Y is for Yes

 

I'm almost to the finish line. I can see it! Today is Y!

Y is for Yes . . .or maybe it should be Y is for saying Yes more often!

Here is a big piece of advice from 63 year old me! Don't say no so often. Say Yes as often as possible.

Can we make a mess? Yes, if it is going to create memories. I said no far too often.

Can we go . . .wherever? Yes! Yes to Israel, Yes to Ireland, Yes to Italy and Germany, Yes to the park!

I need to take my own advice more often.

Will you stop and play with me? Yes. Another one where I need to take my own advice.

Can I help you cook? Why didn't I say yes?

Mark is now retired and he asks, "Can I help clean the house?" I've been bucking it for weeks and this week, I said yes and I'm trying hard not to criticize a single thing. He did scrub all of the toilets by hand!

One afternoon this week, my son called and said that he and our granddaughter were close by. Could they drop in? When they got here, they wanted to take the golf cart to one of our parks. I have a final this weekend and it would have been so easy to say "no" . . .but I said YES and here is proof! I still had time to study!

She has a crazy amount of upper
body strength. She is in
motion!

my son and my granddaughter
swinging HIGH with the
sunshine peeking through
the trees!

What are some questions that you answered with a no . . .that you wish you had answered with a yes?

X is for eXpress gratitude

 

X is for eXpress gratitude

I feel like I'm cheating today since I'm not actually using words that begin with X!

Today, I want to eXpress gratitude to a whole bunch of folks - I'm going to keep my list to 24 since X is the 24th letter in the alphabet. Just know that there are many more!

I'm so grateful for (in no particular order):

1. Charlotte and Ronnie Perkins and Linda and Jimmie Nix and Carol and Clayton Dorough - they loved me back to Jesus after my divorce when I was so very young.
2. Bess Studdard - my senior Advanced English teacher - she was tough but she was one of my favorite teachers
3. My sister, Becky, and her ex-husband - after momma died and daddy was working nights, they let me live with them . . .and they were newlyweds (and our other sister, Glenine, who provided me with babysitting jobs and sold my crocheted purses)
4. The Parker family - who claimed me as one of their own kids after momma died
5. Inez and Hub Lane - they, too, claimed me as their own and took me on vacation with them for years.
6. Matthew Penfield and Ann Neptune - who hired me to work at Trinity and actually brought me full circle - from a young woman rejected by the Baptist Mission Board because I was divorced to someone on a church staff who gets to be in ministry every single day
7. Brian Erickson - who treats me as his partner rather than as a secretary - who believes in me - who shows me God's grace every day
8. Mark - I've already sung his praises but you can go back and read ALL about him on the M day
9. our kids
10. our kid's spouses
11. our granddaughters - they (9, 10, 11) are awesome in all the ways
12. my co-workers - they make it a pleasure to come to work every day and some of them have become my close friends
13. Mel Sparkman - who was my boss at South Central Bell when I went through my divorce. I was broke and I cried at work because I couldn't even afford a Christmas tree and he brought me a tree stand and helped me get a tree (that is just ONE example) 
14. Ed Onimus, who was my boss later at South Central Bell and at AT&T. He could be a tyrant but he groomed me and made me into the assistant that I am today.
15. Our supper club - we've been together since 2004 -- almost 20 years of life together
16. Our Sunday School class - I'm serious. What do people do during crises when they don't have a church family?
17. My "once a month" lunch buddies - we, too, have supported each other through good and bad
18. My professor, Lucy Lewis - she is amazing
19. My advisor at Jeff State who has answered at least a million questions
20. Wade Griffith and Laura Eanes - we were amazing together
21. Our parents - who never had it easy but never let us know that
22. Susan Peterson - I miss her so much - cancer took her way too soon
23. Nancy Smith - she introduced Mark and me - she was Mark's first cousin who was more like a sibling and cancer took her way too soon, too
24. My mother-in-law who has always loved me as her own

This is more than a "thankful" post -- I'm deeply grateful for these people and what they meant in my life. I'm sure I've left out folks and this is not a comprehensive list.

W is for What Would I Tell Her?

 

Over the weekend, I was digging through some photos to use on my "U" day, and I posted this on Facebook:

Imagine my surprise when I received 49 comments plus 110 likes/loves. One of my friends asked this question, "If you could give that young woman one piece of advice or one word of wisdom, what would you say to her?" W is for What Would I Tell Her?

