WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR DECEMBER 2017

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  • fanncy0626
    fanncy0626 Posts: 7,152 Member
    Felicia- (((hugs))) I'm sorry for your loss and your pain. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. We are here for you.

    <3
  • KetoneKaren
    KetoneKaren Posts: 6,412 Member
    Felicia My family has had much heartbreak surrounding mentally and emotionally ill family members including my sister, my brother, and my father. My heart goes out to you. I have a lot of feelings about the way people with mental and emotional illness are treated...so I hear you loud and clear...this thread is a safe space for you to vent and we are here to listen when you need us. (((hugs))).

    Heather 1800 calories is so very reasonable! I have great admiration for the way you manage your food preparation and daily exercise routine. It's inspirational. I need a better routine to counteract the disruptive forces of my variable work hours and intermittent exhaustion secondary to work. I tend to eat when I am tired and/or stressed.

    Rye Your last post brought tears to my eyes. My mom made Christmas happen for us, and it was glorious. Perhaps that is why I am a bit "bah humbug" now. Making Christmas happen is not something I am particularly good at and I have little enthusiasm for it most years. I long for the magic, though, and I miss my mother terribly. Oddly, though I am melancholy, I cherish those memories.

    Lanette (blushing) why, thank you! and to answer your question, this year we did order some photo postcards to send out a few each day to friends. Some years we don't even send out any cards or letters. One year I got inspired and sent out a rather hilarious rhyming letter concerning the turkey we set on fire on the grill, some crazy dog antics, etc. and we got so many texts, calls and even thank you notes in response to it that we were gobsmacked.

    Karen in Virginia
  • coastalgosgal
    coastalgosgal Posts: 2,900 Member
    s5ktu9gi31d5.jpg

    Finally rec'd a pic from my nuke son! He looks reasonably happy! Can't wait to see all three of my sons, and daughter in-law this season!

    Vertigo is gone, but doc gave me some meds to calm my bladder. I am up 5-7 times a night, and she concluded that I'm not getting restorative sleep. Tonight will start those an hr before I go to bed.

    Paid bills, and bought a couple of treat presents for sons. This year our presence will be our presents!

    Hugs to all that wish one!
    Becca
    Oregon
  • Marcelynh
    Marcelynh Posts: 974 Member
    Joyous December. The remainder of the year will be here before you know it. Enjoy every last minute.

    Marcelyn
    home in Houston after vacation in the Hill Country
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,681 Member
    Lagopus wrote: »
    cityjaneLondon wrote: »
    Penny - The percentage is just up in the corner when you see the chart. Next to the number of days streak. I am now 48% fluent in Swedish. :laugh: I don't think so. :noway: I remember getting off the bus in Norway, having completed the whole Norwegian course on Duolingo, and not being able to speak a word! I did improve during the trip, but passive knowledge is not the same as active.
    My relationship with music is very fraught. I love music, but I get terrible "earworms" that can drive me insane. Some tunes just go round and round my head for days and sometimes all night. I daren't play "Graceland" , for example, or "Let it Go". Aaaaarrrrrgggghhh! "Human" by the Killers is another one. I love it, but it won’t leave me alone. :'(:#:o
    Thanks Heather - and Machka - but I don't see any percentage, and I tried four different browsers too! Is it a Windows 10 thing? Actually I DID see a percentage, 86%, but I was in the Chinese course so I knew there had to be something wrong. Turns out it was my battery charge. :laugh:

    When I get some tune stuck in my head and need to get rid of it, I've found one surefire way to exorcise it. I just start singing the baritone aria "Betrachte, meine Seel, mit ängstlichem Vergnügen" from Bach's St. John Passion. It ALWAYS drives the earworm out of my head. Sometimes it replaces the earworm, but I don't mind that!

    Hey, don't anybody knock it! It works for me!

    My father has a "default song" and is convinced that when he's lying on his deathbed it will be to the tune of the theme song from "Cheers" (Makin' your way in the world today takes everything you've got...). I have a default song too, but unfortunately it's even worse. It's the jingle Norwegian ice cream trucks play when they're driving around. t9403.gif When my time comes, I hope I can remember to replace it with Betrachte...
    /Penny at the t07190.gif


    You can see the percent on the app on your phone ... I haven't actually looked at Duolingo on my computer.


    And the way I get rid of earworms is to find the song and play the whole thing.

    M in Oz

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,681 Member
    cityjaneLondon wrote: »
    I think you all get going on the Christmas spirit a bit earlier than we do over here. The stores are at it already, but I don't know anyone who has started their decorations yet. I wouldn't start until a week or so before Christmas.

