What To Do When Doubt Creeps In

I am on a mailing list for a newsletter called "Simple Truths". Simple Truths is a publishing company that puts out neat little inspirational videos and books that can be used in the corporate world or in your personal life. I've purchased a couple of their books and they were wonderful. The videos, that you can watch on line are awesome too.

I got the newsletter the other day and it was titled, "What To Do When Doubt Creeps In." It talked about the Dreamer and the Doubter. The Dreamer who is always just so gung ho and excited, and the doubter who has his long list of concerns and issues.

You can be on a roll, living your dream when suddenly you get stuck. You start procrastinating and that leads to worry. Why am I doing this? I can't be successful at this. What was I thinking?

When that happens, the Doubter in you has taken over. If you allow the Doubter to take up residence in your head, he will sabotage your dreams. It isn't that you shouldn't listen to the Doubter, because he is a close relative of the Realist.

The Realist has valuable information you need in order to prepare for any obstacles that might pop up as you work toward or live your dream. Try not to see the Doubter/Realist as the enemy. Use his wisdom, learn from him and move on.

Another thing, share your dreams with others. You never know who might be listening and even able to help you take that next step or circumvent that nasty bump in the road.

If you are cruising along, working toward your dream and you run into a person that is a Doubter...if you don't have control over your own doubts....that person will suck your dream right out of you. If you have already addressed your own doubts and you have handled them, then that person's doubts will only deepen your commitment and reinforce your belief in your own dream.

So, face your doubts, handle those that truly require handling and then move on and take that next step toward making your dream a reality.

Life Is Oh So Good

Be sure to take a moment and go back to yesterday's post...read the comment my son left. It made me cry long before I got to the last line!

I was all set to write about "when doubt creeps in" today, but geez, I feel so dog gone awesome today, I don't want to spoil it. I think all of the Colorado talk has me on a Rocky Mountain High! I had a couple of sales this week and even though two sales would be a miserable week for others, it's a good week for me.

The new coasters and light switch plates I'm working on have given me another spark for yet more new ideas and my head is spinning with creative thoughts. This is truly when I feel my absolute best. I feel empowered and unstoppable. Do you ever feel like that?

Tomorrow I head to Joann Fabrics with a list a mile long. I am excited to be buying fabric. I haven't bought fabric in many years and I can't wait. I even asked Irv today if we could do some of the prep work on my tiles and light switch covers to save me some time, and of course, he said sure. He is very supportive of what I am doing. He knows how happy it makes me. Not only that, he can only spend so much time in the basement watching his garden grow!

The wedding is only two weeks away and tomorrow is Girls Night Out and the Bachelor Party. The guys are starting at 3:00 with a Wii tournament and then heading out to dinner and a comedy club. The girls are going to dinner and then out for a little bit. I am so honored to have been invited. It should be a fun night. I haven't decided which outfit I am wearing yet. I'll figure it out tomorrow. Do you remember when bachelor parties use to be the night before the wedding? What the heck were we thinking?

Hey, if any of you do a blog newsletter, I would love to know how you do that. How do you format it? What do you put in it? How often do you send one out...etc. Please drop me an e-mail at itsafourdogday@yahoo.com. I really would like to start one after the wedding.

Well that is it for today. The boxes for the coasters came today, so I should be able to get some listed this weekend!

Oh, on a funny note...we are a very lovey family. We all say "I Love You" a lot. We say it on the phone, we write it in e-mails and we text it. I had to laugh this morning when I was in the forums wishing everyone a good day and I almost wrote "Love you guys" at the end of my post!! I even find myself having to refrain when I write my blog posts! I guess that just shows how close you start to feel to your online friends!

Are We All Ants Marching?

When I told Matt (our 25 year old son) that we might be able to visit him out in Telluride this summer he was really excited. Matt rents a small three bedroom house with two other guys. His room is actually in the basement, but he seems happy enough...except for their leaking roof and high rent....such is life in a quaint little mountain ski resort town.

Unbeknown to me, Matt e-mailed a bunch of his teacher friends and told them we might be coming in this summer. He asked if anyone knew of a rental where we might be able to stay while we were there. Within one days time, about ten of his friends have replied back saying that if their travel plans go through for the summer, we would be welcome to stay at their house when we come.

Okay, so I know these people all like and respect Matt, but they have never met us...and still they are willing to open their homes to us and let us stay there for four or five nights while they are away? Are people in Colorado really different than people in other parts of the country, because I can't think of a single person that I know (and I know some really nice people) that would do something like that.

