Category: At the Moment

I took this video outside our backdoor the other day. It has snowed a few times where I live. Thankfully, it hasn’t stuck around and melted off 24-hours later, my favorite snow. But I took this video because this was a Sunday. It was cozy, quiet and just peaceful. And I don’t know about you, but I think we all need a little peace in our lives right now.

But that got me to thinking – do I even like winter? I know when you ask people what their favorite season is, most people will say Summer or Fall and I can’t disagree. Fall is BY FAR my favorite season but I would have to say, Winter is a close second. I like snow, if I don’t have to drive in it. And I really wish ice wasn’t part of the winter equation, but I like winter overall because it’s cold, I actually enjoy the cold. I like wearing layers and feeling cozy. I feel alive. I enjoy breathing the almost painful crispness of frigid air. I feel rejuvenated and awake. I feel more alert.

There is something so relaxing and peaceful sitting in front of a fire. I LIVE for days where I can snuggle under a warm blanket and do nothing but stare into a fire and/or read. It is balm for my soul.

I love walking outside when it’s snowing. Snow transforms the world, covers ugly flaws and blankets everything around us in silence. It’s almost as if someone turned a knob on the world and muted reality for a short time. Snow is magical. Billions of tiny snow crystals wink and sparkle under street lights and turn everything a soft gray and blue. Beautiful ice crystals vie for attention on windows and struggle to encase us in an alternate universe.

I’ve always said I would rather live in the mountains than at the beach. There is something about a winter wonderland that softens my sharp edges. I relax. I smile. I breathe.

I really enjoy winter.

As long as I don’t have to drive in it.

What say you? What are your thoughts about winter?

First of all, this video really doesn’t tell you squat about your bedroom, but hey, I thought you might be interested in my bedroom so here we go – let’s psychoanalyze me.

Yes. This is my bedroom. No. It’s not Kevin’s bedroom. Yes, you are correct, we are married and we do not share a bedroom.

Psychoanalyze away.

Actually, I’ll help you. We don’t share a bedroom because I’m a fish and he’s Darth Vader. Let me explain. I am constantly flipping/flopping around in my sleep. I don’t know if I’m dreaming or the bed is just uncomfortable. Probably both. Also, I snore. Yes. I just freely admitted that. And it’s not a cute little woman snore either. It’s a deep, chain saw snore and no one can sleep through that, let alone my poor husband. And yes, I know this for a fact because Kevin has recorded me snoring before. Because I INSISTED, for YEARS, I did not snore.

Alas, I snore.

Kevin is Darth Vader. Meaning, he uses a C-Pap machine at night. He has to. He has sleep apnea. He did a sleep study and they said he stopped breathing about 80 times that night. I actually MADE him do a sleep study because there would be nights he would stop breathing and I would nudge him just to kick start him again. It was scary enough I insisted he get tested.

And I was right. (Of course *snicker).

Now. He uses a C-Pap and he sleeps way better at night, however, he sounds like Darth Vader and I can’t handle it. In fact, there were nights I wanted to take a pillow and ……. well, never mind.

So we don’t sleep together. We can’t. Because we don’t sleep. And we wake up tired and cranky not only with each other, but at the world at large and that’s no way to start your day, every day. It got so bad, we were becoming zombies and we decided we had had enough – we couldn’t do it anymore. Now, I have my bedroom, Kevin has his bedroom, we get much better sleep and we’re both happier people.

(And we’re still married).

Anyway. This is where I sleep. Let’s analyze …

1. See those clothes on the rocking chair? And the shoes/slippers next to the rocking chair? Yeah, those clothes are there every day. I don’t even bother putting them away and here’s why, because I’m just going to get them back out again and frankly, I just don’t care. The clothes that are on the chair are as follows: Sweatpants, t-shirt (2), sweatshirt, shorts, bras. I wear sweatpants, t-shirt and sweatshirt to bed and the second t-shirt and shorts after my showers in the morning because mama is hot and has to cool down before dressing for work. The bras are there because again, why put them away when I’m going to put it back on less than 12 hours later? The khaki capris on the back of the chair? Yeah, those have been there for a few months because I’m too lazy to put them away. But hey! They will be ready to wear when spring hits. Yes, I’m one of those lazy people who kick my shoes off and leave them where I kicked them. However, I HAVE gotten better about moving them out of the middle of the room because I’ve tripped over them before and nearly broke a tooth landing on something so … erhm, lesson learned.
2. I bought a new comforter set for my bed but if you notice, the bedskirt does not match in any way. It’s because I keep forgetting to look for a brown bedskirt when I go shopping and frankly I don’t care enough to make an effort to remember. It’s a bedskirt, who cares. (Yes, those are scrub pants on the bed – I’ll hang them up! Sheesh)
3. This is where I literally throw all my jewelry and scarves. (And yes, more clothes). Do I have a place for all of my jewelry? Actually, yes. On top of my vanity. That’s the place I have designated for my jewelry. Judge away.
4. My dirty-ass fan. I have no idea where the front part of that fan is and I don’t care. It still runs though I’ve had it for about five years and I run it every night because it gives me white noise so I can sleep (I’m a super light sleeper and I need something in the background so I don’t jerk away at the slightest creak, groan, or damn dog). It’s also dirty. Judge away.

