OshiPrint.in
I just finished my yoga practice for the day and I have to say, I’m feeling pretty relaxed.
I’m doing my own thing these days, using all kinds of stretching-for-old-folks poses I learned from Kat Cabira. To this, I’ve added some stomach exercises to try to strengthen my abdomen. This will be the last area of me to ‘go,’ but I’m working on it.
Today I added a group of 10 poses new to me that pulled a whole new group of muscles, or in a different way, so I really felt the stretch. They were –
You get into the position and then hold for 30 seconds, or 30 seconds for each side. The one that made me laugh was one called the Wide Legged Forward Fold. I laughed because there was no way in the world I was going to be able to get into that position, much less hold it for 30 seconds.
This old broad (as I refer kindly to myself) can barely touch my toes. I do that very slowly, breathing into it, until finally my fingertips touch the floor. For this pose, you start where the flexible lady is here and then put your whole forearms flat on the floor, then hold for 30 seconds. Yeah. Right.
Anyway, I’ve learned that if I bend in the proper direction at all and hold it, breathing into it, the pose does me some good. So I did 9 of the 10 poses pretty well (for me). I touched my toes, holding it for as long as I could, and then called it done for today.
With the yoga stretches I’ve been doing, the abdominal exercises, and then the 10 new poses, I’m getting a really good session of stretching in. Please don’t hold your breath that I’ll be telling you I actually got into the Wide Legged Forward Fold position any time soon…
Filed under exercise, quality of life, taking care of yourself
World Arts Me
It seems that everywhere I look in my house – or outside, for that matter – many things are calling to me, saying things like, “I’m choking on the dust!” “I’m going to fall all over you the next time you try to get something from this shelf!” “Hellooooooooo! Are you still there?” “Feed me!” “Clean me!” “Water me!” “Cut me down!” You get the idea. Most of the time I’m able to ignore things, but every once in a while, I feel guilty and attack something.
Since this bathroom is right next to the door to the garage, my husband and I put up 2×4’s flat on one wall, then painted them white to match the wall, then put up a gazillion or so hooks to hold our hats, gloves, etc. years ago. Later, we added a couple of short shelves, since the cabinet under the sink is small and we needed more storage space.
Since then, the shelves had become a catch-all for cleaning supplies, paper supplies, make up, an electric razor plus attachments for cutting hair, and more. All were studiously ignored, so there was a layer of dust on the top shelf, and there was so much on my make-up and toilet paper shelf that the things threatened to tumble off onto the floor if I wasn’t really careful when I picked something up. Cleaning the actual shelf was impossible.
I decided to move a small table with storage under it and a drawer into the bathroom. This has been in our foyer for years and years, acting as a catch-all for books we’re going to donate, clothes we’re giving away but haven’t gotten into big leaf bags yet, and more. Everyone who comes to visit comes through our garage, so we were able to ignore this problem area, too.
It may be odd, but I have some wonderful art work by friends in this bathroom, as I get to enjoy them every day this way.
This is the sink that has a cabinet under it, but no drawer.
This gives you an idea of our storage system for gloves and hats.
This is the small table that used to be in the foyer, plus the cats’ box.
There is never enough room to store scarves…
And here are the infamous shelves whose items were threatening to jump off and dump themselves on the floor. I separated my makeup into things I dash on every day and other things for when I want to get more serious in the bag on the shelf above. I put the back up stuff in a gallon storage bag, and the everyday stuff on a pretty dish I have. Now I can clean under things quickly. :0)
And why didn’t I do this years ago? One of the big mysteries of life….
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
“White Explosion” – Paul Militaru Photography
We’re having a truly gorgeous day today, and it’s supposed to rain late tonight into tomorrow morning, so we’re trying to take advantage of it.
Several years ago we replaced our 30-year-old windows. We’ve been delighted with both the lower heat and air bills, but also the QUIET we have now. I also love the fact that, when I’m not being a lazy slug, I can actually clean both sides of our windows without going outside.
Since the dining area windows are a bit laborious, I asked my husband to help me. I took everything off the window sill, and then we took down the cafe type curtains that run along the top.
Then, we actually have three windows here, all of which open like cabinet doors. I can move them back and forth, cleaning both sides until they don’t show any large smudges.