Matt has told me so many times that people are different in Colorado and that things are different in Colorado. Is that true? Are people really that different in different parts of the country? Sure he lives in a tiny mountain village now, but he's also lived in Durango and Boulder and has always felt that way.

People where I live are in a hurry. They hurry to get to work, they hurry at work, they hurry home from work....they hurry through their lives oblivious to the world around them. I try very hard not to live that life, but sometimes it's hard when everything around you is moving at break neck speed. People don't say hello, no one stops to chat and you never get to know your neighbors.

Now before any Midwesterners jump down my throat, I'm sure this doesn't apply to everyone...it's just my observation where I live. In fact, it reminds me of the lyrics to the Dave Matthews song, "Ants Marching". It goes like this:

Driving in on the highway
All the cars and upon the sidewalk
People in every direction
No words exchanged
No time to exchange

And all the little ants are marching
Red and Black antennas waving
They all do it the same
They all do it the same way

What is different in Colorado or maybe other parts of the country that makes people move a little more slowly? What makes them a little kinder and a little more gentle? Why is it that they "stop to smell the roses"?

Here was Matt's answer today...."It's a quality of life. The mountains bring out the best in people, plus teachers kick ass, and these are all teachers that are wanting to help. When you visit, you will see why." So, what is life like in your part of the world?

Finding Inner Peace

Like I said last night, I usually try to get out of my workshop by about 9:30 each evening. I sit in bed and work on a Sudoku puzzle, make a to do list for the next day and usually have the news on. I watch WGN if it's before 10:00, or I put on our local ABC station if it's already 10:00. After the 10:00 news is Nightline on ABC, and try very hard to stay awake to watch it. It usually touches on something of importance from that day and then a couple of other stories of interest.

Last night they had a segment on Eckhart Tolle. Now, I had never heard of Eckhart Tolle before, but in 10 minutes of hearing about him and listening to him, I am ready to go out and buy a couple of his books.

Eckhart was born in Germany and attended the Universities of London and Cambridge. He is an author and a much sought after public speaker. His book, "The Power of Now" was a #1 NewYork Times Best Seller and was followed up by, "A New Earth". The books are considered two of the most influential spiritual books of our time.

So, why I have never heard of this man or his books? Have you?

The idea behind his teachings are that we can find inner peace and greater fulfillment in our lives by ridding ourselves of our ego-based state of consciousness. I am all for inner peace. Right now I could just use some peace. In fact, the second book, "A New Earth" is about how we can end conflict and suffering throughout the world.

Seriously, this man really grabbed my attention and I loved what he had to say. His writing is not without controversy because it does talk religion and any time you talk any kind of religion, you are going to tick off someone.

I think I am going to go online tonight and order both books. He has really peaked my interest and I have been looking for something to read.

Let me know if you have ever head of Eckhart Tolle, or read any of his books. I am curious what you think.

Ping! Beep!

Normally by this time of the evening I am getting ready to "close up shop". Not tonight though...I just finished listing a couple of my new light switch plates and a really cute wood bunny in MyOtherShop. I really don't like some of the pictures so I will be redoing them, but for now they will have to do. My computer was doing not so nice things tonight so listing took forever.

Well, today was a crazy day. I was at work and the e-mails were flying fast and furious with wedding this and wedding that. It seems that the Conrad and the Allerton are out and we all got rooms at the amazing Drake Hotel for $95 a night. That beats the $195 a night we were paying at the Conrad! That was the first flurry of activity.

Then Matt sent out an e-mail to the five of us to fill us in on what he has been up to.

Now once someone sends a mass e-mail like that, my computer starting going "ping, ping, ping" because everyone that received the e-mail has to respond and of course they "reply all" so we all get their response. Mind you that I am at work when all of this pinging is happening. Add that pinging the work pings and it starts to sound like a little orchestra.

I try not to send too many personal e-mails when I am at work, but with the wedding only a couple of weeks away there seems to be a bit more lately.

Next I sent my sister a text to let her know that we got a great rate at the Drake in case she wanted to change hotels. Now in addition to the pinging computer signaling my incoming e-mails, my phone starts beeping to let me know I have a text, and then another and another as my sister tries to decide if she should change hotels.

Ping, beep, ping, beep....I finally put my phone on "meeting" mode so it would stop pinging, and by the afternoon the e-mails settled down to just an occasional e-mail from the lovely little bride to be. Could I print their vows on some white cardstock, do I still have the address labels in my computer, do I know if my niece's girls are coming to the wedding yet......

I am having so much fun with all of this! Ping! Beep! Talk to you tomorrow!

