Hello Again!

Hello again, my friends,

Remember me?
It has been exactly 5 years since my last entry on my blog as of December 2011. Wow! Time flies.
So much life's memories, joy & struggles have been lived since....

I decided to start this discipline again today with no expectations or goals to meet but to just simply put my day's thoughts here. A very poignant year for me to return because it is a turning point in my life as I've reached that magic benchmark age of 50 since April. Yikes!

For some people, it's no big deal. It's just another birthday. It's just a number.
For me, it's has been a "wake up" call and a soul searching opportunity to re-evaluate what has worked and what has NOT worked in my life thus far in all areas of life.

Being ME...an easily bored, require more fun, sometimes crazy & definitely a free-spirited WOMAN!
Marriage ( Our age differences and our years together, approaching 14 years next April)
Family (Defining what's real, what's a loving family and where I belong and feel at "home")
Career ( ...or lack of it because I have been a stay home wife and taking an opportunity to create a creative outlet to have some form of success in this area)
Finance. (My husband's corporate career is ending so our lifestyle will be different and new challenges ahead to be more resourceful)
Health. ( Menopausal stage in life to accept & a new body to learn)
Self-Esteem. ( Happy in my own skin. Defining MYSELF from others (social media) expectations and/or judgements
Total FREEDOM to be YOURSELF!

I will share my thoughts candidly as I blog these areas as each day unfolds.
It's my personal time to be brutally honest to create the life I really what you live.
You will know when it is the right time for you. I hope by sharing that you will know, you are not alone in this journey of life. It's a gift. Lets give it the attention it deserves.

A common question I have been asking myself this past 6 months....
Does this person/relationship or situation brings positive, joy, peace, happiness or negative, drama or  pain in my life?

To change it...Are you willing to learn to walk away from pain & gravitate toward the joy?
Are you willing to learn new disciples?
Of course, some areas will be more challenging than others to change. Learning to walk away from people is the hardest for me but it's a must to reach your peace.

It starts and ends with YOU! It's UP TO YOU. It's YOUR LIFE. Only YOU have the power to change. You can't change people or circumstances around you but you can only change YOU.

We are human. We are still learning...
For me, I can only hope that my next 50 years will be even better when I am open to learn, to share, to express and to explore new disciplines & new perspectives.

This resonates with me today. I hope it does for you too.
One Day At a Time:
This is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is gone.
Do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come.
Live in the present, and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering. Unknown author.

May we focus on just TODAY... with a grateful heart & with more JOY!
Let's be thankful for whatever God gives us today and make it count.


Namaste,
Hai

Touched by 27 Lil' Angels this Christmas!

This picture is so poignant for me on this Holiday. 

Like you as a parent,  I am just as guilty of easily overindulge our children during this time of the year. 

It's so easy to do that and we can easily lose our "common sense" as we get bombarded with so many sales, advertisements & material things for ourselves. Unless we consciously STOP to reflect the importance of Christmas and "define the necessity" in our lives.  

We can't solve world poverty alone. But isn't there a balance of what we can do to make a difference from where we are? 
Of course, we can. 

I love Christmas traditions and this is my favorite holiday! Tradition is important to have gifts under our Christmas tree for my teenager daughter and for my whole family BUT I prayed for something  EXTRA SPECIAL this year.  

The "Gift of Giving" presented itself to us to add to our Christmas celebration this year.  We adopted 27 local children here in our community, who are living at the homeless shelter.

We became Santa's elves with a long list of children with no names and no faces to us.  

These Angels only have a letter B for boy, G for girl with a number next to it for their ages on our Christmas list.

We were touched by 27 little Angels this Christmas! They gave us an opportunity to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas! 

There are 13 Girls ages from ages 2- 14 and a three month old baby girl along with 13 Boys from ages, 2-11.  Their needs were only the necessities, like socks, underwear, hats & gloves & scarves to keep them warm this winter. 


Thank you Lord for our EXTRA blessing with your "Gift of Giving" this Christmas. 

We pray for each one of the 27 children at the homeless shelter on this Christmas Day. We are so grateful for our EXTRA special gift this year, Lord.

We are so very blessed beyond measures with countless blessings each & everyday. It's more than just what you have or don't have under the Christmas tree when other little ones have so little. As we celebrate and acknowlege the Birth of Christ, may God bless these 27 Angels during His Happy Birthday Party. 


It's a joyful party that EVERYONE is invited to...

 The true Christmas JOY is in the GIVING. And it is so true! 


Merry Christmas, Everyone!


With Love & 27 Angels,


Hai

Dealing With Our Hormones

I do visualize and create my life with no stress and peaceful living and I LIVE IT too! :)

I am truly LIVING my happy, simple life on a peaceful surrounding each day and MINDFULLY enjoy it everyday because... I believe it! I covet it! I value it! I cherish it! I protect it!

Okay, so my peaceful life is going perfectly as planned today.  Or is it?

Perhaps, the gently grey rain outside has gotten me to feel so sad today. :( Why? I don't know... 

Inside my cottage is filled with JOY of Christmas music, with our Christmas tree sparkled with delights and the warmth of the fireplace is flaming gently. I drink my green tea and looking out into this wet winter day. My surrounding is PEACE. A perfect setting, yet I feel very sad today.

Don't you hate the uncontrollable hormones attack at times?  I am directing this comment mostly toward the ladies in the 40's and up, going through with all the hormone changes, like myself. 

Others call it "midlife" crisis or menopause, or even depression. Whatever the label is unimportant to me. 

I, mindfully create peaceful boundaries for myself to have a sense of stability during this time of my life with all of my hormone changes. BUT I have NO CONTROL over my hormones as I am going through a medical term called "perimenopause phase of life". It's a fact of life.  I choose to do it naturally without any options and adviced with " prescribed medications" to dull or numb it. It is NOT an illness to cure but to experience the full course of a natural process of being a woman.

After better understanding that it is a natural process we, women must go through, then I am accepting it fully. It is not easy at times.  Each day is different as I maintain my sense of balance no matter what.

 I often think of it as just another human emotion we all must deal with. It's not a bad thing. It's part of life. I can't pretend to be happy and smiling all the time so I deal with it, head on, with my writing about it, today.

Life is a journey of going through the sad days with the joyful days to make it a full life with different seasons in our lives.

At the end of it all, we all must accept life and go with the energy flow as each day appears to us.

And so, I must remind myself and all of you to "BE" with each emotion with a grateful heart, one day at a time. I am grateful for all my emotions today, even the sadness.

With Love & Emotions,

Hai

Georgia's Pear Ambrosia Jam Day

Are you getting a repetitious, even a boring impression that I LOVE my home and what it holds for me by now? Good! lol ha-ha 
I love to share my rainy autumn day in Georgia, today.
Today is beautiful! 
To me, it's what NOT to love on a rainy autumn day here in Georgia?

Yes, I tend to focus and share so much about my life centered on my home, my husband and my simple heart here at our Yellow Cottage. That's just simply who I am and what I love most, to share most!  I am truly a simple home-girl in my comfies when I am in my barbie-size cottage kitchen and LOVIN' IT so much!

A rainy day like this today is so special for me to slumber in bed just a little longer this morning before I get to harvest my last ripe pears to filled a bushel full.

Nowhere to rush out on a day like this but to slow down and to sit down on my porch to peel each pear while my Teddy Bear always sits next to me for company. 





The rain has been steadily and gently watering my gardens nicely all day. Thank you, Mother Nature! I love rainy days because I know my gardens love it too!

From time to time, I glanced over my working hands, peeling the sticky pears over my lap as I take in my home, my stillness, my peace to just be with today's dark skies. Simple pleasure to look out over at my gardens and to see beyond our plain two acres of open pastures, feeling the cool wet rain on my face and hear the rain drops against our tin roof porch, I feel all of life in today's presence.  It's a perfect day!

I see our working white truck parked nearby a pile of woods as my next task for another day.  My thought wished my husband was there right then. He often works on our many chores around our cottage with his white truck. 


I miss him. I miss his presence here today to be with me in my stillness. I miss all the noises he makes when he works from one project to the next project, around our home. I miss his labor of love for us, today as I sat here. 


I miss hearing his country western music he often plays on the radio to keep him company while he works, sweats and always with his oversized cup of water, sitting nearby.

My true love is presence in my heart today as he is working hard in a corporate office for us so I can be at home.  If only he is here to complete that perfect picture on this rainy day for me. So, I set that happy thought aside with knowing that he will be home soon.  
I even love the heartaches of missing my husband today with the excitements to meet up at the airport on Friday and meet our friends for the evening in the city. My heart is so full of life, just "being" still.

Well, I got back to "doing" my tasks at hand to get these pears ready to be cooked. 



