It is not going to be a wild Friday night here at our household. My daughter got her bony impacted wisdom teeth removed yesterday morning, and in solidarity with her, in order to just want to veg on the couch together, I got my booster Shingles shot yesterday afternoon. We are both doing alright, but we are played out, to say the least. A lot of life events have been happening this week, and my whole family is a tad drained, physically and emotionally. We need rest and healing.
So, on that note, as much as I love Fridays and I love posting my “Favorite Things Friday” favorites, today I only have one favorite to share before I crawl back on to the couch next to my sleepy little Chipmunk Cheeks. This week, I tried this fabulous new hydration drink. It’s called Lemon Perfect Water. Lemon Perfect Water’s motto is “It tastes like you are drinking vacation.” And that is the absolute truth. These waters are sugar-free, and they taste fabulous. They remind me of a healthy version of those fresh-squeezed lemonades that you buy at state fairs. They come in many flavors and they only have 5 calories in each bottle. Go to the store, buy your vacation in a bottle, and drink up!!! Have a great weekend!!
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
I’m sorry, friends. In light of what is going on in the world these last couple of days, I am not feeling my usual lighthearted, “let’s just focus on the material stuff” Friday mojo. Like so many of us, I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting on what is happening in the Ukraine. I’ve been noticing my feelings, and I have been spending a lot of time praying for everyone around the world who is suffering from pain, fear and disillusionment.
I’ve taken this current horrific situation going on, and I reflected on its “microcosm” that by now, at our ages, everyone has experienced at least once, in each of our lives:
“No one is coming to save you. This life of yours is 100 percent your responsibility.”
It’s a cold, hard truth and the first time that this truth smacks you in the face, it is so scary and dark and lonely and painful to fully realize this truth. It’s brutal. But then, the redemption occurs. This is the very moment that you learn to trust yourself. This is the very moment that you learn that you can rely on yourself. This is the very moment that you come to know your strength and your determination and your resilience like you never have before. You never feel more fully alive than when you fully realize your own worth. You realize that you are worth fighting for, that you deserve more than what you have been allowing, that you have people (and higher spiritual forces) who love you, and who support you, and who want to help you in your cause. This is the moment that you realize that you love yourself, and that you value yourself and there is no one who knows you, and what you need better than you. There is no one who will take better care of you, than you. This is the moment when you realize your own worth. This is when you experience your own personal freedom and victory. This is the day that you realize your greatest champion on Earth must be you. When this occurs, all the forces in the natural and in the supernatural are by your side, and the wind is at your back. You are filled with an energetic, wise knowing and confidence that you deserve to be the fullest creative expression of your truest self and you will let nothing will stop you from realizing your highest form of being.
Today is an excellent day to focus on your favorite being in the whole wide world, to focus on the person who was with you from the very beginning of your birth here, and who will be with you to the very last breaths of your stay here on Earth. Today is an excellent day to focus on your favorite being in the world who has been with you through every single up and down that you have ever experienced in every single day of your life. Today is an excellent day to be thankful to your favorite being for all of the experiences shared, the warm, supportive relationships created, and for the creative journey currently being experienced in the here and now. Today your favorite anything, should be YOU! Everything that you need, is inside of you. Your navigation system is forever connected to the Highest Loving Intelligence that exists. Trust this fact. Trust yourself. Love yourself. Your superhero is You. And you are more incredible and worthy and capable than you ever give yourself credit for being!
