When I was in college, I was invited to a yard party where a young college couple enjoyed a gathering of their friends and THEIR friends. I never felt so welcome, before or since.
Even as I was enjoying the feeling, I was aware that it emanated from the woman of the couple. Now I’m so old and doofus I can’t come up with her name, but I can STILL appreciate the way she made me feel.
The kindness simply flowed enveloping everyone. She had a lovely smile and a truly contagious laugh that made everyone around her smile, whether they heard what amused her or not. How beautifully unique and precious she was!
Now, more than ever, I appreciate kindness.
I have a beautiful friend. She’s wonky, with strong political views, but she makes an effort to do at least one kind thing each day. Something that may go unnoticed, but she does it anyway. A small example is when I was shopping with her. On the way to the store, she stopped the car by the side of the road in the neighborhood, picked up an empty garbage can that had blown across the road, found the lid, and put both beside the driveway of the owner. When we got to the parking lot of the store, she immediately offered to take the cart back to the store for the lady at her car. She leaps to help people carry stuff, or open doors. She is free with hugs (postponed with Covid) and big warm grins. I am trying to emulate her.
Filed under Attitude, Favorite People, Friendship, kindness
Attitude not only colors everything – it swamps it. These days it’s easy to make a never-ending list of what
. is bothering, irritating, aggravating, agitating, angering you
. is making you sad, grieving, depressed, despairing, worried
What is more difficult – particularly this year – is looking for what
. makes you smile, fills you with joy, gives you hope, makes your heart melt.
I am trying to concentrate on seeing the good in our world – not as a Pollyanna-ish or head-in-the-sand type of attitude, but as a survival skill as we ALSO try to deal with and/or fix all the things that need our attention.
I’m thrilled by all the talented people in our world. When I find an example of this, it fills me up. It makes me proud to live on the same planet. I love it that I can share their talent with you.
We can help each other through difficult times by keeping hope for the future high, sharing what’s right with the world, sharing coping mechanisms that work for us, and simply listening and caring.
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
Nutrisystem, South Beach, BistroMD – all helped, but we stopped, feeling the same as this wonderful quote by Dolly Parton above.
Now we are lucky because two new companies started businesses here in Greenwood – REAL FOOD and STU’S CLEAN COOKIN’, both offering healthy frozen individual portion meals at reasonable prices.
We plan around eating their meals 5 days a week. I then fix a keto-friendly meal that has enough for the weekend, and maybe even a lunch the following week. We eat a frozen meal at night, usually tuna fish salad for lunch, and as few careful snacks as possible the remainder of the day. It’s working for us, albeit slowly.
My husband is basically at his goal weight now. We are trying to be very careful of his sugar, since he is Type II diabetic. I still have about 30 lbs to lose to get to my goal weight. I’m losing more slowly, am the one who is actually exercising, and does all the orchestration of our eating. I would bite my husband in the leg, but basically like him too much to do that just because he seems to lose weight effortlessly. (If he gives me another reason, all bets are off.) :0)
I really like not having to figure out what to cook every day. I also like the fact that we are eating good, healthy food with portion control that actually TASTES GOOD. We can still go to Lunch Bunch to meet our friends each Friday without losing the ground we’ve gained during the week.
I am hopeful that if we ‘keep on keepin’ on,’ (‘holding our mouths right’ as we say in Oklahoma and Arkansas) maybe I will eventually meet MY lard-loss goal, too.
I have, perhaps, the greatest dentist in the world. His name is Wesley Moore and his office is in Fort Smith.
When I had my recent routine dental cleaning, the hygienist found the first cavity I have ever had. :0( I have to get it filled tomorrow morning.
Dr. Moore pulled a wisdom tooth last year that had broken off and caused problems plus a whole lot of pain. He used some type of medicine that put me in a ‘twilight state,’ (my description). I knew what was going on and was able to cooperate, but didn’t feel anything or remember the details afterwards. It was wonderful. :0)
Since I immediately started having nightmares about my cavity filling (I admit it – I’m a total WUSS when it comes to anything involving the dentist) I called and asked them if they could give me the wonderful medicine again for the procedure. They didn’t call me a wuss or tell me that it was beyond ‘wussy’ to ask for it. They just rescheduled my appointment and arranged for that to happen.
I’m still uptight about having my first cavity and having to have it filled, but the experience with the medication makes it so I’m not having to be beaten down with a stick today in anticipation.
We will leave first thing in the morning, so I may not write tomorrow until later – or maybe not at all. Just wanted you to know, in case you were wondering why the chatterbox goes suddenly silent. :0)
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, taking care of yourself
I had SUCH a great time playing and being silly while we were out today! I wore my mask –
I put my regular Covid Humana mask over this one to go into The Pizza Barn, the restaurant where we meet our friends each Friday. I said “Hi,” as I always do, sat down and pulled off my Humana mask. There was a beat of silence and then the whole table full of women fell apart. I played into it, asking why they were laughing, and then huffily announced that I thought they could at least not make me feel bad that the facial hadn’t done all I had hoped it would…
Then our waitress, came over to get our orders and simply fell apart laughing. She went to get another lady from the back. We started eating our lunches and the other wonderful waitress came in from the parking lot. I put on the mask and my glasses again. She came out to ask something and I thought she wouldn’t be able to stand up she started laughing so hard. It was really fun.
I also wore the mask and glasses into Walmart after Lunch Bunch. Some people just looked at me like I was nuts (Imagine THAT!). Others smiled and/or laughed, and told me they loved the mask.
Finally, we went through the drive-through at the bank. When I waved to the tellers, they fell apart.
I thoroughly enjoyed sharing my joy of Halloween today, and hopefully I brightened a few days. We can all use that right about now.
Amazon Handmade
I am learning a LOT trying to list my stuff on Amazon Handmade. I am finally able to jump through most of the hoops.
I have finally learned that when a picture doesn’t show up with my product, I check to make sure it meets their parameters, and then let it go. That drives me absolutely nuts, but I’ve learned that is the best thing to do. It happened again yesterday, when I was adding some painted journals. I listed 5. 4 of them went well. The 5th picture didn’t show up for some reason. I checked it, and it should have gone like the others. It didn’t, so the product was listed on the site, but the picture area was blank. That’s embarrassing and I hate it, but – again – I left it. It still wasn’t up when I went to bed, but I checked again this morning and it was showing. Go figure.
I am not a patient person. I HATE errors or omissions to be ‘public,’ but there is no control over this one.
So, I will try to get the rest of the things I want to list online and hope for the best.
Today, some tote bags and painted canvas mini ‘essential’ purses.
Fingers crossed, teeth gritted, and determination strong.
Linda Lewis Artworks on Amazon Handmade
GrowingBolder.com
GrowingBolder.com
GrowingBolder.com
Filed under aging, Attitude, empowerment, Encouragement
GrowingBolder.com
GrowingBolder.com
GrowingBolder.com
Filed under aging, Attitude, empowerment, Encouragement, taking care of yourself
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