The new year.....where on earth did it go? And now it's back again!!
The last day of the year, the last day of the first decade of the 'new' century; headed into the new decade....a time to reflect.
It has been quite the year for this old girl! My little girls, 20 and 22, have continued to amaze me; sometimes good, sometimes not so much. Love them with all my heart, none the less! I have, at the young age of 52, ventured out and done very long road trips 'alone', armed only with girlish excitement and wonder about what may occur. Hubby had major surgery which he came through with flying colors. I stepped out on faith and quit a job only to pursue and obtain a long dream of beginning a teaching career. I have made awesome new friends and re-connected with awesome friends from my past~~~~thank you Facebook!! I am the luckiest gal I know!! Tomorrow begins a new chapter--1/1/11!! (and in November...11/11/11)
May 2011 be filled with much happiness, great prosperity, and countless blessings for you and yours.
Blessings... G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised In The South)
Friday, December 31, 2010
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Christmas Day
It's been a couple of weeks since I visited here. And a hectic 2 weeks it's been!! In that short time presents have been wrapped, a trip to Florida has been made, and the Christmas day preparations were finalized......and are now over. It just comes and goes so fast.
This holiday season has been particularly fun and memorable. To start with, I had my girls home...at the same time. That is always special as all of you know that have grown children. Second, I was able to have an extraordinary and special visit with some "friends" from my past. What a great reunion it was!! I was the one blessed by that visit. It is so nice to be able to see how wonderful an already wonderful family becomes. I love you guys!!! One gift I received this year was....
Another gift I received this year was the gift of fulfilling a lifelong dream....I will begin teaching. I hope to share with young (or maybe not so much) and eager folks the qualities of becoming an amazing nurse. I have been blessed and I am eager to share those blessings with others.....paying it forward!!!!
Now the goodies are eaten, the presents have been opened, the rounds have been made. It's time to de-decorate and enjoy the final week of 2010. I think I'll take time this week to take stock of all that has transpired in 2010.....whew, what a year it has been!!!
To my special friend(s), Merry Christmas.
Blessings... G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised In The South)
This holiday season has been particularly fun and memorable. To start with, I had my girls home...at the same time. That is always special as all of you know that have grown children. Second, I was able to have an extraordinary and special visit with some "friends" from my past. What a great reunion it was!! I was the one blessed by that visit. It is so nice to be able to see how wonderful an already wonderful family becomes. I love you guys!!! One gift I received this year was....
Another gift I received this year was the gift of fulfilling a lifelong dream....I will begin teaching. I hope to share with young (or maybe not so much) and eager folks the qualities of becoming an amazing nurse. I have been blessed and I am eager to share those blessings with others.....paying it forward!!!!
Now the goodies are eaten, the presents have been opened, the rounds have been made. It's time to de-decorate and enjoy the final week of 2010. I think I'll take time this week to take stock of all that has transpired in 2010.....whew, what a year it has been!!!
To my special friend(s), Merry Christmas.
Blessings... G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised In The South)
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Deck the~~~~great room!
I just love this time of year! It is usually such a positive and festive time. Mind you, there have been years that were a little 'stretched', which most of us have had, but overall it's wonderful!
I am not one of these people that must follow ever-changing 'themed' decorating from year to year. I follow the same tradition year after year (...after year...after year...). One year, being out of sorts for whatever reason, I tried a red/white/blue theme; didn't like it so much and returned to the usual. I absolutely love annual traditions!!
There is a certain order to decorating our home for the holidays; there is absolutely NO OCD involved ;-). This begins with a post-Thanksgiving day cleaning on Black Friday (how appropriate). Then we set out to the nearest Christmas tree farm to carefully select the perfect Griswold tree. We've chosen trees in all shapes and sizes over the years. After we've allowed the tree a long drink of water, it's time to apply the lights. With Christmas music playing in the background I begin the light application process. This starts with plugging in the strings of lights to make sure they are all working. If not, you know what must be done; the painful process of figuring out which one is the culprit!! Again, there is a certain way to place lights on a tree. And, again, we've done this several different ways to try to discover which works best. Do you go round and round, up and down, or in and out? We use all of the above! Start with in (near the trunk)/round and round, followed by out/round and round. If there are 'leftovers' at the end, they go up and down. It works for us! Just white lights...
