Life~living~learning Archives ~ Page 3 Of 3 ~ Not Good At Normal

December 10, 2019January 13, 2020

Trouble Ahead: how to avoid danger

Change lanes to avoid unpleasant trouble

Wouldn’t it be nice if life were like a map app? When trouble comes up, we would know where to turn or where to go. Maybe we would stop and turn around. Take a detour or plan accordingly. Life isn’t like that. We don’t always know what’s ahead. We can plan our day, our year or future and plan goals to the detail yet things don’t always go as we hope.

Imagine you have a plan for the year, you have a great job lined up, ready to get out of your comfort zone and step into your future! The new impowered you. It took courage and strength you knew you always had, but still struggled with. Everything is lined up and the week of the move, the job falls through. Where is the road map for that? Where is the life manual that tells us what to do or who to turn to when life doesn’t go the way the best laid plans are set to.

Look for the positive

The truth is no amount of planning or detailed process is going to always go as planned. You can plot and outline, but if people are involved, you cannot change another person nor know how they are going to react. Out growing situations, relationships, jobs. Some people handle change well, others not at all well and don’t like it. The problem with this is that everything changes.

Signs everywhere

There are signs everywhere, if we are just open to them. There was even a top 5 hit song in 1971, by Five Man Electric Band called Signs. “Signs, signs, everywhere signs, do this don’t do that, can’t you read the signs”. Some signs aren’t visual, but if you are open, you will know they are there. All around you. Open an email, hear a song, a commercial, a chat with a friend. All pointing you in a certain direction.

Learning

It is in the trying, difficult times we learn the most. You can take any situation and learn something from it. If you can spin it negative, you can spin it positive! God will not move us or reveal to us what we should be doing if we can’t handle the little things well. Until we can prove we are worthy of more, we may stay stuck. Face it, most of us would turn and run if we knew how things would play out along the way before we get the big picture. While we may not know how it all works out or how it ends, trust and do your best. See that you can turn it around and by taking small steps each day, you can achieve big things.

Take small steps

What are some of the ways you find to avoid the big roadblocks or small steps you take to reach your goal? Write below in the comments, maybe add a list! Do several small steps. One step at a time.

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November 21, 2019January 13, 2020

The Year of the Woman

1959 is calling. Are we heading backward? Women empowerment

Why do we have a year of the woman? Wasn’t last year the year of the woman? Why do we even need a year to celebrate women or a day? We shouldn’t have to point out “the first woman to _____”fill in the blank. We shouldn’t have to empower women, but we do. We need to.

Percent of female to male police officers.

Workforce- gender equality

Women make up 51% of the population. We are the fastest growing segment of the workforce. Yet in every way and every day we are told we are less. Less important, less worthy. Look at professional sports. The few that have a woman’s league only basket ball will have an occasional game televised. They get paid far less than their male counterparts and have far fewer opportunities for sponsorship. It’s also reinforced daily as men are promoted over women for fear women take too much time off work for family. Women make far less than men in the same positions.

Everyday objects

Furniture, cabinets, pant pockets and cars, all are made for the average 6’1″ 220 pound man. Cars particularly, even the smaller ones, are built for men. Cabinets are placed high on the wall. Pockets in menswear are larger (if women’s clothes even have pockets). Men being the ‘Default’ design. Women pay more for razors and deodorant and other products. But no more material or chemicals are used in manufacturing them. Its called gender pricing.

Role models

Where are the strong female role models? What do girls see? A bank president, CEO, congressman? You think of a man. How about Dr., lawyer, police officer or astronaut? Again men. You can add mechanic and pilot. Tell a girl she can do anything and she will grow up doing just that!

Where does it start?

Where does it all start? In school, at home? Certainly carried over into business environments. Soften your edges, act like you don’t know as much as a man, make the man feel like he is important. Play along to get along. WHY? This is so counter productive to teach young girls, but it still is. We can talk all we want, girls will see our behavior.

I believe Martina is in this list only because she raised an issue about only one female out of 44 males in a playlist earlier this year.

2019

It’s 2019 and this is the first year a woman was nominated for a musician of the year award, an industry dominated by men. (She won, BTW! Jenee Fleenor) For every 10 songs on country radio, you will hear only one by a female. The rest sound like the same old worn out boy singing about his beer on the back of his truck with a babe in tight jeans (in his dreams)! It just does not make sense to me we still have to celebrate differences yet, much like other things, self segregating is not helping.

Startling statistics!

Here are just a few of the startling statistics I came across doing research..

23% of members of the United States Congress are women.
20 states have never had a female Governor!
14% of active military personal are women.
11.9% of police officers are women!
1/4 of the members of the United States senate are women. Since 1789, when the senate began, there have only been 56 women hold that office! I have many more but you get the point.

What you can do

Women have only had the right to vote now for 100 years. Passed by congress after more than an 80 year fight. Women like my personal heros, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton traveled the country fighting for Equal rights for ALL. Born with inalienable rights..We still have so far to go. If you take away one thing from this, you can change the odds. VOTE. Vote in the small, local elections. It is in the seemingly minor school board, or fire district elections that you make the most difference, because those are the people who usually go on to run for higher office. Consider running for and elected office yourself. Most importantly, be a public servant to show your children it can be done.

Girls will be girls

And PLEASE do not ever say “boys will be boys”!! What on earth is that about?! Ugh. I digress. I will leave the rant for the podcast! It’ll be a hot one! What are some of the things you have seen that you feel need to change? How will you teach your boys to respect women? Add in the comments. Subscribe for more, less in your face..ha not normal.

