September 23, 2019 · 10:27 am

Thoughts on a Monday 9-23-2019

cheezeburger.com

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF FALL!!!!! It’s raining here today (Ahhhh!) and cooler – at least for now, and I am one happy camper. :0)

Shop NZ

We had 5 hummingbirds at the feeders while we at the dining table this morning. A truly beautiful sight to start our day.

 

Laughtard

It’s DAY 21 for my daily yoga practice. Yesterday, after I had spent time weed whacking and then blowing the debris off the concrete areas, I was really tired and sore. As soon as I had finished a bottle of water and cooled off a bit, I did my yoga session, and it HELPED! Since I’m old and out of shape, my back stiffened up before bed, but I’m encouraged that I could FEEL it helping yesterday.

It’s DAY 6 on my getting-serious-about-keto efforts. To be honest, I’m not really sure where I am. The scales aren’t showing anything. I’ve been staying way under the 20 grams of carbs I’m allowed daily, figuring that even if I screw up on portion size or forget to add something, I should be coming out well. I’m really happy with the CarbManager.com carb tracking website.  It’s easy to use and I can quickly add food, water, or exercise from my computer or my phone.

123RF.com

Fingers crossed I will see some tangible results on either my scale, with my measuring tape, or both in the near future.

 

Our doggies seem calm after their fight yesterday morning. I will never know what started the fight. I’m just grateful that both doggies are doing fine today.

I didn’t make it up to my art room yesterday. I will try to get up there and play today.

Sleeping Should Be Easy

 

Our son, who lives and works in Thailand, came home after my husband’s stroke to help us through all the testing and the aftermath of the stroke. He will probably go back to his life soon. I’m am SO grateful that he wanted to be with us during this time. He has been a rock. SUCH a generous, caring man!

I hope you enjoy the first day of fall today – doing good things for yourself, feeling good, and finding great reasons to smile.

 

6 Comments

Filed under Amazing Animals, DIET!, exercise, Favorite Things, Mother Nature, Seasons, taking care of yourself, Thoughts on a ________

Tagged as , , ,

September 22, 2019 · 3:55 pm

Whew!

One Green Planet – Paulina Lam

My husband mowed our lawn yesterday, so I am weed whacking (edging plus doing areas he can’t get with the riding mower) today. I’ve made some progress, but mainly am feeling inept. One of the orange ‘thingies’ that holds the spool of weed whacking line onto the whacker shattered. It is not fixable, so we’ll have to try and find a replacement for it on the net. I switched to another weed whacker that I don’t like as well. It needed line, but I can’t get this orange thingie (different style) off! Now I have had to come in and ask my husband to come out and see if he can get the whacker ready to go so I can finish that part of the job, and then I’ll use the leaf blower to clean off the concrete areas.

It’s really humid, cloudy, and trying to rain, so I don’t know if I can get my breath back, after glugging a bottle of water, in time to get back out there.

Fingers are crossed that it all comes together and I can finish the job.

If not, I’ll use this excuse to go play in my art room! :0)

Leave a comment

Filed under Challenges, Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance

Tagged as ,

September 22, 2019 · 2:12 pm

Coffee

Nanea Hoffman – SweatpantsandCoffee via Lisa Bearnes Richey

Leave a comment

Filed under Encouragement

Tagged as

September 22, 2019 · 11:04 am

Thoughts on a Sunday 9-22-2019

Irma Nadal -LinkedIn

We had a disturbing/scary thing happen this morning – our two doggies got into a fight. (Both are okay now, thank goodness.) We have Molly –

Molly

who is 14 years old and weighs about 25 pounds, and Amber –

Amber

who is 2-1/2 years old and weighs 94 pounds.

Obviously, Amber ‘won.’  They have fought twice before, over food. I have been careful ever since to be sure they are apart whenever their food or ours is involved. Today’s fight is a mystery. Both had finished their breakfast. We had all gone to the office, as is usual. Then Molly left, and then Amber. And suddenly, the fight was on. It was all I could do to pull them apart. I put Amber out and tended to Molly, who has a small hole in her throat where a previous growth was. She seems okay otherwise. Amber was not hurt at all. I have had Amber either outside or in her bed behind her gate this morning. I have no clue why they had the fight, so it’s a bit scary going forward. Molly is old an crotchety now, and Amber, in her general bull-in-a-China-shop demeanor, may have set Molly off.  Needless to say, I will be watching both closely and giving each lots of space for the day.

