March 31, 2013

Incubation



I thought I'd get this post out today in case you might like to play an April Fool's joke on someone and you can plan appropriately :-)

Sometimes the success of a good joke is starting early- warming up the receiver of the joke and getting them "on board", so to speak. A good example of this is the April Fool's joke that Tom played on me several years ago. It went off without a hitch, partly because I am so gullible. It still makes me laugh.

On a less humorous note, I've been feeling creaky this week with a sore lower back from moving furniture around, a sore knee, and even some carpel tunnel symptoms again. My body has clearly been talking to me.

I was reminded at an entrepreneur's seminar recently that it takes 21 days to break a bad habit. I am now on day #6 of easing off on sugar consumption and feeling much better. Sugar is a prime culprit in causing inflammation, which in turn causes body aches among other nasty things. The more we eat sugar the more we crave it. The key with me is not to eliminate it entirely but to eat it in small amounts, as it is clearly one of the worst things we can put in our bodies.

I wrote about this in my post The Sweet Stuff .

I apologize if I sound like a broken record!

Also, I am half-thinking about changing my tagline for the blog to "Aging authentically....." instead of the current "Aging gracefully....." and would love any feedback on this should you like to share it.

Lastly, I haven't started doing Pinterest yet but I like the concept and especially what so many women are pinning on the beauty of aging.

It's one of those things I think I SHOULD do for Lines of Beauty, but haven't gotten around to yet, but it's on my list and I think will be easier and more fun now that I have the App.

With this I leave you with one of my favorites.

Oh yes, and one more thing from my ninety-one year old mother:

 "It's good to start each day with two glasses of water." :-)

Thank you cutie-pie.

March 27, 2013

Like You Meant



Our home is without a fireplace, which I dearly miss because I love firelight. Because of this I like to have candles lit for dinner each night. For Tom's birthday the table was ablaze with candles, so many so that we didn't need other lighting in the room. After the party he asked me what my favorite part was and I said the candles. I guess I am a very simple woman.

The new living room ( old dining room)
We flip flopped the living room and the dining room for the party and liked it so much that we don't want to move them back. This has created a temporary problem because the new dining room is a very long room and is still yet missing something.

I like the coziness of the the new living room although I miss the light of the old one.
The old living room, now the dining room



Anyway,  I wrote a poem for Tom's birthday, which I toasted him with at the party. It's not a poetic work of art by any means and what it doesn't tell is the ebb and flow of a long marriage, of the coming around again. And maybe not even of the love and security of two people who have been together almost 30 years, as we have.



You on the couch most evenings
Half angel, content
Tired from your day of making life happen
Your ambitions, and us, always in the forefront like you meant

Me in our bed each morning
Curled into an oasis of peace
Wondering what tasks to tackle each day
Knowing what pleases me most won’t cease

Our homes in renovation upheaval
A chaos we both can endure
Neither seeking perfection
Something that bonds us for sure

Our girls growing older each moment
Trying to relish them, as they slip away
Life is a masterpiece of connections and emotions
A new clue most every day

It is an honor to share my life with you
I don’t tell you this nearly enough, I know
You strengthen the fabrics I’ve woven
And with you, the life that we sow


March 19, 2013

Killing Us Softly



I think we're all aware of how practically every image of people in the media is tweaked, usually significantly. But the reality is, on some level, I think we sometimes forget that they are. Every day we see perhaps thousands of images but we don't always consciously remember that they have all been photoshopped to look younger, thinner, sexier. Every little imperfection and non-imperfection is erased away like magic. Especially now.

It makes me sad that even pre-schoolers are exposed to all this ridiculousness and don't even know it!

We live in such a screwed up world. Lordy lordy...

Thank goodness for nature. For the wonderfulness and naturalness of the great outdoors.

Anyway, I applaud Jean Kilbourne ( in the video above) for all her hard work on the image of women in advertising.


