Making New Habits

Posted on June 6, 2013 | 1 comment

I discovered a new app for my iPhone. It is called Lift. It is an app to help we with making new habits. I have downloaded the app. I even set up some new habits that I would like to develop. One of these habits is to try to post regularly on my blog. So far I’m not good at checking in to announce to the Lift community that I’m making progress on the habits I have listed I want to develop. I know that I made writing on my blog as one of the habits….I decided I would try to write three times per week. My June 3 was my first post after making my new habit list. ( I thought I would post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.) Guess what….I’m stressing out because I let yesterday come and go without posting anything.

I spent Wednesday morning picking produce from my garden. I’m a little disappointed in my tomatoes. I thought I bought Roma tomato plants so I could practice making and canning salsa again. The tomatoes that are growing are not very big….they look like cherry Roma tomatoes. It is going to take a lot of them to make a jar of salsa.


Veggies from my garden

Fire Duckie

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What’s Up…..

Posted on June 3, 2013 | 1 comment

Time is flying by once again. I can not believe that it has been over a month since my last posting.

This is what I have been doing. I started taking a beginner guitar class through Coursera. This class is offered from Berklee School of Music. The class is for six weeks and I have one more week to go. Am I this fantastic guitar player? Well no. But I have learned a lot.

I ran in a fun with Emily and Mary. I was the slowest runner but I won my first running metal. Hey me!!! Mary and Emily were a little out of sorts since they ran faster. Age has it’s benefits.


I spent a weekend cleaning the gazebo. After doing research on the Internet I started cleaning it with Oxyclean. I was becoming frustrated with the amount of time it was taking so switched to diluted bleach. I did this all by myself. I had a period late in the afternoon where I was hot and tired. I called Marc to whine….lucky for me he did not answer the phone. I took a break and fixed a glass of the new Starbucks Refresher drink mix. Nothing like a little caffeine for a pick me up. After a few minutes I felt energized to finish the job.


The next weekend weekend was the Memorial Day Campout at Lake Texana. We had a lot of fun. Hopefully, I will write more about that later. I have to get the pictures off my Nikon camera.

So finally, we are to this weekend. I spent Friday waterproofing the gazebo. It’s not perfect but I’m happy with my hard work. Also, Marc helped me so there was no reason to whine…


I hope I will not have to do this again for four years.


Honey, you are doing a great job! Thanks so much for helping me so I do not need to whine.


The waterproofing is done.


The finished project with the new cushions. I really do need to remove the tags from the cushions.

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After April 15th….

Posted on April 20, 2013 | Leave a comment

A lot has happened this week in the country and in my personal life. The Boston Marathon bombing; the explosion in West Texas; the end of a horrific tax season and turning in my resignation letter.

I would have not survived this year without the wonderful support of my family. My daughter washed my clothes and did the grocery shopping and on many nights my dear husband had supper waiting for me.

This year I feel like I’m waking up from a fog. Like I have been asleep and the world has passed me by. For starters, I’m baking a cake for the church pot luck dinner. I purchased the cake mix and frosting I have always purchased in the past when I bake my famous yellow cake. I call it famous because one time I did not bring the cake to the pot luck and everyone wanted to know why I did not bring it. Today I noticed that the back of the box called for less than a stick of butter. Come to find out the company changed the ingredients and reduced the size of the box over a year ago. Who knew.

Also, today I went shopping at Walmart for new outdoor cushions. I’m walking by the solar lights…the kind you stick in the ground and I purchased several to put in the flower beds. Now, I need to tell you a little history. For my birthday several years ago, I received one very pretty solar light. It has been sitting in the flower bed since I received it. Well, it never worked and I did not want to throw it away because it was a gift from a good friend. So, today I decided to replace it and that is way I picked up a few more at Walmart. Besides they were “only” $1.50. I was looking at the lights and I noticed a small tag that read “Gently separate light head from pole and pull plastic tab to activate light.”