I brought them inside and chopped them up to cubed sizes; add my pineapple cubes and orange slices before I can simmer them slowly for the next 4-5 hours before I get to put them in jars.

So, on this rainy day, I am enjoying making my jams from our orchard.  I make it every year, whether it is figs, blueberries or pears each year. I enjoy sending them out to friends and family for the holidays to eat them from our yellow cottage farm. I am making my Pear Ambrosia Jam, today.

I am not an expert or even good at making preservatives or jams but I do attempt at it each year to honor them and then give them away to others to enjoy. These fruits have been given to us so abundantly so I feel bad if I don't at least attempt to use what God has given to us on our abundant little lot of land in Georgia. 

I get so much joy of home and the simple spiritual connection in the ritual when I make them. The smell of  cooking pears on my stove has permeated our little cottage on this rainy day while I write my blog about it.

I am CENTERED and at PEACE to be with myself. To be so content, safe and grounded at home in this simple way on this rainy autumn day in Georgia is a greatest blessing for me.  


I am truly living my happiness, my simple life that I have dreamed so often. 
I am standing in the midst of my dream.

My Teddy Bear is always near to keep me company

 With Love & Happiness,

Hai

What's your Simply Meaningful?

Yesterday, I watched a show on "Braveheart Women", on defining what's your "simply meaningful" and I knew it right away for me. 


It's different for everyone but it reminds us to take note in the simple pleasures of life.

Since I have been traveling so much in this past year and a half with my commute corporate husband, being home on a regular basis this pass 4 weeks has brought me EVEN MORE meanings & appreciation!

I truly appreciate having my simple daily routine to be home more than anywhere else on earth.
I appreciate going to my closet and not to my suitecase.
I appreciate making my coffee from the same coffee pot and reach for the same cup and creamer.
I appreciate waking up and walking outside in my pjs to say good morning to all my happy dogs with my hot coffee in hand.

I appreciate giving them their morning love and treats each day. And while they eat, I enjoy my coffee at our picnic table under this oak tree, like this morning.

I am grateful for what's in front of me, more & more! 

HOME is my "simply meaningful" to my soul! I am willing to give up everything else to keep my peace.

So, what's your simply meaningful?

With Love & Meaningful,


Hai

Receive & Accept Warm Morning Kisses

Receiving my first sight of dawn through my windows...

Are you accepting your warm morning kisses to start enjoying your life, today?...

With Love & Morning Light,


Hai

What are your favorite things to be grateful for ?...

Waking up this Monday morning, I received an amazing vibration of gratitude to feel that..."Everything's going to be all right!" with a "gentle knowing" in my happy heart. 

To me, the ULTIMATE gift  is a "sense of peace" that we can possess in this material world we live in.

I am blessed to be at home!

I opened my sleepy eyes in my comfy bed to see our wooded hill, greeted me with brilliant autumn leaves, on one side of our bedroom windows and as I turned over, I saw our long gravel road with multi-colored maple trees along the road, leading up to our cottage on the other side of our windows. It is indeed a GIFT to be alive today and to feel the morning's  warmth salutation from the sun as I lingered in bed, just a little longer.  

I was prompted to acknowledge these gifts and to say my "thank you prayer" for all my blessings before my feet touched the floor!  Thank you, God. I am so very grateful today and everyday for these gifts.

I woke up feeling SO GRATEFUL to be surrounded by a few of my favorite simple things each and everyday here, being AT HOME!

To have my beloved lifetime partner to grow old with me!

I've realized even more, in that moment that I have arrived to my simple dream of ... "Living in Peace before I Die in Peace " It has always been my personal life mantra.

A beautiful sight of "home" for me to see my husband being handy & to put alot of our labor of love into our lil' love shack.

My garden keeps rewarding us with beautiful fresh flowers, inside and outside.

 I have time to dream, to visualize and to manifest the LIFE we want here together!

Being greeted by my happy outdoor babies, by our picket fence, ready for their treats!

My gardens keep us smiling as we step out of the door

Having my breakfast on our warm patio on a fall day is divine!

Hiking with my four dogs in our woods to be with God and Nature to start our day.

What a beautiful fall day for our walk.

 We share our 45 minutess of happy, healthy & serene hike, each day!

Our daily blessing of Heaven, surrounding  our "home"!

May you stop for a few minutes to take a  look all around you to see ALL the beauty surrounding you, right now!

What are your favorite things to be grateful for, today?

With Love & Gratitude,

Hai