Five Photos, Five Stories (Day 5)

Moonflower 

My moon stirs above,

Searching for the light within, 

I break bonds below. 

~

My final post for the Five Photos, Five Stories challenge. Take a look back at days 1-4; 

Day 1 – Cloudy Days

Day – 2 Tomatoes 

Day – 3 The Road 

Day – 4 Overboard 

~

I was nominated by the awesome Sarah Brentyn in a Five Photos, Five Stories (in five days) challenge. Here is my Day 5 photo and my story. Thank you Sarah for the much needed kick in the blog. It has been a fun challenge. Now I nominate Meredith Shafer to take on this fun photo challenge. She is a fellow blogger that is so full of positive words and inspirational kindness, you should go check her out. 

The “rules” of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge are:

1) Post a photo each day for five consecutive days.
2) Attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a short paragraph. It’s entirely up to the individual.
3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation. Just have fun.
Till next time, 

~ AJP

Five Photos, Five Stories (Day 4)

The sun is out

The day is bright

Let’s go out for a picnic.

The tide is high

The fish will bite

Let’s go out for a boat ride.

The debris is near

The wind is might

Over you go for mourning.

~

I’ve been nominated by the awesome Sarah Brentyn in a Five Photos, Five Stories (in five days) challenge. Here is my Day 4 photo and my story. Thank you Sarah for the much needed kick in the blog. Now I nominate Mia Pleasant to take on this fun photo challenge. She is crazy busy, but here is hoping that she can squeeze in a fun challenge. I’d love to see what she came up with.

The “rules” of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge are:

1) Post a photo each day for five consecutive days.
2) Attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a short paragraph. It’s entirely up to the individual.
3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation. Just have fun.

Till tomorrow,

~AJP

Five Photos, Five Stories (Day 3)

The Road

We watched the dirt road disappear, her arm accidentally brushing against mine.

We skipped across the newly paved road, her fingers confidently intertwined through mine.

We sped down the busy road, her head comfortably resting near mine.

We lagged along the empty road, her hand nervously squeezing on to mine.

I walked past the abandoned road, her beautiful memory all mine.

I’ve been nominated by the awesome Sarah Brentyn in a Five Photos, Five Stories (in five days) challenge. And I accepted. Today is my Day 3 photo and story. Thank you Sarah for the much needed kick in the blog. This has been fun. Now I nominate D. Bradford to take on this fun photo challenge. If she accepts, I can’t wait to see what she comes up with!

The “rules” of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge are:

1) Post a photo each day for five consecutive days.
2) Attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a short paragraph. It’s entirely up to the individual.
3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation. Just have fun.

Till tomorrow,

~AJP

Five Photos, Five Stories (Day 2)

Flower me yellow,

then round I grow.

Green to red,

before I drop below.

Confusing to most,

for my seed dare not sow.

Delicious is the fruit I bare,

if you allow my juices to flow.

Sometimes deadly to few,

whose allergies I bestow.

So choose me wisely,

for one never knows.

I’ve been nominated by the awesome Sarah Brentyn in a Five Photos, Five Stories (in five days) challenge. And I accept. So here is my Day 1 photo, and my, um, story. Thank you Sarah for the much needed kick in the blog. I needed it. Now I nominate Jesi Scott to take on this fun photo challenge. One to never turn her nose up at a challenge, let’s see what she comes up with!

The “rules” of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge are:

1) Post a photo each day for five consecutive days.
2) Attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a short paragraph. It’s entirely up to the individual.
3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation. Just have fun.

Ps. Today is Wednesday, so check out my post over at Twisted Writers.

Till tomorrow,

~AJP

Five Photos, Five Stories (Day 1)

The rain slashes, harsh and cruel.

A fresh day dawns, ignorant and bright.

The land lay, battered and bruised.

A new friend awaits, compassionate and true.

I’ve been nominated by the awesome Sarah Brentyn in a Five Photos, Five Stories (in five days) challenge. And I accept. So here is my Day 1 photo, and my, um, story. Thank you Sarah for the much needed kick in the blog. I needed it. Now I nominate CJ to take on this fun photo challenge. She is crazy busy, but here is hoping that she can squeeze in a fun challenge.

The “rules” of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge are:

1) Post a photo each day for five consecutive days.
2) Attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a short paragraph. It’s entirely up to the individual.
3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation. Just have fun.

