Welcome to Simplicity & Smiles!

Welcome and glad you have joined me here. I've struggled with the idea of creating and maintaining a blog for some time and have decided that I really need to give it a go this time

around. 

Like all of us, 2020 has brought so many challenges and I'm really ready to return to some kind of normalcy, even though I don't think we will ever have what we've previously experienced when it comes to our "normal". 

I thought I'd give you a little bit of background in case you wonder if this will even be a blog to follow! :-)

In a nutshell: I was a teenage mom/wife that had 4 children and was in a less than healthy marriage for 20+ years. The effects of those formidable years of maturity affected me for years, but I strived to raise and take care of my children in all the ways I never experienced growing up in much the same environment I found myself married into. While not a perfect mother by any means, my children turned out phenomenally well and all are college-educated contributing members of society! That's a win in my book regardless of what we all lived through for so many years. After my marriage ended, I decided to take the dive again - what a disaster that was! No need to get into all the details, but 6 years ago on the day after Christmas - 26 December I was told, "It appears this relationship is over. When can you get out of my house?"

Who knew me standing in the county clerk's office on 31 December 2014 filing divorce papers would be the beginning of the greatest years of my life?!? To say 2015 started off with a *bang* is putting it mildly! During the year I also discovered OneWord365 - where instead of choosing a New Year's resolution, you choose a word to focus on. I liked this idea tremendously and decided to pursue it beginning in 2016. I'll write more in future posts about each year and the experiences, but for now, I will leave you with my words from the past few years.

#simplicity2016; #steadfast2017; #believe2018; #fire2019; #stillness2020; and....2021 to be revealed soon.

I've had some pretty cool years lately with late 2019 being my most *explosive* with the discovery after 50+ years of my paternal biological family! Notice the word for 2019?!? And can we just say, unbeknownst to me, who knew 2020 would really be about "stillness"? Heck, you're pretty much still when you're in lockdown mode!

I believe in authenticity, being passionate and positive, so I hope you'll enjoy the ramblings of a middle-aged Granna that is trying her best to live a life of laughter, living, and love!