It has been a very long time - so "hello" again and starting a new chapter in the Book of My Life

Wow, it has been a very long time since I have blogged - over 5 years. So much has happened. It is hard to know where to start!

Catching Up...

First things first...I have changed the title. For over 12+ years I have been the Hockey Mom; but now that my sons have graduated from high school, one has even graduated from college and the other will soon, hockey hasn't been a part of our lives for almost 4 years. So now I am on the next chapter of my life as a mom with 2 young men.

Also, regarding the title of this blog, changing the title also has to do with where my husband and I are in our lives. For 10 years, we have been small business owners. We were franchisee owners of a company and had 2 stores. As we speak, we have transferred one and finalizing the transfer of the other very soon. Meaning, no more owning our own business and starting a new chapter in our lives. 

So while we are in the process of figuring out what we are going to do and what the next phase of our life looks like, I thought I would start blogging again.

In the last 5 years, I have experienced good things and some "not so good" things. 

I think the biggest change in my life since the last time I blogged was the passing of my mother on April 9, 2018. In January 2016, my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We all were stunned. How does someone so young, so healthy, someone who doesn't drink or smoke, someone who exercises 2 hours a day/7 days a week get cancer? This was something that baffled us all. My mother fought this battle the best she could. She was a strong minded person who was going to live her life her way during the battle. She continued to exercise and work at her job almost up to the very last moment. But unfortunately, the Cmonster won. 

My dad, who lives in Minnesota, is still in my life; in fact our relationship has changed and we have become closer since my mother's passing. Initially I was traveling from California to MN to visit him ever couple of months. However, I haven't been back there since October 2019. When the holidays hit last year, I needed to be in the store more often as staffing became short, so it became difficult to fly to Minnesota and visit. 

Business was also very soft, thus whenever we lost people Steve and I just filled in, spending everyday open-to-close in the stores. To help, we made as many changes to store hours we could, closing on Sundays to give us a little time off and helped to keep the labor cost down a little. Then COVID hit and shelter-in-place was activated...but we were deemed essential and remained open. We were like a grocery store, as we sold fruit; and we refrigerated vans, so we could deliver everything we made. Soon our business took off again. We started seeing sales like we use to the first several years when we purchased the stores. It was good to have the sales, but with a small staff at both stores, we were getting tired and so was the staff. We continued to change store hours and operational aspects to keep it running with who we had in place. But since our contracts were coming up for renewal, and because we were getting older, it was time to figure out a plan for our next chapter. 

Also, during this time, my younger son graduated from high school (2017) and went on to college in Vermont. My older son, while overcoming some challenges, he graduated from college in 2020 with really good job (although he is working from home right now due to COVID). 

So here we are, October 14, 2020...

My younger son will be at school for another 6 weeks and will be home for Thanksgiving, will finish 1st semester remotely and isn't scheduled to go back to school until March 1. This is the new norm due to COVID.

My older son is at home, working remotely. He is waiting to hear when the office will re-open and then he will move to that state. 

My husband and I are figuring out what our next chapter will be. In the meantime, we are enjoying a respite from the stress of running stores. We have started to walk around the block in the morning and a longer walk in the evening. We are enjoying all the animal life we come into contact with when we walk around a habitat conservation area nearby.

And I have started to pick up the needle again. I am working on "Boo" by Sharon Pope, from the Just CrossStitch magazine (2009, not sure which issue). I have had this pattern in my to-do pile for years. Even had the fabric and materials all pulled together in a ziploc bag with all my other stash. Since it is October, I thought it would be a good project. 

The Kreinik threads called for all glow in the dark. I have used these before in another Halloween project I stitched years ago - "Trick or Treat". 

I am not sure where "Trick or Treat" is. I have a feeling it is hanging on a pant hanger in the back of my closet. I love X-stitching, but finishing my things is something I don't do very often.

Oh well...it is time I finish up right now. It is nice to be back and will probably take a look to see what everyone has been up to. Until next time...

Live, Laugh and Love!

Lisa