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Hello Friday.  Wine.  Hello Wine.

It’s Friday.  Time to go make stories for Monday.

List of things I’m currently handling well   1.________.

Having cancer around you is like getting constantly hit in the head with a ball. It has a way of de-evolving your life when you’re not looking.  Somehow, I just have to believe that the blog intentionally led me here. To help others.  To help you and to help me.

If cancer had a face, I’d punch it.

Having a husband with terminal cancer is like riding on a wild locomotive ….screeching out of control…. with break away turns… rollercoaster moves… up and down peaks and valleys… at high speed… with no brakes… nary a safety belt in sight.  I’m not dramatic at all, am I?  I want to hoodwink cancer.  Hard.  Like Rocky Balboa.  Hard.  Bloody nose, gasping for air.  Hard.

Having cancer in your life is like having a two year old in the room, running the show.  Cancer is that naggy jerk in your head that says, “hey, are you sure you can travel?  What if I step in and ruin the party?  With its devilish grin, it says… “it sucks to be you.”

It’s the not knowing.  Not knowing when cancer is going to rear its fugly head.

I hate to admit it … but I think about it.  All the time.  Will Michael live or die this year?  Not knowing how long the love of my life will be with me is that naggy jerk in my head.  It overwhelms me.  I can’t imagine it.  But I can.  Cancer has taken every male relative in my life (with the beautiful exception of my brother.)

Its been 22 years of being married to the man of my dreams.  It has been greatness.  And by greatness, I mean greatness.  Michael is a man of greatness.  Of beauty.  Of kindness.   He has an outward focus. He has a masterful business mind.  He knows how to love.   He has loved on me every single day for 22 years.  Real love.  Deep love.  Lasting love.

Sounds unreal, doesn’t it?

Every word.

It’s true.

Life without him in it seems unfathomable to me.  It stops me in my tracks.  It overwhelms me.  Paralyzes me. Then.  This super shitty situation somehow kicks me into gear and exhilarates me to grab it by the scruff of the neck and shake it up.  It challenges me to keep on keeping on. To write to you. To share it with you.  Because I feel like you’ve been through battles and slept in the same foxholes as I have. My strengths come right along side my vulnerabilities, and surely yours must too.  Maybe, just maybe.. we can do this together.  Just maybe we can all find a way through our painful situations with me leading the way.

That’s why I write.

That’s why I share.

That’s why I blog.

And when it hurts the most.   I’ll just put one foot in front of the other.  And write.  Because we are in this together.

Didja notice there’s a new look on the blog?  Revamping a blog is like sticking your head in an oven.  Managing the back end of my web site makes me want to kill myself.  I’ve got a history of dragging my feet when changing anything to do with blog layouts, dashboards or taking out the trash.  Now it’s painfully obvious why I procrastinated for f o r e v e r.  Because doing it, sucked donkey balls.

When I reorganized the blog, it was like going on a blind date and the guy showed up with a toupee.  Surprises everywhere. Old blog posts made me want to BARF.   Years ago, I must have had this attitude: WTF is this photo?  Who cares. It’s in focus. Lets post it in the blog!  Oh yay. Hint:  I posted a new photo gallery here. Phew.

Someone pass the malbec please.  I’ve officially died a thousand deaths of humiliation.  The struggle is real.

I was considering digging a hole, so I could jump in it.  Except that my favourite winter activity is going back inside where it’s warm.

In light of the old blog growing pains, I thought a giveaway would be a beautiful payback for all the suffering. Both mine.  And yours.

Goodbye old blog posts, hello new ones.  Like this one.  And this one <– So good, if you love massages!   These ones will make you happy.  This one will make you sad.   This one will make you want to shop in your jammies.  In our house, jammies are life.

I’m giving away presents from the new blog shop !!   One set of knitting needles, one gorgeous piece of Bali jewelry, and one sliding door track hardware kit.  This blog post is sponsored by me myself and I.   I just love ya like that.

birch knitting needles

Do you love knitting?  Me too.  It keeps me from unraveling.  Love chunky wool blankets?  Ditto.  I knew I liked you. There’s two free knitting patterns HERE and HERE… <–I’m yelling at you.  They are THAT good.  There’s a fahhhreee tassel pattern too.  Your.mind.will.be.blown. when you see how fast and easy the chunky wool blankets are to knit.

handcrafted jewelry from Bali

Beautifully handcrafted jewelry from the island of Bali, Indonesia!! Each beautiful piece is lovingly handmade by the kind, hard working artisans in Bali, Indonesia.  I personally met many of the artisans and hand selected the jewelry.  Each piece is hand crafted. Nothing is ever ever ever made in a factory.

