Get found! These blog interaction opportunities offer another way to discover new writers, and be found as well…feel free to join in the fun! ~ Sheila
Joys
Promote Your Blog Here
Looking for an opportunity for spreading the word about your blog? Check this out! ~ Sheila
Cross-pollination
We’re spending the month far away from Alaska, in Hawaii. Time away from our “norm” opens doors to thought and helps me take stock of our current life model. This is where I spell out the way it works for us, and can work for others.
Some of my life’s work is to be a cautionary tale, and I’ve written about that. Hopefully, another role is to be a light house, to share thoughtfully, and to encourage readers to think outside the box…to see opportunity and find flexibility.
There’s nothing wrong with having a “traditional” life with all the trimmings, and we had that for many years…kids, jobs, house, cars, pets…all good. In fact, all wonderful.
But empty nesting is a new chapter, and brings new opportunity. For some, it may not be about empty-nesting. Maybe your opportunity to live outside the box is pre-children, or roaming the globe as a single. Maybe you’re in retirement years and looking for new adventure.
Whatever your path, your choices, likely there are more options that you’re aware of. I find new ideas all the time…unique ways folks are living, working, traveling, and paying for life on the go.
What about you? Have you found new ways to integrate life and work, vacation and the every-day? I’d love to hear about it! And check out the link above for details on how we’re doing it!
~ Sheila
Happy birthday to my one and only
That would be Rob, he is my one and only, and today is his day.
I saw this recently, and it’s perfect:
How easy sleep comes
when some piece of me touches
any piece of you. Tyler Knott Greyson
He’s been off on a road trip to visit family, and I’ve been on a little trip of my own. Today we’ll reconnect, and celebrate the beginning of his new year, and know it’s all good.
And tonight we’ll sleep, hearts touching, just as it should be.
Murphy — Eyes + Words
This is so beautiful, just wanted to share. I really love the last line…”I’ll fight for that smile…” ~ Sheila
Written by Jacob Ibrag He tried to appreciate the good, flooding out the inevitable. Looking at her, couldn’t help wonder when his world would crumble. Natural deterioration. Murphy’s law was waiting. Planning a heist to replace his heart with deep gravity. Crawling into his insides, taking over his memories. Destroying everything he’s built in a instant. He rejected it, ‘I’ll fight […]
Launched!
Happy Birthday! My new site is up, and it feels good to see it live, even knowing it’s a work in progress.
It’s been a joy to work on this project, sometimes diligently, always with a goal of creating a way to give back.
Some of the posts on the site have migrated over from Grace and Life, and after some soul searching, I’ve decided to keep this blog going as well as the new one. This one is more personal, and the place for Riley and Jack photos, recipes, the Sheila side of life.
Story Revisioned is about my story from a different perspective; but hopefully, it will not only be about my story. The vision is to have others posting, sharing, commenting: to create a space that is inviting and nurturing.
Please stop by! I’d love to have visitors, now that the lights are on and the door is open. I’d be honored if you join my email list, and even more thrilled if you share your story and leave feedback.
Last, the Kindle edition of Choose Your Purpose, Love Your Life is up. It will be free from May 26-30. Please download if you’d like, and if you read, I’d be grateful for a review.
See you on the playground!
~ Sheila
Little milestones
Riley girl, princess extraordinaire, favorite six-year-old, lost her first tooth last night.
My baby’s baby is getting big.
She was eating dinner and out it came. Just like that! No tears, no trauma. No drama.
I was afraid a door and a string might be in her future.
Loosing baby teeth wasn’t easy for her mom.
She lost the first one eating a bowl of cereal. Never did find that tooth!
The second one came out with a fall when she was skiing. There was a little blood on the snow, but no tooth. Never did find it…well, white tooth, white snow…
The next few teeth came out in the dentist’s chair. The baby teeth were slow to loosen, and the permanent teeth were pushing their way in. The dentist said it would be best to pull them. I think he pulled four at once. The teeth, our first to present to the tooth fairy, were placed in a little plastic tooth holder on a little plastic necklace. Stephanie wanted to wear it home, she was so proud.
