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Gray or Nay?!
I have been dying my hair since, I don’t know, about fifteen (I think). It feels like I HAVE always colored my hair and WILL always color my hair. However, it seems like I have been fighting with my daughter, Lisa, for years about the whole concept of “going gray”. She fears that I am continuing this procedure way past the time it is cool or attractive for me. I believe she SHOULD continue to dye her hair.
The question is, when is the proper time to just let it go gray? (Hopefully, when I say gray I mean a wonderful shade of white/silver-gray that complements my features, brings out the green in my eyes, gives me perky breasts, makes me look 10 pounds lighter, lengthens my legs …)
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Faith
Where do you do church?
How should a church look?
These seem to be two very controversial questions lately. Especially after COVID, where we have all been confined to our homes, apartments, (or wherever we might have the fortune or misfortune to find ourselves)…spiritual practice rules are up for debate. -
Fern Gardeners…Beware!
Years ago when I realized I had inherited the gardening gene from a favorite uncle of mine, I lived in a different house, on a different street, and had different sun exposure.
There was full sun on all sides of my just-built house. It was fun planting flowers such as snapdragons, marigolds, zinnias, geraniums and I achieved a profusion of flowers and consistently brilliant colors. I spent hundreds of dollars every spring purchasing annuals to accomplish this result.
Then, we moved, and guess what? I now live in a house with mature maple and birch trees. This translates into a yard with almost no sun. Can you say…gardening challenge? As noted before I was used to lots of sunlight and could grow almost all sun-loving plants. -
My Dog is Family
What is it with dogs? Are you one of the people that celebrated National Pet Day earlier this month? Do you love a furry friend?
Whoever said that diamonds are a girl’s best friend…obviously never had a dog!
Do you need unconditional love, something to love you forever and ever (sounds great, right!)?
Do you love having something warm and fuzzy to cuddle with, share a bed with?When Mollie, a liver/white tri English Springer Spaniel that was with us for fourteen years died, I said it would be my last.
I just couldn’t put my heart through another heartbreak.
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What to Do When Your Body is Falling Apart
What do you do when your an active woman with a full life and your body starts to fall apart? Well, I made an appointment to see my primary care physician…
Midlife: That time in your life when you finally get your head together and your body starts to fall apart! At the office visit, my doctor informed me that that I no longer needed a mammogram, pap smear, or colonoscopy. I found this interesting so I asked, “Why is that?” He skirted around the question, but I guessed, “You mean I am just too old?”
Well, the fact is, say…if cancer is detected, I am actually too old to go through the process of working on a cure or whatever….
WOW!
HELLO?
Let that sink in a moment.
That made me feel, kind of, sort of WEIRD.
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Voiceless Woman
I remember driving with my mom in the passenger seat. I might comment on a pretty house. She answered me with silence.
When I asked my mom for her opinion on how a new dress looked on me, she would reply with “I wonder what it would look like on me?” She wouldn’t answer my question.
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To Meditate or NOT to Meditate
Meditation is supposed to be a wonderful way to relax, come to terms with your inner self, help relax your body, help your mind focus, blah, blah, blah.
Well, you know what? I have found meditation to be a huge waste of time. I have tried, really, I have tried!
Come on inner peace…I don’t have all day! (I know people around me would sa I HAVEN’T really tried,(see here) but that is just not true.)
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Is Spring House Cleaning Even a Thing Any More?
The first day of spring this year is just around the corner. And that gets me thinking about…”Spring House Cleaning”! Crazy, I know. Isn’t this an antiquated activity?
I remember when some of the most beautiful spring days were dedicated to emptying out one room of a house at a time. Then we spent days cleaning windows, washing walls, scrubbing floors, shampooing carpets, organizing drawers, sorting out closets, you get the idea. We used to basically clean the whole damn house, from top to bottom, one room at a time. -
Developing Relationships with Your Mother-in-Law
Here are six tips for having a good relationship with your mother-in-law. -
Halloween Is Not Just For Kids! – Enjoy Yourself!
Who thinks that Halloween is strictly for kids. I have noticed that a lot of adults sure know how to enjoy themselves. I have had a couple of fun memories that still make me laugh about Halloween! -
To Tan or Not to Tan
To tan or not to tan, that is the question!!!
