Category: Goals and challenges

It’s May, Staying Strong!

On By DianaIn Family is important, Goals and challenges, Living life7 Comments

I can’t believe it’s May! My how the weeks fly by and I keep meaning to write every week and the time slips by and I am so busy I’m finding it difficult to fit everything into my days. My motto for this month is to STAY STRONG! I need to keep centered, and not let my thoughts stray to far to the future for as everyone knows the future is hard to see. No matter how hard we try, and I was raised with the attitude that you can do anything you set your mind too, it isn’t always that easy to get to your goals – if you have set goals. How do you handle crazy busy days? do you stop and give yourself a break? Stop and smell the roses? Stop and rest and regroup your thoughts?

I need to regroup my thoughts, reorganize them and start having smaller goals. What I mean is to set goals for my days off. Then when I conquer one goal, move to the next and so on and so forth because I find myself not accomplishing anything, thinking too far into the future, feeling sad about the future not coming to fruition. Like I can make changes instantly, NOT, it takes planning and I am finding myself feeling sorry for myself and not moving forward. I’m finding myself in stagnation.Ugh, a terrible feeling! How do you stay focused, on track and moving forward? Or is it just me, overwhelmed and trying to find my path? Hmm… Writing this is helping me focus! 😀

My daughter’s guinea pig Rey, I am babysitting her piggy’s and they are adorable!
This is Jin, and she is a bit more shy and so beautiful with her curly coat!
Up close! I love their squeaks!
Hi girl! I see you as she is looking for more pea flakes! ❤

As I am sitting here writing this I am realizing that I have lost focus because I am putting others before me and worrying about these others has got me lost. I am talking about my grown children. I LOVE THEM so much that I want to live and be near all of them (which is impossible) and of course I want to be 100% available (which is impossible). I work a full-time job and of course have my own responsibilities and so how can I be available 100% of the time? It’s so crazy that I have gotten into this rut because I need to move forward and not be stagnant. I am realizing that I am there for my children and I am putting incredibly silly demands on my time! Oh dear, I need to realize there is only so much I can do, and only so many places I can be and still be HAPPY! AND that’s all I want for my children is HAPPINESS! ❤ ❤ ❤

How can you not SMILE at his handsome face! ADORABLE! 😀

STAYING STRONG is so important as I know how important my role as a mother, wife, co-worker and friend to others can be and I think setting smarter shorter achievable goals are not only more realistic but doable. I am going to try and cook more (I work crazy hours and so I don’t make dinners like I use to but I can use the crock pot and or plan and freeze meals to make life easier. Just takes planning). I need to plan and be more in the moment not only for my animals but my loved ones as well. I CAN DO THIS! My am I in a funk, haven’t felt this way in a long time. Holy smokes, maybe it’s just my age, I think they sometimes call this mid-life crisis?? Haha, maybe that’s what I am experiencing. I wouldn’t be surprised! I feel like I want to make a LIFE CHANGE, But how? Life is challenging, hard, fun, and I have always loved life to it’s fullest! I feel like I’m drowning a bit. My head is above water though and am feeling better by the minute!

It’s BIRTHDAY month for my son Harrison and is wife Amber! Here is Harrison from last year as he takes a selfie with Chloe, Alice is on her, I miss them so….

I am hoping to set a goal to write each week. I sometimes overthink this process, get overwhelmed and so I don’t write anything. I also want to focus on my house and it’s needs. Who likes housework? Not me, but I shouldn’t be so neglectful. Not that we live in a pig sty, haha, even though I now have piggy’s in my family room, but I can do more and help out more. I did rake the backyard last week to help my husband, so I am doing more each week. I don’t want to apologize for my blog post. I don’t feel like my sunny self, but it’s coming back I promise. But I am human, and want to be real. I don’t want anyone to think my life is perfect, far from it and I know sometimes reading things that may be sad isn’t fun, but I don’t think this is that sad just not my bubbly self. I’ll be back, and you know I LOVE my life, my family and all of you that take the time to read my posts. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! ❤

STAYING STRONG! Always,

-Diana

Weekend Coffee Share – Challenges!

On By DianaIn Goals and challenges, Living life, weekend coffee share12 Comments

I am enjoying a wonderful cafe mocha, one of my favorite coffee’s. It is actually a treat as I do not have it on a daily basis. I usually just brew a breakfast blend and use a sweet Italian cream. I do not drink black coffee, it has to have a little sweetener which I usually get from a sweet cream. What’s your favorite coffee? I have been trying to experiment trying latte’s and macchiato’s and this is at the local coffee shop as I do not have any of those fancy coffee machines. I do like teas too, would you rather have a cup of tea?