We stopped by the grocery to pick up something soft and appetizing for her…ice cream or yogurt…I can’t remember now, it’s been too long. But I vividly remember the next scene. Alex in the seat of the cart, food in the front of the cart, and Stephanie, suddenly in tears and inconsolable…the little cover on her plastic tooth had opened while we strolled through the store. It was a big store.
And now, no teeth. Again!
I back-tracked, trying to assure her we would find a tooth or two, at least, I was sure of that! We paraded back through the aisles, walking slow, trying to look for tiny white baby teeth along the way. A kind clerk tried to help us, joining in the hunt.
We did find a couple of teeth…not quite the bounty we expected to present to the tooth fairy, but something.
Finally, after checking out, full cart, consoled child, I realized: no car keys.
Somehow, in all the uproar, I’d lost my keys as well.
I had to call Rob for rescue. He had to leave the hospital and bring his keys so we could get home before ice cream melted and the remaining teeth escaped.
I left word with the grocery customer service desk: if they found any baby teeth, or a set of car keys, please call this frantic mom.
Oh it was traumatic! But the tooth fairy did find her way to us that night, and paid on all the teeth. (As she had on the others that were lost. Tooth fairies understand: these things happen.)
I did eventually get my keys back.
Never did find those teeth!
So it’s with pleasure that I learn Riley’s first tooth adventure was simple, quick, painless, and she has a tooth to show for it.
Lucky girl! 🙂
Mother’s Day: thank you!
This week Riley and Jack got a new cousin. Seeing them hold the new little one was a sharp reminder of how quickly they’re growing. Already they’re big: in size, in abilities, in age.
Like my two, Riley and Jack are precious to me, children of my daughter and my heart.
Though I know etiquette dictates a mother’s day gift is in order, to be honest, I’ve already had all the gifts, and more, I could desire.
I’m the one who’s thankful.
Mothering has been mostly joyful. And if I’ve tried hard to be a good at it, I’ve had good material to work with.
For that I’m grateful.
I had a good teacher. My mother has been an unfailing source of support and encouragement. She has hoped for me and mine, and she has listened with her heart.
No life is perfect, mine is no exception. But when I count my blessings, the thread of mothering that runs through the generations is one of the gifts most precious. I’ve had the gift of a good mother, and I’ve found joy in my own experience of mothering.
And who could ask for more, on Mother’s Day?
“I’m blessed and I couldn’t be more grateful. Do you want to know why? Because I’m a mother, but that’s only half of it. I’m blessed because, when I need to, I can still just be a daughter. I get the feeling that there is nothing more precious than to have both of these roles, simultaneously.”
― Adrianna Stepiano
Happy #6!
This little is six years old today! Six! I couldn’t believe it when it was my girl growing up so fast, and now I watch Riley.
To say I love her is an understatement. She seems to embody all the best of little girls…the princess, the silly, the funny, the sweet, the cute.
She makes us laugh. Sometimes with her, sometimes at her. She’s a joy, and full of surprises. She’s oddly wise for her years. She’s tall for her age. She’s a blend of her dad and mom, daddy’s girl and mommy’s helper.
She loves doughnuts, dolls, and crafts. She alternately nurtures and tolerates her little brother. She’s picky about her clothes, loves to wear skirts and frilly things.
She’s a kindergartner, reading, learning, swimming, getting big. She has a loose tooth…how did that happen so fast? I have to remember: it’s time. Soon her baby teeth will make way for the new.
She’s made a home in my heart.
Riley girl, the one and only. Happy birthday, little!
Grace-filled
Easter Sunday, spending the day with the littles, spending the morning reflecting on the meaning of this day, and surrounded by family…well, it’s grace-filled for sure. Nothing better than to know I’m in the right place, at the right time, and that it’s all a gift of life, and a gift of God.
The grace that fills my days, even when the days aren’t pretty, or what I’d like them to be, is the grace that sustains. This is the gift of the Giver, that says no matter how life looks at any given moment, it’s all going to be good in the end. The end is already determined, known, won.
Thank God for the day, for the victory of life, and for the grace that makes the moments beautiful, even in the mess of life.
Thank God for family, for my partner, for the joy of the good things.
It’s a grace-filled place I’m in today.
Thank God, the Giver.
Grace and Life 