Writing

It's friday and I am writing today because I am going into the Big City for the weekend. My Sister is moving and needs help with my Heroes. So I thought I would give you a look into a skill I want to improve. When I started this blog, I thought 'it will be like when I write in my journal'. Well, my journal doesn't have someone reading it and when I read over published blogs I see that I am the only one to understand what I write.            

                       

                                                                            

                             And what better way to do some work then with a cup of Tea.

 I have high hope for this blog; the journey that is expressed here, what I learn along the way and mostly friends that gather here - new ones formed and the old ones that become stronger.

   Have an awesome weekend ~

                                          

                               truly, 

                                                Mia

                       

Ritual of my Life

TV Fireplace warming my heart

    
               I have a list in my head of a million things I need to get done & half of them are partly started. And I'm not even organized; I have a pile of planner lists and calendars, stacked photo boxes with photos pulled out to scan into my laptop (another pile of stuff), and clothes that I need to repair (which is a sewing project since last year).  Have I done stuff - yes, I have but I have clogged up that list in my head with dreams of grandeur, leaving projects undone.
       Projects that are in process:
                 1) The photo box project. The plan is to organize, put on my laptop, make back up file, and lastly make Memory books i.e. scrapbook. I jumped right in and began filing the picture, pulling out ones I wanted to scan right away.

Pictures everywhere

     I have no idea if they are on a CD from when I developed the film (this is my pre-digital era). So I have Sort out CD, Scanned, Digital, and then picture of the picture.
               2) Planner/Calendar. This is such a new habit for me - to plan a whole year (a follow it). This is where the clogging comes in. I begin thinking of my room is probably 10x12, not big for a whole lotta stuff. The noggin begins to think and plan. Captains Bed or at least a bed in which I can store clothes under. Then comes the dreaming of  the Artsy Living I keep writing about and how my life will be like tip toeing through the tulips (is life ever a tip toe through the tulips). Then fast forward this Day Dreaming to my own place. Then the list comes out to make that happen; budgeting, what & where & how to save. One thing is I am still looking for work. SCREECH, pull out the laptop look online for places to work.

Morning Readings

       3) Sewing Project. Not that important to do, but don't hide it cause then I will totally forget it. So the pile jumps from chair to chair every time I straighten up my room. Someday, Someday.
           4) Lose Weight.  Everybody's goal of a New Year right. Well I'm working on not just exercise with rabbit food diet, but a real change in how I eat and what I do. My beverage intake is coffee & water with an occasional cuppa Herbal Tea. Not eating after 7 pm using portion control. Those two things have been a habit for a couple of years now. But the one thing that I love eating the most is DESERT, hard press in passing that up.

Apple Fritter Casserole    YUMMY!!!!!!

      

     This was my Apple Fritter Casserole I made for my Restore the Core group (exercise), half was eaten there the other half I took to my daughter's for Christmas breakfast, if we had no time to fix if we slept in. It was yummy & tasted just like Apple Fritters.
      It looks like I needed to really buckle down and work through a 15- Step list and put some due dates on them. These are just a few things I want to do. The Memory book project is way more then scrapbooks, I want to do a family cookbook, an Ancestry book and a memoir for my family. The Weight loss is more to it is everyday healthy lifestyle and making that a unconscious ritual of my life.

                
                    until next time,
                                    Mia

My favorite picture of a new day

   

Reading for the Year

     I like reading.... A LOT. I read just about any genre, well maybe not - horror, uuummm - no, and text books, only if I had too. And had to, I did... they are the most boringest  reads ever. Now I'm ready for some good reads, the kind my Uncle calls "Trash, because it adds no value to your mind"     Well, duh because the Girl always gets the Hot Guy; the Hero always wins.
         I have already picked out several books to start Janet Evanovich's Tricky Twenty Two and her series Fox & O'Hare; then Brad Meltzer's 3rd book on The Culper's Ring. Next will be Sherrilyn Kenyon I am lost on her series, there are several and some intertwine with with each other, so the actual title of which book: I don't know.  Maybe I will start from the beginning.

                                ....but before I get any books even if they are from the Library (my main source)
                                                I need to get my books in order

  
                           Over half are in boxes and are in a shed, lost till they can have a bookcase all of their own. I miss my books; I miss thumbing threw them (some are coffee table books), reading who saved who and getting ideas for a project.




        As for reading, I don't want to lose all my brain power (as Uncle would think) so there will be a smidgen of this or that to keep me sharp, an Agatha Christy or maybe John Steinbeck after all I'm from his hometown. The life of No More Textbooks is the life for me.

                              until next time,
                                                 Mia

                       

Birthday & Planning

  

Pancake Breakfast at Denny's

      
                    It's official, I'm in my 5th decade of life. Yesterday I turned 51 and my waistline (not pictured) is saying these are the last pancakes you will eat this year. This is also the first year I am planning differently from before. My habit was the last week of the year was adding birthdays and any anniversaries to a new calendar. Maybe add an event or 2 that I would need to keep in mind. But never something like what I want for this Year to be like.
              This Year I want to successfully be healthier, to build a nest egg and still enjoy life. Fact of me: Money was not taught to me. Meaning I lived paycheck to paycheck in the past and never really thought of the remaining years. So for the last few weeks I have been scrolling and clicking on Pinterest for ideas on Planners, Tips and in general what I wanted this Year to be. I just didn't know exactly what I wanted till today, so now I can write in those goals and plan accordingly.

Sunrise of 2015.

                 This planning will also help me here, you see I have not forgotten what it is that I want to share here: my journey of an Artistic Life (that's the Enjoy Life part). I have a lot of work to do and I have felt a little over whelm but I also know that I have a promise {Lamentations 3:22-23 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness} in God that everything starts new; things that does not get done or started can with each new morning. I have begun to say or afternoon or hour.
             So as I start the second week of the month, the Year; my Year will began to take shape to a healthier me. What do you do for planning your Year?

 

 

Me last Year

          Last Year as a joke for my Kids a blow up walker. It is a wonderful thing when we are able to laugh and love together.






                                                       Yours,
                                                               Mia

Got Stuck at the Train Station

 

      
                  Trains I love riding them and you would think I know how to read a train schedule right? Well, maybe not since I got stuck at one for about 4-5 hours on Wednesday. I missed read that my connecting train only went so far mid day. I took it in stride by sitting in a little station cafe reading, enjoying the gentle breeze and warm sun.

    My plans was to arrive mid afternoon while it was still warm, so the outfit I wore was perfect for the day not the cool night air.

          
             The Big City still lite up for Christmas, if I was better prepared for the weather I would have taken more pictures of the lights.
   

    This trip was to bring the Heroes out here to soak up some fresh air, while Momma was at work. I try to do what I can to help my sister. Being a single Mom, raising 3 loving rambunctious little boys while working full time is not easy. I know this because I was a single Mom, only difference was  I was a stay at home Mom for the early years and 3 girls & a boy.

     We have ridden the train together a few times and it is still a exciting to them to ride, even with just the back lots of warehouse to view as we pull out of the station.
      They will go home tonite because Momma misses them and I just might take another mid day train ride to get stuck again at a train station side cafe. Where would you go to get stuck for a few hours?




                   with love and blessings,
                                       Mia