blog move

I have moved. Come join me in the new space/new adventure. I'll be here:

3 Day Happiness Exercise

I just started a tiny blog for a class I've been wanting to teach for a while. I like to share what I know and I’m not big on charging money for it, so I thought this might we a nice way to share. Here is the link: happiness-exercise
I’ll be posting more later but I didn’t want to give away too much. I didn’t want to tell people what they should gain from the experience because hopefully it will be different based on the individual and their needs. Obviously happiness would be one thing to get from the exercise but there is much more to it than that.
Please feel free to share the info to help get the word out.
Thanks
T

hello

Just thought I’d drop in and do a little catch up. It’s been forever. We are in our new house and since we moved here I stopped sitting around with a laptop in my lap. This house has changed me. I have started enjoying more grown up things. I don’t know how that happened.

One thing that changed is that after getting rid of so much clutter and having all of my things stored away while living in a camper for 4 months, I don’t want it back. It was so hard not to throw more stuff out once it was all here. Some of it went to the attic. I don’t even want to yardsale anymore. That blows my mind. Another thing that blows my mind is that now when I walk in Goodwill I think, “man look at all this junk.” I never would have thought that would happen. It’s wonderful living with so much less.

I have to admit that I’ve become obsessed with porch furniture though. I love our porch and I just want to be able to seat the maximum number I can get on there with as much comfort as possible. I think I’m there. Anything else goes out there and something currently there will have to go. We had everyone over 4th of July and it was hardly used. Wasn’t the way I saw that going but It’s just too dang hot here right now. We have not had temperatures like this probably in more than 5 years. It’s been forever since we had anything that resembled a draught. Well we’ve got one now. Grass is dead everywhere, all over Tennessee.

Here is a run down of what has happened since I posted last:

• Moved in the new house. Everyday we speak of how lucky we are to live here. It’s like a vacation home that you live in everyday.
• Finally bought a couch that doesn’t look like what we planned but we threw out looking good for crazy comfort and seating capacity.
• Bought a new Kayak and have been doing some serious Kayaking on the Obey and Cumberland. Well, until it got so friggin hot.
• This year I had a niece graduate high school and a 46 year old brother (her dad) who graduate college in only 3 years of school. I’m so proud of him. This was a dude that hated high school and passed by the skin of his teeth. He kicked some college ass.
• I decided to shut down the photography business. Let me be honest here. I thought I’d love making something I am passionate about into a business. For me the passion died when I had to give up my precious spare time (that is the main thing that killed it) and start charging money to people for something that I’d rather do for free. I hated HATED IT. I haven’t shut down my facebook page or my blog because that seems to final but I’m done. I’ll still do stuff for people I know and love but that is it. When I finally decided I was through it was a very happy moment for me. Crazy how we hold on to things that don’t make us happy just because we think they should.
• I love my job. I like every aspect of my life to be peaceful and those of you who know me well know that I am good at making it so. I work alone everyday and I take care of every ounce of work that flows from there. I can get stuff done. I hear much about how chaotic some offices are but with working alone you know you are responsible for making sure things get done but you also have that added bonus of knowing it’s getting done because you didn’t hand the work off to someone who might not do it in time. It’s quiet and peaceful but on Mondays and Tuesdays I get to see our caregivers who work in the field and I spend a lot of time outside the office making deliveries and home visits. When you make AT deliveries everyone loves you. And when you sit down with an elderly person who doesn’t get a lot of visitors and you listen to them when they talk they love you. The folks in our other offices are great to work with too. It’s a nice bunch of people. I think about my job sometimes and the words, “peace at last” come to mind and that’s even when I’m so busy I’m not sure how I’ll get it all done. I drove over 200 miles today and went to 4 different homes in the span of those miles. I have been to as many as 15 homes in one day. You can only do that if you map it out right though. The 200 mile day was various random things I had to get done and felt a lot less productive but that’s how it goes sometimes. 
• We went to Florida with B’s family and it was amazing. Since we live closer to them his nieces and nephew are finally getting to know us and it’s great to see them smile now when they see us instead of hiding behind someone’s leg. We are loving getting to see them more. They were a blast at the beach. I know there are people in the world that don’t care for children and that’s fine. Bless them with all that but for me I’m never any happier than I am when children are around. I don’t know how you see them at their best or at their worst and don’t find comfort in their sweet faces.
• Here are a few of the grown up things I’ve done recently, made peach preserves (and they are good too), I’ve kept all the laundry caught up and hung out sheets on our makeshift clothesline, made the bed almost everyday, we’ve kept the house pretty spotless most of the time,  read to Kenlee on the porch and took her walking down the hill and back up many times (she loves that). I have even been buying more grownup clothes. Of course they still have the Tonya style to them but they are not from the juniors section.
• Laney had a ballet recital. She was perfect/didn’t miss a step. She is normally so shy but she sat in my lap the night we went until it was time for her to go on and she wasn’t the least bit nervous. I was so proud of her.
• Kenlee has been begging my sister to be in a pageant and she did her first one.
• We did one of our roadtrip/scavenger hunts and we finally let someone in on the goodness that wasn’t family. It was a day of fun with Amanda and B in Kentucky.
• I went to a music festival and loved it. That never happens. I normally hate crowded music venues but I’m ready to go back to this one.
• Was introduced to the music of Pokey LaFarge for the first time at that festival. He is my new favorite. He has moved The Tallest Man on Earth down a notch.

Now that everything has been covered here are a few instagram photos to illustrate it all: