52 Lists, Week 18

Happy Monday! Welcome to my 52 Lists Project, wherein I feature one list every week for 2015. To join in with your own list, scroll down to the link at the bottom, print out your own list, and then share it however you wish!

Week 18: List the Ways You Are Energized
I'm more of a person who likes ways to calm or relax (having generalized anxiety makes those a priority) but there are good kinds of energy, too, and I like being filled with that positive buzz. Here's this week's list:

• stepping out of an overly air conditioned house or office into hot sunshine
•  going for brisk walks in the autumn and winter
• cold showers in the summer
• that strange urge to run (does anyone else ever have that?) - and then running, full tilt, until you fall down
• getting up early and doing tons of small tasks before the rest of the world is awake
• drinking cucumber water
• the endorphin high after a really good workout
• dancing
• singing to upbeat music in the car
• being silly with my sisters
• playing card games with my cousins
• intense bonding during retreats
• the beginning of a journey/adventure

I will spend time re-energizing this week by...
making time to walk in the evenings with my new roommate!

There you have it - and yes, the roommate is officially here! We haven't talked about how she wants to be represented on the blog yet so for now I will strictly refer to her as the Roommate or Roomie. 

What about you? How do you fill up the energy reserves? What gives you that buzz of energy to go out and do stuff? Let me know in comments or with a list of your own!


Love,

Willow

For more fun with 52 Lists, click down on "52 Lists" in the little categories section at the bottom of the post, and go over to Moorea Seal's site to see more!

Check out Moorea Seal's entire project at her blog below:
http://www.moorea-seal.com/p/52-lists.html  
 

52 Lists, Week 4

Happy Monday! Welcome to my 52 Lists Project, wherein I feature one list every week for 2015. To join in with your own list, scroll down to the link at the bottom, print out your own list, and then share it however you wish!

Week 4: List Your Current & Future Goals & Dreams

This list is really quite similar to my list from last year - in fact, I'm pretty sure the majority of the "Future" goals and dreams are identical (with a couple of additions). Here we go...

Current:

• continue using my money carefully so I can continue to cover rent and expenses
• start saving more money
• eat out less and less
• get in 30 minutes of exercise each day (I'm currently at about 3 times a week but my goal is to get this in daily)
• catalog the library
• stick to my Condo Cleaning Schedule
• write blog posts in advance and post more regularly
• meet new people and make new friends
• try new recipes
• finish the family cookbook

Future

• be a recognized, fiscally solvent writer
• own a small house with a yellow kitchen and a garden
• share my life with someone I love (hopefully not just my cat)
• have children
• learn a new language
• live in a foreign country for 6 months or more
• go to Spain
• see my niece and nephew baptized in the Catholic Church
• have tea with Francesca Lia Block
• hug John Green, Hank Green, and Taylor Swift
• read thousands of really good books
• start a literacy foundation
• reform Catholic religious education
• become a saint (not necessarily a formally canonized one)

 

That one about a literacy foundation always surprises me, but when I tried to leave it off the list it nagged and nagged at my brain until I put it back. I'm not sure what to make of it, but there it is.

So what about you? What are some of your goals and dreams for the future? What kinds of things would you like to accomplish this year? How about 5 or 10 or 20 years from now? Let me know in comments or with a list of your own!

Hope you have a lovely Monday...

Love,

Willow

For more fun with 52 Lists, click down on "52 Lists" in the little categories section at the bottom of the post, and go over to Moorea Seal's site to see more!

Check out Moorea Seal's entire project at her blog below:
http://www.moorea-seal.com/p/52-lists.html  

52 Lists, Week 3

Happy Monday! Welcome to my 52 Lists Project, wherein I feature one list every week for 2015. To join in with your own list, scroll down to the link at the bottom, print out your own list, and then share it however you wish!

Week 3: List the Things You Should Be Proud Of

This list is always difficult for me because when I look at my life in a "big picture" kind of way, I don't see much that's changed since I left school and became a secretary. But when I look closer, especially at the last few months and weeks, I see some changes I've implemented and I'm really proud of the progress I've made.

• my job
• teaching Confirmation
• I was brave and gave online dating a try
• I'm managing my anxiety better than ever
• I've managed my money well enough that I can afford rent and all of my bills/student loans and still put a little bit of money in my savings account each month
• I'm eating really healthy right now (I still don't like quinoa but I'm eating it anyway)
• I've been getting up early and getting to work earlier
• I've been exercising more regularly
• I've made a cleaning schedule and stuck to it
• I'm reading more this year
• I'm keeping myself better organized and sticking to my plans better
• I'm writing more - both on the blog and in my personal journals
• my progress on my Wildflowers Cardigan
• my pretty good relationship with both my sisters
  

So there you have it! They seem kind of small, but for now I'm quite pleased with myself and these little things. I should also add that I have made my bed almost every single day of 2015 (I skip the occasional weekend morning) and I'm proud of that, too.

