I believe the theme of this blog is that life is short. Choose to live a life full of adventure and fun! Have some great stories for your grandchildren when they are sitting in your lap in that rocking chair.
“Be courageous. Challenge orthodoxy. Stand up for what you believe in. When you are in your rocking chair talking to your grandchildren many years from now, be sure you have a good story to tell.”
— Amal Clooney
Photo by Ian Noble on Unsplashandpma
I learned a long time ago that life is too short. Let’s not settle for what life gives us which is sometimes loss, grief, and sadness. Let’s take what is given and turn it into something beautiful.
“Don’t settle for what life gives you; make life better and build something.”
— Ashton Kutcher
Photo by Mario Dobelmann on Unsplash
I love this quote. Life is short. Don’t live by someone else’s expectations. Live your life the way you want to. There are no limits except the time we have here on Earth. Start Living!
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.”
– Steve Jobs
Last week I wrote a post wishing my sister a Happy Heavenly Birthday which also was Why I Launched on August 8 three years ago. Therefore, my blog is now three years old! Happy Birthday to me! We have made some changes over the years as I started with Daily Inspirations five times a week, Weekly Wednesday Workouts, and Friday Fixins. Those posts are still there and there are plenty of workouts to get you started on your fitness journey as well as recipes to help you eat better and feel better!
After about a year of blogging and after Gram passed away, our lives got a little busier. I wasn’t home taking care of her, and I was going on more adventures with my Prince. I continued to try to get posts out every week. I started doing posts on Tuesdays about Family, my Adventures with Gram, our Travels, and being a Pilot’s Wife. I also started doing Weekly Wednesday Words just once a week instead of daily.
This third year has been filled with even more adventures and the blog has been less consistent. I know I should be capturing our adventures but sometimes it’s so hard to find the time to write! Thank you for continuing to follow me.
As you know I had a meeting with the Medium. He told me I needed to start writing and working on a book. I hate to not do my blog because I love writing these posts for you. But I also would like to write a book, too. Therefore, the posts may be even more inconsistent. Thank you to those who already have but, I suggest subscribing to the blog by going to the main page here and scrolling down about halfway. Look at the right side and you will see where you can put in your name and email and Subscribe! That way you won’t miss the posts whenever they come out!
I wish you the best of the rest of your summer and those who have started school already, I wish you a happy, healthy school year!
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
Don’t let fear hold you back from living your life. Life is too short. Don’t be afraid. Take the chances and live life to the fullest!
“Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”
– Babe Ruth
Photo by Eduardo Balderas on Unsplash
Today is my little sister’s birthday. She would have been 44 years old. Happy heavenly birthday, little one. It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years, and we haven’t been able to celebrate your birthday together. I know you are here with us everyday (and my session with Medium helped me realize that even more), but it still hurts that I can’t call you up on the phone and hear your voice.
This is a hard day for everyone that knew you, but I know we should celebrate the years we had with you. We need to look back on the memories and cherish all the laughs that we shared. You brightened up a room and our hearts every day.
I know this will be a hard day for my mom. I hope she has a good cry and then goes out doing something she loves to celebrate her giving birth day. She misses you so much. Maybe you can send her an extra sign from Heaven today to let her know how magical it is up there and that you are okay.
Birthdays can be exciting, but they also can be hard. As a little kid you can’t wait to get older! Then as an adult you keep wishing you were younger. (Or at least feel younger!) I feel like sometimes people are reluctant to tell you how old they are especially as that number gets higher. Why? Why should we be embarrassed as to how old we are? Why should we be reluctant to say a number of how many times we’ve been around the sun? My message to you is be loud and be proud of that number because there are some people who never get to celebrate that day.
My dear sister, we love you more than you will know and miss you twice as much. Life on Earth is hard without you but as you know we can’t quit living because of you dying. We know you’d love to be here with us but your calling came early and you were needed in Heaven. I know the best way to honor you is to live our lives with happiness, with grace, and with kindness. The best way to honor you is to let our hearts shine as yours did.
Love and miss you, little one, happy birthday!
All you have to do is try. Nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it and take a chance. Get out there and try something new.
There is nothing impossible to they who will try.
— Alexander the Great
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
Happy Birthday, America! Today, we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. Our forefathers fought for our freedoms and today we recognize our lucky we are to live in the United States of America.
Most of us will celebrate by having the day off of work. We will eat hamburgers and hot dogs because that’s the American way. We will probably have a beer or two to celebrate the day off and the freedom we have to have a beer anytime we want to.
