Yesterday, despite sadness, was wonderful! The very sad part was watching, and talking to, those affected by the fire on either side. One side packed everything into bins and had a friend with a trailer come and take it home for them as their cars were stuffed. The other side packed what they could but he got permission to pull it out and take it wherever it needed to go. The burned out carcass looms across the street. I was advised yesterday to check our roof, which my dad did, nothing up there. I think God was with us when he sent a southwest wind.

Okay, so I’ve covered the gloomy stuff. Now onto mom’s birthday! The biggest surprise was my brother, the one who has yet to get up here to even see the house, came up with his wife and one of his kids. I didn’t tell her, I just took off to go to town so I could buy food to feed all of us. Of course my daughter was here, and us. She was so surprised and sooooo happy. At 4:00 we turned on the baseball game and what an amazing game it was! The boys were on FIRE! We won 10-1 and it was loud enough on TV let alone what it must have been in the dome! Game Two this afternoon at 4:00.

Onto today… the People in your life prompt today is Someone who believed in you… I have had many of those over the years and I have some who felt like they didn’t believe in my at all. Going back, Pat at Toronto School of Business was the first who really believed in me more than I did about teaching and I loved it and wanted my students to succeed. There have been others along the way of course and then there has been my family. We believe in each other and hold each other up.

Okay, making the most of the rest of the year… Simple, ordinary joys you are overlooking… I try not to overlook them. I try to celebrate them. Like yesterday, it was simple when my brother texted to say he was coming up. I was already going to get a cake. I just need to pick up a few extra things! I created that joy for my mom which brought me joy as well. I try to watch and listen to the birds, get down to the water, collect stones, all little things. After my whole cancer scare, I vowed I wanted to spend my life seeing the simple, ordinary things.

Okay, gotta get ready to start the day. GO BLUE JAYS!!!

Don’t write me off just yet! It’s been a bit of a busy day and, yes, I’m at the trailer. I’m burning lavender incense to rid the place of some of the smoky smell. It’s not that bad but you catch the whiff of it when you walk through the door.

Okay, so People in your life… Someone whose resilience inspires you… Some people are resilient… no, rephrase that. I think we all have resilience, it just varies from person to person. Some are more resilient then others. But some have been through more than others. I might moan and complain but I bounce back and carry on. It takes me time to get over things fully but I carry on nonetheless. I’ve met many resilient people in my life. My great-grandmother had no choice but to go on after my great-grandfather died in his 50s in the 1950s leaving her have no choice but to make things work. My grandmother was married to one of the world’s biggest a-holes yet she raised two children by herself and worked full-time helping my great-grandmother make ends meet. There are often no words for these people. They, we, do it because we have to. There’s no choice so we get knocked down but we get up again.

The rest of this year… What matters to you for the rest of the year?… Trying to find my way back to even ground. Trying to find my way back to solid ground. Trying to sort out not only what I really and truly want but how to get it. Figure out what I need to do to get there. And I think I’m in the right place because Goderich and Huron County have soooo many more programs to help small businesses succeed.

I’ve got to get back to working on that.

And what a devastating start. At work today I get a text message and assumed, initially, that it was my mom. I look at it and it’s our neighbours across the street at the trailer who we consider friends. They were leaving the park this year and we’d helped them tear their deck apart, gave them the number of someone to move the the trailer for them and we’d be saying goodbye shortly enough. They were going to move it to a new park in the spring. It was them. We lost the trailer. WHAT? Translation please… just a freak thing… probably some issue with a propane leak and the next thing that came through was the image of the remains of their trailer. My heart is broken for them. I can’t even imagine! Of course there was concern for our trailer being so close but Larry went out and reassured me we’re good. Between relief and feeling so devastated for them, I still want to cry. Things can change in a heartbeat! Don’t take anything for granted.

I’m moving on to the calendars because, honestly, I don’t know how else to feel right now. I just want to go out there and hug my little house on wheels. I’ll share more tomorrow.

I still haven’t decided which calendar to work through and I’m too tired to figure it out. For tonight… The Making the most of the rest of the year journal is A daily routine you can start doing… I think I started that in August when I started blogging on these calendars. Blogging regularly is one thing I really wanted to start doing. The other thing I’d like to start doing is writing too. Even if it’s a single page. I will work on that.

The Gratitude Journal about people in your life prompt is… Life lessons from your parents/family that you still use today… where do I even begin. The things they taught me, the things other family has taught me… Love and family is family. Friends have a tendency to come and go. I’m lucky enough to have a great family. I know everyone’s families are different and have severely different family dynamics for a gambit of reasons so I know that my feeling lucky to have that, many, many others don’t. So I hope that those people are grateful for a different life lesson that maybe a different family member taught them.

I’m exhausted so I’m ending here. Until tomorrow.