When I was a kid, we didn’t eat dinner. Nope! We ate supper which typically consisted of meat, potato in some form and vegetables or a salad. We ate whole wheat bread frequently, pasta once per week and rice occasionally. Mother Fran was a bit of a health nut so milk was served as the beverage, fruit as the dessert. She cooked with lard, butter and oil. Most vegetables were straight from the garden and sometimes the freezer.
We rarely had chips, soda or other types of junk food. I’m pretty sure she had never heard of a Ring Ding, Twinkie or Fluff. We did enjoy the occasional brownie, ice cream and homemade cake. Mother Fran was ahead of her time when it came to cooking healthy meals for her family. Our diet had plenty of protein, healthy fats and some carbohydrates.
Do you ever find yourself happily going about your life, tending to what needs to get done, checking things off of your to do list and than BAM? BAM, something happens that rocks your world. Something pulls your kayak way off course and you find yourself drifting aimlessly or furiously fighting the waves but not getting anywhere.
A few weeks ago, my brother (Number 9) called me to process the fact that a good friend of his had a massive heart attack and was in the hospital. His friend is in his mid 50’s and I’m sure he was not expecting something so big to rock his world. Today I learned about a friend in his early 60’s who just underwent a partial amputation of his foot due to diabetic complications. Undergoing surgery like that will totally knock anyone off course.
Fall is here and I have mixed feeling about it. On the one hand, I love how the leaves change on the trees and how this transforms the hills from solid green to shimmering shades of orange, yellow and red. I love how the days can still be comfy warm but the nights are chilly. The acorns are falling like crazy and Mother Fran keeps swinging her cane at them to push them off of the deck. Fall is a great time of year to go apple picking, pumpkin carving and hiking in the woods.
Fall is also when Mother Fran and Child #7 pack up and leave the lake to return to Florida for 8 months. I don’t like closing up the cottage and how the decks slowly look more and more empty. My little condo goes from being my bedroom to being a home for the furniture, kayaks and umbrellas. I don’t like as the days and nights grow colder and the trees become bare.
I feel like I jumped off of a financial cliff last week. Like I threw a wad of money out of the car window. Yes, I am exaggerating in a major way but still a girl can’t help the way she feels. Child #7, Mother Fran and I took our annual trip to the Outlet Mall and I went a bit crazy. Usually, I end up with a small purchase, grab a bite to eat and call it a day. This trip was different. My adrenaline was pumping and my filters were off. We plan this trip for the first week of September to coincide with “Back to School Sales” but we don’t go until after the kids of have actually gone back to school. Brilliant, right?
Never stop learning. I mean it. Never stop. It is the most critical factor I can think of that is required to live a meaningful life. I don’t know about you, but I believe living a meaningful life is way cooler than living a mediocre one. I have tried (somewhat unsuccessfully) to build a few new habits this year. I wanted to blog for 5 minutes every day in order to post on My Little Blue Kayak 5x per month. Instead, I have been in a major slump all summer and am now kicking myself in the pants! I wanted to earn at least 1 CEU (continuing education credit) per month in order to earn 15 for the year. I believe I have earned 6 so far.
It is easy to write goals and even easier to promptly forget to address them. Writing this blog is one way I push myself to do better, to be better. Let’s face it, having to share one’s failures has a way of motivating one to do better. I know why I didn’t blog for 5 minutes every day, I know why I didn’t earn 1 CEU per month. I don’t need to make excuses, I need to do better. If you want to read about my goals, check out these posts. 5 Minutes is Easy, 2018 Goal Review, A Year in Review. As you can see, writing goals is important to me and finding ways to push myself to do and be better is critical if I want my life to mean something.
I don’t need much in life in order be happy and satisfied. Give me a yummy meal, a glass of wine,and good company. Follow this up by a good nights sleep and I’m in heaven. How about you?
At the cottage, I sleep in what we call the “Bunk House” or “Little House”. When we were kids it had a Raggedy Ann and Andy motif and has always been a preferred place to sleep. I now call this my condo and think the new nickname is starting to catch on! All that is in this little space is 2 sets of bunk beds, a dresser and a small metal desk. It has some shelves that hold some darts, a few magazines and my “I Love My Dog” sign. My condo is great for getting a good nights sleep.
My condo in the fall
I love my condo and sleep with all of the windows and the door wide open. I get plenty of fresh air and can see the moon and stars from bed. When the temperature is cool, I snuggle down under a comforter. Fenway sleeps on her bed on the floor next to me and I can hear her breathing throughout the night. The only thing I don’t love about my condo is that my honey is not sleeping next to me on my little twin bed.
