Raige Creations

When it came to decorating the tree this year, there came a load of emotions and memories. It was the first year I decorated the tree without the kids. They are all out of the house now, and it is just hubby and me for the holidays this year. A quiet house this year, unlike almost every other one we have had since we were married. ( Here is one from several years ago, boy did we decorate then!) It used to be that he brought the live tree in and got it in the holder and made sure it was straight, and then his job was done. He never actually puts one on the tree, unless it was that crazy spinning cow above the tree the kids loved when they were little, or the octopus star that one year.  He generally he finds other things to do while the decorating is going on, and this year was no different. Just paying attention from the sidelines, when he wanted to add comments to my reminiscing and laughing and nod and agree to my ' aww look how cute ' comments.  Christmas 2020 That is some...

  Thanks Pinterest We now have got three walks in over the past five days. We took a long break, but hopefully this is the start of a regular thing. And today, I realized how much I missed it. Every time we get back to walking, we wonder why we stopped. It is really such a simple thing, going for a walk in Nature. Why do we find so many excuses not to do it?  Even they days you get rained on are wonderful - the other day, in fact, we were soaked. Even the grey and cloudy days are beautiful.  Even a grey day is beautiful I knew things were starting to feel better when I wanted to take a picture. Sure, that is not the best photo. It was cloudy, it was the 'wrong' time of day, it was a rough and not brilliant sea. We hadn't seen much that was particularly interesting. But still, the waves look cool, the breeze was refreshing, and the grey is a bit soothing. I realized I wasn't feeling nature, until then. Figuring I may as well take as shot, seeing it through the lens (so t...

 A little positive thinking for this Monday. Here we are staring at only a few full work weeks until that cozy holiday, Christmas, coming up. One we hope we can at least see a small group of family or friends.  I am honestly tired of thinking about yesterday, and each day, these days. Though each day does bring a little bit more hope, I am struggling through the todays lately. I have had enough of this stress. Yes 2020 has tested all our strengths, revealed our weaknesses. We have many of each. Just when I think a today may be alright, the day 'explodes' with something that has happened, some news, and I am stressed again.  Tomorrow is all we have to look forward to. It will soon be here, we sure hope. And tomorrow will be better, it has to be. If each day can get a little better, we may just be ok. Here's hoping it WILL be better than before. There is so much potential in tomorrow. We can open our eyes, and see things in a different way. I like having this song in my h...

 Back to work this morning, after a lovely, slow, relaxing yet a tad productive break from work. I so enjoyed the slower pace, the reading , the writing. I even am planning to submit some photos for a show, I am a bit nervous about that.  But today, I feel a little bit off today. Having to get back to the daily grind and to some unpleasant things in progress at work.  A friend said she was feeling a little off last week. She had this song on repeat. Good choice, I say, when this is part of the lyrics:  I don't really wanna try today. I love getting suggestions for music, and ones that fit my mood tend to end up here, at Music Monday. And yup, this one fits for a Monday back to work from vacation. It fits for the mood at any given time during this crazy year, pandemic, life. And sometimes music just helps us through, helps us focus on something else, gives us a little mental strength. Perhaps have a Five Finger Death Punch album ( click here ) playing while you get...

Grateful. Thankful. It is said if we acknowledge what we are thankful for regularly it will make us happy. If we write down what we are grateful for we live a more fulfilled life. Lately, I am thankful for a good murder mystery. Who doesn't love a good murder mystery? Or is it just me? Source Reading, of course. I mean reading good, fictional murder stories. Though I am slightly fascinated by stories of serial killers, but that is another tangent, and lately I just like a good book that has a murder mystery to solve. I have been gobbling up suspense and mystery books lately. With the 'rona and being stuck on this rock I have been lucky enough to call home during it all, reading has kept me away from the news, which is a different kind of scary , and allowed me room to see different worlds and times all from the comfort of my couch. I have read mystery after mystery. Very light reading, most of them mildly predictable, but humorous and entertaining. This author , I like. I have...

Source - English Literature via Facebook   Source - Pinterest Source -  The Kindness Rocks Project It honestly costs nothing to be kind. Be cool, be kind. Source - No Sidebar

 Aimlessly scrolling this morning, while I enjoy my coffee, I came across this: I sang it to hubby, and yup, he said bang bang . No finger guns though. Perhaps he wasn't the finer gun type. But me? Well.... Now -  I am the warrior ...well I am the warrior...and heart to heart you'll win...if you survive..... Finger guns and all. I am right there, back in 1984, with my besties...back then we didn't call each other that. We called each other sisters, BFFs perhaps. We were a group of 8, then 10. The Great 8 Plus 2 . Inseparable in those crazy years, gathering at one of our houses (whosever parents were out of town, preferably, but not necessarily. We could cause a bit of trouble with or without parents around).  I even had the half a head of short hair, half a head of longer hair, hair cut - oh so 80's style. One of my friends cut my hair in this "hip" style, and cut part of my ear along with it! I am missing a little bit of my left ear. We were definitely shooti...