As I sit here with my white legs, white arms, white face, white body, white everything looking like a newly plucked chicken, next to my Hispanic granddaughter with beautiful caramel skin. I love caramel skin and in my next life perhaps I will have that gorgeous, flawless skin, caramel in color. But, today I am reflecting back to the days when we actually tried to achieve, and did, but not without a little (a lot) discomfort and pain. -
Who the Hell Invented Bras?? It Must’ve Been a Man!
Bra drawer of a cute perky teen Who the hell invented bras, and who the hell says we have to wear them????
Who likes bras? Well, I don’t know many people, women, who do. On two different occasions, maybe three, I have gone bra shopping with family and friends, spending many, many hours in dressing rooms, thinking that I have found the ONE. Then a couple of days later I returned all of them much to the dismay of my helpers. As you will note in some other Sidetracked Sisters’ posts I am not very popular in this department.
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Parenting Brings Many Happy Memories
‘Chelle’s college graduation Well, I have had many happy parenting moments. Where to start? How about at the beginning.
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There is a Difference Between Being a Friend and an Enabler
I have always prided myself on being a good friend, but unfortunately, I had a very bad experience at trying to be just that.
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Sandy’s 9 Tips for a Beautiful Garden
Here are some of my gardening tips:
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I Was Sooooo Cute as a Child – What a Body!
As a child, my body was an absolute bean pole, skinny that is. I actually went to the doctor as a teenager to get something to help me gain weight. He, of course, thought I was nuts, but gave me some kind of a prescription (probably just sugar pills). He said, “Someday you will wish you were this way.” Boy, was he right!
Then there is my hair. I am old, so to speak, and I can truthfully say I have yet to find a hairstyle that I feel is me. I can only keep trying. I am still waiting for my prime. I think it has come and gone, but one can only hope. Some days, I can actually say “What the hell”, and then others it frustrates me. I think that is normal for most people. Well – it is for me.
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Retirement Reality
My aha moment came many weeks, months, after my retirement last year. I realized it after 56 years of working as a paralegal/legal secretary for the same firm my boss retired and the office closed. It is hard to break old habits, like cleaning at night and on weekends, never having any free time without feeling guilty, and being able to have some free time for myself. My aha moment came when one day many months later I realized, while I was on a road trip with a friend, that I didn’t have any real-time constraints other than my family needing me to come back for things such as cleaning, cooking, driving grandkids around, you know, the usual. We were driving along and I thought aha, I am on my own at this moment and don’t have to go to work. No one was expecting me to get out a will, do divorce papers, real estate documents, correspondence, and the list goes on. -
Will You Marry Me?
What is a compliment?This can come in many ways. It could be when you were asked to prom, homecoming, or more exciting a marriage proposal.
I think my best compliment was my wedding proposal. Even though, in my case, it was when we were very young, but, guess what it is still working. Sometimes I don’t know how, but it is still in the work. I often kid that I need a medal, but, in fact, we both probably do. We have figured how to make this union work.
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Love or Hate Cell Phones
Who has a love/hate relationship with their cell phones?Well, first of all, I hate the cost of these stupid things. My gosh my rent used to be $65.00 per month. I know, that was in the dark ages! Now to get an updated phone that does lots of things, costs ten times that per month. You’ve got to be kidding!!!!
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I Love All Colors!
I love all colors. I also love a monochromatic color scheme. Do I ever use it? Never. Oh well, I love the white-on-white idea of just about anything from china, to room decorations, etc. -
Stupid Jokes – I can never remember them anyway!
Stupid Jokes – I can never remember them anyway!O.K. there are a lot of jokes out there that are funny I must admit. I happen to have a significant other, a/k/a husband, who loves to tell jokes. How he remembers so many is beyond me. I hear a joke which I actually feel I should share and, of course, I can’t remember the stupid joke.
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Cooking is a Waste of Time
I dislike cooking. I find cooking, on average, a waste of time. First of all, you have to decide what to make, then you have to go to the store. Another thing I dislike to do and purchase the ingredients Then you spend hours making your delicacy, it takes ten minutes to eat it, and then, guess what, you get to clean the mess up. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy cooking when the house is clean and everything is done, and I am cooking for a get-together of family and/or friends. The key here, everything else needs to be done. -
Hey! Get Me an Old Fashion!
My favorite drink: Alcoholic that is.