Otherwise, my husband is napping in his chair and we’ll leave soon to shop for groceries.

ihowdo.blogspot.com

Today is DAY 20 of my daily practice (this is a 7-Gold Star week) and DAY 5 of being serious about my keto eating plan. I’ve read that it takes 3 days to 2 weeks to get into ketosis. I’m having a couple of the symptoms of ‘keto-flu’ (leg cramp a couple of nights ago and fatigue) so I’m hoping that I’m getting there. I am concentrating on staying under 20 grams of carbs daily. Hopefully, the scale or the measuring tape will show me some results in the near future, just for a bit of added motivation.

WordPress.com

 

I also will try to get upstairs to my art room today. I’ve started painting my LAST stained tee shirt!  I’m still a slob, though, so I’m confident I’ll have more to start another painting pile with soon. :0)

 

I’m hoping the REST of our day will be a quiet one with everyone calm and content.

I wish YOU a day free of drama and full of fun.

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Challenges, Family, playing in my art room, Thoughts on a ________

Tagged as , , ,

September 21, 2019 · 12:05 pm

Trying to Entice Mother Nature

 

In my “Thoughts on a Saturday” post this morning I showed you the scarecrow we have on our mailbox now. I finished this tee yesterday. I’m hoping that I can entice Mother Nature to stop the incredible heat and humidity we’ve had this summer and bring on the C-O-O-L-!

I remind myself that we had rain yesterday and a MUCH cooler day.  This morning has been truly nice, too, with our doors open – front and back – to air the house out. I’m ready for long sleeves, sweaters, vests, boots, even a jacket, with fires in the fireplace, processing leaves for mulch, hot cocoa (I know – I’ll have to find a keto variety) soups, stews, chili, and more. One of the things I love about fall is running the attic fan at night. The air gets deliciously cool and I can snuggle down into our light comforter and sleep like a baby….

Since I declared this tee finished, I started my last stained tee today. (Do you think I might have improved in my eating habits lately that I’m not continuing to be buried in tees to paint?)  The first pass is drying now. I’ll go up later and see if I can do more.

4 Comments

Filed under playing in my art room, Seasons

Tagged as , , , ,

September 21, 2019 · 11:01 am

Food Fight

email from Marsha Koenig

Leave a comment

Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, playing with your food?

Tagged as , , , ,

September 21, 2019 · 10:57 am

If

Dolly Parton via Quotes to Live Your Life By via Chrissie Anderson Peters

Leave a comment

Filed under Encouragement, Favorite Quotes

Tagged as , ,

September 21, 2019 · 10:50 am

Beautiful Drawings

Saverio Scoleri – James Gandolfini

 

DenaAckerman.com

 

 

Gudrun Sallaberger Plakolb – The Observer

 

Kimberly Pelkey – “Moonlight Sonata Crane”

Leave a comment

Filed under Dena Ackerman, drawings, Gudrun Sallaberger Plakolb, Kimberly Pelkey, Saverio Scoleri Art

Tagged as , , , ,

September 21, 2019 · 10:29 am

Thoughts on a Saturday 9-21-2019

 

The rain has stopped and we have a sunshiny day today – but the HIGH will only be 83!!!! Woooo HOOOO! We have front and back doors open and ceiling fans on to enjoy the glorious breeze….

If you’ve been reading my blog, you already know that I’m a bit weird and maybe even a little nuts. If you didn’t, here’s an example – I’m on DAY 4 of getting serious about keto. Last night I woke up with a cramp in the back of my left leg. I’m HAPPY about this – although I admit I wasn’t at the time – because it’s a sign I may be getting into ketosis!  I’ve been very careful about what I’m eating and I’m tracking it all on my new CarbManager.com website which lets me know how many carbs I have left for the day and the percentages of carbs, fat, and protein I’m eating. I’m mostly concerned about staying under 20 carbs a day right now. I’ll pay more attention to the other things later. I really want to lose this last 30 lbs of lard. Truly tired of the plateau and ready to break new ground on the scales, rather than re-losing some pounds for a second time…

I tried ‘zoodles’ (zucchini noodles) with the chicken chunks and soup topping my family loves. I made rice, too, giving my husband and son the choice. No surprise that both of them had rice while I had the zoodles. Our son DID come back for a second helping, trying the zoodles that time. I’ll check with him today on what he thought. We have leftovers, so we’ll have it again this evening. This time I’ll try cauli-rice under mine.

