Think Kit Day 14- good advice? valuable lessons? Yes and Yes!

Think Kit #14: Did you get any good advice or learn a valuable lesson this year? Was it expected or unexpected, easy or tough? Share what you learned.

Lesson/ advice #1: This is a year that I received lots of good advice but, at times, I had to figure it out on my own. I've been in a rocky on again- off again relationship. My friends and family fall firmly into 2 camps: walk away or try. Most are in the walk away group. This advice comes blanketed a lot nicer than "run for the hills" but that's the general gist. And though  this topic has been talked to death with my girlfriends, as women are wont to do, I seem to be finally realizing I should take their advice and just leave. I've been single for almost 18 years (OMG I can't believe my divorce was that long ago!) and I've had various serious relationships in that time, but nothing has stuck. And even though I'm 42 and sometimes lonely (and tired of doing it all by myself) it doesn't mean I should stay in a relationship that's unsatisfying or unhealthy. And even though I think about the fact that at my age, single women have a better change of being killed by a terrorist than getting married, it's okay to be single (though preferably not killed by a terrorist). I'll be fine. I intellectually KNOW this but sometimes my heart doesn't understand it.

Lesson/ advice #2: The other valuable lesson is that tough love is necessary and hard, especially when it comes to your child. My 20 year old son is making terrible life choices. Enough said; I can't fathom typing those details here, or anywhere. But the resonating voice is that of my brother. My brother and I aren't "close" but we do have each other's backs, even as adults. And when he learned of some of the crap Mac was doing/ pulling/ going though, when my Bro heard of Mac's poor choices and saw how I was letting if effect me, how I was beating myself up, how I was or wasn't coping, he said the best thing: "Mags, you can't help that Mac doesn't behave how he was raised. He knows better. You did your best. He's doing this to himself." And he is. And I have to stand by and let my adult child do what he's doing.

Ahhh 2013, what a rough year. If I were superstitious, I'd wonder about the "13" of it all...

It's a hard knock life,
Maggie

Think Kit day 13: funny!

Think Kit: When did you laugh out loud? Share a funny or humorous story from this year.

 This is one of those moments wher you might have to be there for it to be funny but...

My friend Baby Girl and I met in the library one morning and we looked like collective Hell. Neither of us had been hanging out the night before and come to find out that neither of us had been drinking. SHE was babysitting for a 9 month old until about midnight. Then her BF had called her at 2 am and had locked his keys in the car in the parking lot where he worked and his second shift just ended- could she please come get him? At his job 45 minutes away... Which she did. I was up late grading papers and then Mac called me in the middle of the night with his problems. And then when I fell back to sleep, the dog woke up and wanted out. So--- we were tired-- which also makes us easy to be punchy and maybe things aren't really as funny as we thought...

So when she took a drink of Cherry Pepsi and missed her mouth and it ran down her chin, and I snot laughed over it and we both went "ewwwwwwwww" at the same time, we giggled again. Then we attempted to high five each other because we said "ewwwwwww" at the same time and we missed the high five. And because we're not so classy to turn a failed high-5 into a low hand slap, we snorted laughed and made "duh" sounds. At which point my principal asked if we were okay as he walked by the library door.  Like little children we immediately stopped laughing and got straight faced and said we were fine.

He kept walking and we took one look at each other and burst out laughing like idiots. And then I tried to sit down on my rolling chair which shot out behind me, I missed and landed on the floor. When Baby Girl figured out I was okay and was laying there laughing, howling, she was gasping for air and... well, as you can see it was just a series of KeyStone Cop moments that weren't that funny...

But I have to say it was a way to turn a bad night and what seemed like a crummy morning into something funny. It was a great way to start the day with huge giggles, guffawing and lough belly laughs with a friend. can't be all bad, right?

Laughter is the best medicine,
Maggie

Day 12- Something New

Think Kit topic: Try something totally different. Take a new route to work. Make up a new recipe. Shake up your routine. What did you come up with?

I'm not a person who is afraid of change. I've experienced a fair amount of change in my life, some that's been foisted upon me and other change that I've brought on myself. I like change. I embrace change. BUT, today didn't prove to be a day where I could change much or have time to shake things up. So I did something small. I always drink Peppermint Mochas when I got to Starbucks. It's my go-to drink other than when it's blistering hot outside (then's it's an iced vanilla coffee with extra cream). 

My change for the day was to try a different Starbucks beverage. It's a small, maybe even a lame, sort of change but a change nonetheless especially since I'm a die hard Venti Peppermint Mocha fan. So... I tried a  hot chocolate chi tea. I've never had chi tea, hot or cold, chocolate or non-chocolate, so it was a change. It was like drinking a chocolate spice cookie. I'm not sure I like it. 

Sometimes something new can start out with just a coffee switcheroo- who knows what that will bring? Hopefully it will bring a new job in a new state!

Maggie

Think Kit Day 11- Visualize Your Year

Think Kit topic: Draw a pie chart, graph, or Venn diagram of your year. What you measure, count, collect, or combine is up to you!

Apparently I have a very serious problem along with millions of others...Pinterest. Yes, yes My name is Maggie and I'm a Pinterest-a-holic. 

I can spend hours pinning stuff. I can spend hours organizing my boards, looking at pins, making lists, and searching for ideas. Once a month I even organize all my Pin Board covers to correlate with a holiday or a color scheme. Arts/ crafts and food make up the bulk of my boards. I have many others, especially travel, but primarily I have food boards. Lots and Lots of food boards. I have art projects and paper crafting boards. Lots and lots of art project and paper crafting boards.

I'm so "into" Pinterest that at the beginning of the year I thought I would make it a resolution to make something I pinned at least once a week, or at least once a month. Uhhhh.... no. That hasn't worked. Obviously! Look at my chart!

Now one might look at this and see what a waste of time it must be for me to have all these pins but no output. Others might think I should stop pinning and start making. Some others even argue that if I spent as much time making stuff as I did pinning I'd be the next Martha Stewart. And all these arguments are valid. But here's my firm belief: that while I spent lots of time on Pinterest this year, it makes me happy and relaxed. I like looking at all the ideas that interest me. In reality, unless I win a very LARGE lottery, I will never have the money and time to make all the awesome stuff I've pinned. I can live with that. I just like making a list and checking it lots of times. 

Now, I need to go and figure out if I want to pin my chart on to my board of funny things! Ta-ta!

Happy Pinning!
Maggie

Think Kit Day 10- no habits nor habits...

Okay so I'm really starting to think I'm pretty pathetic because today's Think Kit topic is:  What habits did you start this year that you want to continue? What inspired you to get in a new groove? Will you continue into 2014?

And I have no new habits... I have plenty of bad habits but in no way did I start any new habits this year.

So... I again am going to Small-box to save my blogging-butt for a topic: Did you take any wardrobe risks this year? Did you follow a new trend? What item did you wear most?

Clothes... now this girl KNOWS clothes!  I love clothes. I hate summer clothes because I can never get cool enough so I live in capris and flip-flops. And this summer that's what I wore. Because i went to Florida I did treat myself to a few new items like a pair of white capris, a sundress, and 2 cute little skirts. I wore those in FL and still when I cam back to reality and back to school.

Winter clothes and shoes are my favorite things ever!

I gave into a trend this year and I now own a pair of chocolate brown leather knee boots. And I LOVE them! I have lots of clothes they go with: a brown skirt, a tweed skirt in earth tones, a pair of skinny jeans (I own ONE pair of skinny jeans and I wear them with these boots only and with long cardigans), a black dress, several sweaters and shirts.... love these boots. I want them in black now, please! I followed the trend and am happy! I wear these lots!

