Raige Creations

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....

That is a good summary of my week, actually. Didn't realize it until I started writing. It was a week of negotiations for a bathroom renovation (due to an unexpected leak - pain the...well wallet, ass, life, etc), loss of a family member, and injury of my stupid quadracept in a Cross Fit class. Breaking waves, and rain in the distance.  As I see it, it is still a beautiful view.  First, we now have a contractor we think we can work with - thankfully for a decent price. Second - the loss of a family member is sad, leaves an empty spot, but she lived a beautiful life. Through her life, she taught us how to be caring and giving. She was both to the extreme. Third - the injury. The burning pain made me realize perhaps I jumped too hard and too fast into the Cross-Fit class. I like the class, but it is HARD. Nothing like an injury to help us set our boundaries and limits. So I will have to find other, less strenuous ways to get my workouts in.  The waves broke...

For all my friends who are getting a wee bit o'snow. This might ease the pain. Imagine......a beach.......gorgeous blue water....you are the only one there.... Source: Visit Cayman Islands you and.... your cheeseburger Stay Safe!

My Current  Dream Writing Space photo: Raige Creations Someday, my Actual Writing Space and my Dream Writing Space will be the same. For now, I mostly sit at my dining room table, which is not what's in the first picture here, by the way. That is my kitchen table, with a nice view, plenty of light, more comfortable chairs. My Current Dream Writing Space. My Actual Writing Space is my dining table, and it is basically in the living room (it wouldn't fit in the kitchen). The living room is on the side of the house that doesn't get sunlight, so it is very dark and the lamps don't really help that much. My Actual Writing Space (dining set IS for sale ..... as soon as we can move it out of there.....) photo: Raige Creations It is also where after a couple hours my back starts to hurt, because my  my feet don't touch the floor when sitting on the dining room chairs because I have short legs. This strains my lower back so I can hardly sit, and basically make...

Then we would cook corn meal porridge Of which I'll share with you....... On the radio today, it is Marley Monday, where they share Bob Marley songs throughout the day. On the way to school, dropping the kids off, we heard this song. My ears picked up the 'corn meal porridge' lyric and instantly I craved it. It was a common breakfast when we lived in the Caribbean, and I haven't had any since we moved from there. Suddenly I was homesick for my old home, and fond memories of our time there flooded my head. We had tough times then, we struggled plenty in our newly married lives, with a young family and stresses much the same as we are faced with now. We plowed on, we figured it out. We had fun still, we had each other. Everything turned out alright. And it will again. 'Nah Cry, we push h'on trew.' Meaning...'Don't cry we always make it through.' Sometimes we forget, we forget we are strong, and we need to be reminded 'Everything's g...

Story of my life.  Oh Crap I'm Late Again Clock My mother was always late. Growing up, w e were never super late, always five or ten minutes late. Not too late to miss much, but always late enough to miss the beginning.  I vowed to not be like that of course. But some things are just inevitable.  As I got older and functioned on my own time, I got to be less late. But still late just the same. I usually made it within the first five minutes of something, and even sometimes right on time. I never did manage to say I was actually early for something.  Rum Point, Grand Cayman Then I moved to the Caribbean, where late is the norm. Everything moved slower, perhaps the heat and beauty slowed everyone down. It was perfectly acceptable to be late. In fact, if you were on time or even (gasp) early, you were often all alone and then eyed suspiciously by those who showed up at the assumed proper start time, fifteen to thirty minutes after the stated time. Buffal...

I was in paradise back in 1993 when this song came out, newly married and in The Caribbean living with my new hubby. I didn't really know this song until my oldest son played it from his Ipod, just a few months ago. I asked right away about it and he couldn't remember the name of it, who sang it, etc. It was left there, until I asked him to make me a CD of some of the songs from his Ipod that I liked, and he put this on it. (I almost typed make me a tape...oh boy hard to get out of the 80's sometimes) I have found this song so calming and soothing, that I listen to it when I start to feel overwhelmed, stresses, or just need a pick me up. Today, and probably many times over the next few weeks, I will need this song as I prepare for The Big Love Fest . I need lots of stock, and been working and working to try to make stuff. Then, I gotta price and package everything. Then I gotta decide how to display everything. Kumm A Klele AND the weather just stinks today. ...

I was searching for a topic today, very early this morning, and stumbled across a blog I like . This blogger had a summary of the week in pictures. Her pictures were great, took us through crafts with the kids, making syrup, and some lovely pictures of her kitchen and kids.   I thought this was a wonderful idea, thinking also I could do a similar type thing. But then I thought what my week was like. STRESS! The week was entirely full of stress. So much so, I feel it stalled me almost completely. So much stress, worry, that I was like a deer in the headlights , stuck in a purgatory of wasted time and not accomplishing much of anything all week. So then I thought, how do you  take a picture of stress?? Here are some I found online I could relate to these pictures. I probably experienced a little bit of each of these this week, and it has been exhausting ! So I decided I am allowing myself the freedom of no stress this weekend!  No worries about mone...