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October 31, 2019June 29, 2023

But Will She Remember?

Not your normal ‘Mommy Blog’.

My Girl

I have a beautiful munchkin nicknamed Savvy. She is almost 24 years old. My ‘mommy blog’ is written with the gift of perspective. I can see now what a beautiful, strong, independent young woman she has become.

When she was a baby, I would look at her and think “what will she be like and look like at two or 8, 12, 16, and 21?”

Just under 2 yrs old with her favorite babies.

I am so grateful for having raised her in a time, not so long ago, where not everything was shared. No posting what we ate for dinner last night. If we wanted answers we would go to the library. Need advice? Call a friend or relative. There wasn’t Google and internet was a very new concept.

Today, ‘mommy blogs’ are everywhere. No one’s life is private. Write about how you are working from home making $300,000 while being a stay at home mom? Have 2.5 kids and a dog on a corner lot in suburbia? Publish it. What will these kids remember most? That their childhood was broadcast for the world to see with every trip to the grocery store documented? I’m not saying its wrong, just that I choose differently and pray my daughter will remember the good times we shared.

The Little Things

Wet, bright leaves of maple lie on the grass.

Will she remember the hours spent reading instead of watch TV? The learning and laughter? The time we were dancing in the late autumn afternoon, when it began to lightly rain and the leaves were falling all around us and we laughed as we searched for the prettiest leaf? When we would stay up all night laying on the driveway watching for meteor showers?

Will she remember we would make everyday moments into parties? Hold a movie party, a game night party, reading party or drawing party complete with invitations and decorations. We would have ‘theme’ dinners like carnaval food night with homemade corn dogs and funnel cakes.

Hometown tourist

Look at that face! 2003. Photo tip: always have the subject close to the camera, in the foreground, not the in the background.

We would play hometown tourist and go the St. Louis Arch and museum and then dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Crown Candy soda fountain or Forest Park and mini trips to explore and expand our world and mind. The horse and carriage rides and dinner in a TeePee? Will she remember learning in everyday moments? Lessons only life can teach. Making sandwiches to bring to the homeless shelter when they asked the community for help.

Life lessons

Will she remember making volcanoes in the backyard, near the treeless tree house she helped me build? Playing explorer in the wood that was our backyard as we looked and often found fossil rocks. Sitting for and being my helper on my photo sessions. Or will she remember the struggles of a single mom?

Evening Falls

Will she remember the nightly rituals of reading her favorite books with character voices, like The Monster in the Cave, or The Giving Tree? When she would let me pick the book only to then say she wants me to read to her The Bookshop Dog again.

Will she remember that each night before kissing her goodnight, I would tell her she can do anything! That she was smart, kind, caring, funny, beautiful and I believe in you.

The Fiery Redhead

Savvy is now a smart, funny, caring, compassionate, beautiful, independent young woman in charge of her own future. That future is limited only by her imagination. Will she remember how proud I am of who she has become? She has taught me to be more open and giving.

a love letter to my munchkin

2019, Still very similar; we both like photography, politics, history, Fleetwood Mac and pokey sticks!

But will she remember the pride I felt everyday, the love I have for her and that I would do it all over again. Because being a mother, her mother, is the best job in the world! Like in the words to one of my favorite Martina McBride songs, “In My Daughter’s Eyes, the truth is plain to see, this miracle God gave to me, she was sent to rescue me, I see who I want to be, in my daughter’s eyes. For when I’m gone, I hope she’ll see how happy she made me, for I’ll be there, in my daughter’s eyes”. No matter where I am, that is your home!

Leave a comment and tell me a memory you want your children to remember!

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October 15, 2019October 14, 2020

It’s just a number. Turning 50!

Why is turning 50 such a big deal?

50 is just a number. Bigger is better! Wouldn’t you rather have 50 dollars then $25?

Look at the list of people whose success in life, love and business happened later in life. Sometimes much later.

Mel Robbins became a TV talk show host, Julia Child became a chef and Jack Cover created Taser, inc all when they were 50. Joy Behar gained prominence at 55 when she became a cohost on the View.

Dixie Carter, Viola Davis, Susan Boyle, Henry Ford and Bea Arthur all rose to fame in their 40’s. As did designer Vera Wang and Martha Stewart and Bert Lahr the Lion in The Wizard of Oz. One of my favorite historical leaders, Susan B. Anthony helps start one of the greatest movements in the country in her forties. It’s just a number!

Experience

Ask yourself this question, Is this what I thought it would look like? There isn’t a rule that says you must start and be a great, known success as early in life as possible or you will not be successful. If you believe in your self and your ability, you can do anything! For some, it takes longer. Laura Ingalls Wilder had a lifetime of stories to write when she was first published at 65. Sarah from the New testament, didn’t have a child until she was 90 years old!

Getting Older

Getting older doesn’t mean your life is over or you can’t contribute any longer. Why turning 50 is a good thing: Older does in some cases mean wiser, a new start, a new career. You get more time to learn and grow, and it sure beats the alternative! You don’t have to wait until the kids are older. Having just turned 50 myself and moved to a different state and starting completely over, the future is Unlimited! There are great things to come! It’s never too late to dream!!

The future is unlimited! Had to add Oz in there somewhere.

When we decide to continue living a life we love long after the kids move out of the house, or the divorce, age doesn’t matter. You are not too young or too old to begin a new direction.

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