WOMEN AGES 50 + FOR JANUARY 2019

Thank you for your continued warm thoughts and prayers. My word for 2019 is Butterfly. They signal change, strength, resting, and patience. I do plan on writing out dreams, goals, and plans. Migraine slowed that down. Have been decluttering my home and life. I instituted the"GLAD" system. Heard about it from a veteran. Each night I write down something i am grateful for ( some days it has been i didn't hurt someone;) ); something i learned; something I achieved; and something I delighted in. GLAD. Makes me more aware each day.

Sleep well,

Kylia in is it really winter Ohio (not complaining!)

A belated Happy New Year ladies, my New Year's Eve was a quiet affair, we are all full of cold (it seems there's a lot of people with coughs/colds) so I had a few glasses of Asti, watched Netflix and went to be early!

Barbie we too had fireworks starting soon after 6:30 p.m. (luckily we'd taken Leah for a quick walk around the block for her to do her "business" just before they started) but she is terrified of loud noises, and spent the rest of the night hiding under Heather's bed. Poor little dog. I wish the people who made the fireworks didn't make them so loud.

I'm going back to the beginning of the new thread to catch up, but for now I'd better get some work done, my resolution this year is to limit time spent on the computer. I can reward myself with computer time after I have done my chores I'm still spending quite a lot of time at mum and dads helping out, so need to keep my own house in order, and this does not get done if I'm on the computer.

Viv UK

Kylia - Great to hear that Aubrey's operations went well. I'll continue thinking of her and your family and sending good thoughts.

Margaret - Thanks for posting those photos from the Como Park Conservatory. As you may recall, I grew up in Minneapolis and loved visiting the conservatory. There's no mistaking that formal wing with the pool down the center! Its shape is etched into my memory. But my favorite wing was the one with the crooked stone walkways and the steps down to the moist green grotto at one end. That was adventure to me!

Carol wrote: Barbara ~ I am just what I call a "country cook." My meal was not special at all....pork tenderloin cooked in the Insta Pot with mushroom gravy, Pillsbury Grand frozen biscuits with butter and jelly, rice, and a salad of chopped Romaine, chopped hard boiled eggs, sliced tomatoes and mayo. Grandson is a great eater!

Carol - Isn't it great when they like what you serve? I gave my grandson a chickpea curry once and he said it was the best food he'd ever had.

As promised, here's a photo of me all bundled up to go running in my outdoor freezer. The only thing missing is my studded jogging shoes. (I'm standing in front of a wall hanging my grandmother made during her silk-screening phase. I love having it up here!)


A lot of you had questions or comments, so here goes:
Barbie wrote: Penny, Thank you for describing what you wear for jogging. I don't jog, but walk two dogs on leashes and carry a small flashlight. Keeping my hands warm on the coldest days has been my biggest challenge, but because of holding the leashes I have to have thinner gloves. Fortunately there are no animals a few people out in the early morning when we walk, so it's easy to keep the dogs under control and I can hold both leashes in one hand from time to time and put the other hand in my pocket for awhile.

Barbie - Have you considered using something like a ballet dancer's leg warmers? They could extend from your wrists, over your (gloved) hands and hang loose around the top few inches of the leashes. That might be enough to tip the heat balance in your favor.

That reminds me of a journalist friend of mine who suffers from arthritis. She always wears what she calls "pulse warmers" - fingerless mittens with a thumbhole. They cover her wrist and hand but leave her fingers free to type and take notes. She has dozens of them to suit any occasion - in every imaginable color, with and without beads and sparkles. Instead of treating them like protective gear she rocks them as a fashion statement!

Barbara wrote: Penny, How do you protect your face from the cold?

Barbara - As you can see, there isn't much face to protect! Also, since I constantly live with these temperatures, I'm used to the cold. As long as it isn't windy, I have no problem until it gets down to about -10°F (-23°C). Then I put on a fleece face mask with breathing holes and the only part of me that's exposed is my eyes behind my glasses. But what with global warming, I haven't had to use the mask for three years now.

Yvonne wrote: Penny - When you described your jogging attire all I could think of was Ralphie in the movie "A Christmas Story," bundled up so thick he couldn't put his arms down! Do you have to take off layers as you go? When we lived in New Mexico we'd head out all bundled up to go crosscountry skiing in 0 degrees, and after 15 minutes of skiing we'd be down to long-sleeved t-shirts and thin silk longjohns.

