WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JUNE 2015

Heather beautiful mural in the restaurant. I am glad your grandfather made it through WWl. That trench warfare was hell on earth. I mentioned Iypres before. They have a museum there that showed the deplorable conditions those men fought under. Your grandfather more that earned that metal. I know if my oldest brother had gotten this metal it would have gotten lost among his other things. I have also seen how he has treated other family heirlooms, and it is not a pretty sight. My dad was very humble about his war experiences and rarely talked about it. It was important to me to honor him in this way. It is unusual for me to have this. Usually these types of things are past down to sons. I do plan to give it to a great grandson someday. So I need to keep doing the right thing to stay healthy so I am here to do it.

Gritsandsluts I know when I get that upset the first thing I have to remind myself is to breathe. Good luck families do seem to know what our triggers are and like to push them! I also keep trying to remind myself of one of my favorite quotes I have shared here often. "Just because I see the hook does not mean I have to bite."

Catching up on my own gardening and paperwork. When I went to the compost pile today the man who runs it and I got talking about deer and rabbits. He said it you mount a half bar of Irish Spring and place it near something the rabbits or deer are eating it helps to deter them. Has anyone ever heard of this? The rabbits are the problem for me this year.

MNMargaret

Happy Monday it was an oddly busy day. My best friend met me at the remodel place and I finally picked everything, then all three of us (the designer went with me too) went to the plumbing place where I made final decisions on the sink and faucets. The sink…get this…is made on order so will take 5 weeks. So in the meantime I can get the wood floor refinished and the tile laid throughout the downstairs where we already have vinyl. Then we went to lunch; I had a jalapeno cheese burger and salad, then went home and spent hours grading 15 discussion boards. Bleh. Actually it wasn’t that bad; only took 3 hours.

Michele: If I had your pool, I don’t think I’d ever come out~

Margaret: love the pics, especially the pink flamingo! We have two chairs in our bedroom that are Florida Keys type print with lots of pink flamingos. Totally does not go with the rest of my house but I simply could not resist them! Hmmm we have a red front door and just paid off our mortgage.

Melting Gail: what type of recipes are you interested in? Specific types of meat? Casseroles, salads, I have tons of recipes to share but give me an idea of what to send!

Lori: happy belated birthday!

Miriam: you are so right…life is way too short to be miserable…wish DD#1 would figure that out.

Nancy: amen sister! I was in a similar first marriage and would never ever put up with that sh** again. You want to be critical then the chore is yours from now on. I am so glad DH now is so wonderful. My last straw was when he beat me for the final time….he was choking me too for being upset at finding out he had a girlfriend and I said “Congratulations. You have become your dad”. He hated his dad for cheating on his beloved mother. He knocked me out. When I came to, he was gone and that was the end of him. I think he was so humiliated he couldn’t ever face me again. HE didn’t even come get his clothes.

Joyce: strapless bra

Pip: lovely poem

Cheri: glad you had a good time!

Sylvia: hope the van repair goes as planned

GRIT is your blood sugar too low?

Janetr: great nsv!!!

Peaches: (((hugs)))

Kate: I used to tat. I hope it relieves your stress. It gave me stress LOL

Mnmargaret: wonderful memento!


Renny: happy birthday!

We are both sort of at our wits’ end with DD#1. She and BF were supposed to hang out all day Saturday and his boss came over and spent about 30” talking to him about work. After he left, she refused to speak to him the rest of the day. So yesterday he was here all day helping DH with the jeep (long story and big project) and she refused to come over because she was mad at him, but kept calling him and us yelling that he wasn’t home. Sheesh!
OK well tomorrow is another day and another chance to do better than I did today. Eating…pretty low, but steps are low and no excersise other than a walk. Harumph! Take care, Meg from Omaha

miakoda40 wrote: »

Peach – Sending virtual hugs to you. Cleaning out the family home can be very hard.

True confessions time. I moved into my house 20 years ago. I had a large stack of boxes that I had never gotten around to unpacking. This stack took up most of the room I use for my computer. Then my Mom needed more care than she got in her own home so about 8 years ago we moved Mom out of her house. More boxes and stacks of stuff which went into my library. Then 3 years ago we decided to repair walls and paint half of the house. More stacks of boxes into the guest bedroom. Also, over the years as I got stuff that I couldn’t immediately find a home for it was added to the piles. Result – 3 rooms in my home piled high with stuff shut behind doors because I didn’t want anyone to see the state the rooms were in.

Two years ago we cleaned the public parts of the house and our bedroom for our annual party. I declared that the areas that had been cleared would stay cleared and we could not pile stuff up as we were accustomed to doing. This was a declaration I had made every year that we had the party, but this time it stuck. Cleaning the house for the party this year was a breeze as all I had to do was vacuum, dust and clean the bathrooms. It was such a joy I decided to tackle the guest room this year. Starting in May I hired someone to come over for 2 hours each week to help move/empty/refill boxes and generally keep me on track. This has worked better than I had hoped. I was going to be happy if I got one room cleaned out this year. The guest room was done in 4 weeks. This past Saturday we finished the last of the stuff in the computer room. I still have lots of boxes that I don’t quite know what to do with the contents, but there are much fewer of them and they are all labeled so I know what is in them.