The window outside the bottle feeder for squirrels, and the occasional bird who is brave enough, gets pretty yucky because neither the squirrels nor the birds care where they spit the seeds out. Most of them fall straight down onto the deck, but since they spit in whatever direction seems good at the time, a lot of it lands on the windows. I notice it a lot because it’s right in my line of sight looking out in the mornings.
Here’s a view from the other side of the dining area. Now we have an unobstructed view of whatever squirrels and birds are out there, but also the trees in the valley beyond, which are changing colors now.
This was enough window cleaning for me, today, though.
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” ~ George Eliot
Pixabay
“Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile.” ~ William Cullen Bryant
Unsplash
“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower” ~ Albert Camus
Wikipedia
“Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.” ~ Faith Baldwin
Filed under Favorite Pictures, Favorite Quotes, Seasons
Rachealgrace Adams
Filed under Rachealgrace Adams Photography
Hansen Wholesale
We love fans. We sleep with a floor fan and ceiling fan, even in the winter when we turn our electric blanket on. :0) We have an attic fan that we figure is worth its weight in gold. We installed it when we built the house in 1987 and it has worked flawlessly ever since, allowing us to open our bedroom window at night in the summer and turn on the fan, bringing cool air in. Ahhhh.
We love to open our front and back doors and turn on the ceiling fans, bringing in a lovely cross breeze, airing out the house.
We have eight ceiling fans in the house, not counting the garage, back porch, or deck. I’ve swiped at them from time to time, but they haven’t been seriously cleaned since 1492….
They are on my list today. I recently cleaned the one in our bedroom. It was quite a laborious job, since it was thick with accumulated dust and grime. I ended up climbing up on a ladder with a wet cloth, moving it S L O W L Y across the top of the fan blade, careful to keep all the ‘guck’ in the cloth. I then climbed down, rinsed out the cloth, and then came back to seriously clean that blade. We have 5 blades per fan, so it was a good amount of exercise before the fan was clean.
Now multiple that times 7 more fans…
If I weren’t such a slob things wouldn’t get this way. By the end of the day, I hope to have all eight ceiling fans ready to be ignored for the next umpteen years. :0)
I did find an Unger Ceiling Fan Duster
I just ordered from Amazon. Once I get them clean, I SHOULD be able to dust them from time to time without causing the dust of the world to fall on my head…
Filed under Challenges, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
keetonsonline.com – via Sherry Dellaria McGrath
I ordered a new calligraphy set about two weeks ago. It’s to the point where I’m dreaming about it now – full of ideas of what I’d like to do once they arrive. I did get the notification yesterday that my set had finally shipped. So now I wait…
Filed under anticipation
“Decent White Lady” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
wallpaper-gallery.net
I avoid exercise DVDs where the people are SO pert, SO excited, exuding the joys of moving – telling you how GOOD it all feels. They make me hostile. Likewise, I greet cloyingly sweet pictures and people with at least a silent snarl.
SO – you may react that way to ME this morning, because I woke up happy.
Though things are far from perfect, I have a pretty great life. I fell in love with my husband almost 60 years ago. We’ll celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary in June. AND we don’t just love, we’re addicted to each other. That doesn’t mean – by ANY means – that I don’t want to punch him in the face on a regular basis, but we chose to share our lives and it was definitely a good choice. We lost a daughter when she was 2 months old to SIDS – but we made a son who makes us proud of the generous, caring man he’s become, who loves us, reaches out on an almost daily basis from halfway across the world, just to check in and make sure we’re okay. And we might spend Christmas together this year!
We have two dogs, Molly (a sweet, elderly cocker spaniel/schnauzer cross) and Amber (a 95 pound yellow lab PUPPY) who drives us nuts and makes us laugh every day; two cats (Abby (a tortoiseshell fat cat) and Smoke (a sleek grey hunter); plus 4 goldfish who have tripled in size since we added them to our family.
We have a home we built over 30 years ago on top of a ridge line in Arkansas and we still love it. Since the initial building, we added a shop, then later doubled its size, plus built a greenhouse that so far hasn’t succumbed to wind and rain. We’re reasonably close to town, yet enjoy complete privacy up here, a really nice combination. We have a view of several ridge lines – and since we can see them, seeing the seasons change – we can pretend we own it all. :0)
Our health is improving as we get some of our lard off and are trying to exercise. I’m mainly doing my elliptical trainer and yoga stretching for old folks. My husband is doing better and better trying to do sit ups. We are consciously trying to move more.
