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Yes! A Roomba CAN Vacuum Up Poop!
When initially thinking about getting an automatic vacuum (iRobot, Roomba or whatever you want to call it), I read the horror stories of vacuuming up shit. In my head, I thought, “Oh – that won’t be an issue.” Boy – was I wrong! -
Dorm Sweet Dorm
Picture from the Eau Claire newspaper My first dorm room was really something to see. During summer orientation, Janelle, our moms, and I went to Eau Claire to get the lay of the land and much to my delight, they gave us a floor plan of our dorm room. By the time we had driven the 3 hours home, I already had it all figured out where everything was going to go (complete with measurements).
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Home Sweet Home
When I considered moving back to my hometown, we had a real estate agent show us house after house in our price range. All were in good neighborhoods, but considered “fixer-uppers”. Then he showed us a red brick home in the heart of downtown and we were in love.
After moving there, my marriage came to an end and the house became solely mine. -
The Long Road Home
Writing about the places I’ve lived, takes me down the long road home and overwhelms me to the max! I’ve moved seventeen times living in multiple states. To bring things down to a manageable number, I’ll focus on the last four.
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My Feisty Grandma
Grandma Doris is one of the major reasons that I wanted to start Sidetracked Legacies. She was fun and feisty. But she’s been gone since June 2007 and it’s only now that I realize just how little I actually knew about her.
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My Dad – Ronald Meister
The most interesting family member in my family is hard to choose. We all have our own idiosyncrasies and quirks. I decided to write about my dad, Ronald Meister. I didn’t get to know my dad as well as I would have liked. He passed away suddenly when I was only twenty-three years old. I had been away from home for several years prior to his death. -
Our Family Loves an Old Curmudgeon!
Me, Uncle Lloyd, & Little John We have many interesting family members, but I’m going to pick one of my favorites. Uncle Lloyd. I could write for days about Uncle Lloyd. He was like a grandpa to me. Many people thought he was just a crabby old man, but I knew different.
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First Kisses
My first kiss was in elementary school. We were playing boys chase girls at recess. When caught, the boy would kiss his catch. Sean chased me down the grassy hill. The girls around me laughed and screamed. He grabbed me by the back of my shirt. I pulled my long hair over my face as my foot slipped and I landed on the ground. His face touched the hair covering my forehead.
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First Kiss
When I was young and Dad would come home from his hard struggles of the day, Mom would always greet him with a special kiss and a warm hug. Dad would often express his insecurities like “If I have another day like this, I’ll have to sell pencils and shoelaces on a street corner”. Mom would proceed to reassure him. I watched this first kiss welcome night after night and I fantasized about the wonderful day when that first kiss would be mine with my special someone. -
Sweet First Kiss
1st day of 1st & 6th grades My very first kiss would have to be in 1st grade. During recess, we would play tag with the girls catching the boys. Once you caught the boy, you would have to kiss them. Well – I decided to catch Eddy Wong 26 times in one recess because he was the slowest one in class.
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New Year…a Commitment to Change
I’ve never been big on New Year’s resolutions. As a teacher, I’ve always considered the school year the beginning and ending of life, with the summer as a buffer zone.
Starting the 1973-74 school year with high hopes Every August, I would sit down and think about the ways I wanted the upcoming school year to go. I yearly focused on having one family meal each week, another year, I organized my dinner plans in a rotating schedule…Monday–pasta, Tuesday–tacos…I usually worked to organize my brain around making my home and family life sane. While working as a full-time teacher with three kids, life was full…busy…chaotic.
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New Year’s Resolutions or Not?
Making New Year’s Resolutions has never played an important part in my life. I find that sometimes putting down words of actions to take can cause me to not take action. I would rather celebrate last year’s successes which are done and in the “can”. They were thought about, acted on, and completed. -
To Do or Not To Do (A New Years Resolution Story)
Me – Then
Me – Now Every year I plan out New Years resolutions to follow and every year, like so many others, I fail to follow my plan after about 2 weeks. I don’t know what it is or why that happens, but it’s like clockwork.
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A Summary of ‘Chelle
Watching my hero with her hamster Of all the Sidetracked Sisters, I’d consider myself to be the most logical or systematic one… That being said – I’ll start from the beginning and briefly tell my story. Additional details will come later. I’m the youngest of 2 daughters to Art & Sandy. For as long as I can remember, my older sister (Lisa) was my hero. I followed in her footsteps in everything (almost). She played flute, so did I. She was a cheerleader, so was I. She learned Spanish, so did I. She went to college in Eau Claire, so did I. You get the idea.
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Lisa Hoffman, an Introduction
I am an onion. Well, you know, not a REAL onion, I’m just talking metaphorically here.As I age, each year wraps around and over the previous. Year by year memories are formed and covered with new layers.
I know, this whole onion person metaphor is kind of weird, but I really like onions, so work with me here…
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Once Upon a Time…
Once upon a time in a small city in Mid-Central Wisconsin, there lived a family with three daughters. The youngest daughter was born prematurely and weighed only three pounds. When she came home from the hospital two months later, her two sisters asked if they had to keep her? They were so hoping for a brother. Over the years, their wish was kind of granted. Their little sister was quite a Tomboy. She played cowboys and Indians with the neighborhood kids and was happiest when she was playing basketball or football with her classmates.
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Sidetracked Legacies
Now that I’ve left teaching (and my kids are back at school (no more Covid shutdowns–I hope) I am in the process of reinventing my life.
Specifically, I’m working on developing a new career plan…and that begins with strategic daily routines and new avenues to create and contribute. One new addition to my life is something called “Sidetracked Legacies”.My morning starts with getting up, putting on my exercise clothes, and spending a few minutes with my kids before they head off to school. Then I head out for a “momma jog” with the pups, Stella and Evie. I use this time to listen to podcasts. The two that I regularly tap into lately are “The Life Coach School” by Brooke Castillo and “Don’t Keep Your Day Job” by Cathy Heller. These are timely and interesting since I’m on the road to becoming a certified life coach and launching my own podcasts…soon! They hit me right where I’m at.