A Rare Good Day

 Any day is a great day where I get 9 hours of sleep the night before.  This lead to a fantastic day of exercise.  I was feeling good after the first mile so I said what the heck.  I started the second mile knowing that if I ran out of steam John was just a phone call away.  I got a little dicey near the end.  I sat on a neighbor’s fence until I caught my breath.  I then finished my walk.  My first 2 mile walk in a long time. I did come home exhausted. Took off my sunglasses. Grabbed a mug of ice water and hit the couch.  I did not move for 2 hours.  After dinner I got a 45 minute workout on my Cubii2.  I am feeling pretty good. 

I am hoping that I have more good days than bad days. I just need a few less days of brain fog   A few more less days of tired hands .  

It’s Fixed

 I got an emergency dental appointment today. The crown has been reseated. A different method and glue was used. So hopefully it will stay put.  I did manage to crash my blood sugar afterwards. We’ll long story short I have a bad habit of throwing up if I go to the dentist with a full tummy. So I skipped my lunch. After the dental work I could not eat until 3:30. Don’t worry I ate a little before I drove anywhere. I waited until the food kicked in before I even started the car.  Also if you are in need of a dentist in Tucson I have the name and numbers of 2 very good dentist.  

I did manage to get a short walk and 2 thirty minute Cubii2 workouts.  So I am starting to feel better.  I also finished one Grandma’s Bag of Necessity, I will post a picture to Raverly tomorrow, this was knit in wool.  The pattern is also on Raverly.  If for any reason you do not use Raverly just message me and we can figure out away for you to buy the pattern.  

The Sjogren’s flare up is still kicking me in to naps.  I woke up did a little work and slept for 2 hours even though I set a 20 minute timer and reset it once.  When my body needs sleep it does not matter what I have to do it wins every time.  That is the down side of giving up high sugar energy drinks.  Well there is always tomorrow.   

Taking Bets

 I started a new summer hand knit t-shirt in cotton a few months back.  When I started the t-shirt I took my measurements and started knitting to my then current size.  Even though I had the measurements perfect when I started the t-shirt appears to be growing.  It matches the first half exactly.   Will it fit or will it be too big.  If it’s too big shall I steek it or should I make someone else very happy? These questions will be answered soon.  I am almost done with the second half.  Then will block both half’s stacked so they are perfect. Then the sewing will commence.  

I have had this problem since 2009 when I started adjusting my diet.  The scale is steady for now, however the inches are departing. Even faster with the Cubii2.    What do you think will happen?

Lifting Weights and A Booster

 Yesterday I lifted weights for the first time in like forever.  I kept it reasonable at 2 pounds for each weight. I kept the workout short, under 10 minutes.  With only one rep of 10 for four upper body workout exercises. Then why in heavens has my body taken this opportunity to wake me up at 3 am to yell at me?  Every muscle in my rib cage is screaming out in pain? I have taken aspirin and am waiting for it to kick in. Then I will go back to sleep. 

I did not get much of a sleep in.  I had to get up to go get my COVID19 booster shot.  All you have to have is one of a long list of illness or a stupid autoimmune disease.  Lucky me.  I did not really feel anything until just before bedtime when my arm got sore and my head started hurting. I think my laundry folding binge and knitting helped keep my arm moving. Aspirin has been taken and it should kick in in a few minutes.  Just because I got my booster shot does not mean I can spend time at the mall or do a leisurely shopping trip to the grocery store.  It’s dash in and out   Also order shelf stable items for home delivery. Also go very early. I am still staying home most of the time.

I fell short on using my Cubiio2.  I did not do my morning 30 minutes because of the booster shot.  By the time I got to my first session it was well after 3pm.  I did not have time to recover from the afternoon workout in time to do a 7 pm workout.  I was also a little bit sleepy. I promise I will only do 2 workouts tomorrow.  I won’t over do.   

More laundry tomorrow and maybe some crafting, or if it’s a bad night sleeping.  

Eating for a Crisis

I think people are buying irrationally at the grocery store.  I put in my list for Fry’s and did car pick up today. The things that I thought would be hard to get like fresh carrots and frozen vegetables were all there.  Personal care items and tums there. Missing were things like pie crusts for home made pot pie, Tide and crackers.  I hear the soda and cookie aisles are empty too.

People if you are going to be a home you need your fruits and vegetables. You need to take care of yourselves and loved ones. Remember your plate should be 50% vegetables, 25% carbs and 25% protein.  Also don’t forget your water. Tap water is fine in most areas.  Soda and juice don’t count.

Stay safe and practice social distancing.  Knit if you have time. Don’t forget to walk, even if it is in circles around the house.

Changes

Life after we said goodbye to Eric have been strange and at times overwhelming.  Today would have been Eric’s  birthday.  We would normally wake up early and wake him up with the birthday guy singing happy birthday and then start the day. We would play the birthday song as much as possible during the day and the last time at bedtime.  Today John and I knew we had to play the birthday song.  I finally got the courage about 8:00pm.  We played the song for Eric and cried.