Here goes:

Dear Lisa,

I want you to know that you have already lived through a lot but there is more to come. Along with the hard days, there will also be days filled with incredible over-the-top joy!

This is the main thing you need to know. YOU ARE ENOUGH. Seriously. 

You are a creation of God who is loved by him and he has and will continue to pour out his unmerited grace on you. Don't listen to those voices of the world. Listen closely and God will continually whisper into your ear,"You are enough. You are loved. I'm right here beside you - always. I'll never leave you nor forsake you."

You need to trust God. You don't know any of these things yet but you are going to have a good life. You will marry a man who loves you. You will have great kids who will grow into fine adults. You will actually live in a house with a white picket fence.

Make sure you surround yourself with good friends. Laugh a lot!

Go ahead and finish your college degree now . . .don't wait until you are 63.

Keep running - exercise will keep you young!

Get counseling - NOW! At 23, you've already lived through too much. Don't wait until you are in your 30's. Do it now.

There are so many other things. Don't waste time on guys who aren't worth it. 

Always remember -- YOU ARE ENOUGH.

Love,

Lisa

What would you tell your 23 year old self?

U is for Ugly

 

U is for Ugly -- Ugly or Pretty? Does it matter at 63?

I know that we all came into the world with different appearances (except for my husband and his identical twin brother and other identical twins). Some of us have long noses. Some of us have big lips. Some of us have green eyes. Some of us have brown eyes. Some of us have straight hair while others have curly hair.

I've always struggled with self-confidence. I remember a boss telling me one time that we have to earn our self-confidence. 

In my Senior year of high school, I was in the top 17 (weird #, right?) of the school beauty pageant. The band actually voted and I was the one nominated to represent the band in the beauty pageant. I remember being so shocked because I NEVER thought I was pretty back then. When I was 22 or 23, I was in the "Iron Man Ski Queen" competition and was first runner up. This was a ski tournament held on a local lake and the Ski Queen and her first runner up (me!) donned our bathing suits and rode around in a ski boat and did the queenly wave to everyone! To be the queen, we didn't even have to know how to ski!

this picture and the one below
were from my portfolio from
the ski queen competition

For all of my life, I have struggled with my weight. If I could only weigh now what I weighed back then, I would be happy . . .YET . . .back then I thought I was fat. 

These days I have to watch every bite I eat to keep off the weight I lost in 2017 and 2018. Here are a couple of pictures showing the 70+ pound difference.

And then while I was digging through old photos, I found the picture below. I was in my early 20's and I'm amazed. If I were to see this picture of someone else, I would think "how lovely." Yet, I never felt "lovely" way back then.

this was my very first trip on
an airplane! I had dark
hair before I started
going gray!

Now I'm 63 . . .and I'm not a big make up wearer but I ALMOST always wear lipstick which was so weird when masks were required!

When our son married, I was much heavier than when our daughter married and I'll be honest. When I look at pictures of myself at the two events, I definitely think I look prettier when I'm thinner.

As a Christian, I know that God looks at our hearts so I try not to get hung up on my outward appearance. As I've shared here before, I don't always dress up. I'm happiest in tennis shoes or flip flops, exercise shorts, and a t-shirt. I like to have a little tan on my face so that I don't have to wear much make-up (have you ever used tan towelettes? they are my favorite!).

I prefer comfy dresses and casual shoes -- once again, tennis shoes when possible or FitFlops or Vionic. I prefer a swipe of mascara but I do love this heated eye lash curler. That is another thing - as I've aged, I have less and less eyelashes. Someone told me that eyelashes don't regrow - is that true? When I have my hair colored, my hair salon will also swipe some on my eyebrows which helps a little. I usually use a little "lello lotion" (what our kids called it when they were little) on my face and a little under-the-eye concealer and some blush and some lipstick and my make-up is complete.

denim skirt from Talbots, shirt from
Stitch Fix, Fitflop sandals (and 
Bob Goff!)

all dressed up at a wedding

comfy dress and fitflops at
the beach

No matter what age you are, do you feel pretty? What do you do to make yourself feel better about yourself? I've always struggled with my self-confidence. Do you?

p.s. Amazon and clinique have no idea I even exist so I'm not getting a kickback - I just love the things I mentioned.