 It had been raining for days and days.... Not that I was complaining. I love rainy days. And I don't mean a little rain and then back to normal sun. I mean grey, cool, rainy days. Whole days of clouds and rain. Days where you can just settle in and chill under a blanket.  Sadly I had to drive in and home from work during most of these days. Forgetting my rain coat, many a trip from car to building and back. But I didn't mind, a bit refreshing actually. And there is a beauty in rainy days.  Rainy View in Traffic And going in to work gave me some break from the news . Today I can breathe a little easier though, knowing some dignity can be restored to the world. I try not to bring my political views in to my public postings, but dang am I glad to be rid of the current POTUS. That's all I have to say about that.  From NOAA National Hurricane Center From  NOAA National Hurricane Center Saturday brought some heavy winds, and loads of rain, from TS Eta . We weren't ex...

I always thought a note in a lunch was a fun way to let the kids know I was thinking of them, and that they should smile, or have a good day, or have fun, etc. I even leave notes for my hubby to find throughout the day, just for fun. But I never thought my little notes were anything more than a little written hug - to be enjoyed at that moment, and then tossed away. They were often messy, on scrap paper, I mean nothing fancy here.  Sometimes, I ( try to ) draw a little something, but the 'talented artist' gene is not with me. Usually my signature ' happy face with a curl ' is all they get.  Never did I think they were worth saving. I never meant them to be saved, actually. It was always meant for a quick reminder, to be thrown out with the lunch bag. I never had anything profound to say, just a ' hey I love ya! ', or a ' Enjoy your day ', or ' SMILE ', or something like that. When my daughter moved back home after college, I had the chance again ...

Grateful. Thankful. It is said if we acknowledge what we are thankful for regularly it will make us happy. If we write down what we are grateful for we live a more fulfilled life. I will try to get back to my thankful posts , lord knows we need some more positive things to hear about these days.  So today I am thankful for turtles, and my job.  Perhaps a short explanation is in order. First, my job.  I had a high paying job that I traded for a job I am passionate about . I am truly thankful for that, even if it did mean a hefty pay cut.  I am so challenged and busy in this current job, but I really like it, and love the variety of things that go on. For instance, what other kind of finance and HR job will you come across a bucket full of turtles ?  Our team of turtle monitoring people brought this bucket in to the office the other day. The intent was to give it to my boss, as she lives near the beach where these little guys were stranded in their nest. The inte...

I had procrastinated enough. I had filled our freezer full of cut mangos. There is little room for anything else. I had not settled down to make jam until the other day.  I had finally found the mood to get down to making some jam. It was an order, actually, that brought the mood on. Well, it was more a mood of "I HAVE TO make some jam". I was asked for 3 jars, please, by Sunday.  Thank you to my previous customer who placed the order, you have lifted me out of my anti-jam making funk. Voila, my first batch of mango jam. First Batch Mango Jam 2020 This batch, I am told, is better than last year. Hubby was the taster - compared the very last bit in the very last jar I have from last year with a taste of the slight overage of this first batch. His conclusion was that this year's batch was better than last year's.  It has a great flavor and set very nicely.  So I am not sure really if I tweaked the recipe differently, I may have been a  bit more heavy handed i...

It is never a bad way to end the weekend, watching The Big Lebowski . That we did, for the I don't know how many-eth time. We have seen it a lot. (Plus a little Monty Python , always a good time for that really.) But now back to work from my completely do nothing vacation, well staycation really. Honestly, I did a little more than nothing, but not much. I hardly cooked, didn't go anywhere but the grocery store, did minimal laundry (that still needs to be folded). I sat on the couch most of the time. I successfully lounged and read several kindle fun books. So this is a nice way to ease in to tackeling my work emails, a nice tune from Bob Dylan . (website here if you want to get lost in Bob ) Besides hubby requested it, and it is kinda nice to hear him sing along, even if he is immitating Bob, he is a bit better than Bob. But, if I have to play it again, and read him the lyrics, having heard him say one too many times 'What is that he said there?' , I may ...