This last week was a busy week, and it was full of challenges. The first challenge was attending the team building event that my work put together for my peers and I (all the managers). I am a sensitive shy person so get together’s and events like this I find challenging to attend. But attend I must and boy, I have never been so challenged. 😀

Balboa Pier in Newport Beach, CA. Murder Mystery Event.

Before I share more photo’s I must tell you about the event. We all met for lunch at a local restaurant in Newport Beach and after lunch we all embarked on a Murder Mystery Event. My manager arranged everything and by picking names out of a hat divided us all up into teams. She then got t-shirts for each group in different colors that she decorated by silk-screening the names that the team captains chose onto the shirts! Oh my, bless her heart for all this work! We had blue t-shirts in our group of four. I knew going into this challenge that we would lose, isn’t that the most terrible thing to say? BUT I ALWAYS LOSE! Haha, I am terrible at team games, and I have played my fair share of them throughout my life.

I am the quintessential middle child, so much so that I am always the person going along for the ride. I am so mediocre meaning, I am a body to fill a void, I do not stand out in a group. I do not ever “win” and if I do its an anomaly – I am not competitive in a group – I would rather be invisible. That is JUST ME! I knew going into this challenge that the group I was with was all older individuals. The other teams were apprised of younger individuals which I believe have a one up on gaming, just my opinion. We would lose, what I didn’t know is how much we would lose. I think it was humiliating, especially when they laugh at you because our group could not even finish the course of events. The puzzles to figure out who was the murderer were SO HARD! We suffered great loss, coming in last. BUT the day was a gorgeous day and the weather beautiful! (Trying to stay positive!) 😀 ❤

Newport Harbor with a ton of sailboats!
Newport Beach, I was thankful for the beautiful weather. I’d rather be laying on a towel near the water. Or enjoying a good book on a towel near the water! 😀

I have competed and am competitive but it has to be an individual competition. Horse shows is where I would rather be, but here I am in Newport Beach struggling with my group and trying to figure out clues. During this process, we thought it easier to take photos to answer the unending questions and clues and when I went to take a photo I almost knocked down a parked bicycle and as I reached for the bike my right hand had my phone and I pulled back my arm in a jerking motion and my phone went flying! UGH, it fell and I cracked my screen. Grrr… this event ended up costing me over $250 as I had to get it repaired. This day was just not my day, the challenges so hard and this is just not my cup of tea. Have you ever done something like this? an Escape room maybe? I’ll stick to board games!

That reminds me how is your coffee? or did you end up with tea? I have to laugh. I never get angry about this kind of thing, I just get frustrated because I know you are suppose to have fun, but it wasn’t fun for me just really frustrating to struggle with my teammates trying to figure out puzzles and clues that were very difficult. BUT not difficult for the other two teams who found the murderer and one team finished in 3 1/2 hours the other in 4 1/2 hours. I think they give you about 5 hours to complete. What an afternoon…. with a broken phone (it still worked but I was sad I dropped it and shattered the front screen). My poor husband as I spend enough on horses, now I want my phone fixed ASAP and so I told him that’s what credit cards are for!! 😀 😀 😀

My teammates, we tried so hard, we struggled greatly. It was fun, right?

It’s funny because it is all just for fun, and we are to say, what a great day! But was it really? I had to find a friend to help me out as my farrier was scheduled to trim my horses hoofs the morning of this team event. I had to work the night before and thankfully my lead tech switch shifts with me so I could have the next night off, but I was running on empty maybe why my brain was not wanting to figure out puzzles. I helped a lot but not enough to finish the darn game. I am being brutally honest in this post because we can’t be honest at work. I can’t say this was not fun as people will say I have a negative attitude. I am just being honest, honestly how many really like doing team events with fellow workers you see day in and day out? I would rather be riding these beautiful ponies. That is the truth, I can’t help how I feel! ❤

My ponies the next day after team event. Love them so much! ❤

I hope you are enjoying your coffee. We only do team events like this for the managers once a year. What do you find challenging? Do you ever get roped into something that may not be your cup of tea but you must participate? I would love to hear how you handle these situations.

I was pleasant as can be, well, I complained a little bit but with humor. I can laugh about it, but don’t we by nature all want to be winners? It is very difficult to be losers, I know by experience it’s not fun. I think it’s important to teach young people its okay to lose, take it with dignity. I think I did at least that. As I am writing this I am finding this going in a little bit different direction than I envisioned when I started this post. I am finding these words just flowing and have headed into a different direction but it is important to learn how to lose with grace. Maybe through my writings I think I am helping myself! Who knew how therapeutic this post would be for me. Thank you all for following and reading and I have learned that being a loser at games and fun events may not be fun but livable.

Always smiling, with grace and as much dignity as I can muster!

-Diana ❤