For the past two years, my Prince and I celebrated July 4th with friends on Lake Anna in Virginia. They have a wonderful fireworks display every year, and we were blessed enough to be out on a boat looking up at these amazing lights.
This year we also spent the holiday weekend on the water. Our friends took us out on their boat Saturday and out on jet skies on Sunday. This time we were in the great state of Wisconsin. We got to experience the water of Green Bay and saw the vastness of Lake Michigan. It is amazing how big the Great Lakes are.
The shoreline around Green Bay was amazing. It was full of rocks, limestone, cliffs and beautiful houses. My Rock and I had a great time on the water. I had not been on water skies in over 30 years, but I was able to pop right up! It makes me appreciate our lifestyle. We try to eat well and stay in shape (make sure you check out my recipes and workouts) so that we can do these activities even if we only get the opportunity once every few years!
Overall, our time in Green Bay was pretty amazing. We saw some great sunsets, had some good laughs, and spent some quality time with friends. We saw Egg Harbor, Door County, Fish Creek, as well as other stops along the way. Thank you friends for the wonderful weekend!
If you haven’t heard, last Thursday we started our trek out west where we will spend some time in Park City, Utah. We spent Thursday night in Chicago and then the weekend in Green Bay. Yesterday, we drove to Lincoln, Nebraska where we saw fireworks going off all along the water. The displays went on forever. Today, we will continue our drive and celebrate our independence somewhere in Wyoming. Hopefully we can find a wonderful fireworks display tonight.
I wish you all a safe and happy holiday! Celebrate and appreciate the independence that we have.
If you have been reading my blog you know that my sister passed away a little over five years ago. We all still miss her everyday. I wanted to create a way that her memory would live on but I wasn’t sure what to do. Last year, my husband and I decided to create a memorial scholarship at our hometown high school.
We created a scholarship in which we wanted female high school seniors who displayed the characteristics of my sister to apply. We asked for candidates that had good grades and attendance, who were involved in sports and/or activities, and who were pursuing further education. We also created an essay question they needed to answer. Each year we will change the essay question. We also established a committee to review the applicants and their essays. The committee is made of five people who knew and loved my sister. We also are blessed with three people at the high school who also knew my sister and who are helping us to spread the word about this scholarship and what it means.
We have been honored to receive the applications over the past two years. The girls who have applied for this scholarship have written some pretty amazing essays. Even though they didn’t personally know my sister I feel they understand who she was. The two winners have expressed what an honor it was to receive the award. We wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.
Time is moving on and my sister’s children are growing up fast! I hope to share this scholarship award with them and each winner’s essay. I hope they enjoy knowing a little bit more about their mom and the wonderful, small town where she grew up.
If you’d like to read more about my sister and the scholarship winners please visit this website we also created to honor her.
This week my niece will be graduating from fifth grade. It is so hard to believe. It seems like just last week she was born and yesterday she was starting kindergarten. But here we are six years of school already completed and the first graduation is upon us.
My sister and I grew up in a town where we went to elementary school from Kindergarten through sixth grade. Then middle school and high school were in the same building. Therefore, you graduated from sixth grade and twelfth grade. That was it. Only two graduations.
It makes me sad that my sister isn’t here to watch her baby walk down her first aisle of many. It makes me sad that she won’t be there to hug her princess and tell her how proud she is of her. So I thought I would try to let my niece know how much she is loved. I was able to go to Virginia last week, and I spent some time with my niece having lunch and giving her a few graduation gifts.
If you know me, you know I enjoy taking pictures and then making books and calendars. I use Snapfish and have for years. I love the company and the products. I make the kids a book of memories every year for their birthdays. And every year for Christmas I make the members of our families a calendar to hang on their wall. Therefore, I thought it would be a fun idea to make my niece a book of her first 10 years of memories for her graduation.
In this book, I also included some younger pictures of my sister and myself. I wanted my niece to see how cute we were 🙂 when we were younger and how fun the clothing and hair styles were! It was fun yet sad to look back on all the pictures of my sis and me. Man, did it make me miss her.
I do hope my niece cherishes the book. She may not understand all that it means. Right now she wants to be a kid who plays softball, who swims, who smiles, who dances and who doesn’t necessarily want to think about missing her mom. Maybe she just wants to be a kid who is normal. And I am proud of her for being that kid. But as she gets older I hope she realizes how special her mother was. And I hope she will look back on the memories that are shared with her, and she will smile and treasure all that there are.
Photo by Jason Dent on Unsplash