It's Always About the Steps!

What Is With This Weather?

It's the middle of June and it's not over 100 degrees?

Oh, but please don't stop! 

Current conditions at Yuma, Marine Corps Air Station (KNYL) 

I am just loving the mornings we have been having again. I thought they were gone for the summer. Usually once it hits 115 there's no going back. But here they are again!

My back porch via my iPhone

I know all to well that it will eventually be coming to an end. In fact looking at the forecast, this is the last time we'll see temps in the 90's for some time now.  

I will surely be enjoying these next few beautiful mornings outside, while doing my devotions, some writing, and of course capturing this beautiful family of hummingbirds. 

Just another day on Our Journey Through LIFE!

It's A Love - Hate Relationship!

I have a LOVE-HATE Relationship with Facebook!

I love the connection it has allowed with my family and friends a far. 

I love how we are able to share our journeys and life's experiences. 

I love the games. They fill a time that would otherwise be miserable! 

I love most of the tidbits shared back and forth.

I love to read the updates from those I love, to the travel and entertainment pages I like.

I even love some of those sarcastic meme things some post. They can be so funny!

What I hate about Facebook are all those opinions and propaganda adds that are shared. Some are years old and are shared as if it happened yesterday. Some arrive as "Trending" or "Suggested Post" that Facebook thinks I might like. The political ones are my biggest pet peeves of them all. Lately, all they are about is slamming each other and calling names. What ever happened to talking about solving the problems instead of creating more. 

Then there are the videos of all those riots at the rally's, or protesters after a verdict. Even a win or a loss from a sport championship game can become violent and then it goes viral. It's just getting out of hand. I just hate seeing such disrespect and anger, leading to so much unnecessary property damage.  

I am thankful for that drop down menu on the right of such post where you can click to not ever see them again. It's kind of like deleting your spam email or unsubscribing from unwanted email list.

Reading all those opinions just doesn't bring JOY to my life. 

There are a variety of opinions that people share that can be very entertaining but others can be very hurtful. Those that use it to shame or share their views have every right to post hourly or daily as those of us who use it to share our lives. 

Some just need to chill out!

First off, it is NOT my diary! Believe me, you don't want to read what I write in my diary! Thus this post a few weeks ago. 

Besides, Facebook greets us each time we log on with...

"What's on your mind?"

Isn't that the same thing we do when we open up our dairy or journal, we write what's on our mind?

The election, is on our mind!

Our jobs, our families, our problems, are all on our minds on any given day. If sharing that information is like my diary, then click that arrow on the right of the post like I do and call it a day. 

I see Facebook more like...

  

of my journal, better known as 

"Our Journey Through LIFE!"

It's Always Something, Isn't It!

It all started back in May. While planning for an upcoming 6th Grade Promotion Pool Party we decided replacing the deck beside the pool had to be done. The composite decking just didn't hold up to our excessive heat. We can't remember exactly when we built it but believe it was around 2005 or 2006. So 10 years wasn't bad I guess.

 What we found under the deck was a complete surprise!

 Those darn gopher's had filled it up with dirt! Just what they needed, more work!

It's always something!

We surely weren't expecting that! Thankful to have a healthy nephew around who can handle the job. We couldn't have done this without him.

Once all the dirt was removed, the framing having been buried in the dirt, and though it was that pressure treated stuff, had so many rot spots it too had to be replaced. 

It's always something!

Finally, they got to begin building. After resetting the piers and leveling the framing, it was getting close to the time for them to add some deck boards. Calling it quits for the night, the last rails would get done the next day.

Unfortunately hubby accidentally left the pool fill on ALL night! All that water filled their work area and took 2 days, which we really didn't have, to dry out. Not only that, another gopher popped up. Without any decking, I was able to have the pest guy inject the area with bait. He'll come back in a couple weeks and re-bait again around the perimeter. 

It's always something!

While they waited for the area to dry, I decided to build that flowerbed I've been wanting along the walk way to the pool. Something that had been put off for years. Now that I have dirt, and I didn't have to have it to get trucked in, I can now get it done with a little help from the nephew. He hauled a couple rocks for me and brought me 3 wheelbarrow of that dirt full to complete this job. I also have a few other plans for that dirt as well. So long as I pace myself, I am getting quite a bit caught up around here. 

Once they got back onto the deck it only took another couple days to complete. Actually, it was the second half of one day and the first half of another.

