Only in Alberta!

Only in Alberta can it go from 30 below zero to 11 degrees above in less than a week!   Snow is almost completely gone, and there is hope for spring in the air.  However, it is far too early for that.  At least six more weeks before we should be warming up.  I guess "Groundhog Day" is only a couple of weeks away, and then we can know for sure if we will have an early spring.  Not that I believe in that theory, but hey, it is always fun to see what "they" say.  Whoever "they" are.

I am really looking forward to this new year of 2017.  Hubby and I have made a great list of ideas of things we want to do this year!  We called it our 2017 Bucket List!  I decided that each year just seems to pass us by so quickly, and we don't really plan things, we just kind of go with it, and next thing you know, it's gone.  So this year we have planned things.  I have 24 date nights planned.  Well some are date nights and some are date weekends.  I got many of the ideas from this site:  The Dating Divas  Love their site, their ideas and it actually made me look forward to many dates of strengthening my own marriage.  Yes we have been married for almost 29 years now, but who says we can't still have fun.  In fact, it is probably more fun now, and less stress because we don't have little kiddos and we have a little more money and time.  I totally would recommend their site and I purchased several of their products already. 

Reesor Ranch

I also have found this place and am totally stoked to head there for the May long weekend, and our 29th Anniversary!  Reesor Ranch.  I wish I could say this was only in Alberta, but it is in fact in Saskatchewan, in Cypress Hills.  The most beautiful scenery within an hour of where we live.  We have one of the cabins booked, and just being here, we will be able to knock off a few of the things on our bucket list.  We kind of have a realistic bucket list, and yes we even created a more personal, private bucket list as well.  Those

This is the cabin we have rented

ones, well we don't share!  Haha if you get my meaning?  We are not quite dead yet!

Of course our bucket list includes creating a small camper in the back of our truck so we can take off any time we want and it will always be ready for us.  I am totally stoked for that.  A topper on the truck, a bed, and some supplies and we can make camp pretty much anywhere!  I do love camping. 

I will keep posting more on our bucket lists as the year goes on.  In the mean time check out the dating divas site, and the Reesor Ranch.  Pretty sweet. 

Winter Blues

I can do anything, knowing camping is around the corner

Why do I get the winter blues?  And who named them that anyway?  I learned two days ago, that it is actually called Blue Monday, the day after Christmas and New Years when reality sets back in again.  The day when people have to pay bills and they realize they have over spent at Christmas, again.  The day when everyone who has had time off has to go back to work, back to school.  It is cold outside, and reality isn't so nice.  I never knew that was called Blue Monday.  I learned something new this week.  LOL. I can see why they call it that though. 

For me, it wasn't a Blue Monday.  It was just hard to get up early again after sleeping in for two weeks.  Otherwise, I enjoyed it.  Ya, money is a little tight after Christmas, but there is always hope at the end of that

Pick me!

tunnel, if you are willing to work for it.  I also am looking forward to 2017.  I have some great goals and plans already in the works.  I was able to finish quite a few of my renos over the holidays so I can worry less about my house being torn apart, and I am really looking forward to Spring, which is about six short weeks away! 

Winter blues, go away!  I really don't have them, other than I can't seem to warm up completely, and just when I feel like perhaps I am there, I have to go back outside again for something.  Man, it has been cold here for a month or so.  I don't know that we have ever had so many extreme cold warnings, and this much snow!  Where do I live?  Alberta.  So I shouldn't be surprised, I know, but I still am.  Chinook next week and I am a happy camper. Camping season is right around the corner! 

Winter blues, go away!  You really don't have to come another day!

Raising Adults

Why is it?  A question that I ask myself so many times a day.  Why?  Why this?  Why that?

Why is it that raising adults is so much more difficult than raising children?

I used to think raising little children was difficult, and it was, when I was going through it.  It was physically demanding, and exhausting.  There was very little time to do much but deal with children. I raised six of my own, and babysat for 17 years in my home.  Yes, I get it!  I get it that it is difficult, it is exhausting, it is down right emotionally draining.  At least as little children, we have some sort of control over their actions and decisions.  We can give them choices and consequences, and at the end of the day we may feel like we did some good.

Raising adult children, now that's a completely different ball game.  It isn't so much physically draining, but it

Choices, choices

is an emotional drain and exhaustion that never seems to end, and they don't get it.  We still "usually" know what is best for them, but we can't make them do it, and we can't enforce consequences.  They have to make their own choices, and reap their own consequences and we have to sit back and help pick up the pieces.  We can offer advice, but carefully, because if we are not very careful, we cause more hurt than necessary.  There are always consequences, and that sucks, but as parents we can no longer choose those consequences.  We can see from an outside looking in, when they are struggling with depression, anxiety, choices, girl or boy friends, or just friends.  We can see when there are financial struggles, school struggles, marital struggles, and all we can do is hug them and offer to be there for them if they need us.

