Friendship

“If you never had friends, you never lived life.”
I don’t know who came up with that quote but it did catch my attention. What would life be like without friends? Quite dismal, I’m thinking.

When we are young our circle is quite small, beyond our siblings and cousins, it mostly consists of our age group at school. Isn’t it hilarious that when we are little we think those that are five years older or five years younger are waaaay out of our league? Fast forward a few years and the age gap seems to shrink. I’m not exactly sure when that happens? Or perhaps it doesn’t happen for everyone. I don’t claim to be an expert on the topic. Do you like to be just with your age group? I’d like to know.

Personally, I think it is healthy to have friends from all age groups. I love the friends I have among the children and young people. I can learn so much from listening to the seniors, so it is essential to have those as friends too. In this sense of friendship I’m thinking of a friend as someone who is easy to visit with, share ideas with and just generally be at ease around them. Not a lot of social posturing.

Then there are also ‘best friends’ who are in a bit of a closer category. Even if you are away from them for years, when you are with them you can quickly connect and spend hours catching up. Like a year ago when several of my friends from school days showed up and we talked, laughed and enjoyed each other for several days. Then they flew back home to their respective places on the globe. Truly it was fun while it lasted.

When I’ve pondered friendship the last while I’ve realized that a variety of friends fills a variation of needs in ones life. Like I don’t think of some friends as essential and some as not. They are each one very much needed! Every one!

This topic feels huge if you really would expound on what all friendship is. I’m sure it means different things to each one, and probably depends where we are in life too. So, just so y’all know, if you are in my life, I really do appreciate you!

I’d love to hear from you on what friendship means to you. Perhaps I will add to this topic later on. Feel free to post comments to this blog by clicking the “Read more” tab or you can WhatsApp me too.

I’ve decided to blog from my website since the previous blog site I was using was separate it was harder to find. So you can check back here if you are interested. Of course, while you are here check out my candles. I have a few heart shaped dough bowls left. When they are gone I don’t plan to get more for awhile. I do plan to keep the oval ones in stock though. And I have an idea ‘growing’ for a Mother’s Day gift.

Thanks for your friendship!

A New Year Begins…

Ready or not, January 2023 is here!

Are you a person who makes New Year’s Resolutions? Perhaps you are the one who spends the first part of January organizing and getting your ducks in a nice, neat row. Like by now, you are ready to visit the tax accountant to get on with filing last years taxes. Hooray, if that’s you!

While I do like to be organized, and my goals would be to get on with things like taxes and bill paying, reality is sometimes a bit different. Actually, could be a lot different! Just a side note here. In my working out life of doing bookkeeping for others, it was nice to realize the different types of people. The Johnny on the Spot folks and the Procrastinating Joe’s made it so things didn’t have to be done all at once. But there can be stresses working for Johnny as well as Joe! ‘Nough said. I won’t ever write a book on that topic, but the material for one would be there. I think I’d rather toss that material in the pond of forgetfulness! So no worries if I ever worked for you and you read this!

At this point I’m still thinking about 2022 instead of blazing new trails in 2023. The last 4 months of the year I had a fun candle season. I bet you didn’t know there was such a thing as “candle season”! For me there is! I’ll explain some of the highlights.

In July, my talented nephew Dwight, got my website up and running. That made a huge difference! (By the way, if you ever need a website built, let me know and I’ll put you in touch! He is great to work with and does a great job!) The website made it so I could easily direct customers to my products. I think it was easier for my customers to view and purchase also! Now I can track what sells as well as make changes or additions to products much easier than my previous online store.

August was spent getting my stash of products built up. I started having parties for candles the first part of September and before I knew it my stash was disappearing. Tis a good problem, but I was kept on my toes making candles, keeping wax and fragrances on hand etc. Some places are still sooooo slow in getting the orders sent out. At one point I was waiting and waiting on wax!

School started back and I was excited to get back into my schedule of tutoring. It is something that I do enjoy very much! I have been doing it about 6 years now. During school months, that takes priority.

So, the time flew by! I did have a couple of events in my garage, one in Nov. and another in Dec. Those are always fun! I’ve decided that works much better for me with my health limitations versus trying to pack up and go to the many vendor events in the community. Those are fun too but just not as workable. With a party the first part of December and other orders coming in, and customers visiting my ‘garage store’ it was a very busy, fun month. Also there was family that came out for Christmas and that was a great time! My parents even got to help with candle orders! :)

Just a fun fact; From Sept. 1st - Dec 31st I bought and used up 12 boxes (40# each) of wax. That of course doesn’t count the candles I made up previous to Sept.

Thank you to each one who has been a part of this candle season! I appreciate each of you! I have some ideas for the new year, so check back on my website occasionally to see what’s new! Thank you for your interest.

Rita