So, Who Am I Kidding?

Has anyone else practically given up blog-reading for Facebook?  It's so quick and easy to look at who's posting what and get a snapshot of friends' lives on my phone. Seems I rarely sit down at the computer any more unless I'm A: shopping on Amazon,  B: searching Craigslist, or C: paying bills.  Most of the time I even read my emails on my phone.

But then I miss out on some of those wonderful photos of quilts, and grandchildren, and food.
I really have to start setting aside some time each day to get caught up.

So, what's new in our household?  Well, I went Whole Food, Plant Based in January. Met my new doc, who recommended Dr. Fuhrman's book The End of Diabetes,  and from there, Eat to Live.  Made a convert out of me. When I started reading some of the info out there, such as The China Study, Engine 2, My Beef with Meat, and started (but never finished) How Not to Die, I was shocked and dismayed at what meat and dairy do to the human body.  I watched Forks Over Knives, What the Health, Food Matters, and some other documentaries and they changed how I live now.

(That's me on the right in November.)

Since January, I've lost 35 lbs., started going to the YMCA for water aerobics and weight training 3 days/week, with Silver Sneakers yoga 2 days/week, and am trying to learn to cook differently. It's hard to undo 60+ years of poor eating habits, and unlearn poor cooking preps. Jack is not on board--yet--but I did get him to promise to watch 2 documentaries with me.  He thinks we are too old to start eating differently, but I told him we are never too old to begin eating healthy.

(This is me in July.)

Jack was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, too, which is an even bigger reason to get him off meats, dairy, and processed foods.  Fortunately prostate cancer has an 85% cure rate, so with the hormone therapy, and the radiation therapy, we're hoping he's part of the 85%. We met with the dietitian today to discuss his current meals. Unfortunately, he has to be on a low-fiber diet for a while, but she said after his radiation therapy is over, she will discuss what his diet needs to be to maximize his health, and what will need to be added back into his diet.

He has always been an optimistic person, and that's half the battle, so I know he'll do well.

Hazel is 2 1/2 now, going on 20. She is so sweet, and so stubborn, and her mom deserves this strong-willed child!  I have to laugh sometimes, because she reminds me so much of Dawn--only more precocious!  She loves coming to see us and we love having her AND sending her back.  We have to nap afterwards.  lol

Her daycare class planted pumpkin seeds in cups and after they grew a bit, sent them home. Dawn doesn't really have time to tend a garden, so she planted one in their inherited raised bed garden, and I planted the other 2 in mine.  This picture was a couple of months ago, and now one of the plants has a nice, fat little pumpkin growing. I have learned how to pollinate the flowers, so I'm hoping to catch them on a morning when both a male and a female flower are open, so we can have more than one pumpkin. Hazel has her own little tools, and watering can, and has learned how to deadhead petunias. It's so much fun to get to teach her things I never got to teach her mom when she was little.

Quilting has been on the back burner again (still), but I did make a little progress on the room.  It's simply too small for all that needs to be in there, so for now bins of fabric are stacked in the living room.  We never use that room, and it's not bright enough to sew in there, and we really don't have living room furniture anyway. Why not use it for what I need--storage?
In separating fabrics into colors or batiks, etc. for the bins, I found probably a dozen small projects in various stages, so I've been able to pull 3 small Halloween wall hangings out and am hand quilting them. Once I get the room pulled together and the tables cleared off, it's only a matter of time til I am piecing and quilting by machine again. Yay!  This was supposed to be a benefit of retiring LAST year!

Well, enough for this entry. Hopefully I'll get back here again before too long. I have some fun Halloween news to share, but maybe that'll spur me on to start reading and blogging regularly again.

Happy August, everyone!