Downshiftology

 

Pamela Salzman

 

I’m on Day 19 on my daily yoga practice.

Women’s Health

Some positions remain really challenging. I’ve spent a long time getting old and stiff, so I’m not surprised that it will take some time for me to loosen up. I AM feeling a difference, though, in several of the positions. I feel better after my practice, so it isn’t as hard to make myself get into the living room and grab my mat. My husband and son are being very supportive of my efforts on eating (my husband is amazed that I gave up my nightly sugar free ice cream, and says it’s good I’m going to ‘yoge’ each day.) Our son is always very supportive. He wants us to do what we can to get and stay as healthy as possible. He is getting back into meditation now after a time away, and is making good progress, so we compare notes daily and hug each other. :0)

My husband is having fewer anger spurts – a side effect of the stroke he had in July. I’m learning to adapt MY behavior so I don’t trigger events, and I’m learning not to react when one happens, unless there are other issues, too. I’m just keeping my mouth shut and walking away. I’m hoping this is gradually fading. This is not like my husband and he has a full plate working on  day by day improvement on the speech and balance issues.

Our son came in, after we listened to a session of the day’s news, and started talking, seemingly earnestly, about the priorities of the coverage. Since we agree that much of what is covered is of little importance in the grand scheme of things, I listened, smiling, as his sarcasm began to sprout. Toward the end of his ‘discussion’ I was begging him to stop, being totally exhausted from laughing. He is a treasure.

I’m going to try to finish painting the tee shirt in my art room upstairs, practice my yoga, eat right, and enjoy my family on a beautiful day.

I wish YOU a quiet, satisfying day.

7 Comments

Filed under DIET!, exercise, Family, Mother Nature, Thoughts on a ________

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

September 20, 2019 · 6:15 pm

Thomas Moran – Classic Artist

“Thomas Moran was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth, took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist.” ~ Wikipedia

 

“Cloudy Day at Amagansett” – Thomas Moran

 

“Grand Canyon” – Thomas Moran – via Laura Bailey, LinkedIn

 

Thomas Moran – “An Arizona Sunset”-www.wikiart.org

 

Thomas Moran -“Sunset Nea rLand’s End – Cornwall England”

1 Comment

Filed under Oil Paintings I Love

Tagged as ,

September 20, 2019 · 4:51 pm

Family

email from Marsha Koenig

1 Comment

Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, holidays

Tagged as , , ,

September 20, 2019 · 12:52 pm

Creativity with Crayons 2

 

Crayons are not JUST for kids, and I’ve found that some really creative artists are doing wonderful things with them.

Wallpapers

 

Pinterest

 

 

ListingMore

 

 

ListingMore

 

 

Best Nature and View

2 Comments

Filed under Crayon Creativity

Tagged as , , ,

September 20, 2019 · 12:35 pm

Perspective

via. 2 STAR art

7 Comments

Filed under Attitude, I'm a slob, playing in my art room

Tagged as , ,

September 20, 2019 · 12:27 pm

Thoughts on a Friday 9-20-2019

 

I’m delighted to tell you that Mother Nature finally smiled, and it’s raining!  She smiled on us a bit yesterday afternoon while I was playing in my art room, and we woke up to rain this morning. I was tempted to play in it when we walked from the car to the restaurant for Lunch Bunch, but I resisted the urge. :0)

Lunch Bunch today was a whole table-full. One of our long time good friends lost a son this past week. Family came in for a memorial yesterday and came to Lunch Bunch today. Another good friend joined us. Though the reason for the family gathering was heartbreaking, the love – and even some laughter – flowed. Over the past 17 years we have celebrated the good things and helped each other through the bad things. Our core is strong.

I am on Day 18 of practicing my yoga daily. Though my back is still complaining, I can FEEL my body loosening as I practice. I can’t say I look FORWARD to my sessions, but I feel GOOD that I’m doing something daily that will improve my health, flexibility, and general attitude.

