four years and gratitude

today is the fourth anniversary of the blog- started on the kitties birthday!

four years ago I began this blog - my only sister had just died and my mother was very ill (she passed away in December of four years ago) I was starting out on a new phase of my life - working only part time (hence semifreelife) which 15 months later became even less than part time (consulting only) and finally in January of this year - 2014 - to full retirement...

a lot has happened since I started the blog- and I have been many places along the way- I write this post from "on the road" and will get back to the Italy trip (we're off to Venice next) as soon as I get back home...

it has been a ton-o-fun sharing my retirement process and blog life with my readers- so thanks for coming along for the ride. a side benefit of blogging (in the mixed blessing category) is that I don't have to look too far to find out the answer to questions about things I don't remember - LOL with labeling and search functions I can usually find the name of that restaurant in Paris or where I was on any given day of a trip...

in an aside- my Uber driver on Monday morning mentioned that he doesn't know his daughter's phone number anymore ("I used to know hundreds of numbers but now they are all in the cell phone") and I laughed telling him I had to look up my own home phone number in Florida just that morning because I didn't know it....

the world changes quickly - and days pass sometimes without noting the fullness and richness of the blessings we have- in some ways the blog helps capture that - and acknowledge the blessings along the way.

and speaking of blessings- happy 9th birthday Lucy and Penny (two little furry blessings - and sometimes aggravations- LOL) we're happy to share our lives with you!

four years ago my husband asked me why I was blogging and told me that no one would want to read about my cats LOL- well oddly enough apparently my more or less stream of consciousness (or swamp as my buddy TB calls it- LOL) musings have attracted roughly 42,000 views in four years so someone must find me some what interesting - LOL

so thanks again for coming along!