June Justified

[cyntree]

June Justified

Hello all -

Lav - you are so wise. Setting boundaries and insisting that they are respected is the final frontier, right?! So glad that you had time with daughter and granddaughter - how wonderful for both of them that you are in their lives.

Star - I really get where you are; you are tired, and undertaking big big changes. I'll PM you with a couple of things to think about with the move (since organizing moves used to be my business); once you have your crucial information and valuables safe, the rest of the details will fall into place. Lav is right - concentrate at this point on the benefit of all that you're going through right now. Wishing you strength.

Dill - speaking of moving, are you OK after all the activity over the weekend?

Pap - hope work is working out...

Today is a little tough for me; my Mom's birthday, and mine too - for 56 years we shared this day. There's a soft rain falling, and that seems just right to me; no big sunny pizzaz of a day, just an environment for reflection. I'm going to try to finish up on some thank yous that I owe people having to do with memorials and things that people did to help. Belated, but better late than never. I'm dedicating this day to Mom and all the things and people that she loved.

Hope all have a wonderful AF day, with some self-care as part of the day as well ---

[dill]

June Justified

Hi friends, I am just checking in to say I'm here. It's been crazy busy around here. I'll try to catch up tomorrow.

[Lavande]

June Justified

Oh Cyn, how special you & your Mom shared a birthday. Hope your day was peaceful & your memories good. Happy birthday to you :l

Dill, you sound like a busy bee

Finally got the girls on the road to home at 7:30 tonight. What a busy but fun time when they are here.

Hi to Papmom in case you check in tonight.

[Stargazerlily]

June Justified

Good morning...

Cyn, honoring your Mom on her birthday after her passing...tough day but beautiful in memories and love. It is hard on those special days and my hear goes out to you. I would love a few pms about organizing and moving. The problem is my husband...he does not get it. We have to get rid of stuff. After he starts his new job and l am here alone, I can really get cleaning and throwing. Did you check out the toolkit for pain? Hope you are able to rest and heal.

Lav, thanks for the support and sharing of your lovely experience with your daughter and granddaughter. I will be about an hour or so away once we move. I will be able to drive out there on weekends as I will be working full time. It's ok, I am so excited. She is ready to have her baby and be done being pregnant. It really brings up memories for me of those last weeks. Ugh, so uncomfortable. But in the end, so worth it.

Dill, I am reading The Book Thief and loving it. What a great story, but not easy to read. It is written so well, beauty and love in the midst of a horrific time. I have been really thinking about what matters, and it is definitely love, trust, family, kindness, and relationship. Take care of yourself in the midst of business.

Pap, hope your week is going well. Thinking of you.

To all, have a fantastic Friday, AF.

[Lavande]

June Justified

Good morning friends

Sunshine this morning - nice!
I have a busy day lined up including Curves, watching my grandsons from lunchtime thru dinnertime & possibly doing more baking for tomorrow's bake sale for the ACS Relay for Life event. I did a batch of 10 cute mini banana walnut breads yesterday

Star, my daughter lives the same distance so getting together is not a big problem at all. You will be a great grandma & a comfort to your daughter while she learns the ropes of motherhood
Glad to hear she will be having her baby before the real heat of summer sets in!!!

OK, I'd better get going. Wishing everyone a wonderful AF Friday - that's you Dill, Cyn & Papmom

Lav

[dill]

June Justified

Late check in for me again.

Star, I saw the movie, The Book Thief and loved it! I did not read the book tho. I'm taking it as a good sign that you brought up a book tho. You must be a little less stressed. I hope so!:h My hb is just like yours when it comes to decluttering. He can't part with anything!

Wow Lav, you had a really busy day! You are probably baking as I am writing this post!:H

Cyn, I definitely could feel it in my back after helping with the move, but I'm going to just take it easy for awhile and give it a good rest. I hope you found peace in your memories of your Mom on her birthday.:h

It is really quiet here without the gkids and my son. I like it!!! Still, there is an adjustment and I am feeling a bit lost somehow. This too shall pass.

