Purposeful Steps

Papers have been signed, photos have been taken, and soon, a sign will be in the yard. That's right- this beautiful house is for sale! I'm very excited we're making such progress in our goal to go after the life we really want. It is scary, to put this house on the market when the market itself is so dry. Let's call this an act of extreme trust in our realtor. There are and handfull of people who have helped me in very stressful times in my life;  parents, aunts, nurses, wedding planner, and now, realtor. If you find a good one, hold on tight!

We hope more properties pop up in our favorite rural area, south-east of the metro area soon. For now, bring on the showings, because this house is CLEAN! 

A New Year

The first day of a new year lends itself to pondering my life's meaning. I can't help it. Intention is in the air. Purpose pulls at me- Find yourself. Figure things out.

It's easy to see this year will be another of pivotal change for our family. We're unsettled in our current house and are in the process of finding a home in a new area. We're hoping to embark on a new way of living, homesteading. We want to grow our own food, learn to hunt, care for, and cultivate. We want to spend much more time outside and much less inside. These are the things we're keeping in mind as our house-hunt evolves into a land-hunt. The other side of this adventure is preparing our current house to show, and hopefully sell. Sorting through belongings, downsizing, decluttering, cleaning- such tasks are less fun than hanging out with our realtor, yet obviously essential. It feels good to have a purpose after spinning our wheels a bit over the holidays.

On a personal level, this year I'll be writing more. I have so many ideas percolating, and I've always found writing to be therapeutic. I can't wait to dive back in. I'll have to make a conscious effort to invest more time in this area. 

Overall, there is nothing new in our 2013 agenda. We're always trying to do better, learn more, and get to the point. What the New Year does, is solidify those things we want to do, and bring new life to our goals. For that, I'm grateful to this day.

Seeking The Special

Well here we are on the last day of November. I didn't complete my NaBloPoMo writing challenge, but S completed his kettlebell swing challenge! He has amazing stick-to-it abilities, which is so inspiring!

In the last few weeks I've been looking toward December, thinking of ways to bring a sense of special to our holiday season. I've made mental lists of festive ideas for our family. Then our beloved cat was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. All holiday plans dropped from my mind, replaced with concern over the remaining days of our cat's life, and worry of how his loss will impact us.

But life moves ever forward, and I want to make the most of it. So today I'm revisiting some of those December ideas, and I hope that I'll still be able to pull some of them off. I will start by listing them here, as a reminder. This will be a very relaxed Holiday Bucket List.

• Eat more evening meals at the table
• Use the snowman dishes
• Light candles when the sun sets
• Watch holiday movies
• Take photos of special ornaments and blog about their stories

I'll be focusing on this short list in hopes of bringing warmth to our short days and long nights. If something on this list ends up satisfying, I'll be glad to nourish it as a new tradition. Onward! 

One last holiday with this kitty. Make every moment count. 

Oh The Places We Go

This weekend we are going back to Roxborough State Park. We'll take the big camera and the tripod and attempt a holiday family photo. It shouldn't be hard to find a good backdrop!

Holiday Prep

Our day began with some holiday gift making...

And ended with a living room reboot! Now there's room for our tree, which we'll put up next week.

Scrub Them Down

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.  -Alan Alda

Eureka Springs, Arkansas 2008

Letting Go, Moving On

Since losing our pregnancy a year ago, and moving on from trying to conceive, S and I have been slowly healing and regaining a sense of control over our lives. It was bumpy at first, but gradually we've gotten more comfortable with refocusing our attention on my two boys and our life together. Every once in a while I see something so poignant, I gasp, and mourn for what we'll never have. While with friends today, I saw two big brothers fawning over their baby sister. These boys are about the same ages as my boys, and the baby was born within months of our due date with our lost girl. When I watch these siblings interact, I get a glimpse of what we wanted for our family. Some people call babies born after divorce and remarriage joiner babies, a way to bring both sides together. What I need to focus on is that although S and I can't have children together, we do have a family. We do have love, tons of it, and we are joined. We've got each other. We’re all sad we can't add a baby to our home, but there is no mistaking the privilege we have, just being able to live our lives together. Onward! 

Us, circa 2007

Wanderlust

Niagara Falls (Canadian side), 2009

S and I have four days coming up in December to get away! Alone! We've taken so many trips together and I can't wait to travel again. We won't go far, but we will go up, which is something we don't do often, as my youngest son gets horrible motion sickness. It's just no fun driving up a mountain when you've got vomit to contend with. 

I'm thinking a cabin. Or a yurt. Are yurts warm? Or a hotel room with a view. Oh I'm so excited to start planning! 

A photo, A blurb

T'was a lovely, sunny day. 

The snow arrives tomorrow. 

We soaked up the warmth and coiled up the hose. 

Against The Grain- How I'm Learning Optimism

My rose colored glasses are bloody. My window to the world is muddy. I, unfortunately, am bent toward the negative. Whether due to early experiences, or natural temperament,  I'm a bit (much) of a pessimistic human. Now, I'm not down on myself, or even ashamed of how I think, but I do recognize the power of thoughts on the shape of my world. In hopes of finding my way to a less-gloomy life, I sought out some new tools. Enter Learned Optimism, and my Self Care journal.

Self-help books can be a bit... well, I guess I feel every Tom, Dick, And Harry has a book for sale, claiming ability to change my life if I just do what they did in their life. And I just don't buy into that. Or buy those books. Life is subjective. People are autonomous. I think trying to model the behavior of one individual can set several up for disappointment. Of course, I'm a pessimist. ;-)

What sold me on this book was a review from another author. I thought, well I like what this person writes, and I trust their review, so I'm going to give this a go. I'm so glad I did, because I've learned some valuable lessons. Learned Optimism paints a dreary picture of pessimism, and the impact of negativity on one's life. Then it provides a test, so you can figure out just how pessimistic you are. Well that was fun! Not! I had to move on FAST from the devastating, yet already known results of my test. In fact, I skipped a huge portion of the book just to get from test results to TELL ME HOW TO FIX MYSELF BEFORE I MOVE INTO A CAVE!!!

In the Change section of the book, the author lays out a very clear path to battle negative thinking. By learning to distract, dispute, and distance myself from my beliefs during adversity, I'm gaining control of my thoughts. Hooray!

This post is getting a little too long for my taste, but I will write another post soon about how I'm specifically using the tools in Learned Optimism to find balance and hope in my daily life. Stay tuned! In the meantime, if you want to check out Learned Optimism, the link below will take you to Amazon.

Learned Optimism: How To Change Your Mind And Your Life (on Amazon)

Let's Do NaBloPoMo!

It's November, and my how the months have flown by! When we started this blog over the summer, we were so excited to share our lives, but as the days dragged on, we found ourselves uninspired, and burned out. This apathy has been wide-sweeping and we are just so fed up with it! Last night S and I discussed ways to break free from monotony, and strategies to find passion again. One thing we both want to do is contribute to our blogs, and that's why I'm participating in NaBloPoMo, which is National Blog Posting Month. It starts today!

NaBloPoMo doesn't set many guidelines. Write as much as you want, wherever you want, however you want. Just write and post daily! Some people start fresh blogs, write for a month, and never return. Some people spread posts over several blogs. I think I'll do well sticking to this blog, as it gives a nice perimeter of topics. I'm sure the posts will vary in length and depth, and I'll likely utilize photos as inspiration, or to round out days when I can't write more than a few sentences.

Are the darkening days leaving you unfulfilled and tired? Would you consider committing to writing  on a blog every day this month? If so, let's do NaBloPoMo!

Shorter days bring me down. Let's write!