Life
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Apparently, I had some grandiose ideas about what completing a lot of my Forty Before Forty goals would look like. With January already halfway behind me, my chronic illnesses keeping my health in flux, and our financial situation growing more dire by the day, I had to take a step back and reevaluate how rigid…
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I am a huge fan of BTS, which means I am ARMY (aka: Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth). Last year, V (Kim Taehyung), one of the members of BTS, released a collab of “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby. The late singer’s voice blended well with the deep crooning of V’s added vocals. As part of…
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There are a lot of foods that I have had to say goodbye to, or severely limit, over the course of my chronic illness journey. Between GERD and my IC, tomato sauce is something that will consistently make me feel dreadful. I’ve tried popping a Prelief beforehand, but it doesn’t offer enough protection against the…
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I think I included this goal with the hopes that Raymond and I would get to go somewhere fun, and new-to-us to eat on a date. Sometimes I am a little too optimistic, though, which is mind boggling given I have had to fight against a glass-half-empty-and-it’s-leaking outlook all of my life. We haven’t been…
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I will always have a deep rooted place in my heart for Canada. While I have been living in the United States for longer than I ever spent living on Canadian soil, it is where I was born and where I spent much of my childhood. The better part of fifteen years of my life…
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When Raymond, my husband, and I had to cut our 20th anniversary getaway short, we felt like it was just another story to add to the litany of unromantic getaways or dates we’ve had in the past. I woke up determined to salvage the day, though. I got up to prepare a special breakfast, despite…
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My husband, Raymond, and I have not had the best track record in venturing out on romantic getaways. Our honeymoon set the stage for this unfortunate streak. The room we were assigned was across the pool, next to the ice machine, just around the corner from the lobby, and to make matters worse it shared…
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Grief is a constant companion from the first moment it arrives. It bursts through the door uninvited, often unexpected, without any regard for what you already have going on. It spreads out, taking over every corner of your space with its presence. You notice things are missing and grief just shrugs, refusing to give anything…
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It has been a dream of mine for quite a long time to have a veggie garden. It’s become an even greater desire in recent years because the produce from the grocery stores is so hit or miss. It actually feels more miss than hit lately, given the amount of moldy fruits and vegetables I…
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I enjoy working on puzzles. They allow my brain to hyper focus on something other than the neverending conga line of anxious thoughts. It’s also very satisfying to fit the pieces together and watch the picture take shape on whatever surface I have cleared to work on my puzzle. I especially enjoy the challenge of…