Old Photographs

I have some of my photos in albums, but many of them are in plastic bins..you know the shoebox sized ones. I started organizing them many years ago and had most of them in order from oldest to newest, but never finished. Now years later after going through them so many times, they are a mess again. I'll need to start over....one of these days when I have nothing else to do! HAHA!

I was looking through them the other day for my old prom pictures and came across some really, really old ones that I thought I would share with you. I love old pictures. They fascinate me to no end. I can just stare at them and try to imagine what the people were thinking or what might have been going on in their lives at that particular time.

My mom let us all go through her photo albums one time many years ago and take photos that we would like to have. I took a good number of the old pictures....but I was nice enough to save some for my siblings. :)

I love these three. The first one is of my dad's parents. They came here from Norway. I am guessing that they were living in Chicago in this photo. I don't remember them very well, they both died in the 50's when I was young. What I do recall is that they were pretty serious folks. That bench is awesome, isn't it? I love her housedress too. My grandfather looks very proud.

The next one is my dad and his sister. My dad was born in 1918 and I would guess that he was about 2 in this photo. I love their clothes. Not sure what my dad is wearing, but it looks like a little jumper of some kind. Don't you love the bows in his sister's hair? My dad looks like he's rubbing his neck or maybe something was biting his little neck.

The last picture is my dad on the left and my mom's brother on the right. They both served in the Army during WWII. I'm not sure where Joe served, but I do know my dad fought in Africa. This photo was taken in 1944...seven years before I was born. My uncle was quite the rebel as I recall. I think he did some womanizing in his day. I remember he always let me sit on his lap...when he was driving in our neighborhood... and steer the car! Could you imagine doing that today? Yikes! Actually, we did a lot of things back then that probably wouldn't be looked on kindly today, but we'll talk about that another day.

Just thought I would share some beautiful old photos with you today.

Quick Necklace Update

I forgot to tell you that Tresa had asked me to accompany her to her wedding dress fitting yesterday. Of course, I accepted the invitation. It seems that the brand of dress she bought needs to be almost completely taken apart in order to take it in, but the seamstress is doing a wonderful job and it looks great....and I am happy to say that the necklace I made her looks awesome with her dress! the only thing I need to do is remove a few links because it's a little bit too long.

If you remember, she was concerned about the copper necklace with her gold shoes....no problem at all. She was with all of her girlfriends last night, and asked them about mixing metals. They all agreed that it isn't like it use to be and it's fine to mix metals and metallic. So, what do I know?

Anyway, she will be wearing the necklace. I'll take the links out this week and then take it to a jeweler to have them give it the once over and make sure it isn't going to come apart during the wedding....since I have never made any jewelry before.

Woo hoo!

Vacation Dreams

When Irv left our CPA's office on Friday, he told him that we were NOT paying this year and to do whatever he had to do so we get a tax refund! Our CPA is also a good friend of ours, so we can talk to him like that. We can only go on vacation if we get a refund, so there is always a lot riding on our taxes.

We have been friends with Jim since our son Michael and his son Matt played baseball together many, many years ago.

We were at Joann Fabrics when his call came in. He said, "It looks like you will be going on vacation this summer." I quickly asked, "Vacation as in a long weekend, Colorado or Hawaii?". His response was, "Colorado".

I am so excited! When you work hard all year, that vacation......even if it isn't extravagant or to a far off tropical island...means a whole lot. We don't go a lot of places or spend a lot of money during the year, because the truth of the matter is...we live paycheck to paycheck and there is never any extra money.

The money we often get back at tax time...is our vacation...and we need a vacation. It is so much fun to pack up the car and just drive off to wherever we are going. Lately, Colorado seems to be the destination of choice. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love that state. It is amazing. Every day can be a different adventure there...and it is still my dream and my goal to live there one day.

There aren't too many places I want to travel to. I would like to visit the northeast and I would like to do a cruise to Alaska and maybe visit Hawaii. I love wildlife, so anywhere I can see animals in the wild would be fine with me! The zoo just doesn't cut it. Europe some day maybe, but if I never get there, I won't be terribly disappointed. Australia....I think I would love that, but it would take a lot more than a tax refund to get us there!

So, if all goes well between now and the end of June...we will be headed to Colorado for a week or two. I want to visit the Loveland area because that is where I think I might want to live one day, and then we will visit Matt in Telluride if he is going to be around. I know he is planning a summer road trip, so we will see.

Are you able to take a vacation? If not, do you manage to get away now and then for a long weekend? Where do you vacation and where would you like to vacation?