What are you proud of? What goals have you met or started to make progress on? Let me know in comments or with a list of your own!

Hope you have a lovely Monday...

Love,

Willow

For more fun with 52 Lists, click down on "52 Lists" in the little categories section at the bottom of the post, and go over to Moorea Seal's site to see more!

Check out Moorea Seal's entire project at her blog below:
http://www.moorea-seal.com/p/52-lists.html  

 

52 Lists, Week 2

Happy Monday! Welcome to my 52 Lists Project, wherein I feature one list every week for 2015. To join in with your own list, scroll down to the link at the bottom, print out your own list, and then share it however you wish!

Week 2: List Your Greatest Comforts
 Ahhh, comfort. After a long, stressful day at work or an exhausting argument with my mother, or a frustrating conversation with my sisters, sometimes the only thing I want to do is go home and indulge in one of my self-soothing methods, like a hot bath or a cup of tea. Here's my list of comfies:

~Gatsby kitten-cuddles ~Christmas food ~warm tea ~my Oma quilt ~candles

~saying the Rosary ~hot baths ~long, quiet, night drives ~knitting

~coffee ~coconut oil lotion ~rose gardens ~sunny spring walks ~pajamas

~Denny's with old friends ~jacaranda blooms ~hugs from just the right person ~bare feet

~getting letters ~someone else cooking for me ~listening to Bon Iver or The Weepies

~reading YA novels ~reading poetry ~Jane Austen ~audiobooks ~Harry Potter marathons

~Doctor Who reruns ~having houseplants ~going to church ~keeping a journal

~singing in the car ~giving gifts ~playing piano ~sewing ~fresh flowers

 

someday I will take not-terrible pictures

This list is far from exhaustive, but it's a good idea of the things that bring me comfort. What are the things that bring you comfort and solace? Let me know in comments or with your own list!

Hope you have a lovely Monday...

Love,

Willow

For more fun with 52 Lists, click down on "52 Lists" in the little categories section at the bottom of the post, and go over to Moorea Seal's site to see more!

Check out Moorea Seal's entire project at her blog below:
http://www.moorea-seal.com/p/52-lists.html   

52 Lists, Week 1

Happy New Year!!!!!!!


You may (or may not) recall that last year I attempted to participate in the 52 Lists Project. However, the person behind the project abandoned it after Week 20 - less than halfway through the year. So I, too, abandoned the project. But now I'm back for a new year and I've created my own lists to supplement the second half of the year. My goal is to post on Mondays, since there are exactly 52 Mondays in 2015. I could have done Fridays, but that's when we do Pinteresting so Mondays are the plan.

Week 1: List the Words that Touch Your Soul

Most of the words on this list are the same as they were last year, with a few additions. I love words in general, but here are some of my current favorites:

+thrill      + Gatsby      +agape     +whiskers      +sift      +beloved       +stars      +fantasy      +solemn

+castle      +oceans      +imagination     +wonderful       +blossom    +whisper      +susurrous

+petrichor       +infinity      +embroider       +delight    +subversive     +wishes      +sacred      +wifty

+watercolor      +dignity      +hypergraphia        +compassion      +elsewhere      +scripturient

+luscious       +darling         +fathom         +desire        +madness       +seduce     +quiet

+light      +constellation

There you have it, my 39 favorite words as of right this second. 

You can visit HERE to get a list of your own! Some people do their lists in notebooks, scrapbooks, Flikr photos, etc., but you do you!

What are some of your favorite words? Let me know in comments!

Happy 2015, lovelies....

Love,

Willow

For more fun with 52 Lists, click down on "52 Lists" in the little categories section at the bottom of the post, and go over to Moorea Seal's site to see more!

Check out Moorea Seal's entire project at her blog below:
http://www.moorea-seal.com/p/52-lists.html   

A Haunting in San Dimas, or A Long Story About a Girl and a Ghost

Do you like ghost stories? I love a good ghost story. Unless I'm living a ghost story. Then I'm not so excited about them.

Getty Images

So my parents have been in Hawaii this week because my father has his first case in Hawaii and was asked to come and visit the scene and bring his wife along for a mini vacation. Because it's not like we have perpetual summer in Southern California anyway.

Since the 'rents have been out of town, though, it has fallen upon my shoulders to supervise things on the home front. Most importantly: caring for my sisters, freshly 16 year old high school sophomores. This involves a lot of driving. A lot of driving. To and from school, to and from band practice, girl scouts, competitions, church, homework club, plus driving myself back home to pick up Gatsby and change my clothes and then drive back to work twice a day. Lots of driving. (Also lots of annoying requests to go places without any regard for the fact that even though I'm their acting guardian, I still have a full-time job and can't just go spend two hours at Target in the middle of the afternoon.)

