by Judy Handley | Dec 1, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 335: Christmas Countdown
Date: Saturday, December 1, 2018
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 42, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Tonight my grandson Sam is at a sleepover with friends and Ollie and Jonah are here with me for an overnight. Jed is going to be out of town for his birthday next weekend, so I offered to kidsit so that he and Heather could go out on a birthday ‘date’. It was the perfect night to spend with grandkids as they were both very well aware that this is first day of December. And that means we are counting down to Christmas Day. We had a wonderful evening together watching the short, but favorite Charlie Brown Christmas and followed that up with a 1979 movie called Jack Frost. I had never heard of this movie, but it looked interesting to the boys, so we watched it. It has nothing to do with Christmas, but it did help prepare us for the coming winter weather. It was originally a stop motion animated television program where the Groundhog tells the story. The Groundhog’s voice is that of Buddy Hackett. It is a love story as well as the story of the Groundhog who lets us know on February 2 whether or not we will have six more weeks of winter weather. And I was amazed that Jonah knew it was stop motion animation. He evidently learned this at a workshop he took at Falmouth Community Television a couple of years ago. He had to explain to me what it was!
I was a bad Oma tonight as I let the boys stay up later than usual. But after the movies, we sang Christmas carols from the Curious George Christmas Carols book. Last year we watched The Grinch together in my apartment on the harbor, and we had stored copies of the words to The Grinch in this book. So, of course, tonight we had to sing every verse of The Grinch at least four times. Then Jonah had to read to us from a book of nonsensical, but very funny poems. Ollie and I read a couple of stories from Stories from Around the World while Jonah went in another room and continued singing. And we read about the December moon in Thirteen Moons on a Turtle’s Back, a book of Native American lore. That created questions about whether artists know that turtles have 13 plates on their shells, so we had to gather stone and wooden turtles from around the Cottage to check it out. Indeed, they do know. But did you know that every year has 13 moons? The Moon revolves around Earth 13 times during the time the Earth revolves around the Sun once. If we had a lunar~solar calendar we would have 13 months of 28 days each or four 7-day weeks. Numerically, that is the same as having 52 weeks of seven days. I loved teaching first grade because I loved learning new things each day through the bright, untainted eyes of six year-olds. And now I continue to learn about the world through the eyes of my grandchildren. It is a wonderful way to view the world.
And speaking of the way we view the world, I want to share some things I am learning by watching yet another internet docu-series called Interconnected. It is about the power to heal from within and I am finding it to be very powerful information. In today’s episode, Alessio Fasano, Chief of Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Mass General Hospital, stated that the health community has been working with the premise that two things impact our health—our genetics and our environment. At one time, it was believed that genetics played the major role. But that is no longer the belief. Some health experts now think that our health is determined only 10 percent by genetics and 90 percent by environment and the life choices we each made within that environment. And as Fasano pointed out, the epidemic of disease we are currently experiencing in this country points to the fact that we are definitely doing something wrong. This epidemic of disease has happened in the last 50 years and that is too short a time to blame genetics for the rise. And to quote Fasano, “So that leaves the environment as the culprit.” We have changed the environment way too fast for our genetics to keep up. What I love about this series is that each episode leaves you with a sense of hope and roadmap for making changes in your lifestyle to stay healthy within the given environment. I can see that I am going to have a very long list of New Year’s Resolutions as a result of watching Pedram Shojai’s (The Urban Monk) Interconnected series.
by Judy Handley | Nov 30, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 334: Staying on Track
Date: Friday, November 30, 2018
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 41, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Last night I said today was going to be all about house cleaning and rearranging furniture to make room for a Christmas tree. I really worked at staying on track, but I diverted a couple of times doing jobs that are on my To Do List—just not for today. But one of those jobs I did get done has been on my list since the day I moved in here. So it felt really good to check that one off. And the furniture has been rearranged to make room for the tree, The house cleaning, however, is only halfway there. But the last time I checked, Christmas trees aren’t picky about the cleanliness of the house. So ready or not, here comes the tree.
