Raige Creations

 Talk about a break in blogging. Yes, guilty again. But as I sit here, procrastinating on writing my paper for my Leadership and Management class, pondering the last few days, I can only say life happens in the little things.  I try not to over-share. I like my privacy, and try to only share the lessons learned and not too many of the details of how I got there. But the last week has been a lesson in the little things. It is the little milestones, the little every day things, the little (but often seemingly huge) interruptions to normal life. The little things help you see how lucky you are. So here and now I will share, perhaps over-share, my latest little interruption, and how the little things made all the difference. A little backstory, I had a milestone this year. I reached an age where my doctors said, "Oh, you are ' this age ' (Not 37, which I stayed at for a number of years, nor 42, a nice number I stayed at for a number of years as well. A big milestone, the big o...

  A difficult path, not taken this day from Raige Creations T his is not the first time I have thought about paths , the paths we take , the path of living , and choosing paths . It is not the first time a path has intrigued me . Heck, Walking on Wednesday is all about walking on paths.  This path above is one, on this particular day, I chose NOT to take. We have before. But this day I was not up for it. It just seemed too tough.  And that is okay. Some days we just cannot walk down a difficult path.  I was going through some stresses at work, which I cannot go in to details about. I can only say some days as a manager are frustratingly tough. It will work itself out, but dang the emotions of the past couple day took me down some ugly paths.  And next time, I WILL go down the path pictured above, as it leads to somewhere totally different, and some days you just need to mix it up a bit.  But this day, the same old path was just fine. There was comfort the...

I had never tried a treadmill before. Yes that is right, never. I was always the "nah, I prefer walking outside anyways" type, even though I had never really had access to such things as treadmills. But, now I DO have access, and I tried it. Treadmills these days are much more tech savvy than they used to be. And I am not very tech savvy. So the first day I tried one, I unsuccessfully linked to the workout app recommended. I decided to just start and try again at the end of the workout. There were workouts to choose from, but being my first day and a bit strapped for time, I just picked a time and speed and went for it. A bit boring. No. Really boring. Just keep staring at the wall? Look out the window at the parking lot and office building...wow. Riveting. I kept going, looking at the screen at some generic path with computer generated people I was passing. I noticed a cord hanging there, after sufficiently bored with the path and computer people. Thinking, ...

So two whole days just flew right by.... Really, I did try to get a Music Monday done, but there was just so much other crap to be done. The days just slipped right on by. So here we are, Hump Day . What other song would fit? Plus, when you happen to mention ' doing the humpty hump ' more than once in a week, well this song HAS to get the heck outta your head. And I DID reference this song more than once this week....so you know things are a bit crazy..... source And why the heck not dance? I find in times of great stress, even the thought of dancing eases the stress a little , especially in the kitchen while making dinner (which I do regularly...). As Mr. Humpty Hump says: I'm spunky. I like my oatmeal lumpy. So, outta my head, into yours.  This little retro hip hop rap ditty is sure to get you through this hump day.

My new mantra of late - That's One Less Thang. Even spoken like Forrest Gump . Because every time I finally get rid of something I have been trying to unloaded for a long time, or every time I cross something off my long, long list, or every time I pack yet another box, I utter: 'Well, that's good. One less thang!' A sense of relief, even though I have much, much more to do. Many more boxes or bins to load with things we just can't part with. Many many trips to storage, for the things we have to ship. Every day something added to the list that I can't forget to do. Thankfully, not really too much more to purge, compared to what we started with. But each thing gone, packed, and crossed off the list is one less thang. And that ain't so bad.  Do your mantras change?  Mine sure do, like here , here , and here just to mention a few. And one here that I still say so often   (thanks again hubby!) , as that day will soon be here where we ...

The million dollar question. One that inevitably creeps into your head when you are preparing for a yard sale.  But even worse when hubby puts on Hoarders and refuses to change the channel for 3 hours. 2nd-Hand Tips You are going through all your worldly belongings, when questions like, "Do I really need 2 bundt pans?" enter your brain. Have I ever baked 2 cakes at the same time? Of course not! So the logical answer is,  "NO!, I really don't need 2 bundt pans!!"  Then, the thought creeps in, "But maybe I should save one for my daughter who someday might want to bake a bundt cake...." Hoarder. bestnatesmithever.tumbler.com After you have convinced yourself it is really ok to have only one bundt pan, you move on to more difficult things. Like collections of things hubby has been collecting for a gazillion years, each one painstakingly selected, researched, and purchased, then lovingly taken care of move after move after move.  With so...

As you may have guessed if you are a follower, I have not been keeping up with my workout schedule. You may have noticed I stopped writing about running and walking, stopped posting my workouts, stopped talking about it altogether! Well, you are right. I have slacked. Big time. I did manage 2 workouts last week, but I barely remember them. They were at the beginning of the week, then I didn't go at all the rest of the week. This week, I am NOT off to a good start. Haven't been at all.  I know, you are saying 'well it's early in the week yet'. Yes, but tomorrow is supposed to be COLD! Chance of snow. Yuck. Plus, I have SO much to do, I just haven't had the time to spare.  Yes, this is an excuse. I know.  But I successfully have talked myself out of getting out there several days now. I reasoned that the time it takes to walk (or run) plus the necessary shower afterwards was just too much! I could accomplish so much on my list in that time. Lame...