The next step is the library. I dread this room because it is mostly stuff from my parents’ home. I know this room is a ticking time bomb filled with emotions and it will be much harder to take a stand that things must go. I’m going to deliberately take a 2 week break from clearing rooms before I start to tackle this one.

I am amazed at how much lighter I feel as I see stuff leaving the house. As I'm losing weight I'm losing the clutter. I know I have a long way to go before everything either has a place it belongs or leaves the house, but I am delighted at how far I have come in just 2 months. I have downgraded my mental image of myself as a hoarder and now see myself as a packrat. LOL!

Note to self: If I ever am in need of a new husband, #2 must not be a packrat. 2 packrats living together makes for very cluttered living.

Mia in MI

June goal - log food every day
Word of the month – persevere

i'm proud of you for tackling that portion of your life, it must be overwhelming! you are going to be so proud when you get it all done!! awesome job! keep it up!

Our house and the orchard were on the 6 o'clock news with the story of the accident involving the police car. They were across the street filming it live as it was aired on TV. NOT with me. Lol

Just finished 1/2 of my make-up walk for tonight. Taking a short break.

GRITS - You can do an online search and find lots of info. about Parental Alienation. In the early to mid 1990's it wasn't known. In more recent years the Mental Health & Counseling Professionals have defined it and thoroughly researched it.

Sorry to hear about the difficult family dynamics. Suggest you take yourself out of the middle. For instance, when DnL instructs you to go tell DH something, you can politely let her know that she needs to communicate her thoughts and feelings directly to him. Caution: People do not like it when the dynamics and your role changes.

One tool that someone passed along when I was dealing with a similar situation, was to write out a very short script of what I wanted to say. That way, I wasn't tongue tied or fumbling for words when I had to communicate boundaries to my daughter. She threw an absolute fit, but I held firm and merely repeated my short phrases. After 3 times of saying it, I told her in a business-like manner that we needed to end the conversation on that topic. Said I was going in the kitchen to finish the dishes (or whatever). Then, I calmly walked away and did just that.

You no longer have to be caught in the middle. You have a right to determine what you will and will not do. You can set boundaries and hold firm. It may not be easy, but is worth it in the long run.

Good luck to you! - Nancy in FW, TX

My family and I wanted to have pizza tonight, so we went to the grocery store and bought frozen ones, saved a ton of money. I had a coupon for Newman's Own thin and crispy pizza. I allotted myself 1/6 of the pizza...(one slice) and I bought olives and sliced 4 olives on it. How is THAT for being positively OCD!! Of course, I am still hungry, so that is why I am typing to you all....Aaack!

Walked for 45 minutes. Finally had to stop and eat a lite dinner since it's getting so late. Letting it digest for at least half an hour. Then will finish the last 30 minutes. That will total 75 minutes of walking made up today! Just another 60 minutes tomorrow and all will be made up from last week when I was physical unable to do it.
Feeling much better and so happy my energy is back and that I can DO this.

Wishing everyone a wonderful evening! - Nancy in FW, TX

Charm4u76132 wrote: »

Hi, Ann R. Great discipline on the Newman's Own pizza!

Do you have any calories left today? If so, maybe you can have something healthy with low calories.

I have 66 calories left! But I have a rule and it's a firm rule. I do not eat 2 hrs before I go to bed. Crazy I know. It starts my next day off better, because I am hungry and I eat a good breakfast. I am just happy that I didn't scarf down the whole pizza!! hahaha...
Nice to meet you Nancy!

Becca by the Beach that is kinda still mostly hungry.....

My son and husband are munching on mega-milk chocolate chips in little bowls.....I live in a family of sabatoooooors.... hahahaha.... I have had 3 of them....so I counted an ounce of chocolate. I need to bake something with the suckers!!! Soon payday and I can buy butter and make cookies and not make them accessible to me....I have tins that are for the guys, and my snacks are elsewhere.... I can't throw them out, because then they will accuse me of scarfing them all down! Hahahaha! Plus we got them at a food bank, so I am grateful to rec' them.
My son can eat everything he sees. He is 5'9" and currently weighs 123.4 (I was curious and had him stand on my scale). I realize that he just shot up this year, and his muscles are trying to catch up. I have noticed there is many kids in his Sophomore class that are slim too, so I am not worried, just paying attention.

Becca by the Beach that is hearing chocolate talking from the kitchen cabinets.....

Walked for 60 minutes. Taking a short break. Just 15 more to go. Yay!