When I got home I marched myself down to the end of the driveway. I separated the light from the pole and guess what….I never pulled the tab out. I am thinking that tonight when it is dark and I’m out walking Maximus and Corky that I will see a beautiful solar light by the mailbox. Who knew.

I wonder what else I’m going to discover….I hope it is not any unpaid bills.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day

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January Book Club – The Bluest Eye by

Posted on February 3, 2013 | Leave a comment
 

The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

My book club selected this book for discussion for our January get together.  This is a story of racism in the black community.  It is a story about a black child raised in a black community who believes that she is ugly.  But is she really ugly……She believes that if she had white skin and blue eyes that she would be beautiful.  Pecola is a sensitive child whom absorbs all the ugliness and abuse from her family and community instead of getting angry about it.

The children in the playground make fun of her. One of her own classmates hurts his cat and then blames it in Pecola.  Her father rapes her and she becomes pregnant. The black community ostracizes her. Pecola decides that she needs to seek help. She goes to  Soaphead Church for help.  Soaphead Church uses her to kill a dog he does not like and then tells Pecola her eyes will turn blue. The end result –  Pecula goes mad.

All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us.

I felt many emotions while reading this story.  Sadness how her mother cared more for the white child than her own child. Outrage how she was treated by her peers and horror when raped by her father.

It was a good story…..

 

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Happy Birthday

Posted on February 2, 2013 | 1 comment

This weekend I traveled down to Corpus Christi to spend some time with my folks. The drive takes about four hours and sometimes the road can seem rather lonely. I like to look at the clouds as I drive down to my childhood home.

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My mothers birthday is really on February 1. She is 82 years old. My birthday is in February 8…and I forgot how old I am. Anyway, it is the tradition that I drive down and celebrate our birthdays together.

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🎉Happy Birthday!!!! Mom! 🎉

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Posted in Family, Pictures

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First Update on January’s Happiness Project

Posted on January 7, 2013 | 2 comments

This weekend I received one of the books that I ordered from Amazon to help me with my goal of “more energy”.  The book is titled “The Oxygen Diet Solution.” If I follow the diet exactly as laid out in the book, I will be eating a lot of eggs for breakfast and salad for lunch and dinner. 

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Using the book, I was able to come up with an exercise routine.  My plan is to exercise 6 days a week.

Monday – 30 minutes weights/30 minutes cardio.  For the cardio, I will be using the Couch to 5K program to train for the Color Run I signed up for.

Tuesday – 45 minutes cardio. (Spin Class at the gym.)

Wednesday – 3o minutes weights/30 minutes cardio.

Thursday – 60 minutes cardio.  I will split this using my at home work out equipment. I have a treadmill and an elliptical trainer.

Friday – 45 minutes cardio. (Spin class at the gym.)/30 minutes of weights.  I usually come home right from the gym to read the paper and start my day. This will be the hardest day to do….I will have to cut something out of my morning routine to get in that extra 30 minutes without being late for work. (Technically, I have Friday’s off but tax season is gearing up so I think Friday’s off will be going by the wayside until after April 15.)

Saturday – 60 minutes of cardio. (Spin class at the gym.)

Sunday – Active rest.

Every day I will still need check my pedometer to make sure that I am walking 10,000 steps per day.  From my past experience, even though I exercise in the morning, it is hard to get in the 10,000 steps.

I was proud of myself this weekend.  I worked on one of my “nagging projects”.  Maybe I will be able to finish it tonight while I am watching “Biggest Losers.”  I also worked on cleaning up in my office.  I have a rather huge pile to take to the Goodwill place.

In the book, “The Happiness Project”, the key to success was to keep a log.  I did e-mail Grethen Rubin and she sent me her Resolutions Chart.  I started on my own chart but I am not happy with it.  I am making it a goal this week to get my chart arranged in such a way that I can start using it and hopefully, be successful in my project.