The A to Z's of Being 63 -- T is for Thankful

 

T is for Thankful

We can be thankful at any age, but today I'm thankful for  (not in any kind of order - some big, some small):

1. our cat, Harvey

2. our granddaughters

3. sunshine and blue skies and blooming flowers

4. our church

5. my husband, Mark, and our kids and their spouses plus our siblings/spouses and Mark's momma

6. our home

7. great neighbors in a great neighborhood

8. a bed to sleep in at night

9. clean drinking water

10. a pantry, fridge, and freezer full of food

11. a dining room table where we can host friends and family

12. the possibility of getting a Wolf stove (really! we are waiting for them to come and measure and see if it is even a possibility)

13. some of the best friends you could ever imagine

14. good health

15. the ability and means to travel some

16. books - both kindle and actual paper

17. fresh fruit that is in season - especially strawberries and the hope of good watermelon

18. a wonderful job that is meaningful PLUS wonderful people with whom I work

19. a big front porch and a screen porch

20. a million shades of green - here in Alabama, everything is coming into its glory and when you look at a hillside covered in trees, you truly can't count the number of shades of green!

If you were to make a list of things you are thankful for, what are a few that would be on your list?

Q is for . . .PLUS Hodgepodge

 

&

I’m going to combine my A to Z post plus Hodgepodge #459

 

Q is for Quality/Quell Rumors/Quiet

 

Q is usually one of the hardest days to me for the A to Z Challenge. I did think of 3 words that might have something to do with being 63.

 

Q is for Quality

 

Just this past weekend, I ordered some new barstools for our island. We went to several places locally and couldn’t find any we both liked. The ones we have now were relatively inexpensive but they have actually held up quite well. With furniture that you want to keep long-term, my mother-in-law always taught me to buy quality and it will last. We bought our dining room suite 37 years ago plus a small camel back sofa and two wing chairs and the sofa and chairs have all been recovered multiple times and it is amazing what great shape they are in.

The chairs and sofa are
covered in fun fabrics now because
we are using them in our
loft area

One chair in the background
minus a cushion which
I'm sure someone is sitting
on! She is so cute and sweet!

The sofa is YELLOW and fun!

There are some items that I don’t always purchase the best quality. I love wearing dresses to work and I like to be able to wash them and hang them to dry and wear again. Some of my dresses are from Amazon, some from Belk, some from Talbots, and some are from various other places. Sometimes the lesser quality garments begin to fade but sometimes the higher quality ones don’t hold up well either.

 

Do you always purchase “high quality” items?

 

Q is for Quell Rumors

 

By the time you reach the ripe old age of 63, you should be the one quelling rumors . . . not starting them. I’m not sure I need to say anymore about this except if you are the one starting rumors of any kind, you might want to start working on that now – whatever age you are.

 

Q is for Quiet

 

We love when the kids and grandkids come over and everyone is laughing and talking and having fun. We have noticed that when everyone leaves and the house is quiet . . . .we like that, too! Some people like to turn the TV on when they are home alone, but I’m not usually one of those people. I actually enjoy some quiet time every day.

 

What about you? No matter your age, do you enjoy some quiet or do you require noise all of the time?

 

Moving on to the Hodgepodge for today. Thanks so much to Joyce for the questions (I could count that as part of my Q!). You can answer in the comments or you can copy and paste the questions into your blog and answer and link up here.

 

1. What's something you wish you had spent more time doing when you were younger? Explain. I’ve used this so much lately on my blog that even I’m tired of it! I wish I hadn’t dropped out of college but I will say I’m enjoying it now! I wish I had spent more time with my daddy before he died. I saw him every week but I wish I had asked more questions about his family and about his upbringing. My mom died when I was a Sophomore in high school so I wish I had asked him more questions about her, too. I was 25 when he died and I’m sure I was pretty self-absorbed during those early 20’s.

this was not long before
he died

2. Who inspires you to be better. Tell us how. I feel like I’m inspired to do better every day because of where I work. I sit right outside the senior minister’s office and I get to hear a lot of the good and bad throughout the day. I want to be better!

 

3. Share a money saving tip with us. I should ask my husband this question. Our cleaning lady messed up her knee and hasn’t been able to work for the last 6 week or so and my husband has decided he can take over the cleaning since he retired and we can SAVE THAT MONEY. I want our cleaning lady to come back soon – very soon. I’m not the saver in this relationship and never have been but I’m so thankful that Mark made us save when we were young.