by Judy Handley | Nov 29, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 333: Leather Britches
Date: Thursday, November 29, 2018
Weather: Sunny Day; High 48, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Just now I was catching up on Facebook notices. Once of them was a notice from a site called ‘All of Us West Virginians.’ Someone was inquiring about green beans. She said, “During early 1950’s I helped my grandmother string beans. She hung them on the back porch to dry. I’m curious about the type of beans……don’t remember eating them.” Well, I do remember eating them, but what caught my attention were the comments to that post. One person responded saying the beans were probably leather britches. Well, leather britches are the result of drying any beans to preserve them. The beans were probably half-runners . . . by far the best tasting green bean there is, in my opinion. When you pick them at the peak of freshness, snip off the stem end, string and hang them, they become dried beans referred to as leather britches. I’m sure you probably don’t need that little bit of info, but I thought I would share anyway!
Today was more of the same—going to a class at the gym, raking and bagging leaves, picking up grandkids afterschool and staying until Jed got home, coming home to watch a couple of different health-related docu-series that are running for free right now. There was one bright point in the afternoon when Karen and Peter Baranowski stopped by to say hello. Always great to visit with friends. So that was it for my day. Tomorrow is house cleaning day and rearranging furniture to get ready for the Christmas tree.
by Judy Handley | Nov 28, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 332: Work a Day
Date: Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Weather: Beautiful Morning, Cloudy Afternoon; High 43, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
On Sunday when my friend Jane Wooden came over for lunch, I was complaining about patients. She gently reminded me that after retirement, daily exercise is our job. So today I kept reminding myself of that. I got up and did the daily knee exercises prescribed by the physical therapist, followed by my normal daily exercise routine. I then took a break to drive into town to the Falmouth Pet Center. I am concerned about the new fish we added to the aquarium this weekend and wanted to check to see if I should be feeding them something different. What I found out is that I needed to go home and return with a water sample to check ammonia and nitrate levels. But it was time for me to drive north to Sandwich for a PT evaluation. The drive there is 35-40 minutes, the appointment takes an hour, and then another 40 minutes home—another part of the ‘workday that takes time. Add to that a little shopping side trip, and it was late afternoon by the time I got home. I drove home to get a water sample from the aquarium and headed to town again. The aquarium balance is not too far off which is good news . . . so much to learn about keeping a healthy aquarium. And now tonight, I am back to the health thing, watching another episode in an autoimmune docu-series. So much to learn about staying healthy.
by Judy Handley | Nov 27, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 331: Shopping, Then After School with J&O
Date: Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Weather: Sunny with Sprinkles Here and There; High 49, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
My morning started with a routine “tune-up” with my chiropractor, followed by a trip to the town waste management facility that accepts bagged leaves. Since Heather and Jed helped with yard work on Saturday, I have been driving around with seven overly stuffed paper leaf bags in the back of my car. The back seats of my Honda Fit lay down flat giving me a huge space in which to fit a lot of ‘stuff’. The Fit is known to be small on the outside, but BIG on the inside, and I have certainly found that to be true. But the leaf bags took up every inch of space. These bags are about 4 feet high and when Heather stuffs them they are almost too heavy for me to handle. I was determined to get them out of the car, however, so somehow I managed to manhandle them and left the leaf dump with an empty car. I then made an impromptu decision to head off-Cape to return some items I bought on my shopping spree before Thanksgiving. So saying that I went shopping today is not really correct. I went to return things and came home with replacements. Then it was time to pick Jonah and Ollie up from school as Tuesday is my day of the week for pick-up. I always enjoy my time with them and this week I get to pick them up on Thursday and Friday as well. It is the start of the fall public radio pledge drive and Heather works until 7 pm on Thursday and Friday. Jed is working frantically to finish up a grant he is working on before leaving for England on December 8, so I have volunteered to do extra kid duty.
by Judy Handley | Nov 26, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 330: Simple Day—Exercise and Laundry
Date: Monday, November 26, 2018
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Rain Late; High 47, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Not much to report today. My morning was spent at the gym in a pilates class and using the stationary bike. My afternoon was spent at Heather’s doing my laundry. And I spent my evening listening the first episode of an internet-based health docu-series. Exercise, cleanliness, learning new things—all good for you. Simple day.
