challenge

20 Days of Chill 2024: If you build it … (Day 17)

January 25, 2024

You know the old saying, right? Straight out of Field of Dreams.

If you build it he will come.

Well, not always.

I was torn on where to go with this one. Originally, my plan had been to look at my blog and its growth or lack thereof over the years. Ya know, some numbers, analytics, things like that.

But hell – even with a much smaller audience than I have had over the years, talk about boring.

Instead, I’ve decided to talk about a different type of building – woodworking. Now, allow me to preface this by saying I am not some sort of amazing craftsman.

Homemade bench — *One of the benches I have made.*

In fact, I’m still learning. Not just the aspect of woodworking in general, but learning the tools, and how to properly use some of them. What they can and can’t do, all those other nuances.

YouTube has definitely been my friend when it comes to that.

I’m still understanding how to pick out the right wood and what types are good for what projects. But the reality is, the things I am building aren’t necessarily heirloom type items. They are, hopefully, functional and decent looking. Maybe in time, the quality and look will continue to improve and get better.

I’ve basically just built a few benches so far, and a couple different types.

Harper in front of bench — *Harper chilling in front of the bench.*

Once the spring hits, my goal is to make and outdoor couch for under my pavilion, and hopefully a bed frame, as well as some night stands. I also want to build a matching outdoor chair to go with the couch.

There’s some other things I want to build as well, such as a smaller desk for my room and a bed frame for Harper.

I don’t have the best “work space” right now, but I’m making due and I’ll keep plugging away.

One thing I’ve realized about woodworking is that it can be time consuming, but at the same time, very relaxing. I truly enjoy just kind of chipping away at things.

I’ve enjoyed this journey so far and I hope it is something I can do for years to come. Woodworking, and DIY in general, really are great skills to work on as you never know when it will come in handy.

How about you? Do any of you build things?

Linkup for Day 17:

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook

20 Days of Chill 2024: Emoji (Day 16)

January 24, 2024

What’s your emoji?

What’s an emoji for?

Oh that crazy world of faces and different objects in a text message. I had plans for this post, and I hope I can pull it off OK. I couldn’t do it how I had originally planned as there were no guarantees when it came to people being able to see it.

So, I had to do it a little differently. Here’s hoping my little emoji “story” comes out OK for you to read!

So what’s your emoji?

Linkup for Day 16:

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Faceboo

20 Days of Chill 2024: Finding peace (Day 15)

January 23, 2024

Let’s be honest with one another here. Finding peace isn’t always easy.

Life is tough for most people. While I am sure we all have our ups and downs, some people will have more on the high side, and some will have more on the down side. It’s just the way life goes, I guess.

Our local daily dishrag…errr… newspaper … recently ran some story from the AP saying how most people think money can buy happiness. And all I thought was … well of course it can.

Think about it. What are the things that stress our people most of all? Things like politics, or personal life happenings, or work etc. But in the end, the thing that likely stresses most people out is financial. It could be bills or loans or payments – anything. Some people struggle to put food on the table. Some people don’t have a home to go to.

So yes, money can buy happiness and bring you peace. But maybe it’s not in the way some may think.

Think of it this way … if you could be fully debt free and have no bills – outside of ones that are paid monthly (think: household bills), you could pay off a mortgage, car loan and anything else. So that could mean your current paycheck doesn’t go to bills, rather everyday life.

Life had a way of coming at you hard. With my professional life, the stressful time of the year is coming. My regular life has also been tough, so finding peace isn’t always easy.

Truthfully, it should be.

I just try to live a good life. I can’t say I always do. In fact, I don’t think any of us truly live an amazing life all the time. We’re human, after all. Sometimes, finding peace through all of it isn’t easy.