I have been hearing and reading a bit about the importance of sleep lately and was reminded about the health puzzle that I wrote about a while back. The puzzle identified sleep as one of the major factors impacting our health. Sleep is something I have historically struggled with and although it has improved greatly, I still have rough nights. Today I woke up around 3:45AM and I have been up playing on my computer since 4:30AM!
I am a lousy napper and have never been accused of being a night owl. I tend to go to bed before 9:30PM and get up between 5:00 and 6:00AM. You can often find me in my pajamas before dinner. I know the importance of a good nights sleep!
We all know that consistently getting adequate sleep is important and that without it we tend to be tired, cranky and frankly not much fun to be around. But did you know that proper sleep gives our body the opportunity to perform maintenance and repair tasks that are critical for good health? Did you ever wake up in the morning having solved a dilemma you had been struggling with? Yup, sleep can help do that too!
Inadequate rest impairs our ability to think, to handle stress, to maintain a healthy immune system and to moderate our emotions. It’s associated with heart disease, hypertension, weight gain, diabetes and a wide range of psychiatric disorders including depression and anxiety.
Chris Kresser
When you think about sleep like this, it is a bit easier to understand why poor sleep impacts our health. When trying to optimize health, people tend to focus on diet and exercise and forget to address the other pieces of the health puzzle that could have a big impact. You could eat a wonderful diet and get great exercise but if you don’t get good sleep your health will suffer.
With that in mind, I think I will climb back under the covers and get a bit of rest!
I wonder if my Nana knew on July 22, 1927 that she was giving birth to such an amazing person. Mother Fran will turn 92 in a few days and I am honored to be part of her family. My parents had nine kids, yup NINE! Each and everyone of us turned out to be pretty well-adjusted, happy adults. I think that is quite an accomplishment. My Mom is not super affectionate, she isn’t the type to brag about her kids, she isn’t even the type to tell you when she is proud of you. That being said, I have never doubted her love for me or for the rest of the extended family.
Mother Fran isn’t the only one to have a July birthday in my family. My Fenway turns 11 this month! I adopted her when she was 4 months old and as no one could give me an exact date of birth, I thought she should share with Mom. I can’t say that Mom was honored but she didn’t complain! Fenway has always been a bundle of joy (and energy) and has plenty of love to share. We are getting ready for a birthday brunch with 5 of the 9 kids, 1 grand child and 4 great-grandchildren. This family knows how to party!
When I tell people that Mom is turning 92, they usually respond with “bless her”. Personally, I think she must already be blessed to have reached her 90’s with her mind and body in pretty good shape! She keeps herself active by wearing her fitness tracker and playing cards with her kids. She says it is funny to walk into a room and know you are the oldest one there! In human years, even Fenway isn’t close to Mother Fran in age! If it wasn’t for the shades of grey around Fenway’s snout, you would think she was a puppy.
Mother Fran told me once that her love for me was “unconditional”. Isn’t that an amazing thing to say to your grown up daughter? I have never forgotten that or taken it for granted. Now Fenway can’t talk but I am willing to bet that her love for me is unconditional as well. This 92 year old woman and 11 year old dog have a whole lot of love to share and I am blessed to be firmly planted within that circle of love.
Who do you get a whole lot of love from? Go give those people and pets a great big hug, they deserve it! Today seems like a good day to make sure the people you love know how much they mean to you! There is no guarantee that you will have the opportunity to tell them when they reach age 93 or 12! If the person you need to recognize has passed away or is no longer reachable, writing a letter could be a good way to express your feelings and generate some happiness!
It is officially summer! Yeah! One of my yard work customers is 96 and yesterday she informed me that she was going to be outside working in her yard at 10 PM on the longest day of the year. I didn’t check in on her but I have no doubt that she met her goal! She makes me crack up laughing every time we talk; I am grateful for her.
I have been incredibly busy between yard work and my work at the nursing home. I have been working six days per week and really love my Sundays off. The funny thing is when I work at my yard work gigs, it barely feels like work. I am out in all kinds of weather, rain, sun, wind, hot, and cold. I do laundry pretty much every other day because I get so dirty. Good thing we have a washer and dryer in the basement! I am grateful for my yard work and for my washer machine!
