That Monster Moon + #MyPostMonday The Week's Best Original Content

This morning at 6:15 I was so lucky! I was headed out to work, down into the valley to get onto the freeway. Right in front of my fortuitous face was the giant super moon, known to some as the Monster Moon, because since January 1948 it hasn't been this big and is the biggest it will ever be until 2034! Such a feeling of wonder, awe, and peace came upon me! It appeared all-knowing, and aware of the turmoil that is roiling up everywhere because of certain recent events. I thought, "Moon, what do you think of your neighbors on this planet? Aren't we the most pathetic creatures you've ever seen? We fight over nothing and over everything, we want more than we need, we are jealous of our neighbors, friends, and co-workers, and we can never be satisfied. And many of us won't stop until others of us are dead!"  Do you know what the moon said back? She said, "It will all be OK, and I'll be watching! In the meantime, be kind, don't stress, and love life!" So that's what I did today and I was happy!

If you want to have your own conversation with the moon, it will still be observing us brightly tonight through early tomorrow morning! Believe me, she is very wise!

Image - Scott Stoddard

Today is "My Post Monday!" It's all about original content from bloggers who care to share what is on their minds--from Crafts to Camping, Wellness to Wealth, Fashion to Food, and whatever else is on the brain!  I  open up with a post of my own and then follow it up with a linky of the week's top original blog posts! It's all about what the writer thinks, believes, and knows--in other words, they are active, writing blogs. If I happen to find a great original, non-sponsored post, I'll link it up and share it with you here and on Twitter via the #MyPostMonday hashtag!  I can miss some amazing posts, but I don't want to!  So, in addition, if you'd like to link up yourself, you can do that too!  I'll visit your site, comment, promote and publicize! (Affiliate links welcome!) 

Wise Decision Making + #MyPostMonday The Week's Best Original Content

I just read a Facebook thread where the owner of the page wrote, "Name 5 Things You Love About Yourself." There were those who were able to write 5 things and then there were the ones who said, "I can't today" or "I can't at this point in my life." It's kind of heartbreaking when someone can't even see one good thing about themselves. It means that they are living with stress, sorrow, and loads of self-criticism. There is a point when you can't live to please others, you need to nurture and help yourself. Stress, anxiety and depression are caused when we are living to please others. If you find yourself trying to fit someone else's mold, and it isn't making you happy, it's time for a break to find out what you can do to renew yourself! Sometimes making a correct decision is a hard decision. We live so much to please others. So today I want to remind you to find 5 things about yourself that you admire or love. If you can't do that today, then work on it by choosing a path that nourishes your soul!

Today is "My Post Monday!" It's all about original content from bloggers who care to share what is on their minds--from Crafts to Camping, Wellness to Wealth, Fashion to Food, and whatever else is on the brain!  I  open up with a post of my own and then follow it up with a linky of the week's top original blog posts! It's all about what the writer thinks, believes, and knows--in other words, they are active, writing blogs. If I happen to find a great original, non-sponsored post, I'll link it up and share it with you here and on Twitter via the #MyPostMonday hashtag!  I can miss some amazing posts, but I don't want to!  So, in addition, if you'd like to link up yourself, you can do that too!  I'll visit your site, comment, promote and publicize! (Affiliate links welcome!) 

The Road Back + #MyPostMonday The Week's Best Original Content

I'd like to think that people who are meant to be associated with one another will always find a way to keep in touch. I have lost touch with so many people over the years and many times I wonder what happened to them. In today's fast-paced, text-filled, trans-continental world, it's hard to keep track of how many encounters you actually have. Yet the ones that are meant to be will stick with you and find their way back into your life!
Some people are meant to have many friends and others are happy with just a few. The older I get, the more good friends and quality time spent with them means!

Image - Jim Sands

Today is "My Post Monday!" It's all about original content from bloggers who care to share what is on their minds--from Crafts to Camping, Wellness to Wealth, Fashion to Food, and whatever else is on the brain!  I  open up with a post of my own and then follow it up with a linky of the week's top original blog posts! It's all about what the writer thinks, believes, and knows--in other words, they are active, writing blogs. If I happen to find a great original, non-sponsored post, I'll link it up and share it with you here and on Twitter via the #MyPostMonday hashtag!  I can miss some amazing posts, but I don't want to!  So, in addition, if you'd like to link up yourself, you can do that too!  I'll visit your site, comment, promote and publicize! (Affiliate links welcome!) 

Choosing Happy + #MyPostMonday The Week's Best Original Content

I am in quite a quandary right now. I enjoyed the best summer vacation--I got to blog, travel, relax, enjoy family, get creative, and develop myself as a person. Then the school year began and although I like my job, I don't love it. And when things get hard, like when one of our staff is gone and we have to do double duty, then I really don't love it. (In fact, it approaches intense dislike) That is why I've been absent here for awhile. When work gets stressful, my routine suffers. I neglect my health more because I don't take the time to plan my eating routine and work out, etc. My husband starts acting really needy because I don't have time or energy to give him the attention he seems to crave. And my blogging suffers because I am tired and am basically in survival mode. 
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Right now, I need to make sure that I have the right mindset because the most important thing for me is that I am happy during stressful times. If it means I need a pint of Haagen-Daas chocolate ice cream, (which I did "need" today) in order to survive and feel like I am happy, then that is what I'm going to do. However, if over the course of a week, my pants start feeling uncomfortably snug, am I doing a myself a favor? I think not. But are these stupid little stresses even worth worrying about? 

#MyPostMonday Link-Up #26 The Week's Best Original Content

Along The Extra Mile
Suffice it to say that a picture can speak a thousand words and leave it at that! This is one of the many shots my son got while he was hiking in the back country of Wyoming with his college roommates. We have a great working partnership, he and I. He gets all these amazing shots of places that I can't get to 'cause I don't own a helicopter. Then I put nifty captions on them and sometimes put in my two cents worth. Not a bad deal, eh?

image - Ed Whitmore

Today is "My Post Monday!" It's all about original content from bloggers who care to share what is on their minds--from Crafts to Camping, Wellness to Wealth, Fashion to Food, and whatever else is on the brain!  I  open up with a post of my own and then follow it up with a linky of the week's top original blog posts! It's all about what the writer thinks, believes, and knows--in other words, they are active, writing blogs. If I happen to find a great original, non-sponsored post, I'll link it up and share it with you here and on Twitter via the #MyPostMonday hashtag!  I can miss some amazing posts, but I don't want to!  So, in addition, if you'd like to link up yourself, you can do that too!  I'll visit your site, comment, promote and publicize! (Affiliate links welcome!)

#MyPostMonday Link-Up #25 The Week's Best Original Content

In The Middle Of Nowhere
The school year has begun and I'm saying a fond good-bye to my summer! I enjoyed it so much! I feel rested and energized. 
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As I walked into the high school early this morning. it was still practically deserted. A few students were sitting in the hallways and on the stairs, probably dropped off by parents who needed to get to work early. They were still rubbing sleep from their eyes, just like I was. Eventually the students that are assigned to my charge arrived on the bus or were dropped off. They seemed happy to see me. One of them offered to buy me a treat from the snack machine! We continued down the hall to breakfast, where I greeted my friends there. Lisa, the head of the cafeteria, one of the nicest women I know, greeted me warmly. There was Steve, the maintenance guy, wearing his familiar kilt. He was high on a ladder, seemingly oblivious to the fact that people who walked underneath might get an eyeful. Maybe someday I just may do that, walk underneath out of sheer curiosity! I'm almost sure he must wear shorts or something underneath, unlike the original Scottish men, who.....didn't! My only question would be, why wear a kilt if you need to wear shorts underneath? Wouldn't it be more comfortable to just wear shorts minus kilt? 

