My Life From A Beach Chair

I want to retire in a beach chair on a beach, doesn't matter where, but I want to be able to work anywhere in the world, preferable somewhere warm. For the time being I've planted myself in Nebraska and on Squidoo so I can earn enough money to retire and travel to various beaches around the world.

I'm a land locked Nebraskan who grew up in Connecticut and craves the beach and ocean. Hence my title, "My Life from a Beach Chair", one of my favorite places is the beach, it can be a white sands beach, or a rocky craggy beach as long as there is surf.. Why do I love the ocean so much? It's serene, it's peaceful, it's calm, yet powerful and strong. Kinda like God. Like God you can always count on the ocean and the waves to come in and out. But there are always surprises and treasures to be found which make life interesting.

The beach chair may be facing the Atlantic, the Pacific or the Gulf of Mexico. Or, I might take that beach chair to Colorado. The beach chair is a state of mind, a mission, and a goal for which to strive.

The beach chair image here I took on a beach on Block Island, Rhode Island. One of my many places I can see myself staying a season during retirement. Life, here I come!

What I love, what drives me

If I could retire on my passions and interest I would take it in a minute. So what are my passions? My interests? What makes me tick, what gets me going. What topics wind me up?

I love my family, and my husband, I carry my camera around just about everywhere. My loving husband patiently puts up with my photography and computer hobby. I keep telling him taking pictures of food will pay off at some point, I don't think he believes me. I have two sons, both US Marines who also have tolerated my photography, social media, and video habit.

My video hobby has actually made me money on YouTube, so my hubby looking at it in a whole different light. A few hundred dollars a year of passive income is nothing to sneeze about.

In 2010 I started blogging on Wordpress with a 365 photography project and that started my journey into blogging. My 3 Quarters Today blog has over 400 articles and I have a respectable following.

So stick a quarter in me, wind me up and I'll get passionate about any of those subjects. Warning, you can only take about 3 Quarters of me at a time. Hence, the name of my Wordpress blog. 3 Quarters Today

Spending hours on the beach has to be comfortable, this chair is perfect ideal. I have a bad back so the ergonomic features are important. Best feature, the removable section so I can read a book on my stomach. Did I say I love to read?

There are perfect books to read at the beach and Nora Roberts is one of my favorite. (Add another passion, reading)

Photography is my passion, and I created 11 Gifts for Photographers with a link to my Amazon store to compliment my Wordpress blog.

I decided "Why not?" My photography blog was starting to get some traffic let's see if I could generate some income. I know it's not much but in a month I earned $10.48. That's just a start, without really trying, imagine where I will be when I try.

I even created a few more targeted niche Amazon stores and although sales are slow picking up I have some time to figure it out.

I'm not a pianist, but I love to play inspiring music and think I play reasonably well.

I have played the piano off and on since I was eight. For almost twenty years I have played piano for Wednesday Advent and Lenten services at Trinity Lutheran Church in Murdock Nebraska. Lorie Lines arrangements are smooth, flowing and include arpeggios which I love. Knew there was a reason my piano teach had me spend hours on scales and arpeggios.

Years ago I started video taping my kids in choir and it's become a passion or a "Quarter" you might say. Our local high school of Elmwood-Murdock has approximately 120 students and 75% participate in the music program. Over 60 students sing in the choir and they are extremely talented. In 2010 they even sang at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Listen to this performance of "The Awakening" by Joseph M. Martin. They won all 1+'s at the district music contest a month earlier. The best part of the song is close to the end, so it's worth the wait to get to the 5 minute mark. Since it was the seniors last concert the conductor started crying and it just prompted the members to really sing out and become very expressive.

My YouTube channel has grown to over 60 videos over the years and the most popular is my Marine Corps videos I created of my sons. I thought a drill instructor yelling at poolies at a family recruit day would be informative for future Marine families, and low and behold YouTube asked me to monetize the video so I could make some money. Yes, they asked me. Evidently it had become popular in a short period of time.

So I followed the instructions, added a few videos to the monetize list and in the past few years I've made close to $500, it's nice when I get a message that AdWords has deposited a check for $100 into my account. Ok, Now I need to create additional Marine videos, seems those are the most popular.

My passion is our small town high school choir and band. The choir sang at Carnegie Hall and the marching band played at the Memorial Day parade in Washington DC. Those videos are not high in the view list, but I'm building a strong Twitter following that now gets a pretty high click through rate. Every penny counts in passive income, the pennies build up to be dollars and dollars pay for gas.

Drill instructor giving an example at a Marine Corps family day activity. We were waiting for our new Marines to run by during the Moto Run.

Turn down the volume on this video, really. This is what a real Marine Drill Instructor sounds like.

I have not one, but two son who are United States Marines. Both are stateside, now, but one spent six months in Afghanistan in 2012 in OEF 12.1 which stands for Operation Enduring Freedom, 2012, the first phase deployment.

I miss my boys, but they make me proud and the way I keep them close at heart is to write about them, or the Marines. It makes me feel closer.If you're a Marine Mom, you understand the feeling.

The photo takes you to my Letter to the Marine Corps written for the Marine Corps birthday.

Other than my links above are other sites where I live vicariously.

If you want to learn more about what I do, learn more about Nebraska and the Midwest, or get some recipes for venison, desserts follow along on some of these links below. I'm in various places and have done various things, which may or may not be of interest. But I'm putting them here anyways.

• 3 Quarters Today Blog

  This is my official Wordpress blog with over 400 postings. I started it as a Project 365 platform and it's grown from there. Major subjects, photography, Photoshop tips, Lightroom tips and examples, military pride including the Marine Corps and the

Mine, mine, mine

In case you're wondering all the photos I'll be including will be ones I have taken, unless otherwise credited. I write about only something I know, something I'm passionate about so why use anybody elses photos.