Catching Up to Take a Break...

Oh friends... how I miss thee...

Something I dabbled in, recently - floral bouquet arrangements
(for a wedding of a friend - so much fun!)

I have been kicking myself most of this year for not keeping more on top of sharing on here. I had picked "Achieve" as my One Little Word and boy, oh boy, I can say I have achieved a lot.  Sadly, writing and sharing HERE is not one of those achievements. 

This makes me frustrated, because I adore my blogging posse.  I love visiting your blogs. I love hearing from you here.  I have missed all of you over these months and every time I dwell.  I scold myself.  I make promises to myself to start tomorrow.  Write this weekend. Schedule, plan, plot. 

And then more life happens. 

And before I know it, it's been weeks that have passed.

So, in a rare moment of Kindness-To-Self, I have decided to make a clean break from this blog.  Not permanently.  But for the rest of this year. 

I truly hope that you'll still be interested in my stories when I return.  I hope to share all kinds of things with you on a regular basis.  The when, though, is up in the air.  I'm tentatively saying until the end of this year.  However, that sounds a little too much like an early New Years resolution, and I don't really "do" resolutions.  So... let's just say I'll be back... most likely in a couple of months.  Maybe before. 

The bigger issue is... I'm allowing myself to not fret about it.  Not worry or kick myself or listen to my inner critic about not "achieving" this piece of me. 

I hope you understand.

If you really miss me, there are places to find me... email is the most reliable one.  You can always leave me a comment here and I will respond, I promise.

So... in the meantime...

Happy Halloween!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Hannukah!

Merry Christmas!

(And any other happy, merry holidays that I haven't included - I don't mean to... please celebrate!)

The Door...

I have lived in this house for twelve and a half years.  It has a lot of wear and tear and a lot of stories to tell (or keep secret, as houses are known to do).  Today I want to show you something in particular, though.  It is something I walk by at least 10 times a day, if not more.  It is this door:

From almost the time we moved in until this day... today... this door has had a poster on it.  It was a black, white and green poster... of an alien head, with gigantic words on it:  "Keep Out".  Yeah, it looked like this:

So, I have to admit... the first few years (years?) this poster made me angry.  It really bothered me.  It probably didn't help that I had an alien head staring into my bedroom, as this door, and this poster, faces my bedroom doorway.  It didn't keep me out, though, even though this door was almost always closed.

A few years ago, an additional piece also became attached to the poster on this door.  A cardboard image of a ghost.  It was placed there one Halloween, and there it stayed.

This door is the entryway to my son's bedroom.  He has lived part-time in this room for 7 years and full-time for 5 years. 

He is moving out to his own apartment this week.  Tomorrow.

He took the poster off his door today. 

The door looks bare... empty... lonely.

It looks sad.

I never thought I'd miss that poster.  But maybe it's just a preview of missing my son.

Major life changes.  Never easy.  I am full of so many emotions surrounding his move.  Excitement, nervousness, relief, happiness, sadness... just a jumble.

Pretty soon, this door will nearly always be open.  Open into a gaping maw of empty room.   So much potential.  For the room... and for my son's new adventure in life.

(sigh)