As a fat girl, shoes always fit. I buy shoes. A lot. I bought new black loafers and put the old ones to rest. I also bought new brown loafers because.... uhhhh... I wanted some. 

I adore scarves and have lots of them and wear them often.

I'm a librarian and I think a mandatory item is the ever present Cardigan. At one time I counted and I think I ended up with 37 cardigans... in about every shade known to humankind.

A favorite outfit this winter has been black tights, the basic black dress, a long brown cardigan, the brown boots, and my leopard print scarf and purse. Sometimes I swap the tights for stockings and the boots for my leopard print high heel shoes.

I love jeans and it would be my dream to have a professional job where I was allowed to wear jeans all the time. Yeah... right- not! And the school I work at does NOT have a jeans day ever so I bought  a pair of 'denim trousers'. Women will understand this! And I realize that is a sexist comment...

Oh--- and I have a pair of yoga pants that I adore. It's like being able to go without pants but in pants. I don't leave the house in them because my ass isn't really built for yoga pants but at home--- all bets are off. OHHHH-- and no, the yoga pants have never been to yoga.

Yup I love clothes. I have my standby outfits of jeans and shirts, skirts and blouses, sweaters and the overall classics that never go out of style but every year I get a few items that are really trendy. I love clothes, the clothes horse than I am. I own just about everything... well, not everything. I don't own a nun's habit...

Maggie

Think Kit Day 9- Surprise! Or...not...

The Think Kit topic today was What completely surprised you this year? Was it good...or not so good? Tell us a story!  This should not be this hard. I've wracked my brain, talked to people, looked back through my journals, old blog posts, journals, emails, letters... and this was a year with really no surprises. Oh, I'm sure I had small moments of "WOW! What a shocker!" but they must be so insignificant that I can't come up with anything--- or certainly not anything suitable for this blog! (Unlike millions of other people, I've come to the conclusion in the last year that everything that happens to a person should not be Facebooked, Tweeted, blogged, instagramed, etc. Privacy is good. Discretion is better.)

So thanks to Smallbox "Life Line" writing prompts, I'm going to write on the topic:  Make a "Top 10" for 2013! Choose your favorite moments, records, movies, sporting events, or any other item and compile a list. Make sure there's a #1!

So here are my top ten moments of this year. Numbers 10-3 are in no particular order of importance, just more how I thought of them,  but the #1 and #2 are really my NUMBER ONE and TWO Fav moments of the year- it was a toss up which would take the top spot! So, without further adieu:

10- Spending Spring Break in Indy, as a sort of "tourist in my home state" or a "stay-cation" of sorts. A friend let me come and stay there for the week and it was good: shopping, dining out, reading, relaxing, seeing the city, vintage clothes shopping... just a nice relaxing week of doing nothing.

9- All the classes I took at Indy Trade School and by extension all the great people I've met. I love all the letter writing socials, the fabric post card making, the Smashbook classes- all wonderful! And it's a great way to meet some fab people- the ladies who run Trade School AND other "class mates"!

8- Mac turned 20 this year! Wow! Where has the time gone? That was a good day- great kid and his nice friends, good good, fun, relaxation all at a party at my place. It was in April and one of the beautiful days, warm and clear. We grilled out and just had time together to celebrate Mac... it was a perfect day!

7- The Girl Group at work. For some reason, there are four of us at work who have suddenly clicked and we've become "the" group of adults at work. I think the fact that we're all relatively young (by comparison to the rest of our school staff), we're all English teachers by trade, we're all liberal and we're all tired of education BS and red tape. We bonded over some school politics and ever since we have lunch together, send each other group emails during the day. We're each other's cheerleaders, ears, shoulders to cry on, secret keepers....we've even started meeting outside of school or a dinner here or a movie there... girlfriends are good.

6- My Other Girlfriends are amazing. I'm so blessed to be able to spend time with them this year! I have the family I was given by blood and then the family I was able to choose. This year I was able to dine out, hang out, shop with, see movies with, and even travel with all my GF's- a great bunch of women!


