Happy New Year!

To all, I wish you and yours a Happy New Year! I hope you ring in the New Year with joy and wonder. Be safe in your travels and your celebrations!

Master Cook?

I by no means am a Master Cook. However, I did manage to make a vegetable soup which my husband complimented me on and said was TV worthy. :) Every once and a while I pull a rabbit out of my hat, lol.

This was my first time actually making the vegetable soup. I have made other soups and they have turned out really good too. However the veggie soup tonight was pretty, had multiple colors, orange, red, black, green, yellow and white. The broth was really good too.

Needless to say, I am feeling pretty good about the meal I cooked tonight. :) I know I won't ever be able to achieve exactly the same soup again since I didn't follow a recipe I just tossed in what I wanted to have in the soup and what I had in the house to toss in the soup. :)

I have found when I get creative, I tend to actually make something really good. I guess being creative when you cook is the key to making really good dishes. Fun in the kitchen!

Movie Night

Tonight was movie night with the hubby. We went to see the new movie Passengers with Jennifer Lawrence. It was a great movie. It was a sweet story line. I absolutely loved it.

I was very pleased it turned out to be as good as the previews had hyped it up to be. It is always a bit of a risk to go to the movies to see a new release. You never really know if it will be worth the amount you are charged to see the movie.

It is always a let down with the movie turns out to not be worth what you paid to watch it. Most of the time you can tell if the movie will be worth going to the theater or if you should just wait until it comes out on video. But there are always those times when you get caught and the hype was more than the movie was worth what you paid to see it.

However, Passengers was a good Sci-Fi film. The cinemaphotography was really good. I could actually imagine myself in the story and for me, it is what makes a movie great for me. Just like any book, if I can imagine myself as one of the characters in the story the better I like it.

So, I say, if you have an opportunity to go see the film, I say go and enjoy. :)

What Does Not Kill Me, Makes Me Stronger

Most all of us look back on our childhoods to point to why we are the way we are and how we have become who we are.

In many ways, I agree with the statement. However, how we become who we are is always changing because we are always changing. So, in a manner of speaking our past is not fully responsible for who we are.

Every challenge we face, every change we are presented, every decision we make, every success and every failure is what continues to make us who we are. We continue to grow every day. What we learn and how we use what we have learned is what shapes us to be who we are.

Personality, knowing right and wrong, and our morality are the things we carry through from our childhood. What we were taught at young ages. Outside of those who we are comes from our everyday interactions and exposures.

So hence the title "What Does Not Kill Me, Only Makes Me Stronger!" For every day, I wake up and face what comes my way and not give into fear, anger or defeat, makes me a stronger me, a new me, because with every challenge comes a lesson and every lesson learned comes wisdom and strength.

New Year Resolutions

Why do people make resolutions?

Most start out and make it the first two weeks, but I have never heard of any reaching completion of their resolutions. I don't usually make them because most of the time they aren't attainable resolutions anyway. Why do we make resolutions we know we aren't going to keep. Are we purposely setting ourselves up for failure? If so, Why? Is it because we see it as an excuse to fail?

Here's something, failure is always found along the path of success, so without the failure, we would never succeed.

I am going to challenge myself this year to overcome previous failures. I don't want to look back and blame the bumps in the road for why I haven't gotten where I want to be. The ride was never meant to be smooth otherwise, we would never learn.

This is my "resolution" to learn everything I can from the failures and the success which will come my way this New Year. I wish you are luck on reaching your resolutions/goal for the upcoming year!

Happy Holidays - Merry Christmas - Happy New Year!

Looking for a New Book??

Come and check out new authors, some self-published, some traditionally published. This event was created to help the authors reach new readers and readers to find new authors. Each author has posted links to their work, take a look you just might find your next favorite author. :)https://www.facebook.com/events/281456242248842/

Onward & Upward

My goal this week is to work towards letting things go. So this year hasn't been the best of years, but it hasn't been the worst of them either. Life is full of challenges and twist we don't expect but should cause hey it's life it is always changing.

