55 Things # 16 – Hugs

55 Things, Reflections

Click here to learn more about my “55 Things” and here to view previous posts in this series.

IMG_4458

Today I am sending out hugs. Hugs are the thing I miss most during this time of physical distancing. While I am blessed to be “on lockdown” with my husband and we are hugging, kissing and slow dancing in the living room as much as we ever do, I miss hugging my sisters, my daughters and grandkids and other family members and friends.

Now I’m very old school and have no idea where to find a big, yellow faced, animated, emoji with it’s arms open wide to represent the hugs I want to send, but I do remember sending hand written letters in the mail and sending hugs and kisses by adding O’s and X’s after my signature.

The rest of this page is just filled with hugs (O’S) enough for all of my followers and everyone who normally reads. If by any chance this post gets more views than it has hugs I will add as many O’ as needed so that everyone gets a hug.

Thanks for visiting and be well.

What are you missing most nowadays?

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

34 thoughts on “55 Things # 16 – Hugs”

    1. Thank you. We are blessed to have the farm where we can get out and walk and freely enjoy being outdoors but it is hard not having others around to share it with. Are you still able to travel to your little red house? In Michigan people who have property in northern parts have been told that they can not travel to there.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I am so sorry it has taken so long to get back on this comment. I have been taking some time off to get some things done and sometimes will check in for a quick answer back on my comments but forgot to check others.

        Today I am going to put some time aside to write up my updates for April and was going to address your question in my post. I am also going to include this post of yours as one of my favorites, so sweet.No, sadly we have not been able to get up north and some strange things are happening, at least rumors coming from the locals.

        I did write about the scary part of this pandemic here in my state in an earlier comment back to you but I didn’t want to scare you so I deleted it. Think that may have been wrong, passing news on to be careful is never a bad thing.

        Some of these reports coming to us are about strangers showing up in town, knocking on doors in the early morning hours making up stories to try to get in, scaring people or waving to them to pull over on the dirt road into town, which is in the middle of the woods where there are miles and miles of nothing.

        Also a man is now missing up there but he isn’t a local.A few months back the dirt road we take to drive down into the valley (which is a beautiful drive) they discovered another man but he was dead and off in the woods. The news hasn’t said anything more about that but then news stories are so strange now with what they are allowed to report and that includes little old local news.

        They are treating city dwellers (us) not kindly when they run into them in some areas up there. We have friends up there but we have been noticing this for a year now with being treated differently when shopping in the local shops but it is only about 30% of the people.I fear with this virus though that number will be higher now.

        Everyone is afraid of the virus and they don’t want city people who have vacation homes going up there. People from California and Texas are flooding the woods and living in them even though they are not close to water sources.

        There are reports of them waiting in the back of stores for deliver trucks and stealing cases of water, then loading them into their cars. Most of them don’t have trailers or trucks just small cars. Those roads up on the rim and wooded areas are rough roads.

        The campsites are all closed up there for now so all these people that came in from two states to find a place in the woods to live just drive into more secluded areas.

        We have the largest Ponderosa pine forest in the world here. Lot of places to get lost. Come summer the heat gets bad even there. I fear for this forest. If these people who steal and don’t respect things start getting mad, there is the potential of fires and we all know a lot of these wildfires out in the world are started on purpose. The quickest way to cause chaos is to start something and there are people out there it seems like that are doing this on purpose more and more. The closer we get to our election, the more I fear.

        Kind of long…sorry. Anyway should have just given you a quick answer of No we haven’t had a chance to go up to check on things. Our lock down ends Friday so we might go up in the next couple of weeks…we will see. Stay safe and I will keep everyone in my prayers. Big hugs back to you all from Arizona.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Wow that is really some scary stuff. Our stay at home orders have been extended until May 15th but some of the restrictions have been relaxed. People who own second homes can now travel to them but rental vacation properties can not operate. If you do travel to your little red house please be safe. It seems that there is more to worry about than just the virus. Thanks for the hugs and prayers and sharing my post.

        Like

  5. Oh, I miss hugs too! I am a hugger. On Easter, we dropped off our grandsons’ Easter baskets on their front porch. They saw us and ran outside and wanted to give us hugs. My son had to stop them. Ugh!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. So far I have I haven’t been close enough to my kids or grandkids to hug them and it’s probably best because being that close would make it harder not to. A couple of my sisters have stopped by to get eggs and I found myself saying out loud “no hugs” just to remind us because it is something we do naturally.

      Like

      Reply

  8. Lots of hugs to you Ruth. I miss being close many days and since it may be that I don’t get home to Michigan again this summer, here’s some until next time.
    0000 000

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. Thank you Ruth! I needed that hug. I am missing so much these days. Good food, museums, etc. Just plain exploring. I can’t think too much about it. Hope you are well!

    Like

    Reply

  14. That is very sweet Ruth and I remember doing XOXOXO after my name as well, on letters or cards to my grandmother and my parents through the years. A fellow blogger, Kim of Red Dirt Farms, also does XOXO in her blogs and comments. I am pretty lucky to still be self-contained and nowhere I need to go – just walks at this time, and I’ve been working from home since 2011, so there were no big changes there. I do miss going out on weekends for a long drive to a bigger park with the camera – I’ve stopped doing that as I don’t want to have to be gassing up any more than necessary, thus steering clear from potential C-virus germs as long as I am able to. Since you and I both live in Michigan, we are well aware that our state is third in the nation for bad stats as to cases/deaths – so we’re wise to stay put and be prudent. I hope that by the time the 2020 crop of sunflowers have “pans” this big, we are rid of this virus for good and never hear its name again.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I think in some ways it is more than just luck for you Linda. Your practice of keeping stocked up has served you well. You probably realize this but when you start to run low on supplies plan to shop early especially if you decide to use a shopping service. Last week my dad decided to put in a grocery order at Kroger which I will pick up and deliver for to him. He was not able to get a spot until this Thursday (a whole week later). Thankfully he had enough to get by until then.
      Absolutely we will hold onto the hope that those smiling sunflowers bring great things. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I didn’t realize there was such a long waiting list Ruth, wow! That is just amazing. My mom did this for years and if we needed something I got off the bus and picked up a few things and walked home (that was when we might have had bad weather). So I have made one food order from Amazon – I like Sea Salt Triscuit crackers and had about 8 or 9 boxes that I bought for Winter left, but since we had a mild Winter, I ended up going shopping for non-pantry items (dairy mostly or bread, some lunchmeat) once a month so never used them. But they get eaten up fast since they are small boxes, so I ordered twelve (that was the box that came last Monday that the squirrels were inquisitive about). They had something on Amazon where you could sign up for renewing your order automatically, but I didn’t do that and when I get to the last four boxes, I’ll order again. I am concerned about bringing fresh food home right now – so will use peanut butter on the crackers and have the foil packages of tuna and salmon that I use with them also. I have powdered milk from Winter too – I use it in my oatmeal and drink it too. I hope by the time I use up the rest of the canned items, and everything else, that things are more stable overall by then. Yes, those sunny-looking sunflowers were a winner for sure Ruth.

        Liked by 1 person

I would love to hear from you.