SO many things changing for me...some good and some better!

Hello to my wonderful friends! I'm sorry I've been so remiss about my blogging. I love to blog...you know I do but I feel like so many things are going on in my world right now I just don't have the oomph to get ur' done at the end of a long day.

I have happy news that I've lost -26 pounds since 8/1. It is slow, slow, SLOW but at least I'm not longer gaining which is a miracle in and of itself.

I have done this by dilegently watching my carb intake keeping them insanely low. Less than 20 g on most days. Sure there has been a little slip up here and there but for the most part I'm completely dedicated to peeling off some of this lock down weight and of course my grief weight that I've packed on since losing my beautiful husband.

I'm tryin my BEST to move forward by taking good care of my health..both mentally and physically.

Our grief group was disbanded because of the pandemic but we have managed to gather via Zoom for a few weeks. I can see that the end id near for that as well. Our leader has now decided to hold the meetings every other week rather than weekly.

I've been thinking how sad it is that we don't regularly get together. This group has become my lifeline during this lockdown.I've been thinking of starting our own grief group away from and seperate from the one offered by Hope Hospice which is who took excellent care of my darling husband.

It's been almost 16 months since this wonderful man has left my world and until I see him again in heaven I have a whole lot of time to fill. I'm certainly never going to replace him...it would be impossible but I also know he would want me to attempt to find someone to support me and make me happy through the remainder of my days.

So guess what...I started a Meetup group for Widows and Widowers age 55 + here in the Bonita area.

I'm thinking of it as almost a community service. There are SO many lonely seniors here in FL...soooo many!

I see it every day in my little consignment gallery. I strike up conversations all the time and find that a couple moves to FL expecting to live happily ever after and one of them falls ill and passes away. The spouse left behind is shell shocked. In many cases they do not have their family down here and now especially with the pandemic they are stuck here alone.

So I started a Meetup group and named our little social group 'Together We Are Stronger'...yup totally stole the name from one of my favorite Spark groups but it was so appropriate for highlighting the purposed of the widow/widowers group that I couldn't come up with a better name.

So my little group just went live and it's pretty exciting. Meetup.com 'Together We Are Stronger' Widows/Widowers age 55 plus.check it out if you'd like. I worked hard on the introduction and what the group hopes to achieve. Now the big thing is to find a venue for our first Meet and Greet. That will prove to be a challenge with all of the problems with the virus occuring here in SW FL. But I've got til mid Novemeber to come up with a place.

I've also recruited a few of my grief group friends to assist me. I really don't need another project (and this will be a big one because I expect a LOT of members to join...but I'm game for it. No one else has stepped up to fill this huge void and I guess I'm the one to do it.

I started a very successful Newcomers group many years ago so I have a good idea of the work I'm in for but again...we need a social outlet for grieving seniors and together we are ALWAYS stronger aren't we?

While researching for the Meetup group I stumbled across an online dating site and I'm finding it to be fairly successful in matching up my interests with some of theirs. Even if someone doesn't completely click I will at least have even more friends so it's all good.

I'm hoping our snowbird season comes back. I have great foot traffic in the gallery but no such great sales. I'm hoping that things improve as more people hopefully return.

So other than working hard to lose this lockdown and grief weight and looking around at the big ole' world trying to decide what is still in it for me I've been a busy bee.

I surely miss you my dear friends. I appreciate SO much when you check in on me and I can assure you that I'm always around even if I don't check in every single day.

Be good, hunker down for winter, VOTE, and be safe!