Love, Life and Everything

A while back, a fellow spousal caregiver friend sent me a link to Matthew McConaughey's inspirational video on the growth mindset.  Growth mindset is not a new concept to me.  As a teacher to students with dyslexia, I often speak of having a growth mindset and overcoming the obstacles set before them by their genetic weakness in reading. However, I had never quite heard it in this way - making time in your life to do the things that are going to help you grow.  In other words, getting rid of the things that are holding you back, like spending time with the wrong people, or being constantly glued to your phone.  And going for the things you never seemed to have the time for before. I actually tried to do those things for a while, and I made a great deal of practice, then I fell back into my old habits.  The truth is, I started this post a long time ago, and never finished it.  Because I didn't really know where to go with it.  I wasn't really practicing this.  Not with fid

Wow.  What a summer.  It went by way too quickly, and I accomplished very little on my own personal to-do list, including writing.  I was going to submit my book to publishers, I was going to write some more on my 2nd one, and really deep clean my house.  But, things took an unexpected turn.  Mostly at our property.  But this was a good unexpected turn.  We got the tractor again this year (thanks will never be enough for the generosity of the friend that loaned it to us), and we were just going to do a little road work with it, and maybe clear the area where our future garage might go.  Well, this is where the unexpected turn comes in.  We not only worked on the roads, but we got 2 garage pads built up, and the house pad.  This gets us one step closer to actually being able to live out there.  Yay!! So what does this have to do with raking rocks?  Everything.  Those of you who have been following this know that there are bazillions of rocks of all sizes at our property.  So. Many. Roc

I got to spend some time with a childhood friend this weekend.  One I hadn't seen in many, many years.  We met at Wildcat's Den in Questa, picked up lunch to go, and drove out to the property and had a picnic lunch with his son, my mom, Brandon and my son.  We talked about everything, literally. But, during our conversations, we talked about what we did as kids.  He said he used to run home immediately after school to make sure he caught Duck Tales and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers.  I mentioned that I usually took the scenic route home and missed those shows.  He laughed and said that I often took the scenic route to school too.  Then he told a story about how I was about 40 minutes late to school one day.  The teacher asked where I was and all I said was "There was a frog in the road." I didn't elaborate any further than that.   Brandon laughed and said that that sounded exactly like me. I got to thinking about what Brandon said later.  He was right, that did

Trees, growing in the wild, somehow survive harsh winters.  But not all of them.  We wanted to the best we could for our 40 babies this winter. Should be easy right, just go out, unbury the trees from a few inches of snow, make sure their wood chips were still in place, and give them lots of love. A twin topped tree doing well in the snow. This was promising.  We thought "This is going to be easy, just go out, and brush a bit of snow off them so they can maximize the light."  Boy, were we wrong.  For a while, it was like this.  A bit of snow, followed by lots of sunshine.  The smallest trees were sometimes completely bent over in a few inches of snow.  Covered with cold snow, but thriving  By the end of December, the trees, for the most part, were still thriving.  We knew we were going to lose one at that point.  But, it had already declared itself lost before winter hit, so we were not surprised. Then came January, the snows got deeper, and it got harder and ha

In an attempt to get back into writing, I'm trying out a suggestion by a fellow author - work on your blog.  Write about everything, anything, to get you back in the flow.  I have been writing, but not like I should. So, I'm starting this off by giving you 10 completely random facts about me. 1.  I'm the least typical Aries you will ever meet.  Aries are supposed to be bold, courageous, outgoing, risk takers, and natural leaders.  I am not bold, I am more courageous than I used to be.  I'm not very outgoing, I'm a self-proclaimed introvert who likes to socialize occasionally, as long as it's on my terms, and with people, I feel comfortable with.  I can be a leader, if the need arises - but, I prefer to either work on my own or go with the flow.   I am also pretty relaxed and even-keeled.  My coworkers say I bring a calm to the school that they need.  Aries aren't supposed to do that, but here I am killing it. 2.  I am a huge sci-fi nerd.  My close famil