This March I Will...
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So frustrating—I had a reaction to something—probably that awful sunscreen—and broke out in sore red blotches on my face and can’t use any of my nice skincare products. So the skincare habit is reduced to extremely cautious washing and careful dabbing with plain lotion for now.
On the plus side, our table settings have been lovely, mostly because once I actually mentioned to my husband what I was doing, he started keeping the table meticulously clear of mail and such, so I’ve been free to do the fun part of choosing linens and things. (Currently bright red mats with cheerful cherry-print napkins.) It’s a good reminder that I just need to communicate clearly in order to get all kinds of support.
Oh yikes, breaking out in a rash is awful. Was it the sunscreen? Have you been able to resume your skin care products?
I love your table setting habit. And now your husband is participating by keeping the table clear? Fantastic!
We can’t dine in a fancy restaurant every evening but we can emulate the setting. Well done, @jroslyn!1 -
PackerFanInGB wrote: »texasgardnr wrote: »Here is my conclusion: Truthfully, I enjoy being by myself at night, especially when it is quiet, since the TV that my husband has been watching is turned off. I want to read that next blog post I've discovered, or another page in a book I'm reading, or to color some more because I enjoy the quiet of being by myself and doing fun things more than I want to sleep, even if I am tired. Just because I can :noway:
Often, as weird as it may sound, I also finish something that didn't get done, like folding laundry or something else mundane, so I won't have to do it tomorrow. And so I do, of course while listening to an audio library book, because now it is quiet and I can listen uninterrupted while getting something finished.
Oh my goodness, I could have written this myself! I know the feeling well. Ever since my husband retired 4 years ago, I've found that I never have time alone anymore. I still work full time, but the difference now is that i no longer get home before him to have that hour or so to myself. I never realized how much I need that quiet time, just to recharge. My husband has a TV on all day long in both the livingroom and the kitchen whether he is watching it or not. He needs the noise. I need the quiet.
So...I find myself at 10pm wanting to turn off the TV and either watch You Tube videos on quilting, or read, or peruse Pinterest while listening to a white noise app that sounds like a distant thunderstorm and rain...
I need to put some thought into how I'm going to get around this one too. Very insightful post and I thank you, @texasgardnr, for sharing.
P.S. I'm sorry to hear about your brother's accident! I sure hope he is doing well now!
Right there with both of you, @texasgardnr and @PackerFanInGB! I realized several weeks ago that the natural tension I have with myself about getting to bed earlier and getting more sleep is rooted in how much I enjoy my late evenings. So many things to read, catch up on, ponder, and strategize....who’s got time for sleep?
The pull for “me time” is strong indeed, but what I’ve learned from focusing on sleep this month is that I can still enjoy most of my evening activities, but trimming it just a bit has had a disproportionately positive impact on the quality of the next day. I have inched up my daily sleep from 6 hours a night to 6 hours 10 minutes, to 6 hours 20 minutes, and now this week... 6 hours 30 minutes! And let me tell you, that extra 30 minutes of sleep has made a big difference in my life!
I remember reading in Moonwalking with Einstein that sleep deprivation is terrible for memory recall. So many times I’d forget a name or some other relevant piece of information. It disturbed me enough to want to explore memory enhancing techniques. But since I’ve been getting more sleep, these lapses in recall are happening much less often. Another benefit to getting more sleep!
Mostly, I just feel better. I’m going to make sleep my focus for April too. I’m not going to put pressure on myself to nudge my sleep up more and more. That may happen, we’ll see. But the extra 30 minutes is great!
One last thought. Before our Fitbits, we recorded sleep by looking at the clock. There was no tracking of deep sleep, light sleep, REM, nor awake time between sleep cycles. So Fitbit’s subtracting of awake time from sleep time when it gives us our daily count of time slept makes it hard to compare it with traditional clock measurements. Fitbit said I got 6 hours 58 minutes of sleep last night. The clock would put it at 7 hours 40 minutes.
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themedalist wrote: »
I could not agree more with @PackerFanInGB. @nebslp, what you, your family, your community and so many midwesterners are dealing with is heartbreaking and devastating. Few things shake us to the core like our homes being impacted. I cannot imagine the level of devastation you’ve been dealing with. I’m sure shock and grief are ever present. No need to apologize whatsoever. This is an extremely stressful situation and it needs your attention.
Our monthly goals format is very flexible. A March goal can easily become an April goal!
Thanks for letting us know, Rita. We are always here for you to lean on!