But what kind of things can we do to find that peace? I can’t speak for everybody, but here are some of my go-to things to help find peace:

Go for a walk
Play with Harper
Chill with Harper
Blog (sometimes)
Take photos
Go for a drive
Explore new places

Now, to be fair, sometimes these are short things and last just a bit. But it helps clear my mind. I do the best I can to live a good life. But life always will include stress and such, so it’s best to be able to find your peace!

Linkup for Day 15:

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook

20 Days of Chill 2024: Sometimes I wonder … (Day 14)

January 22, 2024

I don’t often look back at life and wonder what would have been if … but there are times.

The reality is, I turned 50 this past September. I *try* and not have many regrets in life. Honestly, having regrets is somewhat counter productive, anyway. If you try and go through these things too much, it just occupies your mind to a place where you can’t go back to anyway.

This isn’t Back to the Future. Time travel isn’t happening.

That all being said, I do believe many people like to wonder about the past. And in that case, I’m no different.

I’ve often wondered about my career path and if I had gone left instead of right, where could I be now? What if I had followed in my father’s footsteps of being a cop? Theoretically, I could be close to retirement. But I also could be on the wrong side of the sod, depending on any circumstances.

Even within my own field. In 2003 after going out to North Platte, Nebraska and being offered a job at a newspaper out there. What if I had taken that offer? Where would I be now? Would I be in newspapers still, or something totally different? And who knows where I’d be living now.

Go back to being in school. What if I had worked harder for better grades? Or kept myself in better shape coming out of school? Or if I had taken some risks in different spots.

Life is truly a wonder, if you stop and think about it.

As far as we know, we only have one true go around on Earth. What happened before, or what happens after … we’ll all find out one day. Maybe.

So on this wonderful trip, we have to make a lot of thoughts and decisions. We cross so many other people’s lives. Who knows if one of our actions helped change the trajectory of somebody else’s life?

Take that time and wonder on occasion … it’s a good way to try and connect some dots in your life, or just wonder what could have happened if you had run instead of walked.

Linkup for Day 14:

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook

20 Days of Chill 2024: Where will you roam? (Day 13)

January 19, 2024

Roaming.

It’s funny, I think. I feel, as people, we tend to go through phases of life. Some people do it differently than others and the phases can kind of overlap, or some are longer for others etc.

But, for the most part, I feel many of us have gone through a travel phase in life – or want to. You want to see the world! I look back in life and there are things I look at now that I would have liked to have done differently. In college, when I went back as a non-traditional student, I had the opportunity to study abroad.

I didn’t take the chance.

I was too afraid at that time to take that step. I’m not sure where I would have gone. I know in the initial talks, I wanted to be in an English speaking country as languages were not easy for me. But it never got too far as I pulled out of the whole setup pretty quickly.

In my 20s and 30s, when I really could have probably picked up and done something, I didn’t because I was too worried about things like playing softball in the summer.

In more recent years, I’ve done some traveling. Not to the extent that many have, but I have had the opportunity to see a lot of different places. There are dream destinations (I had planned to go to Iceland in September 2020 … Covid canceled that idea. Unfortunately, since then, things have changed. That might be a retirement trip) that I would like to hit … such as Alaska and Hawaii.

But now that I’ve hit the 5-0 … it seems my thoughts have changed. Travel is great, but it’s exhausting. Sometimes, I just want to stay home.

So where to roam?

I’ve started a list of things I’d like to do over the next few years that are lower cost, or free. That likely means some of my roaming is going to be closer to home. As I’ve worked on it, I’ve realized how many great things there are out there, and not far from me. State parks, or different places to hike and do some photography. Maybe it’s just finding a free concert or things like that.

I plan to get one of New York State’s park passes. That will allow me free entry into all of the parks for free. I just have to figure out which ones are the best to bring Harper with me. Northeast Pennsylvania, which is a short drive for me as well, also has some amazing parks that I’d like to explore.

I want to continue to roam, but I feel like doing it closer to home. That’s not to say I won’t still have some trips and travel, it just means I plan to take more advantage of the world closer to me.

Linkup for Day 13:

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook