Beth E

2020… Who knew…

I sit here on this chilly morning drinking my coffee from my favorite and local coffee stand. It’s typical late Fall weather here in the Pacific Northwest. Little bit of rain, clouds, the sun will pop out once in while. The Holiday season is upon us and this year is not a “normal” year. It’s been a “shitshow.” I never would have imagined in my lifetime that I would be living in a world wide…

Sunday drives…

I don’t know about anyone else… but, I have many memories from my early childhood and taking “Sunday drives” with my family.

Now with the pandemic and stay at home orders, I find myself taking a “Sunday drive” a couple days a week. It feels like Sunday everyday. It’s like we’re in one loooonnnnnggggg never ending weekend, but with out the normalcy we’re used to.

I’m beginning to really…

Back to Reality…

After a beautiful week in Arizona and much needed decompressing, I’m back home now and reality hits… I reflect on the last week and try to carry over my vacation to the present time. I realize that maybe not on purpose I always seemed to be rushing or 5 steps ahead of my thoughts.

I would wake up each morning last week without any worries and just went with the flow. It felt really good.…

Decompressing…

Sometimes the term “Getting out of Dodge” is the perfect saying.  As for me I did just that. I had this planned vacation and it couldn’t have come at the best time.  I flew out last Saturday from Seattle to Phoenix.  Just hours before “snowmageddon” hit the Seattle area. Now albeit beautiful. Seattle snow just proves to be hazardous and stressful to most that live there.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexel…

Decompressing…

Sometimes the term “Getting out of Dodge” is the perfect saying.  As for me I did just that. I had this planned vacation and it couldn’t have come at the best time.  I flew out last Saturday from Seattle to Phoenix.  Just hours before “snowmageddon” hit the Seattle area. Now albeit beautiful. Seattle snow just proves to be hazardous and stressful to most that live there.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexel…

New Year, New Decade, New Beginnings…

Happy New Year!!!  Hard to believe we’ve entered a new decade.  As I look back on this past year and decade I realize I’ve been through so many ups and downs and changes.

The most recent is starting my life over after divorce. It’s been a roller coaster of a year. Living on my own and doing things alone. When for many years having a house full of family around and now there’s just me.  It’s kind…

It’s been a while since I’ve written here.  I’ve gone through some life changes.  Been stressful, but am managing to get through each day the best I can. I got divorced, sold our home and moved into my own place. Now I haven’t lived alone in over 20 plus years.  It’s been a big adjustment.  I miss my kids, but they’re adults now and have their own lives.  On an up note, I’ve published my second…

Most people in life seem to be happy, or we are all putting on a good facade of what makes us happy. Some of us seem to have a happy place, things that make us happy, a certain person that will brighten our day, or all of the above. Sometimes these things help us move forward with that good feeling throughout the day.

I would say that I’m happy everyday, maybe not all day, but I am a happy and optimistic person.

Things that make me happy each day are my beautiful children, walking, writing, traveling once in awhile, being able to create art, and just being able to wake up everyday knowing I’m healthy and have wonderful people in my life that support me.

I’m not saying everyday is perfect, but I really try to find my happiness everyday and carry a smile with it.

As always: Keep Smiling! (:

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

Photo by Binti Malu on Pexels.com

Photo by Artem Bali on Pexels.com

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Snow Fall…

Snowflakes falling from the sky

Silence in the air

Slowly falling to the ground

Green trees turning white

Streets covered in sheets of ice

Silence in the air

Snowflakes falling from the sky

Making everything look so bright

The sky lights up so pink and bright

Silence in the air

Snowflakes falling from the sky

Slowly turning the green to white

So, these last couple of days I’ve just slowed down and am enjoying the time off of work and relaxing.  I didn’t realize how much I missed a good “snow day.”