    In Canada, a lot of people I knew (including my family) put up our decorations on December 1. December 1 was the traditional Christmas Day decorating day. Or at least, that's when we started because it can take a few days.

    Then we take them down after Epiphany (Jan 6) or in my family's case, after Eastern Orthadox Christmas (Jan 7). And actually, in the last few years I kind of get around to it toward the end of January.

    Here in Australia a lot of people seem to follow the December 1 tradition too. :)

    M in Oz
  • jmkmomm
    jmkmomm Posts: 3,247 Member
    Felicia, big hugs to you. I am so sorry you have to go through this. You should only have to be da.ing with your feelings regarding your sister's death and not all the other trash and junk.

    Rye, your Christmas home is beautiful. I love your memories with your Mom. Yes, she did make it an event. We had very little as far as a monetary Christmas but Mom would make it special with thinks like a dress for my doll that arched my dress that was a present. Maybe it was the first American Doll! One year Dad helped us girls paint simple blocked of wood that he had very simply made into the shape of different building s you would find in a town. Tha way we wouldn't be swayed by what the block of wood was and make it what we wanted to make it. I still have those blocks. I don't have my tree up and I'm not really sure if it will go up.

    I wake up each morning thinking that my arm will have more movement without pain. But yet I don't know if it s pain free if it's Ok to move it. I think my appointment is a week from next Tuesday. They will do more X-rays and hopefully I will not be in as much shock and ask more questions.

    I did figure out a way to get off the porch! I have no problems going from house to porch now. Michelle found Mom's old quad cane. It is the old telescoping kind which because I was a nurse know how to change the length of those canes in a millisecond. Anyway, I make it as tall as I can make it, put it on the sidewalk, step down with my right foot and then the fracture boot. When I want to get up on the porch, I make the cane as short as it cN be, put it on the porch, step up and then step up with my boot. Wala! Now for the driving and the shower. As Michelle said, one thing at a time Mom.

    Joyce, Indiana
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,681 Member
    lhscapil wrote: »
    My question to all of you - do you do the Christmas cards and/or letters?


    No ... not for years now.

    I used to painstakingly handwrite about 30 letters I would send to people with cards, and I did that year after year in my twenties. Then in my early 30s I started using a computer and started typing and printing off the letters with nice borders and all that.

    In 2004, I had "retired" and was in Australia for Christmas ... 3 months cycling around Australia. So no letters or cards or anything that year. And in 2005, I started university to get my Bachelor of Education and I was insanely busy with full-time uni and part-time work ... and just didn't have the time. I haven't sent out a Christmas letter since.

    I did still email "what happened this year" emails to a few friends at some point between Christmas and New Years when I was on a break, but even that fell by the wayside quite a few years ago.

    Sitting beside me right now, there is a plastic grocery bag with a couple boxes of Christmas cards in it. I'll have a rummage through them next weekend probably to see what cards I'll include with the packages I'm sending to North America to close family. And I might send/give cards to a few other people. I'll see.

    M in Oz

  • KetoneKaren
    KetoneKaren Posts: 6,412 Member
    NYKaren You know, I think you have hit on it. I love so many kinds of music and find it healing.

    My dad listened to Handel's Messiah (entire) every Christmas Eve... (sigh)

    Karen in Virginia
  • grandmallie
    grandmallie Posts: 10,140 Member
    Back from the movie ..and in bed work tomorrow and then home..
  • skuehn48
    skuehn48 Posts: 3,068 Member
    Hi all: Only have a little bit of Christmas decorating done but it is started. Got my hair cut today so it should be good for upcoming events. Dson's birthday is Dec 7 and we are trying to find a day to celebrate. It is hard as everyone is busy. We have kids' program and silver jubilee coming up at church along with our choir party and cantata that we do with another church choir first at their church and then at ours. Christmas will be at our house. DS has the DGD for Christmas day this year. Will have to dig out the tree and see if we can get it put up this weekend. Yes we do send out Christmas cards with a letter. DH also wrote one for my mom this year. She is 93 and says she is no longer up to writing a hand-written note in each of her cards.

    Meg - Glad things are settling down for you now.

    Joyce - Nice that you have found a way to get off the porch without risking a fall.

    Becca - Nice picture of a good-looking young man.

    Loving all of the pictures!!

    Everyone take care, Sue in WA
  • janetr7476
    janetr7476 Posts: 4,001 Member
    Sue, thank you so much for sharing your table. I'm like a kid in a candy store, can't stop looking. <3. It is gorgeous.