Some people may wonder why I continue to work as a learning assistant, commuting over 30 miles each way, when I have a degree in Special Education. It's easy. I tried the teaching route and I don't like it. I don't like the hours, the paperwork, the meetings, the answering to several groups of superiors--parents, administrators, district officials, psychologists, and the school Special Ed coordinator. Each of them has a specific agenda, each of them has an idea how your classroom needs to be run. However, I love working with the students and my co-workers. We have become really comfortable and we understand the philosophy of our teacher, Troy, who will be retiring this coming year. I'll miss him when he leaves. He has dealt with everything so well, but he leaves a little disappointed in the whole system and the seeming lack of appreciation for all that he has done over the years. I hope that when he leaves that he will be able to get a sense of how much good he has really done during his tenure! 

Because of his and our efforts, there are a few kids who actually will have a chance in life. They have learned things that they may never have otherwise learned. Possibly not things like reading, writing, or math, although that has been a huge part of the day. But more likely things like learning responsibility, how to work for what you have, what to expect when you don't have someone to catch you every time you fall, how to act when you are on the job, how to talk properly to people in public, that you're stronger than you think, and other important life lessons you can't learn in a textbook! It reminds me that no matter what background you come from, there are those who will always find a way to thrive with just a little nourishment!

image - Scott Morgan

Today is "My Post Monday!" It's all about original content from bloggers who care to share what is on their minds--from Crafts to Camping, Wellness to Wealth, Fashion to Food, and whatever else is on the brain!  I  open up with a post of my own and then follow it up with a linky of the week's top original blog posts! It's all about what the writer thinks, believes, and knows--in other words, they are active, writing blogs. If I happen to find a great original, non-sponsored post, I'll link it up and share it with you here and on Twitter via the #MyPostMonday hashtag!  I can miss some amazing posts, but I don't want to!  So, in addition, if you'd like to link up yourself, you can do that too!  I'll visit your site, comment, promote and publicize! (Affiliate links welcome!)

 

#MyPostMonday Link-Up #23--The Week's Best Original Content

Waiting For Perfection
The wisdom in the image below applies to everyone except for Olympic Athletes! "Don't wait for everything to be perfect before deciding to enjoy your life."  
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Yay Team U.S.A, off to an amazing start with Women's Gymnastics, Swimming, and more! For an Olympic Athlete, everything has to be as physically perfect as possible in order to bring home the Gold! This saying is wrong for them, because they can't wait for everything to be perfect, they have to work for everything to be perfect! No waiting about it! For the rest of us, we should neither wait nor work for everything to be perfect before we find ways to enjoy life while doing both! 
Things are definitely not perfect right now for me, I'm going through some issues that aren't fun. But I'm sure you are too. If picked apart with a fine-tooth comb, pulling aside the curation of Instagram, Pinterest, and blog posts, you would see that there is no one in ideal circumstances. That's life, there's no refunds. But does that mean I don't enjoy many aspects of my life? Absolutely not! I have found just a few things that I truly enjoy no matter what is going on, that won't make me regret it in the morning! One of those is my love of nature. If you haven't noticed, most of  'My Post Monday' installments will have a nature shot, and more specifically a nature shot from Utah, the state where I live. That's because I love it, and it puts me in a better place! If  I can get out into nature once a day, I can handle just about anything. Thank goodness, every place that I have lived has had some sort of out of the way place I can go where I feel at one with nature. 

If you can find just a couple of things that you truly enjoy, preferably that don't set you back mentally, physically, or spiritually, you can always default to them when things just aren't going your way! Anyway, nothing heavy here, just know that we deserve to be happy. We deserve moments of pure pleasure, no matter what is going on around us!

Image by Ed Whitmore

 Today is "My Post Monday!" It's all about original content from bloggers who care to share what is on their minds--from Crafts to Camping, Wellness to Wealth, Fashion to Food, and whatever else is on the brain!  I  open up with a post of my own and then follow it up with a linky of the week's top original blog posts! It's all about what the writer thinks, believes, and knows--in other words, they are active, writing blogs. If I happen to find a great original, non-sponsored post, I'll link it up and share it with you here and on Twitter via the #MyPostMonday hashtag!  I can miss some amazing posts, but I don't want to!  So, in addition, if you'd like to link up yourself, you can do that too!  I'll visit your site, comment, promote and publicize! (Affiliate links welcome!)