This is Day 3 of my ‘getting serious’ about staying at 20 carbs or under daily on my Keto eating plan. On Wednesday I stopped eating the no-sugar-added Blue Bunny Freedom vanilla ice cream. I’ve been having a scoop for dessert nightly while my husband has been having strawberries and cakes with his. I quit playing ostrich and looked at the label – 16 grams of carbs – EEEEK! – and I get 20 or less for the day. I have now substituted a small handful of pecans. I don’t know if I’ll have the “Keto-Flu” or not. I know I’m NOT walking around with my stomach thinking my throat has been cut, so that’s a HUGE good thing for me. I’m also trying to get serious about drinking lots more water. I’m mostly there, but fudge the numbers sometimes. I’m also taking Magnesium Glycinate, 400 mgs, one tab daily for Bone, Cardiovascular, and Muscle support.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to report that I’m finally off the plateau and on the downward slope again.

I started painting a long-sleeved tee in my art room yesterday. I have a nice design in my head. The jury is still out as to whether the end result will bear any resemblance or not to my plan. I’m going to get back upstairs in a few minutes, turn on my music and PLAY.

May you have rain – if you need it – family, friends, and FUN in your day today.

 

15 Comments

Filed under Thoughts on a ________

Tagged as , , , , ,

September 19, 2019 · 1:08 pm

Garden Clean Out

 

 

We are STILL having super hot, high humidity days here. (The heat index is supposed to be around 106 this afternoon.) Even with our irrigation system, my garden bit the dust. Over the course of several days I cleaned out the plants – murdering fire ants that were in the boxes as I pulled – and finally have things cleaned up.

We built our raised-bed square foot garden for several reasons. We live on top of a ridge line and there is very little ‘soil’ here. You try to dig a hole to plant something and you immediately hit rock – endless rock. So after trying to build a garden, trucking in topsoil, evaluating it in order to add what was needed, etc., we finally gave up traditional methods. For a bit we had two long rectangular boxes on the ground, marked off into squares, filled with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, Vermiculite, and as many different compost types as you can find. We put a fence around the boxes to keep deer and other critters out. We added chicken wire around the base of the fence to keep smaller critters, like rabbits, out. This worked pretty well for awhile, but I was finding it harder and harder to either bend over double or get up and down over and over on my hands and knees.

We decided to build ‘tables’ in effect, raising the garden boxes up to my chest level.  The ‘tables’ are linked by lengths of hose with a sprinkler in the center of each box for easy irrigation. We have an outdoor faucet and a timer attached to it so the whole garden is watered automatically each day.

 

 

This picture shows the irrigation system a little more clearly.  We have six 4 foot by 4 foot boxes in which to plant. The boxes are divided into squares by wire.

 

 

 

This picture shows the fencing a bit more clearly.

 

Behind the shop and beside the garden is my supply of ingredients to make Mel’s Mix. I have one trash can for each ingredient. The red thing under the tarp is a portable concrete mixer. I put the proper proportions of the ingredients into the mixer and use this to mix things thoroughly. I then dump the mixed soil alternative into a big bucket and take it inside the fencing to dump into each of the boxes.  I also mix stuff to take by wheelbarrow around to the converted brick planters we use for tomatoes on the opposite side of the house.

I wish that our weather here in Arkansas were not quite so harsh during the summer. It’s been MUCH too hot to try to get plants started in my greenhouse, for example I mainly use it at the end of winter to try to get plants started for the spring garden.

 

I’ll have my eyes open for any fall plants available here locally, but mostly, we’re finished until the spring now.

10 Comments

Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, Starting - Growing in a Greenhouse

Tagged as , ,

September 19, 2019 · 12:06 pm

Mary Jackson – Sweetgrass Basket Artist

The source for this is an article of the same name by Stephanie Hunt in “Charleston: The City Magazine”. The photos are by Peter Frank Edwards.

 

Mary Jackson – Photo by Peter Frank Edwards

“Mary Jackson is an African American fiber artist. She is best known for her sweetgrass basket weaving using traditional methods combined with her innovative, contemporary designs.”  Wikipedia

 

Mary Jackson – photo by Peter Frank Edwards.

