A fresh start

Last week, I spent a day cleaning out a couple closets in my office. As I dug through boxes of just stuff, I found stacks of journals and diaries I wrote in through the years. I was reminded quickly how much I love to write… which is something I’ve just not been doing much of lately.

I wrote Musician’s Widow for 10 years. And it was what I needed it to be at that time. But over the last couple of years, I grew to feel confined by it. I started the blog with the original intention of it being about life married to a musician, with posts having a focus on that side of my life.

I never really followed that focus, but it was always in the back of my mind.

Since I started this blog, however, life has expanded for me. I’ve delved into so many different directions professionally, and personally I’ve just found myself laughing at the beautifully ridiculous nature of life. As such I no have come to longer really see the blog as the creative outlet I need.

As I stopped cleaning to read my words written at such a young age (some going back as far as fifth grade, others right in the middle of high school), I loved the freedom a journal gave me. No topic was off limits… I wrote for myself more than for an audience.

I wanted that again. So as often happens when I clean out closets, I found myself thinking clearer than I have in awhile. I remembered an old domain name I’d purchased years ago, but flat out never did anything with it. And it just felt right… Mattox Live was born.

That blog will be more like a journal, where no topic is off limit. I will be exploring where this blog goes right along with any readers I have.

What about Musician’s Widow? Well, its not going away any time soon. There’s some wonderful posts over here that I am so proud of having written! I can’t just say good bye to them or it. I’ll decide in time what happens with it… for right now it will probably stand more as an archive of the first 10 years of my life married to a musician. But I may still update here and there… but in the in between time…

Please check out and follow Mattox Live.

 

First third reflections

My to do list is sitting right beside my keyboard, glowering at me that I dare to take the time to move “blog” up on the priority list. However, every day, lost among the names of people I need to email — either with questions, thanks or just to follow-up on something — always is my long-time creative outlet of written word. Sometimes you just have to tell the rest of the world to wait a minute, and you do your thing.

My husband commented once that, “You always have someone to email.” And he’s right. I suppose to live and die by my email these days. But I love the paper trail it gives me, and I hate making phone calls. So it’s a win/win situation in that respect. But in the same breath, sometimes it gets overwhelming and you really do start to feel like you’re being pulled in multiple directions at once.

As a result, a third of the year 2017 is almost over, and I feel like in some ways I’ve barely acknowledged it began. The first part of the year is always busy with tax season, as I go back and forth from Nashville to Texas. I am so grateful I can help with the family business, and the time I get with family and long-time best-friends is so priceless.

With Mom & Dad on Easter Sunday

Touring season started early this year for my husband, which worked well with me being gone so much this first third of the year. I wasn’t home any way, so he might as well be out working as well! But now that I am settling back into Nashville full-time, I’m having to get into the mode of not seeing him (more importantly, get reacquainted with lots of alone time!) and working around his crazy schedule.

Last Friday was Aggie Muster. This was my ninth year organizing it here in Middle Tennessee. Luckily big parts of it I now have on auto-pilot, but even more importantly I have people who are absolute rock stars taking parts of the job off my plate. I don’t get nearly as stressed as I did in the past! It went off so smoothly this year, and we’re already formulating a plan for 2018.

Middle Tennessee A&M Club Muster – 2017

I love Muster. It humbles me. It lifts me up. It embodies what it means to be a Texas Aggie.

Now with Muster behind me, though, I can shift a lot of my focus over to the ACC-SEC-B1G Golf Tournament I’ve helped with the last several years. Fixing up the flyer for it is on the to do list that is glaring at me.

I have photography things on my mind as well. In a long story short, I have in my possession a lot of camera gear that once belonged to our wedding photographer. He passed away a couple years ago, and to now have his gear… well, it too humbles me and challenges me to work harder at making my work as a photographer better. His love for photography and his memory will most certainly live on… Of this I promise myself, his memory and his (and my!) loved ones who believe in me.

Texas Bluebonnets

One thing about the first third of this year, I certainly didn’t lose any of that “winter weight” one puts on through the holidays. Definitely time to make some changes in how active I am as well as in how I eat. Baby steps there, though. It’s been very Oregon in Nashville recently, as it seemed to rain non-stop for three days. I’m ready for some outside exercise time. I’m also ready to plant some veggies in my yard for healthy eating this summer.

I have lots of home projects I want to do. My  husband may just come home off the road one weekend and not recognize his own home. Wouldn’t that be crazy and cool all at the same time?

I am sure with all I have on my year’s wishlist (as well as that ever-changing and pesky to-do list), the next third of the year will pass just as fast at the first third did. I am not in any need to rush it, though. Time to take a moment to smell the roses and enjoy the world around me.

Even if it means putting it on the to do list.

103/365 : Another sunset