Here’s another blog. The world is full of them.

I’ll start out by saying that this blog is not to teach you something. It’s actually quite the opposite. I’m the one who needs the lesson. I’m learning to be a better person, the person that I always wanted to be and now I have the chance to be. 

At age 41, I find myself in a place where I am almost unrecognizable to myself. When you spend the first 20 years of your adult life under circumstances that bring out the worst in you, you may not recognize the best in you when its over. This is my diary for finding the best in myself again. I have lots of ideas and fantasies.  Many of them will be attempted and subsequently abandoned. I don’t think it’s an unhealthy thing.  There are some constants in my life: I adore my husband and my pets, I enjoy cooking and sewing.  But the big thing you’ll be reading about, something that has changed my life for the better more than anything else ever has, is Florida and what it has to offer me.

The word temperate has multiple definitions. In climatology, the temperate zone is defined as the area of the Earth between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle in the Northern Hemisphere or between the tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle in the Southern Hemisphere. These are places in the world that have four seasons with varying degrees of pleasantness.  Jimmy Buffett wrote in a song that he is “umbilically connected” to it. Temperate is also synonymous with words such as unflappable, moderate, level-headed and frugal.  It all says GOALS to me!

This is not a vanity project for me,  it’s about accountability.  I’m not horribly photogenic, so this won’t be filled with perfectly staged photos of myself wearing up-to-date fashions in gorgeous locations.   I would describe my personal style as beachcomber.  I have spent the past six months consigning everything that can’t be worn in the sand and surf.  This is not about Palm Beach glamor, this is about happiness and contentment on a retirement budget.  I will fail from time to time, but hopefully we will learn together from each failure and success. 

To families with or without kids, empty nesters, minimalists, retirees, or anyone who is looking for a different life somewhere warmer, I won’t say it’s a piece of key lime pie.  But the journey is the big adventure and I’m ready to set sail.  

Erin