It was a day that started with loads of potential.  source   Blue skies. Beauty. And things to do. source  Potential. source Sadly, my effort failed me late in the afternoon, and the day ended rather meh. Like, dinner at 9:30 pm kind of meh. source: etsy It turned out to be a  total hump day. Luckily, I think I am getting over the hump. I hope you had a wonderful hump day - did you have a big 'meh' hump to get over?

If you haven't heard, the south has had a bit of a snow storm . (and if you haven't heard, I would ask what rock you have been under) Now, having grown up in the Buffalo area, then moving BACK to the Buffalo area (after my other life in the Caribbean) before moving here, to the mountains of NC, I am quite familiar with snow. I grew up with snow, and my kids spent 5 'love-slash-hate' years dealing with it. This? THIS is snow. photo: Raige Creations I can drive in it, I can shovel it, snow blow it, and basically deal with it. I have even shoveled it off a roof when we got more than 5 feet of snow in one day. (yes, that happened.) Nothing closed up there unless there was a blizzard or sub zero temperatures AND a blizzard. School was open that day we had 5 feet of snow in a day.  Yes, that is several FEET of snow. and there still was school, and everything stayed open. photo:  Raige Creations So now we are in the mountains of a 'southern' state. (...

Sounds ridiculously fun, no? Well, my bird thinks it is! Orange Soda Bird House source: Raige Creations She crawled in the soda box at the opening at the top, slid down, then stuck her head out the handle. I thought she might be stuck in there, but no, she was just having fun! Dangling Boxes - Joy for the Birds source: Raige Creations Ever since I got lost on the internet that one day, and found I could MAKE bird toys, I have actually  been  making my own bird toys. It started with the register paper rolls. I used up the ones I had, even bought more and used those up.  Then I discovered I could use boxes and tee shirts. I got lots of ideas from here , and have since found this Pinterest board . I now recycle in a completely different, and fun, way. My mini recycling center source: Raige Creations I hoard boxes, paper towel cardboard rolls, toilet paper rolls, tee shirts, anything I think I can use. The area by the bird cages looks like a messy r...

I finally forced myself. I finally started gathering all the year end stuff, in preparation for tax time. Actually, I stressed myself right into it.  Image courtesy of anankkml / FreeDigitalPhotos.net We were going over our monthly expenses (always so much fun) and I realized I should really go ahead and get everything in a spreadsheet so we can better budget this year.  So I had to find all the expenses, and doing so I realized I needed to update quite a bit businesswise to have good totals for year end. I was quite behind. (I am sure, if you read this blog regularly, you are not at all surprised , you know I teeter between giving in to the pressure (aka LATE)  or pushing through .) I like to have a handle on things at least by February so that all I have to do is wait for all the reports to arrive from the various places they need to. Not early, but definitely not late. This is one area that I refuse to be late. So far, I am on track if I keep at it. But...

I know there are a gazillion websites and blogs that talk about the greatness of running. I read them too. But since I have started running again, after my 3 month break, I have learned some valuable  life lessons . Each lesson is great for running, but can be translated into every-day life as well.  (previous lessons: Shoes , Sleep , Form ) I am sharing these life lessons with you while training for the  Jingle Bell Run , which I am participating in on December 7th. ( Donate HERE ). Today, I can tell you ~ It gets harder before it gets easier . The Backstory I was running the a couple weeks ago and one day, I noticed a pattern when I ran. A disturbing pattern. The pattern went something like this: In that in the first mile I was feeling pretty good. I was energetic and my breathing is just right. I could even run halfway up that fairly big hill at the beginning. In the second mile, I started to get tired, legs ached, breathing was not as comfortable. Thoug...

I know there are a gazillion websites and blogs that talk about the greatness of running. I read them too. But since I have started running again, after my 3 month break, I have learned some valuable life lessons .  Each lesson is great for running, but can be translated into every-day life as well. I will be sharing these life lessons with you while training  for the  Jingle Bell Run , which I am participating in on December 7th. ( Donate HERE ). Today we talk about sleep. How important is rest? The Sleep. Last week I talked about how I happily I went out for my first run in my new shoes , excited to get in a great run! But i t wasn't a great run, and I walked quite a bit. Not the energizing workout I wanted, but at least m y legs didn't hurt. But why was it so bad? Well, the night before, I only got a total of 6 hours of sleep ~ split into two 3 hour sessions with a 4 hour awake time in between.  Basically I fell asleep on the couch (a common thing for m...

I know there are a gazillion websites and blogs that talk about the greatness of running. I read them too. But since I have started running again, after my 3 month break, I have learned some valuable life lessons . Each lesson is great for running, but can be translated into every-day life as well. I will be sharing these life lessons with you while training for the Jingle Bell Run , which I am participating in on December 7th. ( Donate HERE ). Today, I must stress the importance of good running shoes. The Shoes. I know, I know, everyone talks about the shoes. And here I am  again  stressing  their importance. But let me explain. When I started back running, 2 1/2 months ago, my running shoes were already old . I justified keeping them because I had taken a 3 month break, and thought I could get some more pounding out of them.  I am not sure when it started, but I really noticed my legs hurt. They hurt when I ran, after I ran, and most of the rest of the ...