Constant State of Gratitude

I was a nurse for nearly 20 years.  I worked in the OR as a urology scrub for 13 years and then as a office urology nurse for 6 years.  I'm grateful for those 20 years at a time when the kids were in school and college but this past fall the decision was made for me to leave my nursing 9 to 5 Monday thru Friday job.  It was a huge leap of faith and one that I fretted about literally for several years, always yearning to be at a different place in my life.   

Surprisingly, the fears that I had have proved to be fruitless.  And also, surprisingly, I've experienced a whole new outlook of gratitude.  Everyday I wake up I cannot believe that I am actually living this life.  It really has been a dream come true.  

My work is now focused on a hobby that has turned into a business.  I'm my own boss, can come and go as I please, decide on a whim what I want to do for the day, not worry about building up vacation time to take a day off.  

The best part is focusing more time and energy on the ones I love.  It's an absolute joy to cater to their needs, wether it be cooking great meals, running errands to help out, whatever may be.  

It's only been 3 months and when this first started it took weeks for my mind and my body to adjust.  I would wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning and in my half awake stupor I would be trying to think about what needed to be done at "work", was it nasty winter weather for the drive to "work", was it Friday yet??  I was still in a constant state of work anxiety.  Slowly, without knowledge, my body started to relax.  It really was a physical/mental transformation.  

Being home alone during the day (when I'm not out running around) I sing loudly, laugh out loud a thousand times a day.  It's the little things that I'm finding so much joy in.... Fresh clean sheets, making new curtains for our bedroom, learning to cook in a dutch oven, baking homemade bread, making sure the bird feeders are full, drinking tea everyday.....    It's been everything I had hoped for but what I didn't expect at all was the constant state of GRATITUDE.  It's amazing what that has done for my soul.  How grateful I am!

This beautiful creature is grateful that I'm home more too.  She's my little black shadow, my little black Olive.  

This past week I was able to go visit Jordan and spend 3 days with her.  It was my first visit in her new home since she got married 6 months ago.  She showed me the hospital where she works and showed me her beautiful side of the state.  We visited little towns, ate in quaint cafe's, shopped, cooked, watched movies.  A storm blew in when I was planning on driving home so I just stayed another day, which would not have been possible before... again so grateful.  

 

We visited a loose leaf tea shop.  Walked out with some amazing tea.... I'm enjoying a pot of coconut tea right now.  

It's the beginning of March which means we are that much closer to April, longer and warmer days.  I believe we have officially made it through winter (somewhat).  So many adventures are looming on the horizon, including a quick trip to Florida next week to visit my in-laws and visit my beloved Circle B Bar nature preserve for some photography.  

Here we go again

Sleeping Bear Dunes Oct. 2015

Welcome to Rain Is My Favorite Color!

 I've decided to start blogging again.  I blogged for many years but stopped cold turkey a few years ago due to life getting in the way.  There have been some major changes in my life in the last few months, the main being I quit my nursing job of nearly 20 years.  It was time.  Our children were out of college, we are empty nesters, and a deep desire to simplify our lives drove the decision.  It's been 3 months now.  Prior to leaving my job I made a list of all the things I used to do but hadn't had time for.  One of the things at the top of my list was blogging.  I loved blogging.  It was a creative outlet for me, allowed me to have a written and visual record our lives, and share my photography.  I've missed blogging terribly.  I promised myself that I would start a new blog..... so here I am!

The name of my last blog was "Five Pines".  This name came about because at the time we had 5 huge beautiful pine trees in our front yard.  I'm sure these trees were well over 100 years old.  Since then storms have taken down several of them and we had the remaining ones removed.  For months I have tried to come up with a name for my new blog.  I wanted something that was nature in theme but not the usual that everyone has.  I wanted something that would be a reflection of who I was and the things that meant something to me.  I was surfing around online trying to come up with some ideas a few weeks ago.  I came across the line "rain is my favorite color".   The line stuck in my head.  I then did a Google search of it and came up with very little which told me that no one was using this phrase and maybe I could be a little original with it.  I then searched the name and domain on blogger.com and it was actually available.

The next test was to run the title by my husband and daughter.  Out to dinner the other night I ran it by Craig.  I was almost afraid to mention it thinking he would be critical and think it was strange.  His first response was "Well.... I don't dislike it".  Perfect!  Way better than I was hoping.  Next I ran it by Jordan.  Her first response was "What does it mean?".  I tried to explain it....... it means that I embrace the rain, rain refreshes and renews everything, there would be no life without rain, when it rains you look at the positives.......  Her next response was "I like it!".   So "Rain Is My Favorite Color" it is!

Again, Welcome to Rain Is My Favorite Color.  Feel free to follow along.  I'm excited to start blogging again.

What will you see here?  My photography, my adventures, my passions, my thoughts..... Here we go!