We had an unfortunate event here. You know I always talk of our walks in our woods. Well a few days ago our neighbor boy was out walking in our woods and came across some pretty major vandalism! We have a small grotto with a water fall surrounded by limestone rock from the glacier age. Well, some college students thought it a nice place to party. The left trash, etc, but the worst of it was they spray-painted graffiti on those wonderful rock cliffs! We were so upset!:upset: Called the sheriff and made a report. The neighbor wrote a letter to the president of the local college the students attend. You won't believe how we happen to know who the students were: THEY ALL SIGNED A PLACARD AT THE PARTY SITE AND LEFT IT THERE! We found them on facebook and twitter where they posted pictures of themselves at the event! Idiots.

[Lavande]

June Justified

OMG Dill - you sure they were college students & not junior high kids??
How freaking stupid!!!!!!
The covered bridge around the corner from me suffers from frequent assaults with cans of spray paint. The dumbs kids drink beer, dump cans & trash all over the place, leave a real mess. How sad. I understand that the original bridge was actually burned down at one point

I'll bet you will need some time to adjust to the quiet in your house now!
That's what life is all about I suppose & we are better off going with the flow
Speaking of Facebook there's a new page called Trust Your Journey. Has some neat stuff.
I hope your back heals quickly. Maybe a nice boat ride is in order.

I did 7 hours on kid watch today, I am tired!!!!!!

[Lavande]

June Justified

Good morning friends,

Looks like a nice Saturday is on hand weather-wise.
I will be on the run most of the day doing very important stuff like picking up chicken feed, etc :H

Wishing everyone a wonderful AF Saturday!

Lav

[Stargazerlily]

June Justified

Good morning...

Another beautiful June day! Dill, how thoughtless and destructive of those young adults to destroy that area. What idiots to leave their names. It will be a learning experience for them to be caught and to make amends. In the past one of my kids friends (high school) spray painted the back of my old house. Just a patch, but I was furious and made him scrub it. I did not get mad at him, I just told him he needed to clean it off, and he did. It took a long time so I hope he got it. Change is an adjustment, even good change. The quiet in the house will soon become the new normal, and I am sure you will visit you son and grandkids often. You know me so well, Dill. I do feel a bit better and reading a new book is proof. I had a big meltdown yesterday morning, but I picked myself up and make a plan. My husband did an O. Henry act yesterday. He sold one of his most precious possessions for the money and to downsize. It was an act of faith and showed me he and I are on the same page. Very emotional.

Lav, thanks too for the encouragement. It will work out in the end and we will do our best. I am so excited to meet my grandchild once he arrives, see my daughter as a mother, all of it. I am so excited about that part of it. I am going through grief as I have said and it comes on me in waves. It is hard to give up so much for uncertainty. When we moved before, before the economy nosedived, my husband had a great job and we were able to afford alot more. This time it is so different, and I prefer the ease of plenty of money. I have to be really creative now.

Cyn, hope you have been able to take care of yourself and are healing. Is the weather nice up there? I am looking forward to your pms about organization. I made out a plan yesterday to clean and declutter one room a day for the next several days. Today, the kitchen. Empty out and clean each cupboard, wipe down everything starting at the top. Clean out the frig and scrub the floor. Whew, this will be the biggest project with this room so the rest will take less time.

Pap, hope to hear from you this weekend if you have time. Thinking of you.

To all, have a good Saturday.

[cyntree]

June Justified

Hello all -

Quick check in for me. Thanks for the sweet wishes for my birthday - it was a hard one, but I feel like my Mom is giving me a lot of encouragement in a certain area - more details to follow. I have taken these 3 days Fri, Sat and Sun to work on a project that has to do with her - I can't really afford the time, but I'm tired of putting everyone else's (even paying jobs) priorities in front of my own. This is a real investment in myself, my plans for the future, my creativity. So cross fingers. I had a very cathartic day yesterday - today should be more manageable.

