This past June marked my thirty-third anniversary and my husband gifted me with an Amethyst ring, necklace, and earrings (because Amethyst is the traditional stone to mark the thirty-third year of marriage). These spark a lot of conversations because when anyone admires the jewelry, I tell them about their significance.
I’ve been thinking about all of the things that I’ve learned these past thirty-three years and decided to share them with you.
Here are my five best tips for how to stay married in midlife:Keep reading
Over the years, I have had an on-again, off-again relationship with meditation.
I like the idea of it, but I don’t always like to make time to do it.
There are just so many other things that I have to do every day … although I do feel calmer if I start my day by sitting for a while without my phone or other distractions clamoring for my attention every minute.
My meditation practice was definitely languishing recently …
and then I found this cool hour glass at a thrift shop!
See the cool hourglass with pink sand is on the right!
I also came upon some new crystals (one was given to me by a friend, and one I had already and rediscovered). I found this great Solar Plexus/Purpose candle at my favorite place to get crystals, Zen and Company. And, of course, Owl.Keep reading
I was watching a presentation in a Facebook Group recently and the speaker briefly mentioned totem animals.
This got me thinking that Owl might be a totem animal for me. I looked it up in Animal-Speak Pocket Guide by Ted Andrews. Here is what I read: “Spirits are strong around you. Attend to dreams and to heightened senses. It is up to you to act on that guidance.”
And then suddenly, Owl seemed to be popping up everywhere! It was happening so often that I decided to take some photos of them all (See slideshow below).
The best Owl appearance of all was one I couldn’t get a photo of because it happened too fast. As my husband and I were driving home from the harbor (water!), a large owl flew across the street in front of us and then swooped up into the trees. It was an amazing sight!
I definitely feel like Owl is encouraging me “to act” because this also aligns with guidance I have been getting from cards I’ve pulled recently from different decks.Keep reading
I recently realized that I was drinking up to six cups of coffee a day and decided (for reasons that I won’t go into right now) that it was excessive and perhaps could bear some, um, reduction.
I have my favorite kinds of coffee, and one of them was Green Mountain’s Spicy Eggnog, which was discontinued years ago. I still had 2 of the k-cups left that I saved for a special occasion (one of which I used last week when I was feeling sorry for myself and needed some cheering up).
Periodically I would look online to see if they might magically appear again but sadly, they have not.
Now that I only had one left, I decided to check again. I was shocked to see there was a spicy eggnog k-cup listed by a company I’d never heard of but SO WHAT?!
I was willing to take a chance.
When it arrived, it was with low expectations that I made a cup and tried a sip.
“(S)he likes it!! Hey, Mikey!”
After much research, we bought a Vermont Castings Alpine C3 Wood Stove. It was the perfect stove for our situation (on paper, at least), but in real life, not so much. You see, most of the time, the smoke emptied out into the camp via the door, bottom of the stove, or stove pipe.
Not good.
The installers came out to look at it a couple of times. The first time, they noted that the heat blanket in the stove had melted, so they replaced that. The next time they noted that the stove was cracked. They replaced it, and it did work for a short time after that.Keep reading
“I’d like a side of lead and cadmium with my dark chocolate”–
said nobody, ever.
I was paging through the February 2023 issue of Consumer Reports and discovered that these heavy metals are apparently exactly what I have been unknowingly getting. You know, in dark chocolate? The kind that is supposed to be “better for you” (p. 34)?
I think of the couple of bars of Green & Black’s that I have sitting in my desk drawer that are now going into the trash instead of my body. Before throwing them out, I looked at the Nutrition Facts label. Shockingly, lead and cadmium are missing from the list! I looked at the list of ingredients and once again, lead and cadmium are omitted. I wonder what other foods and products contain toxic ingredients that somehow never made it on the packages ingredients list.
I remember my husband telling me a while back that he wasn’t so sure that dark chocolate was a good thing to be eating and that maybe milk chocolate was better. I remember brushing that–what turned out to be the voice of reason–off at the time. I mean, what was he talking about? Everyone knows that dark chocolate is “healthier” than milk chocolate!
My takeaway from this? Question everything and never trust any other opinion over your own–except maybe my husband’s.
Karen Creamer
