It's just an Up North kind of life...

Summer is in full swing, even up here in God's Country.  I've begun truly enjoying the pleasures of Cadillac Michigan this last month and the last few days are the perfect example of why.  Over the weekend we enjoyed camping and playing in the water of Interlochen's Green Lake.  There was fishing, tubing, water skiing, a tour of the lake, and a stop at a nice beach where we hung out for hours.  We all bring our finds from the local farmers markets, breweries and wineries.  The kids play and the adults talk, finally outlasting the kids stamina.  The women also enjoyed a shopping trip in Traverse City, which never disappoints!  Monday evening after work, we drove back to Interlochen to enjoy Sheryl Crow and Colby Callait's performance at Interlochen's Center for the Arts.  We floated with our friends behind the performance building...instead of the crowd of people that would have been seated around us in the concert hall we were surrounded with the soothing water.  On Tuesday Cadillac's farmer's market began and the Rotary Pavilion (shown above) had an evening performance by the Jackpine Pickers.  While the Rotary Pavilion's Tuesday night performances are the social event of the week for the senior community, my 4 year old son enjoys dancing to the music and I enjoy seeing the camaraderie of the locals.  Both of Tuesday's activities are located downtown, next to the water.  We're a city built around two beautiful lakes; the gateway to Up North.  Everything I dream of for the perfect summer is at my fingertips and I can't wait to take it all in.

Hello? Is anybody there?

Hi, I missed you! 

My absence began as I prepared for my son's tonsil and adnoid removal.  I figured while he was "down" for his two week recovery I would have plenty of time to catch up on computer stuff.  Wrong.  He wanted me beside him on the couch with NO laptop, handheld, texting or GPS playing.  Just me, just sitting there watching kids movies and answering his every beck and call.  Tough life, eh?  At first I was frustrated because of all the things I had put off thinking I'd catch up on them while we were supposed to be calm at home.  When I catch myself feeling this way I could just kick myself.  How stupid all this stuff is that separates me from those special moments.  After that I felt guilty coming back to blogging...for a while.  It doesn't clean my house, enhance my relationships or bring money in...should I be bothering?  Well, I think I should.  As in most things, moderation is the key I suppose.

This Could Change Our Lives...Forever

A couple of weeks ago my 4 year old son had tonsillitis.  He was in great spirits, as usual, but as a mom I still felt bad for him.  His voice was muffled from his swollen tonsils that we found out at the doctor were almost touching in the middle.  The doctor was concerned they were so large possibly due to an abscess in his throat pushing on them and asked me to take my son to the hospital for an x-ray of his throat.  I called my husband, explained the situation and that I was okay to handle everything myself.  I then called my Mom to activate the prayer chain...just to make sure that everything went fine.  Of course, while I'm explaining to my Mom that I wasn't concerned I started crying, but I really was okay!  It's hard as a parent not to have in the back of your mind what could be happening.  As I stood in the x-ray room keeping my son calm by smiling at him and acting like this was a special treat, I couldn't help but think...this x-ray could change our lives...forever.  The parents living at their child's bedside didn't choose to raise their kids in a hospital, didn't get a memo at conception that this was going to be their child's life, had no idea when they moved into their 3 bedroom ranch that the kids room would ever sit empty before college.  Maybe for sleepovers, summer camp or a night at Grandpa and Grandma's house...but not for treatments or surgeries.  My son's x-rays were fine, the lumps on his neck that the doctors keep telling me are okay...really are okay.  We had no devastation, no change to our lives.  He has to have his tonsils out but he's okay.  I fell into bed that night thankful beyond words.  And that's exactly how I prayed that night...telling God that I didn't even have words enough to thank him.

Spring Separations!