I guess I would have to say the this would be an “Old Fashion”. I say this because it has come to be a kind of old friend so to speak. When I came of age, (I don’t like beer) I tried what my Mom always ordered. A Bacardi. Then I thought I should be drinking what my friend liked. Manhattans.
Well, after a couple of years of being totally wiped on only one or two of those (most likely one), I realized that I didn’t really care for them. Anyway, an Old Fashion was presented to me. It had a good taste of booze, I like them rather sweet, and that is where I am at the present time. Margaritas come in second. When you are out of state you don’t even think of asking for an Old Fashion because they are made with brandy, not a staple in other states.
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Practice What You Preach
I feel I definitely practice what I preach most of the time. For years and years, I’ve said I wanted a cottage on a lake. Now, it wasn’t just any lake or just any area, but I wanted it to be on South Lake Michigan Drive in Door County, WI, on Lake Michigan.
I always knew I was going to do this. We didn’t know how, didn’t know when, but it was going to happen. It had to. I put pictures up at work, constantly looked at the availability of properties and there was nothing… especially in our price range.
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Let the Hysteria Begin
When I was a kid, I would love to decorate for the holidays. My Mom always let me do my creative things. I would put evergreens wherever I could find a place. I would put my little sister to bed, (this was not an easy task, as she was always suspicious) then I would sneak downstairs and help decorate the tree which Santa had brought.
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I’m So Grateful
Well, it is a day before Thanksgiving and as well as being thankful, I am grateful as well for so many things.I have a wonderful family and I love and know they love me (most of the time that is). That is something to be thankful and grateful to start with. I feel I ponder on the past and present and know that I have been so lucky in so many areas. I think the hardest thing I had to overcome was the lack of my self-confidence and assurance that I am worth what I have earned and achieved.
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So Many Pet Peeves
One of my pet peeves is when people say, “Hi, how are you?”, and really don’t care or want to hear about you anyway.Pet Peeve #2: Husbands with toys. Why is it they complain about your “stuff” sitting around or hanging on walls, but feel there is nothing wrong with their things, such as trailers, sitting out in the driveway 24/7?
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Permission to Avoid Fear
In the day it was felt that if you didn’t meet all of your dreams, goals, were in your job of your dreams, be successful (whatever that meant” where you wanted to be at the ripe old age of thirty, you were, I guess, “A Failure”. That was for a rather short period of time on my part as I just couldn’t accept that. My Dad changed jobs in his fifties and wished he had done it long before that. So, I decided screw that Idea, just keep forging on and as long as you are happy that is a success. -
Stranger Danger
Unfortunately, I have had several. The one that always comes to my mind is when It was in Junior High, n/k/a Middle school. I was in band and we had band practice at night. -
Gardening is Therapy
I LOVE gardening or the results of playing in my yard with flowers!
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Procrastination is My Middle Name
I am the queen of procrastination. I have a saying that I post at the office that says “Success is doing the things that we procrastinate doing in a timely fashion”.I always seem to be able accomplish quite a few things when I am under stress, but as I get older, I find that procrastinating for a period of time only puts me in a very stressful straight of mind.
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Is Divorce the Answer?
Just hit the print button. that is what I say to anyone who has just plain had it in their insufficient marital status. I use this jokingly and unfortunately, have used the phrase for a serious situation also. You see, I have worked in a law office for 55 years and have seen so many divorces, I wouldn’t even be able to count. -
Not for the Faint of Heart
Well, to start with, in order to even start writing this on my rather new tablet (actually 1+ years old), I had to have help in even starting to type this subject. You see, technology to me, is a royal pain, a god send, and one of the most confusing things I have ever had the privilege of being associated with.
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Overachieve Meditation
This is a topic that absolutely foreign subject for me. Perhaps I do some form of mediation, but I highly doubt it. The time that I could see doing this is during the day. This, surprisingly, is my awake time. That means I have to move around, and find, unless I am involved in a really fabulous book, I need to accomplish something, even if it is walking, bike riding, whatever.
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Dancing is Exercise
I feel the need to exercise. I feel so good when I do this, and yet, it is something that
always goes to the bottom of my to-do list. -
How Does This Work?
