Be Creative

Friday night, the end of a stressful week, and after getting some housecleaning and laundry done, I decided to venture out into the night and see about taking some pictures.  Besides, after the sun went down, it was cool enough to take Sadie with me!  I was hoping for some moon shots, but the moon doesn't rise til later.  But I snapped a few pix .... always makes me feel good being creative :)

 

What we need to be taught is not art,

but to believe in ourselves,

our imagination,

our senses

and our hands;

to free our bodies and spirits

that we may live and work

according to our visions.

-Florence Cane

 

No Woes

"Woes is me" phrases are not *me*.  I don't whine (much) about my circumstances in life, or the things that have come my way.  I don't blame someone else, all my choices are my own.  I make up my mind, make my own assumptions, and make life choices based on the same. 

Have I had it easy?  Heck no!  Married and divorced three times because of things I thought I knew.  Starting over is never easy - its scary as heck!  But there comes a point in everyone's life where we all wonder .... "what if......"  and I did too. 

I was also blessed with two children with handicaps.  My daughter is hearing impaired, and my son is visually impaired.  My daughter is grown, living on her own, and raising a daughter who is also hearing impaired.  They do well on their own and I'm proud of them - and I know that I had a big part in making sure they could be on their own.  I won't pat myself on the back, because I truly believe that we're never given more than we can handle (even if it doesn't seem that way to us!) and that someone strong needed to raise these kids -- and that was my mission in life.  :)

My life is about to undergo some major changes again.  And while I hate change, I know its good for me, and that I grow when changes come along.  My son with his visual impairments has decided that he's in love, and is going to move out, and live with this woman.  He doesn't drive (probably never will), and has only been a student - never had a job.  (It would have to be a special job in a great location so that he can bus to and from work, and a company that would work with his limitations....) 

So with that in mind, I'm preparing myself mentally for all the things that might come up, things I'll have to do on my own, places that I'll go alone ....  Like I said, changes ahead.  But as they come, I'll embrace them, and do my best -- like always, and with a smile as often as I can !

Weigh In Weds

Today was a good day, and a bad day, when it comes to my gym time.  The good part:  I was down another two pounds, which means only two more to reach my original goal of losing 50 lbs!   (and that new tat I'm wanting!)  After a holiday weekend, with family here, I was worried about how my eating would affect my efforts -- but was overjoyed when there was a loss on the scale!!  It made me smile.  The bad part of the day was today was the last training session -- and I will miss having this added attention and specific workout sessions!!

Now that I'm so close to my goal, its time to set another!   I'll be pondering that one.  But I'm still working on my 384 mile goal, I reached 194 miles today..... so I hit the halfway point!

The one thing about weight loss efforts -- they're very difficult, to be sure.  But our minds can be a funny thing.  When I look in  mirror, I still see 'the old me' there.   We're our own worst critics when it comes to judging our looks.   As I was getting ready to work with Allan today,  a woman in the gym said "excuse me, but your efforts are really showing."  I grinned, we chatted about hard work and our self images, and she told me "You inspire me to work harder in my workouts."  And that felt so good to hear!!!  Me ....  a chubby old chick, inspiring someone else to work out.   Wow!  Who knew???

If you're thinking about exercising more for health reasons, or preventive medicine reasons, or for needing to lose some weight, there's no reason you can't start now, start small, work your way up to a healthy, happy body!   If *I* can do it, anyone can!

Portion of life

Changes

Sitting outside, my evening rituals complete
there's a strong breeze
blowing my chimes around
and a cricket
chirping away.

Sadie at my feet,
I let my mind wander
thinking about everything
and nothing.

This is a year for changes
some small,
some big
and some not at all.

I don't know what's
on my horizon.
And that's Ok with me!
 @LDPoetry 2013

Progress

Memorial Day

Yep, that's the word of the day!

My girls were here for the weekend, and that can be very tiring! I suppose its a sign of age that when our routines are disrupted, we feel all out of sorts, and that makes us tired.   We had a lot of fun together, but we're all busy people, and have different directions.  Coming together keeps us touching base, and that's a good thing, we all need family!  



 

Remembering our heroes....

  .    RIP Douglas Richard Mulle Jr.   .

today, and every day!  

Weekends!

Bought Sadie

a summertime

wading pool....

she likes it,

has been in it

several times

already!

Even though

it was warm,

we roasted

hot dogs

then made

s'mores!

yummmmmy

Wonderful Times!

