Monthly Archives: August 2023

Changes, Empty Nesting, Frugality, Gap Years, Grandparenting, Gratitude, Happiness, Home, Lifestyle, Self-Reflection, Work

The One Year Anniversary of House Number 8

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Last Saturday was our 1 year homeowner anniversary.

If you’re new to my blog, here’s the story of why I refer to it as “house number 8”.

What an enlightening year it’s been. Another “Gap Year” for me (a year in which I was unemployed). Similar, yet different, to the “Gap Year” I enjoyed when we moved to Colorado in 2016.

Hubs and I got to experience a full 4 seasons here, for which I have much gratitude. Here’s a few images of the seasons in this beautiful place that we get to live in.

The primary difference between these two “Gap” years is that the one I’m in now is quieter. It didn’t start out that way, with me caring for our grandson while he was struggling with emotional and behavioral challenges. Over time, gratefully, his village of supporters grew and he began to thrive.

The more recent calm and quiet of my day-to-day life has given me the opportunity to pause and reflect. To sit with my thoughts and get curious about them. It’s led me to more fully embrace “K.I.S.S.”, my favorite mantranym, which, in this instance, stands for “Keep It Simple Sister”.

What does that look like? How am I consiously keeping things simple?

It looks like making meals at home that don’t have an inordinate amount of ingredients or steps. It looks like breaking up household chores in smaller increments. It looks like planning and executing un-fussy get-togethers with our neighbors. It looks like leaning into a more frugal lifestyle by consciously spending less money and time shopping. It looks like not over-committing socially, to allow for time to marinate in the peace and quiet of this country/lake life.

I realize this might sound boring to you all, but it works for me as well as my Hubs. A simple life=a happy life for me and mine.

As we celebrate our 1 year ownership of this home, the “Gap Year” that I’ve been in, here in Wisconsin on the edge of Minnesota (aka Minnesconsin), is drawing to a close. Employment is coming to me soon. I’m ready for it.

I start a new part-time job as an office assistant in a local non-profit next Wednesday. I feel really good about this new chapter of my life.

The most gorgeous flower bouquet ever, courtesy of my wonderful in-laws to congratulate me on the new job

These lifestyle changes I’ve made (and there’s more yet to be made, mind you) in the last year are sure to serve me well as I make my return to the work force.

I am grateful, grounded, and geared-up.

Community, Dogs, Humor, Lifestyle, Neighbors

A Radar Adventure Story

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Our beloved 5-year-old dog, Radar, is so happy with his life here in Minnesconsin. Living here, he gets to run and play outside, sometimes without a leash. He gets to monitor all the little critters, the ones with wings and the ones with bushy tails, from our sun porch each day (aka Radar’s room).

Last week, Hubs was out of town for work. Radar and I were here, left to our own devices.

On Tuesday, as I’m sitting at the dining room table poking around WordPress, I got a call from our neighbor across the road, Mike. He said “Hey Rhonda, it looks like your pontoon is floating in the bay. If you need any help with it, I’m here, just let me know”.

Yikes! I thought. How could that have happened? Hubs tied it up very securely to our dock after our last boat ride. The next thought I had was “Where are the boat keys?”. I called Hubs, who, thankfully, answered right away. He tells me (of course) he’s got the boat key, but there’s a spare in the “cubby” under the steering wheel. Inside of the boat.

Really? How was I supposed to get into our boat, if it’s floating in the bay?

So, Radar and I headed to the dock to check things out. Mike was already there, on the other side of our little bay. I couldn’t make out everything he said, because of the distance between us, but I was grateful he was there nonetheless.

Thank goodness that it was not our pontoon boat out there, floating in the bay. It was our next door neighbor’s. I texted him, knowing he’d be at work (about an hour away) so he’d know his boat was adrift in the bay. As I told him, it wasn’t necessarily going anywhere. He thanked me, I let Mike know I’d contacted him, and then Mike proceeded to get into his small fishing boat, and pull our neighbor’s pontoon and tie it up to the nearest dock.

Neighbors “neighboring” is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?

As this all transpired, Radar was having a ball. He grabbed a toy, ran around like the nutjob he is, back and forth between our backyard and the two closest neighbors. Running up and down each dock, smiling and panting all the while. But he then did something I wasn’t anticipating.

He ran onto our dock, reached the end of it, looked around for a second, and then jumped into the lake. In the year that we have lived here in Minnesconsin, I haven’t seen him do that.

He sunk. My heart sunk at the same time. Then his head popped back up, he started his doggie paddling, and made his way to the left side of our dock. Which, of course, is thick with long, green reeds. He’s slipping and sliding, trying to gain some traction so he could make his way up onto the solid ground above, but he’s not going anywhere. He then dips himself under the dock, which really freaked me out.

Thoughts going through my head in this moment included “is he going to get stuck in the muck?” and “am I going to have to jump in and pull him out?”. Then, as my heart is fiercely pounding inside my chest, he pops out the other side. He struggles a bit with the reeds, which, no surprise, are also on the right side of our dock. But he managed to gain enough traction to get out of that mess and onto the ground above.

Whew!

Then he smiles, excessively shakes his body to get rid of all that water, and runs up the hill towards our house.

He was so proud of himself for his adventure that afternoon. I could hardly be angry with him. Needless to say, he got a bath that night. And we both slept like babies.

Adventure, Blogging, Geography, Lifestyle, Travel, Vision Boards

The Big D, Travel, and Me

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The search for part-time work here in Minnesconsin has begun in earnest for me. Part of the search involved me going through every nook and cranny of this house to find my college transcripts, per a prospective employer’s request.