Mary Jackson – photo by Peter Frank Edwards.

 

Mary Jackson – photo by Peter Frank Edwards.

 

Mary Jackson – photo by Peter Frank Edwards.

3 Comments

Filed under Beautiful Baskets

Tagged as , , ,

September 19, 2019 · 11:51 am

The Photography of Paul Militaru

“Crystalline Water” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Exotic, Ornamental Flowers” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Seagulls on Chat” – Paul Militaru Photography

Leave a comment

Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, Paul Militaru Photography

Tagged as ,

September 19, 2019 · 11:45 am

Thoughts on a Thursday 9-10-2019

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

My husband and son were out checking the irrigation system at about 7 pm last night (all is well) and saw 5 hummingbirds at one time! That’s the most we’ve seen at once this whole summer.  A sight like that makes everything right.

I told you yesterday that I was really trying to get serious about eating Keto and losing more of my lard. Thanks to my friend, Robin, I’ve signed up at a new website called CarbManager.com  I signed up for their Basic service, but they have a premium service, as well that I may consider in the future. My big thing on not switching was that I couldn’t find a carb tracker that would accept recipes from other places and let you log them in for the day without having to list each ingredient separately. This one did fine with Suzanne Ryan’s “Sausage, Egg and Cheese Bake” from her book Simply Keto easily. They have a good section that walks you through their website, explaining how to do things. The website on my computer links up with the app on my phone now, so that’s really handy, as well. Yesterday I ate 18 grams of carbs. They did NOT give me a message saying I wasn’t eating enough, so I was happy about that, too!

I found a wonderful artist who makes baskets that will make you drool. I’ll be sharing them with you in a bit.

Today I’ll make time for my yoga practice this afternoon (Day # 17) and I plan to play in my art room!

I hope that YOUR Thursday is full of cute squirrel photos, hummingbirds, and fun.

 

 

1 Comment

Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography, DIET!, exercise, playing in my art room, quality of life, Thoughts on a ________

Tagged as , , , , , ,

September 18, 2019 · 12:46 pm

Carb Counting

email from Marsha Koenig

We have been making a lot of changes in how we eat over the last year or so.

It started with wanting to lose the lard. We chose Nutrisystem and had some success, but got tired of them dropping our favorite choices and so wanted to try to continue on our own, eating more real food.  We are trying to cut out sugar as much as possible, mainly due to my husband’s Type II diabetes, but also just for general health improvement. We are also eating a LOT less starch, pasta, bread, etc. We are trying to eat more raw veggies and fruit, plus nuts.

For the past several months, I’ve been trying to eat Keto based low carb meals. We vacillate on how well we do. My husband is cooperating, but eats too much fruit, cookies, and other stuff,  and doesn’t really care about trying to get into ketosis, since he’s basically the weight he should be now. I’M the one who still needs to lose the lard, going for another 30 lbs or so.

The thing I used in the past with success is MyFitnessPal.com.

When I started doing keto, things got a bit confused for me. If I stay at the 20 grams a day level for carbs, the program says I’m not eating enough calories. I’m not really sure what to do about that. I can probably just continue to use it, record my eating to make sure I’m at the 20 carbs level each day and ignore the message. I would like to find a carb counting program that is more tailored to keto, if possible.

I have a great source of recipes, not counting the good sites online, and that is Simply Keto by Suzanne Ryan. I’m re-reading the background material again, trying to get and stay motivated. The recipes are delicious. They’re not a whole lot of work and don’t require a bunch of ingredients that are difficult to find. I have truly never found a recipe book which has recipe after recipe we like.

Tonight I’ll make her ‘Sausage,Cheese and Egg Bake”

6 Comments

Filed under DIET!, Healthy Eating, taking care of yourself

Tagged as , , , ,

September 18, 2019 · 12:16 pm

Thoughts on a Wednesday 9-18-2019

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Pinterest

I’m beginning to see a pattern on what provokes new anger issues after a stroke –

  1. the need for quick actions (such as ‘turn here!” or “stop! You’re going to hit the ____.”
  2. the need to decide which of two things the person wants.