What’s that mean? Every bead, every tassle, every pom pom is individually strung on to each piece. Pretty amazing, right?  It is for that reason that they are only available in small batches.  Shop them here.

door track hardware kit

There’s a DOOR TRACK HARDWARE KIT <—- Sorry to yell. I nearly forgot to tell you about them!  The wooden wheels and hangers are handcrafted by local Amish.  L o c a l   A M I S H.  Holy batman.  The craftsmanship.  It’s a super affordable DIY door track hardware kit too.  I’m offering the DIY door track hardware ebook for free during this giveaway.  You can download it here.

PS.  I paint my door track rails white, because, hello… have you met me?

 

Years ago, I started a hobby blog to keep in touch with my friends and family.  Then it grew.   After millions of page views, well… I learned 20 things.

What can I say?  I’m a slow learner.

(insert big toothy grin)

Blogging is the best job I never knew I always wanted.

{ What I learned, and wish I knew about 4823947350734 blog posts ago. }

 1.   What’s it really mean to be a blogger?  You’ll have a new main squeeze. He’ll absorb your head space.  You’ll think about him all the time.  His name is BLOG.  He can be unruly and he’s high maintenance.

 

2.  Blog this. Blog that.  Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.  Comparing your blog to another one, seven pages over…well..it’s just stoopid.  It will dull your sparkle and deflate your love balloons.

 

3.  By the time you’ve been blogging for a few years, you’ll have a butt that resembles a pancake, a protruding buddha belly and many empty bottles of wine to show for it. Wine does not solve problems but neither will water.

 

4.  You’ll discover that for some strange reason, your barfworthy blog posts will be the most successful posts on your blog *punches self. *

 

5.   Writing is like a mini-skirt.  It has to be short enough to be interesting, but long enough to cover the subject.

 

6.  Don’t get hogtied to social media.  You own your blog.  You don’t own social media platforms.  It’s their bat.  Their ball.  Their rules.  Social media is the water cooler.  Use it.  Share it. Have drinks around it.  But the office owns it.

 

7.   Your authentic, down to earth, real voice is your greatest asset.  That, and good hair days.

 

8.   Facts tell, stories sell. Be ridiculously interesting.  Life is too short to have a boring blog. Last night I fell asleep on your blog. Sorry about the drool.

 

9.   You have to be a geeky nerd to figure shit out.  It’s hard work.  A lot of trapped wine will be rescued from wine bottles.   You’ll know you’re drunk when you have to grab onto the grass to keep from falling off the earth.

 

10.   You’ll find your niche.  Or it will find you.  It’s is no secret that I love white in my home style.  I’ve forced you to like it too, right?  Right.  Weirdo.

 

11.    You’ll get tired.  Really tired.  Your eyes water when you yawn, because you’ll miss your bed and it makes you sad.

 

12.   Blog subscribers will be the light on your front porch.   I send emails AKA love letters on Fridays.   We laugh.  We cry.  I tell dirty jokes and share inappropriate quotes.  You can be a part of that hot mess of awesomeness by subscribing here.

 

13.   It’s freaking scary to hit the publish button on a blog post.  It’s okay to be scared. Being scared means that you are about to do something very very brave.

 

14.   You’ll drink an enormo amount of coffee and then do stupid things faster with more energy.

 

15.   You’ll acquire the secret talent of getting tired without doing anything.

 

16.   You’ll make mistakes.   People will say: “what the hell were you thinking?”  I dunno.  I was thinking it was a good idea annnnnnnnnd I’d get away with it.  Btw, the homemade baileys made me do it.

 

17.   Your inner critic is a jerk.  Create something.  Even if it sucks.

 

18.  Ignore the haters because it can make even the most seasoned bloggers want to lie on the floor and weep.

 

19.  Don’t be afraid to start over & rebuild what you have.  It’s a brand new opportunity to create what you truly want.

 

20. Don’t stop. Keep on rolling.  I think this one is self-explanatory.

 

 

Soooo I took the Instagram stories plunge and finally started posting Instagram story videos.  Because I need yet another THING in my life.  But I dig it!  Are you on Instagram?   It’s cool to be square.   Follow me here to watch our insta stories & see daily snippets of life.   I promise I won’t post videos of Michael half naked in a snow storm.  Except that I already did.

 

 

• Can I just go on record right now and say I hate rules?  Duly noted. Me no likey.

 

• Pin any photo(s) from the blog post

 

• The giveaway is only open to blog subscribers.  If you aren’t already subscribed, you can hop in here.  P.S. S.ssss…sss.. I only send 2-4 emails a month.  Usually on a Friday.  You’ll get inspired.  You’ll get exclusive deals. We laugh. We cry.  It’s a real hootenanny.

 

• Check out the blog shop.  Pick your fave item.  Knitting needles, door track hardware or jewelry?  Let me know what you’d love to win AND WHY (that’s the fun part!!) in the comment section below.

 

• Winner winner chicken dinner will be selected from the comments and announced on Friday, March 3rd, 2017.

Better days are coming. They’re called Saturday and Sunday.

 

Wait.  I have one more important thing to tell you.

I love you!

I said it.

I mean it.

I weirdly love you.

That is all.

The end.