WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR NOVEMBER 2015

Per my November goal, hubs and I paid off the rebuilt Precor elliptical we picked out on Saturday. We are putting it in the bedroom rather than the basement so it's never "out of sight, out of mind." Also, it's in front of the TV. We take delivery on the day before Thanksgiving. It seems poignant timing. The piano tuner comes today. I love listening to the tuner work and the mini concert that always comes when she's done. I think I enjoy the prep and anticipation of the holidays more than the actual day. Do any of you have strategies for not over-eating during the pie baking and the food prep?

GM

Morning, all...

Pip, SO glad you/they caught that blood clot early for Kirby and that they're taking it seriously.

Gloworm in WA, bless your peapicking heart--glad the sheriff let you off with a warning! And that things are turning out well house and job-wise. Attorneys are also tied into the community, so who knows? A house for January might come to your attention through them, as well.

NissanMama - my strategies on all the holiday food are to bake things I don't actually like. I despise cooked fruit, so those are the pies I cook. The other option is to bake healthy stuff that tastes great, not always easy, but it means we can eat what we bake and just need to control portions. The key for all of it is that you can have some, just not the whole dang pie. When I CAN'T have something, it means I want it all the more, so I just give myself a little leeway. And run a lot more!

Penny - I know that was frustrating, but that post was hilarious. Thanks for the giggle this morning.

On the whole question of both political and religious posts in this thread--I simply ignore them. And that is whether I agree with the poster or not. Taking offense at someone's opinion is much like trying to teach a pig to sing--it just wastes your time and annoys the pig. NOT THAT I'M CALLING ANYONE A PIG. It's a metaphor.

But, if somebody ups and posts something that says that one of those silly-buggerty "burn belly fat now with this pill, without changing your diet or exercising!" commercials is true, I will probably respond, and it might be impolite. These wonderful threads that Barbie keeps going for us are about sharing what works for us in changing our lives for the better weight-wise, health-wise, and even mental-health-wise. My opinion.

Welcome to all the new ones! We're glad you're here.

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The ribbon cutting at the warehouse is today at 1 pm, and the DH and I worked ourselves into the GROUND on Saturday getting the office painted and trimmed. It's bare pine 1x4 trim, but I can go back and stain it whenever I choose, and in whatever color. The silly buggers that last put up drywall must have just slapped it right over the old wood paneling without removing it, as none of the four doors going in and out of that office had trim around the doors, and the way they did it, there was no way to make it look good without ripping it all back down to the studs. We did not do that.

My husband did the trim while I did the painting--so now with the concrete floors painted gray, which I finished last week, bright white walls and pine trim, it looks quite spiffy. And my husband picked up silver/chrome spray paint and painted the old gas heater cover (we're not even going to hook the gas up). It's as tall as I am and old, rusted metal that had originally been painted beige. Looked awful. Now it looks quite industrial and awesome. Love that man! A few rugs, a couple desks, and it looks amazing. I'll take pictures.

Baked all day yesterday to serve for the ribbon cutting, which is relaxing for me. Made banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, and cinnamon roll oatmeal bar cookies, some of which also got frosted with peanut butter frosting. The frosting let me use up a jar of natural peanut butter which I actively hated, and the "cinnamon roll oatmeal bar" cookies were because I didn't have enough oatmeal, but had four of those cinnamon roll oatmeal packets left over from when the grandkids were here in July. So I used those, plus some regular oatmeal, and they actually turned out pretty good. Anytime bananas start going brown, I pitch them in the freezer, so I always have some around. Ranch baking is pretty much "use what you have," because the store's a two-hour round trip away. Buttermilk, by the way, can be made with dry milk powder made up double-strength, plus a bit of lemon juice. Just saying.

Oh, and back to the subject of how to do that without eating it, I don't. I taste what I'm cooking and then eat some afterward. But I don't then go ahead and eat lunch on top of it. I just let those calories replace the meal I was going to eat. Works for me--but I try not to bake too terribly often, as it's not a good thing on a regular basis to substitute treats for a meal.

Might actually stay at the warehouse tonight if I have time to go to Walmart and pick up a futon and get it put together after the ribboncutting and before writer's group at 6 p.m. Which reminds me... I have to go dig up the next chapter of the autobiography and get that sent to the group leader, so I'll have something to read--it's a read and critique group. If I'm not too exhausted, I'll just go home.

Tomorrow or Wednesday, the kittens move to the warehouse. They 're coming up on three months old now, getting extremely rambunctious, and are about a week away from being able to jump on the counters. Which will drive my DH completely crazy. Time to give them a job. The DH has been teaching Mouse to hunt bugs, since we don't have mice at the house on the ranch, so hopefully it will be a successful transition. Squeak is kind of pretty and useless, but Mouse will be a hunter, I'm thinking.

Warmest regards,
Lisa from cloudy, but thankfully not rainy today, West Texas

Lisa, hope your ribbon cutting goes well!

I bought my daughter (practicing how that sounds) a sewing machine for Christmas her first year here. I found an antique Singer featherweight at a yard sale. This is the machine I learned on, and it is really great for a starter machine since it is so simple. It ONLY does a straight stitch, no zigzags or other stitches. So you set the tension once and it doesn't need readjusting all the time like it does when switching back and forth between stitches. I paid $50 for the one I got, but it came in a sewing table.

Gloria, I am glad you didn't get a ticket! And great news about the job! I found out that my license was TWO YEARS out of date when a nice store clerk pointed it out to me. OOPS. So I had to take the driving test all over again. Hadn't taken that since I was 16.

Going to the baptism in Tulsa made me incredibly thankful for my small church next door. The two churches have the same name but there is a world of difference between them. The one in Tulsa was a mega-church, that televised its services. It had a 100+ person choir and a full orchestra! The baptism was very brief and impersonal. I compare that to my girls' baptism where everyone in the church knew and loved them. The music is mediocre. The sermons not very inspiring, but there is such a great sense of community- folks that know each other well and care about each other. THAT is what church is all about to me. I think we will be able to view the baptism and entire service on the mega-church's website. If so I will let you all know. The sermon was pretty good. The music was incredible. But my small church is more caring.

Just wrote this message to DeeDee on the home page:

We sang a healing song in church yesterday. called Ten Thousand Reasons. It started with it is a new day dawning and the line ended with in the evening may I sing be singing. Your message confirms that we are still singing despite tragedy. Thank you!

Yes I do believe I have found a new home to share my love of singing.

Margaret

It is with much sadness that I tell you that my Max passed away last night. When we went to see him at the emergency vet yesterday he was doing well and we expected to pick him up this morning to bring him home. He started having seizures last night that they couldn't control and passed away. He was such a sweet dog and will be missed terribly. Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts.
RIP

I love you ladies,
DJ
Myrtle Beach, SC

I drove two hours in the rain and got to the imaging center 45 minutes early for my appointment. Yay! The bad news is, they don't do the specific kind of test that the doctor ordered, so they sent me to the cancer center half a mile away. Now they are going to try to "work me in". How nice of them. So now I wait. I panicked when I saw it was a cancer center but I suppose they do al kinds of imaging.

DJ, So sorry to hear of your loss, hugs to you all and may your memories be a blessing to you as you grieve this wonderful companion.
Karen from NY

Oh, DJ! I'm so sorry for you. It's always heartbreaking to lose a member of the family. Hugs.