All that is left to do is to seal it and we can slap on the "DONE" sign! 

For now it was fine so we could celebrate Memorial Weekend and a Promotion Pool Party a few days later.

You know that song, "My Front Porch Looking In", well I LOVE my view looking out also! Watching 10 adults and 14 kids celebrating promotions to Jr. High, 1st grade and kindergarten, the view was awesome!

We're ready for the summer around here on Our Journey Through LIFE!

Hummingbird Time!

I absolutely LOVE my time in the mornings with the hummingbirds! It's a slow time I enjoy the most. I surely don't mind the wait.

Over time we've become really good friends. I can get within 2 feet of them, or shall I say they get within 2 feet of me so long as I stand still and wait. 

They zip around me as if saying "Hello!". 

If a feeder is empty they will persistently fly around me chirping with their distinct sound, reminding me to refill it. 

 In time it has created a routine between us. It allows me the opportunity to capture them in so many different places around my yard. 

My time with them has also created a LOVE to surely last a lifetime if not an eternity. Where this LOVE will take me on Our Journey Through LIFE, only time will tell.

                                         

I'm Still HERE!

This last month has been jam packed with this, that and the other in regards to some family time, some adjustments on the health front, but mostly there was lots of progress on the writing projects. 

Spring cleaning the laundry/craft/sewing room took me a bit longer then expected. I have yet to create the writing area though, however a plan has been established and is ready to be executed once another areas needs are met. Having to replace a rotted deck, before a graduation pool party, was not on the agenda. It's always something!

In the meantime I'm keeping notebooks, yes that is plural, in many locations. From the bedside table or the table beside the chaise lounge, to the car and travel trailer, anywhere I can in order to allow me the ability and the opportunity to jot down a thought or memory. It has been so helpful. I have also been using Siri more often and we are becoming pretty good friends. She really helps when my tired handwriting has become so illegible, not even I can read it.

These notebooks have also become a very convenient tool when it comes to making a list of items needed. I LOVE using a list for shopping. Which stores I need to go to and what is needed at each one. I've become the "Go in, get what you NEED kind a shopper". I especially use one for groceries. It controls most impulsive buying and we seem to get out quicker.

Oh, the many list of my life! 

I have a Bucket List of places I want to go someday, with locations and directions in code. Some are even given by friendly people we meet while misdirected at one time or another. Places we heard about on the Travel Channel or Discovery Channel, are scribbled with web page addresses and hints.

Not to mention the notebooks are great for being able to leave a note on a friends front door when they are not home or a windshield when someone has parked in such a way, they need reminded in the nicest way that those lines painted so nice and straight are meant for. A happy face for a signature really helps.

They have become my traveling journals. My memories. My calendars. My place to vent, and my place to leave tears. I don't know what I would do without them. 

I do know, getting the words off those pages and onto the computer, takes longer then I expect. Then to get them organize into some type of a filing system, well, I procrastinate more then I would like to admit, but it's the truth! 

There are a few pages, okay a large number of pages, of "What Was I Thinking!" thoughts. The "Where did that come from?" pages create questions. Pages only I will ever know what they say. As I go through those pages deciding what I will keep or what needs to be deleted, I read, I reflect, I pause, I pray, and when I am ready, I rip those words right out of that notebook. 

Words that were never meant to be spoken, and should never be read by anyone else. 

Words that created healing and growth within me, and are so personal, they were only shared with God.

I would like to rip more then just those pages sometimes. 

Be it the side effects from the medications or dealing with one constantly being adjusted, I would like to throw some pill bottles into that same receptacle! 

"Patience Elizabeth!" 

I must keep reminding myself of this, but all to often I tend to beat myself up with what I haven't thrown away. As I reflect on how others had gotten through these years with the stuff they were dealing with, reminds me of the example they set as they had gone through what ever it was they were going through. Life is full of milestones. Some are well documented, while other are torn pages from a journal. 

I will keep growing forward!

I told my hairdresser during my last hair cut, that for the first time in my adult life, I only have to take care of myself these days. Everyone else is taking care of themselves, just as it's suppose to be. I have a feeling the years ahead, those prior to the "Grand's" becoming adults themselves, my role will be shifting again. 

Getting into a new groove is and will be "Grand"!

What Journey!

All of this and that creates Our Journey Through LIFE and I wouldn't be where I am without the roads, paths, and directions we have been given or taken.