And also for today, my daily mantra on the blog is directed specifically to the warmongers in this world:
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
I thought that this meme was funny, but truthfully, I’ve had a good week. I hope that you have, too! But of course, even if you had a lousy week, do not fret. It is Friday!!! Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! On Fridays, I don’t deeply ponder. I purchase, I prance around, and I plunge into pleasure. On Fridays, on the blog, I typically list three favorite things, or songs, or websites, or shows, etc. that make my heart sing and I hope that you will share some of your favorites, too. I only have two favorites to share today, as I am a little pressed for time. Without further adieu:
Professional Wooden Slant Board for Calf Stretching – My piriformis muscle is all out of whack, so for the first time in my life (thankfully), I am going to physical therapy. My physical therapist is a great young lady, but she laughed coyly, when she told me that I’m a tad blunt and direct. In that moment, I came to the realization that I may have become one of those cantankerous old dames with bad hips. She asked me, “What is your goal with your physical therapy?” I said, “To fix the damn pain in my butt cheek.” Anyway, I still think that we’re friends. She introduced me to this slant board yesterday at PT and it was the best feeling stretch I have ever experienced in my life. It helped everything. My physical therapist said that she, herself, uses the slant board every day. So, I went home and I promptly went to Amazon, and purchased one for myself, so that I, too, can use it every single day. (Supposedly, it is great for plantar fasciitis, too.) Another good tip that I learned at PT is that I cross my legs too much. Apparently, I am too sexy and yet too modest, for my own good. When you cross your legs, you get unbalanced and your bones do more of the work than your muscles. Supposedly it is best to always stand and sit with balance. (And I am now coming to the realization that I am becoming one of those cantankerous old dames who talks too much about her ailments. Sigh.)
Mark & Graham monogram store – I know that you Southerners, in particular, love you some monogrammed stuff. I happened upon this website the other day and apparently, you can purchase anything in the world, with a personalized monogram. This is like a classier, easier to navigate Things Remembered. Remember “Things Remembered” at every mall in 1980s America??? Honestly, Mark & Graham is a great website, fun to peruse, because who doesn’t like a nice personalized “something something” as a gift for others, or even for yourself? Monograms make ordinary things special to you.
Have a great, fun, interesting, enthralling, yet comforting weekend! I’ll be here tomorrow, if you need me.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Hi friends! We made it!! Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! On Fridays, I keep it on the surface. On Fridays, I typically list three favorite things or songs or books or whatevers that have made my own life a little bit more interesting. What are your favorites? Here are my favorites for today:
Parker Thatch “143” sweatshirt – I fell in love with Parker Thatch, back when the company was called Iomoi (which stands for “I owe me”) and they mostly sold really cool and quirky stationery. Parker Thatch is much easier to pronounce. I miss their stationery, but I came across this offering and I think that it’s wonderful. Unfortunately I noticed that only the XL is still available, but my guess is that they will get more of these sweatshirts in stock, with Valentine’s Day right around the corner. The hyperlink isn’t working, so just Google “Parker Thatch 143”. It is worth going there just for the story of “143”. Most of us think that “143” originated with Mister Rogers, but honestly, it all started with a light house in Boston back in the 1800s . . . . Parker Thatch is a pricey place, but it is fun to check out their website. It’s stylish and cool and interesting.
One Love Baseball Caps – Staying with the theme of love (don’t forget about Valentine’s), I love wearing my “One Love” baseball cap. I particularly enjoy wearing it when I am hiking. It is such a good reminder that together, we all create “One Love.” It makes me feel better about everything and everyone when I wear it. Seriously. You can get your own “One Love” trucker cap at this website:
https://www.portsandz.com/onelovelandingpage
Genuine Fred Subversive Cross Stitch – My son got me a Daily Sampler Desktop Affirmations by Fred, for Christmas. And I love it. I enjoy changing it every single day. Today’s sweet little cross stitch sampler, sitting right by me, as I write my blog post says this, “What Fresh Hell is This?” Fred also sells subversive sponges and bag clips. This is the kind of kitsch that I just love. Funny is fabulous.
