WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR MARCH 2017

Good morning all! Back from Texas and baby Joaquin! He is WONDERFUL!! Sharing a pic of him taken just after nursing!

Had a fantastic, but short visit. I arrived in DFW at 7:30 Thursday night, due to flight delays; had the full day of Friday with him and DD and her DH; then up early Saturday to catch the 7am flight back to Chicago. Hopped on the bus to South Bend, spent the next three hours riding it with a bunch of ND students coming back from Spring Break excursions. It was interesting to watch them stumble to their seats, sit and sleep the majority of the way back to school. LOL! My seat mate was a nice young guy from Columbia, getting his masters in French at ND. Ironically, he had heard of my daughter and her studies and continued translation work for the University. Of course I showed him baby pictures! Anyway, hubby picked me up on campus. He was running late (normal for him) but it gave me time to walk around a bit and get a coffee and work the travel kinks out of my body.

340 posts to catch up on! Wowsa! I have skimmed, but hope to go back and re-read a bit so that all of the info soaks in.
Welcome new girls- great group here! MFP is great for logging and tracking; but so much of making healthy choices and weight loss is mental. I find this group of ladies to be a huge support for my own mental health while going through all of the 50+ life issues! Love them all!
Heather- The croissants look wonderful! I sometimes wish my hubby would cook with me; but we don't shop together or like the same music or walk the same areas, so maybe cooking might be better left to be done by myself. Congrats to your DIL on her column and Edie is just adorable!
Beth- Thinking of you and your DH. Sometimes it just seems like life is one big obstacle course and there are days when I am just to tired to run it. Hope you are feeling better. I also seemed to have picked up a bug during my travels. Fighting the crud.
DJ- Love the Kate Spade polka dot dishes! I bet those are priced a pretty penny!
Mary, Re, Pip, Ginger- I love seeing your workouts and improvements/successes! After four days of doing nothing but running from terminal to terminal or airport to transit station, I am ready to get back to a more normal exercise routine! Inspiring stats from you girls!
Karen and Mia- Your granddaughters are so beautiful! Karen it looks like Olivia is in cloth diapers? My daughter is using them on Joaquin. I am just amazed; they have really come a long way with those!
Penny-Wowsa! What an adventure for your husband! Sometimes the ignorance people have towards nature and climates/surroundings that they are unfamiliar with is ASTOUNDING! I bet that is the last time they don't take some one's advice. It is good to see you back and hope your routine has calmed a bit.
Well, I know there were more of you I wanted to respond to, but I will have to go back and read a bit more, because not much of those 340 posts stuck in my head. ttfn xoxoxo KJ (Kelly)

(((Rita)))

Friend at church was having pain in her lungs. She is going through tremendous stress with an adult son moving back home with two small children. I told her it was due to stress. She said the stress was actually starting to let up. From my experience the let down can be as tricky as the stress itself. I told her this week Miss Sunshine ran away. (Me) I was able to stay positive during DH surgery and first week home. This week the stress let down coupled with driving 90 miles thorough a snow storm to attend a funeral for a former colleague who committed suicide, doctor visits with DH, getting taxes done, our main drain backing up in the basement, a recall notice on my new car, a call from a friend who thought I needed a book on Joy ( I told her that would be like someone who is having a hard time with all the trappings of Christmas because they are having a difficult time and telling them why aren't you getting into the Christmas spirit). I know my friend was trying to mean well. Miss Sunshine went behind the cloud. It is also explains why I am reading a book called Wrong. It discusses how and why experts are often wrong in their advice.

Fortunately yesterday when we sang the beautiful hymn Canticle of Hope, and it started my process of healing from the week that was.

WOW! what a prolific group! Over 10 pages and 200+ posts since I posted just a couple days ago! Not sure I will be able to keep up and keep everyone straight. I get "fog Brain" easy nd easily overwhelmed since my accident.
I have started a few herbs from seeds and getting ready to start some veggies. I can sit and scoot along ground to work my raised beds. Hope to have better luck than last few years. There is nothing like fresh veggies from the garden!
Have been ravenous past few days but have stayed within calories and base nutrients.

Mae in Maine

Sue: Adding to Re's question, are canned fruits acceptable? I get peaches and pears canned in water to put on my cottage cheese sometimes. They're tasty and reasonable calorie count. :flowerforyou:

Sarah in Ontario: Your treks in the snow sound wonderful. So does your garden. I have a spot where I garden next to my driveway and it is about 8'X8.' We live in a townhouse and there are additional flowerbeds that have blueberries, hardy fuchsias and flowering shrubs. I've planted a cherry tomato for years that takes over the 8X8 spot but I've decided to skip it this year. Instead, I'm planning to put in a columnar rosemary plant and purple pod bush beans. We go to a farm store for most of our veggies. I was an avid reader of Rodale's Organic Gardening & Farming for years. I was sad when it disappeared from the shelves. They have a new magazine out called Rodales's Organic Life. They have less "how to" information about gardening and more about other things than I'd prefer but it is better than nothing. There have been three issues so far.

Heather: My weight has crept up a bit, too. I know what I need to do. :grumble:

Yinka: Spring has sprung here. The snow is melting and the river is HIGH. In fact, it is the highest it has been in about twenty years. We don't have shorts and tee shirt weather by any means yet. :noway:

Lisa: I love "Mama at 60." It brings gladness to my heart.

Rita: (((HUGS)))

Margaret: I'm so glad that the Canticle of Hope helped you begin to heal from all of the stress. Stress from bad things and stress from good things are both hard on your whole system. :flowerforyou:


We will be having our 47th wedding anniversary tomorrow and have decided to celebrate by going to dinner at a local restaurant. I look forward to it. The river is still high but not worrisome for us at this point. The forecast calls for continued minor flooding conditions at Vancouver, WA along the Columbia. Main areas of concern are some islands and low areas. So far we seem to be doing fine & are not worried about high water impacting our home.

Katla in beautiful NW Oregon

"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another." - William James