Memorial Day is an American holiday on which those who died in active military service are remembered. It’s a day for honoring and mourning people who’ve died while fighting to keep us safe. It’s a time many visit friends and family who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. In 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day. It was traditionally observed on May 30 but is now officially observed on the last Monday in May.
Florida National Cemetery where my grandfather is buried
John McCrae wrote the poem In Flanders Fields in 1915 as a memorial to those who died in a World War I battle fought in a region of Belgium known as the Ypres Salient. McCrae himself treated many of the soldiers injured in that battle and was particularly moved by the death of a close friend, Alexis Helmer. This poem helped popularize the red poppy as a symbol of remembrance.
Gone but not forgotten
In Flanders Fields
BY JOHN MCCRAE In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
Stop by and visit my Instagram page @lookingjoligood. Generally, I post the things that are most important to me such as pictures of food, plants and puppies, but there are pictures of makeup and beauty products as well. I would love for you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. You can find me as Looking Joli Good on both. I would also love to follow you on Instagram and Twitter as well, so let me know your user name in the comment section below!
My grandmother receiving the American flag at my grandfather’s funeral 2018
Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom! I appreciate all that my mom has done for me throughout my life. Among many other things she taught me to be organized and assertive, as well as friendly and inviting to new people . She instilled in me a desire for clean hands and a clean house.😉
I never knew just how much I was loved by my mom until I became a mother myself! Being a mother has been the best and most important and rewarding thing I have ever done.
For some, like me, Mother’s day is a day of happiness and celebrations. Some of us feel surrounded by love on Mother’s Day. We have wonderful mothers and grandmothers and are blessed with great children.
That is not the case for everyone. Some people view Mother’s Day as a painful reminder of loss. Loss of a mother or grandmother, loss of a child, or loss of a relationship, loss of a dream, or loss of expectations. Seeing others celebrate might exacerbate those feelings of loss. So for today, I am saying “Happy Mother’s Day…” to those who are Mothers 💐 to those who are Mothers to be💐 to those who lost Mothers💐 to those Mothers who have lost children💐 to those women who are step-mother’s 💐 to those women who are longing to be Mothers💐 to those women with difficult Mother relationships💐 to those women with difficult child relationships💐 to those women who have chosen not to be Mothers💐 to those women who are dog and cat Mothers💐 to everyone who is celebrating their Mother💐
Stop by and visit my Instagram page as well @lookingjoligood. Generally, I post pictures of the things that are most important to me…food, plants and puppies. There are pictures of makeup and beauty products as well. I would love for you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. You can find me as Looking Joli Good on both. I would also love to follow you on Instagram and Twitter as well, so let me know your user name in the comment section
The Yves Saint Laurent Slim Velvet RadicalMatte Lipstick is a full coverage lipstick that delivers intense and long lasting semi-matte color. It is available in 17 shades ranging from light pinks and nudes to deep vampy reds. It is $39.99 USD for net wt 0.07 oz.
YSL boasts that it’s Slim Velvet RadicalMatte Lipstick is a “comfortable and intensely pigmented semi-matte long lasting lipstick infused with silky oils for comfort and an innovative square bullet for precise application that does not bleed or crack.”💋
As always the Yves Saint Laurent packaging is beautiful and very lux feeling. The square bullet is a nice change to the traditional round bullet that most lipsticks have. The formula is smooth and creamy and comfortable to wear. There is no noticeable scent.
I did find that despite the claims, this shade tended to bleed and wander outside of my lip line. With the square bullet design and creamy formula it is easy to apply, but as with any deeper shade of lipstick it’s a good idea to wear a lip liner. I also noticed that after wearing this lipstick for an extended period of time, and as it wore off, my lips were stained. The staining was an orange shade that looked like I had been eating pasta sauce and gotten it all over my lips…not a good look 😳
Boundless Maroon is not a shade of lipstick that I would normally wear. While I don’t think the shade is a bad match for my skin tone, I do feel since it’s such a dark shade it washes me out. On the bright side, it makes my teeth look super white! If I’d chosen my own shade I would have gone with a light soft pink like 303 rose incitement or a beige nude like 301 nude pulsion.
