Want to?

The ocean has just opened up for us. Why?

because we now have a

M O T O R

on my boat.

This new development has changed things up! Who knew? Cruising around our little inlet and beyond, is a pretty fun way to spend the evening.

Plus it’s beautiful

I do a few things daily to improve the quality of my life.

I have learned the importance of little daily habits. There was a time when I was young and could get away with all sorts of less than healthy things. It’s possible I spent too many days trying to undo my discomfort due to some of these.

Little by little it became clear that it’s worth the effort to do little things for my own well being everyday. I don’t know when I realized that nothing has to be extra hard or time consuming, but that regularity is important.

I used to make big dramatic changes, usually on Mondays, worry about my weight constantly, spend hours at the gym, run, try to eat a certain way (many forms of different dietary strictness). Little by little, I got away from all of that.

Now, I eat chocolate every day. I ignore the scale, I walk most days, do some form of yoga, and rarely run. (mostly only when I’m playing chase with grandkids). I like Mondays now, it’s just another day. My weight doesn’t fluctuate. I meditate.

I’m much kinder to myself. I eat fat. I drink coffee. I listen to music. I look for positive, beautiful things.

I’ll choose that. Positivity, beauty, fun. I choose to include as many high energy thoughts, doings, visuals in my day that I can.

I look for these. It’s not always easy. Some days feel wildly out of my hands.

Here’s something I’m learning and may have to continue to learn.

What I give my attention to seems to get bigger. If I take my attention away, it seems smaller.

‘Seems’ might be the key word here, but I don’t even care if it’s just my imagination. If I’m noticing every thing going wrong, not only do those things seem more overwhelming, but more things seem to go wrong.

If I can get myself to start noticing positive things, weirdly I see more good things. More good things start crowding out the not so good.

My circumstances are not ideal. I accept that. I just know that I can still live a good happy, high vibration life if I pay attention.

Sometimes I need is a little something.

Today I scrolled through Pinterest looking for nothing in particular. Just something…

The news today was full of dangerous weather, election coverage, war updates.

There’s a constant reminder of summer ending. (People take this pretty hard around here). Seasons, man, who knew?!

It’s not even 7:30 and

I’ve already managed to get myself on G’s last nerve. My general lack of boat knowledge is never ending. Apparently it’s common sense that you take the motor off when the boat comes out of the water for winter.

If you don’t have a trailer.

This trailer thing affects everything. Eye roll emoji

I just wanted a cute boat to tie to our dock. A boat on a trailer in the yard or driveway holds no aesthetic appeal whatsoever for me. So luckily that won’t be a thing.

Taking the motor off and figuring out where to store both is a silly thing to worry about. Especially since the lawn mower is broken, our WiFi and tv service is giving us problems, and there seems to be no end to other small annoying things going wrong…

I want something beautiful or fun to focus on. Just for a little while.

On top of everything that I’ve been doing a great job ignoring…

This could turn things around for me.

Finding something (anything!) is challenging me today. So I decided, after seeing many beautiful pictures on Pinterest, to come down to my boat on the dock, which needs bailing (because apparently that’s what has to be done every time it rains. Every. Time. (eye roll emoji again)

Whatever.

It’s peaceful here. The water is calm. It’s lovely.

But now I’m walking back up about to help load the lawnmower into the truck. Again. Yesterday it rained. That’s another story.

Heading to yoga now

Later…

Yoga was just what I needed.

The message was perfect.

Something about this owl character that signifies trust and not being attached and opening up to what might later be something much bigger and better then what we alone could envision.

Sometimes I just need a reminder to look for the good things, the things I’m grateful for. To fall back and observe my own thoughts. To know there’s so much good out there.

I was already feeling my mood lift when I noticed a missed call from a favorite friend in CA. I tried her back. We had a great chat. She had a good story about someone loving my book. I never tire of hearing this kind of feed back.

When I came home, there were a few failed attempts but eventually the motor was attached, filled, started and we took off out on the water.

Soon we had some speed, not too much because you have to gradually increase according to the boat motor instructions.

But oh my! That was fun!

We are going back out after supper!

Just another reminder, I can never predict where any day will take me.

