I have developed some habits that might be so bad as to be classified as an eating disorder, and I’m trying to make some changes.
I have forgotten what an appropriate portion is. Rather than serve myself some potato chips when I have a sandwich, I’ll take the entire bag with me to the table.
I have taken to wolfing down my meals. Rather than leisurely enjoying each bite, I chomp and swallow with the goal of getting to a clean plate. I finish dinner and I’m still hungry because my stomach hasn’t had the chance to recognize that it is full.
I am addicted to salty food. I really need to make a change here because I can see the effect on my circulation.
I’ve been skipping breakfast and eating between meals.
Now that I’m thoroughly embarrassed, I’ll tell you what changes I’ve made.

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I’ve been watching the light the last few days. We’re trying to adjust to being back to Central Standard Time, and I’ve used the time change to make an adjustment to my sleeping hours.
Dear Husband goes to bed at 9:00 (barring long World Series games!), and I’ll align my sleeping times to his. But, I’ll stay up a night or two to read, and then blogging calls to me one night and office work the next, and gradually I find that I am off schedule by as much as three or four hours. Morning becomes an agony rather than the pleasure it should be, and I rush to make it to exercise. It’s particularly hard on Elegante Mother, who needs a regular schedule, and plenty of time to get where she’s going.

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Yeah…I know the Sox won the World Series last week. I’ve been meaning to write about it every day. Eighty-seven years. Do you believe that the White Sox had to wait 87 years to win another World Series?
I watched all four games. The second one, the one that went fourteen innings was amazing. How could a game be SO slow, and SO dull, and have SO much tension?? After midnight, it was a fight to keep my eyes open. The fourth game, they won by the only run batted in the entire night.
Lest you think I’m complaining, I’m not. Congratulations, guys! You earned those wins, and the right to bask in the sunshine of long awaited success.

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Why is it that blogging ideas only come to me when I can’t write them down???
I draft wonderful opening lines when I’m in the shower. Sentences roll out of my mind when I am driving, or when I have gone out of the house without a notebook or pad of paper. The perfect idea for a blog entry bursts into my brain just as my pen goes dry.
Last year, as I drove through central Illinois and Indiana, I had a hand-held tape recorder with me. Everything I saw on that trip was grist for the blog when I returned, and I managed not to tape over any of the information.
But, it’s hard to keep the tape recorder to hand. I need to make a fanny pack for it, or an Amish pocket. I wonder if Dear Husband will object to me murmuring into the recorder in the middle of the night?
Wouldn’t a tape recorder/digital camera be the perfect gift for a blogger?
How do you all keep those ideas in your mind until it’s time to write???

When you tell someone that you blog, do you get funny looks? Do they sidle away from you, or put a little distance between you?
Until very recently, I have been the only person in my family who blogs. I’m not sure what they think I’m doing, but none of them, when faced with the fact that I blog, has ever asked me about it. It’s rather like they are trying to spare me; the less they know about it, the less they can be forced to disclose. I think they assume it’s something illicit, or dirty. At best, they wonder how I can possibly waste my time this way. And, some of them believe that it’s inappropriate to put personal thoughts where anyone can read them.
I suspect that if I had told them I was journaling, they wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with it. At any rate, I’m certainly glad that my youngest sister is joining me in the blogging world. I’ll let you know where to find her when her blog is up and running. Welcome aboard, Sissy.

I was chatting with my youngest sis yesterday, and discovered that my blog has become a visual aid. She’s teaching English, among other things, and this summer she decided that she would use blogs in her classroom to promote writing skills and communication. One of the techs in the school system found a blog site that allows the kids to venture out to see the world of blogs, but prevents that world from coming in to visit them. I applaud protecting them from spam and unsupervised adults as they learn their way around blogging!
At any rate, Sis showed the class MY BLOG!! She used it to show links, and layout, and possibilities. I’m delighted that I’ve become a visual aid! Go to it kids!

Dear Husband hears oddly. It’s difficult to describe his condition, but he will hear something and his mind immediately seeks the pun or the homonym that might grow out of it. I should add that he usually goes for the quickest, easiest, least polished pun that he can find.
Tonight, as we were getting dinner, I mentioned that Elegante Mother and I had gotten our flu shots today. He asked if that made us floozies.
He had the temerity to repeat the question to Elegante Mother.
He’s still living. It’s just amazing….

….the colors, the scents, the cooking….
I had a note from my youngest sis today, and independently, we had decided to spend the next week in a similar manner. She and the girls have some time off from school at the end of this week. They are going to work on a scarecrow, carve a pumpkin, make some apple butter, clean up the herb garden, and pick apples from their tree.
A week ago, Dear Husband and I purchased a half bushel of Jonathan apples. I want to make some apple butter. I’ve used some of the apples to make applesauce, and an apple pie. A few more will go into a pork chop and apple dinner later this week. I want to try my hand again at baked apples. I haven’t done them in ages.

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Well, we’ve called one of the roofers and made the commitment. He expects to start on our roof on November 7th, weather permitting. I hope that the weather will hold just three weeks more, not that I want to encourage the drought. It’s a tough call. I want my trees and perennials to get the water they need, but I want it to be dry for the roofing. Do you think that we could do the Camelot thing, and have it only rain at night??

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We have to have our roof re-shingled. Sixteen years ago Dear Husband and I went up the ladders after work and on weekends to shingle this roof. At that time, I emphatically announced that I would not be going up onto the roof again, when it was time to re-shingle.
This has been an exceptionally dry, and HOT, summer. We waited for cooler weather to arrive before we began soliciting bids. I found three places, and DH found two more. Only one of his choices came through with a bid, so we had four to choose from.

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