Thank you so much for your support and letting me share my sadness. My son doesn't live there, but had a storage unit in Winslow and had some things lost, we did many loads of clothes that were stored in totes, and they’re storing their things in one of our buildings. They had recently rented it so they can do some remodeling. His good friend, who was at our house daily for years when they were little, owned 2 homes, the storage unit, and his wife had a business there. One of my Thursday morning “coffee ladies” has moved to a town 17 miles away but I hope she will come back for coffee. She is a young 81 years old so this is hard on her. The town is trying to coming back strong, but it will be a long haul.
@MadisonMolly2017 Are your salads varied daily or mostly mixed vegetables or lettuce or....? I need to eat more veggies and a salad a day sounds like a good way. I might get bored with lettuce every day though. I was thinking 3 bean, coleslaw, something like those. Any suggestions? I loved that you said you were scared. I can tell you no longer feel that way.😍 We all have things that scare us and I’m glad you just did what you needed to do and the fear went away.2 -
@nebslp
I’m so sorry for what you & your town is going through. Sending thoughts of comfort...
Thank you for your support. This was the first month in at least 19 months that my
Monthly average weight did not decrease.
I was scared. I’m still on alert, but I know I can figure this out.
Yesterday, I was thinking I should just call this maintenance, but today I’m not sure if I need to go that drastic.
There were a lot of special events, trips, etc this month.
Some of the gain may be from eating out & some may be from Muscle building from weight lifting. Additionally my steps are much higher than usual = 12K daily average
My body feels & looks leaner. Measurements are the same as when I was 2-3 lbs lighter.
My heart rate has dropped significantly duet by exercise, which probably means I’m
More fit. Also means I have fewer calories to use.
I’m Focusing on nutrition & health.
Good luck to you & your loved ones.
Oh & re: salad
My favorite food in The world is Greek salad but I haven’t been able to have any from the last 18 months because I had been told I couldn’t have feta cheese because of the kidney transplant. I checked with several sources and it turns out if it’s United States produced feta it’s OK. So I’ve been having a Greek salad each day but adding a different meat on top so sometimes salmon sometimes it’s a canned tuna fish sometimes it’s a chicken breast or some leftover meat or lean pork. I may even try some garbanzo beans!
Sometimes I put it with some arugula sometimes are used mixed field greens and sometimes I use Romain lettuce and sometimes I don’t use any lettuce at all although I’ve read we should eat that six out of every seven days for brain health I also like the cell very much just with the vegetables kind of a country Greek salad were they just use cucumbers green and red peppers tomatoes.
I am not using all of us I do you some olive oil but I decided not to do the olives until I figure out what’s going on with my weight
I think you’re right about having a variety of salads I do love coleslaw I love cabbage so I probably will add the cabbage alternate but I tend to do with that is get a small head over once a while and can’t eat that profile and then I go back to their regular lettuce.
To me it’s the combination of olive oil which I’m not a huge fan of actually & oils generally...And the tartness of lemon juice… And the saltiness of the feta plus the crunch and Christmas do you cumbers tomatoes green and red peppers purple onion and I have to throw in some carrots to just get the vitamin A
I do collect salad recipe so you’ve motivated me I’ll go check them out later this week and see if I have any that I can share that you might like I do love salads from about now beginning of April to probably end of September so I’m excited about getting back into that routine I last summer what I would do is go to the farmers market and then come back and use the food processor to prepare all the vegetables I wash the lettuce so it was washed and crisp in the refrigerator and it made it really really easy to eat a salad
Are you in but containers that we keep all of the ingredients separate that I would fill on Sundays and then they would be for five of them for each of us to eat during the week. Thank you for your question I actually forgot about those
What I am remembering is then when I open the refrigerator if I was hungry there is a very easy very healthy choice for me to pick out and that so yeah I think I’m gonna do that again maybe they’ll be my April I will!!
Thank you nebslp ❣️1 -
themedalist wrote: »
I could not agree more with @PackerFanInGB. @nebslp, what you, your family, your community and so many midwesterners are dealing with is heartbreaking and devastating. Few things shake us to the core like our homes being impacted. I cannot imagine the level of devastation you’ve been dealing with. I’m sure shock and grief are ever present. No need to apologize whatsoever. This is an extremely stressful situation and it needs your attention.
Our monthly goals format is very flexible. A March goal can easily become an April goal!
Thanks for letting us know, Rita. We are always here for you to lean on!