    Janetr okc
  • GodMomKim
    GodMomKim Posts: 3,708 Member


    Hi Gals,

    Machka – great dress!

    Rori (((((((((((hugs))))))))))))))

    Lanette – I double took at the comment that DH ate your tree, until I remembered the picture! LOL

    Katla – I think grandkid gifts are enough, but I would have a conversation (or a letter) with each of your kids to tell them, not just let them find out when there are no gifts. And maybe ask that they do not give you gifts but some small thing or homemade thing from the grand kids would be a delight

    Heather – what or who are the Samaritans?

    Rye – you described how I look at gift giving EXACTLY! I must admit I can be disappointed when I get a gift that is VERY obvious that the giver gave it no thought.

    Felicia ((((((((((hugs))))))))))))))))


    Someone asked, yes I do cards… 50 or so… many of them get my Christmas letter too; I do about 40 to friends and family and 10 or so to my best clients. I have worked late last night and then all afternoon, and feel like I have made a dent…

    Tons to do tomorrow and Sunday; next week is a zoo, as Wednesday I am driving down to go with my mom to a cardiologist appointment – which of course is smack in the middle of the day (good less traffic- bad shoots the day to *ell) She is 88 years young has a pacemaker and on the last pacemaker check it gave some weird readings, she NEVER asks a doctor a question, they put her on some meds that she doesn’t like so I want to understand what is what she believes and what is real. She doesn’t hear well and sometimes makes up what she doesn’t hear. Then Thursday mid-day she is coming down to do cookies and will be here till Monday, so that means all the cookie cooking, dishes, and I will be making breakfasts, lunches and some dinners, we will do one dinner of pizza and one of Chinese. But I will need to pick up those and make salad with the pizza - Mom helps with all of it, but she just can’t do as much! By the end of those days I am completely exhausted.

    I am also hoping to get fall decorations away and all my Christmas stuff except the tree up, as I do a real tree and don’t bring it in until the 10th…

    Smiles

    Kim from N. California
  • pipcd34
    pipcd34 Posts: 17,349 Member
    stats for the day:

    bike ride hm 2 gym- 8.14min, 145mhr, 11.2amph. 1.5mi= 87c
    apple watch- 65c
    TREADMILL, walk/skip/scissors- 50min, 10incl, 1631 elevation, 112ahr, 140mhr, 3.8-3.9ap, 140mhr, 3.21mi = 338c
    apple watch- 334c
    bike ride gym 2 dome- 5.02min, 124mhr, 17amph, 1.4mi= 56c
    apple watch- 52c
    bike ride puy 2 sumn sta- 15.18min, 147mhr, 12amph, 3mi= 155c
    apple watch- 118c
    jog sta 2 wk- 4.56min, 153mhr, 9.30min mi., .5mi= 75c
    apple watch- 60c
    jog wk 2 sta- 5.14min, 9.49min mi, 153mhr, .5mi = 67c
    apple watch - 55c
    ride dome 2 hm up Mst- 18.31min, 7.8amph, 151mhr, 2.4min- 215c
    apple watch- 153c

    totalcal 993
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,681 Member
    KetoneKaren wrote: »
    My dad listened to Handel's Messiah (entire) every Christmas Eve... (sigh)

    Karen in Virginia

    I have a couple CDs with portions of it, so each year I keep my eyes out for anyone who will be performing it live. A couple years ago, I got lucky and the biggest cathedral in the city put it on. Fantastic! They had a large choir and full orchestra all playing in this huge and beautiful cathedral. And they did the whole thing! :)

    (Taken during an "open house" in 2014)
    16386793632_09b12afa86_z.jpg



    But that reminds me, I must try to find CDs with the whole thing. Add that to my list of CDs I'm trying to find.

    M in Oz
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,681 Member
    exermom wrote: »
    Made the pierogi tonight and boo hoo hoo, not a one of them broke. Well, I HAD to be sure they were good enough to serve company, so somehow one of them found it's way into my stomach. Weird how that happens. I am attributing none breaking to my getting better and better at making and kneading the dough. Vince says it's because of his quality control (he pinches them closed). Who knows? I just know that I liked when they broke.

    Michele in NC

    I may need to get recipe and tips from you. I can't buy them here at all, nor anything like them, so I tried to make them once and it was a disaster. I haven't tried since.

    M in Oz

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,681 Member
    Machka9 wrote: »
    KJLaMore wrote: »
    Machka- LOVE your new profile pic! That red dress looks fantastic on you!

