YouTube videos capture people’s interest, but instead of curating content from outside my world, I’m going to share a couple videos I recorded last year in April during National Poetry Month.

Videos of poetry from Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry

In December, I released the second book in a five-book poetry series, Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry. These poems show the variety of topics in the book.

Our Names

I share my names with my grandmothers, but this poem is about sharing my name with my paternal grandmother. She had a major influence on me, living in the same town.

Spirit Coyote

I love magical realism, but I base this poem on a real experience I had one morning on a walk.

Videos of poetry from Is My Truth Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey

This book demonstrates how I maneuvered a poetry class and its requirements, much different than my free verse poetry. This book is permanently FREE, so go and download it:

https://laradasfreebook.com/truth

Cinquain

“The cinquain, also known as a quintain or quintet, is a poem or stanza composed of five lines.”

https://poets.org/glossary/cinquain

Quatrain

“In poetry, a stanza is like a paragraph, and a quatrain is a stanza of exactly four lines, often with an alternating rhyme

pattern.”

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/quatrain

Finally,

I love reading my own words—that’s the reason why I love doing audiobooks. These videos are snippets of me and my words! If they resonate with you, let me know! It’s so rewarding to get feedback.

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My Newest Books

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Buy My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

Let Me Tell You a Story 

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

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A typical day in my life today overflows. From morning to night time, I fill it to the max. I have enjoyed being busy—that hasn’t changed!

Morning

My day started at 7:15 AM with the alarm going off. That gave me time to charge my iWatch, put Cequa in my eyes for my severe dry eye condition and do a Netty Nose wash for my sinus issues!

Every morning I try to write my Morning Pages, a suggestion from Julia Cameron in her famous book, The Artist Way. I write three pages in a spiral notebook, and I’m on notebook #193.

When we moved to Panamá we decided to change our lifestyle, so we only have one vehicle. My dear husband got up early to go to the gym to exercise, so I could go to my Zumba class at 8:15 AM.

I started Zumba last week, and I love it. Before the pandemic in 2020, I had done Zumba regularly. I love the dance moves, the Latin music and the fun. The Zumba instructor here is fantastic. Today, the studio wasn’t overflowing like it was last week, so we had more room to move around.

But I forgot to put the lidocaine patch on my leg for the nerve damage, and it has hurt most of the day!

Then I rushed home to eat a late breakfast about 9:45 AM. I grabbed a quick shower and got ready for our next adventure.

The library in Boquete has Chats every Monday for the expat community here on a variety of topics. As I passed the front desk, I picked up my library card I had applied for last week—now I can check out books at the library—yahoooo!

Today we learned about Burial & Cremation here in Panamá. That may sound gruesome, but my husband is 85 and I’m 72, so we’re nearing that part of life that these topics apply to us. The Chat informed us of some major differences here versus the United States, so it was well worth it.

Noon Time

Afterwards, we drove downtown and ate at El Sabrosón, a restaurant we hadn’t eaten at yet. They served cafeteria-style, so I could pick out what I wanted: fish, salad and plantains. What delicious meal! There are about 125 restaurants in Boquete and we want to sample each one!

While we ate, a friend texted me to see if I could loan her a dongle for her Mac computer. I assured her we could bring it over later.

My husband just happened to pick that area of town because it was across the street from his favorite ice cream shop, Saori’s. For dessert, I had a scoop in a cup of maracuya pie, passion fruit!

Afternoon

When we got home, Lin and I watched an episode of Castle, a rerun of the detective show. We’ve gotten hooked on it. Then we both started a nap, and I elevated my leg and iced my foot, but I had scheduled phone call with a recovery friend who lives in California, so I cut off my nap. We had so much fun catching up on our two lives. She moved before we did, so our lives have parallels in getting settling in a new community and make friends and starting over.

After my phone call, Lin and I followed the pin my friend sent me to find her house. Here in Panamá, we have no addresses like in the states. So a pin on a map program is the only way to find someone’s house.

We had a lovely time at their house because it was our first time there. It’s a solar house and quite large for here. She and her partner enjoyed showing us around. I had to cut it short though, because I had to finish the tax preparation for our family ranch.

When we got home, I called a doctor here to set up two appointments for Lin and me so we have a primary care physician here. We will see the doctor on February 9. I’m excited to get that done!

Evening

After that, I grabbed my laptop, mouse, mousepad, check register, a pen and highlighter and moved to patio to enjoy the beautiful day and figure out the problem for our ranch account. Somewhere, I had a mistake in the Open-Source bookkeeping app I use because its balance didn’t match my check register. So I looked and looked. I found one major mistake—whew! But I couldn’t find a $200 one.

As I worked at the patio table, my husband busied himself with planting to beautiful plants he bought last week at the Tuesday Market in the front yard near me. When he got to the bougainvillea, he asked my opinion about where to put it. After he showed me his choices, I agreed with one, then he chose another place—that’s the way it goes!

Before eating dinner, I checked email in two accounts. I found a good deal on a promotion for my second book, When Will Papa Get Home? for February. I’m trying to do a better job of organizing my promotions for my books this year, so I’ve identified one per month, then overlapped a couple of them. Going through my email drives me crazy because I got so many spammers offering to do book reviews and they are all spammers! What a waste of time for me!

I had to stop away from the bookkeeping task, so we ate a light dinner of a small slice of cheese, papaya, mango, bananas and prunes. I add the prunes for my stomach. As we ate, we watched another Castle episode.

When I finished eating, I picked up my knitting and almost finished another baby bootie I’m working on. I joined the Boquete Knitters and Quilters group and they give baby and children homemade items to the native people here in need. I love it.

Then I returned to the bookkeeping project and found the $200 mistake. So I sent the paperwork to our CPA. That’s a big load off my mind!

Finally,

Here I am writing this blog to share a typical day in my life—a retired teacher turned author turned expat who co-owns a ranch. I love my rich full days—how about you? Could you keep up with me?

Later Tonight

When I finish this, I still have my Spanish lesson to do on Duolingo. I have 333 consecutive days stacked up!

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My Newest Books

---

Buy My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

Let Me Tell You a Story 

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

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