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Agoraphobia: An Old Familiar Fear & Link Up On the Edge #200
Three months spent in lockdown has triggered an old familiar fear. If you have never experienced agoraphobia, I am going to try my best to explain it from my own personal experience. But first, I want to share a bit of background. I speak often about my life with Bipolar Disorder. I sometimes hint at incidents of anxiety and have even briefly mentioned some obsessive-compulsive behaviors that once tormented me. But I have never talked about agoraphobia because I really had forgotten about it. And now those old uncomfortable fears are sneaking back into my life. “Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations where the person perceives their environment to…
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Tropical Style & Your Own Twist Link Up #21
It is time once again for Your Own Twist with my dear friend Monica of Jersey Girl, Texan Heart. This monthly collaboration allows us to showcase our own interpretations of a chosen style theme. We share the theme with you ahead of time in case you are interested in joining us. You can see the upcoming themes below if you would like to create your own post around the theme and share it with us in the link party at the end of the post. You are also welcome to link any fashion or style post even if you did not follow the theme. Next month’s theme will be Christmas in July.…
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No One is Listening & #SpreadTheKindness Link Up #177
I feel like no one is listening. I feel like everyone just wants their own voice to be heard. I feel like we are all just screaming at each other. And the result is completely ineffective communication. How can we possibly view an issue from all angles and make appropriate considerations that will result in successful changes if we are so unwilling to even hear what anyone else has to say? Changes happen on a million different levels. From within ourselves which is then filtered down to our children and extended out to our personal networks. Change will grow from there. Outward, upward, downward, and inward. When we patiently and…
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A Good Ole Fashioned Ass-Kicking & Link Up On the Edge #199
This week has really kind of kicked my ass in the grandest fashion. It began with PMS sending an earth shattering surge of hormones through my body which left me feeling tired, irritable, and frustrated. I also tend to feel anger that verges on rage during these hormonal episodes. And that is a very unpleasant feeling for me. Then Jeff left for a three day trip to West Point (he is home now). About an hour after he left, I heard some awful news about the unexpected death of a friend. All of these things on top of a world that has been breaking my heart daily and I have…
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The Meaning and Purpose of Life & #SpreadTheKindness Link Up #176
Sunday, January 23, 2005. 11:11 p.m. I was reading The Heart of Philosophy by Jacob Needleman and I wrote a journal entry in response to it. But first, I need to set the stage… I was revisiting this journal from 15 years ago and what I found was an abundance of quotes jotted down from whatever books I was reading at the time. I followed a very strict and unwavering pattern in these entries. First, I would write the title and author of the book. Then when something would strike me from within the pages of that book, I would also write that down. Every time I wrote a quote…
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Birthday Recap & Link Up On the Edge #198
My birthday was on Saturday and I wanted to share a recap of my special day. Actually I am going to start with a brief recap of the week leading up to my birthday. On the Saturday during Memorial Day weekend, we celebrated a triple birthday (Jeff’s, my neighbor Anna’s, and mine) with a few friends and neighbors, lots of great food, and a fabulous birthday cake. Two days later, on Tuesday, I forgot Jeff’s birthday, and spent the day cooking way more food than necessary to make up for my blunder. Since we could not possibly eat everything that I prepared, we invited the neighbors over for dinner to…
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Inspired by Granola & Grace: Bermuda Shorts & Button Ups
I have long been baffled by the styling of Bermuda shorts on me. I have fairly long legs yet Bermuda shorts have this tendency to make them look short and stumpy and wide and just not quite as good as shorter shorts. I suppose it is all in the proportions and how they suit the shape of my body. But time and again, I keep spotting some of my favorite blogger friends wearing Bermuda style shorts and looking freaking adorable in them. Although I have tried and failed multiple times in the past to make longer length shorts look decent enough on me, I was still not defeated in my…
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You Are Not Alone & Link Up On the Edge #197
Many of you already know that one of the fundamental goals of my blog is to raise awareness about mental health and to do my part in eliminating the stigma that accompanies life with a mental illness. I have written extensively about my own personal journey with Bipolar Disorder and how difficult it can be navigate through life and maintain a sense of normalcy. I have also shared a variety of different coping mechanisms that have helped me throughout the past few decades. If you are interested in reading more about my personal mental health journey, you can find all of those articles under my Mental Health category. I haven’t…
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Redemption Achieved
If you read my post yesterday, you will know that I momentarily forgot my husband’s birthday and sent him off to work completely unacknowledged. But I made up for my oversight by spending the day in the kitchen preparing some of his favorite things. Of course, it had to be the hottest day of the year so far with the temperature reaching almost 90 degrees outside and about 125 degrees inside my non-air conditioned kitchen! And to think, it was snowing just two and a half weeks ago. But it was all worth it in the end to see his smiling face when he walked in the door and spotted…
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Seeking Redemption & SpreadTheKindness Link Up #174
Today is a day that I will be seeking redemption…all day long. You see, between losing all track of the days in quarantine and then suffering from a severe abdominal issue yesterday (which turned out to be nothing more than really bad gas), I completely and totally forgot today was Jeff’s birthday. We woke as normal, went through all the normal morning routines, I kissed him good-bye as he left for work, and about an hour later I looked at the calendar and I gasped. And I cursed. A lot. And I sent off a hasty text message which could in no way make up for my oversight. The guilt…