As we recognize patterns, we can alter our OWN behavior. It’s better to miss the turn and have to turn around and go back, for example. (You DO have to yell ‘STOP!” to avoid hitting things, though.) It’s better to just ask if the person wants to do one thing, rather than ask which of two things is preferred.   Still hoping the anger issues will fade with time, but I’m learning how to deal with things better.

I’m delighting, once again, that we have SUCH GREAT pets to enjoy.

 

Amber

Example – Amber, our 94-pound yellow lab, LOVES to play her version of ‘FETCH.” This entails her bringing her spit-covered whatever toy to you, trying to put it and her head into your lap. When you try to deter this, she tries to climb up into the chair with you, eyes sparkling with joy. She doesn’t want to actually GIVE you the toy. She just wants to make you stop whatever you were doing, TRY to get the toy so that she can run away with it, doing her dog version of ‘nah, nah NAH, nah, nah’ as she goes, only to run right back and repeat. If she DOES drop the toy and allow you to throw it, it’s a one-time event. Today I added to the complexity a bit, playing with TWO toys. I would throw one, she would run like a bunny and grab it, bringing it back and refusing to give it to me. I then picked up the SECOND toy. She immediately dropped the first, eager to run after the second. We may HAVE something here….

Pixabay

We saw a whole bunch (gaggle/skein/team/wedge/plump?) of beautiful geese on the ground on a big wide lawn of a home we pass on the way to town. There were at least 20 and they were a wonderful sight.

 

Our son made me laugh like a loon describing trying to talk to an obnoxious man on the Internet in a chat forum about a product with which our son is involved. As he described the boorish remarks of the man, he became more and more animated, acting out what the man was saying. As I laughed, it spurred my son on to more and more detail and funny movements and expressions. My stomach is still hurting from the laughter.

 

I hope that YOUR Wednesday includes something beautiful in nature, some new ideas on how to handle a problem, and laughter so hard  your stomach hurts.

9 Comments

Filed under Amazing Animals, Challenges, Family, Thoughts on a ________

Tagged as , , , , ,

September 18, 2019 · 11:19 am

Crayon Creativity

Staples

Yesterday I told you how much I loved finally being able to get myself a 64-color box of Crayolas with a built-in sharpener, whether I create anything wonderful with my set or not. :0)  I found some images of what some really creative people are doing with crayons and wanted to share them with you.

 

 

AlisaBurke.blogspot.com

 

Leonid Afremov

 

Painting Valley (Sorry – I can’t read the signature. I THINK it’s Kristina Nelson)

4 Comments

Filed under Crayon Creativity

Tagged as , , , ,

September 17, 2019 · 12:00 pm

Life

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!!!!!

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Adventure - Outside Your Comfort Zone, Attitude, Challenges, Changes, quality of life

Tagged as , , ,

September 17, 2019 · 11:40 am

The Art of Folding Myself into a Paper Airplane

Seattle Yoga News

“Yoga is a light, which once lit will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter your flame.” — B.K.S. Iyengar

 

 

Petful

“Move your joints every day. You have to find your own tricks. Bury your mind deep in your heart, and watch the body move by itself.” — Sri Dharma Mittra

 

 

Seattle Yoga News

“The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.” — Sakyong Mipham

 

Vitamin-Ha

 

“The yoga pose you avoid the most you need the most.” — Anonymous

“Yoga. Because punching people is frowned upon.” — Anonymous

 

Today is Day 15 of my efforts to practice yoga every day. Because I’m a kid at heart and need the visual encouragement and acknowledgment, I’m giving myself a gold star on my desk calendar each time I complete a practice. The first week I started on a Tuesday, and so earned 6 stars. Last week I got 7! Today I’m going for the 2nd one for the week.

Aside from the gold star nonsense (but if It WORKS….) I AM feeling looser. I overdid one day last week, getting a little too enthusiastic for this old woman’s body, so I’ve been waking up with a sore back each day since. My husband is applying muscle gel with arnica, which is like Icy Hot and makes it feel better quickly. Then I continue my yoga practice, loosening, stretching and hopefully strengthening my muscles each day. My back is hurting less each day, so I think I’m doing a good thing for myself.

I’m 72, so I’m doing “Gentle Yoga” (A DVD put out by sixtyandme.com with the wonderful instructor Cat Kabira. Actually, I’m kind of doing my own thing at the moment, rather than trying to keep up with the DVD, just stretching in all directions s-l-o-w-l-y, CAREFULLY, B-R-E-A-T-H-I-N-G into the stretches, one area at a time.  Ahhhh!