I’m thankful to be gifted things for consideration, but in this case, it’s kind of a waste since I’m not likely to wear this lipstick very often if ever again. 💄
YSL is a luxury brand with a luxury price tag. The packaging feels lux and the branding is beautiful. To be honest, I feel as if $39 USD is just too much to be paying for a lipstick when there are so many other great lipsticks available at a third of the price.
Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick
If you are interested in other great less expensive lipstick alternatives click HERE to check out my post about the $8 USD Revlon Super Lustrous Lipsticks available in 87 shades and 4 finishes. By clicking HERE you can also read all about what I think about the Maybelline Lip Sensational Lipsticks available in 32 shades and 4 different finishes for only around $9 USD.
What about you? Have you tried any Yves Saint Laurent Slim Velvet Radical Matte Lipsticks? What has your experience been? Did you love it? Hate it? Have you notice anything different from what I found? Did you have any staining or bleeding? Let me know in the comment section below.
When you are shopping online, do you use Rakuten (formerly known as Ebates)? If you are not, you are missing out on free money and should sign up and start using Rakuten today!
It might seem hard to believe that giving away money for free is a real thing and not a scam. Getting paid cash back from Rakuten really is as simple as shopping online and getting paid!!
I realize that it sounds way too good to be true! I had always been a bit skeptical, but it is really a legit thing. I signed up on the recommendation of my sister, since then I have been paid more than $350 by Rakuten all while shopping for things I was already planning to buy.
I have earned $5 cash back today just from the online shopping I have done. I received 4 checks last year, and one of those “Big Fat Checks” that Rakuten sent me was for $65.
It is literally getting paid to shop online for things that I am already buying.
It is so easy! You simply go to theRakuten site, sign up with your name, email, and address, start shopping, and earning cash back! It is that simple
You can either search through their search bar for the site you want to go to, or add their cash back button to your web browser and have the cash back added automatically as you shop.
There are all kinds of sites that you can earn money from, Target, Kohl’sSephora, Ulta, Zappos, and Amazon just to name a few.
If you are interested in earning some money during your daily or holiday online shopping, take a look at Rakuten.
Here is a referral link that they gave me to share with you. I’d love for you to sign up using my referral link, because if you join and spend at least $30 on your usual online shopping we will both get a check for $30! What is better than free money?!
To know Tessie was to love and be loved by Tessie.
Grief…
It is a thing we all have in common, but it looks and feels different to everyone. It comes in its own time… at its own pace…different for everyone.
It’s dealt with in different ways by everyone. Some deal with it in healthy and healing ways, while others may choose ways that are hurtful, destructive, and wounding. Some might choose to bask in it, others try to ignore it and push it away.
It isn’t just death we have to grieve, it’s loss, it’s change, it’s things not going as planned, it’s life not being what was expected.
When grief hurts so much that you can’t breathe, you may wonder if you will survive. You wonder why it has to hurt so badly. But… you keep breathing, keep living, keep surviving, one breath, one hour, one day at a time. Hours turn into days, turn into weeks turn into months, you keep breathing, living, surviving, eventually thriving.
Tears may come when you least expect them. Grief might grasp ahold of you and overwhelm you out of the blue. Just when you think it’s over you might find yourself overcome once again. You might be laughing one second and crying in wracking heaves the next. You might find yourself avoiding certain places or spaces because the memories are too overwhelming.
I have learned that when the grief comes the best thing to do is to let yourself feel it. Don’t push it down or deny yourself the grief. Respect it. Let it overcome you, wash over you. Let yourself feel it fully without being wholly consumed by it. Hold on to it as long as necessary, let it go only when you are thoroughly ready.
I miss that sweet smile.
To know Tessie was to love and be loved by Tessie. She was pure love and sweetness. She was loyal, she was kind, she was sweet, good-natured, and (mostly) patient, except that is, when she wanted someone to play ball with her. Even in her final days when she was so weak, her eyes lit up whenever she saw a tennis ball.
