Company visiting makes you eat way more than you should

When company is visiting from out of state you eat way more than you normally would. You seem to be always wandering if they might be hungry and cook way more than anyone can eat. Unfortunately the leftovers that you shove in the refrigerator take up a lot of space. But instead of pulling out the leftovers to eat you either go out to eat or cook your guest another meal. Going out to eat gets very expensive and the leftovers you waste add up to a lot of money wasted. After they leave when you clean out the refrigerator you realize that you wasted a lot of good food. This year I tried to avoid wasting money by buying lunch meat with side dishes so for at least lunch each day they could make only what they want whenever they got hungry. I planned to only eat out three times during the week that they visited. But as we ran around town each day we would get suddenly very hungry. Too hungry to drive home to eat sandwhiches so we would end up going out to eat for lunch. Later I didn't want to feed them sandwiches for dinner so I would end up cooking way too much and shoving the leftovers in the fridge. My plans to prevent wasting so much money on food wasn't working. It's like trying to have everyone over for a holiday and not have more food than they can eat. It's just not possible. So I have to accept that when company comes from out of town it's a week long holiday. And it's going to be expensive and just like after Thanksgiving or Christmas, when it's over I will be throwing away lots of leftovers. So next time I can at least not waste any money buying lunchmeat and salads that no one will eat because then it's fresh new food that gets thrown away along with all the other leftovers. I hope my relatives don't read this and think I don't want them to visit. I love getting to spend time with them and having them here is worth the money. So this time to prepare for their visit next year I am going to start a piggy bank. That way by the time they come back to visit I only have to plan on opening the bank not waste my time worrying about how much food gets wasted.

You can if you think you can

As long as you think you can then you will. It's not always the right way you should do it but you will do it. You need more than the right tools, you need the right attitude if you are going to get it done. With grandkids ranging in age you certainly see that they all can do what they need to do to achieve the same thing. But they all do it differently because they do it however it is they can. Sometimes the older kids will say the younger kids aren't doing it right. You can't do something wrong if in the end you did what you needed to. We are all different and we do things differently. In the end it doesn't matter how you did it as long as you get 'r done.

Money isn't everything unless you don't have enough

There are many rich people who are not happy. Now to those that don't have enough money to pay the bills they assume that if only they were rich they would be happy. But the truth is whether you are rich or poor your state of mind determines whether you are happy or not. It definitely isn't based on the state of your finances nor what state or country you live in. To be happy and comfortable in your own skin you have to be happy and comfortable
with what you are doing in the skin your in. I can imagine that is actually harder to have a true friend when you are rich. Because those around you will say and do whatever it takes to stay around you for the expensive lifestyle it brings them. A true friend will tell you the truth because they truly love you. Being poor together you bond by helping each other through the tough times. It is better to eat on paper plates surrounded by people who love you then to eat on fine china surrounded by leeches. Although being rich would be hard I still dream about winning the lottery or teaming up with a business partner to make JUST FLUSH IT a successful business. I already have true friends who I have known for decades who aren't afraid to tell me exactly what they think.

Your stories can ease their mind

Have you noticed that a quick one or two lines in a text or email may be the only conversation we have with others? Gathering face to face to enjoy conversations about nothing in particular just whatever pops up doesn't happen any more. There was a time when you could connect as if you were sitting in the same room by hearing someone's voice on the phone. But in a quick sentence you have to get right to the point. No chance for random "small talk" to occur. I remember simple "small talk" that has helped me and those around me when throughout life as we experience something similar. Those that have grown up on technology are not likely to experience the chance for any "small talk" that could help them one day. I know almost anything can be found on Google but hearing it from a personal experience of someone you know makes you understand it better. Try making sure that those you love you don't consider a sentence every now and then enough. It should be at least one hour a week of real conversations at the minimum. It may be the "small talk" that you need to stimulate your human side.

Are they ignoring it?

Most contact we have with other people is through cyberspace. Which makes it far too easy to ignore a message and simply say I never saw it. We all know that a message stays lit up until it is read. You have to take the time to at least acknowledge it and mark it as read to stop the alert of a new message. So how can they say they didn't see it. They saw it but they chose to ignore it. Obviously they are not going to say that. It is easier to let people down when you are disguised in cyberspace. It is much harder to do if you are looking face to face at a person. Technology has a lot of good points but it is turning people into robots without the ability to have human compassion. If you wouldn't say it to their face why would you think it is okay to say it in cyberspace?

You don't want it until you go to give it away

My friend was going to have a yard sale so I decided it would be a good time to go through stuff around the house to get rid of. I had plenty of boxes from Amazon for recent birthday gifts I had ordered. I started with the little things tucked here and there. It was quite an assortment of items. Then I started going through closets. I was surprised at the number of boxes I filled up. As I went along I stacked all the boxes of items to get rid of along a wall. I didn't close the boxes because I was still gathering and sorting the items. I watched as everyone that walked by them couldn't resist stopping to dig in them. This stuff had been here a long time and no one was ever interested in them at all. But now that I am getting rid of them they rifle through them and excitedly pull out things to keep like they were shopping. This time though it didn't cost me any money. As we were loading them in the van to drop them off at her house I too started having second thoughts about getting rid of a couple of items. And before I knew it I was excitedly digging through the boxes to retrieve them. Later that night as I was laughing so hard about digging for treasure in what was once thought of as junk you needed to get rid of. Then I thought of a funny idea about taking the contents in a "junk" drawer and put it in a bag and sell it. Do you think someone would buy it as a grab bag to dig through it to see if they can find treasure in with all the junk?