All we can do is offer, and pray.  Pray they will be smart.  Pray they will listen.  Pray they will follow good examples and see those examples.

I wonder how our parents felt about the decisions we made.  I look back and see that we were pretty bull headed too.  We knew what was best for us, and we didn't really want to listen to them either.  I am sure they were frustrated with us at times.  But I also see that no matter what dumb choices we made, and there were many of them, they always stood by us and helped us pick up the pieces when we fell, and they always celebrated with us when we came out the victor.  I appreciate that!  They showed me how to do it right.

Now I watch, and pray, and hold my breath sometimes, because I see the learning curves certain kids / and / or spouses are going to have to go through, and realize that there isn't much I can do but to love them through it - and it is hard.  Far harder ever than raising little children.  Far harder at the end of the day, when all I can do is pray for them, and leave it in God's hands that the right thing will happen to teach them, and hope that it isn't a really difficult trial to learn.  Yes, it is far harder at the end of the day, with adult children, than it ever was with little children.

Yes, I remember well the physical and emotional exhaustion of raising six children and probably five times that many that were in my home at some point or other, and I feel for you.  All I can give you for advice, if you are reading this, is teach them right when they are little, and I promise it will make raising adult children much less painful.  Teach them to make good choices.  Teach them to be able to tell what are the good choices and the not so good ones.  Teach them to understand.  Teach them to be smart.  Teach them what it means to be a good person.  Just teach them when they are little.  It may seem tough, but so very worth it.  I don't see enough teaching going on in homes today.  Parents are shirking their duty of teaching, leaving it to the world, the school, the daycare, or whoever watches their children, and when these children turn adults, it is going to be so much harder to teach life lessons.

I feel like we taught our children well, and yet it is still difficult to sit back and watch their decisions as adults.  How much worse would it be, if we didn't teach them?  I shudder to think about it.

Looking Back to Look Ahead

2016!  A year that came and went so very fast, it seriously seems like kind of a blur............ and yet it brought many things learned, and many memories made.   All in all, what a good year!  And as I came to the close of the year, I put together a few things on my bucket list, that I want to accomplish for sure in 2017. 

I also did a search on my friend google and found some good articles and lists of bucket list ideas - here is one:

Bucket List 2017 - a great article with some sweet ideas!

Here goes mine - looking ahead!

I want to do some camping for sure.  I want to sleep under the stars.  I want to do some hiking and some nature trails, and I want to spend a weekend or two in a cabin.  I know that is a bunch of things all piled into one, but really one category encompasses them all - getting out in nature more.  Spending as much time as possible outside when the weather is warm, and the sun is shining.

I want to take a couple of weekend retreats for myself, to do some power writing.  Create my own writer's

retreats.  I just can't seem to get ahead and get accomplished what I want to with my writing, so I am planning a couple of times at least where I can just escape by myself and really focus. 

I want to go somewhere new.  Explore somewhere I have never been before.  Perhaps it might just be somewhere in Saskatchewan, or up North somewhere.  It doesn't have to be far from home, but I want to do it.  I need to start doing something adventurous once in awhile.

Create a vision board of my year and what I want to accomplish - create a vision board of my life and where I see it going.  I am a visual person, so I like this challenge, something I can look at and always be reminded of my goals.

 I need to get my daytimer planned for the year and remember to follow it carefully.

Plan my blog posts for the year, writing on each blog once a week, at least, make the check list and check it off as I schedule each post.  This is my form of journaling that I love to do, and just maybe - some day - I could do it full time.  It is in the goals and plans.....

Create my family memories packages I want to make for Noodles and Breadcrumbs blog


Wake up 1/2 hour earlier than I "need" to each day, and when that becomes easy enough, then do it 1/2 hour more.  Or stay up 1/2 hour later to work.  Either way, I need to create one more hour in my day to write.

Write and upload at least 6 eBooks

Write an eCourse and upload it and actually sell it to someone!

Finish Paradise Creek - gotta get it done.  It will soon be uploaded toParadise Creek if you want to check it out.

Read 6 new novels

Take a course or two - something to do with herbs or writing.  I love learning something new.  Always!

I did give dh a package for Christmas which includes 24 dates for this year.  I am pretty stoked about some of them.  I will share some of them as we go along, for we will be "traveling the world" for twelve of the dates.  I have always wanted to travel.  It is a dream of mine to actually get to go somewhere, and even though that may never happen, (for real), we can pretend right? 

Looking forward to our Houseman family reunion this year!  It always proves to be so much fun.  I am grateful I have a family who loves to have fun doing things together.  I want to make memories at this reunion.

Well that is enough of my bucket list to get me started on a great year!  If you have no idea what to put on your bucket list to get your year going, just give google a little search of 2017 bucket list ideas and you are sure to find something that will inspire you.

Good luck and best wishes for a great 2017!!!