All of this means that I've been spending a great deal more time at my childhood home than I have in a considerable while (since the last time my parents went out of town with or without my sisters, basically). In the last days I've noticed things - disturbing things. The first of these was actually on the first day our parents were gone and I was in the house by myself for several hours while my sisters were at a football game (marching band and color guard). The first instance was at about 5:30pm and I was in the family room. We have a big, ranch-style house so the family room, kitchen, dining room, and living room are mostly a large, open space with bedrooms and bathrooms book-ending these living areas. The "family room" is right next to the kitchen and the hallway to the bedrooms runs perpendicularly to it. The door separating this hallway from the rest of the house is usually left open. I was standing in the family room adjusting the lights to the kitchen and sorting the mail when I saw it, not quite in the corner of my eye.

A slinking, black shadow had darted across the hallway and into my sister's bedroom.

I stood frozen trying to convince myself that my eyes were playing tricks on me but I was so, so certain that they weren't. I said a quick Hail Mary and went after it, turning on every light within my reach as I went. When I reached my sister's room I turned on all the lights, shone my phone's flashlight into her closet and in all the dark nooks and corners but found nothing. I shook off the icky feeling in the pit of my stomach, turned off the lights, and went back to sorting the mail. I thought, "Hey, it must've been one of the cats. If our cats are three times the normal size of a cat, amorphous, and inky-black like smoke. Sure."

About 2 hours later, I was in the garden. (The open living area of the house opens into the backyard via a wide, sliding glass door, so you can see from the house into the yard and from the yard into the house.) I was trying to locate the cats and make sure they were safely in the house or in the garage for the night. It was pretty out so I sat on one of the patio benches looking into the house to enjoy the night air and the sounds of the windchimes. After a few minutes of admiring the garden and how nice the new kitchen looks, I saw it and this time there was no way my eyes were fooling me because it passed right in front of me.

That slinking, low to the ground black shadow slithered out of the family room, through the dining room/entry way and out of sight towards my parents' bedroom.

Thoroughly freaked out, I went back inside and started lighting every candle I could find. I'm not sure what I hoped to accomplish with excessive candle lighting, but it made me feel a little better. I turned on the radio and found the Christmas music station and cranked that up loud, then settled onto a kitchen counter next to the radio and some candles and focused on knitting for another 2 1/2 hours until I could go and pick up my sisters. When I did pick them up I told them the whole story and they, of course, believed me. They've had their own experiences with this thing and know it's no joke. So we lit my St. Michael candle and said a rosary and went to bed early.

The next morning I called my parents to check in and tell them what had happened. Our mom was familiar with it because she's had experiences with it as well but what really surprised me was that my dad had seen the shadow, too. My father is a Bible thumping Protestant (sorry, Protestant friends) and doesn't go in for our "superstitious Catholic silliness," but told me he thought his eyes were playing tricks, too. Then, my mother gave me instructions on how to go about sage cleansing the house.

Understand: I'm Catholic. I teach catechism and study Catholic teachings and I take my faith and the teachings of my Church very seriously. I'm not a fan of superstition or New Age spiritualism or Reiki or alternative medicine (even though my mother is a massage therapist and I do consider that an authentic form of holistic health practice). But I was so freaked out and downright scared that I found a bundle of dried white sage and an abalone shell and opened up all of the windows in the house and wafted sage smoke into every corner of the house. Did I feel silly? Sure. Did it work? Well, I'm not superstitious, but I also haven't seen any slinky black shadows or heard footsteps or other weirdness since.

This isn't the first encounter we've had with spirits in my childhood home, either. Growing up there were always noises, some which could be explained - it's an old house, it creaks - and others that couldn't. Things would fall off of shelves, doors would slam or open, random cold spots... Yet these are things I've experienced on occasion in other houses. But when one of my mom's clients comes into the house and randomly wanders into the living room and then tells us that "She's cold and wants you to light her a fire," that's not normal. (That happened a few years ago while I was still in college, though I was present for that particular interaction.)

My sisters had an ugly altercation with something last fall, when they were home alone while in the bathroom brushing their teeth. They heard someone (thing?) come into the main part of the house (at which point they shut the bathroom door), footsteps in the hallway (at which point they locked the bathroom door), and then whatever it was banging and pulling on the door trying to get it open. The cops came and even used a heat sensor thingy which picked up the body heat from the chickens and the cops that had been through the house but nothing else. We've heard footsteps in the hallway at night, seen reflections in windows of things that aren't there, and so on.  We're not really sure what it is; it's not really malevolent, but I don't know if it's simply lost, either.

Whatever it is, my childhood home is haunted.


 Stay tuned, there may be more to come on the ghost front. I think I need to research the previous homeowners or something...

~Willow

The Letter Writer, Revisited

It's been a little over a year since I started writing letters as part of the Letter Writer's Alliance, and I've recently organized all the (good) mail I've received in the last year or so.

That's a lot of letters, people. In fact, that's 38 letters (which doesn't account for all the letters I received in high school and college - just the past year and 3 months). And I thought it's high time I write a few reflections on letters and letter writing in general as well as a bit about why the heck I write so many damn letters (this is a question posed to me quite often).

Go check out this post before reading if you want some of the relevant back story.