by Sarah | Apr 28, 2019 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Gratitude, Redefining Perfect
As part of my Oola journey, I’m making an effort to be more grateful. My daily planner has a place specifically labeled for Gratitude. I’d like to spread some of that love here, too.
I am grateful for –
Moving.
Fixed blogs.
Big hugs.
Friendly cat.
House to myself for 48 hours.
Evening walks.
Earth reading.
A month in FL to explore.
Charter school.
Last days.
Bittersweet.
One last game.
One last night.
Firsts.
Lasts.
Progress.
Two teens.
Jobs obtained.
Boxes packed.
House buyer.
Going home.
by Sarah | Apr 17, 2019 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Book Reviews, I'm A Reader, Redefining Perfect, Wordy Wednesday
I thought about doing one book per recommendation post – but then changed my mind.
I’m going to recommend One, one, and one every month. The genres may change, but it lends some variety.
This week we’re going to look at Series that I recommend. One YA, One Graphic Novel, One Romance.
*~*~*
Oh, don’t look so surprised…or are you looking annoyed?
Either way – stop.
Call it the gateway drug, call it what you want, but I’ve read it like 7 times, which is still not as many as the Little House books, but it’s a lot for someone that never re-reads books. Like, ever.
I was late to this party. Seriously. I’d heard plenty about it, even given book one to my son in a desperate attempt to get him interested in reading (it didn’t work, FWIW). However, I never picked them up. That long-mentioned tendency toward not liking things that are immensely popular.
Then, we got free tickets for a pre-screening of The Goblet of Fire in the theaters. Arguably, not the best book or movie, BUT it was my introduction into the series and it excited hubby and I both enough to leave the theater saying “We have GOT to read these books…”
And so we did.
Unfortunately, only 5 books were out at the time. While I breezed through and loved the first four books, I hit a road block. It took me almost a year to read that super-depressing Order of the Phoenix, and then book 6 was out, but then I had to wait a year for book 7…and by then I’d forgotten many of the characters and it lost all magic.
Several years later, though…that’s when I had some time to sit down and read them all in order without stopping. It took 2 weeks but I finally “got” it.
That’s a long way of saying I can’t recommend them enough. It’s a magical world you never want to end. While people scrambling for more has led to some intriguing theories, and stories, it’s also led to some questionable ones.
But the initial 7. They are classic. The time and effort spent building the world, the magic, everything. I will forever read and re-read these books in both print and audio form. They hold all my love and the love of so many others. If you haven’t read them, give them a shot. They may not be your cup of tea, and that’s okay…but at least you tried.
Okay, there are 8 books in this series currently, despite only having 4 pictured.
This is a series that both my girls and I devoured like it was water and we were stranded in the desert.
There are many things to enjoy about the series. The story itself is riddled with magic, technology, mystery and some fun characters along for the ride with out heroine, Emily.
It’s definitely a fun series both kids and adults can enjoy. I highly recommend it for your kids – and for you.
Okay, to be honest I personally only REALLY enjoyed half of these. However, that was personal preference based on the story type more than anything.
The series as a whole is great. Each book is written by a different author for a different season. Each book takes the Beauty and the Beast story and revises it in a modern take using various paranormal tropes from shifters to monsters to plain old magic.
I really enjoyed the modern, paranormal take on the classic story. The series really brought to light how four different authors can take the same base story and put their own, unique spin on it.
side note: These are labeled erotic, and they each definitely have some racy scenes in them. It’s well worth it for the fun ride, though. Trust me. 😉
*~*~*
Those are my recommendations for this month! Hope you enjoyed.
What are some of your favorite books? I love adding to my TBR.
by Sarah | Apr 14, 2019 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Gratitude, Redefining Perfect
As part of my Oola journey, I’m making an effort to be more grateful. My daily planner has a place specifically labeled for Gratitude. I’d like to spread some of that love here, too.
I am grateful for –
Evening walks.
Free hugs.
La-Z-Boy knitting.
Hawk medicine.
Screening calls.
Cat snuggles.
Interviews scheduled.
Giraffe medicine.
Reminiscing.
2 poofs down.
Quick to fall asleep.
Blog posts written.
Will power.
Yasso.
Earth reading.
Amazon treats.
Big hugs.
House to myself for a weekend.
Friendly cat.
Recommended.
95% done.
Tackled to-do list.
Happy mail.
Sharing the oola.
Conversations with adult children.
Empty closets.
Vision boards.
Meditation.
by Sarah | Apr 12, 2019 | 50 before 50, All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Bucket List, Gratitude, Oola, Pagan Me Happy, Personal, Pour Your Heart Out, Redefining Perfect
I have this friend that every time we talk, something profound comes out of it. Even if I tackle her with an inane conversation, or I just message to give her a boost or vice versa. Maybe it’s that she’s a shaman, or maybe it’s that sometimes I need to chatter my face off to find a message sometimes, who knows?
Over the course of several months she’d been having a rough time. Between living in the middle of a desert, the government shutdown affecting them, and missing Christmas, she was…stressed.
However, for the same amount of months she’d been talking about the biggest message she’d been receiving in all of her studies, card readings, spirit messages…it was always SURRENDER.
