Friday, Back with new determination!

     Hi everyone.  We got in late last night and my hours are switched around so I am up early although I really slept in , in Florida time.  The three hour time difference really plays a big part in the travel game.  I was able to get plenty of rest most night, lots of exercise and sun.  Glorious sun.

     The country is so different there.  Most of the plants and even the grass are different.  Of course the Humidity is something we seldom get here.  I loved the heat and got used to it really quick. I did miss the mountains.  It is freaky to look out on the horizon and see nothing.  I missed the safety I feel when surrounded by mountains.  Or I should say hills as what surrounds Lewiston is not mountains.  It is just when you live in the west you travel through and are around mountains all the time.  There is no such thing as flat here for very long.

    
Here is a beautiful picture on the beach of a rainbow.  We didn't have any rain and it was about 85 degrees.  I just loved it with the umbrellas.  

   I was able to feed alligators marshmallows.  This is as close as I wanted to get. We did a private swamp tour and learned so much about this area of the country so different from our own.

This shot was taken in Vicksburg at a garden set up to show what a southern woman would have grown during the war.  I saw the butterflies and had to snap this.  It was so beautiful.

I did not take many pictures as my phone was acting up and I could not get my camera to work.  Of course. So frustrating but I just wanted to show you a few that made me happy.  You will notice that the sunshine is captured in all of the pictures.  I had sunshine in my soul

  Now that we are home I have to get back to reality and that is really no fun.  But we live for these moments of relaxation and happiness and they get us through the work times.  The mundane times.

   I am truly happy to be home, but it is raining and will continue to rain.  I must put on warm clothes and clogs and that will be weird for a while.  It was nice to be in shorts and t-shirts with sandals for a few more days.

    I was able to unpack last night and get the first load of laundry into the wash while I scared up some dinner at 11:30 p.m.  We had eaten out so much neither of us wanted to go get a hamburger or junk food.  Blah.  I think in the 9 days we were gone we had a home cooked meal 2 times and let me tell you I missed my home cooking.

     Life moves very fast down in Destin Florida.  It is all tourists and glitz.  Shopping like you have never seen before.  The money spent down there is unbelievable. Even if I had that kind of money I don't think I could live that life style for long.  But I guess it is what you are used to.  Every home I saw was huge and gorgeous and every driveway had expensive brand new cars.  My brother and sister in law live the same way.  It is nice and beautiful but they must work hard to maintain that life style.

     Something in it felt false and I am not talking about my relatives they were wonderful.  But how much is enough?  I really did a lot of soul searching when I was down there.  I kept asking myself as we traveled around and  saw the sites.  "How much is enough?" I guess down in a resort town enough is much larger than what enough is here.  Does the larger enough make them more happy?  I do not know.

     I often wonder if my mindset of getting out of debt and having to live so frugally for the last 40 years has changed my concept on what is enough.

Enough for me is:

1. getting out of debt
2. simplifying my life
3. down sizing my possessions to a comfortable level
4. saving for the things that I really want and that really matter to me.
5. being a help to the world, whether that is in my own family, my community, or out in the unknown.  I just want to be of use.

I am glad to be back

Have a great and productive day staying positive while you are in the negative.

Kim