I attend exercise three mornings a week (well, I’m supposed to go three mornings a week), and the woman who leads us is taking courses to certify as a yoga instructor. When she needs to be away for the occasional class, she invites me to fill in for her.
I spent some time working on “cheat sheets” for the class. I can’t remember the moves and call them without reminders, so I use poster board and write out the moves. We tape them to the top of the mirrors in the dance studio, and I stand in the center of the front row.
I bit off more than I can chew this time. I wanted to try to create the same exercises we have been doing for the past two or three weeks. That meant that I would have to call four new cardio exercises! FOUR!! And, of course, I didn’t leave myself adequate time to rehearse. I got a LOT of exercise in this past week, trying to learn to call those routines.
Things were going well Friday morning. I managed to get us through about twenty minutes of exercise, and we were coming up to the last two cardio songs and a cool down. We had almost finished the third cardio when I stopped in place. Of course, they all did, too. I’d been calling the moves for cardio four to the music for cardio three!
Duh! I just can’t believe my ears didn’t realize what I was doing. And, do you know, not ONE of the class told me something was wrong! I was going to skip the last cardio and go on to the cool down and stretching, but they liked the song and were willing to repeat all the moves.
Clearly, I’ll need to practice a LOT before I sub again in two weeks. I’m lucky the class is filled with such nice people. We got our exercise in, and that was what mattered, but I’m truly embarrassed!

I was struck this morning by the power of what you can accomplish in just five minutes.
Granted, it came to me when I stopped to make my bed before leaving the bedroom, but that doesn’t lessen the impact you could have.
In my life, five minutes might be spent on emptying the dishwasher, starting a load of clothes, watering plants, or sweeping the floor. It could also be signing an e-file release and faxing it to the CPA, or paying bills, or typing a waiver.
I believe that we build on the simple five minute chores to create a platform that lets us get to the more important things. I’ve said before that I do well when my house is tidy and the desk is organized. When those things seem overwhelming, if I break it down into five minute chores, I can whittle away at that burden and get through it.
I can’t think of anything that couldn’t be solved or resolved if you didn’t break it down into simpler steps. So what if you tackle the easy ones first, the chore still gets done.
So, today, I’m going to be looking for five minute chores, and watch to see if I accomplish more.
What can YOU accomplish in five minutes?

I expect this to be a busy week. We will be hosting a small part of my extended family for Easter Dinner. I think the count is somewhere in the 14-18 range, less than a third of the family. I won’t have to arrange for extra tables and chairs, and we won’t have to cook in Oh-My-God! sized vats. I think it should be a really lovely gathering.
Part of my oldest sister’s family will be out of town this coming weekend, so she is bringing just part of the crowd. Dear Husband’s daughter and her family will be joining us, and we hope his second son and the son’s girlfriend will join us, too.
Even with a small group coming, there is still cleaning to be done, and I need to clean out the gardens along the sidewalk. I had intended to have them done last week, but our plans were interrupted when our son-in-law needed emergency surgery (see the next entry).
I plan to start my spinach, go to exercise and then grocery shop for Elegante Mother. After a visit with her, I’ll do my own grocery shopping and then head for home. Tuesday is house cleaning and ironing. Wednesday is exercise, library and a visit to Comcast to return equipment, before I spend the afternoon in the office.
The rest of the week, I’ll be working toward being ready for quilting bee on Friday evening and dinner on Easter. There are dozens of chores to be taken care of, but fewer than usual, because our gathering will be smaller. I’m really looking forward to it all.
We’re expecting temperatures in the seventies on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I hope you all have the wonderful week that we are expecting!

Don’t you love it when a plan comes together. I managed to get the dishes done, the clothes washed and folded, and THEN……I started working on the mail.
Mail is a major undertaking here. We get mail for five different entities. A huge amount of it is junk mail, but most of it needs to be opened, and a lot of it needs to be shredded. I organize the rest into four piles (DH and my mail goes into the same pile).
I took one stack at a time and filed or pitched almost all of the mail. You can see the top of my desk now. I wouldn’t go as far to say that I was finished, but I’ve made tremendous headway, and it’s very satisfying.
Now, I can go outside and play!

It was cold today, but clear, and the sun was incredibly brilliant! We still have some snow, and the sunlight on the snow made my eyes water. We have a few more days of light snow coming this way, but nothing like what the eastern U.S. has been getting. I love the sunlight in the morning when it makes my quilt studio glow, but afternoon sunlight is starting to talk to me of SPRING!!! Have you noticed our days are longer?
I went to exercise this morning. We did our warm-up and about 25 minutes of cardio, and then we were introduced to a guest teacher. Regina is going to start a class next week on “Zoomba.” She took us through three simple, warm-up style pieces. The footwork is very similar to what we do in my present class, with a bit more dancing involved. I have a bad knee, so I’m not thrilled by steps that require very quick shifts of weight, but I was able to substitute simpler steps and keep up the pace. I don’t think I will be signing up for Zoomba, but I enjoyed the chance to sample it.
Okay, tomorrow the Christmas tree comes down. I heard on the news yesterday that the town in which I live requires that your Christmas decorations be down, or you will be fined!! What right do they have to legislate how I decorate my house??? I hope that my evergreen wreath with the red bow in the entryway near my front door is allowable, or I’ll be writing about the fine next week! Actually, I’m going to go check out the law, so that I know how it reads! lol
Taxes are almost ready to go to the CPA (She’ll FAINT!!!) Usually I get them to her by April 1st. I’ll have to drop them off on Monday, just for the fun of it. New insurance is just about ready to be locked in. You can see the top of my desk. Amazing, isn’t it??
Have a great weekend!

It seems that I am on the mend. I have a very low tolerance for being ill, so I wish things would hurry up and sort themselves out.
My stomach problem must have been a response to something I ate, because it was over with in less than 24 hours. But, I was also dealing with an eye infection, and that has lingered. My-Sister-The-Nurse was also feeling poorly, so we flipped a coin to see who would house Frankie on Friday night, and I WON!!!
We went out to breakfast Saturday morning. She was on her way to visit with Elegante Mother, and I needed to make a bank and Post Office run. I had a lovely time chatting with Frankie. I moaned about the need to put away Christmas things and the ever present need to clean my basement, and she told me about an exercise she does with the students at her school.
She asks the kids to take a minute to envision their lives 20 years from now. And then asks what their lives might be like just five years from now. Then, she asks what their lives might be like 6 months from now. She talks them through the possibilities, and then asks what’s keeping them from achieving those possibilities. Her students are kids at risk of loosing the opportunity to complete their public school education, so some of the answers could be lack of family support, making poor choices in friends, doing drugs, having to work to support themselves, or not getting enough rest or study time. The final step is to encourage the kids to determine how to turn things around.
Applied to my life, in ten years, I’d like to have simplified my life. I’d like to have less clutter, fewer material things to deal with, and the freedom to travel. A slimmer, trimmer me, would also be nice. Five years from now, I’d like to have a CLEAN BASEMENT. I’d like to have all the business files sorted, and culled, the holiday decorations limited and stored, the clothing in storage given to those who need it more than I do, and the floors and walls of the basement swabbed down!
In six months, It will be gardening season, and I’d like to have some of this organization completed so that I don’t have two major demands on my time at the same time.
What has been keeping me from getting the basement done? It’s not laziness. When I work, I work hard, but I am overwhelmed by all that needs to be done. I don’t like having to do this work alone, but with the exception of the business files, I’m really the one who has to decide if something stays or goes. I need to break things down into more manageable parts and chip away at the job until I can see some improvement. I also need to organize some help to remove all that needs to be thrown away.
Okay, sis…..give me some more guidance! I may be working in the basement today! *G*
So…..Frankie is home again after having visited with Elegante Mother. Dear Husband is back from Strictly Sail. I visited the PA and got some help for my eye infection, and I’m on the mend. Things are looking up, and I may even get my basement cleaned, yet!
I hope your weekend has been as good as mine!

