Category: life

Posted on in life, sixty

My Dupe Era.

If you are shopping in high-end boutiques. Fantastic. Carry on and enjoy, but outside the happy bubble of high-end everything, the rest of society is hurting. So, don’t get judgmental. Prices on everything have created dupe mania, which is different from fake designers wares. I don’t promote copies or fakes, but I am at a point that $100 for just about anything from leggings to facial products is stupid, but I still want comfort and the overall style that designers create. So, I am duping. I want the look for less. Period.

It took me a minute to get comfortable with this Gen Z creation. I like designer clothes, bags and shoes. I have pieces and will continue to go in that direction at times, but as prices climb in all areas from food, airfare, housing, etc. Gen Z’s may have it right even if it costs the public new boutique designs and a life of faster fashion. In this day and age, the saving of money is more important than ever, and frankly, the direction of prices shows no sign of slowing.

So, dupe, my friend. You can find some of your old friends for less, and while not exactly, the same it is close as there are tribes of dupers that compare the products like scientists. Watch a few videos, and you can buy the closest products to what is now a few hundred dollars a jar, La Prairie vs. Aldi, yes, the grocery store price, please. Hey, caviar is caviar… and groceries are also available. Food plus a treat. It’s such a 1990’s way of life which I miss.

At 61, my dupes are selective and based on a true desire to save money for big ticket items, travel, and retirement. This economy has caused us all pause, or it should.

Posted on in life, sixty, travel

The Little Farmhouse

There is something to be said about hanging out on a farm when you go to pick apples or buy jams and jellies, lovingly prepped and packed. Now, take this a step further and live on-site. Yep, on a farm. A working farm, no less. We were lovingly granted this opportunity from a family that realized our predicament while our own river home (not farm based) is being built, and we are grateful. Now, this farmhouse is used yearly as a hunting cabin. It comes complete with many horns on the wall and a real landline with a rotary dial phone. No internet. None. Nada. No TV. We do have radio and the outside noises of the outside trees. That’s it. Peace but also a relection of slower times and the reality that while nice, I like the simple comforts that time and technology have provided.

The days are easy. Writing. Walking. Writing. Walking. Cards at night. Rinse and repeat. We have a DVD player, so old movies are the comfort of noise and the colors that jet across the screen that I take for granted. Dinner, for us, it is a frozen meal, as cooking for me is difficult in the real world, now mix in ancient conditions.  I can’t imagine. But frozen stays in tune with the diet I am on, so it works. No real-world fancy temptations at every corner. A simple life.

We are young for the island. Oh, there are others, but land was bought a century ago and handed down or purchased by family.  Our parcel was a gift. It is priceless as I have aged to the slowness of the island and the desire to try new things. Hiking. Boating. Maybe even golf (off island). Reading, definitely, and of course, writing. Gardening? Well, it’s a  maybe. Our home will have the trappings of technology, as working is still a must, as is the desire to stay relevant and entertained.  But a simple life it is to escape from the city expectations and a sanctuary to fully enjoy life.

Posted on in family, granparent life, grey hair, health, life, menopause, travel

An Aha Moment with Disney Grandma

The joy of seeing not only your five-year-old grandson squeal with delight upon every twist and turn of the Disney experience, but also your son watching his son, is priceless. After the two days of steps into the high five digits per day, crowds, and the mastering of the Genie +, which is a necessity if you go…it is my all-time favorite trip to date. Yes, it beats any European or fancy trip I have taken. My smile has still not left my face. I am already ready to plan our next adventure, LEGOLAND and then a Disney Cruise for all to enjoy. Even with all the fun, I struggled with my pictures, my thoughts, my looks in the mirror, and of course how difficult 30K steps really are at sixty. I felt my age. This was the first time I FELT sixty. I have tried to ignore this age until this trip hit. I felt it. I am it. And it isn’t so bad. I stood tall and survived with absolute delight at the entire trip. My current bronchitis and ripping my back on a doggie crate have nothing to do with my days off from school afterwards, one needs to separate the two, or I will really feel my age. The bronchitis is due to other teachers showing up sick and passing it along. Thanks. The crate and back are my stupidity and rushing. But I digress. Back to the show.

