All Things Halloween via Desiree Angelique Hackett
Filed under Attitude, Funny Signs - Humor
2 STAR art
I love my life.
Not EVERYTHING about it, but close.
I’m retired, so I can pretty much design my day – except when the water pressure booster dies, like yesterday.
I have given myself permission NOT to be productive. I used to make a to-do list and not allow myself to do other things until I had at least shown a bunch of progress on it. I FINALLY realized that my to-do list just grows. Most of the things I accomplish on it don’t STAY done, so they get added onto the bottom in a never-ending depressing length. I don’t get any POINTS or anything for getting these off the list, so I have changed my ways.
I now do the things that will result in bad things if I don’t on time. Those take priority for the day. I try to do the MOST important things first – the ones where I will be thrown into the slammer if I ignore them today.
I then intersperse FUN stuff – like playing in my flowers in the spring, or harvesting my veggies at the proper time, or playing in my art room. THEN I go back and do another ‘important-to-others’ thing from the list.
I’m MUCH happier since I started doing this.
Nanea Hoffman – My Positive Outlooks via Bethany Kerr
Filed under aging, Attitude, Encouragement, quality of life
Timeline Photos via Martha Kirkendall-Ghearing
Today is the first day of December. I’m ‘back in the saddle” again – or TRYING to be – on my diet and exercise.
I’m a weak person, basically, allowing any excuse to knock me off the horse.
FunPicsandStuff
There are two of us here, so the ‘get-rid-of-everything-you-shouldn’t-eat’ is difficult. Plus, my husband has essentially met his weight goal and is only avoiding sugar, so HE is having strawberries, dessert cakes, and no added sugar ice cream before bed.
The exercise thing was going well until ‘something happened.’ I really can’t pin it down – I just started making excuses. Is there an award for that? If so, no one else need apply to win….
ANYHOW – I am determined to get my good habits going again and today will be DAY 1 of the new effort. I will do 35 minutes on my elliptical trainer later this morning. I’ll do half an hour or so of good, gentle yoga this afternoon, stretching my body in all directions, hopefully getting rid of the kinks I’m feeling this morning. I made keto chili by Suzanne Ryan of Simply Keto yesterday. We enjoyed some last night and will have it again this evening. I would like to lose another 35 pounds. (I’ve lost almost 45 thus far and about the same in inches). I’ve been holding here for far too long now, and will be happy to start seeing new results on the scales and with my tape measure. I’ll let you know at the end of the month.
123RF.com
Fingers crossed that I can stay motivated. I have my gold stars ready to go on my calendar for my exercises. I lost a pound yesterday. ..
Filed under Attitude, DIET!, exercise, quality of life, taking care of yourself
Coffee for All via Michael Remillard and Martha Kirkendall-Ghearing
Filed under Attitude, Funny Signs - Humor
Alive Inside.org via Marianna Bellantoni
Filed under aging, Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
Thoughts from a Twisted Angel via Marianna Bellantoni
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Friendship
Nanea Hoffman -Sweatpants & Coffee – via Hippie Peace Freaks
Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Attitude, Challenges, Encouragement, Family
Free Spirited
A rich life –
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
Pieces of Soul via Blanket You via 2 STAR art
There is something about bright colors that lifts my spirits. I can be feeling down, see something like this image above and can literally FEEL happiness flood through me. When I was a kid in school, I wanted a 64 color box of Crayola crayons with the built-in sharpener more than anything. Somehow it never happened, so I always make SURE I have one now. I have one in my art room upstairs right now! :0)
Staples
I have never been able to create anything I really liked with the crayons, but I have found artwork since by others that simply takes my breath away. I’ll share some of what I’ve found soon.
The lesson that I get here, though, is not limiting yourself, opening yourself to new learning, new people, new experiences, new ideas, trying things you’ve never tried before, living life to the fullest and most colorful.
“LIFE IS ABOUT USING THE WHOLE BOX OF CRAYONS.” I’ll put this on my to-do list!!!!!
Amazon
On Tuesday of this week I renewed my yoga practice after sloughing off for a number of months. Excuses abound, but I KNEW it had been doing me a lot of good. I felt the progress, the loosening of my muscles, the relaxation. Tuesday I finally decided that I needed to take better care of myself and that started with practicing yoga daily. My husband’s question every day now is, “Are you going to yoge?”