We are retired, so many days we can do what we want – or don’t want to do. I can try to be productive or enjoy curling up in my chair with a good book. I can choose to check things off my to-do list or play in my art room. We have good friends who make our lives rich.
I woke up happy today. I hope you did, too.
Filed under Attitude, doing what you love, Encouragement, Family, Good Thoughts, quality of life
We just put up our ‘Swooping Eagle” mailbox decoration that will stay up until mid-November.
This is the back of the eagle. You can see where I tried to blend in the mounting bracket into the design.
We were out doing errands earlier and were really surprised that, since this morning, the wind is now coming from the north and blowing fairly strongly. It’s 50 out, but things are still really wet from the rain and the wind just blows through you. We were cold putting this up!
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations
Jeff Samudosky – JMS Wood Sculpture
Filed under Creativity, When Wood Comes Alive
pinterest.com
I FINALLY reached 30 pounds off in my efforts to get the lard off! I went on chat on the Nutrisystem website, since I hadn’t received any notification or ‘reward’ redemption thingie in my email, and the kind lady said she would make sure my 30# off bear was included in my next order. :0)
To date: 30.6 lbs off. 28.5 inches off. I think I’m about half way to my goal now, but I’ll see how I feel when I get there. My progress has been slow, but steady, so I’m happy that I can definitely see progress since April.
I still have to talk to myself about exercising, having a LOT of interests that involve sitting – computer stuff, like my blog, reading, working in my art room, etc. When the weather is good, though, I’m outside at least once a day, working in the greenhouse, weeding, or hacking something down, killing ants, and more.
I’m doing better since I decided to do my yoga stretches and exercises one day and my elliptical trainer the next, rather than trying to get both into one day. I’m a bit embarrassed to tell you that I bought sheets of gold stars – putting one on the calendar each day I do one or the other. Stupid – but it works for me. I say, “If it works, run it.” :0)
I’m especially happy that I lost weight this week. We splurged a lot this week, eating fried fish dinners at the grocery deli once, and eating breakfast out twice this week due to a botched attempt to get a blood test yesterday and a successful attempt today. Tomorrow is Lunch Bunch, and we’ll get chicken ‘thingies.’
The thing we’re learning is how to modify our eating the rest of the day when we eat out one meal in the real world. We’re still following the eating plan, but modifying our choices so that we stay on track better as far as calories for the day. I have also found that, since we’re eating out more often, I don’t tend to get into the “YIPPEE!” mentality, where I eat completely bad choices like ‘this-is-the-last-time-I’ll-get-to-splurge,’ eating for 6 and feeling remorse later. If it’s reasonable, I eat half and bring the other half home to eat some other time. I’m making better choices, such as a veggie omelette today, with no sides.
Slowly, we’re making this eating plan more ours. A life plan, rather than a way of eating for some specified period of time. I’m not feeling as tied to the program, panicking when we get off for any reason. I’m starting to cook more, bit by bit, though we ARE enjoying lots of raw veggies and salads now than ever, and my husband lives for his ‘grapes-and-nuts’ snacks.
My husband read this book and then loaned it to me via our Kindles. I feel as if I’ve dived into a treasure trove.
Detective Ericka Foster is a strong character. My husband decided that he doesn’t want to read any more of the series because she is flawed, not acting as he thought was smart in a couple of situations. To my mind, I like her better for it. People don’t always react as they MIGHT, or how WE think they OUGHT to. They’re fallible – many times resulting in bad consequences. It’s human nature.
I really enjoyed The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza. Happily, I discovered that there are 6 books in the series –
I downloaded The Night Stalker and will start it after I finish re-reading a 4-book series I’ve read before by Nora Roberts.
Reading is one of the most wonderful things humans can do. I LOVE being able to learn new things, escape from concerns for a while, be dazzled by how creative people are, and more – simply by getting on the Internet, turning on my Kindle, or opening a well-loved book from my collection.
