing material creations, is the part of life that is truly permanent and monumental and these drives will always exist until we humans cease to exist any longer.

“Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love still stands when all else has fallen.” – ComfortingQuotes.com

Happy Reunion

Watching Game of Thrones last night was like going to a big, happy reunion, getting reacquainted with a bunch of people from your past. (In the case of Game of Thrones, there was also a major feeling of relief – oh, yay, Jorah, Theon, Gendry – that’s right! You are still alive! Hooray!) Reunions, when you haven’t seen familiar people in a long, long time, are always joyful. You find that you are even happy to see the “less than savory” characters, because of the familiarity of your shared history. There’s been enough time and distance to soften the level of annoyance that person brought to your life and if you are honest, the annoyance that you may have brought to their life, as well.

Our two youngest children sat down with us to watch the start of the final season of Game of Thrones. They are not the GOT addicts that their parents are, so they had only seen a sprinkling of episodes. Other than what they heard anecdotally from us and their friends, they had no idea what was going on.

“You can watch with us but you can’t talk and ask questions while the show is on. Understood?” was my very serious proclamation before the show began and while HBO was ceremoniously teasing us with a countdown to the beginning of the final season.

Of course, throughout the show, I made several lively comments, as I joyfully recounted the history of the various characters to my children. They looked at each other knowingly, but dutifully kept quiet throughout the viewing of the episode. I must have used the word “remember” 18,000 times to my husband, as an old familiar face would pop up on the screen and we would try to recount what had happened to that particular character throughout the history of the Game of Thrones TV extravaganza. My only disappointment was, just like the weekend, the show was over way, way too fast. I had to check the clock to really be sure that we got our full hour’s worth.

“I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called Mother and Child Reunion. It’s chicken and eggs. And I said, “I gotta use that one.” – Paul Simon

“Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

Winter Is Coming

I slept in big time this morning. I need my energy for the “Big Night” tonight. The final season of Game of Thrones is tonight and I am giddy! The anticipation and lessons in patience have been excruciating. This has been a weekend of miserable chores like spreading mulch, deciding on paint colors for bathrooms, and finalizing our tax return. Painful! But the prize at the end has made it all worth slogging through. The final season of Game of Thrones has been long in coming, but the wait will be worth it, I am sure. It is almost bittersweet, knowing that these are the last six episodes. I can’t wait to see it, but at the same time, I don’t want it to come to an end. Here are some memorable quotes from the show:

“Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armour, and it can never be used to hurt you.” — Tyrion

“Power resides where men believe it resides. It’s a trick; a shadow on the wall.” — Varys

“Any man who must say ‘I am the King’ is no true King.” — Tywin

“Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder.” — Littlefinger

“The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.” — Ned Stark

WINTER IS COMING!!!!! Enjoy!!!!

I Have Sisters . . . .

The above was posted on Think Smarter (Twitter) this morning. It warmed my heart. I’ve always told my husband and my sons that how they treat our daughter/their sister, is how she will expect to be treated by men, the rest of her life. They have taken that credo very seriously and have always treated her with the utmost love and respect. I sure hope that they extend that graciousness to all of the women in their lives.

There is a lot of good in this world. It’s really nice when the good is shared.

What the Friday?!?

Image result for hilarious quotes about Friday

Welcome to Favorite Things Friday!!! Every Friday, here at Adulting Second Half, we keep it frivolous! There is no seriousness on Friday, unless you take your consumerism very seriously. On Friday, I list three favorite items, websites, videos, songs, etc. that I find interesting and I always encourage comments from my readers letting us know about a few more favorites, you would recommend. Don’t be shy, guys!! New readers, please check out previous Friday posts for other good ideas to make you life just a little more peachy!

Here goes:

Dog Tags at Growlees.com – Our house is having some renovations done, so my front door has become a revolving door for all different craftsmen and construction workers. I have seen more pictures and heard more stories about their dogs than I have in a long time, as they kindly pet my pestering pooches. People love their dogs! We have two dogs and I am hoping that my pups lose their tags soon, so I can buy them new ones at this site. These tags are hilarious and there is a myriad to chose from. Some of the sayings printed on them are these: “I Eat Homework”, “Rub My Belly For Luck”, “Attention Seeker” (that tag would be good for a few people I know 😉 ), “Foodie”, “Have Your People Call My People”, etc. Even if you don’t have a dog, go to the website and check them out for a few Friday giggles.

OxyLED Motion Sensor Rechargeable Wardrobe Lights – I love jewelry and accessories and I have a lot of baubles. We have had closet organization companies coming out to give us quotes, and one woman who came out, even suggested that how I keep my necklaces lined up, hanging on the fronts of wire shelves, is kind of “hokey.” Well, hokey works for me and I’ve decided to convert a small, linen closet into my own hokey haven, for all my accessories. These lights that I purchased on Amazon are rechargeable, come with a magnetic strip to hang them on and have motion detectors, so they’ll only turn on when I open up my “hokey pokey” jewelry closet.

Rebecca Minkoff Key Chains – For years and years, I was one of “those people” who always loses their keys. I had to come up with a system to help me stop wasting my time looking for keys. (on an aside, true confession – I have looked for “lost” glasses that were sitting on my head and looked for my “lost” phone, while having a conversation on it. No horse pucky.) So, now, I always, always put my keys on designated hooks right by our garage and I always purchase giant, obnoxious (yet, adorable) key chains. My Rebecca Minkoff key chain has a little leather doll wearing cute sunglasses on it, plus a big, bright pink leather tassel on it, both being over 4 inches tall. I never have any problem finding my keys in my purse anymore, thanks to my colossal-sized key chains. I highly recommend my system, to any friends out there who are kind of absent-minded, like me.

Have a great weekend, friends. I’m ending with a note that I’m sending to Monday: