A happy, happy farewell!!

Sometimes I complain about how fast time seems to pass at my age, but tonight I am rejoicing. January, 2014 has less than two hours to go and I will not miss it at all.  I expect snow and cold.  After all I do live in Indiana, but this January has been extreme. Yes, I know we still have to get through February but it's such a nice short month!  Hooray for February.  Bring on the groundhog, the presidents and the heart shaped goodies.  Every February day is a step toward spring.

Ponder this statement

I heard this on TV this morning.  Please understand, I do not think obesity is a laughing matter, especially childhood obesity.  But this comment made me laugh after I thought about it "Kindergartners who are overweight are more likely to stay that way."  Think about it.

On the inside looking out...

I chose not to go outside today except for one quick, brisk walk to the mailbox.  I chose this course of action because the high temperature was 2 degrees (-16 last night).  it was a wonderful day for staying in and looking out.  The sun shone brilliantly, casting deep blue shadows on my snow covered lawn, and crossing the smooth, wind blown snow a trail of bunny tracks, heading for warm shelter I hope.  It amazes me that wild animals do survive weather like this. I hope my indoor kitty appreciates how lucky she is.

I don't think God works that way.

When I was young chain letters were very popular.  You would receive a letter with instructions to send it on to 10 other people and wonderful things would happened.  I can't tell you how many chains I broke because I saw this as a pressure tactic which I resented.  Technology has evolved over the years and now instead of chain letters sent by snail mail, I get chain emails promising God's blessings if I pass the message on.  The implication, of course is, that if I don't forward the message, God won't bless me, or won't bless me as much.  I'm sorry, but I just don't think God works that way.  So be warned, if you want a chain to be unbroken, don't send it to me.

One more thing I don't need to buy

Today's medical revelation (and I heard a hint of this yesterday) is that wearing spanks (spanx?) too long is not good for you.  Evidently squeezing your body into a tight shaper can cause nerve compression, shooting pains and even urinary tract infections.  The suggestion was don't wear this amazing undergarment more than about three hours a day, which got me to wondering, do you excuse yourself during an evening out, slip into the ladies' room and out of the spanks, and come back to your date all bulgy?  Seems like a bad plan.  They said it's especially bad to wear two layers of spanx.  Wow, I never even thought of that.
Lucky for me I gave up wearing a girdle the instant panty hose were invented and have never been remotely tempted to try spanks.  But I do have one question, if spanks are bad for you how come support hose are good for you?  I'm so confused.

Are you sleeping well?

This morning's break through health announcement was this  you can train your brain to think that you're sleeping well, even if your not.  Hmmm, I sleep pretty well, most of the time, but maybe with brain training I could sleep even better.  I was all ready to give myself a firm talking to about how well I'm sleeping until the expert came back on after the commercial break and went on to explain that you first need to be told by a trusted authority that you're sleeping well.  Well, my only housemate, my cat, is convinced she's an authority on most aspects of life and she certainly knows about sleeping well, but she's not talking.  Ah well, I guess I'll go to bed.

Cold weather helps you lose weight.

Another fascinating study reported on TV this morning.  It seems that, if you're cold enough to shiver, you're burning calories even when sitting still.  Sounds like my kind of weight loss program except for one tiny problem - I don't like to be cold!  The "expert" said we should set our thermostats at 65 degrees.  I don't think so, it's already set at 68 degrees and I think that's as low as it will go.  Probably my electric blanket and warm fuzzy socks are a bad idea too.  Ah well...

I guess that showed me.

I spent yesterday enjoying my own private pity party and bemoaning the snow and cold.  Then this morning I glanced out my living room window and saw the most glorious sunrise.  Vibrant steaks of purple, orange, peach, lavender and cream washed across the sky, made more dramatic by the pastel reflections on the snow.  I guess I'll just relax and enjoy the show..

enough already

I love the beauty of the snow, a sometime monochromatic scene of shades of gray and white with an occasional shot of red from a traffic light.  It's really pretty for a while but not so much when it's blowing across the roads.  I like well behaved snow, lying quietly on the fields and yards keeping my plants warm until spring and staying out of my driveway.  This morning I had the thrill of pushing through a foot high drift across the end of my driveway  I'm not so crazy about sub zero or even zero degree weather which appears to be what we have in store for the next few days. Ah well, enough about the weather.  Valentines Day is only about three weeks away so spring can't be too far away, can it?  Can it?

another study I agree with

I heard on the news this evening about another study that was recently done.  This one proves that older people who are happy have a better quality of life, move better, do more, stay more active in their later years; they stay healthy and active longer than people who are not happy. While, as a generally happy person, I applaud this finding, I do find myself wondering if this is a "the chicken or the egg" situation?

It's a boy!

