The Cincinnati Zoo Blog
I’ve told you I spent 5 days in Thibodaux, Louisiana, recently, visiting my husband’s cousin’s wife, Murray, one of the sweetest people on Earth. I had a great time, getting lots of good hugs,meeting a lot of fine people, and eating lots of good food. I threw caution to the winds, eating whatever seemed reasonable at the time, enjoying every bite.
If you’ve been reading my blog, you also know about my continuing effort to get the lard off – a daunting goal when you’re weight, age, and exercise challenged by nature.
I gained almost 4 pounds in the 5 days I was gone, but I got right back on the Nutrisystem horse when I returned. My husband and I even had a flex meal of steak and baked potatoes the other night, but we’re learning to compensate for flex meals better now.
This morning I was pleased to note that, not only had I lost the 4 pounds I had gained, but also hit a new low on the scales! I’m happy to report that as of this morning I’ve lost 26 pounds and 22.55 inches since we started on Nutrisystem this time. (I say, “this time,” because we were on it in the past, several years ago, and quit, due to NS dropping all the meals my husband liked.)
I’m also REALLY happy to tell you that my husband is trying to do some sit ups! This is a former Marine, used to doing a LOT of exercise to stay in shape while in the Corps. This is also the man who told me, “No way!” when I suggested that HE try to exercise, too. He has been encouraging ME, but steadfastly refuse to do any type of exercise himself.
(He caught a cold from my bringing home germs from my trip, and so has taken a few days off, but is really trying to do these each day. I have learned that, even if you can’t do the exercises or stretches as you would like, ATTEMPTING to do them on a regular basis strengthens and/or lengthens muscles, too, and so the effort is fruitful.
Mentors Channel
I look at this quote as encouragement to move outside your comfort zone. If you hope for something, you then try to do what you can to make it happen. Any time you reach out, you learn, gathering more experiences, becoming a richer person. Being rich in experiences with a lust for learning something new keeps your brain agile, looking at things in a different way. Being more and more active in mind and body allows you to appreciate all you have, the people you’re lucky enough to know, and the satisfaction in the DOING.
taolife.com
And it all starts with hope…
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
Emma Trilles – LinkedIn
Every day we face obstacles to what we want to accomplish. Some of them may prove too difficult, and then we need to figure out another alternative.
But most obstacles are within us. Are you, like me, your own worst enemy on a lot of things? Do feelings of inadequacy bubble up to the surface, making you give up before really even giving it a good try? Our inner voices, past experiences, and uncertainty thwart our efforts to learn something new, stick our necks out to try something we’ve never done before, and more.
We need to separate obstacles we really do need to honor from ones we throw up as excuses to avoid going outside our comfort zone. Our world needs to get larger as we age, rather than allowing it to quietly get smaller and smaller, ‘safer and more certain’ until it implodes.
If you find that you can no longer do something you once enjoyed, take an active interest in finding something to replace it. Reach out to others, read voraciously, TRY things that are a bit scary.
Challenge yourself to acknowledge it when you discover you’re giving up on something and make it a point to meet it head on and widen your horizons.
Filed under Attitude, empowerment, Encouragement
Anthony J. D’Angelo via SayingImages.com
I don’t think the above quote is Pollyanna-ish. The way you look at life, particularly the every day, goes a long way to shape it. I am consciously saying to myself, “Today will be a good day,” each morning and reminding myself to SMILE – if not at strangers I see during the day – I smile at my husband, my doggies, my cats, and even my fish! I try to concentrate on finding something that brings up my spirits. Many times I find it in the birds at the feeders that I can see through the window as we eat breakfast. Our pets make us laugh. We’ll see a pair of roadrunners, as we did yesterday – speculating together on why they ran in different directions as we drove down the driveway.
Particularly as we age, it becomes harder and harder to do this – and more important that we do.
We see mostly bad news on TV, the newspaper, the Internet news sites. We hear that someone we love is ill. We lose our friends, Our bodies become a challenge, rather than a help. We can either let all of this engulf us, or we can determinedly stick our necks out and find things that bring us joy in being alive.
Learning new things, trying to do something you’ve never done before, reaching out to friends and family, joining a new group, reading, painting, gardening, writing a blog, volunteering –
Find your own sunshine every day, stick it in your pocket and carry it with you. You might just brighten someone ELSE’s day, too.