Disney, while a hit in every way possible, I would go again tomorrow, was my reality that I am aging. I need to take care of myself and not feel bad about it and think about the end stages of work i.e. retirement. I want more out of life than another group of students and a new classroom decor. I have decided. Three more years of work and my health patrol to keep me going to fully enjoy life and not to sit on the sidelines. So, I am eating well, losing an ounce or two a week and working out through the Instagram motivation of all the other silver ladies that walk, ride, lift light weights etc. so the body will go back to what it is to be…a healthy age without a number. Not a drastic med enhanced thinness, just real. So, while my pictures may dwindle on social media…or I may not look as often, as I do love to post. I need to fall in love with myself again and figure out my new figure attire, as I dress for my body transformation moment, that I am blessed to have as it is part of the journey of life. I have officially entered the Disney with a five-year-old grandson who will chase down any Disney character for him part of my life. It is amazing.

Here are some great Disney links for silver mamas and grandmas out there who need to plan your daily adventure at Mickey’s House, walk in faux lululemon style and comfort, say good-by to foot pain, and count your steps with ease. So, book the trip and smile all the way home.

  1. Genie+ https://disneyland.disney.go.com/genie/
  2. Baleaf https://www.amazon.com/stores/page
  3. Alegria https://www.amazon.com/Alegria-Women-Indigo-Athletic-Walking
  4. Lululemon https://www.amazon.com/s?k=lululemon
  5. Oura Ring https://www.amazon.com/s?k=oura+ring
Posted on in Christmas, family, life

Next…

On Christmas Day 2023, I noticed people posting the pressing question of when to take their Christmas decor down. Call me crazy but I read these posts/questions before mid-morning perhaps minutes after presents were completely unwrapped around the world and Santa was finally drinking his first egg nog with Mrs. Clause. Seems odd. Have we lost enjoyment in our ever pressing social presence. I fear a few out there lived through Christmas via mental lists that ushered on the social media imposed schedule. Where’s the joy and the simple pleasures of watching your tree brown to a point lights cannot be turned on? We all learned great fire and cleaning skills from this season that can’t be learned without tree droppings. Where has simplicity and the utter delight from just “being” gone? Why the rush?

Is holiday running due to the excitement of resolutions that are never kept over NYE or the countless countdowns of years in review? Or are you skipping ahead to Valentines, St. Paddy’s. Easter or Mayday? Why are ornaments aleady boxed and wrapped? Now they are being relinquished to an attic only to come out for a quick show next year. Your Instagram moment awaits us all next year, with your matching 2024 Skims, carefully cropped and edited. As we are now a society who will only share a picture that is perfect with all the sparkle for the moment with hair, makeup and smiles in grand perfection and then quickly whisked to a quick dive back into hiding, so the next big moment can be captured without the clutter of Christmas. The social media slave continues only to be thinking about the next day, outfit, picture, food, cocktail or coffee to catch attention of scrollers in between their holiday heavens with drop dead decor and coordinating outfits. We once did matching sweaters for a family picture. It was hell. We were miserable but it looked perfect. It was a one and done moment in our lives, without joy and nothing but a great rush. Think about this on a daily or weekly basis for the average wannabe media maven, not those who make a real living in this crazy world. They have my odd respect and are probably creating content for weeks and months ahead so it rolls out with seamless scrolls. But this is their life and business and they are the few. The true rushers of time are just our old-fashioned “Keeping up with the Joneses” in picture form. Long ago, we just saw your new car properly or improperly parked for the best view. Now, we all see it. We have turned into a society of braggers. Don’t get me wrong I post. I have fun. I am old school insta. I enjoy the activity. I have corny comments and don’t think I am cool. It’s not a retail business or a push to keep up with others in their quest of looking perfect in my world. As us old school instas know, it’s all just a sham and perfection is never in the picture it is in the feeling. And today, I am watching my grandson sing the entire movie of Matilda. Complete with a dose of Excedrine. Because these are memories and this is perfection, so why rush?

Posted on in anxiety, life, menopause, retirement, sixty

It’s My Cabana

It’s my cabana and I will cry if I want to, or take up the entire space, glaring at others that dare to share. I knew cabanas were an option at every resort, but never did I ever dare to reserve, I will now. They are meant for those of us who have spent lives in the chairs, sharing chairs, and schelping out the children focusing on their needs first. Truly parenting with juice boxes and cherrios in tow. It is my cabana time. I have arrived. Lululemon dupes and all. These two weekends have been devoted to bringing a smile to my face, the hubs is trying. I have struggled. Between turning the big 6-0, and my fathers passing without proper closure, life has become murky.