My brother called me this evening from Spokane to let me know that the baby his daughter and her husband are expecting in early June is a boy. They're very pleased.  Their first child is a girl so now they will have one of each. It made me wonder, would I have wanted to know. When I had my two children, 40+ years ago, it wasn't an option, but I think I might have liked to know.  It seems to me the baby might seem a little more real a little sooner, although, as I recall, they become awfully real very quickly once they're born.  Life is never the same and that's a very good thing.

Cooks in the Kitchen

This morning, several women gathered in our church kitchen to make ham and bean soup and cornbread which we will sell tomorrow morning at or "soup to go" sale.  There were seven or eight of us chopping carrots and celery, cutting up ham, mixing cornbread batter and engaging in conversation. What impressed me about the conversation this morning was the range of topics - from the training that nurses go through to the current housing market and the generally positive attitude in our church these days.  What I didn't hear was any gossip or any complaining, It was a great morning, positively refreshing..

sharing series authors

I was at a casual meeting with some friends on Wednesday and the talk turned to books we had read, then we started listing names of favorite authors and series.  I think I came away with sixteen new authors, each of whom has written a series of 8 to 10 books.  I love to read, probably spend too much time reading, but it's a habit I have no intention of breaking.
I remember, as a 5th or 6th grader, discovering the "Little House" series.  It was my first experience with a series and I was thrilled with the idea that I could revisit characters who quickly became old friends.  I still love a good series.  The other series I remember most fondly from my youth was about a boy named Todd Moran - written by Howard Pease.  The only time I ever remember wishing I was a boy was when I read those books.  i wanted to run away to sea and have high adventures.  Sweet memories!

Don't send me money!

I am generally a mild mannered easy going kind of person but I do have a few pet peeves and one of them is receiving a letter from a charity asking me for money while enclosing money to me.  Usually it's a nickle but sometimes it's a check for one or two dollars which I'm encouraged to endorse and send back to them with an additional donation.  Those I shred.  The coins I save and add to donations I make to the children's coin collection at church each month
I do give to several charities but not if they send me money.  I figure if they can send me money they don't need mine.
What I would really like to receive from a charity would be a simple, short letter explaining how they spend the money they receive and what percentage actually goes to help people and what percentage is spent administrating (including mailing out pleas for more money).

PS I don't need greeting cards, blankets or return address stickers either.

You can't trust spell checker!

I just looked at my post from yesterday and realized I wrote about some show called The
Biggest Looser instead of The Biggest Loser, proving I think that I should go to bed earlier and not sit up late writing silly blogs.  It does make me wonder though, what would a show called The Biggest Looser be about?  Women who admit they need a larger pair of jeans or tights or t-shirts?  I've seen some strolling around the mall who really need to.  It's probably a good thing that I can't see myself from the back.  That might be a different spin on another favorite show What Not to Wear -Ware- ah well you get the idea.

The Biggest Looser

I love watching The Biggest Looser.  It's one of my favorite reality TV shows.  I think it's stunning how the contestants change physically from obese to healthy attractive people.  It's amazing what weeks and weeks of intense exercise and dieting will do.  Please note, I said I like to watch this show.  I am not leaping up to exercise along with them.  I'm sitting here in my warm comfy pjs, sipping ice tea, munching popcorn and cheering them on.  As far as I'm concerned extreme exercise, like football, basketball and hockey, is a spectator sport.

do you zentangle?

One of my nieces, age 14, is into drawing Zentangles and asked for some drawing supplies and books of ideas for Christmas.  I had never heard of Zentangles but as an ex-art teacher I am always glad to provide people with art supplies, so I went on line and ordered what she wanted.  Today I received a Zentangle thank you note.  Zentangle appears to be lovely busy patterns done all in black and white with very fine tipped pens to create elaborately patterned designs.  It looks like fun and I think I'll try it, some time in my spare time - maybe the next time I have a snow day.

more good news about caffeine

Another exciting bit of TV news about a research study.  This one showed that drinking the caffeine equivalent of two cups of coffee sharpens the memory.  Guess I'll have another cup of tea.   Maybe it will help me remember how to spell caffeine or caffein.  The dictionary shows it both ways.

Ten thousand hours

I just spent a lovely couple of hours watching the National Figure Skating championships, a run up to the Olympics.  It's so beautiful to watch. Even with an occasional missed landing or slip I have to marvel at the sheer beauty of it all and I'm reminded of a comment I heard recently, "It takes 10,000 hours of practice to really master any skill." A little math showed me that that works out to about 3.5 hours a day (365 days a year) for nine years or 5 hours a day for five years.  No matter how you figure it that's a lot of time spent working toward perfection and I'm sure that's actually less time than most of the skaters have spent. That's a lot of hard work to make it look so easy.  Can't wait for the Olympics.

I love it when I'm right.