This sweet little dog brought so much happiness to my life.
Tessie was such a large part of my life. My best friend, my ever-present companion, and sidekick. She listened intently to everything I had to say. She was never more than a foot away from me. Despite not being human, I loved her as if she was my own child.
As the years went on and she aged, I did all I could to keep her healthy. Special medicine and diets to prevent her liver disease from progressing. When she went blind I gave her eye drops perfectly on schedule. When I noticed her limping from stiff legs, I rubbed her legs. When I noticed her weight loss, I gave her more treats and added special things to her food to encourage her to eat. When she started having accidents in the house, I made excuses and cleaned them up, not caring about the mess, just happy that she was still with me. As her body started to shut down I did everything I could think of to prolong her life.
As she got older and the end grew closer, I grieved. I grieved every time she had a bad health day. I grieved when she started having seizures at 11 years old. I grieved when she went blind at 13. I grieved the potential of her death for months, even years, before she passed.
I was told many times that when it came time to say goodbye she would let me know. My overwhelming anxiety of losing her wouldn’t listen, couldn’t listen. The grief that I feared so greatly was trying to fool me into thinking that I could ignore what was obvious. I tried to fool myself into reasoning that she still wanted to play ball and she was still eating treats, she was going to bounce back as she had done so many times. But, when the time came to say goodbye, and I was finally ready to listen, she let me know it was ok.
The Vet came to our house so we could be with her as she crossed the rainbow bridge. I held her in my arms as she took her last breath and a piece of me died along with her. Despite knowing that the day was approaching and it was the right decision, I wasn’t ready… I would never be ready. How do you prepare to say goodbye to your best friend?
Gone from my life, but forever in my heart.
In his book The Smell of Rain on Dust Martin Prechtel describes grief this way
“Grief expressed out loud, whether in or out of character, unchoreographed and honest, for someone we have lost, or a country or home we have lost, is in itself the greatest praise we could ever give them. Grief is praise, because it is the natural way love honors what it misses.”
Grief for someone that’s gone isn’t grief for the dead, it’s praise for the fact that they were alive, the fact they were loved.
Saying goodbye to Tessie was a devastating transition in my life. Her absence created a huge shift in my daily life. There is an emptiness in my heart when I think about the loss of her. A part of me was missing. One of my favorite things in life was gone. My heart was broken. I know I feel this way because of the fullness and joy that Tess added to my life.
The grief still gets me sometimes. It sneaks up on me when I least expect it. I still find myself crying at random times… I’m crying now as I write this.
It took me days to recover, weeks to stop crying, months to feel normal again. One year later…
Grief…
It is a thing we all have in common, but it looks and feels different to everyone. It comes in its own time… at its own pace…different for everyone.
My best friend forever, my loyal companion. There will always be a Tessie-sized hole in my life. She will be loved forever and missed always. Tessie Mae: April 30,2006-August 11, 2020 🐼❤️
My best friend, forever in my heart.
Stop by Instagram and visit my page @lookingjoligood. We’ve got a great community of kind people over there. Generally, I post mostly pictures of food, plants, sunsets, and puppies, but there are lots of pictures of makeup and beauty products as well. 😉
I would love for you to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can find me as Looking Joli Good on all three. I would also love to follow you on Instagram and Twitter as well, so let me know your user name in the comment section below!
The older I get the more important my daily skin care choices become. I recently decided to add Encapsulated Retinol into my skincare routine. While retinol care sometimes cause redness and irritations, it turned out to be a great decision for my skin. I wish I’d added it into my skincare routine sooner.
When used consistently Encapsulated Retinol is an effective product for improving the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, skin texture and adding radiance to the skin’s appearance.
Skincare is such a personal thing. What works for one person can cause another person to breakout. For me, when it comes to skincare I find that my skin responds well to Cerave products. I recently used up this tube of Cerave Skin Renewing Cream Serum. I’ve really enjoyed its effects on my skin. I feel as if my skin felt smoother and looked more radiant due to consistently using this product.
