Picture of our town taken by my daughter

“How odd that a chance meeting with a woman named Letty would add a large piece to the puzzle of how to enjoy life as you grow older. Letty’s found the secret, I think, to staying young. How? By responding as a child does: seeing the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.” -Alice Steinbach in her book Without Reservations

I love this line. I am seeing the truth lately. Much of our misery is of our own making. We “wish” something else had happened. We “should have” done this or that. We get disappointed when life doesn’t happen as we planned. We get annoyed at those who don’t act like we want them to.

Instead we could enjoy people as they are, flaws and all. After all they have to put up with us! We can respond with flexibility instead of complaining about the change. We can look at a moment as it really is instead of how we want it to be.

I have caught some kind of cold or flu. It does no good to me to say, “I wish I wasn’t sick.” Then I just feel miserable. Instead I will say, “I am sick. How can I feel better? Or what can I do as I heal? Or how can I take care of myself today?”

So today I will drink lots of water and do lots of reading and resting. I am starting to feel better all ready.

What can you let go of this week?

Coach Cheryl Richardson’s newsletter this week is so important. She said what I tell my clients often. If you are feeling very overwhelmed you have forgotten who is in charge. She goes on with some suggestions on how to let go of trying to do every little thing perfectly. Leave the dishes in the sink, pay the late fee on the movie and go to bed early. We get to choose what we do and don’t do. How about you? Are you in charge of your life or have you gotten so all you do is put out fires and react to whatever is thrown at you?

Today found me lying in the hammock, cuddling with my daughter. The air was cool with a slight breeze, almost like being on a boat sailing in the water. How are you relaxing this weekend?

Can’t get out of the city? Try RelaxingTV

Do any of you know of a virtual assistant? I’d love to find a great virtual assistant who would like to trade a couple hours of assistance a week for personal coaching from me. Just e-mail me at MailGuard('bethd','encouragingcoach.com')>

My daughter and I went with my father-in-law to a family friend’s to pick sour cherries from the tree. The work was hot, but the cherry smell was heavenly. We picked a bucket for our friend, a bucket for us, and a bucket for my in-laws and we got the cherries for free. I also bought some freshly picked blueberries, the freshest corn I had ever seen – the end grasses were moist and bright green, one of the first tomatoes of the season and just picked raspberries.

At home we made a cherry pie. I was so excited because cooking is not what I am best at. But, the pie turned out excellent! We also made some sour cherry freezer jam. That will taste good this winter.

While my son is at his grandparents, I’ve been spending extra time with my daughter. One of our favorite things to do is a penny walk. We take a penny and when we get to an intersection we pick two choices. For instance, Heads left, tails straight. Or Heads right, tails left. She tosses the coin and we walk where the penny points. We get to take different routes then we are used to. On our last penny walk, my daughter found $5 on the ground near a parking lot. Walks are fun with her because she is so observant. She shows me all the bugs, pretty flowers, and unusual rocks she finds.

Maybe today, you can go on a penny walk or take a different route somewhere. A whole world is out there to see!

I am pooped. We spent the day picking up last minute things, putting gummy frogs into ice cubes, making chocolate toads and flies on a log, printing out loads of things for decoration, tic, frog, turtle, pin the tail on the alligator, cutting out lily pads for the relay and getting things together for the frog rock.

The kids arrived at 7:00 and it had cooled down enough to let them paint the frog rocks outside. We actually planned more things to do than we needed. I was surprised by how much fun they had playing things like tadpole, tadpole, frog (duck, duck, goose) and the tic tac toe game with frogs and turtles. So we just let them play till they were tired of something.

The quickest things to get eaten were those chocolate toads (gummy toads with melted chocolate chips and butter painted on).

The kids had lots of fun and lots of energy. When their parents came to pick them up at 9:00 they asked to stay longer, so I told my daughter she could consider her party a success. She actually paid for it with birthday money and money she had saved from her allowance and she planned all the activities and food. See both my kids’ birthdays are in July so we have parties every other year. This is her brother’s year who is having a laser tag party in a couple weeks. I told her this wasn’t her year, she had paint-a-pot last year. But, she was determined to throw a party. I told her I would help her with it and take her shopping if she paid for it and planned it. And to my wonderment, she did! 

How about you? Do you have anything in your life that you really want to do, but looks impossible? Can you break down a door, go around or think of a creative solution?

I found this checklist useful preparing for our trip: http://www.camping-usa.com/checklist.html

 
Camping…
4 generations around the campfire roasting marshmallows,
kids catching bug after bug to look at,
then looking up the creatures in their new bug book,
finding a frog with a big X on its back called a peeper,
hiking up the dunes and seeing the beauty below,
viewing birds through the glass at the nature center
and seeing dunes above and below,
realizing that there are some people who have never seen the dunes,
an outdoor worship service with my Dad preaching,
walks in the woods with my husband,
wild raspberries,
sap dripping from the trees,
dipping feet into ice cold Lake Michigan,
listening to a powerful storm as we slept snug in our tent,
playing Boggle with my kids and my Dad,
Mom’s poison ivy,
viewing pictures of the wedding day of a girl I used to baby-sit,
potluck dinner under different awnings when another storm came by,
remembering times past when I was fearless,
getting comfortable with sitting and doing nothing,
no computer, no phone, no work,
renewal.