@nebslp, What you and everyone is going through in Nebraska is truly beyond my comprehension. My heart goes out to you and your family, and all affected, especially in Winslow. I can't find the words to express adequately my sorrow when I read your post. I/we do come to care about those we get to know on MFP forums, and it is hard to come to grips with it when tragedy or heartbreak comes to one of us. Thank you for sharing with us
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I'm so sorry for being so behind in reading and posting here.
@PackerFanInGB, @nebslp, and @themedalist, thank you so much for your responses to my lack of sleep post. When I finally was able to figure out and then was brave enough to actually express what mainly keeps me from going to sleep at a better time I really didn't think that anyone would get it, or could really understand what I was saying, and surprisingly it actually felt like I confessing to doing something wrong or selfish, or something like that. I almost didn't post it. I was close to deleting it. But I do want to be transparent and honest, or why bother posting or belonging to a group like this?
Thank you for your insights and thoughts. I do have what I call the little room to hide away in, but it got cluttered when I dumped things in there when I was trying to declutter and clean up the "kid's"/ guest room (when I was getting back to back family visiting), where I had originally dumped my decluttering my closet project that I had started before I knew they were coming. Not sure if that makes sense, but now both rooms need me to sort things out now. But as we know clutter attracts clutter. And I don't even remember where I was at in my original project anymore. Of late I've been playing (working) on the yard and garden projects and the inside of the house is languishing.
I just googled "languishing" to see if that was actually the word that I wanted and the definition was "failing to make progress" ! I had to laugh because I couldn't have picked a more appropriate word :laugh: .
The table I play on can be cleared in 5 minutes or less, but I can not relax in a cluttered environment so I don't bother.
My husband's job brings him home at any hour and often in the summer/ or now with DST with longer days and using the lights if needed it can be after dark when he comes in starving and wearing the concrete or mud etc of the job. So my evenings can get pretty long. And even if it is a quiet day before he comes home I think I need (actually it is I want) it quiet all over again :noway: . I need to get back to better ordering my day as to help my evenings, and figure out how to actually make this work again. I did it before so I know I can do it again.
Thank you for asking, my brother is doing well. I still help him at times but not as it was before. I've weaned him off of needing me, so that he is now back to being independent again. But then other things have happened that have been stressful and required either my own healing, or helping my husband with his medical issues. But it is quiet on the home front finally, and I just have to force myself to relearn how to put off my routines of washing my husbands dishes etc even when late, and decide that sleep really is more important than finishing up things or me wanting to stay awake like a little kid who wants to play instead of go to bed :sad: .
@themedalist, thank you for what you wrote about your own experiences with adding more sleep! Last week and this week I have gotten to bed from between 10:15 to 11:45 (meaning lights off time, and I do fall asleep quickly ) except for one day which was closer to my normal (or later than) :yawn: 1:30 a.m. I noticed that I felt quite tired and off kilter, actually it was like I normally used to feel before I started to put effort in just stopping and going to sleep again. The two times it was closer to 10 p.m. I actually felt good the next morning. Enough that I realized it. I was surprised that I could notice even some improvement!
I measure sleep hours the old school way as what time it is when I turn the lamp off. I will re-read what you wrote tomorrow. This was a really late night for my husband and he just turned off the TV and went to sleep. So I need to end this and post it as it is, because it is after 11 now. Dishes etc will get done tomorrow. Now is when I want to stay up because it is quiet, but I won't.
Nighty night y'all
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@texasgardnr Thank you for your kind words after the terrible flooding in our area. My friend was at coffee the other day and it was good seeing that she's doing OK and has an apartment in a neighboring town. Her car and her son's pickup were left on the highway on a high spot because when they left town the roads south and east were flooded and when they went north they watched the water coming through the field and then go over the road in front of them and they didn't want to drive through it. So a Firetruck towed by a payloader for stability came and got them and they had to hang on to the outside of the truck while going through the water on the road. This lady is 81 years young and pretty amazing. I probably wouldn't have survived! The devastation is so complete I don't think many people will be going back to live in the town which my kids grew up so it's very sad. My daughter came to help one day and really felt the impact, but it was good for her to talk to some of our old friends. I still feel helpless but will continue to help in whatever ways I can when I can.
On a lighter note, I laughed when you said you googled "languished" to see if you used it correctly because I thought I was the only one who did that!
OK so now it's almost 11 and I have a present to wrap yet and laundry to put in the dryer. Guess I should manage my time a little better but what would I ever give up??!! Good night!1 -
@texasgardnr, I always enjoy reading your insightful posts. I’m glad you shared with us the reasons behind your difficulty in getting more sleep. As you can see, many of us feel that way!
And your post made me think it might be a good time for another Declutterfest! Anybody interested?2
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