Star - sorry, I will get stuff off to you as soon as I can. For the moment, you are doing a huge task - cleaning and throwing out is the biggest deal - just don't try to do too much at once. Pacing is really crucial. How incredibly sweet of your HB to sell his possession; just when you least expect it, these men show who they really are.

Lav - be careful with that chicken feed! Rest - holy cow, 7 hours, I'd be dead tired.

Dill - how shameful of those kids. I hope that they have restitution rules at the college. I love rocks so much that I take it as a personal insult when they're defaced.

OK - I'm at the library for the second day, chained to a table to get my next work done. I'm very excited to be making progress on a long-held dream.

cheers, all for a good AF day.

[dill]

June Justified

Greetings All,

Cyn, good luck on your project. I'm so glad you have put yourself first for a while. It was actually refreshing for me to hear that because your usual posts are so much about service to others. I think service is commendable, but there must be a balance in life and self-care is very important. When you said your age the other day my first thought was gladness that you have become AF and are able to enjoy your "50's". What a blessing to have turned that ship around when you did! I feel the same way about rocks and nature in general. In a way, vandalizing a beautiful natural setting like our little grotto is like desecrating a chruch, if that makes any sense to you. Both are sacred and places where one can get in touch with their spiritual side.

Star, men do have the capacity to surprise us and sometimes just do the sweetest thing when we need it most and expect it least! Kudos to Mr. Star! I appreciated your story about the vandalism of your son's friend and how you responded. All Mr. D and I want is amends/restoration and assurance that this won't happen again. If the detectives take our information and determine there is enough evidence to prove a case of criminal damaging and trespass and the prosecutor takes it up, these kids could have serious consequences for their futures. If the college Dean of Students reacts by expelling one or more of them, which is possible as it is a very orthodox Baptist college, again there are serious consequences. But Mr. D and I don't really want those things to happen. We just want them to come clean the rocks and never return!

Lav, how many lbs of chicken feed can you lift? If I recall, those bags are big and heavy. Mr. D always lifted them. Sometimes I did but they were really heavy! I'm not sure I could do it now that I am the ripe old age of 62 and have my degenerative discs in my back. Do you do that lifting still?

It's been so nice getting back to just the two of us here! My son is coming over today to cook some ribs for us and have a proper visit, as it should be. They will be spending the night because he has some things he needs to do tomorrow early in the morning so we will have the children for a nice visit.

Have a lovely and AF Sunday one and all.

[Lavande]

June Justified

Good morning friends!

Sunny & pleasant so far, the rest of the week sounds like it's going to be a washout, oh well.

Dill, I spent my lifetime lifting a lot of weight but that's over for me. You wouldn't believe how much weight a nurse lifts during one shift. My first Dexa scan (in my early 50's) showed a good deal of osteoporosis in my lumbar discs & hips. That's when I said no more heavy lifting for me! I witnessed way too many patients (my mother included) suffer fractures lifting nothing heavier than grocery bags I will not lift the 50 lb feed bags. I do manage the 30-35 lb of dog bags but that's my limit. YB has back problems of his own but he does that lifting without difficulty.
I do my lifting mostly at Curves these days with the weight machines where I know I won't hurt myself.
I hope those kids get their mess cleaned up for your sake. If the college chooses to punish them, that's their problem for being so stupid. Does your property actually back up to the college property?
Funny that YB has been working at a college these past 10 years & has been dealing with stupid kid stunts like that. He hands them over to the State Police when there's bodily harm or property damage involved. I hope it's all resolved quickly for you! Have a great day with the grandkids. My grandsons are coming over this afternoon too!

Greetings Star, hope you are having a good weekend.
Cyn, I hope your project is going well for you
Papmom, what's going on with you?

OK, I need to feed animals & get myself to the supermarket.
Have a great AF Sunday everyone!!

