Contemplating Life

This is Bailey last night as we were contemplating the finish to another day.
It was a busy day and now the morning is here and I am looking forward to an unplanned day.
Doesn't mean I won't do a lot, it just means I have no previous commitments.
I sometimes do better with my chores when I have an unplanned day now and then.
So I am looking foward to the day.
So we had some rain, and maybe the grass will turn from places slighty brown to green again , and some of my plants will stop the dying they were headed to.
Time to do some painting today and a couple of homekeeping tasks, the biggest one being cleaning out the pantry.

Windows Open and Shut

Yes some windows around here are open and some are shut, so to speak.
So I've been missing in action and intend to get back more regularly real soon.
A bit busy and a bit discombobulated around this place.
So hopefully I won't be MIA so much. I have been able to check in on a few of my favorite blogs, and hope to do that more faithfully soon.
Until then, hope you are enjoying the slowing days of summer, as I am.
Have had some amazing cooler evenings and amazing sunsets.
Hope to see more of you real soon.

Whatever happened to me

Yeah this is me.
And I am wondering whatever happened to me?
Well I mean the younger me.
I used to be quite project oriented.
Meaning gardening profusely,landscaping, mowing, refinishing furniture, quilting, needlework, decorating, painting, yardsaling,had a small antique and collectibles business,sewing and crafting things out of nothing.
This along with a 30yr. career in mental health, raising a family,entertaining, socializing, throwing any sort of party, having my husband's colleagues over for dinners,etc.,etc.
What got me thinking was my son's emailing me and asking me what I am in Myers-BriggsTI.
Well I emailed back that I used to be ENFJ but in the past years I've tested INFJ.Basically merging from an extrovert to an mild introvert.You can Google Myers- Briggs if you aren't familiar with it.

I was discussing this with another friend and we decided we like our cocooning and down time as we are aging some.
Not sure when it happened, or why, but I do know for sure I enjoy time alone to read, watch movies, nap or speculate on nothing in particular.
I am still interested in many of the above mentioned domestic skills. I do cook a lot. I do not entertain guests as much.
I am quite happy meeting someone for a cappuccino at a local coffee shop.
Or chatting by email or phone.
Don't know if any of you have experienced this, but for me I believe it happened somewhere along the time my kids left home for university and I realized that for 23years or more when I had kids in the house, my life was busy, full, exciting and crazy.
Now I can truly say I am enjoying time to just be.

What is it really?

I often talk about the sunsets, or my flowers, or my family, but this topic is a little different.
I've been noticing something this past year we're are back in the states.
I don't recall I noticed it so much when we left for overseas in 2002, but it has really been staring me in the face.
When people identify themselves in tv, or newsprint, or blogs, or internet, or in letters or in person I often hear several identifying adjectives.
They will say: "I'm a conservative, I'm a liberal, I'm a right-wing evangelical Christian, I'm a Democrat, I'm a Republican....and on and on.
I think what sticks out the most to me when I hear "I'm a right-evangelical Christian", as if a more liberal or non evangelical approach in their religion doesn't make a Christian a Christian.
It's the labels I'm having a really really hard time with.
When did Americans become so polarized. When did we have to identify ourselves in such a dividing way?Do we only want to socialize with or be friends with those who think exactly like us? Do we feel so insecure we have to identify ourselves with labels?
As time goes by it feels more and more divisive to me.

Maybe it's because it's an election year and I've not been around in an election year since 2000.
It's feeling more and more alienating to me and I'd love to hear people's take on why we as a nation, people, religions, political parties feel we have to talk the person we are communicating with into our way of thinking?
What has happened to the melting pot we have always prided ourselves in being?
What about not always thinking our way is the only way?
I find it all shocking and surprising as to what has happened to the many peoples and groups who are yelling at us to change our way of thinking.

Carefree days of summer....

Hello out there... are you still there? Wow I wish I could be as carefree as this laundry hanging on the line.And that is an understatement.

