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As a society, I don’t think we say thank you enough. That’s not to say everybody is like that, rather some people. 

It’s kind of funny, in a way. 

I work in two school districts and with my job, I see a lot of different people. The ages can range from pre-kindergarten, all the way up to those on the cusp of retiring. I will say that most people in the schools are polite and courteous. Not all, though. You have your kids who just think they are above such things. Oftentimes, it’s a reflection of parents. 

I do, however, have some hope for the future. 

And we need hope with how things are these days. 

I’ve seen more and more people be more thankful for where we are. While true that we aren’t back to normal, we are getting there – slowly. And when kids and staff are in the actual buildings and going to school, I think you can feel there’s something good there. 

I hope, anyway. 

When you hold a door open for kids and they acknowledge it with a thank you, that’s a good thing. Maybe there’s hope yet. 

But now take a step back and ask yourself how you respond to situations. How often do you say thank you?I’d like to think that I am on top of that quite a bit. My parents taught me well. 

If somebody does something for you – no matter how big or small – thank them. A small gesture like that can make a person’s day. It’s a crazy world we are in, that’s for sure. So maybe we should do our best to brighten it. 

I don’t believe in resolutions at the beginning of each year. The reality is, if you do that, you are just going to find a way to break them. 

I mean, how many people swear they will go to the gym more, eat better, and lose weight? 

Sound familiar? 

I like to try and set goals. My goals, though, aren’t just for the said year. They are usually things I’d like to improve on in life and beyond just a year. And yes, that includes losing weight. 

This year, my goal was to be more happy. That started last year when I got Harper. To be fair, it took a long time for me to feel happy with her, but it’s coming out of me. 

Happy, though, isn’t just based on one thing. My goal is to improve life overall. That can be going for walks with Harper, exploring new places, going to a baseball game, brewing a beer, going geocaching, binge watching a series on Netflix, building some new DIY item, or countless other things. 

Basically, I want life to become a bit more simple. 

This challenge, so far, has made me realize how much I enjoy blogging. A few years ago, I blogged every single day. It didn’t make me happy … it burned me out and my blog suffered in the years to follow. 

But there’s a happy medium to all of that. No, I won’t continue to blog every single weekday once January ends, but I have been writing down ideas and thoughts. I want to do more of it again as it makes me smile. And I want to visit other people’s blogs as well. I miss doing that more. 

I also find when you are happy, you are more grounded and thankful. 

That often leads to many more thank yous. 

Thank you all for reading and following along. Let’s make life happy! 

This post is part of the 2022 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge hosted by A ‘lil HooHaa. Please check out the links (intro I themes) if you’d like to see the setup and  themes! You don’t have to do every theme if you don’t want to! And for those participating, take a moment and check out the other participants!

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Four paws on the floor seems to be key. 

I am sure many of us have pets. Growing up, we always had a cat.

To me, cats are a great animal and pet. When they want attention, they come to you. When they don’t want attention, they do their own thing. What’s that old saying? Cats don’t have owners, they have servants? 

So true. 

Also, once a cat is house or litter box trained, they are pretty self reliant, as long as you give them food and water. That makes travel easier, too, as you can usually just get somebody to come and feed them once or twice a day and maybe play a bit with them for a few moments. 

But then I got a dog. 

Needless to say, training is a bit different for a dog than a cat. Also, it’s an ongoing thing. But the one thing I’m really working on?

Four paws on the floor. 

Harper gets overly excited in many situations. At eight months old, she’s still a pup, so it’s understandable. But it gets hard to have her out for a walk when people go by us.

She wants to go to those people, she pulls and lunges and will sometimes get off the ground. And it’s not in an aggressive way, rather in a way that she is like “Hi! I’m Harper! Pet and play with me!” 

Alas, she has to learn she can’t always get the attention. She needs to have a little bit of self control. We’re working on it the best we can. 

She’s truly a smart dog. She has a lot of the basic commands down, and we’re working on things like her recall and such. But she is usually on a leash, unless she’s in a fenced area, or in a place it’s safe for her to be without. There aren’t many places like that. But we work on everything we can. 

I have a book of 101 tricks I’ve been reading. There are some I think she’ll be able to do, and others I don’t want her to know for various reasons.

She will definitely have more things, though. And being treat motivated, we keep working and working 

Jumping up, though, is coming along slowly. 

So she will get there

Four paws and all. 

This post is part of the 2022 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge hosted by A ‘lil HooHaa. Please check out the links (intro I themes) if you’d like to see the setup and  themes! You don’t have to do every theme if you don’t want to! And for those participating, take a moment and check out the other participants!

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Let’s go to the top of the bucket with one thing: Bucket lists. 

I always thought these were kind of corny. But as I started to age, I realized bucket lists were a huge part of life. They can be very useful when it comes to having goals, or dreams, or anything in between. Maybe it’s a big trip or two. Maybe it’s a fancy car. Maybe it’s something totally different. But having this bucket list can help one focus on an end goal. 

