Category Archives: Happiness is an Inside Job

Go For It!

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Do you know when you have big news to announce or you’ve just begun a new endeavor and people can’t be happy for you?  Like that time you decided to go back to school, start a business, or take up surfing? Doesn’t that stink? Naysayers.  We all have them in our lives, and it’s often someone close to us, either a friend or a spouse or a family member who shows little, if no support for something in that matters to us. Even worse, sometimes these people seem completely against what we’re doing. Today, I’m talking about how I handle … Continue reading →

Happy

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There’s laundry that needs to be folded. There are dishes in the sink and papers scattered on the floor, begging for organization and an impossibly long list of to-do’s I need to conquer before we move.  Packing, collecting medical records from an array of doctors, school registrations, goodbyes. While these tasks beckon me, the call isn’t loud enough to pull me away from my laptop. My oasis.  My happy place. The world could fall apart around me and I’d still blog. This blog has morphed over the past year and a half.  It began as a venue to explore the … Continue reading →

The B Sides

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It was our third time eating pizza that week.  I think of this as my thighs rub together underneath the long black skirt I’m wearing as I walk the pie to our claimed spot against the side of the department store.  The pizza won’t help eradicate my recent weight gain, that’s for sure.  But if there’s been a theme to the past year of my life, it would be “screw it.”  It’s not an angry screw it or an “I don’t care” screw it.  On the contrary, it’s a “time to let up on yourself Ilene,” kind of screw it.    … Continue reading →

The Wall

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Follow my blog with Bloglovin He wasn’t supposed to have been born that day.  His due date was in January, and he therefore had no business arriving in early November.  The birth didn’t come as a surprise.  I had been on hospital bed rest for ten days after being rushed to the labor and delivery floor when my water broke at 29 weeks.  I had already beaten the “statistics” and had managed to stay pregnant those extra ten days, meaning my son would only be 9 weeks early versus 11.  Those two weeks were a huge bonus.  Yet, I still … Continue reading →

I Looked Up

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It’s time to mingle again!  I feel compelled to serve something healthy in honor of Maribel.  Green smoothie anyone? It’s difficult to categorize Maribel’s blog in a word or two except to say that much of what she writes about revolves around making positive change.  And who can’t use a little of that?  Maribel writes about healthy eating, positive living, and about broadening our mindsets every way possible.  Maribel’s blog offers great health, fitness and eating tips while at the same time, she shares her personal journey with us.  The anecdotes she shares include but are not limited to eating, … Continue reading →

The Good

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Writing desk:  Sold Sofa and love seat:  Sold Kitchen table:  Sold Children’s dresser: Sold And the list goes on. Between yard sales and Craig’s list and a Facebook buy/sell/trade group that I belong to, the articles of my material life have dissipated before my eyes. My goal for that day in August when my kids and I drive out of New Jersey is to fit everything we own in the back of my car. Realistically, I will have to leave at least a few boxes in my mother’s garage.  Yet the things I store will be the most important items … Continue reading →

This Is 43

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Yes! We’re mingling again!  This time, with AnnMarie from Tidbits from the Queen of Chaos.  I just love AnnMarie and while I can’t remember exactly how we ran into each other in this vast blogosphere, once I found her, I decided to stick as close as possible to this funny, wise, warm hearted woman.   AnnMarie just had a birthday, by the way. Who wants cake??? A little over a week ago, I turned 43. When I was in my 30’s, I dreaded my 40’s. I had a whole list of things I was going to do before I was 40. … Continue reading →

If Only

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I was going to write a post where I discussed my 10-pound weight gain this year. It’s not a staggering amount of weight, I know, but enough to push me up a clothing size, or two, depending on the designer. I’m not going to make excuses for why I gained the weight.  It’s not a slowing metabolism or some kind of glandular problem. Plain and simple, I ate. In my overactive imagination, I fancy myself the poor, single mom version of Liz Gilbert in Eat Pray Love.  Although Liz clearly packed on the pounds the right way, in Italy, whereas … Continue reading →

Never Mind

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I sift through piles of hard plastic cases, many of the names and titles long forgotten, after nine years in my attic. “What are those Mama?” My daughter asks. “Music,” I say. There must have been hundreds of CD’s spread out in front of me, all listened to, all loved, at one time, back when buying music was a commitment and not a whim we acted upon while playing on our laptops or phones.  It was the pre-download era, a time when you didn’t buy songs but you bought albums. Every title I scanned in that pile was more than … Continue reading →

Get Up!

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  Running always makes me feel badass.  I needed to feel badass after last week. For me, last week was a week of getting knocked down, both at work and in my personal life.  To be fair, when I’m feeling strong and when I’m in a great space, you can take all the punches at me you want, and you still can’t knock me down, but there have been a few chinks in my armor lately.  It’s amazing how much hurt can slip through those narrow little spaces when we let it. When I had the last minute opportunity to … Continue reading →