A little catch up

It's been awhile since I've been here, so I thought I'd do a bit of catch up. So many days I think I'll stop in and post, but the flow of the day gets past me. So some sharing of the mundane stuff our days are made up of....

I went for a trim, showed the hairdresser a photo, and watched as she proceeded to cut off all the long parts of my hair. But it's hair, it grows fast, and I decided to just go with it. Really, what could I do? I couldn't stick it back on, so I decided to like it. It's the perfect spring/summer haircut, and I can go from bedhead to out the door in about five minutes. What girl doesn't want that?

One of my new years' resolutions or goals was to clean up my act a bit. To wear yoga pants less, wear make up more, fix my hair, take a little more time with myself. I went through my clothes, got rid of what I didn't need, and bought what I did. How on earth my hair got to be so silver/white I'll never know? But five or so years after deciding to go with my natural color I'm still happy about it. I'd rather people think I'm older from afar and decide I'm a bit younger when they get up close than the opposite. And I kind of like matching with Cub Sweetheart :-) 

This was as random shot after we'd just cheered for the Mustangs, who at that point had a record of 0 and 6, but we sure had fun being part of the fan club. It turned into a fun family tradition, going to the game early on Saturday mornings, then the entire family going to a local diner for old fashioned breakfast. So fun! We enjoyed it so much we decided to keep it up at least once a month after the season is over.

The Mustangs never won but I am proud to report D2 scored every single basket that was made by his team. Which had two girls on it! I love the stage where you can whistle and whoop for them, and when they make a bucket they immediately look up in the stands to see if we're giving them a thumbs up. Sometimes they randomly tear across the court, in the middle of the game, for a potty break, or they fall and skin a knee and the mom runs across the court and gives them kisses. It's possibly the best age to cheer for them.

I'm one month into piano lessons, and am having SO much fun! We started at the very beginning, good ole Middle C, but with an Advanced Adult book, so it's moving along quickly. This teacher has a degree in piano, so she's a real stickler for theory and technique, and correct fingering, all of which I never bothered much with in previous lessons. She's a tiny thing, and once in awhile she surprises me by having me scoot over on the bench and she'll join me as we play duets. They make me a bit nervous because I'm so inclined to make 99,000 mistakes but this isn't her first rodeo and she manages to keep up with all my false starts. I'm so happy to be taking lessons again that I'm at 100% for practicing every single day since I started. And it's getting better. I keep telling myself playing the piano is a skill, and anyone can learn. Including me. It feels magical to me, to see black dots on paper, and transfer them to my fingers and beautiful sounds happen. After each lesson I sit with my book to look over what I'm learning next, and sometimes I look ahead at the end of the book to see what I'll be able to play in just a few months. I am forcing myself not to buy the next book, but everything in me is so anxious to see it, and see what I'll be learning next! The young kids taking lessons may learn it faster, but I doubt they're more dedicated or excited about the whole process.

I also found out yesterday that my teacher does student recitals; I thankfully found out today her adult students don't participate - hallelujah!

I've been reading quite a bit since the beginning of the year, and my nightstand is stacked up high. Right now I'm finishing up The Choice, by Dr. Edith Eva Eger, a Holocaust survivor who is in her 90's and still a practicing psychologist. She is an absolutely amazing person, and I've got the pages so dogged from turning them back I may have the library gnashing their teeth when they see how I'm returning it. Reading The Choice has spurred me on to read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, another Holocaust survivor. It's sold more than four million copies since it was published in 1959. I can't wait to read it.

Then I ran across "I'm Proud of You, My Friendship with Fred Rogers" by Tim Madigan, which is apparently going to be made into a movie. How fun is that?! It's a tiny slip of a book but from reading the jacket I know it's going to be a gem.

My daughter told me to find Anna Quindlen's book, "Miller's Valley". She promised it would resonate with me, my life story and Quindlen is a favorite author of mine. Looking forward to that one.

Then last, I've started Bleak House by Dickens and am determined to finish it in spite of watching the series on TV. If you haven't read it, do, and if you don't want to bother with that, at least watch the series. So, so good! The characters are absolutely amazing and all so memorable. CS watched the entire series with me, and we still quote funny lines from it.

This is a shot of sunrise from our little patio. We live in the first phase of our neighborhood and they're just about to start building homes in phase two, but you can see why I call this place our "Little House on the Prairie". We chose this house when the entire 33 acres was just a big cow pasture, and we're enjoying watching the homes go up all around us. I've also joined our neighborhood Bible study. We found a church that is a good fit for us, and are attending Sunday morning classes to find the right one for us. I've gone to one ladies' coffee, and also a couple of bookclub meetings since being back in Texas, and am enjoying being a part of our new neighborhood. My piano teacher lives 10 minutes from me, the vet is five minutes away, so gradually it's feeling more like our half-the-year home.

In March of this year CS and I will be celebrating our 37th anniversary. We didn't get to celebrate it last year, since my mother had just died and we were in the middle of moving. This year we decided to make it a priority, so we're doing the celebrating a bit ahead of schedule and leaving on a cruise this weekend. Headed for somewhere in the Western Caribbean, somewhere warm and sunny. I've got my library books, a floppy hat, and two swimsuits packed. That should just about cover it.

I'll be back in a week or so to let you know how it went, and what I thought of the several books I plan to read while I'm away.

Blessings,
Bev

P.S. I've also stepped away from Facebook (except for Messenger) for a variety of reasons, so I won't be linking to my blog posts there anymore. Hopefully those who have kept reading along will get notice I've posted. If you were following along on Facebook, you might want to use the button on my sidebar to subscribe by email, so you'll be notified of new postings. :-)