 

4. It's National Garlic Day...are you a fan? Your favorite dish that includes garlic? I like a little garlic – in a red sauce for lasagna or spaghetti. If a recipe calls for 4 cloves of garlic, odds are that I will put 1 clove of garlic. I do like garlic bread but I usually melt the butter and add garlic powder not actual cloves of garlic. I think it adds great flavor but I don’t like for it to overpower the other flavors.

 

5. Would you describe yourself as decisive or indecisive. Elaborate. Hmmm . . .let’s see . . .actually, I’m decisive about some things and indecisive about others. What does that say? hahaha!

 

6. Insert your own random thought here. We went to dinner on Monday night with two other couples and had so much fun.

I is for Impact

 

Continuing on with our April A to Z blogging challenge:

I is for Impact

At 63, I hope that I have made and am still making an impact somewhere in this world. I do know that I just have to keep on keepin’ on! I once again googled for a dictionary definition of impact, and this is the one I’ll use: “have a strong effect on someone or something.” But before I get too serious, I must tell you another meaning of impact: “an impinging or striking especially of one body against another.”

I grew up on a street with 17 other school age kids. One block – 17 kids! We had some epic times – from swinging in our swings as high as we could go to playing Miss American with picnic benches as our runways to hours upon hours of building Barbie abodes. Some of those 17 kids were boys so sometimes we played more active games. We played hundreds of games of kickball (I love kickball!) and hundreds of games of “baseball.” “Baseball” is in quotes because it wasn’t really baseball. We did use a bat, but I think we hit a tennis ball. Anyway, we were in the middle of one of our games and Mark Watkins and I were both running for the ball. He and I collided into one another (IMPACT!) and as we fell . . . I fell on his leg AND BROKE IT!! Oh my goodness – I never lived that down. I wonder what happened to Mark Watkins and I wonder where he is these days?

Let’s move on to the more serious meaning of impact (even though I’m sure Mark Watkins thought that a broken leg was very serious!!). There are three places where I might be making an impact. I teach a large adult Sunday School class and I realized this week that I’ve been teaching in that class for almost 30 years – it will be 30 years this fall. I am a Tuesday night facilitator with young adults. I have two granddaughters. I hope that the way I live my life and the way I teach/lead/love will have a strong effect on someone at some time or another.

Where do you think you have made the greatest impact? In your family? In your career?

Here are some examples from my life:

Gran with her two granddaughters

Here I am teaching
Sunday School and the
print is too small for you to read
in the instagram post, but
Mark was making
an impact, too. I had
a short in my computer cord and
he was literally holding it
together so I could teach!!

These are both old pictures of our Tuesday

night group but I showed you the most

recent one just a day or so ago!

Some of the young adults who have married
and moved on have written us notes
telling us how much we impacted
their lives. We try to love them as our own.

F is for Food/Family/Friends

 

F is for Food/Family/Friends

F is for Food

It doesn’t matter whether you are 3 or 63, we all need to eat good, nourishing food. The thing that I’ve noticed (and I know that this doesn’t apply to everyone) is that we tend to eat out less but when we do eat out, we usually eat at nicer restaurants. The only time we ever get fastfood is a salad from Chick Fil A. I honestly don’t remember the last time I ate anything from McDonalds or Burger King. I’m going to be honest. I actually love a good quarter pounder with cheese and a large fry but I don’t think I could do enough exercise (see yesterday’s post) to counteract the calories. We usually eat out once a month or so at a nicer restaurant and when our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter are in town, we might eat out or get take outs from Taziki’s (Greek food) or Taco Mama (bowls, fish tacos, etc.). Actually, I have to take back my words from above. As I was typing I remembered that when our daughter and granddaughter came to visit a couple of months ago, I went to get food at Taco Mama at 5:15 on a Friday night and the place was so crowded that after waiting for 15-20 minutes, I left. The only “restaurant” without a massive line was Culver’s so we did have a butter burger and some fries that night (and it was good!). What is your favorite restaurant? Do you eat a lot of fastfood?

For our regular meals, I try to plan ahead (loosely) with a few dinner ideas. This past weekend, I actually prepared 3 entrees for us for the week. On Monday night, we ate a modified WW version of Poppyseed Chicken (using a Pound Dropper recipe that I added/subtracted ingredients). Last night, we hosted the young adults and we had Honeybaked turkey breast, hashbrown casserole, green beans, and salad. I’m actually picking up dinner at church tonight and it is tacos. In the fridge at home, I also have Eggroll in a Bowl and I have stuffed peppers. What are your go-to week night recipes? There are only 2 of us at home and sometimes I make too much for just two.

F is for Family

My “original” family consisted of my mom and dad and I have two older sisters. My mom died when I was in high school and my dad died when I was 25. I would love to sit down with them and ask lots of questions. I want to know more about their growing up years and I want to hear their story about getting married. So many questions that I can’t ask. My sisters are both alive but one is having major health issues. Neither live in the same town where I live. The oldest sister is widowed and the other sister is divorced. I don't have a current photo of the three of us but TODAY is the middle sister's birthday!

Mark and I have been married since 1984. We have twins – boy/girl – who are 35. They each have a little girl.

My hubby has 3 siblings and they all have a spouse. One of his brothers has no children. His twin brother has one daughter and his sister has 3 boys. When we are all together, it is pretty awesome. My mother-in-law is 96 and her health is not great but it was until just a year or so ago. Since my parents were both dead before Mark and I married, my mother-in-law has been a mother to me.

Do you have a big family? A small family? Do you live in the same city as some of your family members?

F is for Friends

I feel like Mark and I have been extremely blessed with friends. As I shared in yesterday’s post, we have a close knit supper club. I met one of the wives of that group when our twins were 6 weeks old and she was pregnant with her second child. We’ve been friends all of these years. Our sons actually were roommates in college. We have many others that we call friends, too. Mark is in a men’s Bible study that he has been in for probably 20 years. Now that he has retired, they go out to breakfast after their 6 a.m. Bible study each week.

I am friends with several of my co-workers and we have many friends through our Sunday School class and we have become friends with some of our neighbors.

I’ve mentioned my lunch friends before – there are four of us and we meet for lunch once a month. We all have a son in the same age bracket and we all go to the same church.

Years ago, I heard a wonderful “talk” about having friends and we were reminded that in order to have friends you first have to BE A FRIEND. I’m going to be honest. I don’t know how people walk through life without friends but I know some people are loners or are just not into friendships.

What about you? Do you have a close friend group?

I know that neither food, family, or friends belong just to those who are 63. I do think I might have developed more of an appreciation for these things over the years.

Z is for Zucchini

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Z is for Zucchini

Z is indeed for Zucchini. I can't believe today is the last day! I made it! I feel like I need to throw confetti and dance around in a circle and clap my hands! Yay! Yay! Yay! I've also realized that I have some really great recipes and have only shared a few! The other thing I've realized is a large majority of my really awesome recipes have been given to me by wonderful friends and family members.

On to Z . . . .Zucchini! The picture below does not look very appetizing but the recipe is really yummy. Skinny Taste is another great resource for those on WW. While we were safe at home, I found this recipe and decided to make it and I've made it several times since then. The first time I made it my Shipt shopper couldn't find the chicken sausage recommended so she substituted Apple/Chicken/Gouda sausage. I ended up having to change the way I prepared the sausage because all of the cheese was oozing out but I finally made it work and it was delicious. I've made it several times and I think I've used a different chicken sausage every time and they have all worked.

Zucchini is actually fairly versatile. Sometimes I peel part of the zucchini - leaving a think green stripe every so often for color. I spread it on a cookie sheet (covered with non-stick Reynolds Aluminum Foil) and spray the zucchini with olive oil and sprinkle Cavender's seasoning over all and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. On the night below, I finished out the cookie sheet with rounds of yellow squash.

I don't have any pictures of the third way I cook zucchini. Slice the zucchini like above (on cookie sheet) and cook in a skillet along with some slices of onion and if you like you can add mushrooms. After zucchini begins to brown a little, add a can of tomatoes and zucchini from the grocery store. Sometime I can find it and sometimes I can't. I also add another can of diced tomatoes that are seasoned with garlic and something (the Italian ones). This recipe needs to cook quite a while -- it needs to "cook down." It is a good side dish in the winter.

Last but not least would be zucchini bread! I haven't made it in a long time -- not at all during the pandemic -- but zucchini bread is a great way to use up extra zucchini. It also freezes well.

What food or recipe do you eat/make that begins with the letter Z?

Thanks so much for visiting my blog over the last month!! I've had a great time! I'm going to start a new series soon -- All Around the House. It will be a once a month link up on Thursdays where we share different rooms in our houses and our thoughts about those rooms - why we chose certain furniture and decorations, etc. and if it is a success, who knows where we will go?? Hope you will check back and link up with us!