We have each other

Happy Sunday evening,

How is everyone doing on this super Sunday evening? Did you enjoy your weekend? I’d love to hear from you. Shoot me a comment or drop me a like, you can even send me a text, it makes my day getting so many responses from everyone. Even a simple hello is always nice.

My weekend was busy as usual. Yesterday we got up early and headed to Ramona for John’s great nieces 3rd. birthday party. Boy was she so excited to have so many people around. When it came to her birthday cupcakes, this little one took a cupcake and started handing them out to those around her. Such a sweet gesture of kindness. When it came time to open her presents, well that’s when the fun began. Ashlynn would grab the tissue paper so quickly out of the gift bags and she’d begin taking her gifts out. Her mom and dad were right there with her. Ashlynn would hold up the gift and be so excited and then, when she’d open a remote control motorcycle, boy or boy did her little eyes light right.

Seeing Ashlynn’s excitement made my day. Made me stop and think how much I missed out being able to celebrate my boys when they were little. I do celebrate them now, but I do look back and think how exciting it would have been to see them open up birthday gifts, Christmas gifts and hunt for Easter eggs. I can’t go back in time and undo things, but moving forward, we can enjoy celebrating now.

One day should my boys and their wives decide to have babies, then I’ll spoil them with making memories. They’ll absolutely get lots of fun gifts too, but I want to celebrate them with traditions, making memories and showing them how much they’re loved.

I imagine baking cookies for Santa with the grandbabies. I imagine picking them up and taking them to lunch or on a picnic, perhaps a boat ride around the lake to celebrate the day they were born. I’m not 100% sure what traditions I want to create with them, should they ever arrive in my life, but if and when the time comes, we’ll begin creating wonderful memories together.

What traditions do you and your kiddos and grandbabies share? I’d love to hear all about your family traditions.

Today John surprised me and took me to buy a new village piece for our Halloween display. I’m super excited to begin decorating for Halloween. I’m learning how to make village platforms out of Styrofoam and I’m loving it. I’m also learning to use clay and cardboard too. I really love my new village piece and can’t wait to see it on display. Thank you John.

I’m hoping after my procedure on Tuesday I’ll be able to get some much needed rest and hopefully by the weekend I’ll be up and around enough to start decorating for Halloween, at least the inside of my house. I have some fun ideas for this year and now that John is in the lake full time it will make it so much easier.

I was thinking today how lucky I am to have John. He loves me so much and even though he doesn’t always think I know how much, I really do feel his love.

John is the kindest man I know. Sometimes too kind, but then again, that’s a quality I admire in him.

After John took me shopping for my new village piece, we went for a golf cart ride over to the main boat launch and park area. We just sat on our golf cart and watched the boaters and their families. There were a couple other golf carters that passed by us and John would say, “that’s the younger version of us” or “that would have been us just a couple years ago.”

We live lake life and moved into this tight knit community because of the way we feel when we are out and about. We do have some of the greatest friends of all time here in the lake, but what really draws us closer together is the feeling of home and being together enjoying buzzing around on the golf cart or sitting out on our patio watching kids play at the park with their families. Seeing folks, young and old fishing off the rocks and different boat docks. Seeing paddle boarders cruise on by. I don’t think we can imagine life anywhere else. This is home.

“When we get to the end of our lives together, the house we had, the cars we drove, the things we possessed won’t matter. What will matter is that I had you and you had me.”-unknown.

John and I don’t have the biggest house, nor the smallest. We don’t have an unlimited supply of money rolling in. We both took it up the shorts with our divorces, yet at the end of the day, none of that matters, because we have each other and we have our faith. I have no doubt God will provide for us exactly what we need when we need it.

John being a man of course wants to provide us with a home and a future, and I have no doubt he will, yet at the end of the day, even if we have to downsize to something a lot smaller, so be it, as long as we’re together. I’d rather have less things and more time with him. I’d rather have less things and less responsibility in caring for those things. I’d rather have the opportunity to travel and write, then to be house poor.

“Learning to find happiness with less is true wealth. Ultimately we are the sum of our experiences are not the sum of our belongings.”-James Altucher.

It’s easy to get caught up in wanting more after all, we are surrounded by social media, TV, and other forms of commercialism everywhere we go, except maybe when venture into nature. Things don’t make us happy, not really. I mean, they do at the moment we receive them, but how many times have we bought something or been given something and we’re all excited, then we put it away and forget about it. I’m guilty of that. I know John’s guilty of this too. We all are.

I’m learning though, what truly makes me happy are days like today when John and I take a golf cart ride and just sit, talk and enjoy being together.

“Dear God:

Please help me ask myself what I really need. What do I need right here, right now? Is it everything I think? Help me go within and ask what I’m truly longing for. Maybe I already have everything I need to be happy.

Amen.”-Maria Shriver.

Tonight when I lay my head on my pillow this will be the prayer I begin with. I’ll also thank God for bringing John into my life and for giving us this amazing home in which we live. I’ll ask God too to lighten our burdens and ease our paths so we can better be in-line with His teachings and with His path that He knows we need to be on.

As long as we’re together, I’m confident the hiccups in our lives will iron themselves out. In the meantime, I’ll continue to find quiet places to write and enjoy the wonderful sunsets like tonight.

My dear readers, you are so valued in my life. My blog is growing because of your kindness and support. I appreciate you all so much.

Sleep well my dear friends and until next time, don’t forget, Love Life++ Hugs.

Another look into my book:

Rick and I were roommates with benefits. We were trauma bonded. We had no foundation for a real relationship. We met on November 1, got engaged December 1, and married on January 18. We saw each other once a week for about 3 hours. We didn’t have time to build a solid foundation. We had to muddle through our relationship. I had childhood trauma that spewed over into my teens and it became my shadow. Rick had his own trauma to deal with. Sadly, we both chose to hide it from one other, whether it was intentional or out of our control.