Jeff Jett Photography – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett Photography – LinkedIn
Filed under Amazing Animals, Jeff Jett Photography
Lisa Hurwitz at Expanets via zen to zany via cathy ruggiero
I may be more ‘mature’ now, but I vividly remember how STRONGLY I wanted to be like everybody else when I was a young teenager.
One super-vivid memory is that my mom made me an outfit from corduroy – a skirt and top that went over a blouse. The skirt was some kind of pattern with yellows and green and there were four large black buttons on the front, forming the corners of a square. The top was green. My mom bought me a pale yellow blouse to go under the top. She was an amazing seamstress and the outfit was beautifully made.
The problem? Back in 1492 when I was a teenager, the saying was, “Yellow and green on Thursdays means you’re queer.” (or something similar.) This shows you that – as messed up as our country is NOW as far as being inclusive and embracing our differences, 60+ years ago, it was worse!
Of COURSE my mom wanted me to wear the outfit on Thursdays and told me how ridiculous it was that I would care what other people thought. This caused really bad scenes in my household, as my mom was strong-willed and I was stupid and wanted to fit in so badly I would have almost rather died than cross the ‘group.’
Another thing was tennis shoes. New ones, clean and white, meant you were a nerd. NOW I would be proud to be called a nerd – maybe I could have become a gazillionaire and had enough money I could make a difference – but THEN I would go out and purposely get grass stains and dirt on them the minute they came home from the store.
AND – for some unknown reason – I felt that I HAD to be good at things IMMEDIATELY or I wouldn’t be ‘accepted.’ I think ‘what CRAP!’ NOW, but I sure didn’t THEN. I remember a pool party where everyone was doing some kind of dive off the diving board. My mind has blurred the details of what dive it was, or even who I was with. My turn came. I gave it my best, but ended up with a huge, painful SPLAT on the water. I remember swimming under water to the shallow end of the pool (I was a good swimmer, but couldn’t dive). Someone was along side, yelling at me to find out if I was all right. I lied and said I did that for comic relief.
I substituted at the local schools for about two years, trying to get a job in the Greenwood School System, substituting for kindergarten through high school boy’s P.E. and was saddened to see that everyone is trying NOT to stand out. If you’re a good student, you try to be quiet about it. Everyone dresses alike, talks alike, give the same blank look when you ask them questions about the subject they’re studying, the book they’re supposed to be reading, etc.
It would be wonderful if children were encouraged by adults – and especially their peers – to be DIFFERENT – SPECIAL – UNIQUE. To CELEBRATE the things that make them stand out. To be CONFIDENT – CURIOUS – with PASSION to seek a unique place in the world.
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Encouragement
Everyday Health
We got up this morning and drove straight to our doctor’s office to get the blood test my husband needs for his appointment next week. We usually don’t have to wait long, but we did today. Finally, I got up and checked with the front desk again. They said the orders for the blood test weren’t in the chart, so they were waiting for the doctor to come out of a room. We waited again. When we had been waiting an HOUR, I went to the front desk again, asking them if they could get the orders into my husband’s chart by TOMORROW morning, when we would come again. They said they could, so we left. I will call this afternoon to be SURE the orders are in the chart so we can be more successful tomorrow. (At our next appointment, I’ll ask the doctor to put the orders for the labs into the computer while we’re there.)
Added insult was Mother Nature choosing to pour on us each time we stepped out of the car. It would stop while we were inside, of course.
Scribol.com
Our morning improved quite a bit after we left the doc’s office. We had decided that we would try out the new restaurant in town, The Dari, for breakfast. We had been there for lunch and had been quite pleased.
I’m happy to report that our FLEX breakfast was delicious! The people there are friendly. The group of women at the counter where we ordered went nuts over my ceramic ‘ghost’ earrings, even calling people from the back to come see. When we were at the table, another women came. That was really fun for all of us. The service is fast and the food couldn’t have been better.
It’s more food than we should eat for breakfast on our diet, but we’ll modify our eating for the rest of the day to make up for it. It’s wonderful to have a nice place to have breakfast in Greenwood!
Filed under Challenges, Delightful Surprises
Andrey Sagalov – russianambience.com
Filed under Creativity, When Wood Comes Alive
Rachealgrace Adams
Filed under Rachealgrace Adams Photography
creativeartworksblog 