Filed under Attitude, Favorite Quotes
Margaret Thatcher – Real Simple via Daily Thoughts
Filed under Attitude, Favorite Quotes
Albert Einstein-sayingimages.com
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Changes, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
Positive Energy via Michael Remillard
I’ve tried all my life to remain calm in an emergency and haven’t managed it yet. This beautiful quote and illustration suggests it’s a skill you can practice. Does that mean you have to find emergencies over and over and then try to solve them, trying to remain calm in the process?
When my husband and I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma a million or so years ago, we bought our first house. It was a lovely two-story wood home with a very small lot in a nice area of town where most of the homes were at least 50 years old. There was a small, rectangular ‘swimming pool’ taking up most of the back yard that didn’t hold water. :0) It also had a garage apartment that we fixed up and rented out.
After several years, I came home from a day of teaching school to find the garage apartment in flames! My reaction was to freak out. I did make sure that our renters weren’t inside. Then I called my mom, only figuring out several minutes later I should probably call the fire department…
I’ve spent a lot of time in my life trying to do everything I could to AVOID emergencies. I guess that’s a good thing, but it doesn’t give you much help when you encounter the next one. I run around like a chicken with its head cut off, squawking and crying and panicking, rather than keeping a cool head and doing what’s necessary.
I admire people who know just what to do if someone gets hurt. My mind goes blank, forgetting everything I ever knew, other than maybe calling 911 – something my husband would rather DIE than do. HE wants me to get him into the car and go to the ER – the way he has done over the years (rarely, thank goodness) with ME.
Maybe I’m not alone in needing some practice.
Filed under Attitude, empowerment, Encouragement
Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter, via Lisa Bearnes Richey
As I get older – and older – I see that this quote is true. It IS our choices that shape our lives.
I’ve had several friends over the years seemingly make a conscious choice to allow their lives to implode. They resist change, refuse to learn new things, allowing their lives to get smaller and more insular until they’re gone. It’s a pattern I don’t want to follow. I’m choosing to live each day to the fullest. What choices are YOU making?
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Changes, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
hooplaHa_via Carol Auclair Daly
I worked every summer from the time I was 14 through college, and then at full time jobs as a teacher, reading clinic owner/teacher, administrative secretary. medical transcriptionist/bookkeeper, and website owner/artist for some 57 years all told. Now I am retired, and busier than I’ve ever been. I honestly don’t know how I used to have time to work full time!
Some people have real trouble adapting to a retired lifestyle. I’m very sorry for that. I have so MANY things I would like to do that I rarely have enough energy or time in the day to even make a dent in my list. I get overwhelmed with my ‘shoulds’ from time to time, and it’s been a long time since I gave myself permission to play in my art room, but I love the world my husband and I worked so many years to create. We also had the good fortune to inherit from our parents, so we’re comfortable financially if we don’t get stupid and greedy.
I love being able to decide my priorities for the day – being free to be really productive or enjoy NOT being. :0)
I’m happy that I can entertain myself. I guess I could be a hermit with little trouble, spending days and days up here on top of my ridge line with my husband and our animals, my flowers and my garden, my greenhouse and our shop, my books and my art room, my computer and my blog – plus the chat program that is a direct line to our son far away – one day spilling into the next – the weeks, months, and years flying past my head, making my hair blow.
I’m lucky enough to have relatives and friends that add so much fun, joy, and love to this hermit.
“I live in my own little world, but it’s ok, they know me here.”
Filed under Attitude, doing what you love
polyvore.com
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust
“Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy.” ~ Gretta Brooker Palmer
Leo Tolstoy -sayingimages.com
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes, Good Thoughts
Loralee Lewis and Covia JeffJett
I love owls. There is something about them that speaks to me. I collect them. I try to draw and paint them. I have owl earrings and a necklace. I’m drawn to them everywhere I go. I realize this might be weird, but seeing one lifts my spirits. This lovely owl created with feathers by Loralee Lewis and Covia JeffJett I think is simply stunning.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Encouragement
Emory Austin via Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
lifehack.org-via-EmilyQuotes.com-via Evie Zimmerman
I tend to live in my comfort zone. I feel sure of myself and I like feeling that I’m in ‘control,’ even though I ‘realize’ that is delusion.
I feel good about myself when I step out of it, though – when I learn something new that is empowering.
