Earl Grey and sympathy?

A quiet Sunday here.  

Chilly, but seasonal temperatures.  I went for an afternoon walk, and came in to tea.  

On-line church, spotting my sis in her Christmas sweater, in her usual pew.  She's in town between the trip to help and the Christmas visit to her daughter, so I did not have cat duty yesterday or today.

The Christmas carols that constituted a lot of the music made me tear up a bit.  The sermon was a good one, giving the nod to Mary's prayer and vision, and the need for all of us to examine ourselves for the pride that would assume we are always correct in our opinions.  

I think the virus should be teaching us this lesson... that if we're correct 33% of the time, we're batting well, to use a baseball analogy.  So let's give each other a break, when we don't agree on every opinion.

Monday slipped away

The big thing I did on Monday was to start tracking nutrition again.  I've been very lax for several months now.  Right now, though, we are in the midst of holidays, where rich foods are "tradition".  We're in the shorter hours of daylight, when hibernation sounds oh, so lovely.

Did my tracking indicate a home run, in terms of choices and volumes?  Cough-cough... far from it.  BUT... giving credit for getting honest and writing it down.

But we keep moving forward

Even during Christmas week, I have my two trainer sessions on the schedule.  Tuesday morning I woke up to temperatures in the teens.  Brrrr!  But then I open the drapes and see the rising sun, on the shortest day of the year, lighting up the treetops across the street through my windows.  

It's my son's GF's birthday.  Instead of gifts, she asked for book suggestions, which I thought was a sweet idea.

Now, let's get out and make the most of this "shortest daylight of the year" day.  Be as healthy as you can manage, and don't beat up on yourself if you're not perfect at it!  After all, it is the only Tuesday, December 21, 2021 we'll ever get.  And we are worth taking care of.  Even the elves have to take care of themselves so they can do their work!

Life is good!  Spark on!  💖🍬🎄🎅🤶🔥🔥🎆✨❇

Day 62: The blog review project continues.

Yesterday I started at 188 pages of blogs, 2,815 individual entries.  Today I am sitting at 169 pages of blogs, or 2,534 individual blogs left to review.  Doing the math, that means I processed 281 blogs.  But it is exhausting emotional work, because each blog reviewed involves a decision.  Back during one period on Spark we talked about decision fatigue and how it leads to a number of ills:

• Tired of making yet another decision, we can make poor ones.
• Tired of being tired, or beating ourselves up with internal perfectionism can lead us to give up on the project entirely.

And of course the blogs that are important to ME may not be the ones that are important to YOU.  Yesterday, I got through my son's second deployment and my sister in law's final illness and death.  I also found my trip to Florida for Marsha (SLENDERELLA61)'s first half marathon.  And meeting Becky (KALIGIRL) for the first time, not to mention her rescuing me during some of those stressful times by bringing the dogs over and letting me walk with them!

Self-pep talk and other mitigating stress relief is in order for such projects!  

• First, I went for my morning walk, being aware of and appreciating the wind that was coming through, as well as the small droplets of water, the overcast sky... because it was already 77℉ here when I headed out at 7:39 a.m.  It will get much warmer before the day is done with us.
• Second, I am reinforcing the attitude that what gets done, gets done, and anything I don't get to, well, it was meant to be let go!
• Third, I am appreciating that I have accomplished as much as I have, because in the process I have been reminded of oh, so many lessons learned.  And those lessons have been reinforced.

My morning walk did include some intervals today, but they were shorter (60-80 steps of jogging), and I was not so cheeky as to tell RunKeeper it was a run, but called it a walk.  

Now, with a deep breath, and allowing for life to keep happening as I proceed... I'm headed back in for today's blog-review session!

Everybody:  remember that real life in real time still triumphs over any stressful interruptions.  We still have to take care of our health, even when distressed by worry over others or over circumstances.  For today, treat yourself well, and live the best Saturday, August 7, 2021 you can manage, right where you are TODAY!  Because we only get ONE of each day... it's NOT the movies that allow for repeats.

LIFE is good!  Spark on!  ✨💖🎇

Day 34: The promise of a new morning

I love mornings... a fresh new day.  If it's a day like today, I have nothing scheduled.  I did however have an idea of a few things I wanted to accomplish, or at least "work on".

Remember a couple of weeks ago, getting my tree cleaned up, now nice the base of it looked?