One of my goals for 2019 was to start a gratitude journal and I am happy to report I have been writing in it pretty consistently. It sits on the nightstand next to my bed and every night when I crawl under the covers I jot down 3 things I am grateful for. I have noticed that the more I write in my journal the easier it is to identify 3 things to be grateful for.
I now find it easy to truly express gratitude for things that once would have been simply irritating. I am getting better and seeing the positive side of every day events. This is a skill that will help me for the rest of my life! Here are a few things I am grateful for today!
I am grateful I didn’t break my pinky finger when I slammed it in the folding table. I am grateful that the tree that fell into the lake didn’t hit the neighbors boat (it was really close). I am grateful that the cottage didn’t flood and Child #7 and Mother Fran didn’t need to evacuate in the storm. I am grateful my honey made it safely to Connecticut and is on her way home. I am grateful for my health, for my wealth (what there is of it) and for my happiness.
I believe gratitude has the ability to grow like compound interest! But in order to do that, it must be shared, it must be expressed. Let’s fill each others buckets by expressing our gratitude to our loved ones. It is one way to help save the world! When we quarantine gratitude it can not grow, it can not multiply. That is like the opposite of saving the world.
Go save the world by expressing some gratitude today! Happy Summer.
I have learned that I need to schedule fun activities in order to ensure I do the things I say love to do. If I don’t literally get it on my calendar, I don’t find the time to go biking, hiking or kayaking. I get caught up in work, chores and the day to day tasks of running my life and the weeks slip by one after another. I have to literally schedule date night with my honey and overnights at the cottage with Mother Fran or these incredibly important things don’t happen. One of my rules for living my life is to spend time with people I love doing activities we both enjoy. In order to make this happen, it needs to get on the schedule. I also need to be willing to do the work that is involved with having fun.
My honey and I just spent 27 hours away from home for a biking adventure with my cousin. 27 hours sounds inconsequential. It sounds like nothing. All we had to do was get the bike rack on the car, the bikes down from the garage ceiling, the tires pumped up. We had to pack the car, arrange for Fenway care and get the day off from work. Making this biking trip happen involved work AND it was well worth it!
Isn’t she a beauty?
Getting away from home, even for a 27 hour period of time can feel like a vacation. It doesn’t have to be expensive, it doesn’t have to be far, it doesn’t have to be loaded with activities. For us, just getting to a new environment and spending quality time together is wonderful. It gets the oxytocin activated – you know the feel good cuddle hormone! Yes it involves a bit of effort AND it is worth it!
One of my Happiness Goals for 2019 is to go on to two bike/kayak/hike weekends away from home. The trip to my cousins counts as one so one more to go! It has taken a long time but we finally purchased 2 sets of JBars for the kayaks and a load assist device to help us get them on top of the Rav4. It is time for me to do some planning and get a kayaking weekend on the calendar! Now we have to figure out how to assemble everything and make sure we know how to secure them on the roof! Sometimes fun sounds like work AND it is worth it!
The 2 hour drive to my cousins house was a breeze. Making this happen was easy but only because I got it on our joint calendar. We use the Google Calendar – we each have our own calendar and we have a joint one. We can both see all three of them at the same time (color coded) or can easily turn one off to make it look less daunting. I don’t know how I kept track of my life in my 30’s and 40’s but I know I didn’t use any phone Apps or even a paper calendar. All I know is this process works well for us!
When I feel overwhelmed, I tend to shut down and disengage a bit. That makes planning fun activities more difficult. I don’t know about you but I intend to have a wonderful summer and that means it is time do the work so I can have some fun! My honey and I are also talking about a return trip to Florida this winter and a drive cross country in 2020. It is time to start some planning to make these both happen!
This time of year, I spent most of my time outdoors. On a daily basis, I am outside walking my dog and gardening. In my free time I love to be out at the lake, soaking up the sun, kayaking, hiking and biking. My honey and I did a beautiful hike last weekend at one of the local State Parks. It was a good loop with views of waterfalls and flowing water. Next weekend we plan on biking with my cousin on the Erie Canalway. I believe time spent in nature is time well spent.
I feel like the more time I am outside, enjoying all that Mother Nature has to offer, the more tuned in I am to the sites and sounds. I get to see more of what is out there, not because I am outside more but because I have increased my awareness. Does that make sense? I miss a lot too, especially when I am playing on my iPhone or tuned into the chattering going on inside of my head instead of the beauty that surrounds me. We have to keep our heads up to enjoy Mother Nature!