I've talked about different things over the past year and opened myself up to new things. Have there been dips on the roller coaster, sure, but the win is I kept going and didn't give up. I may fall and stay down for a moment, but I get back up and brush myself off.

I may get angry at a new challenge thrust in my face, but I eventually find a way to conquer it, or a way to solve it. I refuse, with how far I have come, to give into difficulties just because it is easier to do so. I have never been a quitter and I refuse to become one now. There are always going to be obstacles blocking my straight ahead, but just because I have to turn doesn't mean it isn't the right way to go.

A new year is coming, with means with it, new obstacles and new accomplishments. I will have decided, looking back is an obstacle I place in front of myself, what is ahead of me will give me enough without me adding things to it.

From now on my response to anything negative will simply be "Onward & Upward" cause it is the only way I intend on traveling. I decide my path and only I can push through the obstacles I have no control over.

So, to next year I say, BRING IT ON!! I got this!!

Maturity??

What exactly is maturity? Do you know? Does anyone know or is it just an idea each of us have? What dictates what someone's maturity is? Is it their life experiences? Is it their age? How about is it a combination of those two? What about choices we make, is it those which dictate maturity?

Well, my opinion, agree or disagree, you have that right, is our maturity is based on our life experiences and how we deal with them dictates some of our maturity. Choices we make help us grow into maturity even if the choices are immature. The choices we make lead us to maturity, they don't determine if we are mature or not. We all do immature things at times, it doesn't make us immature as a person or not grown up. Our failures and successes in life are what shape and form us so, wouldn't they also be part of maturity?

What do you think? Are our choices the sign of our maturity completely? Do our real life experiences come into play? What about our age? They say with age comes wisdom and with wisdom comes maturity. Isn't it our choices which lead us to wisdom?

Rejections

Even when you know it is coming, it still stings. Rejection is a part of life, and without it, you won't savor the approvals. There are all kinds of ways to put a positive spin on the negativity, but it still doesn't take the full blow of the sting away. Makes it a bit easier to take, but doesn't make it nonexistent.

Rejection comes in every aspect of our life, be it in a relationship, a job, life choices and just all around daily life. It may come in various forms, but the pain of the sting is still the same. Most people claim it just wasn't the door they were meant to go through, and there will be another door to open.

Finding the silver lining in the recovery of the rejection is just human nature. It just takes some longer than others to get there. I try not to let rejection get to me because I know it is always a possibility and in some cases an inevitability. It just is what it is, and life will go on no matter what the rejection was, and I have to move with the ups and downs.

Knowing something is coming at some point, doesn't change the fact of it happening or the reaction to it. It just puts you in a different perspective when it does happen. I think being prepared for a rejection gives you the upper hand so to speak in handling it in a more positive way.

Kind of like knowing an accident is about to happen, but making a choice on which is the best path to take in the accident. Do you go in headlong or do you go on the defensive and try to avoid the impact which will cause the most damage? Which would you do?

Taking the path of least resistance is not always the safest path, sometimes you have to take the one most blocked with obstacles. The obstacles are the rejections and how you overcome them is the path you choose, your silver lining so to speak.

I have always been told I do everything the hard way, but to me, it is how you learn the best. Can you learn if you take the easy way, maybe, but will you learn if you take the hard way, yes! There is no doubt in my mind nothing ventured is nothing gained. So, I say take those rejections and turn them into the silver lining they truly are.

Commercials

UHG!!! Is there any commercial which just grates on your last nerve every time you see it come on the screen?

Well for me it is the Tresemé commercial with the Tegan woman. I am fine up until the end where she yells at me. Why would anyone think having the spokesperson yell at the end of an advertisement would be a good idea?

I mean I get the idea behind advertisement, it is to get people attention, but I have to say I am not one for enjoying getting yelled at by an advertisement.

I generally ignore most commercials but that one just really irritates me. It is fine up until the end, they just need to change the end.

Okay, off the soapbox now...just had to vent.