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How can I forget the name of the book?

I awoke this morning a little sad and a lot tired. The night was filled with strange dreams that left me unsettled, but with no memory of the content. But the day is mine to own, so I walked outside to adjust my attitude, screen-recorded a fun music mash-up and sent it to my new friends with a positive message about having an amazing day. I checked on my garden, lamented over the funky problems I’m having with my tomato plants and walked towards my yard. Before my feet hit the grass, I saw a bunny peacefully grooming itself in the yard. I spoke softly to it, backed up and pulled out my phone to record my fuzzy friend. There are a few rabbits that visit consistently to gorge themselves on the ornamental peaches that fall from the tree I lovingly named Hebe, after the Greek Goddess of eternal youth. Despite the gaping hole in her trunk, she still produces fruit for the animals in our neighborhood who are forced to live in our concrete jungle. She brings rabbits, squirrels, birds, bees ...
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Chasing money away from your honey

 It comes as no surprise that I talk to everyone, about anything. I’m a talker and I love telling and hearing stories. I am fascinated by the human condition and how uniquely everyone sees the world. As we have been traveling, we have had the opportunity to meet more and more people from more and more places. The other day the husband met someone from Delaware, and I realized I know nothing about Delaware other than from Wayne’s World, and their point was also that they knew nothing about Delaware. We obviously meet a lot of people who travel for work in the hotels we stay in, because that’s why we stay in a hotel. New Orleans is a bit unique because this is the first place we have been where you have many people staying in the hotel who live here. We met a gentleman this morning who is working renovating an apartment complex that is a little less than 5 minutes away, who only lives about 45 miles from here, but traffic is so bad it takes him two hours each direction, so instead ...
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It's my first time and it was not what I expected!

Confession - this is my first time! I'm 45, mother of four children and Aunt to a more than I can count and when we arrived in Midland, Texas on Saturday - I freaked out for a second because I realized - this is my first time! This is the first time in my adult life, since becoming a mother in 1996 (almost 25 years ago) that I have been away from ALL of my children for this long. I think the longest I have ever been without them is maybe three days, and that was only when we moved to Florida in 2000 and the two kids stayed with my parents until I flew back!  In 2001, we drove to Georgia and the kids stayed with my mother in law for three days. Even recently, the husband and I were gone less than 48 hours in March when we drove to Missouri to have dinner with Grandma. Even after I divorced in 2010 and the kids would travel to Houston occasionally to see their dad - they never all four went at the same time, except for 3 day weekends.  It's kinda weird. I'm at the stage where...
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And this is why Grandma is a b*tch.

 I wake up angry every day lately. Just angry as hell. I'm not really one to get angry, because anger is not helpful or  "real". It feels real, but anger is just the emotion we use when we're scared, concerned, feel walked on, feel misunderstood, not heard, etc. But I am waking up angry way too often, and I have to stop. I'm in some kind of bad flare that just isn't going away. I've had whatever I've had for years, but I think my body has just had it. It's just done fighting it and the past few months have been full of pain and a million other symptoms I don't want to talk about right now because I'm still busy being angry. Probably because I'm scared. I went to the dr last week to try another round of steriods, but unlike last time, they didn't provide much relief. Day two of the methyl prednisone, I was optimistic. I felt some symptom relief and less pain. Then that day was over. I've lost 5 pounds since last week, and I'v...
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Baby Steps the Dave Ramsey way and No Regrets!

I am a huge fan of Dave Ramsey. I am a huge fan of total money makeover. I am a huge fan of good financial decisions and accountability, so I'm in a Dave Ramsey Facebook group. If you're unfamiliar, Dave Ramsey has a financial plan comprised of baby steps, that is actually realistic for the average family. It requires sacrifice and discipline and lots of support. Occasionally a member reaches out for advice and today a momma shared the guilt she feels at not being able to provide the summer vacations and outings her children's friends are going on. She shared her frustration and asked -  How do you strike a balance between wanting to create special summer memories for them while you still can, and not going deeper into debt? Here was my response: ((I share this for 2 reasons - to support those who, as Dave says, live like no one else now, so they can live like no one else later and because I absolutely love sharing every single bit of my parenting journey to help remind par...
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I know I've become a flake, and here's why - and it's a lot of TMI

I almost started this blog post with the line, "I'M FUCKiNG BLEEDING OUT OF MY ASS", because I was pretty angry about two hours ago. Very angry. Like, stupid angry and I even yelled. Not at anyone, just because I needed to. It's easier to be angry than scared. It's easier to angry than to feel helpless. It's easier to be angry, than to admit how much I hate what part of my life looks like right now. I'm confident you don't really want to know all about I'm about to tell you, but I feel like I have to, because it's affecting my reputation for being there for people and I can't have that. The only opinion of others that I care about - is that everyone who knows me will say I was honest and always willing to stand up for what is right. Even those that don't like me personally, or even my personality - even those people would say I'm honest, and unfortunately they can also now say that they know I'm bleeding out of my ass. I hope y...
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I hope she's absolutely amazing!

 "I hope she's absolutely amazing," I said to my husband as we chatted in our garage during our nightly wind-down session. He looked solemnly at the floor and spoke quietly, "Baby, I don't want to talk about this." "I know my love, but we have to. Because it's so important to me that you hear it, so you'll never wonder, you'll never have to question. We need to have this conversation because I want you to hear the words from me. If anything ever happens to me, take your time to mourn, use the life insurance to pay the bills, make sure my kids are taken care of, and when you're ready - you absolutely deserve the opportunity to find another partner to keep going through life with. And I hope she's absolutely amazing! I hope she's the most beautiful, kindest, most compassionate woman. I hope she is a beacon of joy that lights up a room. I hope she builds you up and honors you for everything that you are, because you deserve that. Ju...
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