Lav

[papmom3]

June Justified

Hello everyone!! Thank you so much for the good thoughts and encouraging words. I'm sorry I was MIA-this worry about finances and job takes up a lot of space and time!!
I did take Friday off on the spur of the moment-my boss ended up not taking the day off and offered it to me. Maybe there is hope for her yet! I got paid and did marathon food shopping session. Spent almost my whole budget for the month but should be ok. I love my Trader Joe's shopping dates!! I did spluge a little because I worked extra hours at my demo job-bought a new pair of running shoes as I've started to job during my treadmill sessions and my shoes are at least 4 years old and were toast. I also went to Saver's and got a couple of pairs of shorts to work out in and and work in and a couple of pairs of capris and tops, just to get me through the summer. got about 6 outfits for less than $30. All in very good shape too. Love Savers!!! oh, and a Pedi on Thurs nite compliments of my good friend from my old job. She is so sweet and generous!!

I also gave my niece her quilt yesterday for her birthday. We had a combo grad/birthday party for my nephew and her. It was so much fun-great food, corn hole games, kids in the pool (not brave enough yet to wear a suit in public), good conversations. Here is a pic of the quilt. My dad is in the foreground:


Today was a 6 hour demo at a fun fair type event. It was hot tho!! Scored a lot of free samples, especially goat's milk which is such a hot item these days and has literally saved DD's life! Just hope I can use it all up before it goes bad (the vendors were very generous!!).

Not looking forward to the week at work. The boredom, the pain in my shoulders and back, the listening to the multitude of complaints from the other staff members. I may feel the same way as them but I don't verbalize it. sigh.

Star- you are sounding so much better! I know this is so hard for you-the uncertainty, the financial worries, the work that goes into getting a house ready to move out of. Just keep your eye on the prize-being closer to your daughter and new grandbaby!! I can't imagine it won't be all worth it!!

Lav-Is YB behaving himself? How are the blueberry bushes and garden coming along? And the chickens? Woke up at 4 yesterday morning to my neighbor's chicken's making their chicken sounds. Loved it and fell back asleep! Are you ready for a few days off from the grandkids?

Dill- is your son all moved out now? I'm so proud of you and him! So sorry to hear of the vandalism. Just another example of how alcohol impairs judgement and now these kids may have ruined their lives because of it. Sad.

Cyn-Happy belated birthday!! I'm intrigued by your new project-hope you can give us more details soon!! Are you feeling better with the warm weather and the rest? Did you decide to postpone your trip back to NE?

I think I'm all caught up with everyone. Guess I should get things ready for back to work tomorrow. Bah. Think I'll do some reading tonite too with the TV off!

[cyntree]

June Justified

Wow, everybody must be busy on this Sunday!

I'm up late finishing a project for a job...a photo book. Not being a mac person, I'm using Shutterfly, but I've had a good time. 1 done, 4 more to go, although I think I can use many of the same pages in the others. (Am I missing something, or is it impossible to download Photobucket-stored photos onto one's hard drive?...)

Thanks, Dill - I'm proud of myself that I worked my plan over the weekend. My project is coming along, I got the 'bones' of it done. Now it will take discipline to work a little on it every day...hope I can keep the focus. I need to go back to getting everything else done, so we'll see. I appreciate the encouragement - yes, this was a big deal, me putting my own project first. SD was not so happy that I was otherwise occupied while she was here this weekend, but we had the evenings together, so she ended up being OK with it. A learning curve for everyone. And Dill, yes, I am incredibly grateful to have found this site, and all of you, and to have gotten to an AF life. Trust me, none of this growth would be happening without an AF life in place.

Great to hear how you're doing, PMom - good luck on the week. Star - hope you are hanging in there - I promise some pms this week. Lav - 35 lbs is a lot! Take care. Dill, so glad that you had a simple 'overnight' with the gkids, perfect.

to all here and any other readers, wishing you a great beginning to the week --

[Stargazerlily]

June Justified

Good morning...

Another week in June, I just love the weather and long days. I am working on doing better but the uncertainty is tough to deal with. Anyway, to all, have a great week.