Yesterday it rained unpredictably for hours. I guess the weather man and all the weather apps missed that or it was a New England surprise.

Things can can go in any direction, but good to see and remember good stuff happens too.

I love mornings

But I also love warm summer evenings

Yesterday we went to this beautiful organic farm for an event they called Farm Fest.

The place is beautiful. They had live music, cooked pizza in the onsite pizza oven with ingredients grown on the farm.

As the sun dropped below the horizon, the warmth of the day lingered. We somehow ended up at a table with the owners who entertained us with stories about how they learned how to run the farm and all the things they tried.

It was a sweet summer night. Good food, good conversation, good laughs.

Or a fun family favorite.

Some days it hard to tell.

I once read a book called ‘A Homemade Life’ by Molly Wiesenberg. It became my favorite cookbook.

Several recipes from this book became repeat family favorites.

Molly’s ratatouille is the best one I’ve had. Her recipes are all explained very well, with easy to follow instructions. In her book she tells stories from her life and how each dish fits into it.

Her soup recipe from a kind neighbor, is well loved by many. It’s famous on the internet. You can easily google and find it. It’s called Ed Fratwell soup after the neighbor. When I make it, I always use way less beans and mine is more soup, less thick, than when my friend makes it. (she’s a better direction follower than I am) Both are delicious. My daughter in law’s version is also delicious.

Probably my favorite recipe from the book is called ‘The Winning Hearts and Minds cake’ it’s so delicious and so easy. You can easily make it with almond flour if you are trying to avoid gluten. My kids could make this with very limited help from me.

Even so, as it turns out, it doesn’t win over everyone.

Well

maybe everyone who likes chocolate.

And cake.

Since everyone grew up, we now have family members who don’t like chocolate and others who don’t like cake. There was a time that I couldn’t even imagine such a thing.

Life surprises me. What can I say.

So we can’t win. Lily made her own chocolate cake which rivaled that one. With only chocolate-loving-cake-likers present, hers won over that crowd.

Time. Wait long enough and everything changes,

I guess probably chatting with the kids about the first day of school.

I’ve never missed this first day before. That nervous walk after the busy lunch making, breakfast eating, hair combing, new shoes and new backpacks, pet feeding crazy getting ready morning.

This year summer ended early, school started Wednesday. I’m out east and nearly missed the whole thing.

Luckily, we have this phone technology and can chat almost as if we are in the same room together. I love that.

I know I’m bored when I start reading yet another ‘how I make $10K a month blogging or digital marking or selling art online’ thing on Instagram or Pinterest

This occurred to me.

None of these people sell actual products. Unless you count their information. They are trying to sell a how to class.

Am I the only person who finds this weird and slightly hard to believe? Where are they finding all these people to buy a class or a webinar to learn how to do something they aren’t doing?

Is this a racket? I see a few people trying on clothes and getting a commission for clothes sold through their middle man site, but they are doing something unique, usually. Digital marketing for makeup or whatever. I’m not tech savvy, but I tend to research a product and buy it through the company site. Maybe that’s silly or slow or something…I’m happy for these young entrepreneurs even if I don’t all the way get it.

None that I see, are trying to sell a ‘how to’ program.

So what is this phenomenon? So far, I haven’t taken the full bait, I have watched a few compelling ads though.

But I can’t get those minutes back.

The memorial was on Saturday. It was a busy emotionally charged build to a emotional, but perfect day.

The memorial was in honor of both father and son, both of them, life changing passings. The losses of these two have been felt deeply. Many relatives and friends came from as far away as Florida to pay their respects and hopefully feel closure. However that works, I hope everyone found some peace. It was many little reunions, family, friends, neighbors past and present.

I think memorials are good. They aren’t easy. They are definitely harder for some than others, but I can say from my inside/outside observer-perspective, that this was an extremely valuable experience.

Shared memory is maybe what ankers us here. All those past times of fun and joy, could be forgotten if not for another who was there. It nice when everyone can add what they remember.

There was something sweet about seeing everyone doing this over different times and different memories, sitting at different tables or standing here or there.

G’s mom said as we drove up, “I don’t want this to be sad. I want it to be fun”

And it kind of was

And heart warming.