Year End Recap -- Change was in the Air

2016 is already a memory.  I can hardly believe it.  This blog has evolved from a chronicle of life in a house with kids at home to a blog designed to keep family and friends up to date as our family has grown and spread its wings!  2016 seemed to personify this evolution in a way I could never have anticipated at the beginning of the year. 


The complexity of a maintaining a family blog when everyone in the family is now an adult is a delicate dance between sharing news and progress and protecting the privacy of the family members...fewer pictures, fewer funny anecdotes which might embarrass, but still trying to sharing important events.


Last things first.  Christmas came off without a hitch and everyone had a terrific time.  Santa did a terrific job of picking gifts for the kids and  I managed to meet my goal of making hand made gifts for friends and family (on time - which means packages got mailed early, not at the 11th hour).  Christmas cards were mailed in middle December (!), all of the presents were wrapped by the 23rd, and I managed to pull off Christmas breakfast for the kids and some friends and Christmas dinner (for 11!).  I was actually pretty impressed with myself.


Superman went from working locally in the beginning of the year to working overseas by mid-summer...this time, however, he's not a contractor, he's an employee of a multinational corporation.  For us, that simply means that his doesn't find a new job every year and, as long as he likes this company, he can move within the company.  His current assignment runs through August 2018, so we know where he'll be until then.  Superman loves his job and this is old hat to the rest of the family, so while it is not your typical set up, it works for us.


Charming has been running, and running, and running...and when he's not running, he's plotting and planning a move to the west side of the state for sometime this spring.  After being at the same company for five years, he's looking to make a change both professionally and geographically.  Truthfully, I can't decide what to hope for:  Should I hope he finds a fantastic job here in town or should I hope he finds a fabulous job on the west side?  So, I just hope he finds something he likes and have faith it will be the right next step for him.


In December, Valiant moved out and into a place with his girlfriend, taking over the reigns of his life.  It is so exciting watching him make his way out of the family home.  He's bought a truck and sold the same truck (all in 2016) and he bought himself a project car which is his 2017 project.  (That car, he left behind our fence...not exactly room for a project car in apartment parking!)   Valiant's life has moved beyond the family home...now it is consumed by his relationship, his job, his apartment, and his project car.  His girlfriend and her family are lovely...they joined us for Christmas dinner and it was a blast.  We figure any girl who can just roll with the weirdness that is the Nagle5 is a good girl to have around.


Buttercup is halfway through her senior year in high school...and is also well into her second year at the local junior college through the Running Start program.  She has been throwing javelin for her high school and is looking forward to doing it for one more season.  Her favorite class is ceramics and this spring she's decided to master throwing on the wheel.


And then there is me...with the kids almost all grown up, you'd think I'd have plenty of free time, but with Superman overseas and both boys moved out and Buttercup busy with two schools and a job, the house maintenance and pet maintenance is left for me.  (Pro tip:  don't let your second son move out of the family home until spring, otherwise you're the one left doing the shoveling when it snows...just saying!)  So, when I'm not shoveling, cleaning, worrying about cars, or heading to the gym, I'm sewing or embroidering.  In addition to helping out my friend at Piping and Pleats, this fall I really dug in and learned all about the embroidery side of my sewing machine and it made me love my machine even more.  If you want to follow my sewing adventures, I've started a separate blog:  www.seamsbyerin.com to chronicle my journey.   In addition to sharing many of my fall sewing projects (now that the recipients have opened their gifts), I've committed 2017 to be the year I sew clothes I actually WANT to wear.


So, time keeps marching on and, while the story is ever changing, it continues.  Coming up next:  The Nagle5 (plus 1 - the girlfriend!) will be together again when Superman comes home on leave this spring and we will be heading to California and, before you know it, June will be here and Buttercup will be graduating from high school. 


In the meantime, the frigid temperatures are supposed to give way to snow tomorrow night, so I'll be back manning the shovel!


Happy 2017!

I'm Reading a Terrific Book Right Now...

...but you might not want to read it if you're easily offended by the use of the f-word.  Just giving you fair warning.  This book is fabulous, but it is not for those who can't get past that particular curse word because it is liberally sprinkled throughout the entire book.  (There!  That is my disclaimer, but I truly hope you won't let the word put you off because the book is terrific.)

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k - A Counterintuitive Approach to Living the Good Life by Mark Manson is a brand new self-help book which doesn't really fit into the mold of traditional self-help books.  The author's premise is that the pursuit of anything really just makes you focus on the lack or inadequacy of that thing in your life and because we don't understand that fundamental idea, we're not carefully choosing on what we expend our energy and emotions.  The first chapter is called titled "Don't Try".  (Not very rainbows and unicorns, is it?)


"The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience.  And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one's negative experience is itself a positive experience" - Mark Manson


He writes:  "...Our crisis is no longer material; it's existential, it's spiritual.  We have so much f**king stuff and so many opportunities that we don't even know what to give a f**k about anymore."  [I warned you about his love of the f-word.]


He sites British philosopher Alan Watts "backwards law" -" the idea that the more you pursue feeling better all the time, the less satisfied you become, as pursuing something only reinforces the fact that you lack it in the first place" regardless of how much of that something you might already have. "... The more you desperately want to be happy and loved, the lonelier and more afraid you become, regardless of those who surround you.  The more you want to be spiritually enlightened, the more self-centered and shallow you become trying to get there."


Anyway, all of the above is in the first chapter...the author also uses Buddha, Megadeath and Metallica, and the Beatles to make his points.  He makes so much sense both about how we got here and how to get out of here...especially for those of us who are looking around and wondering what the heck is going on with people...his language might be crude, but his clarity is refreshing.  Be brave and just substitute a word of your own choosing for "f**k" and read the book.  Seriously, if you're the least bit interested and can get past the liberal use of the f-word, this a fabulous book and I highly recommend it. (Oh, and Superman says the guy who reads the audiobook version does a fabulous job, if that's your chosen medium.)


Oh, and if you do read the book and love it, or if you're not sure you can stomach his writing style, he writes a successful blog at Mark Manson.net where you can read more.

You know you have a good life when...

...you realize that you are fortunate enough to catch 99.9% of the pens that go through your washer BEFORE they end up in the dryer.  (We just won't talk about those sneaky lip balms.)

...and a 9-year old girl invites herself to your house to color with you (and she's not even related to you!!)...


Yes, my life is pretty good.