5:30am wake-up call.
Take dogs outside, sit on patio watching sunrise.
Attempt to snooze a little, dogs had other ideas!
Up and cleaning room, give dogs a bone so I can shower.
Got dressed and thought, Yes! an hour to myself.
Nope.
Granddaughter up at 7am, and already bored.
(lol remember those summers like that??
ohh to have them back again!)
So... we get dressed, and walk the dogs.


Today's photo theme:  Interesting things on the ground.
"Grandma, does a dog pile count as interesting?"
"Uh, no...."   (lmao, kids say the darndest things!)

Off for a walk, the dogs walk better than the granddaughter,
who's hungry.  After already eaten a bowl of cereal.
Keep walking, keep going, we're almost home.
We'll have some lemon water first.

Decided that doing some cooking would be
a good form of entertainment.
Stirred up some taco meat for dinner.
Stirred up some krispie treats (mmmm)
Then made our smoothies.
Ingredients?  Apple, strawberry, peach, mango, spinach, tomato, milk, cream, and ice.
Whiiiiiirrrrrrrrr
they were quite good, actually!

Only 10am now, and off to Walmart we go
as we're out of paper plates.
And Sadie needs a swimming pool.
Along with that, we ended up with some Peace Tea,
a veggie snack plate, some Dynomitos, Mack's swim ears,
and spinach artichoke hummus.  (Which is very tasty!)

11am, and "I'm hunnnnngry" *laughs*
No clock reading!  Let's go shopping.
Off to the Verizon store, where I bought
a new smart phone!
Now I'll be smarter than ever!!
hahahhahahaha

Off to the pool with some snacks,
swim for an hour, then home to some
make-em-yourself nachos or burritos.
Always a delish treat, and refreshing too.

After dinner, guess who falls asleep??
It should have been me, but nope
it was my granddaughter. heheheheheh

although, its 7pm and I am ready for bed
but we're going to have roasted hot dogs

and some s'mores over the fire pit.


Wonderful times!!

Weekends

Ohhhh... weekends can be fun!  My girls are here for the weekend, and we're already having a good time!  They arrived early, we had all afternoon, so we hopped in the pool for some ball tossin' fun!  Its warm and the pool was cool and refreshing.  I was doing a little water aerobics in the pool to make up for not heading to the gym today.   A simple dinner and a few projects - including hanging a "rain chain"  (more on that in next post), my granddaughter watered all my plants, and we hung out on the patio.  Then did a few workout moves, just for fun :)

Work was quick, I only worked until noon - always a good thing!  
But now I'm tired, ready for some closed eyes.....

Now its early Saturday morning... I was so ready for closed eyes, that they closed before I could hit 'post' hehehhee

Hope everyone has a terrific weekend :)

Is it Flirtin'...?

There's nothing like a good wave from a friendly face
to perk up a single gal's day!

As usual, I went to the gym and hopped on the elliptical.  Maybe I should back up the story a bit.....  For the past few weeks when I arrive at the gym, there's a very nice looking gentleman on one of the bikes, pedaling away.  At first, he would just smile at me.

One day, I felt ballsy and
asked him as I passed by...  "Hows it going?"
and he answered "fine."  With a smile.
*cue music*

Back to today....  I'm pumping away on the elliptical,
and he's working out, doing some squats.
Facing my direction, and smiling at me.
And I'm smiling back.
He waved.
I waved.
*music swells*

He asks from across the room,  "Hows is going?"
and I say "Good, thanks."  With a smile. 

After his workout was finished, he came over to my machine,
"Hard work pays off, doesn't it?"
I nodded, and smiled (kind of shocked that he approached me!)
"You've been working hard."
"Yes, 50 lbs in 15 months."  (Ok so I fudged the last 4 lbs.... but I'll get there!)
"Wow, that's incredible!"
and I'm all smiles.
and he's smiling back at me.
"It's a lot of hard work ..."  he says
and I agree, "... but worth it!  If it were easy...... we'd all be taking a pill or something."
He laughed, and said "Some do that any ways!"
*more nervous laughter*

"Keep up the good work," he says, with a thumbs up!
 *music decrescendos*

He wandered, gathered up his stuff and as he was leaving, waved again.
I waved back, "Have a good evening!!"

*music fades out*

Well.  *smiles* 
Not sure what to make of it, if anything at all,
but the rest of my workout went quick, and full of energy!