Ugh. I scoured through boxes and file cabinets all for naught. The job opening was taken down before I got a chance to request my transcripts from my alma mater.

What would be found in my college transcripts, because I remember and I’m not proud of it, is the “D” I got in Geography my freshman year.

It’s curious, I think, as a person who’s always been enthusiastic about travel, that this was my worst subject in college. I would have hoped that my interest in travel would have pushed me to do better in this course. Yet, my near-failure of this course may just be how I’m wired. I recently learned from my sister that she also stinks at Geography. We both also have no sense of direction. GPS was a Godsend for people like us.

Anyway, this all got me thinking more about travel. For so long I’ve been telling everyone I know and people I just met how much I want to visit Europe. England to begin with, as I’ve got a niece who lives there with her husband and kids and I know she’d love to show us the sites. She’s currently hosting her niece who flew in after graduating from high school in Minnesota (what kid wouldn’t love to have an auntie that cool?). Yet, at the moment, it doesn’t appear that travel to Europe is going to happen for us in the foreseeable future. However, there’s no doubt in my mind that it will happen at some point.

However, there are many locations within the U.S. that I’ve never seen before. Places Hubs hasn’t been to either. As domestic travel generally is less costly and requires less time off work, due to the distance differences, I think it’s time for us to consider where exactly we would want to go and what we’d want to see when we get there.

What places would you like to visit in the U.S. someday?

Off the top of my head, I can tell you that I would like to visit the following places in the U.S. (in no particular order):

  • Austin, TX (specifically to check out the art scene and Austin City Limits)
  • Cleveland, OH (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, people!)
  • North Carolina. A friend and sorority sister from college lives there and it seems lovely.
  • New York City (to be in the audience of SNL, see Times Square, Broadway, and more)

I think it’s time for me to assemble that puzzle I bought earlier this summer of the U.S. map. That’ll inspire me even more, giving me more ideas of places I want to visit. There are 50 states, and I’ve only visited 18 of them.

And don’t let me forget my most asinine hifalutin outlandish lifelong travel dream of the two of us getting ourselves an RV and driving through all 50 states. At a sort of leisurely pace. Yes, outlandish. But what an adventure too, right? But. Age.

But I digress, as one does at 56, perhaps. Though probably it’s just me.

Yet, taking it down to an elemental level, we’ve still only lived here for a year. There’s a shitload of places we haven’t ever been to within just a 1-2 hour drive from home.

My goal is to start rectifying that.

Once I hit the publish button on this post, I will be starting a list. It will include all of the places around these parts which I’ve not yet visited. Then, one by one, I’ll visit them. Heck, maybe I’ll even find some images of these places and slap them on a vision board for reference.

Then I will work on that U.S. map puzzle and come up with a new list.

Here’s a fun little video about travel and adventure from my youth:

And the song that inspired the title of this blog post:

***Header image of Cascade Falls courtesy of https://www.startribune.com/daytrip-osceola-wis/322524331/#4

Change, Faith, Gratitude, Mindset, Personal Growth

Subject to Change

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This post was created to jump-start a conversation about our thoughts and feelings about all of life being “subject to change”. I look forward to reading, and replying to, your comments, friends.

So I am by no means an expert in psychology or philosophy, but I am a thinker. A student of the world who is on a quest to better herself. A person of faith looking for ways to use the wisdom gained thus far in her life for the greater good.

Here we go.

When you read or hear the phrase, “subject to change”, how does it make you feel? What thoughts come to mind? How do you interpret it?

Does it make you feel anxious? Frustrated? Angry, perhaps?

I have some thoughts about this phrase. I’ve used it in various blog posts over the years and in conversations with others. As I’ve likely mentioned before in this space, “Subject to Change” was the original title of this blog.

It didn’t end up as the title because I was concerned that it sounded flaky. As if I’m easily persuaded, with my opinions, aspirations, and beliefs changing willy-nilly. Yet, I remain drawn to this phrase.

My opinion is that we all would benefit from embracing this phrase. Make friends with it. Refuse to let it freak us all the way out.

Because everything, like, every. single. thing. is subject to change.

The weather. Our moods. Our preferences. Our relationships. Our thoughts. Our statuses in life. Our life circumstances. Our bodies. Our health. Our opinions.

We don’t have the control we think we have. Outside forces rattle our cages and distract us. Winds change direction. Other people’s choices cause ripple effects that permeate our lives. We lose money. We gain money. People we love die.

We plan and the Universe laughs.

We gain knowledge that enlightens us, leading us to alter our opinions. To change our perspectives. Think differently. It may throw us for a loop. Surprise us and leave us feeling confused.

Surrendering to the “subject to change” mindset is scary. It’s uncomfortable. It’s a process; something we may need to train our brains to do every single day, even beyond the day that we think we have finally “got” it.

A few ways that I believe we can become friendly, hence expanding our capacity for personal growth, with everything being “subject to change” are thus:

  • Keep our heads in the present. The past is gone and the future is not promised.
  • Be grateful for what is. Grateful for what we are doing well in our lives. Grateful for the love we have and the love we give.
  • Use our great, big imaginations to determine potential alternate plans, in case Plan “A” fails to pan out. The funny thing is, sometimes it turns out that Plan “B” (or even Plan “C”) winds up creating better results.

A little more food for thought for you, courtesy of https://thesaurus.plus/synonyms/subject_to_change#google_vignette