Example: Since my husband is really good on computers and is finishing getting my new computer to work the way I want it to, I tend to be lazy and ask him how to do things, rather than figure it out for myself ( a VERY time-consuming, frustrating thing for someone the complete opposite of a computer/electronics nerd.) My husband tries to be patient when I ask him something, but it’s hard for both of us. He wants me to be specific, telling him exactly what I need in the proper terminology. (If I knew the proper terminology for my problem, I probably wouldn’t have the problem!)
I was trying to find some files on my computer. I tried to explain what I needed. The more I tried, the worse it got. Finally, we were totally frustrated with each other and gave up.
THAT’s when I stepped out of my comfort zone and actually started learning. After a LOT of flailing around, grinding of teeth, and more than a few bad words and tears, I managed to FIND the information I needed for my insurance detailing project – both the information that is on what I’m now calling the ‘old DVD’ and the spreadsheet on which I’ve started detailing what we own, what we paid, making sure we have a pic, etc. (including our first grade report card, thumb print, and….
When we talked about it later, I calmly told him I had found what I needed and had relocated them so I wouldn’t have trouble next time. He tried not to show it, but I THINK he was a bit disappointed that I didn’t need help on this anymore.
I stepped out of my comfort zone and now feel empowered – until the next time.
quotesgram.com
Filed under Attitude, empowerment, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
Satchel Paige via YourDictionary
Complicated answer, depending on which part of you is answering –
Sometimes I feel like an old soul, my HEART feeling as if I’ve always been here soaking up emotions and feelings, personal memories and those of others I’ve known.
My MIND feels about 30 – young enough to want to experience new things, acquire new skills, read all I can, play in my art room, work in my garden or flower planters, play with our dogs, hug my husband fiercely – while having had enough experience to consider more wisely (I hope!)
At times my EMOTIONS feel as if I’m a young child – scared when I’m not sure I can handle something or I’m dealing with a worrisome thing totally out of my depth. Other times I feel very young when I’m captivated by a new thing that brings me joy, or I feel newly empowered by something I was unable to do yesterday. I get so excited it’s hard to ‘tame down’ my enthusiasm. I find it hard to sit still and have to contain my actions to grinning from ear to ear – and maybe cheering a bit. :0)
My BODY brings me back to the reality of how old I actually am. It feels pretty good right now, after a day of rest from what we consider ‘heavy labor’ around here. Other days it tells me I’m old and creaky, stiff and sore, telling me I need stretching, exercise, ice/heat, and a nap.
Any day you think about it, your answer is different, depending on which part of you is feeling the most dominant at that moment.
“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are? – Satchel Paige
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Favorite Quotes, Important Ideas to Consider
Charles Schultz – Peanuts via lovethispic.com
I was born worrying.
I really didn’t believe this quote for most of my life, thinking I could forestall all kinds of bad things by cautioning those I loved and then worrying until the perceived danger was over -as if I had control. It has taken me a long time to stop this – for the most part.
The newest worry was when my husband went to an auction in the next state over from us recently. I did help him prepare, making him take his phone and programming the GPS with the address, in case it was one of those places that was really hard to find.
He called me while I was in the kitchen cleaning the floor, I guess, because I didn’t hear the phone ring. (He calls ‘home’ rather than calling me on my cell.) I played the message on the answering machine, but the ONLY thing I got was that it was my husband. It was so garbled that, after playing the message over and over and not being able to understand any of it, I erased it. I then called him back, only to get the message he was unavailable and to leave a message. I told him I got his call, but the message was garbled and to call me back. Over the next hour or so I called and left more messages. He didn’t call.
I was to the point I was imagining that he had been arrested and his one phone call had been so garbled I couldn’t do what he needed me to do, like call a lawyer, come to the station where he was being held, etc. I also imagined was a car wreck and worse, since he hadn’t called me back.
I was a basket case by the time I heard the driveway detector. I ran out to find him pulling into the garage, safe and sound. I asked him – quite calmly, I thought – why he hadn’t returned my messages. He looked bewildered, then checked his phone, seeing the umpteen messages on it. We checked his settings and it was set essentially on “O” volume and no vibrator. :0(
The whole point of this is to admit I haven’t given up worrying altogether, although I notice our son responding on the chat program with, “Don’t worry” more than I would like. I realize I can’t stop bad things from happening, although I may be over-the-top on “preparation” now…
As I said, I was born worrying.
Filed under Attitude, Favorite Quotes
sayingimages.com
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
creativeartworksblog 