Friends, I forgot my tagline the last few days on the blog. Until I find a better one, here it is (Remember, you are a vital part of “One Love”. Do you. Do your part.):
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Happy Friday!!! Happy Favorites Things Friday!! On Fridays, I try to keep things light and on the surface. I typically list three songs, products, TV shows, books, etc. that have brought intrigue into my life and I strongly encourage you to tell us about one or two of your own favorites, so that we all have new fun experiences to explore. Please check out previous Friday posts for more favorites. Here are my favorites for today:
Yellowstone – If you haven’t gotten hooked on this series, get hooked this weekend. The character development, the scenery, the love stories, and the incredible writing (see this article for some amazing quotes from the show: https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/news-entertainment/a37211255/yellowstone-quotes/ ) make this a television show that is hard to stop watching after just one episode. Get caught up on all four seasons before season five (hopefully) arrives this fall. I have to admit that it took me watching two or three episodes to get captivated with Yellowstone. Watch a few episodes before you make up your mind about the show. It gets better and better as it goes along. (Fun fact, the writer of the show, Taylor Sheridan, also has an acting part in the series, and he also wrote one of my favorite movies of all time, Hellor Highwater. I think that Taylor Sheridan’s greatest gift as a writer is creating multi-faceted fictional characters who are deeply flawed, yet totally lovable despite all of their flaws. His characters have depth. They are all interesting and intriguing, in each of their own unique ways.)
Wordle – If you haven’t gotten hooked on this game yet, get hooked now. (Supposedly it’s all of the rage, even with celebrities, like Jimmy Kimmel.) Go to wordle.com and play the game. You get six chances to get the five-letter “mystery” word correct, and there is only one word to guess, each day. A great hint is to start out with a word like “adieu” or “audio” to get a feel for what vowels are in the word. This has been an excellent way to keep my hyper-competitive brood in touch with each other on a daily basis. We report (there is a share feature) our scores to the family chat almost every single day. Since you, my readers, love to read and to write, I think that you’ll be excellent at this game. I (sheepishly) have to admit that I am pretty good at it, myself.
Light-Up Flamingo Floats – I bought these hilarious floats at Christmas-time because my son said that our backyard Christmas decoration game, was sorely lacking. They are floating flamingoes with solar lights, so at night, they’re all lit up. We’ve long since put our Christmas decorations away up in the attic, but I haven’t had the heart to stop the flamingoes from floating away in our pool. The flamingoes have a festivity about them, that still brings a smile to my face, every night. I purchased mine on Amazon. Even if you live up north, I think that these pink flamingoes would look hilariously ironic in the snow, if you are wanting to make your neighbors giggle.
Have a great weekend! See you tomorrow!
“Your grandfather used to say you can’t fix a broken wagon wheel, but you can use the parts to make a new one.”—John Dutton, Yellowstone
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Hi friends! Happy Friday!! Many of us will be enjoying a wonderful three-day weekend! Isn’t that grand?! I have a busy morning so I am going to have to cut my usually Favorite Things Friday blog post, a little short. Today I will be only sharing one favorite of mine, but it is a good one! One of my mentees is really into stickers. She likes more of the anime sort of sticker, but in looking for a fun sticker book for her, I came across a sophisticated sticker book for my middle-aged (but still a kid at heart) self. I just had to buy it! Here is today’s favorite (New readers, please check out my previous Favorite Things Friday posts for more cool things to try and to buy!):
John Derian Sticker Book (hardcover) – John Derian is a curator of images and prints from 18th and 19th century natural history books. He has made this amazing book, full of beautiful, elegant images. What is even more special, is that many of these images are real stickers. I’ve already had fun with some of these stickers when writing out my Christmas thank you notes, and then adorning them with these quirky, beautiful stickers. I remember the days of a childhood, collecting stickers with my sister. Smelly stickers were all the rage then! These aren’t smelly stickers, but they are special and unique. Here is a quote from this delightful book which I totally relate to: “Sorry to appear insistant (sic), but I must have my trinkets. This is the last chance.”