Please forgive me, but I need to whine a bit. I am under the weather. Dear Husband left for work yesterday and around 5:15 a.m. I realized I had to run for the bathroom. I up-chucked off and on for the next six hours or so. Wretched stuff! Both Dear Husband and I prefer to be alone when we are ill, so timing on this worked out well.
Happily, that phase has passed. I was even able to eat some applesauce and a small banana by dinner time. When in doubt, I always feel the BRAT diet is a good choice (banana, rice, applesauce, and tea). I risked all a little later, and also ate a few oyster crackers, which also stayed down. I assume that I ate something that didn’t agree with me, but it’s possible that I had a mild flu bug.
Wednesday night, before going to bed, I put a pound of dried Great Northern beans in a pot to soak. I wanted to make bean soup yesterday. Of course, I didn’t cook anything at all, and this morning I found the pot of beans still soaking. I’ve never questioned whether you can over soak beans, so I had to do a little research at Wikipedia. There, I learned that you should not over soak beans. I’ll pitch this batch out, and wait to make bean soup for a few days.
Does anyone have any suggestions for simple food that is good for this stage of recuperation? I remember that Elegante Mother always gave us grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, with ginger ale or seven up. My-Sister-The-Nurse tells me that tomato soup is really not a good choice. Chicken broth would be better.
I need to find light duty for today. I could start gathering information for taxes. I might play with fabrics or work on two small quilts I need to finish. Having the cat sit on my lap and snooze with me sounds really good, but sitting all day, without moving around regularly, is hard on the joints, so maybe I need to wean myself off the snoozing.
The worst of all this is that I will miss a visit from Frankie. My sister is driving up from Indiana to have a quick visit with Elegante Mother, and she had planned to stay here tonight. We’ve changed our plans just to make sure that I don’t have anything contagious. Frankie will be staying with My-Sister-The-Nurse tonight, and I’ll have to wait until March to see her. Darn!
Thank you, if you made it this far, for letting me whine. I’m sure I’ll feel better soon. I have a limited tolerance for whining, so this must be a sign that I’m on the mend.
I hope you all have a good day!

At the moment that translates to a bowl of Cheerios, but I’ve had a jones for cookies lately. I made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies. The bag said that would make about 10 dozen cookies. HAH!! It actually made about 45. They must be making cookies that are about the size of a quarter. We went through those in about three days, so I made one of Dear Husband’s favorites: Spicy Nut Cookies. The need for sugar has abated just a bit, but it’s still there, rather like a volcano waiting to blow.
January and February seem to be the months when comfort food seems so necessary. I applaud those of you who continue to eat healthy meals through the winter. Dear Husband and I tend to search out the comfort during the worst of winter, despite the fact that we like veggies and salads. DH asked me to make a casserole with chicken, veggies and cream of chicken soup. When DH is craving comfort food, it always translates into something with gravy or cream sauce. He also asked me to make Tuna Noodle Casserole this week. Our calorie consumption is off the chart between those two meals and the cookies!
I have a plan, though. I’m going to let this ride through January, and then in February, we will be eating lighter, smaller meals, and getting some exercise after dinner. There are plenty of chores that we need to attend to, and I think that extra exercise will make a big difference. So….it’s couch potatoes for the next week, and then we rejoin the healthy world.
What is your comfort food? Baked goods? Candy or desserts? Old fashioned casseroles? Something salty? Frankie…..remember grilled peanut butter and piccalilli sandwiches???? *G*
N. B. 1-22-2010 I should have said that the chicken casserole with cream of chicken soup was definitely NOT fine dining. I’d really rather create something from scratch, but we were really short on time that day, so it was a crockpot meal.