I’m taking in all the beautiful snow scenes.  Watching the kids from the neighborhood walk to the church behind me and sledding down the hill it has.  It’s fun to hear the laughter and screams of happiness. I remember not to long ago my kids (who are 20 and 22 now) sledding on that same hill enjoying the unscheduled day off.  Puts a smile on my face to see and hear all the laughter and happiness. Brings back a lot of memories from my childhood.

As always: Keep Smiling! (:

Anxiety triggers and fears…

Anxiety sucks and I try my hardest to work my way through it.  Certain times of the day or year or maybe one thing will set mine off.

My one trigger point lately has been elevators. I’ve always hated them. Glass ones I don’t mind because I can see the surroundings outside.  I have a fear of getting stuck in one again. It happened to me several years ago in an apartment that I lived in.  I was…

A few weeks ago I was walking with my daughter and we saw 3 or 4 otters swimming ashore dragging a fresh caught salmon into the bushes.  The last few days I’ve picked up two more painted rocks that people leave out.  I’ve found about 10 over the last year.  Sometimes one just needs a pick me up like the painted rocks to add that extra smile to the day.

Here are a few photos I’ve taken on my last few walks and as always: Keep Smiling!

New Year, New Beginnings…

Every year most of us make goals or resolutions.  I usually make goals and they’re not always easy to achieve. My goal last year was to publish my children’s book and I did!  I published it in October 2018.  It felt so good to complete it and see it in print.

So, as you can well guess, this years goal is to continue writing and publish my second children’s book-which is a continuation of the…

It’s been so long since I’ve blogged.  I love to write and it’s very therapeutic for me and I just seemed to have lost my “mojo” in the blogging department.  I think about blogging a lot -but I didn’t want to write about things without meaning to me and I always try to keep my posts positive.

Well on a positive note, I finally finished my children’s book. My mum is the illustrator and I’m so…

Butterfly…

Butterfly roaming free

flits around for all to see

just up high enough so it can’t be touched

it’s effortless beauty draws me in

looping and circling in the air

landing on a flower

blending in 

The flower shines even more

The butterfly drinks the nectar in

then flits away 

circling, and floating through the air

enjoying it’s life without a care.

illustration by my Mum-(one that will be featured…

Of course Texas is known for it’s BBQ, chicken fried steak, anything beef, and crawfish,the Brunches, mimosas, all of it made me fall in love with this city.

A few places that are a must– Magnolias Cafes,  love the slogan “Sorry we’re open.” The brunch menu has many delicious options and daily specials, along with mimosas by the carafe, or just the glass.  Threadgills was another place I brunched-delicious buffet and an omellette bar.  There are so many good food places here-I can’t remember them all.

Another must see and do is the Austin music scene.  6th Street is known for great live music.  We ended up at a bar called Friends. Ruby Dice and Dave Scher are the two bands that were playing that Saturday afternoon.  I absolutely loved the music.  The crowd was very friendly and lots of fun to watch.  I would like to see both of these bands again.

There are so many places to watch live music on this street that one weekend is not enough time to catch them all. I now get why Austin is called the music capitol.  That evening we went to a club called Emos and saw Led Zeppelin 2.  Awesome cover band. The lead sounds exactly like Robert Plant.

A few other places that I went to was the Texas State Capitol building, Brighton Springs, Zilker Park, University of Texas and of course I had to hit up a local book store, Bookpeople.  I’m finding myself drawn to getting quirky books on the cities I visit now.  I bought Keeping Austin Weird.  It’s filled with many different photos and places of the city.  Very interesting and can’t wait to dive into it more.

It also fascinated me that they preserve a lot of their old signs that are out in front of restaurants, car washes, hotels, etc…

Needless to say I can’t wait to get back to Austin again and explore more of it.

Spreading kindness is always welcomed, especially in this crazy world we live in now.  I know that now when I see one that it’s ok to take it.  I am however going to also pay it forward and paint a few myself, or just write a saying and start leaving them at random times and places. The few that I have seen recently have put a smile on my face.

As always: Keep smiling!!!

  A few rocks I saw on my recent walks~