My life is usually divided two ways, thing I want to do and things I have to.  That’s not so unusual really, most people can probably say the same.  My trouble is that if I don’t want to do something, I find it nearly impossible to force myself to.  This includes going to work, showering, and participating in life with real humans.  To say that showering is something I don’t want to do might be pushing it, but I’ll be honest when I say that I find it to be an optional part of my day most of the time.  Mostly because I’m lazy and find that cleaning the house and wrestling three dogs all day will negate the effort I put into showering anyway. I’m falling off of the point.  My point is that I lack the motivation to force myself to do things I don’t want to.  What’s Continue reading →

It might not be the healthiest thing that I do, but I make lists.  It borders on obsessively.  I love lists.  I keep a list of things to do for my blog, my life, my business, my work, my dogs, stuff to buy and I could keep going.  There is something about them that helps me feel a little more in control of the otherwise chaotic life I tend to have. On face value, my life looks rather boring.  I sit at home with three dogs and write.  But the reality is that between cleaning up after my husband, the dogs and me, training the dogs, my dogs being crazy and the fact that I freelance for a number of website, I’m amazed I get anything done at all.  So lists help give me the illusion that I have some type of order and control.  I don’t, but the lists Continue reading →

Many people find Earnest Hemingway hard to read and a bit of a bore.  Which is kind of true.  I won’t lie, I’ve read a few of his books and though I actually really like his stuff, I have to force myself to get through the first few chapters.  It can be that dry initially.  But what I absolutely adore about Earnest Hemingway is that he was a raging alcoholic.  Not that it’s good for you to be so, but because it means he has some truly awesome quotes from a time when boozing it up was completely acceptable and alcoholism was kind of a expectation of being a creative type. My favorite Hemingway quote is, “Write drunk.  Edit sober.”  And I take it to heart.  I may not always have a drink in hand when I’m writing, but maybe I do, how would you know?  But what I do Continue reading →

I am the planner in our family, but my husband is the man who wants a plan.  He loves the quote, “A failure to plan is a plan for failure.”  Which is ironic because he fails epically at planning anything.  It’s a real possibility that our house would have burned down during the renovation if I hadn’t had a plan…. And we didn’t even have a need to use fire for anything.  So, you could say we are well matched in that department.  I like to plan, he likes to have a plan. But there are times in our lives when plans aren’t useful.  Not many mind you, but there are some.  When you want to follow your passions, having a backup plan is not a great idea.  I know that many of you are grumbling about this.  You are saying, “But what if my plan fails?”  And you have Continue reading →

For weeks now I have had a hard time writing.  It seems like something that should be easy.  I’m not lacking life experiences, I’m not lacking great ideas, lovely new phrases or bratty things to be upset about.  But the truth is, things have been so challenging of late.  With the renovation, my grandfathers death and my diagnosis with severe carpal tunnel, everything has turned to this strange shade of gray that my life rarely turns.  But, like anyone, I have a means of coping with stressful times, though I will admit that it’s not your average adult way. All of my thoughts of my grandfather, my sadness over his death and the loss of what will never be between us has gotten me thinking of my other grandparents.  I have only one surviving grandparent now.  My grandfather is a stoic man who hugged me for the first time when Continue reading →

I’ve been blogging for nearly as long as I have been married.  I have spent months not blogging.  I have neglected my blog off and on in that time, but I always return.  I always return because my blog is a part of who I am and a big part of my life.  There are weeks that I spend more time working on my blog than I do at my physical job. My poor husband has never understood my blog.  And he is not always supportive.  There have been fights about what I have written.  There have been hour long periods of scrutiny during which he pours over my posts and my pictures to see what I have shared, if I have broken our rules, if I have leaked any secrets to the universe etc. He doesn’t understand why I blog.  And he definitely doesn’t understand who reads it and Continue reading →

There are very few people in this world that wake up at 18 years old and know who they want to be when they grow up.  Most change majors at least 2 times and the rest stick to it, but don’t love what they do.  There are a lucky few who wake up at 18, at the dawn of their adult life, and just know who they are meant to be and where they are going in life.  I was never one of those people. I have wandered aimlessly through my life never fully settling or committing to a job.  It’s not uncommon, but the older I got the less of a grown up I felt I was.  What is ok for a 22 year old is not as acceptable the closer and closer you get to the 4th anniversary of your 26th birthday.  People begin to wonder why you Continue reading →