Another research report on TV this evening, and this one makes sense to me.  A study was done to determine if coffee really dehydrates you.  I've been hearing for a long time that drinking coffee, or in my case tea, doesn't hydrate you.  It's important to drink lots of water also.  Well, guess what, they did a study with two groups, one drinking 4 cups of coffee a day, the other drinking 4 cups of water a day for two weeks, then two weeks off, then they switched the water drinking and coffee drinking groups.
After all the tests were done, the study showed that both groups were equally hydrated.  This makes perfect sense to me and I shall continue drinking my ice tea, thank you very much.

driving like a little old lady

For the last two days I have driven back and forth to work (10 miles each way) at an average speed of about 25mph, due to 12 inches of snow followed by two days of sub-zero temperatures.  It occurred to me today that I was driving like a little old lady (and so, happily, was everyone else).  Then I realized hey, it's ok.  I am a little old lady - well, at 5 feet 10 inches tall not really little but I'm pretty close to qualifying age wise.  I'm still pondering what someone in their late sixties should be called.  Middle aged definitely doesn't fit but elderly or old seems too harsh.  How about three-quarter aged?  Two-thirds? Seven-tenths?

enjoying "Fraiser" reruns

I have Netflix and from time to time I enjoy watching "Fraiser" reruns.  There are few if any current shows on TV that make me laugh out loud but I can depend on several good laughs from any "Fraiser" episode.  This evening, for example, I watched Niles practicing fatherhood on a sack of flour.  Throughout the show the poor flour sack was impaled, dropped in a pool, caught on fire, and ripped apart by Eddie (the dog).  No surprise, by the end of the show Niles decides he's probably not cut out for fatherhood.  Go figure.

It's all relative

It's back to work tomorrow after two days off because of snow and sub-zero cold ( minus 40 degrees wind chill this morning).  I was listening to the weather report earlier this evening and found myself excited by the prospect of +19 degrees as the high tomorrow.  Of course I do think the reporter reached a new extreme of cruelty by showing a scene from Hawaii as the closing shot.

One of the greatest time wasters of all

Because of the 12 inches of snow we got yesterday and the sub-zero temperatures today and predicted for tomorrow, I find myself with two days off from work.  Now I could have spent my snow days industriously cleaning closets or engaging in some other worthwhile endeavor but instead I found an unopened jig saw puzzle on the shelf and spent a delightful day starting to put it together.  I expect to finish it tomorrow.  Bliss!  I'm not sure why but I find jig saw puzzles very satisfying.  I generally manage to put together about one a year.  Who knows, 2014  may be a two-puzzle year.

Snow Day!

I saw a notice on TV earlier this evening that the church where I work is closed tomorrow due to the blizzard-like conditions and extreme cold predicted for tomorrow.  While on the mature adult level  I applaud this decision as a logical, safe move, inside I'm going Woo Hoo!! No work tomorrow!!!  It's the same great feeling i remember from childhood when we had a snow day. Sweet memories...

Instant New Year's resolutions

I heard an interesting medical report on the news this morning about Alzheimers disease, a subject that always attracts my attention.  After some discussion about current research the guest doctor was asked if anything could be done to prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimers.  He said that exercise, adequate sleep, social interaction and brain stimulation all help prevent or delay this disease.
I had delayed writing any New Year's resolution but these pretty much wrote themselves:
1. I will try to sleep at least 7 hours each night,
2. I will add walking to my exercise routine (on my Gazelle when the snow is too deep outside),
3. I will spend time with my family and friends,
4, and I will play games, by myself (Sudoko, etc.) and with others.
Anyone who knows me knows that numbers 3 & 4 are easy for me, it's 1 & 2 that I will have to work on.
Stay tuned, we'll see how this goes.


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Friday night relaxing

There's something about Friday night relaxing that's different that any other evening in front of the TV.  Mind you, I don't spend every Friday night at home but when I do it's the best relaxing of the week.  I'm pretty sure it's because I don't usually need to be up and out early on Saturdays.  I've learned most of what I know about relaxing from my cat -fine a warm spot on the couch, curl up in a comfy position and don't think too much about anything, then, when you've relaxed enough, stretch hugely and stroll off to bed.  Of course the cat does it better than I do, but then she practices about 22 hours a day.

Happy New Year! Fun and Games

I have forged into 2014 with two evenings of food and fun with friends and family, learned how to make Jenny Lind pie and Polish sauerkraut with apples and onions, On New Year's Eve my guests and I played Apples to Apples.  I've played this game often with grandchildren but this was the first time with adults.  I love a game that allows for lots of laughs and conversation.  On New Year's Day my son introduced us to a new game called Flux, a really strange game where strategy doesn't seem to count for much.  Winners seem to be as shocked as all the other players when they win. Strangely fun.  I'd say 2014 is off to good start.