Raige Creations

Source Funny how you start thinking of time, how fast it goes by and things like that, when you are celebrating 26 years of marriage. We celebrated that milestone yesterday. The talk was mainly - ' wow, we have spent over half our lives together ' - and things like that. Also - ' It hasn't always been easy, but here we are ' - and things like that. Because it isn't easy. Life isn't always easy. Sometimes it is darn hard. But, we stuck it out thus far, and being that some of those darn hard times were more than darn hard, we figure we may as well stick it out another 26 years or so. Overall, we would say we have lived our lives together pretty well. And are looking forward to many years to come, living pretty well. Life, if well lived, is long enough.

What a race! The Flowers Sea Swim , a very well done event, this year is the 27th year it has been going! I trained a long time for this, since January. All through training, I simply wanted to just be able to swim a full mile without stopping. And at the start, I realized just how hard that would be. But, after months of training, I knew I could swim that far, even if I did stop to get the mouthful of water out of my mouth, or massaged a cramp, or slowed to get a better look at the fish. So the day came, and I wanted to swim it faster than I had in every training session. I was excitedly nervous. The weather was beautiful, even if a bit hot. The ocean was calm and a few clouds gave us some relief from the sun sometimes. Me and my numba! Never so proud to wear J16! Especially after I got my number painted on me! I felt so good, actually, with that number on. It was official now. Now, I just had to stash my stuff - they had a shuttle to take our stuff to the finish line....

Motivation. It is hard, yo. Especially to get out the door, and drive to have a swimming workout. from teespring.com It is not uncommon for me to have major motivational problems to do this. Especially when my coach (hubby) says he is not up for going with me. I sit and battle with myself that I really SHOULD go, but don't want to ~ it takes so much preparation to go. Both physically and mentally. These help, a little gift I got myself - I LOVE these goggles. He usually says, after I whine about the struggle to him, ' Just go if you're gonna go !'  His way of motivating. Gee, thanks coach . I guess it is somewhat effective. I have this struggle nearly every time I plan to go for a swim workout, so I often go to Pinterest for motivation, as one does. Usually, it works: his words in my head and reading all the motivational things I find.  This made me think about the whole process that makes it so hard to do. To get ready: put in contacts. put on sui...

Into the wild.... I heard this song while on a walk/run. It is such an inspirational song to me, I love the whistling, and the strength of her voice, and the lyrics........ Somebody left the gate open You know we got lost on the way Come save us a runaway train Gone insane How do we how do we not fade How do we how do we how do we not fade away How do we how do we oooh Into the wild How are we living living living Into the wild How are we living living living Are we lost on the way? I say only if the gate is closed. With the gate open, we are living. source The gate is opening for us...and I myself am quite looking forward to be on a runaway train, gone insane! {also metaphorically} Am I more scared than not....not this time! It is about time we got up, out of this rut, ask that important question - how are we living - and take off down that path we need to go.... Into the wild.... Wooohoooh!  Woohooahoo Heeeyyy Heeey Is...

It was time.  I was ready.  Time for change, time for a more focused direction, and I am ready to introduce... Not a different direction really. It is one I have been going for a while now.  As I was growing my other businesses, I was wishing more and more that I could write, share my motivations and insights that I have learned along the way.  Well, the time has come, and my opportunities are changing to allow me to give a more serious effort to writing, blogging, and creating in many different ways.  So I have focused this blog, and my facebook and google pages, to be the Thoughts of Raige; views of life, motivation, and creation. Basically what I have been doing all along, I just didn't realize that the look of my blog had been outdated for quite some time. I will still be selling my creations, as Raige Creations (on Artfire and Zibbet , plus Vintage Rage on Zibbet ), sharing my motivations, getting through life's highs and lows...

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out And if you want to be free, be free 'Cause there's a million things to be You know that there are And if you want to live high, live high And if you want to live low, live low 'Cause there's a million ways to go You know that there are Chorus: You can do what you want The opportunity's on And if you find a new way You can do it today You can make it all true And you can make it undo you see ah ah ah its easy ah ah ah You only need to know Well if you want to say yes, say yes And if you want to say no, say no 'Cause there's a million ways to go You know that there are And if you want to be me, be me And if you want to be you, be you 'Cause there's a million things to do You know that there are Chorus Well, if you want to sing out, sing out And if you want to be free, be free 'Cause there's a million things to be You know that there are You know that there are You k...