You will never know how much until it's gone

As my youngest child is now almost a grown up I know that soon he too will move out on his own. As my other children moved out one by one I always still had young ones that filled the house with life. But now I will have a quiet home that is lacking the happy spirit of a child. Sure I will see them on holidays and the grandkids will visit but for the most part it will be actually lonely. You spend so many years getting a house big enough for everyone and then before you know it you don't need a big house anymore. Except a few days a year you need the space for them to come to visit on holidays. Holidays will be more special to me now more than ever. I have to figure out how to have the food prepared before they get here so I can sit down and enjoy every moment they are here. Enjoying our time together has become rare occurences so therefore it is more important than ever before. I may have always wanted more time to myself as they were growing up but I never thought about having way too much time by myself. I am lucky to have grandchildren still young enough to want to come to Grandma's house to visit. And they live only three miles away. I know how fast they grow up so I see them whenever I can. I don't want to miss their youth because I know that is the only time I have before they grow up and move away too. It may have been a little tough when they were young but it is really tough to find yourself alone in a big quiet lifeless house. And a lot darker when no one is there to leave all the lights on.

Plan your life around it

Every afternoon you know it will rain so you got to plan your day around it. Getting frustrated over something that you know is going to happen doesn't make any sense. If you know what to expect then you know what you have to work with. There are people who you know have certain ways of doing things and you expect it. If you accept it you won't be annoyed by it. Before you can move past things you have to accept it first so you can quit stressing over it. Which is what I had to do when I realized I had forgotten to blog on friday. I had to accept it because it was now Saturday. Have a happy weekend everyone.

Bigger is not always better

There will come a time when you know a bigger store doesn't make it better when you can't walk as far. For sure when it comes to gifts those small but expensive newest electronic gadgets are what they want. Of course a big bill is not what anyone wants to pay. But worst of all is when you make a mountain out of a molehill when you keep adding dirt. Which means you have a small problem that by your negative reaction that turns it into a big problem. It is the small things in life that you treasure more than anything. That is if you don't miss out on them while you chase after a big thing that is always out of reach.

Wow it is hard to believe that they really think it is okay to spew hate on others.

Unfortunately there are far too many people who are comfortable spewing their hate on anyone they come in contact with. Especially those who sit behind their internet gadgets who are desensitized to the damages it has on anyone. I just read a person's comment on a site that advertised to anyone with the next million dollar idea to contact his office. I decided to respond to get their feedback. Within 3 minutes he sent a response cussing me out for contacting him. I couldn't believe it. Did he tell people to contact him so he could have more victims to spew hate at? I struggled whether to apologise to him. It bothered me and I eventually did apologize. Although he was wrong to talk to me that way his message also said he was having a epic bad day and my email made it worse. For causing him more stress I had to apologise to ease my own conscience.  It did but it also still left me stunned at what he had said to me. And I have had to keep flushing it over and over again because it keeps popping up in my mind over and over again.  I guess his mom either forgot to tell him that if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all or he forgot and someone should tell his mom so she can make him stop doing that. But considering his picture made him to appear to be middle aged he probably would not listen to her anyways. Be kind to everyone you come in contact with because you should and you have no idea what they may be facing. Mr. Miller if you ever read this you should be ashamed of yourself for your response and I hope one day you can feel remorseful for the hate you spew on your innocent victims that  cross your path.

You may be surprised yourself at what flies out of your mouth

Have you ever asked yourself, why did I just say that? We all have. Now if you said it while you were angry your probably saying to yourself, I sure wish I had not said that. When you are just having small talk about random things you have a lot of chances of saying something that you have no idea why you said it. Like today I was just talking to someone young who recently had gotten married and had their first child. As someone who had been married for 36 years I thought I would give them something useful they could do to keep them happily married for life. I thought for a split second then out popped one of those things that make you wander, why did I say that? I said have separate bedrooms so you can each have your own space to go to. Now I would gladly say that anytime to couples who had been married around 20 years and were experiencing tension that could lead to divorce. But to my surprise they quickly responded with, oh yeah didn't everybody do that back in the fifties? There I stood dumbfounded and wandering how on Earth they even know that. That was over sixty years ago.

You are what you think you are

If you say you can't do it then there is no doubt you won't because you won't try to do it. If you tell yourself you are just no good at balancing then I suggest you stay off the balance beam. You can be your own worst enemy. It's ok to say I never done that before so I'm not sure if I can. That leaves the door open to trying it one day. It's ok to say I didn't do good at it last time I tried, because that leaves the door open to trying it again. But to matter of factly say no I can't do that means you are not going to try and you slam the door shut. You can't be all you can be nor can you enjoy everything that you could because you keep saying you can't. You have to stop sabotaging yourself. Your thoughts make up the reality you live. Even if it is not true if you believe it is then to you it is true.

Do you read the fortune cookie when you get one?

As soon as we get home with our Chinese takeout food I dig in the bag and get the fortune cookies out first. We each choose one and read it out loud. It is hard to believe that in all these years we have never gotten a duplicate. Sometimes they seem to know what we need to hear at that moment in time. Sometimes they are powerfully motivating. They always make you take a moment out of your busy day to relax as you find the meaning it has for you. They really caught my attention and I started saving all the fortunes out of them. I keep the really good ones in a separate spot so I can read them whenever I need a little inspiration. I have never played the lottery numbers  that are also printed on the fortune cookie perhaps I should.