With lights placed and turned on, I place the skirt at the base. This, at least, makes me feel like I'm ALMOST finished. I happily begin lovingly placing each ornament in the perfect place on the tree. We do not have just one color or one style. Many are the handmade creations of our children when they were small. It takes me forever to put ornaments on because I stop and look at each one and remember back to when my grown children were precious little ones! I love these memories. A few are ones that hubby surprised me with, as he knows just how much I love this time of year. Others, are special, having been purchased in honor or memory of loved ones. Still others represent friendships and places of our past. This year, the stash was a little lighter. Last year as I was taking down the decorations, I decided to make separate Christmas 'starter' boxes for the girls. In the box, I placed different items that they particularly wanted along with a stocking and ornaments. Keep in mind that mommy kept the ones that are very, very dear to her heart!! Daddy loved putting icicles on the tree! NOW I know where I got my OCD!!! Like everything else, there is only one way to apply icicles to the tree----one by one and strategically placed...I DO NOT apply icicles.
I finalize the decorating tradition with windows, shelves, and doors. I have a Santa Claus shelf, a snowman shelf, and several shelves devoted to the real reason for Christmas. I love nativity representations and have several different ones throughout the house. Don't want to leave out my few little nutcrackers.
Once all this is complete, which usually takes a couple of days, I sit down to enjoy and start working on sending out Christmas cards and begin the 'goody' cooking.
This is such a great time of year. Time for family and friends to come together, leaving the stress and troubles of the world behind and enjoy just being with each other. This year, like all the ones before since we've had children, we will make the annual trek to Florida to see grand-parents (and friends) and enjoy their annual bar-b-q! Did I mention I love this time of year?!
Blessings to you and yours this Christmas season.....
Blessings... G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised In The South)
I am not one of these people that must follow ever-changing 'themed' decorating from year to year. I follow the same tradition year after year (...after year...after year...). One year, being out of sorts for whatever reason, I tried a red/white/blue theme; didn't like it so much and returned to the usual. I absolutely love annual traditions!!
There is a certain order to decorating our home for the holidays; there is absolutely NO OCD involved ;-). This begins with a post-Thanksgiving day cleaning on Black Friday (how appropriate). Then we set out to the nearest Christmas tree farm to carefully select the perfect Griswold tree. We've chosen trees in all shapes and sizes over the years. After we've allowed the tree a long drink of water, it's time to apply the lights. With Christmas music playing in the background I begin the light application process. This starts with plugging in the strings of lights to make sure they are all working. If not, you know what must be done; the painful process of figuring out which one is the culprit!! Again, there is a certain way to place lights on a tree. And, again, we've done this several different ways to try to discover which works best. Do you go round and round, up and down, or in and out? We use all of the above! Start with in (near the trunk)/round and round, followed by out/round and round. If there are 'leftovers' at the end, they go up and down. It works for us! Just white lights...
With lights placed and turned on, I place the skirt at the base. This, at least, makes me feel like I'm ALMOST finished. I happily begin lovingly placing each ornament in the perfect place on the tree. We do not have just one color or one style. Many are the handmade creations of our children when they were small. It takes me forever to put ornaments on because I stop and look at each one and remember back to when my grown children were precious little ones! I love these memories. A few are ones that hubby surprised me with, as he knows just how much I love this time of year. Others, are special, having been purchased in honor or memory of loved ones. Still others represent friendships and places of our past. This year, the stash was a little lighter. Last year as I was taking down the decorations, I decided to make separate Christmas 'starter' boxes for the girls. In the box, I placed different items that they particularly wanted along with a stocking and ornaments. Keep in mind that mommy kept the ones that are very, very dear to her heart!! Daddy loved putting icicles on the tree! NOW I know where I got my OCD!!! Like everything else, there is only one way to apply icicles to the tree----one by one and strategically placed...I DO NOT apply icicles.