Wading through my clutter did feel better on a cabana. Perhaps it was our fabulous waitress, the perfect backrest, or the sea air and views. Or was it just the cabana with the only lacking accoutrement being a charging station for cell phones, or is that not the point of the cabana life? I dont know? A newbie here. But I will bring a charging pack next time, which while taking away my solitude, allows me to write and solves my huge cabana problem.

While embracing my new life fixture and enjoying every minute, I still clashed with my current status of coping with a life in transition. A life in the normal stages of 60. A life beyond empty nester and into the “one day retirement” stage. Don’t get ideas. Just one day. The day gave me clarity that served the day but the chaos bounced back today. It will continue. I can’t stay on a beach or any other metaphor for life perfected, forever. No matter how many trips, spas, and dinners my feelings will stay until I learn to manage them, without a cabana. But until then the memories and true joy I felt will help me along the way on this journey to find my peace.

Posted on in essay, family, granparent life, humor, life, sixty

The Claw Can Lose!

The first haul from the claw!

Going to an arcade with a five-year-old is a blast. As a grandparent you cherish the smiles, the firsts, the games you choose and do not choose to play. You do, however, just because you are a grandparent and let’s face it this is more fun than parenthood. Truth. Even better is the fact that my nugget outsmarted the claw four times over. Yes, the impossible claw, that my husband and I swore to our own son, “the claw always wins.” We were cheap. Well, with the nugget, who cares. This is our third or fourth trip. I stayed with the mantra, but dad gave in… well, toys came out galore. “Grandma, I won. I beat the claw.” Of course, this is really the first time I have seen anyone win at the claw, so I was overjoyed and yes, we continued to play. Why not? Yes, there is more loot (one stuffed item for all) as he shares nicely. The Kermit like figure, is my gift from my grandson, which I will cherish. All $50.00 of him! A grandparent’s time is pricey but well worth it, as parents, usually cannot do what we can due to just life being expensive. It is our time. I never did arcades with our son. Never, but the nugget, after reading me a book gets the moon and I get the love of Kermitish.

Kermitish

The Kermitish, will be my forever. It was the combination of the sharing, the excitement, and just the enjoyment of the day. Nugget laughed at the name. I would as well, it is goofy. But so is an arcade and an after delight of a kid’s movie in a fancy theater. These days are precious, and they are coupled with the delight of reading, watching him tie shoes. Almost. Helping me pick out a Halloween costume (Blues Clue) down to the tights and ears. Since it was cost effective, and it made him happy, why not? No reason, sans my dignity but it for a school function. I lost any sanity and sense of costume style long ago. So, while the claw can lose, news to me, grandparents who put in the time, a few bucks, and plans for the years ahead to share in their lives, will never. That to me is the adventure, I will gladly continue to take, as long as Kermitish can come along for the ride, and he will. In the arcade I had an epiphany. Odd, yes. But it was the consistent flashing lights that brought on an idea he will never forget. Wherever we travel so will the Kerm, sort of like Flat Stanely, with postcards, journals, and of course pictures of grandma and grandpa (unwillingly) and the Kerm, wherever we go. So today, while was just a small adventure in an arcade and the viewing of a movie became so much more. It was compassion, sharing, beating the claw, and having a grandma make it into a lifetime of memories for all of us, especially the Kermitish because he thought his life would be inside a bubble, but now he will see the world. Eventually.

Posted on in book, essay, goals, humor, life, Real Housewives

Nothing

I got nothing but a picture of my hubs on a Willy Jeep. I have sat in front of my computer and/or phone to write, something. Anything. I got nothing but lists of ideas that go nowhere. None are informative or entertaining. Just nothing.

It’s called a drought. I blame this on the book that is completed, in a rough first draft, that I am not ready to go back into it to finish the final draft. Why? Well, after the final draft it goes to a million of my close friends to rip apart. Lovely. But necessary. Not ready. It is a hurdle in which you need to wear your big girls panties and muddle through everyones thoughts. It sucks. However, it is growth and gives innate confidence that makes you feel like you were just cast for a RHONY. Ok. probably just me, but if you watch this Bravo series these ladies are confidence central. I don’t live in NYC, hate the cold, and my mortgage would get me a 500 sq ft studio. So, there’s that. But I love RHONY.

