2018 Amazon Top Buys

Ok.  This has been going around YouTube for a little bit now.  Needless to say, when I discovered it on there I got sucked into the black hole of numerous top amazon pick/buy/need videos. I figured why not share my top ten things that I purchased in 2018 from Amazon.

1.   Milk-Bone Pill Pouches: Would not even attempt to give our older dog meds without these.

2.  HP Sprocket Portable Printer: Extremely grateful I purchased this.  I use this every single week to print off pictures to go in my planner.  I am thinking that this will be delightful to have on my future vacations.

3. Weight Lifting Gloves: Lifesaver for my hands since I have been back to lifting in the gym.

4.  Mesh Laundry Bags: And now the lifesaver for my clothing.  No more snagging bra hooks on random things in the washing machine.

5.  Memory Foam Mattress: We made the jump to the "box" mattress bandwagon.  I can say that I am happy with it plus it is a small price compared to a mattress set.

6.   Fitted sheet: Simple, basic, inexpensive, soft, and not stiff

7.  Apple Slicer/Corer : Finally a thinly sliced apple.  Back in fall, our food subscription service had us slicing apples thinly.  This made such a huge difference.

8.   Rubber Door Mat : After my husband bought a vacuuming robot, we were on the hunt for the perfect doormat that the little robot would not get stuck on.  This one was perfect.

9.  Floor Lamp :  Here is where the hunt ended for us to find a perfect light for the living room.  It is much brighter in there now...no more dungeon as we have no overhead lights in our living room

10. Furnace Air Filter : Yeah it is the little things that equal the joys of home ownership, like my ability to get a inexpensive filter for my furnace delivered to my door instead of spending what seems to be endless time standing in the aisle of Menards hoping yours is still in stock and finding it on the shelf.

And there you have it, my top ten Amazon buys from 2018.  Hopefully, something on this list sparked your interest or enlightened you on something you would have never thought to purchase from Amazon.  I am also thinking that going forward I may make this a seasonal post going forward (only with fewer items, 3 or 5) and possibly create a link up.  That way we can all share our great finds.

With that, I bid you goodbye for now until the next post.  May all my fellow Wisconsinites stay warm, cozy and safe during our lovely winter weather.

Renewing the Passion

Over the last few months, I have been renewing and nurturing some of the passions that were forgotten about when I was stumbling thru my darkness.  This took a lot of courage, as I would have been perfectly content just becoming a hobbit in my own little corner of the world where no one could hurt me.

Love of Learning

It started quite simply on this one.  I just started reading books, both fiction and non-fiction.  This drew me back to the library.  The library was such a forgotten place.  I loved it so.  Where else in the world can you go get lost in something and imagine you are whoever you feel to be at that time.

Health

This one takes a little bit more.  After all, sometimes that bed is nice warm and fuzzy in the mornings.  WIth me the more a place feels like home the easier it is for me to be there.  I learned this thru some transitions I had at work and feeling out of place for a short period.  It started with getting a locker. Now I had a spot and I took this spot and made it awesome.  You know a place that when you get there you smile...filled with fun things you love.  After all that it was easy, start slow, step on the treadmill etc. and then start adding in weights.  I started feeling better and got in my routine.  Then during this learning experience of getting on track, I discovered the sauna.  Oh, how joyous that was.  An extra perk for working out and a part of my day that made me feel delightful and more aligned for the day ahead.

Creating

This passion of mine flowed into so many areas of my life.  From creating my organizational system to making sure nothing gets forgotten to creating pieces of art to crafting.   When I was creating things and developing I loved it.  The sense of progress and fun was enlightening yet frustrating at times also. Having the passion to create things is almost an asset as you progress forward.  If you love to create you can create anything you want including your future happy self.

Now my intent is to take the things I learned from renewing these passions to continue to progress forward.

What the views look like from where I stand

The initial exploration of the Wisconsin Wilds meadow has been somewhat scary.  The light for the things to grow has abundant.  I have spent months wandering through.  My discoveries have been things that were well established and others that need love, passion and light to grow.

Standing tall...were the people who supported me in my initial journey.  My core beliefs: positivity, stubbornness, nurturing, the quest for knowledge, and my drive to conquer. These were the things to build upon and around.  I explored and planted the seeds for new adventures and cultivated passion long since forgotten things: My The Love of Learning, Health, and Creating.  Each of these brought a long lost sense of joy and wonderment.  All of these to be continued to be nurtured into the future.

It was scary.  My lack of trust and hurt and pain continued to try and pull me backwards.  In each experience, I had to push that away and push further into the light.  I am somewhat of an introvert.  I do enjoy my time alone and am perfectly content there.  After all that I experienced it is harder for me to open myself up to others. It takes longer and a lot of trust.

The time I took though to recultivate who I was, what I loved, and effort to push through has led me to the place I currently stand at now. Now is the time where I will continue to bask in the light that was always there, the strength of the tall trees, nurture the beauty that was neglected and plant new seeds. I am ready to move forward on my journey and explore the possibilities of what lies ahead.
 

And out of the darkness, I crawl info the light

The hiatus I have been taking from my little section of the interwebs has been far too long.  Once this was a space for me to find joy, connect, and share my life. I have rekindled the fire to take the steps to get back on the path once again.

Life comes with many paths to be taken.  Do you go left, right, forward, or backward? Each one with unknown destinations yet all somewhat scary. At some points, you are walking along what appears to be a beautiful path of everything you could have imagined and then there is a fall, stumble, or slight little trip.

For a nice period of time, the path I was walking along was beautiful, grand, and filled with excitement.  Then it happened.  The crumbling below my feet.  The hard fall into the state of darkness.  All the bumps as I fell hurt and pulled at various portions of my overall being that I could not understand, only then as the bottom approached to be awakened to a state of darkness.  In the darkness, time seems to hang in the air, the emotional pain ceases to exist, and there is a state of contentment almost a deep sleep.  Yet this contentment really is a hallucination.  The pain, emotions, and life continued around me without me even being conscious of the fact.   The darkness in my eyes and mind was peaceful, comforting, and very welcoming.  I settled.  Then proceeded to accept the fate: this dark cave is a welcome home.   One though cannot exist within the darkness forever....life must move forward.  The path I was on had to continue.  As the darkness can be thick, sometimes one needs other humans whose hearts and states of being are still intact to reach out and pull you slowly from the darkness and into the light.

And as I saw the light, there was an understanding that it was needed.  There was much more beyond the cave of the darkness.  I begin to climb.  The climb is not short by any means, as the rediscovery of yourself and who you were begins.  Who you were...who you were is what caused the fall.  One can not look back only progress forward to invent themselves once again.   I stared at the blank walls along the path...they are mine to be filled.  The realization the people who are around you, the helpers.  Always look for the helpers. The helpers by your side stand with you, nurture you progress with you, do not judge, and only aid you as you walk thru the shimmery, hazy light.  I began to feel again.  There are downs as one processes the feelings from the darkness; soon though there is a stability. The canyon walls have been painted with the past hurt. There is also guidance painted on the walls from others on how to progress forward from the crevices of the canyon. I wandered through the crevices of the canyon learning who I can be, who I can become. The haze began to lift as I emerged from the canyon.  Now standing in the sunshine of the openness with much to explore and numerous possibilties ahead of me.

A beautiful meadow of possibilities, paths and places to explore.  The courage has returned and I begin to wander amongst the beauty of the meadow and start to plant my own seeds for my future path.  This meadow of mine shall be called Wisconsin Wilds.

Please wander with me as I experience all it has to offer and the discoveries along the way.