5- One of the best parts of my year is hanging out with my dad. I might sound like a nerd that at age 42 I like hanging out with my dad but I do. We like to shop or do crafty stuff, or chat about everything while we take mini road trips for Starbucks. We help each other out so most of the time hanging out with my dad is a highlight!

4- This was the year of the concert for me. I was lucky to see Will Hoge twice as well as Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson. AWESOME! Will Hoge is a new artist I was introduced to this year and am certainly glad for that- he has a sorta country/ rock/ southern rockabilly sound that for some reason I find appealing! (and I am such not a country music person but something about his voice is great!) I saw these performers in 2013 but I like to say my "year of the concert" was really Aug. 2012 to July 2013 because I was also lucky enough to see Time McGraw and Kenny Chesney in 8/ 12 and Train in 12/12- also FABULOUS!


3- Giles the Greyt Greyhound has made my 2013 tops. I adopted him in Dec. 2012 so this has been our first year together, adjusting to being a pet parent. And Giles adjusting to me.... having a Grey has been rewarding and let's face it- it's turned me into a big ol' mushball. I love this beast to pieces. He's adorable and perfect- I GOT THE BEST ONE! I *heart* my dog!

2- Michael Buble Concert was the best concert I've ever been to in my life. As I said, this was the year of the concert for me and while I immensely enjoyed the other shows I saw, I have to say seeing Michael Buble was more than just "going to a concert." This was an EVENT, in capital letters. AN OMG event! I bought my ticket as a gift to me, from me. I have never paid that much for a concert ticket in my life and I swear I was having panic attacks over doing something like that with my money when cash is so scarce. But it was worth EVERY PENNY!!! He was amazing. A great performer, funny and beyond talented. He was great. I will see him again. And again. And again. LOVE LOVE LOVE Michael Buble LIVE in concert.

And my number one top moment of 2013...



1- MY Florida Vacation!!! I blogged about it several times earlier this year: here, here, here, and here.   Oh... and here, here, and here. Those are mostly my vacation in photos but the long and the short of it is: Photographer's parents own a Florida condo on the ocean side and she invited me to spend a week there with her. I did. We drove down (ROADTRIP!) and I spent a week on the beach. I walked, read, slept, dreamed, eat, drank, swam, and relaxed, It was wonderful and amazing. I wish I could go back. NOW! It felt like a week of a life time... a week on a beach, for free, with a great friend. Just perfect.

So, that's my recap of my 2013 moments so far. It's been nice writing this post to think back to find the highlights of my 2013. This hasn't been my best year ever so it was good to think of the moments that made me smile!

Maggie

Think Kit Day 8- Create

Think Kit topic today: What did you make this year? Whether something personal, like a song or some art, or a work project, share your process, the end result about your creation.

This year I feel like I was very creative, which is actually reflected in the pathetic state of this this. I've cooked and crafted quite a bit this year, more than any other, in fact. I've made mail art, tried new recipes, and created several artsy-fartsy things on my pinterest boards. I started a Smashbook and I made most of my own envelopes and cards in 2013.

I've also written LOTS this year. Last May I started writing a paper journal, in the form of letters, to my son Mac. I write every day. Sometimes it reads like an agenda and other times it's full of my thoughts and ideas and fears and just the typical stuff people journal about, I supposed. Every time I fill a journal, I give it to him. He's 20 years old and....this is a good way for him to get to know his mom as a person rather than his parent. Additionally to writing journals daily, I also write lots and lots of letters each month to my friends and penpals.

And it was funny to me that this was a "creative" topic because I totally felt like I got my Martha Stewart on today. I actually did create an art project today: a Christmas ornament wreath. With a hot glue gun and lots of swearing, I managed to make something I like well enough I actually hung it up in the house!

 

 Maggie