I finalize the decorating tradition with windows, shelves, and doors. I have a Santa Claus shelf, a snowman shelf, and several shelves devoted to the real reason for Christmas. I love nativity representations and have several different ones throughout the house. Don't want to leave out my few little nutcrackers.
Once all this is complete, which usually takes a couple of days, I sit down to enjoy and start working on sending out Christmas cards and begin the 'goody' cooking.
This is such a great time of year. Time for family and friends to come together, leaving the stress and troubles of the world behind and enjoy just being with each other. This year, like all the ones before since we've had children, we will make the annual trek to Florida to see grand-parents (and friends) and enjoy their annual bar-b-q! Did I mention I love this time of year?!
Blessings to you and yours this Christmas season.....
Blessings... G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised In The South)
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Full glasses
Overall I consider myself a positive and optimistic individual. Been told I'm in a league all my own!! I THINK that's a good thing....isn't it? I enjoy and gain energy from being around others who have this same quality. However, there are those in this world who struggle to see the glass half full; they always seem to have an 'empty' glass and talk like the world is against them. Never have quite understood this. To those folks I say........smile! The glass IS half full!! In fact, it probably 'runneth over'!!!!!!
Blessings... G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised In The South)
Blessings... G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised In The South)
Friday, December 3, 2010
Life's journey...
This journey called life......it is endless and so full of surprises, some awesome, some not so much.
It isn't everyday that we are given the opportunity to pursue a lifelong dream. I was given that opportunity this week. About 2 weeks ago, I made a personal and professional decision to resign from my job. It was a step out in faith. I had no job lined up but had prayer warriors helping me. A severance gift was handed to me that following Monday afternoon which allowed me to begin my job search. On Tuesday morning, a company called ME and asked me to come in and interview which I did. At this point, over the previous 1 1/2 months, I had interviewed twice with the local university for a position as a nursing instructor. Wednesday, a week later, I had job offers from both places. I have a very special and wise friend. My friend advised me to follow my heart, reminding me that we don't always get a second chance to do that (remember that, dear friend!). Sooooo, I followed my heart which took me to the teaching position.
I remember as a real little girl, lining up my stuffed animals and Barbie dolls and playing school. My closet door doubled as the chalk board. I had my daddy's old roll top desk, and of course this was the teacher's desk. I used to love pretending I was a teacher. Now I will fulfill that childhood dream. I have the absolute best of all worlds; nurse and teacher. I pray I will pass on the experiences and wisdom I have acquired over the years.
This journey has certainly not been a smooth ride, but has most definitely been rewarding. I look forward to the new challenges and rewards that will, no doubt, follow in the years to come.
Blessings... G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised In The South)
It isn't everyday that we are given the opportunity to pursue a lifelong dream. I was given that opportunity this week. About 2 weeks ago, I made a personal and professional decision to resign from my job. It was a step out in faith. I had no job lined up but had prayer warriors helping me. A severance gift was handed to me that following Monday afternoon which allowed me to begin my job search. On Tuesday morning, a company called ME and asked me to come in and interview which I did. At this point, over the previous 1 1/2 months, I had interviewed twice with the local university for a position as a nursing instructor. Wednesday, a week later, I had job offers from both places. I have a very special and wise friend. My friend advised me to follow my heart, reminding me that we don't always get a second chance to do that (remember that, dear friend!). Sooooo, I followed my heart which took me to the teaching position.
I remember as a real little girl, lining up my stuffed animals and Barbie dolls and playing school. My closet door doubled as the chalk board. I had my daddy's old roll top desk, and of course this was the teacher's desk. I used to love pretending I was a teacher. Now I will fulfill that childhood dream. I have the absolute best of all worlds; nurse and teacher. I pray I will pass on the experiences and wisdom I have acquired over the years.
This journey has certainly not been a smooth ride, but has most definitely been rewarding. I look forward to the new challenges and rewards that will, no doubt, follow in the years to come.
Blessings... G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised In The South)
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