Shari, I am curious about the games you when you get together with your friends. Do you play board games? About the gym, you are in no way a failure. I am sure your progress is meaningful and significant, just based on your previous posts. You are an inspiration!

Today is day 4 of my streak. I am pleased with my choices and points. It motivates to strive for a day 5 streak tomorrow, even with the pizza in the evening. One piece of pizza is doable. I think I will eat a salad before our friends arrive. But I also have to calculate and plan for the glass wine I will have with my friend tomorrow. I got some to do items taken care of today (one big one that I have been avoiding) but still need to prep for our guests tomorrow. I am fairly certain I will get most of it done at some level at least.

Shari, It has been a long time since I played games with any regularity. I used to love Trivial Pursuit, but now would probably be terrible in that game because I am not too "hip" or in tune with popular culture. We used to play games with relatives on Christmas after dinner but haven't gone out for Christmas in a few years. Both John and I used to enjoy the Christmas day games with our family.

John and I worked most of the day prepping our home for our friends' visit. I was proud of what we accomplished. Our floors really needed to be cleaned because of all the yuck that John brings in from walking Buster in the icky weather (ice melt salt, mud, etc). I was able to swiffer our floors in the kitchen and living room/dining room from my wheelchair. It isn't easy to do but I managed to do ok along with all other cleaning efforts. These friends are so nice and easy guests, it wouldn't have mattered to them if I cleaned or not, but it mattered to me. We had a great evening with them and agreed we need to get together more often.

I used all of my daily points and almost bankrupted my remaining weekly points...6 remaining and the week is over. I cannot count today as day 5 of my streak so starting tomorrow....back to day 1 of my streak!

I too love vintage items Shari. I'll bet your lamp is beautiful. I have a lamp in my bedroom that my parents had in their bedroom from 1963. I suspect it might have to be rewired soon and am pretty sure Craig can do it. There were 2 other lamps matching to the one I have. When those lamps needed to be rewired some years ago (before I knew Craig could do the job), I gave those lamps to a local "handyman" who never returned them and vanished. It broke my heart. Craig and I tried to track down this so-called handyman but never could find him.

I am reluctant to call today Day 1 of a streak, but it is close. I did ok but tapped into a few weekly points already. I feel certain I will be fine tomorrow. I have a lot of reading to do for my Tuesday classes and didn't read at all today because of watching football. The Philadelphia Eagles won their play off game today and are headed to the Super Bowl. John is so happy, and so am I!

John says he looks forward to cheering the Eagles on with you Shari! If the Chiefs win I will eventually be ok with that too, as their coach Andy Reid is a former Eagles coach and I sort of have always had a soft spot in my heart for him. He sure has done exceptionally well for the Chiefs.

Happy to be able to count today as the first day of my new streak. I had no problem staying within my points and felt satisfied all day. I did some of my to do list but got tied up on the phone for a total of over 2 hours trying to rectify a glitch in John's medical insurance coverage. His coverage is good and solid, but someone in some department messed up his insurance number resulting in an issue with a payment. I got bounced around from one department to another in both the medical billing office and the insurance provider. I am still not sure that the issue is resolved as it could take up to 2 months to find out for sure. Ah, the joys of bureaucracy!

Shari, It is so good to read that you are so happy with where you are now. With your successes and progress through your valiant efforts, you are sure to see the remaining progress you desire. I expect you will be pleased with your blood test results too.

I did well today (streak day 2), but it was a bit of a struggle with some mid afternoon hunger. I finally satisfied myself with some raw organic cauliflower. It filled me up, and I enjoyed the crunch. Today turned out to be an easier day for my to do list because a planned visit from some friends got postponed because of their illness. I am sorry they are sick but glad they knew enough to stay home and not spread whatever it is they have. The "found time" gave me the opportunity to take care of some tasks I have been waiting to do.

I try to stand at least once an hour too Shari. Spending so much of my day in a wheelchair can be quite uncomfortable to begin with and increasingly uncomfortable without moving from the wheelchair fairly often. I do move my legs a great deal as I navigate using the chair. I don't use my arms to move the big wheels on each side of the chair but rather have removed the foot rests and use my legs and feet to make the chair move.

I had another good day so streak day 3 today. Tomorrow 2 friends from my old church are coming for lunch. We are ordering from the menu of a nearby restaurant, and one of the ladies will pick up the order. I am still deciding what I will order. I am leaning towards a grilled chicken sub with roasted peppers, basil, and tomatoes. The bread will take up a lot of points, but I am thinking I will not eat all of the bread. I could opt for a similar salad as I have done in the past, but somehow the sub is appealing to me. Will let you know what I decide!

DW, hope you are ok! Haven't heard from you in a while.

I opted for a salad for lunch which wasn't terribly high in points. But it came with garlic bread so that raised my points as did a glass of delicious red wine. I logged all of my food today and tapped into 7 extra points from my extra weekly points. Since there are only 2 days remaining in this week, my points should still be ok. It was well worth it to me to enjoy the salad and the bread and the wine! The visit with these 2 friends went well, and as usual the time flew by. I was very tired by the time they left. They offered to help me clean up, but I declined saying John and I could do it. John and I did well, but by early evening I was ready for a short nap.

We have another inter-church meeting this coming Sunday. Surprisingly the prez has been pretty good about most of our pre-meeting prep conversations. I hope her relatively pleasant attitude continues.

Congrats on your dry January Shari. My friend's DH did dry January this year too. Hope you did ok driving in the snow.

I had another busy productive day, getting ready for the meeting on Sunday (of course more to do tomorrow) as well as taking care of other household needs. I logged all of my food and again tapped into a few more extra weekly points. I am giving myself a pep talk to do well on Saturday. Because Sunday's meeting is election of officers we are having a meal as this is what the prez wishes. She decided she will buy subs from a local market (paying for these with money from our treasury) and bring her homemade macaroni salad (I must admit her macaroni salad is outstanding). I don't like the use of our treasury money to feed us but prez feels it is ok to do so. She does this every year, and I usually give a donation to the treasury to cover the cost of food for me and John. In any case, Sunday will not be a great on track day for me so I am striving to be extra good on Saturday.

Thank you Shari for your kind understanding of tomorrow's meeting meal. I tend to be overly careful in situations such as this. We raise a lot of money for charities of all kinds (community, church, etc.) and all money we raise goes 100% to the charities. The additional funds in our treasury are granted to us from our national organization based on our activity level. The national does this to encourage activities at the local level. We usually distribute all of the funds from national to charities as well. But I am sure national would agree it is ok with us spending a little for a once a year meal for our small group.
My pep talk to myself worked pretty well, but I did indulge a bit too much in the evening. I am not stressing too much over the food tomorrow. I want to enjoy the folks at the meeting and hope the prez is in a good mood.

Hello! I'm glad that you are both doing well in spite of this cold weather! I've been struggling with fatigue for the past several weeks but now have vitamins recommended by one of my healthcare providers. I hope they will help! My DD has "tricked " me into getting back to the gym. She signs up for physical fitness challenges and "bets" $$ on herself. If she completes the challenge, she gets her money back plus divides any money that others put down but didn't complete the challenge. Her challenge this time was to do weights 3 times/week for two weeks. I have the gym membership so she needs to go with me to get in. I've been working out with her. Its not a lot but its something.
Paula, I hope that your meeting went well!! Shari, I hope you are staying safe and warm in these frigid temperatures!! I will close for now since I am falling asleep at the keyboard. Have a great Monday!!