I am here but you wouldn't know it from my lack of posting, reading and responding to blogs like I usually like to do.
Since a week ago,with my small accident,dealing with the insurance co, then evicting horrible renters who trashed our rental property, picking out new carpet for it, and painting the whole place... my life seems to be a runaway train I am trying to jump off of!
In the middle of all of this my very favorite cousin from Pittsburgh came by for two marvelous days of eating, chatting, jaunting around.
Now I am in the process of meal planning, food shopping, organizing, packing the van for our annual 3 night/4 day tent camping trip on the banks of Pine Creek N of Harrisburg PA. My husband's extended family has been doing this since the summer of 1968, the same weekend, when the riots and protests on the mall of Wash DC were held and thus it is dubbed Resurrection City,as was the DC weekend. For those of you interested in 60's culture and Vietnam War protests, the year of 1968 was a momentous year in our country's history.
It is my high school graduating year and it holds such memories as well as historical significance in my political beliefs and values.
So we are off to celebrate family, food, and fun and will be sitting around the campfire every night, storytelling and singing and sharing food.
Volleyball games, and rafting down Pine Creek, bike riding and hiking, are some of the weekends events. It is not a formal reunion by any means, but rather, a getting together hanging out sort of weekend, with really nothing scheduled.
This is also my 40th high school reunion, but as that is in Iowa, and we are at the family weekend in PA I will not be able to make both 40th reunions.

So I am just checking in to say I am here and I hope to soon be back to a routine, as non has existed for the past 2 weeks or so.

In the middle of this frenzy my husband is packing for India for his work adventure.
He will leave the day we get back from camping.
So life is busy and full.....but not carefree.

Looking out...looking in

Just a pretty picture of one of hundreds of window pictures I seem to take!

That is me these days...looking out and looking in!

Haven't written much this week as I am feeling immobilized and so I will just say hello and I will be back soon.
Don't feel too organized these days.

Changes

For the past few months we thought we'd be going back overseas for 7-12 months for my husband's job.
As of Friday we were told that is off so now we have to refocus and organize our minds and adjust to a new way of thinking.
I'd stopped buying groceries to stock my pantry and freezer. I'd not bought any annuals to plant outside, just perennials. And my front porch and back porch look mighty empty.
I'd even started organizing things for leaving the house empty for that long.
The only arrangment I hadn't made was to make plans for my dog.
Now I need to shift my thinking.
It will take me a few days...or weeks!

Life goes on for all of us in varying ways, doesn't it?
Changes in our housing or living situations,planning our retirement, homes and finances, saying goodbye to those we love, waiting, holding on and wondering why.
I think about change a lot, and accepting, and adjusting and holding those close to us we care about.
Fostering communication, and caring and love.
Adjusting to what comes our way, and trying to adapt.
Enjoying each day what brings us pleasure.

Much better

Thanks for everyone's kind comments and emails.
Feeling much better today. After shaming myself and looking at the wilting state of potted plants sitting outside waiting for someone to take care of them I have determined that as soon as I warm up a bit outside I will go.
Watering and fertilizing, also stopping by a store to get some bagged mulch, to plant these babies in the ground!
I had stayed up much too late last night, and also up before 5 this morning, so if I get to work before my momentum leaves I just might get some things done around here.
The picture is off my back patio several weeks ago, a western view, before the leaves were fully out on the trees. That special time of year before the world becomes awake with greenery.
Happy day to all of you.

Sunrise and the flu

Lovely cool mornings this week I haven't been able to enjoy as much as usual due to a nasty cold/flu I contracted flying home from visiting our daughter last week.
I still need to get outside and plant those plants I've been collecting. Somehow I am afraid it will turn very hot and be June and those plants will be sitting in their black pots in the driveway.
So for now I will have to enjoy the sunrises from inside my front window.
I've always enjoyed spring and this is the first spring we've lived in the US since 2002 and I thought I'd have been more organized about getting my outside work done.
Suffice it to say our last year has been spent moving households out of long term storage and unpacking and sending things to auction, so I know I am still getting into a routine.
Just wanted to say I am here and will soon be getting my outside chores finished. Meanwhile I will keep warm with my feather tick and a nice cup of tea as the flu subsides.

Limbo

Many of us live in limbo or waiting and wondering; wondering where we will be living, wondering if we can afford to move, waiting until that promotion,working on a job change, wondering how it will all work out.
I think about this a lot: especially as a baby boomer more at the end of a career that at a beginning of one.
Money we thought could sustain us through and until a retirement and then boom something happens and our plans, dreams hopes are in question and we wonder.
Life is difficult and sometimes our plans don't work out. So many things have happened this year in the american financial scene to give me pause: the housing market, the oil crisis(?) and consequently gas prices for all of US, the job market, hopes of early retirement possibly gone,etc., rising wheat and grain prices and big increases in food costs.
Then there is the mother factor. As a parent of two twentysomethings, just starting out in their careers I see them struggling with decisions as well. Costs of masters degrees, and living costs, gas prices, wanting to purchase a home and trying to cobble together down payments. So not only am I wondering about our own retirement costs and options but natural maternal concern for what their life will be like.
Life goes on....
I try to temper all this with things that bring me pleasure: my gardening, reading, walking with my Cavalier, connecting with family and friends.