You must have your trinkets this weekend, friends!! Enjoy your trinkets!! Be insistent about it. See you tomorrow.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Today I am not feeling my usual Friday vibes. I have already spent most of my morning being a crazed “Karen” (justifiably so) to Verizon’s customer “service”. So, while I typically list a few of my favorite things, or beauty products, or food items on Favorite ThingsFriday, I’m sorry, but I’m just not feeling it today. It’s going to take a brisk morning walk in beautiful nature to get me back to my usual Friday mojo. So, instead, here are a few of my favorite snarky posts that I’ve seen this morning online:
@MastersRex, Twitter
@MastersRex,Twitter
@woofknight, Twitter
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
*****Happy 21st birthday to my baby boy! If there was ever a year that highlighted just how precious you (and your siblings and your father) are to me, this is the one. I’m in total awe of you. You are amazing. Let’s rock this birthday!
Happy Friday to everybody!! Happy “Favorite Things Friday!!” On most Fridays, I try to keep up with the fluff n’ stuff in life. On Fridays, I list three favorite products, or TV shows, or songs, or books, etc. that wow me. On Fridays, I’m a material girl living in a material world. If you are so inclined, please share your favorites in my Comments section. This time of year, we could all use some gift ideas. Here are my favorites for today:
A NewDay Fuzzy Pearl Slippers – I’m currently rocking these babies on my feet as I write this blog post, and they. are. wonderful!! You can get these fun, fabulous slippers (if they aren’t already sold out) at Tarjhay (Target). I bought mine in beautiful powder blue, but they come in other lovely colors, as well. These slippers are incredibly comfortable and hilariously cute. They are made of faux fuzzy sheep’s wool, adorned with rows of faux pearls. These are the type of slippers that I may even buy two pairs of, because I know that I will be so sad when this pair wears out. Treat your tootsies! Your feet deserve this holiday gift, after a year of reliably getting you all around, to all of your places.
Lay-N-Go Magic Cosmetic Pouch – I haven’t even gotten mine in the mail yet and I already know that I am going to love it. In my experience, cosmetic bags are either too small (I need a lot of products to make this face come alive) or they are too large and clunky. This pouch is a cloth bag, that when opened, expands to be a cloth tray, so that all of your products are laying out, easy to find on a tray. Then, when you are done making up your face, you just pull the drawstrings and the tray turns back into a pouch, holding all of your magic elixirs. Brilliant! You can order one from Target, Amazon or Claire’s.
The Closet Safe Hanger – I recently bought this stealth contraption at a craft fair (and you can find cute ones on Etsy, or more industrial ones from Amazon). It was the last one left, because they were selling so quickly. This is a coat hanger that doubles as a place to keep things like your jewelry or your cash or your passports, well hidden from any would-be thieves. It has a zipper pouch to hold these items in it, but you would never know this, once a coat is hung on to the hanger. It is a good thing to bring along on a trip, to hang your coat on, at a hotel. Shifty and Nifty!!!
Enjoy your Friday, friends!!! See you tomorrow!!!
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Happy Friday!!! Happy Best Day of the Week!!! Typically, on Fridays (when I am in a good, happy mood) I share three favorites of mine: movies, songs, websites, products, books, pet stuff, etc. Today I am in a good mood. I choose to be in a good mood. I choose to pick the thoughts that support my good mood. From experience, I can tell you that my mood is usually a choice. Today, I choose to feel good. Now in reality, my regular readers know that I am a big proponent of feeling your feelings. I am a big proponent of being real and authentic. I also understand that sometimes, our dark emotions are caused by messed up chemicals in our bodies, which is out of our control, and may need some serious intervention. And of course, we all know that repressed feelings are not good for our bodies or for our psyches. Still, in my experience, in many cases, you can choose to move past your darkness. I’ve earned the right to say this. We’ve been going through hell with my youngest son’s epilepsy the last few months and I have definitely let myself feel the pain, but I have also crawled back to the light. It feels better in the light. Today, I choose to bask in the light.
In a text chat earlier this morning, a friend reminded us of another matter-of-fact, practical friend’s wise words of advice, “It’s only a big deal, if you make it a big deal.” Be choosy about what you make to be the big deals in your life, friends. Not everything has to be a big wave. Help yourself to give yourself some smooth sailing.
