Living well with hobbies
BROKEN BOW - The activities in your life that bring you enjoyment are part of Living Well.
We are sharing with you some of what the Chief staff enjoys when they are not putting words and photos on paper!
Christi Cooley is the Office Manager; Christi has been answering the phone and greeting you as you walk through the door for seven years now. She said, “Don’t laugh but watching storms brings me enjoyment!”
Christi explained growing up, she had a fear of storms. To overcome that fear, she started reading and studying the weather, then watching it. With technology advancing like it has, she can log onto her home computer and watch storms forming in other parts of the country. It is a daily activity for her.
“Tornadoes are evil,” she went on to say. “When you have something that can wipe out a building but leave items sitting on a table, that intrigues me. They are a thing of beauty as long as they are not causing destruction.”
David White has been with the Chief for 26 years. David has a passion for woodworking and for music. He has written and composed songs. If you have heard David sing, you know why he has the passion for music.
When life took David’s first wife, Deb, from him, he turned to his music for comfort. To fill his long and lonely hours, David wrote a song.
David writes with a regular keyboard that he connects to a computer with a program that will write out the music as he is playing it.
He also has a love for woodworking. He says the pieces are nothing special but the people in his life who have been lucky enough to receive a piece from him believe otherwise.
When Editor Mona Weatherly started with the Chief eight years ago, her hobby was creative writing. Now, with writing so much during the week, when she escapes to her country home you will find her working on a project, refinishing a piece of furniture found at Junk Jaunt or pulling out her painting supplies.
While in 4-H, she painted a horse on a wood shingle at 4-H Camp at Halsey and received a 4-H art medal. Later, her mother liked a picture on a calendar and asked Mona to paint it. The image was put on canvas; the print hangs on Mona’s living room wall at home, the home she grew up in and now the home she and husband Kenn reside in.
Mona refers to herself as “self-taught,” and also enjoys local classes when offered, and working with other mediums such as pastels and wool.
Reading has always been an important part of Meghan G’Schwind’s life. Meghan is our assistant layout and editorial person.
Growing up on a ranch in Wyoming, her family were readers. She saw her parents read every night before going to bed. The family shared the same interest in books and could talk about the book together once they each had read it.
Meghan stated, “Read
ing is something you can do anytime of year, snuggle up at home or take it with you.”
In her case, before son Wade came along in early December, I would see Meghan reading from a book on her lunch hour as a way to take a break from work.
“Reading is something I plan to pass on to my children and instill a love of reading in them early,” she went on to say.
Kelli Loos has filled a void for the Chief in the sports area, coming in to the office one or two days a week and looking up game results and stats to add to the cut lines of the photos.
For Kelli, sewing is her stress reliever. Taught by her mom and sewing in 4-H gave her a base for the craft and, as time went on, she taught herself more ways to use the talent of sewing.
“On snow days when we didn’t have school, I would get my chores done and then head to the sewing machine.” Kelli said. With always having a stash of “go to” fabric and patterns at home, she could start immediately. “I could go back to school with something new to wear,” stated Kelli about her snow day creations.
When Kelli and husband, Trent, were married, the wedding gown, and wedding attendants’ gowns were all made by Kelli.
As her family grew, she could keep her daughters in new creations with her talent for sewing. Now for her nieces’ and nephews’ graduation gifts, she gets their treasured t-shirts and, instead of losing them to storage, makes them into quilts. The memories that took the individual through their high school days can keep them warm as they head off to college.
Many individuals turn a hobby into a business; that was my case. I grew up with a camera in my hands. I stepped into the world of owning my own portrait photography business. When you turn your hobby into a business many times, it is not your hobby anymore!
If asked what my hobby is today, it would be my flowers. I grew up on a farm and ranch; growing plants has always been part of my life. We did not have a large garden. Just keeping up with the crops was all there seemed time for except my Mom had roses. As I started my own homes, I planted roses.
In 1997, I attended a Master Gardner’s Workshop and learned how to create a field of wild flowers. I have done that successfully three times , one 7,000 square feet in Gothenburg; another 1,000 in Cozad and now 4,000 in Broken Bow. Each year the patch comes back but it’s never the same each year. There is some tending but not as much work as one would think for the space.
I have continued with the roses. I now have plants that give me roses all summer and usually I have three to six flowers in a vase through out the summer in my home.
Some will call me crazy but in an early summer Saturday morning, you will find me with my flowers, with my gardening gloves on, my large knife I use to weed in my hand and a small piece of carpet put down to protect my knees. It does not matter if the sweat is rolling down the side of my face. It is quiet time; it is work to keep the beds weed-free. After a week of writing and working on ads, that time lets me refocus and ground myself.
Whatever your hobby is, it is the activity in your life that adds richness. It gives you an escape from the 8-5 day that helps you live your Life Well and continue to look forward!