Now, the reality is, unless we all have disposable income to empty the bucket, most of us will never cross everything off our bucket lists. 

That doesn’t mean you can’t try. 

My list changes every so often. And, honestly, a lot of mine covers travel goals. There’s so much to see in this world that I’d really love to get out and travel more. At the same time, I like being home. Add Harper to that mix, and it makes it a bit harder for me to accomplish some of my travel dreams. Being Harper isn’t a lap dog, if she flew, she’d have to go cargo. Not for nothing, but I’m not stuffing my dog into a crate and letting them load her with the cargo. No way. No how. Not. Going. To. Happen. 

So, that means I have two things at the top of my bucket list. My number one hasn’t changed for several years – going to Iceland. I’ve dreamed of this place for years and had plans to do it in September of 2020. And, well, you know what stopped that. It’s still on my radar, and hopefully will be done in the next few years. Harper will have to skip that trip with me, however, as I just don’t see how I’d be able to bring her with me. 

Now, if we go back to Monday’s post and show me da money, well … that could change. But, in light of that, Iceland will likely be me and maybe a friend or two who wants to travel to Iceland. 

The other item at the top of the list is based on traveling with Harper. This is something I’ve thought a lot about as she continues to get older. At eight months, she’s becoming quite the explorer. She loves being outside and, for the most part, she likes to walk. I do not do off-leash walking, so she’s getting better on the leash. But as I’ve taken some geocaching adventures with her, I can see she really loves seeing new places. The smells and sights and just the different terrain. 

So, how can I work on that?

My idea of roughing it, in the past, is a budget hotel. I am not one to tent camp and such, so I always tend to get hotels when I travel. And usually, it’s something like a Marriott. I’m not a fan of dogs in hotels, though. While I know there are times that won’t be avoidable, I’m going to be one who tries to find different ways around it. I hate the idea of needing to crate her in a hotel room if I go out to dinner etc. But it would be necessary as I wouldn’t want to leave temptation out there, even as she ages and can be trusted more. 

The big question is: Where would I want to travel with Harper?

While “bark in the park” events are of interest as it combined Harper with my love of baseball, the odds are if I do those, it will be in places that are somewhat close to me. 

That leaves parks. 

I’ve long wanted to explore not only New York State’s vast amount of parks, but to go to National Parks. There are so many amazing ones and I’ve often seen people out hiking with their dogs at said parks. Therefore, I’d love to bring Harper along. 

To accomplish this, I’m starting to set my sights on something like a teardrop camper. I know what I want my next vehicle to be – likely a small to mid-size SUV – so it could be something to pull said trailer. It allows me to have a little more comfort while “camping” and gives Harper and I a place to be warm, or even cool down, when traveling. Some of them are 5-6 feet tall, allowing me to be able to stand. And some have the addition of things like a full bed, television, AC, and cooking areas. The price range is obviously quite large, so I’d have to think highly about the simplicity of use and what I need to do to get used to having something like this. Storage of it in the offseason as well. 

This trailer, as well as the traveling with Harper, has likely become No. 1 on my bucket list. The top of the bucket, you could say. This might be a couple of years away, but it’s something I’m going to try and figure a way to do … and make it so she and I have ways to travel and see the country. And maybe some of Canada as well, considering how nice many of the parks in that country are. 

First things first, though. She needs to get better at traveling (she sometimes still throws up), and we need to get out of Covid. Then … bring it on!

What’s at the top of your bucket list?

This post is part of the 2022 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge hosted by A ‘lil HooHaa. Please check out the links (intro I themes) if you’d like to see the setup and  themes! You don’t have to do every theme if you don’t want to! And for those participating, take a moment and check out the other participants!

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How many times have you ever said “If I win the lottery …?” 

Do you ever catch yourself daydreaming of being able to walk into work with a big-ass grin on your face and know you can walk into your boss and be like “I’m out.”

Do you think about the things you could buy or the places you could travel and not have to worry about time or price?

I’m pretty sure we all do. 

But do you play the lotto? 

So many people talk about winning the lottery and never play it. And I can get that. It’s basically throwing money to the wind. The odds are so far against you winning it’s not even funny. But, we all have those dreams. 

I play the lotto – just not a lot. 

It’s funny, too, as I don’t like gambling. If I go to a casino, I’ll usually limit myself to $20-$40 on the slots. Once that disappears, I am done. Or, if I win some, I tend to cash out and pocket it. I have friends who love gambling and casinos and they often do well. I just don’t have it in me. 

I don’t bet on sports or anything like that, either. Sure, if I go watch some horse races, I might lay down a few small bets. But that’s just for the excitement. Goodness knows I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to betting. 

But for the lotto, I like to give it a go. Until the numbers are drawn and I know I haven’t won, I can daydream about all sorts of things. Then the drawing happens, I don’t win and I go back to normal. 

