Time to slow way down!

So, even though I purchased the more expensive Aasics model and ran my first 5K of the year in them, when I just run a little bit, and then do Super Games, everything breaks.  My hip hurt, my right leg hurt, my foot hurts to walk on, and I call the doctor.  Plantar Fasciitis.  No running for four to six weeks, exercises to help, frozen water bottle to roll foot on several times a day, no flats, no flip flops.  Wow.  And I will still limp, have trouble getting going in the morning, but I do get a heavier prescription for the pain than otc Aleve.  I also need to call the dermotologist about the big toe maybe having warts again.



Then, on top of all that, I wake up with a splitting headache, eat breakfast, which I then puke.  Slept most of the day and the next.  Just plain worn out.  Although I prefer getting older to the alternative, the body certainly does let you know when it is done.  And the funny thing is, the body means it.  Just need to get thru the last days with students and one more with adults to checkout for the summer.  Wow, just wow.  Must be exhaustion in its new form.  Going to have to slow down and listen more closely if I want to do the things I want to do.  Much more moderation than even before this happened.

So glad we have Monday off.  Parade in the AM to watch the boy and then gimp around, maybe some more sleeping.  It will be good to remember the past tomorrow and reflect.

June is coming thankfully.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

I can finally breathe a little.  Have done bits and pieces this week.  Although not a lot was finished or completed, I, at least, was able to visit with friends and get a few projects off the list that won't stop!

I love my new Galaxy Note 3 - it is literally the best phone ever.  IMO, it is worth the money!  Plus, you can see and read it without straining your eyeballs even with the bifocals attached to your face.  Have started using the calendar more regularly and have been able to listen to the radio while I run!  It took some doing, for this tech challenged fogey, but it works!

The birds have finally started using the bird feeder from Cathy.  It is great to see the cardinals eating and the cat unable to do anything about it!  It has been raining for two solid days, so I am hoping that some of my flowers will begin to look like this:



Maybe we will even get out of school at the scheduled time this year and June will be mine!  Am so looking forward to the open house/reunion/95th bday!  And meeting JD when Ada comes to visit too.

Bucket List

Well, with a new year, comes new ideas.  My word for the year is SIMPLIFY.  So, with that in mind, here is my simple bucket list as of 2014:

• Take a trip with the family out west
• Take a trip with the family even further out west to Alaska
• Read all the Newbury Award winner books (see link below)

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal

• See San Francisco with my friends from high school soon
• Be able to grow pumpkins in my garden and harvest them!
• Tour the John Deer factory in Moline, Illinois
• Learn how to play the accordion well enough to give a recital
• Learn how to speak Italian (or least enough phrases to get along)
• Compose a short musical work
• Finish a few scrapbooks before son graduates from high school
• Take a trip to Disney World (or Land)

That's a start.  I don't know where it will go from there.  But it is a start.  Happy New Year!

Save the Date

I am working on setting up a small family reunion for my mother's side of the family.  My grandmother will be turning 95 in 2014.  Instead of having a party for her, I thought it might be better to have cousins, aunts and uncles, etc., come for food and fun at the farm.  Here is what I have so far:

http://www.punchbowl.com/save_the_date/8c0844345c81cd93ac4b

Nothing is in stone (or in the case of family-blood) yet, but just putting it out there for possibilities.  I am planning on getting in touch with Claire to see if this might fly with everyone.

Christmas Card 2013

Finished and ordered the cards today!  It is good to have it off my slate of things to complete before the concert on November 21st!  Lots to do!  Here it is:

Thank goodness for medical professionals!

So this summer I split my great toenail straight down the middle.  Don't know when, how, or why it happened.  Don't remember any trauma.  Had been wearing my boots around the goats or at the barn.  In August, it started showing these growths, nodules, bumps underneath where you actually clip the toenail.  By September, it started aching especially at the end of the day after wearing shoes and standing on my feet all day teaching.  Got an appt with my doctor who referred me to a dermatologist, since it appeared that these growths were warts.  Dermatologist referred me to podiatrist as these warts were so far under the toenail, he couldn't get them all.  Podiatrist couldn't take care of them during the first appt due to them being plantar warts and they were all over under the toenail which needed to be surgically removed.  Last Friday, we had the procedure done and it has been a bear ever since.  Will definitely be happy when the new toenail starts growing and hopefully no warts appear in the future.  I know in the scheme of things it is a small procedure, but boy, am I thankful that we live in the time we do as I couldn't have done this in the ancient days.  Not fun, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  My SILs nursing skills are a fantastic boon to this family!  I am such a wuss, but she does a great job if we need her (and she never complains about doing it for free)!

The living may not always be easy . . .

Here is a short poem, Sing a Song of Summer by Kay Winters, that I came across in the Columbus Dispatch recently:

When crickets sing
their evening song
and
fireflies turn
their lanterns on
and
spiders spin
at early dawn
and weave their cobwebs
on my lawn - 
It's summer.

Although some of our summer has appeared as the poem states, the majority of this summer has been putting out fires.  Fortunately, they haven't been big fires, just inconvenient, minor ones.  Our largest and saddest event was the passing of Darin's grandmother from Alzheimer's.  She lived a long and full life, however, the disease left her as a shell of her true self.  I am very much aware of her presence since Darin purchased her home that we live in, even though I never knew her in it.  Some of her things and memories are still here, but it doesn't bother me that these items haven't found a different home yet.  Someday they will, but until then, I get to browse every once in a while and discover her all over again.

Lots more to tell, including my 30th high school reunion, but it will have to wait until another time.