Going out to eat is different too.  We do not have to decide what to eat before we get to the restaurant.   Then order as soon as we sit down. We can actually look at the menu and possibly try something different. There have been times when we look at each other thinking that we have to hurry up and eat so we can take over Eric care.  Then it dawns on us that Eric has said his final goodbye to us.  We take a deep breath and comment on how strange this all is.  Then relax a bit.

Another time I  remembered how I used to knit scarfs while sitting on a rock at the end of the driveway.  Thinking about how much Eric loved to ride the bus with Don, the bus driver. That memory left me smiling for hours.

Also I  don’t know how I managed it but I kept to my eating plan while Eric was in hospice. I managed to exercise and eat right.  Now I am down another size.  I will have a lot of clothing going to Goodwill. I do not have any pants in the next size down and will need to go  shopping.  Thank goodness I have the technology for that. I just need a good body day.

My need to create is slowly coming back. I have a hand knit shawl with hand spun yarn almost finished. I also have a scarf on the loom, that is also halfway done. I hope to work down my back log.

I could have not done any of this without you and you support. So a huge thank you.

More Spring Cleaning

I spent the day spring cleaning with an emphasis on going through everything and getting rid of what I don’t need.  This included going through the fridge and freezer and having one of Eric’s aides taking home all the high carbohydrate foods that would get me in trouble.

The craft room is now clean , dusted and vacuumed. Although at times like this I am jealous of the author Stephen King, because he has a dedicated work space and can close the door when company comes over.

I found something interesting about my new Fitbit Inspire HR model.   When I am cleaning and madly dashing around the house it thinks that I am running.  I did not know that I walked that fast.  It also did something totally unexpected.  It buzzed me and told me to take a rest. I took this to mean that my Fitbit wanted me to knit.  Why it just did not say it’s time to knit, oh well.  I also found that the larger band fit my wrist better.  I do have to admit that about 10,000 of the 12,000 steps taken today were with out leaving the house.  I did manage to get out for a walk around the block after dinner.

It’s time to call it a night.

Tired

I have not been writing much lately. I seem to be to tired when I usually write my blog. The following is NOT a new years resolution. I have been trying to get to the gym 6 days a week to ride the recumbent bike. I really wanted to fix up my bike from the 1970's and ride around the neighborhood. But the streets are not as safe for bike riding as John would like, so I head to the gym. I am not doing this for anyone but me. I just think I need to move more. My initial goal was 15 minutes a day and now I do 45 minutes a day.

I am also walking more. When I got my FitBit in June,  I was doing 2 to 3 thousand steps a day. Now my daily goal is 11,000 steps a day, which I meet 6 out of 7 days last week.  With a long term goal of 100,000 steps a week.

So considering how out of shape I am this is enough to make me tired. Throw in a few long nights with Eric and a few flare ups,  you can see why I have been so tired. Some nights I am too tired to knit or spin, so a little less knitting is getting done. I am needing a shot of caffeine in the late afternoon to make it to bedtime. Somehow Eric will not go for a 4 pm bedtime. I really can't figure out why.

My long term hope is to have a little more energy. 

A Poll

The World CP Challenge has given my body a kick start that it needed. I am finding that not only do I have to walk 10,000 steps a day but I need to add other exercise too, in order for the scale to go down and the inches away. In this challenge I am trying to keep up with a friends 8 year old son who does Martial Arts 3 days a week. As you might have guessed he is ahead of me. As of this blog post hes has 313,532 steps and I have 293,198 steps. So I am not that far behind him. Only 20,334 steps. We are at the end of week 3 and have one more week to go.

Since I have been really bad at fund raising for this challenge, I would like to run an informal poll. yes i know Polls are BORING. If you think my friends son will continue to out pace me and leave me in the dust, so to speak use the World CP Challenge button on the right side of this blog and donate $2.00 to Matthew's Team at UCP of Southern Arizona. If you think that I have an ice cubes chance of not melting on a typical summers day here in Tucson donate $2 to Team Eric.

As of this writing Matthew's Team has a fund raising balance of $0.00 dollars and Team Eric has a fund raising balance of $110.00. I will use these numbers as the virtual zero dollar starting point. We would like to raise at least $500 per team.  All money raised will go to help people with Cerebral Palsy and other disabilities here in Southern Arizona. So with 1 week to go do you think that I can not only catch up to my friends son, but also manage to inch ahead by a few step or do you think he will continue to leave me in the dust.

The voting is now open.

More Progress

Each day my hand is feeling better, although there is still a bruise covering almost the whole back of my hand. I still can not do much. I can't get my hand wet yet so no cooking, cleaning or general housework. I have been able to sort through a lot of paperwork and even though its only Tuesday I have made some large deposits to the recycling bin. I wonder if I can fill it up again this week.

I did manage to get to class today for the first time this year. The stars must have been aligned. I even shopped for dinner. Just in case you were wondering a loaf of bread, corned beef, potato salad and coleslaw. Remember I still can not cook so John made the sandwiches. We are in kiss mode right now.

I have started knitting again and have managed to knit about 5 inches in length on a 6 inch wide scarf. I stop when my hand gets tired usually after a row or two.

I have started walking again and today I doubled what I did yesterday. Don't get to excited though it still is not much but it is a start. Well it is time to say good night because I am really tired.

How Not to Plan a Day

OK So I thought I had a great day planned, but..Well I am a little ahead of myself here. So from the beginning. I slept in until about 6:30am and enjoyed the quiet house until 8 am when everything came from the quiet of the night to the busy morning in just a few moments.

John and I got competitive on the Wii. He broke his distance for a 20 minute run so I had to top him with a 50 minute work out that included a 30 minute virtual bike ride around the island several times for a total of 7.35 miles and 20 minutes of yoga. Well round one went to me of course.

Then it was off to lunch with John and Eric at Shogun. Then you guessed it for more walking around the mall. at least 2 miles and 1.5 hours later we headed home. I was trying to out do John on exercise and Eric was enjoying being out.

After getting Eric settled in for a rest we decided to catch up on Tivo. I was working on a hat that I started yesterday. That's when my body decided to start telling me off. Gently at first with random shooting pain. So I tried to get into the relaxed I not going to let my body run my life mode. About an hour later my body said enough and put me in sleep mode until John woke me up for dinner. We went out to the unlimited soup and salad at the Olive Garden which was pretty good.

After we got home my body decided it was time to show who was in control and it won over my mind by a long shot. The random pain and stiffness of Arthritis has taken over.  I have decided that I don't have time for or want a flare up this week so I am really working on this mind over matter stuff. With this in mind I think I will call it an early night and see if a few straight hours of sleep will be curative for me,. so good night all and enjoy your families...

A Busy Time of Year

It has been a week since I last posted. In that span of time I fell off my shoe while walking and wrenched my knee. Yes I know sandals with heels are not the best exercise shoe around.  If it is still bothering me next week I will have it looked at. John and I put together my spinning wheel. The spinning definitely needs some practice as it is so different from the spindle as it goes much faster. The kindest thing you can say about my first spin is that it super bulky. I think I will try to put together a spinning wheel orifice hook, as I think this might help getting the yarn through the orifice.

Eric is back to sleeping through the night and we are getting much needed sleep. He delivered the going away scarf to his teacher, he picked the yarn by feel and the color from my descriptions, of course he choose green. The scarf pattern was potato chip Scarf Pattern. The yarn was by Rachael of the The CountingSheepFarm. I just lover her colorways, fiber and handmade soap..

I have started to attack the last room of the house and am happy to say that I am making slow but steady progress. I am limiting my self to no more than a half hour at a time several times a day. I find that heavy deep cleaning has to be taken in short spurts until the room is almost done and then I find its OK to go longer to finish.

I have been doing a lot of charity knitting and am slowly filling my giant Ziploc XXL bags. One bag even hit the 10 inch mark this week. I have made a very small dent in the hat yarn basket, but I am afraid that I might find more small bits for  the basket as I clean the craft room. I am almost done with another Project Gratitude scarf. As you can tell I am so glad that the yucks of winter are past and things are getting done at a good pace. I am not so glad that the school year is almost over, since it seems to me that Eric was home more then in school.

I am so glad that I am finding time to knit with my friends as I find that getting out of the house is a very good thing. This leads me to my money saving tip of the week. If you bring your own drink glass most places will give you a discount on your drinks from 10 cent on upwards of almost a dollar a drink.   Well it is time to go get dinner ready. So have a great day and enjoy your families.a drink.

Reaping Dividends

I have started trying to find time to exercise every day. It is all part of my trying to be good to my self personal campaign. Aside from getting down to a 15 minute mile, to clarify the starting point was about a 30 minute mile. So now I have to walk 2 miles to get my 30 minutes in. Same time double the distance. In my humble opinion not a bad start.

The dividends started really coming this morning when I got dressed for the day. I either needed to be 6 inches taller, buy much taller shoes or dig into my closet for smaller pants. I of course choose the smaller pants. Here I am go through my closet like a teenage girl trying to find something that looks nice.

Another dividend that I noticed is that I have more energy. Which means more things are getting done around the house. Today was not one of those days however since I was up until  a little after midnight with Eric and started my day at 5:45 am. So goes my life with Eric. I did manage to get him out the door for the 13th straight day of school, for which I am very grateful to the powers that be.

I did manage to ply 1 small skein of alpaca this morning while we were waiting for the bus and then proceeded to start spinning another bit of Moreno wool. I spent a lot of time spinning and did even manage to get a nap, baking and a little cleaning in today.

Well it is time to go hook up a hungry boy for the night. So have a great evening and enjoy your families.