I try not to play unless it’s a bigger pot. It’s not that I couldn’t handle winning a 10 million pot – I would love it – but my disposable income just doesn’t get covered by playing the lotto every single day. 

So I tend to play the big pots for Mega Millions and Powerball, and some days I also play Cash 4 Life, which gives you $1,000 per day for the rest of your life. That’s the one that I feel would be most beneficial. You’d bring in a salary of $365,000 per year – which would be life-altering money and also enough to likely walk away from your current job without blinking an eye. Though I might hold off a few years because of being in the state system. 

At the same time … 

While the money is nice and will allow you to be set for life, it isn’t so much of a lottery win where you’d have people crawling out of the woodwork to “remember how good of friends” you once were, such as if you won a $500 million powerball. 

Either way, show me da money. 

Not to be an advertisement, but I use an app called Jackpocket to play the lotto. Basically, you purchase tickets through the app and they buy the tickets for you (they send you the images etc.). If you win a big one, they get the ticket to you. If you win a small one, they pay you your winnings right in the app. What I like about this is I don’t have to worry about checking the numbers or losing tickets anymore – they are all there for me to see. 

I also have a lot of restraint with home much I spend and such. For those who maybe wouldn’t be able to stop the impulse purchases, well, this might not be for you. 

(If you play the lotto and this app is legal in your area and it interests you, you can use my link to sign up and we each get free money to play with. I think for that, though, you have to actually deposit money into the account etc. You can utilize my link at: https://jackpocket.com/referrals/3n3gao.)

In the end, I know the reality. I likely won’t win the big one. I looked back at the app and since I started using the app last January, I’ve won a total of $62, with the biggest being $10, which I’ve won twice. I can assure you I’m not breaking even. 

But … 

The dreams stay there. I can wish and hope and maybe one day … just one day … .those numbers will hit and they can show me da money! 

This post is part of the 2022 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge hosted by A ‘lil HooHaa. Please check out the links (intro I themes) if you’d like to see the setup and  themes! You don’t have to do every theme if you don’t want to! And for those participating, take a moment and check out the other participants!

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I am sure you know all about healthy eating – whether you take part in it or not. There are so many different diets and ways of eating that it can be overwhelming. 

And the reality is, we should probably all eat healthier. 

Alas, this post isn’t about my eating habits. I know I have to improve mine. I think over time I’ve been slightly improving, but I have a long way to go. 

That being said, this is about Harper. 

Being a first-time dog owner, I wanted to make sure that she is getting a well-balanced meal, but at the same time make sure she isn’t bankrupting me. As well, I want to make sure she’s actually eating right – as a lot of these dog diets aren’t as good as people want to believe they are. I know everybody is an expert on Facebook, but the reality is you need to understand your dog and his or her needs. If you deep dive into these groups you will find a ton of opinions and, usually, these people are so set on their opinion and what they do for their dogs, they don’t really think beyond that. 

But let’s look back a few decades. Dogs were living longer and they were eating things like Gravy Train and scraps from the table. That included bones and all sorts of stuff. 

Now, I’m not saying we should go back there, but we need to look at things individually. Alas, I keep going on and such, but let’s get back to the topic at hand. 

What can I cook for you?

Harper’s meals tend to be a little varied. She’s on kibble and she gets that most meals. But for some dinners, I tend to work other things in, Some of it is of the raw diet variety that many seem to advocate. I like to add some fruit and veggies. There are some great canned foods that are really healthy and good meals, as well, and I will use some of that. Most dinners include some pumpkin puree, because it is good for her system as well. 

And yes, sometimes, I plate it up for her. 

I feel like the world we live in now makes it hard to figure everything out. There’s no middle ground. We all do the best we can foodwise, for yourself, family, friends, and pets. Not everybody can or will go the distances others will, and that’s OK. Because in the end, we do the best we can with the resources we have. 

I love trying to figure the best for Harper. I like trying new things with her. I hope dogs have great taste buds and she senses the differences. But I do know dogs have great noses and a lot of these things really smell good! 

In the end, the one item I do with Harper each day doesn’t even require me cooking, rather pairing. Each morning, we have a banana together. I take a bite and then break off a piece for her. We continue it until it’s done. I think it’s a good little bonding thing each day and I’m quite sure we each look forward to it. 

Meals for humans and animals can both be crazy. In the end, though, we are all just looking for ways to eat well and make sure our (or our pet’s) health is as good as it can be to be able to live a great life.
Allow me to share a couple photos of Harper’s meals (and, to be fair, I do not do this all the time)! 

How about all of you? Healthy eating for you? Your pets? How do you tackle it all?

This post is part of the 2022 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge hosted by A ‘lil HooHaa. Please check out the links (intro I themes) if you’d like to see the setup and  themes! You don’t have to do every theme if you don’t want to! And for those participating, take a moment and check out the other participants!

Link up: