Inches Away

My body has decided to shed a few more inches this week. Some in the usual places, 3 shirts are now to big and headed for the charity pile this week. I am trying to shrink a few pairs of pants by putting them in the dryer on low until they are mostly dry. I hope that this works.

The one area that got me though is my feet. I was not expecting them to slim down too. The general conscience is that our feet get wider as we age. Not mine. The summer shoes I bought in November at the sales were a perfect fit when I bought them. Now they are just too wide and I slide right through them. I want to scream no fair. I was really enjoying wearing a B width shoe. The reason is simple; everything comes in a B width. It is the industry standard. I will go along with my feet, but my only hope is that I do not go down to a AAA width again. With my high arch and narrow feet, let’s just say shoe shopping is not quite as fun. You can add as many funny symbols as you would like to here.

Just to remind everyone, I am not dieting. I am making life style changes. My lunch and dinner plates are now 7 to 9 inches across with a useable area of 5 to 7 inches. As opposed to the usual dinner plate size of 12 to 14 inches across with a usable area of 10 to 12 inches. Even if I pile my plate high there is much less food at meal times. I am not an angle when it comes to sweets and bread my 2 down falls, but I try to hold it in moderation. I no longer use anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup, Aspartame or other artificial sweeteners.

We are also trying to eat more real and whole foods. We are using less prepared and ready to cook or made items. This works out well with John being retired. We do not have to rely on my hands to decide what we are going to eat on any given day. John is always there to peel the carrots at lunch and chop the celery too. He is great at opening cans too. John is becoming quite an accomplished souse chef, he is learning quite fast on how the vegetables need to be cut and chopped for each dish. This results in less eating out which not only saves calories, but we think we are eating better too.

I also try to get 10,000 to 12,000 steps per day. Although on days like today when I did not get Eric down until 11:00 pm last night and was up again at 4:00 with him this does not happen. My sad total today was 3,300 steps or about 1.5 miles verses yesterdays 7,500 or about 3.75 miles. I also try to thrown in an hour or so of house cleaning a day. I have no regular schedule, but instead look around to find the area that needs to be cleaned most. Yes, house cleaning is enough exercise for me right now to avoid the gym.

Well it is time to call it a night. Please enjoy your families.

The Lessor Evil

I am not sure which I dislike more. A. When Eric is sick. B. When I am flared up. or C. Taxes. All the items are on my plate right now. Since Eric is asleep right Now, I will try to catch a few hours.

What Not To Do

Today was a hard lesson on what not to do. Last week while Eric was sick, I strained some muscles in my right shoulder. Yes, the shoulder has been sore and I have been trying to give it a break. I have cut back on knitting and using my right arm. I have been doing  my range of motion to loosen up the muscles. I even tried a massage on Saturday. So I do not know what ever possessed me at 8:00 am to do over 2 hours of cleaning, polishing furniture, doing 7 loads of laundry, and changing all the beds. Did I mention that I cleaned and polished my spinning wheel too. I also got Roomba to do odd jobs around the house.

By the time lunchtime rolled around it was starting to hurt. By 1:00pm I was in tears and giving myself a stern lecture of the value of slowing down a bit. I must be a very slow learner because by 2:30 I was back cleaning. My arm did not let me do much, I could not even fold the laundry.  So I went through old mail and recycled most of it. I also did some picking up and putting things away.

Thanks goodness John was home to help me make dinner. He opened all the cans, and jars. He also sliced the chicken sausage. The only thing I could do on my own was cook the sausage, skim the broth and add the frozen vegetables. My wonderful husband also served and cleaned up after dinner.

So tomorrow I will try to take it easy on my arm, but still make headway in the house. If you see John please tell him you heard it through the grape vine that he did a wonderful job today. Thanks.

Catch US if You Can

Eric and I had a very busy weekend. We started out Saturday morning with a friend and her son. We went to the Mix Fm Women's Fair just up the street. There was just everything there. A great time was had by all. We were in such a good mood that we decided to have Frost for lunch. As an occasional treat we decided that it was a very good lunch. Frost has an incredible new sorbet flavor called Green Apple. It is the flavor of the month so please go in before the end of March to try the green apple sorbet you will not be disappointed.

That wore Eric and I out so while Eric napped I did some house work until I could not keep my eyes open. I landed up taking a 2 hour nap. Followed by dinner out with John at Beyond Bread. I had just enough sun to get an extra mile of walking in before sunset. By the way the sunset was very beautiful yesterday too.

Today Eric and I pulled a fast one on John. We got him to go to Phoenix, to shop at the Mills Mall off of I-10 at the Baseline exit. Our main mission was getting John to buy a new pair of shoes. We had that done and then some before lunch. The and some was that he actually bought 2 pair of shoes. We then added steps to our step count for the day by walking around the mall. The mall was not as robust as it was last time we went several years ago. There were at least 12 empty shops. They added an aquarium to the mall with took up what would be an empty row of shops.

After a quick lunch it was off to IKEA, because John had never gone. All I can say is that it was very crowded today. John drove home while I caught up on my knitting. I am down to the last 2 of the 30 special order on soap sacks.

Well I am starting to fall asleep at the key board so it is time to call it a night.

Random Life Events

There are just some activities that are much better to do with Teri. Yesterday I went to the new Lush store in Tucson. The store seemed to be about a third of the size of the one in San Jose, where I shop with Teri. I think I really needed Teri there.  If you ever want to have a great time just try shopping with Teri.

Some times it is very hard to have a child leave home. I miss her at odd moments. That being said, she has blossomed into a very wonderful young woman. She is working very hard to get her legal career off the ground. This leaves me proud and in awe of her at the same time. In my heart I know that she will soon have the job of her dreams, its just those darn speed bumps called the economy that get in the way.

Me on the other hand have a bad case of what I like to call Eric Shoulder, a repetitive injury from moving Eric very fast when he is coughing, chocking or in need of urgent intervention. My knitters elbow is acting up a bit from knitting an average of 120 rows a day for a few days. I must get this latest charity project out of the way so I can give my poor right arm a break.  The break will consist of crocheting some what nots and making earrings.

Well it is going to be a busy day tomorrow, so I am calling it a night.

A Wonderful Day

Today was a good day all around. This morning the stitches came out. I can not tell you how wonderful that feels. To celebrate I tried to stop by a yarn store for a treat ,but mercifully they were closed. I have knit through enough yarn that I can take some out of the garage and put it away in the house.

 Eric is well enough to go to his program tomorrow. I am still knitting at a good clip. I only have 6 more soap bags to knit for the fund raiser. Then I will use the scrap bag to make What Nots.

Whole foods had some oranges that I like in stock today. They also had some beets for tomorrows beet salad. I also picked up some of the chicken we liked.

So I am ending this short update on a very good note.

Getting Better

Well Eric is back to eating, so one more day home and he will make it to program 2 days this week. YEAH!!!! He is feeling much better and has not spent the whole day sleeping. He has a little more energy today.

Eric's Day program will be having a plant and craft sale on March 13, 2013. More details to come. They will be selling some plants they have grown. Also arts and crafts. I need to find out if they will be selling their greeting card packs also.  I am making soap bags, which the Taglit group will do the final assembly on. Since it is spring I will be making a lot of cotton things. There will also be some new earrings too. Since I still have 8 more soap bags to knit, it is time to go back to knitting. As usual 100% of the sale price will go to the Taglit Day Program at the Tucson JCC.  I will not be taking any money away from the program for supplies.

Please take the time to enjoy your families.