Winter Minestrone
Also, if you happen to have missed my post called Erasing Your Face, it's about the media's use of  technology to soften the signs of aging on TV.

Even on TV we aren't seeing people as they really are.

As Desi Arnaz would say to Lucy, "Ay yi yi!"


On a happier note, I've been percolating a little birthday celebration for Mr. Fix-It. We celebrated his 50th birthday in Madeira but his real birthday is actually this weekend. He isn't one to enjoy the limelight so it's just family coming and a few of those nearest and dearest to him. I like throwing parties once I get my engine warmed-up and running. Maybe you know what I mean. Thankfully I've become smarter about entertaining as I've grown older.

I'm thinking I might turn our living room into the dining room for this gathering, by flip-flopping the two rooms. It might be fun to use the house in a whole new way.

I hope.

Today our firstborn is making Winter Minestone Soup, which I hear is fabulous from my gray and gorgeous sister-in-law.

It's the perfect day for it as winter is back in full force, once again, with a sizable snowfall.


 xoxo to you my dear readers, near and far,

Louise

March 13, 2013

Inside Our Noggin

© Alana Noritake

First of all, does anyone like Girl Scout's thin mint cookies as much as I do?

Be still my heart.

Every March I can't wait to open a box and dip in. I don't think there is any other cookie, other than Tollhouse chocolate chip, that I love so much.

Coupled with a glass of cold milk....ou-la-la.


The other day I caught a few minutes of the program Super Brain on PBS.  It is also a book co-authored by Deepak Chopra. I didn't have time to catch much of it but what I remember mostly was their definition of what a super brain is.

I believe this is what they said:

A super brain is a brain that is aware of what is it thinking about.

Wow, I thought, I can relate to this- this is what I have been tapping into over the last 10 years.

For one, when we are conscious of what negative thoughts are occupying our mind we have the ability to "change the channel," as I like to say, and think about something more empowering.

Crocheted Rug
I think it was about 10 years ago that one of my brothers told me that he coached his 22-year-old daughter through some anxiety that she was having while traveling in Europe with a friend. His suggestion to her was that when she noticed herself transitioning from a calm/content state to an anxious/discontent one that she follow in her mind back down the road to where the road split and she started to unravel because of something that she had started thinking about.

When we can pinpoint the thought that starts to unravel us, we can change our direction of thinking and how we feel.

I credit being able to do this with being a more calm/centered person than the anxious/sensitive person that I came into the world as.

It is a helpful tool to have in our tool box.

Anyway, more on the super brain and aging gracefully if you are interested here.


In Madeira I started crocheting this door mat/rug with all the leftover dribs and drabs of wool yarn I have collected over the last 30 years. I am loving it. It was good to have a crochet hook with me because for the first time since 9/11 they confiscated my knitting needles at the airport :-( 

Directions for the very zany brain beanie on Ravelry.

I hope you are all having a nice week.

At least right now, spring is in the air in New England :-)

March 04, 2013

Can We

The night before we left for Madeira we all had our usual pre-trip anxieties.

What was it going to be like for the four of us to be together constantly for ten days, let alone living out in the country with relatives?

The kids are now 19 and 21 and it had been over two years since we had all been sequestered like this together for so long.

And for me, quietly I worried- can the plane land successfully again on Madeira's short runway, which has been listed as one of the most dangerous airports in the world?

It's interesting what fears come up when we embark on adventures.

The night before we left, as we were hurriedly celebrating both Valentine's Day and my birthday, I suggested a plan at the dinner table to help insure that we had a good time together.

I had done this with my siblings last summer before we cleaned out my mom's house, to ready it for sale, and it really helped.

So I said to Tom and the kids:

Can we make a pact to not fight or put each other down?

Can we just keep negative thoughts to ourselves, or write them in a journal, or put them in an imaginary balloon and allow them to float up into the abyss?

Can we?

So we all agreed that we would try our best and in doing so we were able to have a really nice trip together.





The power of intention.

The older I grow, the more clearly I see how powerful  it is.