The master bathroom is off to the left and our dirty clothes hamper is off to the right. Not pictured, the treadmill is in front of the curtain on the right and Blake’s shorts and t-shirt is hanging off the treadmill because he often comes over during the day to watch the TV that is on a shelf on the wall in front of the treadmill. I have no idea why he hangs his clothes on the treadmill.

*ahem*

So according to the video, I’m a slob. Well, it doesn’t say that but I think we can all agree it’s true. Or, we could say I’m “bigger-picture oriented” as the video says and I would agree with that. Mama ain’t got time to put things away; I’m already thinking about what I need to do for the next day. And again, I’m just going to drag that stuff out again, why put it away? I like to conserve my energy, I seem to have less and less every day.

If I had to sum my bedroom up in three words? Self-contained organized chaos. (Hyphenated words count as one!)

What three words would you use to describe your bedroom?

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!

What are you doing today?

Me? Just activating my Instagram account. I haven’t posted on it for about … five-ish (more?) years. Now that I have a decent phone with a pretty great camera, I’m thinking of starting it up again. I’ll post a link to it once I get some pictures up.

In addition, I printed off a January 2021 calendar and filled it with blog posts that I want to publish.

I also wrote down some video ideas.

Oh yeah, I’m going there. There won’t be a lot of videos, but I thought it would be fun to shake things up once in a while with a video. I’d like to take you on a tour of my office at work, vlogs, writing and reading videos as well.

And let’s not forget that I have a podcast and Kevin and I both have a podcast.

Yep. One of my goals for this upcoming year is to become more involved in social media. I’m not quite sure why I feel compelled to do this, but feel compelled I do. I think I’m just focused on leaving a bit of me behind before I disappear. Not that I plan on disappearing any time soon, (like decades!) but now is a good time to start. Quite frankly, I should have been doing this for the past decades … but there’s no sense in crying over laziness. (Because that’s what it boiled down to, let’s be honest).

I’m also making it a goal to try and post three pieces of fiction on my blog a month, too. Maybe more, but let’s start small and see where it goes. I’m thinking of maybe posting a weekly writing prompt, too. I did that way back when and maybe it will be helpful to you and your writing, whether that’s blogging, fiction, etc.

I’ve enabled comments, if you wish to throw in your two cents. They will be moderated though, so be nice. 🙂

I have a few more ideas for my blog this year, too.

But enough with the planning, let’s stop and enjoy the moment.

CHRISTMAS EVE!

Unfortunately, we’re not spending it with our families this year. For obvious reasons. I’m sure many people are in the same boat and I’m trying very hard not to be depressed about it. I know this has been hard on my mom as well. It’s been hard on Kevin’s folks, too. We went over to my parent’s house the other night to pick up some gifts and goodies and we were both close to tears and trying to be brave about our change of plans this year. I plan on calling mom though and Facetiming her – it’s not the same, but it’s something at least.

I’m scheduled to pick up a sandwich tray from Jimmie Johns today. We plan on having soup/sandwiches for lunch on Christmas day. Our boys are coming over tonight after Blake gets off work. They plan on spending the night which tickles me that they WANT to do that. I’ll take it. If, by some miracle, they get girlfriends/wives some day I’m sure that desire will change. (Or maybe it won’t!) We plan on having chicken bacon ranch sandwiches tonight, Jimmy Johns tomorrow and spicy broccoli chicken and rice for dinner Christmas night. We bought $20 worth of chicken and Kevin plans on grilling all of it later this afternoon when it gets warmer. (It’s currently 27 degrees right now).

