Focus Word of 2016

Last year my friend chose a word for her year. This word was to help define goals she wanted to achieve within the year, be they physically, mentally, spiritually, etc. I listened to her discuss it frequently and decided I liked the idea so much that I'm going to take on the project for 2016, too. 

My Focus Word for 2016 is going to be Silence. 

...Silence to let others be heard.

...Silence (literally and mentally) to enjoy the moment I'm in and see if I can discover something new.

...Silence to prevent my sometimes strong opinions from offending others.

...Silence to hold back things that don't need to be shared with the world.

My last two goals are specifically targeted toward my job interview skills, of which I believe I did OK on but had room for improvement.

I'm a talkative person. Some people enjoy this about me, but I get so wrapped up in stories I wish to share that time runs out to allow the other person to share stories, too. I spend the rest of the evening, sometimes into weeks, with remorse and wishing I had learned to close my mouth and open my ears to all the great stories of their life, too. 

Like every great skill, this requires practice. What better way then to make it a year's goal. 

I am certain I will fail spectacularly at achieving this goal. I have tried it many times before. But the only way I really fail is by giving up on improvement. I know who I want to be, and there's no reason I cannot keep trying to be that person, even if it's not normally who I am.

New Year, New Life!

My, my, my. How things have changed in only a few short months!

Gone are the woes of living in San Diego and being so far from so many I love.

In fact, gone are most of my woes in general!

"Man, this cloudy day is getting me down," a friend says. 

I smile warmly at them. "Actually I find it cozy; it's a winter comfort."

"The roads are horrible!" a family member comments.

"Isn't it nice to have an excuse to be curled up indoors and get some projects done around the home?" I respond.

"I hate the holiday requirements to see all these extended family members!" my brother grumbles.

"They're our family and they love us. One day of 365 days isn't really asking a lot to show we love them, too, is it?" I respond.

He glares at me and says "You haven't seen how bad it's been in the last few years!"

I nod. "True, but all these experiences are how you make them to be."

My closest of San Diego friends would tell me "Shut Up, Pollyanna!". I have become an extremist of happy optimism since returning, to such an extent even my husband is making comments on how nothing can seem to really get me down. 

Thus my new blog title.

I have had an interesting adventure in San Diego for four years. I have taken away some good memories, and left behind some people I will greatly miss. 

I am ready for what my return to IL has to offer me. I am ready for this new start on familiar ground. 

Final Day Woes

The military assigned company to pack us up was supposed to come today. We've been planning and working hard all week with preparations that our stuff would be packed up- unable to be touched by us- by today. Only no, now it's next week. That's military life for you. Annoying.

Meanwhile with the high stresses DH and I are starting to crack. We're snippy at each other and tired. Neither of us are sleeping well and both of us are physically tired from the extra work we're putting in during times when we're used to relaxing and unwinding. No time to unwind = higher stressed people. Ugh.

But the optimist in me isn't dead. She's telling me it'll all work out; take a deep breath and don't focus on the bad stuff. What seems like a bad situation could work out for the best in the end. It'll give you more to do to help your days pass by faster. And, of course, this will all be a memory in as little as a week. Some days I wish I could erase that part of me. Some days I annoy myself. 

I cannot escape its truth, though. It'll all work out in the end. So, deep breath, let's focus on getting through the next 2 work days and be content to have a couch 

Pick of the Week 9/14

My pick of the week this week is "Google Street View" of Google Maps for helping me to better plan my upcoming trip home!

My trip home will include our first ever stop to the Grand Canyon. We're not going to make a major hiking event out of it, just cruise along the street, stop a few times and look, take some photos, and we're on our way again.

Google maps says it's about a 2 hour trip, so I figured 3 hours.

But a little voice said "well, let's check out what this drive looks like.. So I moved it to street view.

The drive on "Desert View Dr" is a lot of this:

It's not ugly, but it's not terribly scenic either. I don't know why, but I'd imagined this entire drive would have views of the grand canyon, with a few stops to actually get out of the car for a longer look. I didn't realize *duah* there would be lots (or mostly) trees obstructing my view of the canyon. 