Yvonne - When I jog farther south, I sometimes have to shed a layer of clothing, but up here there's so much natural AC available, all I have to do is vent. Literally! I just open the zipper at my throat or stick my gloved hands out from the long sleeves and it's enough to cool my core temperature. My husband and I have also learned to dress so we feel a bit too cold at the beginning of an excursion, knowing we'll heat up soon.

Rori wrote: Penny: Ditto what others said about your amazing discipline to run in extreme temps. Your DH's credo "There is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing" also inspires me as I gear up to walk two blocks in sub-freezing snowy weather to get myself to the condo gym. ???

Rori - I hear you about the two-block walk! For me, any kind of commute to the place where I'm going to exercise is a show-stopper - even if it's just a short distance. My saving grace is that I can start jogging at the bottom of my own stairs.

Kelly, Tracey, @gzteach (whose name I haven't learned yet), Pat, and several others had kind words about my dedication or bravery or discipline. Thanks, ladies :flowerforyou: I appreciate it. At the same time, I really don't want to take credit for any of those traits. Heather recently pointed out:

As Barbie often says, the best diet is the one you can keep to. Easily. Not some thing where you feel deprived and miserable and break it by bingeing. The 'secret' is, there is no secret. It has to be a lifestyle you enjoy.

Exactly the same thing goes for exercise! The key is that I've found a form of exercise that I truly enjoy. I'm often hesitant to write about it, because of the risk of sounding boastful. But I also know that seeing what others have done can be inspiring. "If she can do that, I can do this!" So in the hope that my 5-mile run will prompt somebody to get a bit more exercise that she would otherwise, I'll take the risk.

Yesterday I made a nice dinner of duck breast with orange sauce to celebrate New Year's Day. Funny thing about the recipe. It was for "Duck breast in orange sauce", the ingredient list began with "700 g duck breast" and step 3 in the preparation was headed "Cook the duck breast". But the first words under Step 3 were "If you have duck breast..." If? If?? My husband and I had a good laugh about that...
/Penny, amused at the

Happy Wednesday all! I set an alarm this a.m. to insure my waking up, I've been relaxed and sleeping in these past few days so I wanted to be sure that I wouldn't sleep beyond my usual wake up time. I am one of those larks that love to get things done in the wee hours. I journal, quietly prep the day and set the to do list on a little index card, just my way of feeling in charge of the day. The index card works for me, sometimes it has the most mundane tasks on it but will often include a big task broken down so I feel accomplished that I can check some smaller bit off, this really helps with my procrastinator's tendencies.

Enjoy the day, NYKAREN

Morning, afternoon and evening, all...

Final day of the holiday break from work. Got to love the Girl Scouts - I started work for this council on December 10th, worked a total of eight days so far, and already got my first paycheck. Looking forward to digging in, as I accomplished absolutely nothing of what I planned to during the break. Slept a lot, ate a lot, wrote a little, enjoyed my family, and got a few things done around the house. That's about it.

Finally did come up with a solution for the painting issue... which I haven't said anything about, as it's petty in the scheme of things. But I found an old-fashioned (but newly built) oak drafting table to use as an easel. It should be right about standing height for me, and support large canvases, which I'm leaning toward at the moment. Have, so far, found no easel that works for me. The tabletop ones and the standing ones are all just flimsy. And the third bar stool of the ones we got should fit it nicely for someone to sit and talk to me, or work with me when my boss visits. They're shipping it in next week, and it was on sale for less than a hundred bucks, and free shipping, so hopefully it's the solution I was looking for. We'll see. This is the pic in the catalog:



I know it's a weird thing to get excited about, but hey, there you go. I think it's because I'm finally admitting I'm a painter. Whether or not I'm a good painter, yeah, that's up for grabs. But I paint. Back to my word for 2019, which is "respect," this is respecting and facilitating my need to paint, and enabling myself to continue by removing the barriers.

Got a few things I must accomplish today, so I think I'll go do those.

Love y'all! Really loving your words for the year - and for whoever said their word was "grace," you might enjoy this article from Melinda Gates, who chose the same word, for the second year running. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-choose-word-year-melinda-gates/

Lisa in AR