How do you downshift or relax after a sometime (most of the time) stressful day, or just an ordinary, could be boring day.I would like to say that I would leave work, go for a nice casual walk, come home and have a wonderful dinner and then relax for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, this doesn’t ever seem to happen, so when I come home after a very stressful day at work, I like an old-fashioned drink, then I love to (weather permitting) sit out in my patio and just read or listen to the crickets and chill.
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Lifetime of Pets
I’m kind of at a negative point as to the need for furry friends in my life. My family has always been a lover of having pets which include dogs, birds, hamsters, guinea pigs, cats, including fish and chameleons (which are not so furry).
I started when I was very young by begging and begging for a dog. My first dog was a chocolate lab named Ginger. At a very young age of, I believe three, we ran away together, got into trouble, and I loved him very much. When he passed, I wished on every birthday cake candle, the first star in the night, etc., for another dog to fill the void. -
Lifetime Vacationing
In “My day” I never thought of going to Europe, Mexico, Alaska, or wherever for a vacation in the summer, not to mention in the winter months.
My family only took a “vacation” to either paint the house, do the lawn work, or go to the big metropolis of Black Earth, WI, to see my father’s parents. My father was a salesman and when he was home you couldn’t get him out of his recliner to save your soul, much less leave in a car for a family vacation.
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Stuffing Beans is Not My Gig!
My first job taught me what I would never want to do for the rest of my life, or even a small part of it.
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My Time – Not Yours!
Time is certainly not my best friend. You see, everyone says I don’t like to follow time. The truth of the matter is time is always getting me in trouble. There is never enough of it to go around. My time schedule is definitely different then the norm seems to be. Have you ever noticed at work when someone comes in say at 6:30 a.m. and leaves at 3:30 they are the superstar, even though you come in at 8:00 a.m. and stay until say 8:00 p.m.
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Thanksgiving – The Simple Life
This is one of my favorite holidays. It is a celebration, lots of food, and, of course, getting together with family and friends, and enjoying a relaxing time together. This seems so much more relaxing than say Christmas as the hysterical shopping binges, and fighting crowds actually makes me crazy. I love the thanksgiving decorations, smells, and the feeling of celebration that I get from this holiday.
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A Passion for Decorating
If anyone really knows me they know I love to decorate. I can waste more relaxing time (what’s that!!) planning for re-arranging a room, decorating or redecorating it, whatever the case may be. I love planning and gathering all the materials before starting the decorating project. I do not like to start anything until I have all the items needed to finish my vision. That way, if there are changes to be made, it is easy to do so. I think you need to start with one item that you just love and decorate around that. One time I decorated a room around one little pink light. (sorry Lisa).
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Witches Only Please
I think Halloween is actually more for adults than children. Every year you see more and more decorations, almost as much as Christmas. I, personally, like a few tasteful semi-scary decorations for Halloween, but the really gruesome ones I can do without. -
Autumn – A Bittersweet Season
In reflecting over the seasons one would say Autumn is a wonderful time of the year. Yes, it is truly beautiful, most of the time, but I really do prefer hot summer nights, with the crickets chirping and long hours of daylight (with a few less mosquitoes that is). Autumn is a sure sign that all our hard work in our yards is now back to square one, to be started again in the spring. -
Girls Only!!
Girl’s weekend started twenty years ago. Our wonderful friend, Bonnie, who is no longer with us physically, actually got us started. I’m sure she is hovering with us as she would never have missed this chance to shop. -
I’m Just Not Ready Yet
I always say that “I can’t imagine life without me”. This is a really true statement and feeling. Perhaps we all feel this way, but how can life go on if I weren’t here???? -
Camping Memories
I absolutely love camping.
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Stress on a Daily Basis
I have been told that worry and stress are two of the biggest wastes of time. I agree, but have not yet at this ripe old age figured how to avoid them.
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Clutter or Decorations?
Clutter makes my butt feel big!!!! Having a lot of clutter around makes me feel weighted down and out of control, depressed and rather hysterical.
I think I hate clutter and love it at the same time if that is possible.
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Hardest Job in the World
I have never taken for granted being a mom. I have personally had six attempts with two wonderful successes. -
Who is Sandy?
I Am SandyI am one of four of the Sidetracked Sisters. I am, unfortunately, the oldest and seem to be the most challenged at my computer skills. This is a learning process for me. I love learning new things, but this is often very nerve-wracking.
