What’s Up Lately Episode 009

What’s Up Lately.

Episode 009.

Hey everybody!!

I hope that you’ve had a lovely weekend!

Ours was a four-day weekend around the Thanksgiving holiday.

It made it a little hard to keep track of the days.

11/11 and Autumn on display.

In my last episode of “what’s up lately”, I mentioned the fact that it was going to be 11/11.

That day we had to take Miss Sunshine to her final league game for soccer.

It was rescheduled due to bad weather earlier in the season. We had to travel to Charlottesville for this game.

They won.

Yay!

Which finished out her U16 season as undefeated champions in their league.

On the way home, we passed over Afton Mountain. Normally I’m driving to the games and can never capture any shots, but my husband was with us and I took advantage of the chance to capture the fall colors.

Pretty, aren’t they?

Photography Sale.

I had my first photography sale!!

It was my mom…

but it still counts!

Wondering which photo she chose?

It was this one.

Joy and Grief.

My parent’s anniversary was the 15th of November. Which is also the anniversary of my grandmother’s death. I shared about that in this post.

Synchronicity.

I’m a fan of synchronicity.

And I had a very interesting encounter with it recently.

Remember when I shared with you about the course I’d taken about finding clarity? Well, one of the speakers that I really liked can be found at Declare Dominion. I like her authenticity. Her name is Katherine North, but on her about page, you’ll read about Anna. That’s because she’s in the process of changing her name.

But I digress.

Her term as she speaks (writes) to the audience is “dearheart”. I had never heard this term prior to her use…and I’m 41 years old! Then within a week, I read it in a book I was reading! And then to top it off, I went to have my annual blood check and the phlebotomist called me “dearheart”.

You can’t deny the synchronicity there.

Soccer Tournament.

To finish out Miss Sunshine’s fall season (beyond league games) we had a soccer tournament in Richmond.

I love this time with Miss Sunshine because we create many memories.

Cold memories!

But memories nonetheless.

They had won the three tournaments they had played prior to this.

And although they didn’t win this tournament, they did prove that they are a strong team.

I love watching her evolution into a woman.

Women’s Safety.

I had someone reach out to me about my promotion of women in relation to my post on International Women’s Day. They thought I might like to share a recent guide on women’s safety online. I’ve had a chance to look at it and thought it did share some important points.

So if you are interested you can find the article here. (fyi-this is not an affiliate link. I just think it might be helpful information.)

Hiking.

I am still getting out an hiking most days (except when the rain decides to be uncooperative).

We finally decided to bring along Maverick the Goldendoodle.

He’s still very much a puppy (yet a very large, strong puppy) so we weren’t sure how easy he’d be to manage.

But he did amazingly well and loved every minute in the woods.

It reminded of this photo of him: releasing the inner wolf.

Cleaning Up Old Posts.

I’ve been doing a lot, A LOT, of cleaning up of old posts.

Well, because you don’t know what you don’t know.

And when I started blogging there was a lot I didn’t know.

Mostly about how in the world people can find you.

So I’ve been cleaning up SEO and feature images mostly. And there are some that I’ve put into rotation on Pinterest.

Mostly posts where I shared about my travels… through tips, through photography, through words.

But also my year of 30-day challenges.

Going back and reading some of my old posts has been an interesting journey. And what I’ve done is only tweaking, but sometimes I’m not willing to tweak, even if it says that my post isn’t “reader-friendly”.

One example is from when Hurricane Irma came through Florida. Right over my parents.

There is no way to break down this post without losing the flow of my story.

And so I keep my Yoast “red light” because I refuse to compromise my storytelling.

The same applies to my Love Letter to my Daughter.

And probably many more.

Grammarly.

I mentioned before that I’ve added Grammarly. I’ve been pretty happy with it. However, I recently came across a post where it said that I had a spelled a word wrong.

Now, sometimes, I make a mistake in spelling…but not often though.

I’m a pretty decent speller.

Grammar…I’d believe you.

Spelling…say what!?

And I didn’t feel like this word was wrong. If I was wrong, I’d be horrified, but I’d fix it and wander off with my tail between my legs. So I looked it up. Apparently, I spell it the “British English” way. My Grammarly is set to check “American English”. It made me realize that some other “spelling errors” I’d come across have been “British English” words as well. I have no idea why I learned to spell them that way, but they are technically correct.

The dilemma is “what do I do going forward?”

The specific word is “judgement” or in American English “judgment”.

Personally, I think the word looks ugly without the “e” and won’t be dropping it…unless it creates the perception that I’m uneducated…even then, I’m not sure I’d change.

So I’m curious, how do you spell this?

We won’t even get into the fact that I spell the word “cancelled”, not “canceled”. I thought that the grammar rules were that if a word ends in a consonant, you double the letter before changing the tense.

Apparently not in America.

And to be clear to any newcomers, I am American and am baffled by my “British” learning of spelling.

Goals.

My goal is to get all the “behind-the-scenes” things squared away before the new year.

2019 Planner.

I love planners/agendas. If you recall from my Friday Faves episode 47, I love agendas.

Not only do I use my agenda for keeping a record of changes and number, but I also use it as a journal.

I’m a big believer in dream analysis, so I might journal down a dream. 

I also my journal my future dreams.

I decided that I wanted my 2019 planner to encompass only my blog and my personal growth.

That meant there also need to be a notes section.

I decided on this Lilly Pulitzer Personal Planner. 

How appropriate that it should be her “Catch the Wave” planner. I liked the fact that there were designs on each page.

It definitely made it more “fun”.

I also need a planner to keep track of mine and the teens’ appointments. A planner that could be thrown into my purse. I opted for a planner similar to this: Orange Circle Studio 2019 On-Time Weekly Planner. The main difference is that mine is a 12-month and the cover says “Be your own kind of beautiful.”

Thanksgiving.

I spend Thanksgiving focusing on those things that I am thankful for.

My family.

A roof over my head.

Food in my belly.

I understand there are controversies.

I focus on gratitude…

without commercialism.

From Me to You.

On Thanksgiving, I decided to come out from behind the camera.

I am here to say that I am thankful that you have chosen to join me on this journey.

Thank you.

I appreciate you.

You are important.

Without you, my words fade into the atmosphere.

Thank you for listening to them

For acknowledging them.

Hiking Surprises.

On Sunday, Miss Sunshine accompanied us on our hike.

However, that was only because Maverick joined us.

At one point along the hike, she jumped across the way.

I thought she’d seen a snake.

When in fact, an eye had caught her eye.

It was an eye that appears from afar to be a chipmunk.

But is indeed a fake rabbit upon inspection.

Some trail walker was quite clever indeed.

What have you been up to lately?

Let your light shine!

Amy

 

*psst…this post contains affiliate links and sales made through these links will reward me a small commission – at no extra cost for you – which help pay for the existence of this blog.