It is not for everyone....watching the sunset. It is bit cliche, romantic types revel in the ease of this tool. It is boring to some, not worth the effort to get to a great vantage point.   And normally, it is not on my list of 'must-do's. (I have seen more than my fair share of beautiful sunsets when we lived in the Caribbean, yes with my love too.) But when my daughter's friend was visiting us from our old hometown, after days and days of rain and not being able to do too much, and worried she wouldn't get to enjoy the nature and beauty of the area (an important part of being here in my humble opinion) , we decided to head up to Craggy Gardens to catch the sunset. We couldn't convince the boys to join us. I was doing it for the girls, and hoping to get a little enjoyment for myself. That is my attitude going into it. But once we were there, something happened. I could not avoid the feeling once there that I was so incredibly lucky to have this in my ba...

I know it's hard when you're falling down And it's a long way up when you hit the ground Get up now, get up, get up now.  A good sunset hike last week gave me the peace and energy I didn't even realize I had been missing.  I didn't realize how nature, quiet (real quiet that can only be enjoyed far away from houses, streets, buildings, people) and natural beauty could make me feel like I was on top of the world. And of course, this song popped in my head. A sense that I had been missing something in my life hit me, about when I had found what it was that I had been missing! I  had found it in the time I was out there hiking, seeing, feeling nature. The waterfall, the sunset, the streams and trees. This is what I loved doing, and lately that feeling had been avoiding me.  I found found what had been missing out there, and that alone made me feel like I am on top of the world.  Like Imagine Dragons says: I've had the highest mountains I'...

It can be scary. It can be exciting. It could not work out the way you thought or intended... but... it could be perfect.

Many a night, I sit on the couch relaxing when everyone else in my family is bored with my TV shows, and finally I give in and say 'Go ahead and play your video games'. I sit and watch usually, sometimes I just go on the computer, or go to bed. But last night, I decided that I wanted to play!!! (probably being off work for 3 days in a row helped me relax enough to do this....) Thus, I learned how to play Black Ops 2 last night. I have tried before, taken the controller when someone had to get up briefly for some reason, bathroom, to get a drink, etc. I failed miserably most of the time. I would wander around, looking at the sky or ground most of the time, walk into walls, get stuck in a bush, etc. And shoot somebody at the same time? Ha, forget it! I shot the wall, bush, or sky. Last night I decided I was going to play with them, and learn dammit! They were so patient, walking me through each step, teaching me how to do it. I would follow my hubby around, practicing...

There is so much to find during Spring. The world comes alive, and we notice things with such color and hope. I have spent the last few weeks completely enjoying the Spring, mostly in the gorgeous flowers that are suddenly everywhere! We also noticed our bushes had some unusual activity lately. And look what we found! We eagerly were anticipating baby birds, peeking occasionally at the nest when Momma wasn't there to view the beautiful blue eggs. The trademark of the Robin eggs. So the weeks went on and the flowers bloomed beautifully, and started the end of their run. We check and check the nest. And one day.... Gone. All 3 gone. No shells to be found anywhere. We were all so sad about this, even though we know such is the circle of life. It is just so special to see, and witness nature's blooming all around, and just as disheartening to see nature's circle that takes away potential life. Hopefully Momma Robin had a chance to build another nest, ...

I started out my run today feeling more like walking. My legs were a little stiff-slash-sore, my knee letting me know I have been working out. So, I decided in my mind that today that I could take it easy. So I walked up that long steep hill at the end of my driveway. Of course, I was out this morning at the school drop off time, and the traffic on my road and at the top of the hill was quite busy, making me glad I was taking it easy today. The entrance to the school was crazy, parents trying to get in, parent trying to get out, so I thought it best that I ran to get out of the way.  Well, once I started running, I just kept running. I felt like I was going an easy pace, still thinking I could make is a nice and easy run, nothing fast, not really pushing myself. So I ran. I didn't push too hard, took it slow, and even snapped some pictures...not the best, but still it made me appreciate the beauty around, and appreciate the fact I was not breathing too heavy, and didn't h...