Since I’m a bit age-challenged (I’m 72) and basically enjoy mostly sedentary pastimes, I really have to MAKE myself exercise even though I’ve proven that I actually feel better having done it. As a former student, then teacher – I learned the motivation of the Gold Star. It STILL works for me. I can be really tired from working in the yard and I look at my desk calendar, seeing 5 stars for the week – lacking the 6th – and I go practice my yoga to be able to add the star. Stupid – Silly – but I figure whatever works….
SO – Since I ‘yoged’ Tuesday through Sunday this first week of renewed practice, it’s a 6 STAR WEEK! :0)
DoYouYoga
“It’s not about being good at something. It’s about being good to yourself.” ~ unknown
I’m basically starting over, having sloughed for such a long time, but I am already seeing a bit of progress. I can again touch my toes. I do have to bend over and really breathe into it, but
g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y lower with each long breath so that eventually my fingertips touch the mat. It takes me almost a full minute of lying on my back for muscles to stop clenching, but I am relaxing a bit more quickly each day. I am still a wonderful model for the old Rice Krispies advertisements – snap, crackling, and popping my way into each new pose, but I AM able to get into them. The worst is sitting with my legs spread out to either side and then trying to bend forward. My “Gentle Yoga” instructor, Cat Kabira, bends forward and lays her forehead on the mat. Yeah. Right. I bend forward and the insides of each leg start screaming immediately. I am taking Cat at her word, that stretching as far as you can into the pose and breathing into it will bring rewards, whether you can touch your forehead on the mat or not….
India TV
“Inhale the future, exhale the past.” – unknown
The big thing I’m noticing is that the stretching in all directions and forcing myself to relax – eventually – makes me feel better. It used to be that I would stretch and some muscle or other would cramp. That is not happening now! This is a benefit of the practice before, but I’ll take it. I still hurt when I stretch, but NO cramping! Hooray!
YouTube
“A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.” ~ unknown
I’ll have to admit that I’m interrupted in my practice more by my own laughing than anything else. My husband never fails to remark at all the popping sounds my poor old body makes. I simply look at him, then can’t hold it in any longer and start to laugh. I tell him that he can make fun when HE is there beside me trying to do it, too. That usually results in his going back to reading on the tablet. :0)
“The pose begins when you want to leave it.” ~ unknown
As we age, balance becomes a problem. We tend to start shuffling our feet a bit or walking more tentatively, rather than striding as we used to. I have found that the yoga practice results in my feeling more steady, feeling my muscles work as I walk or stand.
“You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.” ~ unknown
I may always be creaky, but I’m really going to try to keep this going. I need to be as strong, flexible, and reasonably balanced as I can going forward. These ‘old lady stretches’ are really helpful – assuming that I actually continue to get down on the floor and DO them.
“Just breathe.” ~ unknown
NEXT week will be a 7 gold star week!
Filed under aging, Attitude, Challenges, exercise, taking care of yourself
Bruderhof Communities
Playing in my art room is therapy for me. An escape from anything that is bothering me. A way to work out feelings. A joy in experimentation.
We converted a third bedroom into my art room several years ago. I helped my husband put up extra shelves all the way across one wall. We got extra stand-alone shelves and a drafting table advertised in the newspaper. We put up a few more shelves on another wall. I converted the closet into a supplies area. We put up another large table that is as long as one wall. There is a ceiling fan from which I hung a cute mobile of merry-go-round horses.
Years ago my husband and son got together to give me a present of a lot of my favorite songs on CDs. I have a player up there, so I can fill the room with glorious music – some of which I danced to as a teenager a hundred years or so ago – and lose myself in the world of music and paint.
The only limitations is my imagination and my ability to make my visions come out on whatever I’m trying to paint. Lately I’ve been having ideas for tees on which I have spots that won’t come out in the wash. Since I’m a slob, I seem to have a never-ending supply of tees that can use a face lift.
Yesterday I finished another.
Lately I am trying to do things each day that make me stronger. I’m getting back into exercising, monitoring what I eat more carefully, working in my flowers when the weather isn’t lethal, playing in my art room, spending time with our son, walking outside several times a day, and reading.
The result of all this is hopefully a stronger, happier, calmer me. I don’t have to be able to leap over tall buildings in a single bound, but being able to handle whatever comes as well as possible would be good. I am in DAY 4 today. So far, so good!
creativeartworksblog 