It's cleantime...I mean springtime again and I'm ready to get out from under more of my stuff. I've always been a pack rat...but now I'm ready to purge and I have to binge! I sell on ebay, etsy and I have a booth at a local antique store. I also make soldered art from found objects and papers for craft shows and local stores. So in order to sell, I need to buy, buy, buy - and keep it somewhere! Thankfully my husband won the debate of whether we bought the house we've owned now for 7 years, because it has lots of storage for me and my stuff. I've unloaded truckloads full (literally) at my local Goodwill over the past 7 years, but you wouldn't be able to tell by my basement. We've since had a son and would like to have more someday, so I've kept every item related to pregnancy, babies and toddlers. With every box of nick knacks I part with, a box of my son's outgrown clothes replaces it. I therefore never have the satisfaction of cleaning out. Along with those boxes taking over my storage area I have a pile of empty boxes. Empty sounds good, right? No! It started as my husband's issue - when we married I discovered he liked to keep every box from every purchase. He said they're always needed at Christmastime. I never knew boxes were so hard to come by...I ask the people stocking the shelves at the grocery store when I need one. After a couple years of marriage I started sifting through and putting a few out each garbage day. Now that I sell on ebay though, I have trouble parting with them too! As soon as I clean out, that's when I need them! Priority Mail boxes are somewhat easing my pain in that area. I also have every wine and liquor bottle we've emptied in the last few years. I plan to use them in my crafting...someday. I have embarrassing amounts of holiday decorations, mostly Christmas, and some of the decorations for the "lesser" holidays haven't made their way out in a couple of years. I have every childhood note from friends and puppy lovers. I was thinking of putting some of those in an entry so we can all reminisce about simpler childhood days. Then maybe I can part with them since their words will live forever in cyberspace. What I'm sifting through now, with the help of my new paper shredder (Goodwill $2.99) is old papers. I have every paycheck from a job I spent 8 years at - but I left that job 7 years ago. I also have old bills from a house I sold 7 years ago. And, of course, there's the receipts, bills, etc for these past 7 years! Why will I ever need my phone bill from February 2004? I don't know, but what if? Why do I need a paper showing I paid my taxes while owning the house I sold 7 years ago? Why do I need the license plate from the car I sold 8 years ago? A brochure about a place I've already been that doesn't have any information I need? My Grandma's book accounting for her sales at a consignment shop 15 years ago? The mortgage bill I found 9 years ago that told me my former significant other (that I was at the moment deciding whether to split with or not) hadn't been paying the bills even though our checking account was always empty? The clothes I don't remember my Grandma wearing? The box from the lost pendant that my older brother got me on his 8th grade school trip to Cedar Point? A sucker my best friend brought me back from Colorado in middle school? A poster I made in 5th grade? Valentines from everyone in my class in my 1st grade class? And what's even worse...if I don't have something I remember, I go looking for it. I found one of the books I learned to read on and bought it for my son. It's not even a good book! I probably have it in my trunk in the basement, but I bought it anyway. I know there's a variety of emotions tied to each item, so when I'm sorting through the toss-donate-sell-keep system, I try to imagine Peter Walsch talking me through each item. (You know Peter, right? He's the getting-rid-of-your-crap motivator from TLCs Clean Sweep. Really, I think that's his job title.) Sometimes I imagine he's giving me his usual, "Your grandmother is not in this book. You won't lose your memories of her by giving up this book..." in his Australian accent. Other times I imagine him going a little further, "You already divorced the bastard, do you really need this 9 year old mortgage statement showing you 2 months past due to remind you of (one of the many reasons) why?" No Peter, no I don't! I already vacuumed the dust, furballs and cobwebs out from under the fridge and stove - now it's time to get rid of the real dirt. Spring cleaning - here I come!

I'll check back to let you know my results!

They Said It!

I write because I'm afraid to say some things out loud.

Real Live Preacher weblog, 03-13-05

I have made this letter longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

This is pretty much what journals are all about, at least to me. I knew as I wrote them that even though they provided an excellent place for brain (and heart, and psyche) dump, they were mainly a map of me.
Colleen Wainwright, communicatrix, 03-23-2006

It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves one having to bother anyone else with them.
Isabel Colegate

I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.
Joan Didion

When you write things down, they sometimes take you places you hadn't planned.
Melanie Benjamin, Alice I Have Been, 2010

I never feel that I have comprehended an emotion, or fully lived even the smallest events, until I have reflected upon it in my journal; my pen is my truest confidant, holding in check the passions and disappointments that I dare not share even with my beloved.
Stephanie Barron,

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, 1996

Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own.
Carol Burnett

An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.
Charles de Montesquieu (1689 - 1755)
Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.
Edward Gibbon (1737 - 1794)
Your life story would not make a good book. Don't even try.
Fran Lebowitz
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
I think people want their illusions and writers are mostly illusion. When you read their words, you read a flattened incomplete version of the writer.
RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, 01-05-04
If you want to write you must have faith in yourself. Faith enough to believe that if a thing is true about you, it is likely true about many people. And if you can have faith in your integrity and your motives, then you can write about yourself without fear.
Real Live Preacher weblog, 07-25-06
A great writer reveals the truth even when he or she does not wish to.
Tom Bissell, Truth in Oxiana
People do tell a writer things that they don't tell others. I don't know why, unless it is that having read one or two of his books they feel on peculiarly intimate terms with him; or it may be that they dramatize themselves and, seeing themselves as it were as characters in a novel, are ready to be as open with him as they imagine the characters of his invention are.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965)

Writing A Piece of Her

I have always loved flipping through magazines. Magazines offer inspiration and insight a bite at a time. It's just enough to wet your whistle at an idea without a big commitment. I like a variety of style, decorating and lifestyle magazines, mostly picked at the recycle center when I'm making a drop. As a teenager I would have 100 magazines in my room at a time...all skimmed off the top of the recycling bin. Of course the holy grail of magazines, in my eyes, has always been Vogue. It's perfect for vacation - bigger than my (small town) phone book and will hold me for countless hours mesmerized at the designer feats. There's flipping, longing, earmarking, re-checking, perfume testing, realization, and finally a do-it-herselfer attitude of "maybe I can put together a look like that at Goodwill?!?" I've always been mediocre at clothing styles, and hair - I couldn't save my life with, but make-up is my creative pleasure...so, I linger on that artistry. My true love of any magazine though, is the Letter from the Editor. Along with clippings of inspiring outfits, decorating wows or DIY guides, I keep Letters from the Editors too. What makes them enjoyable for me is when I read an offering of the Editor that makes me feel like we're new friends sitting in a coffee shop getting to know one another. I always picture Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) sitting at her typewriter looking out her small New York City apartment window in Christmas in Connecticut while writing that she's looking out her window overlooking her farm in Connecticut. You can let people in as much or as little as you want. "It's your story" as my husband always says to people. Of course you can write whatever words you want on a piece of paper, but it's still your writing and that's a portrayal that's like...a naked reveal. I love to read the simple yet poignant words of writers who allow people inside of them. To share a childhood memory, a feeling, an idea, or even an explanation of that idea. I'm honored to be given a glimpse inside of that person's being.

All I Need is a Spritz and a Serenade

My senses have complete control over my emotions sometimes. The other day I was sitting in the car waiting for my husband and listening to Frank Sinatra's "Songs for Swinging Lovers". This music inspires me to redecorate. (And you say, huh?) I always plan projects for when my husband is going out of town for a few days and then do a big reveal just like on the home improvement shows. That's not true...he doesn't have time to help, doesn't like the mess and has no interest in the results...that's why I don't include him. He usually takes a while to even notice anything has changed. For a month ahead I study paint chips in the different lights of day, buy all the necessary supplies and collect decor to match my new color scheme. I create a detailed time plan (that typically is overly optimistic) and as soon as the garage door closes behind him - it's game on. "Songs for Swining Lovers" is essential to keeping me perky and energetic for my 24-48 hour re-decorating marathons. I've listened to good ol' Frank while painting bedrooms, the basement, my bathroom, and two times each of the kitchen, dining and living room. Also during the long process of venetian plaster in my husband's bathroom (remind me to tell you about my folly that necessitated the venetian plaster sometime). Anyway, I haven't listened to this since my last project and I'm feeling inspired...hello Pottery Barn spring catalog. I have one other CD that creates intense emotions for me - the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack. When I was in high school my parents got a hot tub that I loved! We spent a lot of time in it when Sleepless in Seattle seemed to be a favorite so to this day as soon as I hear the first notes of the first song on the CD, my body goes into instant relaxation. Even Norah Jones' fabulous music can't hold a candle to my conditioned response to the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack. Quite by serendipity, I also discovered a great way to carry on vacation feelings well after your credit card is paid off. A few years ago my husband bought me Victoria's Secret perfume for Christmas. A month later when we went on a cruise (thanks Mom & Dad) I wore my new perfume every day. It's been over 5 years now since the cruise and still when I spray that perfume I feel sunshine and a warm breeze while sipping my banana daiquiri overlooking a bay in St. Thomas. After making this connection I searched high and low on a Mom & Me trip to Chicago (my second city) in order to find a fancy new perfume that could deliver me back to my urban oasis upon a puff. After hours of searching I finally found the one. It was ridiculously expensive but I love love loved it and our day would have been wasted if I didn't buy it (and it was Chanel!) so I super-splurged. Now whenever I wear my Chanel Chance Eau Fraiche I just close my eyes and am carried away to the Magnificent Mile...it doesn't matter whether it's sunny or raining, whether we're shopping, people watching or walking off a big meal...I just love being taken back to the way I feel in Chicago. So, now when I need an afternoon pick me up, I opt out of the coffee break and go for a spritz and a serenade instead.

Have You Been to God's Country?

I live just inside the gates to God's Country (Northwestern lower peninsula of Michigan), where all of my daydreamy activities are at my fingertips. I love sunny Sunday drives, camping in my cozy camper, boutique shopping, boating, evening campfires on the beach...these are my summer dreams. From May to October we spend most weekends with our friends visiting favorite places and exploring for new ones in God's Country. Stay tuned for specifics for you to explore as summer nears.

Whooo Do You Think You Are?

I have a pretty realistic view of who I am at this point in my life...which I probably shouldn't admit to. In the past I thought of myself as more than I was, more specifically I think I took a small gift and made it all I was about. Of course the gifts I particularly remember glowing about were mainly superficial. During those years I happened to be with someone who valued me by those conditions and I started to lean on those trivial qualities as my identity. As that relationship crumbled and I realized I couldn't recognize the facade I'd become, I began to change. Not immediately for the better though. I felt tired, old and used. I was turning 23 and wanted to claim my youth...and a few bad habits I felt deserving of after what I had been through. I had an impressive support system of family and friends who were so patient with me, waiting for me to come through the fog. They all put up with my daily emotional roller coaster and a few of them gave me some tough love back. I look back now and it seems like someone else's life or like a movie I watched. I beat myself up over how stupid I was, but every one of those experiences have brought me to where I am now...they made me who I am. I have a LOT left to work on but I'm happy in my life. I see some of my flaws on a moment to moment basis nowadays, but at least I see them. My New Year's resolution was to start the update to a better me (using my "superwoman" daily list which I'll fill you in on after finishing the who, what, where, why, and when entries). I've had a few life distractions in the new year but I hope to get back on track with my upgrade soon. I hope you'll be there to hear how it goes.

What's That All About?

Should I explain the name? This blog is where I'm putting to work the narration that is constantly running in my head. Maybe something constructive can be forming from the cluttered thought bubbles hanging over my head while I'm doing the mundane domestic chores that are required of me. The topics will be about me or from my point of view, therefore I felt it necessary to make that clear (as mud) in the name...so, Her is me. As for Charming, Merriam-Webster defines it as: a trait that fascinates, allures or delights. Yes, I'm stretching back 10 years to when I would have actually been described this way, but I sometimes like to forget I'm not that same girl anymore. That's a topic for another day though! Follies by definition: Lack of good sense or normal prudence & foresight; a foolish act or idea; an excessively costly or unprofitable undertaking...all things that will probably be covered on this page at some point. So put all together - this blog will include, but is not limited to, entries regarding my occasional delightfully foolish acts and ideas.

Why Am I Here?

I've always wanted to write books. One, a fiction loosely based on mine and friends/acquaintances experiences with an array of soap opera-esque social (and oftentimes spiritual) faux-pas. It may take me a while to delve into these stories with you, we really need to get to know each other better first. Book two would not necessarily be something published formally, but something for those around me that I love...stories deriving from the quirks that are me. I don't express myself well verbally and my actions are ever failing. So, book two is where this blog comes in and partially checks off one of my bucket list entries. I will be talking at you about a few pertinent things and a whole lot of nonsense...because that's how you get to know me.