Wednesday, February 28

Not at all! On occasion I have nighttime eating issues too if there is crap in the house. Otherwise eating at 5 means I'm pretty much done for the night. Funny enough, I'm a night owl, but it usually doesn't involve food. We know a family in MI who eats dinner around 10 or 10:30. I would be a mess if I was part of that family!

That makes four of us. I eat dinner between 5:00 and 6:00. :)

Love it. Early Birders unite!

Greetings Early Birds

Not so early for this little owl. 145.5. Yeah I am into my danger zone. Dinner last night was 4 shrimp and a heap of sautéed sweet peppers. Thats becoming my veggie preference now.

Paula, glad your work schedule is working out for early dinners and glad it works for you Cecily. I am more into later dinners since I don't do much of anything on the early side.

Gallery duty today. I expect rain and therefore few customers. We are contemplating switching to a new point of sale system and it will make a lot of unwanted work for me. No outside time today other than walking to the bank. Oh well.

Shel, be careful out there snowshoeing. So sad about the boys and the avalanche. And here I thought it was just bigfoot to worry about.

Warm up Cecily. So funny to think of you in a parka in So. Cal. Do you have a garden there too?

So yesterday I bought a fresh bag of clay. They weigh 25lbs. Lord it was hard to carry that down a few steps and 50 feet to my car. How did I ever go around with four or five times that weight on me? I need to work on some strength so its not so dang hard. I am doing balance exercises (standing on one foot) during the time my coffee drips though the filter. Good use of that time.

Ann I am so glad you are finding comfort in those recordings of your husband. I have heard of people who have lost a spouse who call their own phones to hear the spouse on the answering machine message. What you have is so much better.

Well DH is doing recycling. He actually sorts though my stuff and picks out things he thinks I should not have tossed. Like phone numbers of people who moved away years ago. Ditto on the trash trash. I am going to have to start taking things to the studio dumpster to get rid of them.

Well Liz I do think you should speak to BIL. It may not change anything but you will feel better for speaking up for yourself. Yeah, a garage door spring breaking can be a huge noise. I hate it when that happens.

Well, off to face the day. Probably will walk in circles at the gallery. I will take crosswords. Diane S

I'm in heavy fleece and 3 layers today. Brrr.

So funny about the clay. I think the same thing every time I pick up a 24 pound bag of dog food. To think that at my highest I had nearly 7 more of those hanging on me is astounding. How did we move??

I have a small yard in CA, but it's lots of hardscape with some planter beds. So no place to really put in veggies other than my potted citrus trees (lemons, limes, oranges). They're blooming right now and smell divine.

Make that five early dinner eaters, usually between 5 & 5:30. I've been mostly successful abiding by "the kitchen's closed after dinner. I tend to want the kitchen cleaned up right after dinner and the coffee pot ready for morning, the lights are turned off and we're done. Having difficulty standing on one foot must be a Diane thing. I absolutely can't do it for more than 10 seconds.

I've temporarily pulled Sadie out of therapy work and scheduled some private training sessions to address an issue that occurred during yesterday's therapy work at an elementary school. Sadie has lots of experience with physically and emotionally challenged students. Yesterday, in a classroom across the hall from the library we were working in, a child began acting out in a major way and was taken down to the ground by adults attempting to restrain him. Sadie stood up and growled and pulled to move toward the child. Growling while doing therapy work is not okay, even if she felt a child was being hurt. She needs to respond to situations that concern her by checking in with me for direction. We have to retrain on that response before I let her back into the field.

Chuck has taken the last two days as mental health days, and I'm getting a taste of what being retired with him home is like. He has been binge eating as a coping mechanism, and I'm finding it extremely slippery for me. Have to do some boundary setting, as he has regular vacation all next week.

Well I don't blame Sadie for growling but good to address it. It will get worked out.

There are lots of us Dianes out there who can't balance. My chiropractor tested me and I could not do 10 seconds - left leg far worse than right. So I am working on this as she told me us old folks need to develop balance. And I can do it while standing around doing nothing at the gallery.

Well Diane O, my DH is retired and is home nearly all the time. Being home all the time drives me nuts now. So everyday its off to the studio. My adult day care. I worry about DH being home and alone so much and have tried to get him to volunteer reading to kids and such. But he is happy with his electronics and other puttering. DS

Balance exercises are very important, especially for older folks to be able to maintain their independence. The American College of Sports Medicine added balance/coordination exercises as part of the 4 core components of a good exercise program - the other 3 are cardiovascular (aerobic), resistance training (weights) and flexibility exercises (stretching). Yoga hits both balance and flexibility and can even include some strength training, so a very good well rounded exercise to do!

I'm loving Pilates for all of this. Lots of balancing and core work. I think it makes a difference in my klutz level...