We were discussing the difficulties she was having, the tension she felt, everything all in a nutshell. I was letting her vent, really….when I made the offhand comment:
It’s hard to surrender when you’re holding your breath.
We both kind of stopped right there. It was a big “Whoa” moment for us as we read and re-read the words I’d just typed.
Apparently as much as she needed to hear them, I did as well…because I realized that I’d been doing the same thing, for MONTHS. With the hope and anticipation and this sense of NEEDING to go home to Florida, I’d built up so many levels of tension in all of it. Some days I couldn’t breathe for all of it.
BREATHE.
Do you know how important it is to breathe? Not just for the fact that it keeps you alive…I’m not talking about that breath, really. I’m talking about holding our soul’s breath.
Waiting…
Anticipation…
Fear…
Doubt…
Excitement…
It holds our souls captive. It locks them in a cage and hides them away from what could well be the next miracle around the corner.
BREATHE.
Right now.
Stop. Whatever it is you’re doing, stop.
Release the tension you’re carrying in your shoulders, your jaw, your neck, your heart.
Breathe out long and slow in release.
Explore what’s causing that tension.
Where are you going? What are you doing? What’s the biggest anxiety in your brain?
Surrender it.
Turn it over to whatever God, Goddess, Nothingness you wish. Give it over to the universe.
Nope. It’s not easy.
It’ll come back to haunt you. To put those knots back in your shoulders.
BREATHE.
To hold your brain hostage.
BREATHE.
To nag at your sense of peace.
BREATHE.
But when it does, you have a weapon.
You let it go.
You breathe.
You release.
You surrender.
Stop holding your breath.
by Sarah | Apr 9, 2019 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Redefining Perfect
Once upon a time, when I wrote my first post in, oh 2006?
*runs to check dates….make that 2007*
Blogging was HOT. I came in late on the trend, for sure…mostly because I’m always late to the party. However, I was still early enough to be on the fringe of some of those bloggers that went on to become hot names. Pioneer Woman (I won my KitchenAid stand mixer from her), The Bloggess, Brittany Herself, and the like. They, and many others, paved the way for smaller bloggers.
Over time, blogging became oversaturated. Facebook killed blogging in many ways (shorter, faster, gotta get their short attention spans!!). Some bloggers kept plugging away for years (Like the Bloggess, Brittany, and Burgh Baby), and years, and years. They never once stopped. Some of us (like myself) would pop in with a series of blog posts on occasion, only to stop again…but our blogs remained there. A testament to the good times. Others blogs were shuttered for good. Closed down, just…gone.
Our lives went on. We kept chattering on FB. Friends found in blogging divorced, got married, had more kids, emptied their nests, turned into raging misogynistic lunatics, we lost too many good ones (even one is too many, isn’t it?).
We mourned, laughed, cried, hid away, screamed and complained in Facebook snippets.
Instead of the wide-screen movies of our lives, we watched it all happen in Polaroid moments scattered across an increasingly commercial ad-ridden timeline where businesses with big bucks got top billing over our friendships we’d established long before we liked a companies page. Much like blogging went the way of commercial (so.many.blogs.hawking.product.O.M.G.), Facebook has taken the same turn, but even more aggressively.
*~*
Two years ago I heard the first rumbling of bloggers coming back to life. A post by Ali over at Cheaper Than Therapy caught my attention, and sparked my own post on how we needed each other still, if not more so now. I made it through a few months then, bug once again ceased blogging for no good reason for a while. And even then, when Ali posted that…it was mere rumblings. A person here, a person there…
Now, I dare say I think the rumblings are turning into more. A few months after I’ve started really feeling driven to post with some regularity again, I’m finding others are blogging it up again. My friend Karl (who I’m sure I met because he was a friend of a friend) has resurrected his blog from the ashes…and in doing so has reached out to find out who is still blogging. I’m finding new blogs, rediscovering old ones.
There is a resurgence of the O.G. blog crowd to get back to what brought us together. REAL stories, REAL connections, ACTUAL comments.
Rebuilding friendships out of the ashes of sound bites into real, true threads of discourse.
One common thread I’m seeing is people ditching “persona” for true self. Another is all of us that blogged b/c we had wee ones are now facing teens (crazy common threads woven through so many blogs). I also see a lot about US now. Since the kids are older, if we ever blogged about them we have to blog about ourselves now because our kids can say we aren’t allowed to talk about it.
Also…maybe call it a mid-life crisis, but I get a sense of evolution from most of the blogs I’m reading. People searching for what defines THEM now, becoming better people, treating ourselves better.
It’s fantastic!
I love seeing the community stir back to life, reaching out to support each other again.
Of course, that means I need to clean up a bit around here.
Make up one of those new-old-fangled Blogroll things.
Who wants in on my Blogroll? It’s gonna be the latest thing. Come on down!
No, seriously. Give me your blog. I may already have it on my list, but share it anyway for those that don’t know.
It’s time to get back to where it all began. Everything old is new again!
As part of my Oola journey, I’m making an effort to be more grateful. My daily planner has a place specifically labeled for Gratitude. I’d like to spread some of that love here, too.
