30 Year Vow Renewals – A Love Story
Thirty-two years. That’s how long we’ve been married now. There’s something ridiculously liberating about spending 30 years with your person. He gets me utterly and there’s zero judgment. Even on my worst days, he still gropes me. I don’t think he even has a concept of “bad hair days” when it comes to how he sees me. Every ten years, we’ve renewed our wedding vows, but our 30th was different. We started this tradition by accident actually. Our original wedding ceremony wasn’t entirely my created dream wedding. We’d eloped on a Tuesday (just 3 weeks after we started dating) with plans to keep it a secret until much later (that’s…
Intentional Living & Why it Matters
What is intentional living? LIVING IN A WAY THAT IS INTENTIONAL. I realize that may sound like I just repeated myself, but let that last line sink in for a minute… Living with intention means living in a way that is in line with your personal values, beliefs, and purposes. This can include religious, political, creative, or personal. In the end, it really comes down to understanding what matters to you and living a life intentionally in alignment with that. Intentional living means having defined goals for various areas of your life and then designing a life that helps you reach them. The problem is that most people live their lives…
10 Steps to Feel Awesome
It’s a little hard to be awesome when you don’t feel awesome. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but there’s no way that some of the potential awesomeness isn’t dampened. This is why I have a section of posts devoted to health and diet. Because being awesome is an “all over” thing. It’s how you feel. It’s how you think. It’s what you do. And it’s covered in several points of my 365 Ways to Be Awesome manifesto. But first, a story. Many years ago I met a sushi chef who was delightful and very good at what he did. His business was not doing great because of local…
Be Brave With Your Life
“I will be a mermaid when I grow up.” These were the words spoken by a young girl many years ago who goes by the name of Hannah Fraser. And weirdly, she is, in fact, a real-life mermaid today. Don’t believe me? Watch this video and be mesmerized, and amazed. Right???!! I stumbled across this today, and I am smitten. Her bravery. Her beauty. Her tails (she designs them herself!!). Aaaand she makes being a mermaid ridiculously cool and utterly believable as a practical career. If that’s not enough, she swims with sharks of all kinds, manta rays and dolphins. She’s an activist actually making a difference and changing laws…
Wear Whatever You Want to Wear, Pretty Please
My mom just turned 70. She was born in 1946. How awesome is that? My mother-in-law made a low-sugar gorgeous cake, I made a slideshow of my mom’s life from childhood through to the present, and four generations turned up to celebrate this momentous occasion including her grandkids, and great-grandchildren. My personal gift to her was an evening of painting on canvas, and dinner—just the two of us. While we were at dinner, a girl walked by in a cute outfit that looked a little vintage—a romper with a 40’s flavor. My mom admired it wistfully, and said, “That’s really cute. I guess I’m too old for that sort of…
10 Things Women Over 30 Need to Start Doing
Man, oh man. Over the past few months, I’ve stumbled across a few random articles and blog posts with headlines that read: 10 Hairstyles Women Over 30 Need to Stop Getting, or 30 Things Women Over 30 Need to Stop Owning, or 25 Things Women Over 30 Need to Stop Wearing, or other similar stupid, narrow-minded titles. I’m not going to share the exact links because frankly, I don’t want to send blog traffic to this sort of nonsense. I can tell you that I’m the exact type of woman that she’s writing about. But you know what’s funny? So is every other fabulous, gorgeous, happy, brilliant, successful, amazing, sexy,…
April Fools’ Day
I woke up this morning, and my phone looked like this: Notice what it says up there in the left hand corner? Yeah. That’s never happened to me in my own home before. I called downstairs to my husband and he told me that his phone was the same. G: “How am I supposed to call AT&T to find out what’s happening since we no longer have a land line?” Me: “I think there’s some code you can punch in that goes directly to your carrier, even if you have no service.”, I said uncertainly, “Just Google it.” G: “But we have no service. How am I supposed to Google…
Finding The Perfect Soul Mate
A few months ago, a friend contacted me for some relationship advice: she’s single, and there’s this guy she’d had her eye on. She wanted to approach him, but wasn’t sure how. At first, she consulted a singles group she belongs to. She explained that she wanted to approach him and tell him that she liked him and “would he like to grab a cup of coffee sometime”. They all had plenty of advice: “No. Let him come to you.” or “Don’t be too direct, men hate that.” or “Play coy and let him reach for you.” No wonder these people are single. Sheesh. Anyway, my friend got smart and realized…
The First Day of Awesome
Well, here it is, New Year’s Day. Again… I hope your New Year’s Eve was everything you wanted. I rang in the new year with the love of my life and carefully considered how 2015 will play out for us. This marks the beginning of my new journey of 365 days of awesome, and my new mantra: Be AWESOME (at least a little bit). Every. Single. Day. Last year was good (as years go) and worth a quick recap: Let’s see… I sorted out a long-term health situation which was sucking the awesomeness out of my life. Literally. I went to Europe with my husband for the very first time and…
365 Ways to Be Awesome
This is my Awesome Manifesto; my guide to living a more awesome life. Love yourself. No matter how you feel, get up and dress up. Dance in your living room. Be yourself. Truly and honestly. Take a bubble bath. Light some candles. Get your hair done. Journal. Listen to music. Get a massage. Sing in the shower, in your car, wherever. Write down your goals. Make a plan to accomplish them. Turn off the TV and do something that matters in your life. Get a manicure. Go for a walk, leave your phone behind. Be kind. Read. Make the most of each day and each experience. Exercise. Be patient. Learn to…