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Posted in Diet/Exercise, General

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My Fitness App Dilemma

Posted on January 4, 2013 | 2 comments

Today while I was exercising I was thinking about “toss, restore, organize”, the diet apps on my electronic devices and my Fitbit that I’m using to track my 10,000 steps per day. January 1 it was easy to get on the steps because we went to the new outlet mall in Texas City. It has been harder since I am back at the office all day sitting on my buttocks.

Now for my quandary…I have the Sparkpeople app; the Fitbit app, and the MyFitness Pal app on my electronic devices. They are taking up space and they are also redundant.

I have been using Sparkpeople for a long time. When I first started using Sparkpeople, I thought it was comparable to Weight Watchers online but for free. I was excited when the mobile phone app became available and I could then record my food choices right away. I have many of my meals listed as favorites so it is even easier to record what I eat. I really liked Sparkpeople when I discovered that I could sync my Fitbit. I was disappointed that the food did not sync between the apps.

Many of my family members started using MyFitness Pal. I downloaded the app because I thought it would be nice to get and send encouragement on our fitness goals. I used the app for a few days but I went back to using Sparkpeople, mainly because of the personal food database I had created over the years. The big advantage to using MyFitnessPall is that it does sync both the food and the activity.

These should seem like a “no brainier”. MyFitness Pal does the things that I want to happen with regard to syncing.

So in the effort to “toss, restore, organize” I’m going to remove the Sparkpeople app from my phone and IPad. Somehow, it feels like I’m removing a friend….

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Posted in Diet/Exercise, Opinions, Reflections

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My happiness Project

Posted on January 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

I have now spent fifty-five years in resolving; having,from the earliest time almost that I can remember, been forming schemes so a better life. I have done nothing. The need of doing, therefore, is pressing, since the time of doing is short. O GOD, grant me to resolve aright, and to keep my resolutions. Samuel Johnson

I thought this quote sums up my experience of making resolution and then doing nothing to make any headway on them. This year I have decided to do something a little different…I have decided to have a happiness project.

I just finished reading “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin.


I thought the book was well written. I liked how Gretchen assigned each month with an area to improve upon. She tried new things and ideas. Sometimes they brought about the desired happiness and sometimes they did not.

In the book, Gretchen stated that the key to the success of her experiment was her resolution chart. She also used Benjamin Franklins Chart of 13 Virtues to come up with her resolution chart.

In Gretchen’s experiment, January was the month to work on boosting energy and vitality.

She resolved to:
1. Go to sleep earlier
2. Exercise better
3. Toss, restore, organize
4. Tackle a nagging task
5. Act more energetic

I was wondering about Benjamin Franklin’s Chart. I was able to find a nice PDF file that listed his virtues. The first virtue was temperance. Temperance was to eat not to dullness. Drink not to elation. I thought that this virtue goes well with Gretchen’s list for January.

Here is my list:
1. Go to bed earlier. I have read in many health articles that getting 7-8 hours of sleep is very good for you and can even help with weight loss. Usually, I do go to bed around 11pm and wake up at 5am. I love getting up early so to get at least 7 hours of sleep I will need to be in bed ready to sleep at 10 pm.

2. I exercise pretty regularly. I’m already signed up for a 5k on March 24. I’m not good at strength training. I’m going to try to come up with a consistent exercise program that incorporates more weight training. Also, my eating habits are terrible. I need to come up with some sort of plan to eat healthier.

3. Toss, restore, organize. It is true that chaos can stifle creativity. Here is a picture of my home office. I even have a closet that I call the “dungeon” because ….it is hard to explain.
My office…..


The “dungeon”


There is a lot here that needs to be tossed, restored and organized. This room takes all my energy away.

4. Tackle a nagging task….I’m sure that I have many in my office.

5. Finally, act energetic. Maybe if I act energetic I will be energetic…or at least think I have it.

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2012 in review

Posted on December 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

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