It looked so nice!  I asked if there was something I could put on it to keep the suckers from growing back.  Unfortunately, said the arborist, not without endangering the whole tree!  You will have to trim them back, sorry!

So... time passes...

This morning?  Sure enough.  Give a plant a couple of weeks of rain and sunshine, and bingo!

I grumbled a bit, took its picture, and went for my morning pre-breakfast walk.  I cut it short, thinking "I need to spend at least SOME energy addressing this issue TODAY".  

I did not make much headway.  After my efforts, it looked like this:

But my back was done with bending and snipping, so I filled three bins with lopped "volunteer" trees and weeds.  Later I went out and added two more bins full, from the back yard.

There is a whole lot more "deforestation" to be done, as there always seems to be with my yard.  But I have to pace myself and pick the time of day when I won't get broiled doing the work.  

Two years ago, when Carl was a puppy, I had him one day a week, so I spent a lot of time in the back yard, and it got under control.  Last year, I had the shed back there taken out, and some cleanup happened so that the men could work on it..  This year, Sleeping Beauty's forest is once again taking over, so I'm trying to get a grip on it!

Lunch time already.  Nutritious food is another thing I like to work on.  Lots of fresh veggies in this salad, and a little protein (hard boiled egg) and a little fat (seven small olives).    

Doesn't the salad look yummy?

Now, let's all get out there and live the day we're given, this one and only Saturday, July 10, 2021 we'll ever get!  Because LIFE is good, and we are each and every one of us worth living it for!  ✨👍💖😍 Spark on!

Day 21: Sunrise, sunset... which is better?

 

My favorite sunrise shot from June 18th

My favorite sunset shot from June 26th

There is something about day's start, and something about day's end.  In between the two is the day of LIVING!  At day's start, that is a day of potential.  At day's end, it is a day of completion or accomplishment.

Now don't go telling me that at day's end you have days when you didn't complete or accomplish *anything*!  That is just plain untrue.  You lived.  You breathed.  If you were ill, your body was fighting your illness.  If you were resting, your body was recovering from the stresses imposed on it in the hours or days before.  I think we mistake if we judge a day only by concrete "things done".  

I also think we are capable of having too ambitious a "to do" list at day's start.  Day's start does involve some hopes for the potential day ahead.  Some things are not optional.  We may have to work, to earn a living.  We may have appointments.  We may be in charge of the family's meals and getting the children to their school, activities, and so on.

During the past year, the year of pandemic, we may have been forced to take a step back from the level of activity that had us thinking we were running on a treadmill and never stopping.  This happened to both Sister #1 and to me.  We stopped doing some things to keep ourselves and our community safer.  And, surprise, now that we're both fully vaccinated and we CAN get back out and do?  We are each in our own way choosing carefully which things in our lives are indeed worthy of being on that list "to do"!

And yes, the sunset paddle was awesome and peaceful.  The water was quiet.  My friend Gerri came this time, as she was out of town for the sunrise paddle date.

A little artistic angle of Gerri, resting and watching that sunset.

I breathed in watching the runners and walkers getting a little activity on top of the dam.

It was late (for me) when I got home and showered, but I took the restful feelings into my good night's sleep.  And now, it's another day's start:

May we all remember to fully LIVE in this one and only Sunday, June 27, 2021 we'll ever get.  For LIFE is good.  💖💪🙋

Day 7: Makes me think of a Bible verse

Can you guess which one?  "On the 7th day, the Lord rested".  Thus, flowers from my fence line for the picture of the blog!  What's really funny is that an almost identical photo from a year ago, and from four years ago popped up in my Facebook "memories" yesterday or the day before.  Those flowers are right on schedule and they don't keep a calendar!

We've had a week since the news dribbled out about SparkPeople.com going away.  A week to sort through our feelings and make plans, and in some cases, to take some initial exploratory steps in finding new ways to do what we need to do to continue making our lives full and active and healthy as we can!

Maybe today we just breathe and relax into any new healthy routine we've started, no stressing over its rightness or wrongness, or how well we're doing "it", whatever it is.  

As a recovering perfectionist, I know this drill well, and as I mature, I do better about practicing it.  Now let's get out and live this one and only Sunday, June 13, 2021 we'll ever get, best as we can, right where we are!  💗😍