Loving This on YouTube

Maybe it is the Gemini in me, if you believe in such things, that makes me so scatter brained. I am always changing from one thing to the next. I do it in my crafting, my meal plans, the genre of books I read and lately in the type of exercises I want to do. My latest favorite is the yes2next channel on YouTube. This is a mother daughter team that is good for all levels of fitness. I really like the workouts that are called All in One. These are from 20 to 50 minutes long and include balance, strength and cardio exercises so you get a well-rounded workout. 

I'm 68 now so I am coming into the years where balance is important. Want to avoid falls and broken bones, right? As we age, we lose muscle mass too so strength straining is important to hold on to what we got for as long as we can. Of course, cardio for stamina and heart health is good too. So, getting all 3 together in one workout is a win win win. 

I am really happy that despite all the workouts I have not had a reoccurrence of the sciatic pain that I had last fall. Hopefully with strengthening my back and core it stays gone forever but I have my doubts.  I will know how to handle it better when it flares up again though with the advice I got from my doctor at a follow up appointment after being in the emergency room. Don't want to go through that again.!

Back with more again soon.

Take care and stay cozy!

Rethinking My Daily Routines

Yes, the coming new year has me thinking about how I can change routines. The need to change has to include a logical improvement somehow. I have priorities to consider including my home and my health, to keep one clean and organized and the other to stay healthy as I age.

Added to that I want to keep the brain busy with learning. That is why I am a lifelong crafter. That is why I write here and hope to continue this habit for a long time. That is why I love the idea of an online shop even if I have agreed for now to put that on hold while Jim wants to spend so much time traveling. I want to be ready to go when that slows down. In the meantime, I may go back to local craft shows because I can't stop making stuff and have no desire to stop anyway. Making is a very big part of my life and very important to my mental wellbeing. Have you heard the phrase "I (fill in craft here) so I don't kill people"? That's me.

I think it boils down to the fact that I want to wake up with a sense of purpose even if I have to make it up for myself. If I didn't do this, I am afraid I would sit in the recliner and turn into a daytime TV watching, old, wrinkled vegetable. Not gonna happen. These thoughts are what I do in place of resolutions. I design routines and for the most part try to stick to them. If I miss a day for whatever reason, there is no guilt since tomorrow is a fresh new chance to do it better. 

Back with more again soon. 

Take care and stay cozy!  

On Being Consistent

Being consistent is something I am not good at but want to change. At 68 do I really need to change things in my life. My answer is yes, yes I do. I know we can't know our future but while I am alive I want to do what it takes to keep it enjoyable for as long as possible. That means being healthy and strong physically and mentally as long as I am able.

I am trying to build a catalog of habits that will serve me well in one way or another. The first habit I chose to start is writing here daily. I figure if I can come up with something to write about each day and am able to form complete sentences it means I am doing okay. I don't know if I am just talking to myself here or actually have some readers but to me it doesn't matter. I will keep going. I have, so far, written every day since June 16th. Go me! (If you are reading though because I lied about caring if you are out there reading or not, it would make my day if you said hello in the comments!)

What I added next was a physical habit. I started doing yoga again every morning after writing my post here. It has been 5 days so far of a series with Lindsay Samper that is on Prime Video. I feel I am doing good so far and I feel better exercising each day. The body weight exercises of yoga are good for my bones and building strength and we all know old ladies need to take care of those old bones to help prevent fractures. 

By the way, Bing Image Creator was used to create the yoga studio you see here. I have lots of fun playing with that tool. I only have a corner in my craft room a bit bigger that my mat and I am okay with that. I have made some lovely wallpapers using this tool for browser and computer backgrounds to personalize those things especially for me and to have something pretty to look at. I also have made images for posts here on the blog. Have you played with it?

I have not firmly decided what habit I will want to build into my day. That is a decision to be made next week. I am considering a daily walk either outdoors weather (heat) permitting or on my treadmill or adding one item each day on eBay. I am not going to open a store there, but I want to take advantage of the no insertion fee listings you can get each month. Eventually I will do both but pondering now whether the next step in building new habits should be physical or building mental skills by learning how to do new things. When I know you will know here.

Back with more again soon. 

Take care and stay cozy! 

Still Hurts

I didn't do all my stairs yesterday and probably today either. I spent a lot of time using an ice pack on my left hip. Took some ibuprofen too. This morning on waking up the painful hip is still there. Am I suffering from the dreaded sciatica? Isn't that just for old people? LOL

So I'm thinking lots of gentle walking and more ice for me today. The ice packs help and give me an excuse to sit and knit. I am working on a shawl done in Lion Brand's Summer Nights and the pattern is Reyna (Find the pattern on Ravelry)  I am adding a wider garter stitch border to mine. I really like the look of the mesh bands combined with squishy garter stitch in the pattern. 

Stopping this post here for today so I can get my retweet favors done and then get the ice pack out. I am going to combine ice with gentle strolls through the house and ibuprofen and see if I can't get this discomfort to go away. I've got plans that don't include this kind of time sucking distraction.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Staying Fit

While staying at my Mom's house to care for her and then clear her house my exercise routines were abandoned. I suppose I could have taken walks and probably should have but I did not. So now I am starting to make efforts to get back in regular routines.

I live in a 2 story house and I am using the house to get myself in better shape. According to my FitBit and its app climbing 10 sets of stairs a day is a good goal. Doing that doesn't take much time and while not easy, is doable and I have done 10 flights a day for the last 4 days as exercise along with the other sets I do just normally in a day. Yay me!

I don't know if it is connected to my sets of stairs but this morning is bad. I feel achy all through my hips, lower back and right knee. I do want to keep going so I will see how I feel after a cup or two of coffee, publishing this post and doing my retweet favors. Is it amusing to think about what one 68 year old lady will do to get another green star?

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Life Plans or After Life Plans

Getting ducks in a row sucks. Planning and thinking and sensitive conversations over a couple weeks and meeting with a lawyer a few times. Actually meeting with a lawyer was a pleasant part of this process. Ours was a nice young man. In the end we now have this giant notebook with all the needed documents and information in it. The conversations at home to nail down our wishes were exhausting though. 

When it is time for the kids to deal with our eventual deaths, I think we have done a good job of smoothing the way for them. 

Check that off the list. 

Hope the plans are not necessary for at least 20 years or even more. In the meantime we may be able to start going on cruises again soon. Now to figure out where to go.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

In A Funk and Determined to Get Over It

Click on the card to see the shop on ArtFire it came from.

I had a birthday this week. It was on the 8th and I am now 54 and for the next 6 months a year older than my husband. He likes to remind me of that. It was a nice day spent at home and then out for dinner when Jim got home from work. I don't think any of this has anything to do with the state I am in right now. I am finding it hard to function, I feel irritable and angry and there is no outside source to be causing any of these feelings. I am going to have to fix this from the inside out and I will because I don't like me this way. Maybe it is just me and special days. I remember, now that I think about it, feeling a bit of why bother around Christmas and Easter and Mother's Day this year.

Thinking back on my own birthdays, the ones that I really enjoyed they really had nothing to do with gifts or food. It had to do with spending time with the family. My favorite times are when we are all gathered at the kitchen table playing cards or other games. The radio is on and we finally settle on a station for all age groups, singing along, laughing, talking and relaxing. It gets a little silly when Tammy and Cindy start singing along with Journey. Jimmy and Jason both had great nights beating me at Scrabble which does not happen often. I think I hold the family record for being on phase 1 and having the highest points in the card game Phase 10. I don't like sitting next to Jim when we play cards. He always figures out what I need and never discards anything good to me. But it is all fun and the winners are gracious and the losers had fun too.