As we arrived back at my house, my children and my son’s fiancee were soon busy working in the yard, as well as prepping for dinner. They scurried about without asking me to assist in any way. Patio furniture and umbrella came out of storage, finishing touches were assembled on my new gas grill, weeds were pulled, and before I knew it……steaks and shrimp were sizzling on the grill.

I hadn’t heard of anyone attending this event before, and didn’t really know what to expect. With my daughter recently moving to Milwaukee, I thought based on the map she might be close to the park hosting the festival. As luck would have it, she was a ten-minute walk to the beautiful Veteran’s Park. I was coming with a friend from another direction, but we made plans to meet.

A few weeks ago, I attended the first of two bridal showers for my future daughter-in-law, Crystal. She had mentioned my son, Andrew, would be going as well, to help her Mother and Father set-up, and would be staying for the celebration. I was a bit surprised he would be hanging around for the entire shower, but I was happy to spend some time together.

A few weeks ago, I figured I better start practicing, since the job would soon be mine. We had heavy rains for what seemed like days and were unable to mow, but with the weed and feed that was spread earlier in the month, it was beginning to look like I might have to bale it……(it’s the farm girl in me…..ha). One day, the sun came out, and would be my only chance to mow before the next rain was due.

As my children got older, one day I knew I would officially be considered an empty-nester. I’ll admit, I had short periods when my daughter was at college or on one of her internship adventures that sorta felt like it, but I always knew she would be coming home sooner or later, and I enjoyed the freedom.

We seem to rally around the cause and somehow make it work. I’m not saying it’s always easy, but I’m saying we try and figure it out. For instance, this past weekend with one brother out of town, the other brother and I tag teamed to do a little lawn mowing, while my sister-in-laws took turns running errands, doing laundry and gathering much needed information. All done with a happy heart.

If you’ve recently followed my blog posts, you know that my Dad now resides in heaven, and last weekend we celebrated his birthday. He was the king of our castle, and the patriarch of our family. Nothing made him happier than being together as a family.

After they were out of recovery and back to the room, it was essential to keep on a pain management schedule, as ordered by the medical staff. Along with the medication, we knew there might be side effects from the anesthesia. Random things came out of the patient’s mouth that had my family, the doctors, nurses and aides laughing.

This past weekend, I was honored to work beside three inspiring women, for our second in a series of workshops, being held in 2018. The workshop was titled, Choose Happy. Our target audience included women that were inspired to own their happiness, however, three brave gentlemen signed up as well. Of course we welcomed anyone that wanted to join, we just hadn’t thought to market the program to men. I’m not sure why, they certainly want to take charge of their own happiness as well.

Do you ever have those days you feel scattered, discombobulated and out of sorts? It’s seems like all my days lately have felt like that, and have been running into each other; creating a long line of days that turn into weeks of feeling, not quite right.

A few weeks ago people around the world celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. Coincidently, a couple of friends and I had a day planned in the city. We knew the traffic and the people celebrating would be crazy, on the “everything green and shamrock” holiday.

The grieving process is not an easy subject matter to tackle. What’s good for one isn’t necessarily good for another. With the recent passing of my precious Dad, my Mom had been anxious to clean out his things in order for her healing process to begin.

Recently, I came back from an extended business trip that was half way around the world, where the time difference was fourteen hours. Once I returned home, I anticipated a few days of being jet lagged, not only from the time difference but the long airline flight as well.

Do you have challenges in your life that you know you should face, but scare the crap out of you? That happened to me last week. This year I’m hosting a series of workshops with three other coaches and while I was away on business, my three other colleagues were hosting weekly book club videos. They were tag teaming and always co-hosted together.

I thought I made an impact on most of them, well, that’s what I was hoping for. The night before I traveled home my team panicked when I started saying my good-byes. They thought I was staying one more day. I was only there a few hours that evening since I had to finish packing before my early morning flight.

Since we were only in Hong Kong for forty-eight hours, my friend and I decided eating dim sum was a must, but since our first evening had been occupied by the laser light show and getting to and from the heart of the city, we would have to somehow fit dim sum in on day two.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit Hong Kong. Once the plane landed, there was shy of forty-eight hours before the return flight. My friend and I had a lot of ground to cover, since I was confident I wouldn’t be returning any time soon, and wanted to make the most of the stay.

Since I’m working the overnight shift, it was February 13th when I brought the chocolates to the office. The hotel is close enough of a walk to and from the office each day, and this particular night the streets were mayhem. Traffic was crazy and almost got hit by a van while crossing the street. My colleague and I were perplexed at the amount of cars and people in the city, on what we thought was a random Tuesday night.