My favorites today, are all in video form. I was introduced to two new songs this week, which really moved me. They went into my playlist. See if they speak to your ears. My final favorite for this week, is a link to a video series by a young man who is a travel vlogger, named Drew Binksy. Drew has visited all 197 countries in the world, in the span of ten years and he has made some amazing videos about his adventures. In his latest video, he talks about his eight biggest “takeaways” from this experience. Here are my favorite two insights of his:
+ “The world is safer than you think and 99.9% of people are good people.”
+ “Food is the ultimate connector because everyone needs to eat.”
Choose to have a great day today friends. It’s a precious day in your life. Feel the feels, but then let them go. Here are the links to my favorites for today:
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Happy Friday, readers! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! What a great Friday we have here, with anticipating Thanksgiving right around the corner. Fortunately, our two older sons will be coming home, so all six of us will be enjoying our holiday together. This makes me feel extremely grateful. In other good news, Ralphie, our Labrador-who-is-quite-unhappily-and-totally-against-his-will-on-a-diet lost 11 pounds in two months. (much better than I did) His diet is clearly working! Ralphie still has about 10 pounds to go, and he still tries sneaking the other fur babies’ food every chance that he gets, but he is looking healthier and trimmer every single day. We are so proud of our Ralphie! While not trimming much off of any of my own body fat, I did trim 17,000 emails out of my inbox yesterday (and that is honestly, an understatement). I never bothered to delete emails for quite some time and then I started getting warnings from Google that I was running out of storage. I hemmed and I hawed but I finally just hit the delete button and I trashed 17,000 emails. Honestly, once I got past my nervousness, it felt incredible liberating and freeing. If only cleaning out my closets and drawers could be this easy!
Yes, I notice that I am quite chatty today. What can I say? It’s my favorite day of the week. Here is what you really came for, my three favorites for this Friday. Please check out more favorites in my previous Friday posts and please share some of your own favorites in my Comments section:
LitezAll COB LED magnifier – I’ve reached the age where magnifiers are easily in my top ten favorite things category, all of the time, and this is the best magnifying glass which I have ever owned. Why is this one so great, you ask? Because it is huge, lightweight, and because it has three bright LED lights that shine on whatever you are trying to see. And what’s even better, it’s cheap. I got mine at Ace Hardware but you can order one from Walmart or Amazon, as well.
n:p beautiful volumizing dry shampoo – Even when my hair is perfectly clean, I use this stuff. I love how full it makes my (honestly, kind of thin and fine) hair seem to be. In the words of my mentee (5th grader), “I want fluffy hair, like yours.” (What can I say? I grew up in the eighties.) Seriously, when you apply this dry shampoo, it sounds like you are taking a blow torch to your head, but the results are terrific (if you like fluffy hair, like mine). And even better, it doesn’t flake, like a lot of dry shampoos have the tendency to do.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson – This book is really good, but it is not for the person who blanches at the f-word. The f-bomb is used in this book, as often as the word “the” is used in my blog. It’s a fun, light read with the key message “to lighten the F%ck up!”. The book was honestly recommended to me by my 17-year-old daughter, who had the book recommended to her, by one of her best friends, who was given the book to read, from her own father. (We love this friend and her family. I think that my daughter’s friend’s father knows that our girls are a tad high-strung and a little over-achieving at times, to the point that it crosses over to slightly unhealthy. At first when my daughter told me about this, I was like, WTF?!?, but after starting to read the book, I was like, “F@ck yeah!”) Here is an excerpt:
“Then, as we grow older and enter middle age, something else begins to change. Our energy level drops. Our identity solidifies. We know who we are and we accept ourselves, including some of the parts we aren’t thrilled about. And in a strange way this is liberating. We no longer need to give a f@ck about everything.”
Happy Friday Friends!! Only give a f@ck about the stuff that matters! Thanksgiving is great time to ponder what really matters to you. See you tomorrow!
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