    Thanks! That was me on Christmas Day 2 years ago. Unfortunately, I've put on a little bit of weight since then ... which I'm hoping to drop so I might be able to wear that dress again. :)

    Thanks everyone. :)

    I also thought I'd mention that the beach I'm at is right near my sister-in-law's place a couple hour's drive from where we live. But despite how close it is, I think that was the last time we were out there. Just one of those things ... when you live relatively close to something, it seems harder to go there for some reason!!

    That Christmas Day was a beautiful hot day, so we spent some time walking along and wading in the water there.

    M in Oz
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,681 Member
    lhscapil wrote: »
    Machka - you are the bomb in that red dress. And your Christmas trees (and everyone elses) are getting me excited. I'm afraid DH ate our tree, lol. I'm at least going to dig out lights! And put my Santa carvings on the mantel!

    Ate??

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,681 Member
    KetoneKaren wrote: »
    Wendy Coffee and Egg is the name of Lisa's blog on Wordpress - coffeeandegg dot wordpress dot com - so wonderful -
    and I, too, am inspired by your example of a joyous, active, well-lived life. I have asked for The Joyous Body on audiobook for Christmas. Thank you for that. I am with you on the food intake being the thing that makes the difference in my weight control. Heather and others find that exercise makes the difference in whether they can eat a decent amount of food or not. Someday I hope to be there, but they are talking about the difference between eating 1000 calories and 1600 calories. If I was always within that range of calories, then exercise would also be the biggest factor in whether I could eat 3 decent meals a day vs nearly starving. I exercise for heart and bone health, but my weight challenge has everything to do with what goes in my mouth. I burn about 300-400 calories per hour of exercise. I can eat 300-400 calories in less than a minute! A handful of nuts, a helping of flavored coffee creamer at work, a too large portion of pad thai, a portion of leftover Duchess potato casserole from Thanksgiving...these are a few of my recent indiscretions.

    Unfortunately, I've discovered that my maintenance is net-1500 calories. Depressingly low. A single Dominos pizza will get me most of the way there. :(

    However, fortunately exercise does help.

    I just have to be sure to track everything I eat ... and I use a kitchen scale to do that ... so that I've got an accurate count.

    And I have to be sure to track my exercise as low/light/slow, and round down on the time I spend doing the exercise. So if I cycle at a brisk pace for 66 minutes, I record it as a slower pace for 60 minutes. Or if I walk at a almost a light jog for 35 min ... I'll record it as a slow walk at 30 min.

    I also only record exercise, so I don't use a fitbit or anything like that. I don't count anything indoors (other than actual exercise like a treadmill, rowing machine, spin bike or trainer, and weights) ... so the fact that I cover nearly 1 km (I did measure it once out of curiosity) walking to the toilet and back in my rather large office does not get recorded. Walking around grocery stores and shopping centres doesn't get recorded either. In fact, if my lunchtime walk takes me into a variety of shops, I'll record the walk to the shop, but not the part inside the shop.

    And then, when I'm really actively trying to lose weight (like now), I will only eat a portion of my exercise calories ... not the whole lot.


    BTW Wendy ... some of that weight gain could be water weight. I tend to suddenly put on 2-3 kg immediately after a long bicycle ride, and then 3 or 4 days later, I double my output, and the next morning, I'm back to normal again.

    When I'm exercising a lot, I tend to yo-yo a lot with my weight because my poor body doesn't know if it should be in the retaining water phase or the getting rid of water phase.


    Machka in Oz
  • KetoneKaren
    KetoneKaren Posts: 6,412 Member
    Barbie Thank you so much for your comments on your approach to holidays. It helped me realize that part of my blah-ness could be banished by permitting myself to have different expectations. Pretty simple, but I hadn't quite gotten there. Thank you!

    Karen in Virginia
  • Marcelynh
    Marcelynh Posts: 974 Member
    I never do New Year's resolutions. They just never work. So today I read an article about how people that make December 1st resolutions are often much more successful in keeping those resolutions. It's part psychological, part physical (weird but true) .... so I decided to try it out.

    Now I just have to figure out what the resolutions should be. lol
  • coastalgosgal
    coastalgosgal Posts: 2,900 Member
    Think healing thoughts and prayers for my nuke son. He has sprained both ankles from doing his weekly 5K runs. He must have ankles that turn in? Too many times at sick call, or limited duty, could possibility eliminate him from the Navy. Hoping when he comes home for the holidays we can strengthen them with exercises.
    Becca
    Oregon
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