If I DO find myself folded into a paper airplane, it’s my own fault.

2 Comments

Filed under exercise

Tagged as , , , , ,

September 17, 2019 · 10:57 am

Fight!

email from Marsha Koenig

2 Comments

Filed under Funny Signs - Humor

Tagged as ,

September 17, 2019 · 10:40 am

Benny Norbert Smet Watercolor

Benny Norbert Smet – “First Autumn Colors – St .Job at Antwerp”

Leave a comment

Filed under Watercolors I Love

Tagged as ,

September 17, 2019 · 10:33 am

Before Coffee

deathwishcoffee

1 Comment

Filed under Funny Signs - Humor

Tagged as , ,

September 17, 2019 · 10:13 am

Thoughts on a Tuesday 9-17-2019

Cindy Basnett Thurman

Yesterday was a productive, good day. We

  • got and installed a new battery on our truck
  • got and installed a new hose length between the main water  line in the well house and the main line to the front yard irrigation system
  • finished cleaning out the veggie garden raised bed boxes
  • gathered tomatoes
  • did a session of yoga
  • bowled and enjoyed ice cream with good friends in the evening

Today I’m feeling really lazy – ready for a break.

I’m going to do my yoga for the day this afternoon and play in my art room. I’m going to enjoy more of my book and maybe fall asleep in my chair.

I hope that you recognize your need for a break to rejuvenate, too.

2 Comments

Filed under taking care of yourself, Thoughts on a ________

Tagged as , ,

September 16, 2019 · 2:47 pm

Doc

email from Marsha Koenig

1 Comment

Filed under Funny Signs - Humor

Tagged as ,

September 16, 2019 · 2:39 pm

Delightful Drawings

Kelly Armitage – LinkedIn

 

 

Gary Wing – LinkedIn

Leave a comment

Filed under drawings, Gary Wing, Kelly Armitage

Tagged as , , ,

September 16, 2019 · 1:41 pm

Thoughts on a Monday 9-16-2019

Amber

I’m late in blog posting today. Amber went out to the veggie garden with me and helped clean up the remaining planter boxes. I encountered fire ants twice, but had gone in ARMED with EIGHT bug killer in a 2-gallon sprayer and hosed them down. I didn’t get stung, thank goodness! I’ll take pics later of the cleaned up garden, but I was simply too hot when I finished to go back with the camera. (The heat index is 106 or more right now). Once I’m SURE we’ve killed all the ants in the boxes, I’ll try Robin’s suggestion of putting Vaseline around each support leg.

I was actually able to gather quite a few small tomatoes yesterday from the converted brick planters on the other side of the house. I didn’t have a basket with me, so simply used the bottom of my shirt as a carrier. :0)  We’re about to the end of the season now. The plants look pretty sad, but we’re still getting small ripe tomatoes, so we’re happy.

The main water line from the well house to the irrigation system had a blowout last night. Our son was able to cobble it back together, but it’s obvious we need a longer hose length of super sturdy stuff to handle the pressure. We got two lengths of hose cut at the hardware store today in two different diameters, thinking one of them will fit. I’m not sure if we’ll get to the replacement today.

My husband started thinking about our truck battery this morning. He keeps a log of our important purchases on his computer so that we can look things up quickly. We discovered that we bought the battery for the truck in 2014!  Since our battieries usually die suddenly with change of season, we bought a replacement battery while we were in town today. We’ll change it out later today and take the old one back to the store tomorrow for credit.

Our long time good friends will go bowling with us tonight! Our son is still home with us (a thing for which we are thankful every day) and so we’ll have a lot of fun this evening bowling terribly and then commiserating with ice cream at Braum’s afterwards.

When I finish cooling off and glugging water, we’ll have lunch and then I’ll do my first session of yoga for the week.

I hope your Monday is off to a good start.

 

5 Comments

Filed under exercise, Friendship, Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, Thoughts on a ________

Tagged as , , , ,

September 15, 2019 · 12:49 pm

Question

email from Marsha Koenig

1 Comment

Filed under Funny Signs - Humor

Tagged as , ,