Till tomorrow,

~AJP

To share or not to share, that is the question…

I’ve been told on more than one occasion that I am terrible at sharing. With a crapload of younger siblings, a husband and two kids, I’m used to sharing the little stuff like clothes, books, movies, a house…

It’s the bigger things that I struggle with. Things that are not materialistic, like my thoughts, feelings and personal struggles. And with a world revolving around social media where we can type out/snap/catalog every aspect of our lives with just a few finger movements, I seem to hide as much as possible.

Sarah pointed out to me recently that I, um, do not share at all. Thinking about this, I realized my recent hibernation sure does make writing a blog damn difficult. Which explains why I’ve made 3 posts in 2 months. I seemed to have fizzled out a bit lately. What’s worse, I’ve barely been able to keep up with the other bloggers that I truly enjoy reading.

It’s time I make a change. Or lots of them. And maybe share a little with you on what has already changed in my little bubble.

Back in April, my little family was dealt a hit.  It was a shocking blow. One we are still trying to recover from.

It created a domino effect, one piece toppled and soon enough shit came crashing down around us. It happens. We are picking the pieces up, one by one, and rearranging them in a different order. It’s scary as hell, but scary isn’t always a bad thing.

It left us with the wide open question of, What do we want to do now? We still aren’t 100% sure, but we are dipping our toes in uncharted waters and it will be great! Or bad. Who knows!

What I do know is I start a new job on Monday, and I am in the process of going back to school come fall. Both terrify me to the point of panic. Well, that was enough sharing for one day… 

In the mean time, my blog is in dire need of some life breathed back into it, and I have to find a happy balance of this sharing business.

So how do you handle sharing on social media? Let me know in the comments below.  

Till next time,

~AJP

A little healthy competition never hurt anyone…

I pride myself on being smack dab in the middle of the healthy side lifestyle. I am not an overachiever when it comes to eating strictly healthy but I normally do not eat a bunch of junk food either. We eat moderately healthy in my house – until my grandma takes the kids shopping for their snacks and they come home with packages of cookies. Not the little individual bags, no, the full size package of cookies. When this happens, mom (me) goes nuts.

Like crazy nuts. I ate two of the four packages of cookies in three days. My husband ate a third. And the kids noticed.

But for the most part, we generally do eat healthy.

We are the active sort too. Kind of. When the weather is nice (nice being above 45 degrees, below 95 degrees, or torrential rain) I walk to pick up my youngest from her school. It is a great way for her to burn off some extra energy after having to be quiet all day and get some fresh air. When schedules match up, we walk the neighborhood with our new neighbors most evenings as well.

Being active can be difficult at times, life just gets busy, and it is easy to skip a day of doing much.

Back in March, I did a 5k with my mom, son and friend Jesi. This was a hard feat for my mom, she isn’t really the active sort. She spent a good two months walking every night, either with me or at the gym, pushing her distance further and further. In the end, she made it with glowing colors (hehe, glowing colors) and it was exciting.

Then after the event, we were left with the melancholy of what now.

Me, I started trying to push myself to walk more each day, instead of 3 miles a day, do 4. Mom, well she noticed a difference in her sugar levels when she was walking and being more active, (she is a diabetic) so the wheels started turning and she found herself a new goal.

This epiphany coincided with the new delivery of my FitBit Charge HR a couple of weeks ago. See back in February I asked my husband for a FitBit for my anniversary present, (we don’t normally exchange anniversary gifts, but I really wanted it and my birthday isn’t until June) and being the picky person that I am, the color I wanted did not get released until the end of April so it coincided with moms epiphany perfectly.

Having this new little device that tracks my every move is kind of weird and creepy, and absolutely awesome in every way. (My need to compete with myself on a daily basis I am sure is healthy.)

Except now that I had a new shiny toy, mom had to have one as well. Not particularly because she wanted one, but because new toys are not much fun to play with if you do not have a friend to share the experience with. And you can’t really share a FitBit. That’d be awkward.

The great thing about the tracker is that you can set up  your own daily/weekly/hourly goals. I think I have set up moderately achievable goals for the time being; I need to walk five miles a day or take 10,000 steps. I also need to climb 5-10 flights of stars and be active for at least 30 minutes a day (Active being like a workout/walk/run).

Last night after our Zumba class, she texted me, practically giddy that she made green on all of her personal daily goals for the day. (Green means you did good!) Then she said, “It makes me want to exercise more!!! Ugh. And eat less!!! Ugh.” 

I am super proud of my mom.

But I have just one thing to say to her… I totally crushed you.

BAM!

 

A little healthy competition never hurt anyone. Hehe, my grandmothers FitBit came in the mail today. 

Till next time,

~AJP