Tag: challenges

Wrapping it up

Hi Everyone!

One week until Christmas and I have been wrapping up 2020 literally and figuratively. It is not going to be a big presents under the tree sort of year, but we have a few for the younger crowd. The adults have decided a little Dirty Santa, food and time together will be plenty.

The last of these three drawings got finished up about a week ago. (I purposely made not so great photos of these because of the rampant image theft online). In my mind they are called the Pandemic Flowers. I desperately need better names. I started the first one in February when I was dealing with a kidney stone and the incoming Covid. Like many of you, I have a brain that never shuts up and I needed to focus on something other than pain and anxiety. These drawings were my refuge. This much detail takes getting into that flow where you lose track of time and thought. Whenever the 2020 crazy started to get to me, I worked on these and got my equilibrium back.

What got you through the year? Hopefully not alcohol or drugs, but I have heard their usage was way up this year. I have seen posts and had conversations that included quilting, bread making, wood working, gardening, uncluttering, home remodeling and decorating. Have you noticed that creative endeavors have been our saving grace? I have always declared creativity / art as therapy. Guess we proved that point this year without having to pay for a government research study! Let me know what cool stuff got you through 2020. Post pictures!

I am leaving 2020 behind with a great deal of gratitude. I am grateful that overall (we had a couple of scares this year) everyone in the family has been healthy. I am grateful that my son and his girlfriend completed their epic adventure bicycling across the country during all this, safely and with awesome stories to share. I am grateful for our home and all the projects that kept us busy during the lockdown. I am grateful for the family, friends and neighbors that we have. I am grateful for the three new, healthy grandbabies born into the family this year. I am grateful for the abundant crop of butternut squash. About the only thing that grew well this year… 50 butternuts from 4 seeds! We will eat Butternut everything this winter.

My heart hurts for the overwhelming number of people who have lost their jobs and businesses and are probably facing evictions from their homes soon, for the people struggling to pay the bills and find enough food. For the families who have loved ones in the hospital or facilities and can’t be with them, for the families who have lost loved ones to Covid and anything else and could not be there in the final hours. My heart hurts for all of us on planet Earth right now. We are facing, have been facing, and will continue to face daunting challenges. If you haven’t heard of The Fourth Turning go look it up. We are there and it’s going to take a while to get through it. It’s not all bad, but I believe it will be a tough adjustment.

On December 31st I will fill you in on 2021. Faith, Hope, Love and Grace are in my plans. Be safe out there.

Christel

Gifts Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

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Shakin’ it up

Hi Everyone,

How has your week been? Mine has been a little busier than planned. That darn To Do list got longer and I have been scrambling to keep up this week. It may be a working weekend depending on how today goes.

This time last week I was doing some final packing and getting the dogs ready to go board at the vet. I can tell you that they were less than thrilled. The Rottens do not have spa accommodations there like they do at home.  

Friday afternoon we (D., Miss L., Miss G. and myself) headed to Charleston to see my daughter, Wrenn, son-in-law, Drew and the grandpups, Harley and Kayden. We didn’t get to see them for Christmas so this was our Christmas visit. We had decided before Christmas to forgo the whole gift buying thing (you can read my whiney post, Christmas Crazy for more about that) in lieu of some adventure.

What did we do? We climbed around like a bunch of monkeys. Seriously. We strapped on helmets and harnesses and played, seriously played, for two hours on a ropes course at Wild Blue Ropes. IT WAS AWESOME! 



I knew Miss G. and Miss L would love it because they both love to find a big ‘ole tree to climb and to climb it at high as possible. The rest of us were looking forward to the adventure, but speaking for myself, I was looking for a challenge.  

It’s so easy to fall into a pattern and a rut. I get bored very easily and go into a funk when I do. Winter is especially bad for me so this was a perfect way to end January as I go face my arch enemy- February. February tries to defeat me every year and this has been going on as far back as I can remember. February is cold, gray, depressing and seems to last FOREVER. So, swinging and climbing 35 feet up in the air on a 67 degree day in January was beyond enjoyable. 

It was also a great feeling to know that my 55 year old body could still do such physically challenging activities. I think D. was feeling pretty good that he got across the dangling ropes section, deemed the toughest part of the course. I couldn’t have done that part in my 20’s so I just cheered him on. I did, however, at the end of the day, make myself jump off the very top platform to get off the course. Thirty-five feet off the ground I think it was. I don’t really mind heights, but I do mind jumping off them!  I would have been very disappointed in myself if I had chickened out and trust me, there was some internal arguing going on. In the end I was able to give myself a big mental pat on the back. 

After the ropes we chilled at W& D’s apartment, took a walk with the dogs then headed out to eat some excellent seafood and my daughter had arranged for two of my long time friends to meet us there. Folks, I just couldn’t have asked for a better weekend.  Sunday morning we just chilled with our coffee and compared sore muscles before we had to head back to the hills. 

If you are suffering from the winter funk, I highly suggest getting out of your comfort zone and do something adventurous and a little bit scary. Definitely include some super special people to make it that much more memorable. I couldn’t tell you what I got for Christmas in 2016, but in 2020 I will be able to tell you what I did in January 2018! 

Go shake it up this week! 

by Categories: creativity, holidays, life, risk taking, simplify, travelTags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment