This Perfectly Imperfect Life

I have a love - hate relationship with Summer. I want to love it, but the combo of heat and the wicked NJ humidity does a real number on me physically. Makes me ill like you would expect me to be during the Winter. (A popular misconception about Rheumatoid Disease/Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is that it's at its' worst for during the Winter - often, the warm months of the year are the hardest for many of us living with RD/RA). This past week has been particularly rough. I tend to complain about Summer as others complain about Winter! But... (There's always a "but" isn't there?) These lillies are one of my all time favorite favorite things about Summer!  Whether they're growing on purpose on someone's property or growing wild along roadsides like these across the street from us, I flipping love them! (In fact, so does my Mom). Orange is a favorite color of mine, and seeing these flowers makes my heart about burst with joy! (One of those ...

Many of you know, and for those who don't, I moderate a Southern Lit Lovers group on Goodreads , which I created back in 2008. When it comes to 'genres within a genre,' Southern literature is a favorite near and dear to this Northeastern gals heart. (Something most of you know about me already as well!) Recently we read Long Man by Amy Greene . Like her debut novel Bloodroot , Long Man is transportive and engrossing. Amy's writing once again not only ensconced me in the souls of her characters, but in the soul of the places they live. I loved it! Last week I inadvertently turned our Southern Lit Lovers author chat with Amy into an interview. As both a reader and a writer, plus being a big fan of her writing, I couldn't help myself with all the Qs! Amy graciously gave me permission to share my part of the chat here with you when I asked. I hope you all enjoy my chat with Amy as much as I have! We often talk about 'genres within a genre' (for exam...

Actually, it started earlier at last Sunday morning. (Not the perimenopause itself, just this most recent bout of it). Hubbs was being his usual 'funny' self, only this time my feelings got hurt, and I cried. Big ole tears with big gulps of air cried. 'Here we go!' I thought to myself. Again. After breakfast, we headed to Target for a couple of things. I saw that the iPhone 5s was finally down to $49.95, what my iPhone 4 cost us nearly two years ago. I've hemmed and hawed about upgrading to a newer iPhone (for the camera, though I don't care for the smaller screen width) because of the cost, but, honestly, between what I've spent on a Samsung WiFi camera, and Kindle impulse buy books, I could have picked up the iPhone 5s before it went this low in price, or even the iPhone 6, had I thought about it more logically. (kicks self in rear - again) The very nice gentleman checked their stock, plus the next closest Target store, and... Nodda. Notta. He eve...

Last time we met, I was on the eve of turning the big 4-Oh! (More on that another time). Since then we've been away and back, and I've been busy trying to get rid of The Cold That Would Not Leave. Instead of playing the usual catch-up ( am I the only one who forever feels like they're playing catch-up?! ), I thought I'd share our extra long weekend away in a different way. One of my favorite places is our camper, which sits on on an island, in a lake, in the mountains, in my favorite area of our beautiful state, the Skylands in Northwestern NJ, and that is where we spent our Anniversary/Memorial Day weekend just a couple of weeks ago! I can't tell you what this place means to my soul, but it is so near and dear to my heart that once we are back here on the coast, I'm overwhelmed with homesickness for the first few days. Here are some (okay, a lot ) of my favorite shots from that weekend: (iPhone) Our dock One of the views from the island ...