So instead of planning a 2-3 hour trip, I know now that in reality this is maybe an hour and a half at most. How many times can you stop at the canyon stops before you've decided you've seen it? I think twice would be more than enough for me.

So Hurray to Google Map Street View for making my trip less of a let down and helping me better anticipate what lies ahead!

How did we ever survive without modern technology and google maps?

Week of 9/7 Pick of the Week

My chosen salute this week is to the website Trip Advisor!

I have been using this site for several years with great success for hotel and food recommendations when husband & I travel. This week I've been using it to create a detailed listing of hotels all along our route (because I'm insane). When it comes time for us to rest each night, I'll have a little less work then. I have the time right now, might as well!

I recommend to anyone to use it to treat it and Yelp the same way; these are just 1 person(s) opinion! Their word is not always gold! For hotels in particular, someone who says "this hotel is awful!" may have higher standards than you. I also only really pay attention to reviews documented in the last few months. The hotel could have change employees, had a bad night, or even changed management since some those older posts. When you read reviews, take it in with an open mind. Also keep in mind that 1 bad thing can ruin an entire experience for some people. 

A Crafty Project Gets (soon to be) Local

During husband's deployment a happy almost 3 years ago I took it upon myself to start a ton of different craft projects. One of the projects I felt inspired for was to take plastic grocery bags, cut them up, and knit them into homeless mats (old blog post here).

As I got into this project I realized the actual amount of time needed just to turn the bags into "yarn", let alone to then knit them, was proving to be more difficult than I intended. Not to mention all the other little craft projects I started. I realized I would never be complete with any of them in any foreseeable future, and that it was time to re-arrange things to a more manageable structure. That meant chucking the homeless mat idea. I just didn't have the space in my home that's required for this massive undertaking of all of it, on top of all of my other projects.

But today as I read my soon to be- in about 28 days- local newspaper and I find others are working hard at completing this (they have more patience than me!). I'm also happy to see I'm not the only one who noticed this project was a space hog. Look at this!

First of all, isn't she cute?! She is so cute!

But goodness, look at all the bags of bags you need to have to undertake this project.

It's inspiring for me to get back into this idea again, but I have to stop myself. This is not the time in my life to try to take this on when I'm trying to reduce all the waste in my life. 

*sigh* Why does motivation always come at the wrong times in life?

Pick of the Week- Krud Kutter

I called it; 2 weeks and my 'Pick of the Week' is forgotten as life takes over once more. *sigh* Never a diligent blogger. Terrible. 

This week's pick is my newest favorite cleaner Krud Kutter

Though I purchased mine on amazon, you can get this at Lowes and Home Depot, too. (I recommend Lowes after reading the circulating FB story that a veteran was denied benefits, plus Lowes is willing to give ME, the dependent, a discount and almost no store does that)

When I was informed I will owe $1,000 if I don't get rid of the cigarette smoke from our apartment in the next 30 days, I went on a quest for cleaners that REALLY get the job done, preferably ones that are known to get rid of cigarette smoke. Google searches revealed anything with ammonia will suffice, and good amazon reviews led me to this magic wonder.

I've had a few dark marks on the wall behind my garbage for years now. The wall is an odd texture so I just assumed it absorbed whatever the heck I stained the wall with. Nope, I just didn't have the right cleaner! Even OxyClean cannot compare with this stuff! It is the best darn cleaner out there. 

We have both spray bottle and jug, and we believe the spray bottle is better for stuck-on stains as it force of the spray work a bit like a pressure washer (very light pressure washer, but it works all the same). It is WONDERFUL at removing old stains. Anyone who has dealt with nicotine and tar build-up on things knows what a sticky, disgusting mess that stuff is- just impossible to get off!- but not for Krud Kutter! No elbow grease needed, this stuff take everything, though some of the more stubborn stuff might need a mild soak.

And the best thing is it's not a marked-up price, like some of your so-called "high quality" cleaners are. 

Affordable and works better than any other cleaner out there- what more could you want?