Grab your coffee cup, kids, lets talk

And if you have a big kid drink in that coffee cup, who am I to complain?  In fact I think that would be a great idea.  I'm thinking a shot of Baileys might be in order.  Cheers!

We live on a pretty piece of the earth :)

Aside from my previous post where I expressed my frustration in probably a pretty unclear way over my lack of ability to fall asleep many nights of my life, it has been a long time since I have posted.

At the end of July I was describing and sharing a very enjoyable trip to Portland and the Pacific- freaking- Ocean (I love travel and oceans and travel to oceans) and then all things stopped- blog wise.  Basically I had been cleaning my house out and down sizing, I was rearranging my kitchen things because I had a pretty dandy kitchen remodel that has made my life AH- MAZE-ING in terms of work flow and clean-up and such.  I was doing my best to get things DONE.  And then suddenly it was August and I had to do some things for myself.  I went south to visit the Mad-Oldest Son and  family and then made a short but awesome trip to Chicago with my Mad-BFF Cheri. 

Phone pix- Photography was not the main focus of this trip

It was a pretty brutal summer in many ways for me: losing my horse, losing a dear friend, not having a kitchen for 5 weeks (I know that was a good thing... but)  and a few other things that threw me for a loop.  As life sometimes hands you a whole basket of goo, you just have to remove yourself from most everything and reconnect with your core.  Cheri and I did that in a wonderful few days in the city.  We did not contact anyone who lives near there, we did not want to do anything other than walk and talk and eat some yummies and see some sights and enjoy some time away.  So if you are a Chicagoland friend, I am sorry that I did not have a chance to see you.  Some times you have to take care of yourself first.  I always regret not seeing folks that live far from me, that happened when I went to Portland as well.  But sometimes it just isn't that trip.

So August I did things for me.  Travel, relax, visit with friends...  all sorts of things that were for my mental health.  Especially since we had an awful lot of inservice days that horned in on our last few vacation days.  Bleh.  

September and October blended all together with the start of a new school year and indeed 2 brand new schedules - major changes for me in both schools.  It has been a whirlwind, the days go so fast.  I have a hard time even knowing what I am doing on any given day.  So no blogging was done- sitting in a fog after school was done, but not blogging.

I've done some photography but not as much as I would like, however, I have sold some of my photos.  This is really something that still surprises me.  I have even set up - in a very incomplete manner- a Facebook page for my photos so people don't have to sift through all of my personal post pictures.  I can not tell you how much I am looking forward to the early spring when I can get some really good pictures of abandoned things again.  I have a list of some new places....  it's going to happen.

SOOOOO many people responded to this photo on Facebook- ah nostalgia.

I have recently had some unexpected interactions that have made me question many things about myself.  It was a real upheaval because it made me question my values, my decisions and my outlook on some parts of my life.  As you well know, life is full of stuff like this, but this time I decided not to do the people pleasing thing. I have been inching towards setting boundaries around myself and I have now finally gotten old enough (I guess) to not allow other people's opinions and interpretations of what I do, affect me either on an emotional or social level.  Or as much as I can manage it. Seriously, no one knows what goes on inside of others, and in the cases to which I am referring- admittedly very vaguely and obscurely- they don't know my life.  So, too bad so sad, you do not have to be in mine any more.  Boundaries that are crucial to one's physical and emotional well-being are something that every one has the right to establish.  There is NO ONE in the world entitled to work that hard at making you feel like you are less than. Because you are all decidedly worth more than that, and you (and I) get to decide to not care, to not let it affect your life, to not let it make you feel like a bad person.  We have our reasons for doing things and most people are not privy to them.  There is a meme that bounces around the internet that says:

It is so very true.

Anyway, this last paragraph sort of popped up unexpectedly, not really the purpose for this post.... or maybe it was.  The Mad-writer in me let it come out so I guess I have been incubating it for a while, sort of like the sleeping post that I composed so many times in the last 3-4 months.  THAT by the way didn't happen last night, I laid down, rearranged hair and pillow and I didn't wake up until 3 - that was 5 straight hours and then I slept until I had to get up to wake up the hunters.... don't even ask.  lol.

Anyway, I feel like I need to post some photos and continue on, I am sort of on a roll I guess.   So from me on this COLD sunny morning (13°) find yourself a little warm spot in the sun and drink up a whole cup of joy.