Yup. Hooked on this song apparently. I heard it on the radio driving in to town the other day. I cranked up the volume, and sang along as loud as I could. And then over the weekend it came up in conversation...can't remember that conversation now but I got to hear it again. And there it has been in my head, stuck. Every time I hear it, I want to sing it, and sing it loud. I like sing along songs, particularly since singing is good for you . Plus, both sing and dance are on this great list of advice for living. What a GREAT feeling that was in the car, though! There is something so liberating about singing alone in the car while your driving. I hadn't let loose like that since, well at least since before the lockdown . And honestly, I didn't let loose much before that because traffic was so bad people sitting in cars right next to me would have seen me blaring out the song and doing a little dance sitting behind the steering wheel and that would have just been we...

Carry on. What we must do. It is hard, these days, but in the end, we must carry on. A popular WWII slogan the English came up with back in 1939. Much unknown then, it's resugence took the world by storm in the 2000's. The original was  Keep Calm and Carry on . The original displayed at Barter Books Many  Keep Calm and.... slogans  are out there. So, so many variations; some are funny, some are motivating, and they all have Keep Calm to start, because that is actually very good advice in so many situations. This song is a fun song, (yes I know, the name of the band too , but it really is an uplifting fun song), it lifts the sprits. Mine anyways.   Cause we are We are shining stars We are invincible We are who we are On our darkest day When we're miles away So we'll come We will find our way home A good reminder to keep that one foot moving forward, carrying on. We are who we are, after all. We must remember to Keep Calm a...

This year, we had the mangos come a wee bit earlier than last year. And (thankfully) not quite as many mangos. This year, I wasn't sure how I would be able to keep up with the mangos. Working full time doesn't leave much time for jam during the week, and mangos don't wait until the weekend to be ready. So that is why this year I am thankful we are getting them off at a more mangeable rate. About 1 - 3 every day or so. An amount I can deal with, even with the gifted Carrie Mangos from my SIL. Then, yesterday, my sister-in-law gave us a bag full of Carrie Mangos . I had a slight panic moment. How am I going to use all these mangos?? Ours are Valencia Pride mangos, my favortie for just pealing and eating. Carries I have to figure out what to put in, because I don't like eating them outright much. A slightly different flavor, and texture. Still good mangos, don't get me wrong! But I will use them in something, just have to decide what that will be. I hav...

Another Monday, another week of what the heck will happen this week? source And we are just floating around waiting for the next WFT moment. I say, it is time to enjoy some Modest Mouse then and we can all float on together. Alright, already, we'll all float on, alright Don't worry, even if things end up a bit too heavy We'll all float on Alright, already I kind of love that the video has the band in a little puppet show, moving around with magnets. Being controlled by someone. Read into that what you will, I sure we could draw some real life parallels. And then there are the sheep. All singing along, as we float along. Perhaps another real life parallel can be found here. But I won't be drawing or finding any parallels today, it is Monday after all. Asked about the song in an interview with The A.V. Club , Isaac Brock , the lead vocalist and guitarist for the band, said that he consciously intended to write something that felt more po...

As the daily news keeps plugging the negatively and violence, this past weekend we were reminded that when we work together we can accomplish huge things. We can go to SPACE ! We were reminded to look to the stars to remind us how small we really are, and to strive for big goals regardless of the hurdles. And soon, we could possible hitch a ride with a commercial spaceship!!! Of course, what other song is appropriate when thinking about going off to space? This past weekend, we were reminded we can get the heck off this earth and live in space by none other than NASA with  SpaceX and of course Bob and Doug  - the astronauts . (NO NOT Bob and Dough  McKenzie , though I could not get them out of my head whenever someone mentioned Bob and Doug taking off... , and I was tempted to use their song , but really Bowie's is better, imho, so take off, eh ? You hoser !).  It didn't sink in to me that we (humans) have been in space, living there in the ...

Sometimes, when so much pain and sadness and frustration is dumped on us, we withdraw. We just can't take it all at once. So we step back, and go to our little safe spaces. We avoid what is causing us pain, sadness, frustration. We stay far away, slowly letting little bits in as we feel we can handle it. Source Me? My little safe space has me lost on bee butts. Totally. On Pinterest , once you start looking at them, they appear in your feed like reproducing bunnies. They are everywhere. And they are so cute. I am not just guessing that withdrawing is a normal reaction, I just know it is. I don't have any fancy study to prove it. My statement is developed from complete personal and anecdotal evidence. I feel it, I see it, I hear people telling me what they feel, or see how they cope. Also, it is all over the internet, especially since this COVID-19 pandemic urged us all to stay home, or we could get sick and die, or someone you know could. And then one violent natur...