With its exclusive Encapsulated Retinol and ceramide complex that Cerave is known for, Cerave claims that its Skin Renewing Cream Serum helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Helps to add radiance to the skin and restores the protective skin barrier.
The packaging has been changed since I originally purchased this product.
MVE Technology: This patented delivery system continually releases moisturizing ingredients
Encapsulated retinol: Helps smooth fine lines and wrinkles
Ceramides: Help maintain the skin’s natural barrier
Hyaluronic acid: Helps retain the skin’s natural moisture
Niacinamide: Helps calm the skin
Non-comedogenic and fragrance-free
Developed with dermatologists
CeraVe Skin Renewing Cream Serum is designed to help reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles while helping to repair and restore the skin barrier, resulting in brighter, smoother skin that looks healthy and radiant. It contains an encapsulated 1 percent retinol and ceramide complex, which stabilizes and delivers the retinol into the skin gradually over time so it won’t cause harsh irritation like many retinols. The nongreasy and fast-absorbing formula, also contains vederine, a vitamin D analog known to provide epidermal and skin barrier support.
To use: Apply in small dots where needed around the face and gently smooth until thoroughly absorbed. Use alone or under makeup once or twice a day in the AM and/or PM.
You can check out all the different types of skin care products available on their website by clicking HERE, at Target by clicking HERE, or Walmart by clicking HERE. You can visit their Instagram page by clicking @cerave.
While you are over on Instagram, stop by and visit my page as well @lookingjoligood. Generally, I post mostly pictures of food, plants, sunsets, and puppies, but there are lots of pictures of makeup and beauty products as well. 😉 What about you? Have you tried any Cerave products? What has your experience been? Have you notice any difference in your skin? Did you have any sensitivities or irritations? Let me know in the comment section below.
*Some of the above links are affiliate links
I would love for you to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can find me as Looking Joli Good on all three. I would also love to follow you on Instagram and Twitter as well, so let me know your user name in the comment section below!
Warnings: Avoid contact with eyes & lips. If contact occurs, rinse thoroughly with water. If discomfort occurs during the first application, space out the applications until skin adjusts. Apply a sunscreen while using this product.
I love working out in the privacy of my own home! I hope that these weekly workouts help encourage you along your healthier lifestyle journey!
“This 12-minute workout uses a dumbbell to do standing ab exercises, all while getting your heart rate up for bonus cardio. Tighten and tone your tummy with this no crunch, no plank workout. Great for those who have back pain or problems doing ab workouts on the mat. Options for all levels!”
Remember to keep proper form, warm up before, and stretch after you exercise! No excuses, just do it!
Are you enjoying these “No Gym? No Problem!” posts? If so, you can check out the rest by clicking HERE!
If you have been around Looking Joli Good for any amount of time, you know that I love to workout! When I hurt myself last year, once I finally admitted to myself that I could no longer work out, I didn’t know what to do with myself.
It’s been a really long year of healing and very slow progress. Since I have finally made some major progress in the healing department, and I have begun to work out.
I’ve been dying to get back into a regular workout routine. While I am still not healed enough to jump back into my previous level of exercising, I’ve started to do some simple workouts. I’ve also learned to listen to my body and take it super slowly. There is no rush and no point in reinjuring myself or undoing any progress.
I have restarted back at square one… although that’s not even true, it is actually more like square -100. I decided there is no place better to pick up than exactly where I started 11 years ago… working out with Leslie Sansone.
She is so encouraging and always so happy. She does extremely simple exercises that are easy to follow along with. Despite her exercises being low impact and easy to follow, I still have to simplify and modify the movements. It is all part of listening to the cues that my body is giving me.
If you decide to join me on my road to recovering my physique, you can start with this happy one-mile walk. Don’t forget to keep good form, warm-up before, and stretch out after the exercises! Listen to your body and do what is within your ability. Work up to a higher level of activity as you feel you can and as you get stronger.
I love working out in the privacy of my own home! I hope that these weekly workouts help encourage you along your healthier lifestyle journey!
Looking Joli Good 