I’m sure we’ll play games tonight. Our favorite games are Settlers of Catan and Lords of Waterdeep. HIGHLY RECOMMEND if you’re looking for fun family games. I think Kevin wants to get on the Playstation and race cars as we have about four steering wheels now. lol LeRoy will come over as well.

Tomorrow will be more of the same. Games and food.

I still can’t believe this is our Christmas this year. I was thoroughly convinced that this damn virus would be a thing of the past by now and we would all be sitting around laughing about it. But alas, that is not the case, is it.

I pray that 2021 is better. I pray that we can get past COVID and get back to normal and stop wearing masks everywhere. But I don’t know. If you listen to Biden, who may, or may not, be our next president depending on what Trump has up his sleeve, our darkest days are still ahead. But let’s not make this post about politics, there is PLENTY of time to talk politics in the coming months. Right now, we need God more than ever. We need to pray and have faith. We need to stop being sheeple and have the courage to stand up and say no to this madness.

I realize it’s easy to say and much harder to actually do anything about it.

At any rate. Let’s focus on the here and now. Right this moment. Don’t forget to reach out to your loved ones, especially your elders. This is especially hard on them and I’m sure they are feeling very isolated and alone.

From the bottom of my heart, from our family to yours, Merry Christmas and let’s pray for a happier new year.

I’m off work today, (the clinic is closed – woohoo!) and you know what I’ve been doing?

Christmas shopping.

In fact, I’m done with the boys. Well, except for stocking stuffers. This may be the first year I finished Christmas shopping for them before December 1st. It feels really good to be DONE. Now, if I can wrap their gifts as they get here and be done with that part, I will really be cooking.

Kevin and I don’t buy gifts for each other. Our gifts to each other is vacations – going to Florida, cruising, if the CDC will ever deem them worthy of getting back to business.

Don’t get me started.

And that’s it. We really don’t buy anyone else Christmas gifts, unless we’re buying gag gifts for family parties and who knows if that happens this year.

Gads, can 2020 just be over with already?

Anyway, while shopping, I started watching Bullet Journal plan with me videos and I thought I would share this one. This creator does some really cute stuff and she has been posting pop-up bullet journal themes lately that have been so fun to watch. There is no way I will ever do anything like this, I’m not nearly talented enough nor have the patience to do anything like this, but I thought I would share it with any fellow bullet journal fans out there in case it inspires you to try something like this with your own journal.

Oh, and another creator I watch, Kay, with Planning with Kay, is having her annual Black Friday sale on her stickers, which are super cute, if you’re interested. I’ll likely buy some stickers for my journal as well.

I’m always on a mission to support small businesses and talented creators.

In the meantime, I’m typing my fingers to the bone trying to cross the NaNoWriMo finish line. I have about 9,000 words left to write in the next three days (Monday will be a wash because it’s back to work and a clinic day on top of that). My last reward to myself for participating in NaNoWriMo is earning the Winner shirt and I fully intend to make that happen.

For my fellow writers participating in NaNoWriMo – regardless of if you win or lose this challenge, be proud of whatever progress you made this month and I hope you learned something about your writing and your writing process.

That’s really what it’s all about, in my opinion.

I’ll post a few more short stories soon .. in the meantime, chin up! Twenty twenty-one is just around the corner and we’ll soon put 2020 in our rearview mirror. Thank God.

What the heck, it’s been 11 days since I last posted? I SWEAR it feels like three days ago.

Anyone else losing track of time with the quarantine?

Missouri has been on city/state lock down for … three weeks now? Honestly, I’ve lost track. I believe Kansas City / St. Louis / Springfield were the only cities in the state that went on lock down, the state of Missouri followed suit … last week?

AARGH, time is hard!

I also feel like I’ve aged ten years since this nightmare started, too.

Fortunately, I’ve continued working so I haven’t really had time to be bored, but I know a lot of people are not as fortunate so I’m sharing a fun YouTube video of the Eh Bee Family. I was going through my subscriptions and when I saw their name, I thought, “what are they up to now?” And of course, they didn’t disappoint. They are a cute family that do cute family stuff together.

Anyhow, enjoy this video of fun things to do if you’re bored at home during this quarantine. I’m currently working on a podcast where I talk about all things COVID-19 and how it’s affecting me, my family, and my job as a healthcare worker.

Stay healthy, friends!