So onward, with these rambling thoughts, and the baby steps I take to create the final copy and a blog with something.

Posted on in anxiety, education, family, health, life, sixty

Subtract Not Add

I went through one of the best first weeks of school purely absorbed by outlying tasks, chores, stuff. Some money-making opportunities others just life. My mind not on the focus of kids but a running to-do list that gave me an inner click when every task was complete. I was miserable and less accomplished, as I was worried about tommorow, the next schedule, how I could get home quicker to review turtoring lessons before I zoomed away. I can’t. Literally can’t. With every tick off the list, another appeared with the only loss column items becoming my family.

My need to add is a stuffing mechanism to keep busy, not focus on the reality of a painful past, and so I do not look at the alternative. Retirement. Creepy. An elderly life, and the unknown. But the more I stuff into the hours of the day and night, the more I lose out in life.

So I am going to keep subtracting and focusing on my present, my daily blessings of students, and my family before I blink and it becomes a memory of long ago. Will I retire. No. Stop trying to do everything for the sake of a couple bucks. Yes.

Posted on in family, german shephards, life, sixty

Nothing But Love

There were things I did today. Yes, but there was also alot of nothing. Silence. Occasional thoughts. Not many. Just sitting and watching stupid TV, a summer goal, and live with my thoughts that have been relatively reflective on a life level. Between just normal life, training our furry friends and introducing them into their new lives. I can’t help but think about my former life, as a young mom, and draw comparisons to my current summer life. Schedules, activities, meals, more activities, a ton of no’s, daily teaching, and a car ride or two. I love this summer. Not because it’s our dogs settling into life, but it brings me back to a time where there was a bit of mental nothing on a daily basis, but filled with plenty of activities for others. In that time of my young mom’s life, I got excited when the diaper did not fall off. My current situation of teaching the sit… down…sit…command, with success, was a highpoint of today. It came to me today that this is my final attempt at parenting. Furry. Yes. But parenting. Once in awhile, my real kid might need my advice and he will always have my love and worry, but he does not need what these two need. My furry friends are giving me exactly what I need at sixty. Not much. I got it all, well, not all. But everything necessary. So, these pups are giving me back my simplistic life and tasks from long ago. My days are filled with mental boredom but a complete focus on others, too much TV in the background for noise (drowning out other dogs) and great for breaks during their frequent naptimes. I get my mom life back one more time, and this makes this summer, while not exciting, and filled with trips. It is a walk down memory lane as I look at them and remember that while it is alot of nothing but daily groundhog tasks. It is filled with the unconditional love. This brings back my first set of memories, of pure love and the true importance of the daily mental nothings. While not I.Q. raisers, they are physically and mentally challenging, that simplistically thrill me in a way that brings back the best time in my life.

Posted on in german shephards, life

The Hat

I have never owned a hat and at sixty years old, that is probably odd. I am not a hat person, and the Kentucky Derby is not on my bucket list for this very reason, along with the humidity. My hair swells. Think Monica on the vacation episode. No control. Just additional volume. Alot. But now, I am a German Shephard mom, and their walking needs are about three to four miles a day or more, a hat in Arizona is a necessary new clothing must. If you do not know, it is hotter than hot by 7:00 AM. So, the hat helps, a little. But I still look like an absolute fool. The worst part is the hubs who bought this little heat miracle, laughed the moment he saw it on me. Like out loud in public, to the point that people turned and stared. Probably secretly joined in as well. I am not a hat girl. The next day, after his folly and expense, I tried to get out without wearing my new friend. He reminded me. Yup. He wanted a giggle; I am sure of it. I obliged due to the heat, not his upcoming laughs. I tossed it on like a hat pro, it is a bucket hat, so really this is just much worse, with a tie. Yup. Glancing at my hubs of thirty-five years, I knew what was coming, but secretly hoping that possibly I had become a hat gal overnight. Nope, laughter that he tried to stifle. My eyes rolled and then for him it was over, even the pups gave me a look. But the heat. So, I prevailed, kept the hat on and walked my dogs their miles, still hot. Not me, the physical feeling of hot. But the feeling of sparing myself a bit of UV rays made me feel like I was the winner.