Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

My sister lives in Rhode Island and purchased a house with extra rooms five years ago with the intention of having us come visit. But until this year, we hadn’t. My daughter was too small and then there were Summer camps. We didn’t have the right vehicle and then she just came and visit us instead.

But we just returned from our Summer vacation to RI.

All my daughter wanted to do was swim in the pool. I ended up spending all my time with her there. And we ate out a lot. I just needed to decide what I wanted to eat. So not a lot of dishes. And not a lot more than just being and playing together. Because that is what visiting people is all about and something I want to do a lot more of.

There’s a lot to be said for shaking the etch-a-sketch and leaving your house for a couple days. It’s refreshing to return to the comfort of your home where you know where everything is. But you’re not overwhelmed by everything you have to do immediately. That’s how I eventually end up but for now, I’m holding onto the high of the absence.

To complicate things prior to our departure, our new little cat had an injured eye and I was scheduling an eye operation for her for when we returned. (That was today.) That made me nervous as did all the warnings for Covid travel from State to State. My husband said, don’t worry, be happy. And so I spent the time leading to our departure focused on leaving in a timely intentional way. We got there in less than 7 hours and now we know what it takes to visit. My sister was a lovely hostess and her house is amazing. Cozy and the most comfortable bed ever!

Enjoy the pictures and stay tuned for my upcoming Blogaversary Post.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

Finished My 100 Day Project for 2020 : collages 76 through 100

Well I’ve done it again. I’ve finished the 100 Day Project for the third year in a row. Each and every lovin’ day since Mid-March, I’ve shown up in my craftroom and created one tiny collage on a 2 x 4 card.

I believe that showing up for yourself creatively is so important for developing self-esteem and a healthy relationship with yourself. It can also help decrease anxieties.

If you want to see the previous 75 pieces…

Go here to see pieces 1 through 25…

(You can also catch all the posts from 2019’s 100 Days of Shalagh at the bottom of this post as well.)

Go here to see pieces 26 through 50…

Go here to see pieces 51 through 75…

I’m glad to have finished and always feel the need to replace this lovely habit with another. Considering doing ten minute fit fat sessions in my parlor. Going to put extra effort back into writing and the blog so 2021 will look different here.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

This Joy Today is All I’ve Got

Only gratitude brings true joy. An understanding that I am worth this feeling, entitled by my humanity to feel it.

Between joy and happiness, I choose joy.

The Psychologies magazine says, “Joy is more consistent and is cultivated internally. It comes when you make peace with who you are, why you are and how you are, whereas happiness tends to be externally triggered and is based on other people, things, places, thoughts and events.”

I can feel joy and be unhappy. I see the bigger picture.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

Reached the Halfway Point on my #100DayProject 2020

Yes, I am 50 days into my one hundred days long art project aka my 100 day challenge aka 100 days of Shalagh. I am halfway through. Honestly, the habit is established in the first two weeks .

After that it becomes a given. Up to that point, you may play mindgames with yourself about whether you will finish or not.

Once you stop that and just show up unquestionably for a length of time, you become your own superstar.

By the end of the project, no matter how many of your pieces you think suck, you can revel instead on how much you showed up for you, how worth it you are.

And that is worth it. So worth it.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

A Second Round of Captivity Pictures

Our two week pandemic lockdown rolled out into a two month self-imposed incarceration as we await our governor’s recommendation for how much longer we will stay safely away from society and it’s disease contaminating state. And to think I said, “I just have to run my household for these two weeks without losing my mind.”

I have kinda lost my mind a couple times but I’ve also been impressed with the way I was able to shed my fear soon enough to start to blog and make my own sense of all of this. It’s the 24/7 parenting and lack of alone time that are the killers. But I’m still living a pretty first-world life here despite.

More captivity pictures because a certain blog reader I saw at the grocery store said she likes them.

And as I said in my first pictures “in captivity” post,“I hope you are all keeping yourselves happily occupied during your self-imposed distancing. The suggested activities to hold your anxiety at bay are Creativity, Cozying and Curling up, and Communing. As you can see, we are actively doing those here at my house.”

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.