Deck the Halls with... necklaces?

I tried something different on our tree this year.

A few weeks ago, my friend Susan offered some necklaces to me that she didn’t think she would wear from her late mom’s jewelry collection. One of the ones I selected had a pendant with a pretty red rose on it.

Later I got the idea of using it as Christmas tree ornament. Last week when we decorated our tree I tried it and it did look pretty.

I thought of a few other necklace pendants I have that have sentimental value but I don’t actually wear. So, I put those on the tree as well. I want to get some thin red ribbon to tie them on with because the plane metal hooks don’t look right on them.

Here they are with the red ribbon:

The pendant from Susan's Mom

Here is one that John made when he was little for his Mum

This is from the necklace my Mom wore to our wedding

This is from a necklace that was my Aunt Carolyn's 

Now I am wondering if I might be able to re-purpose some other special things.
I have a large collection of refrigerator magnets I no longer keep on the refrigerator that are nice mementos from special places. And we have lots of shells sitting in bags and boxes that I have thought would make pretty Christmas tree ornaments if I could ever get around to doing something with them.

Later I looked at my refrigerator magnet collection. A few of them might be nice as tree ornaments, but not as many as I expected. They will take a little modification to make them work. I'm not sure they are worth it though. I was surprised at how little sentiment I felt toward them. Maybe it’s time to declutter them. I found a shell that would look pretty. I'll need to have John help drill holes in it to hang it with. I'm not making any promises, though.

This is my favorite Nativity scene. My parents had one like it when I was a kid. 

How is my new water habit?

It’s been 17 days since I posted about trying to drink more water.

It’s been surprisingly easy on most days to drink more than 64 ounces of fluids. In fact, most days I drank a lot more than that.

My average for the last 17 days was 97 oz per day.

It got more difficult to keep to plain water after the first day or two. But tea and coffee count too. I am giving myself grace. After all the point is to stay hydrated not to win an award for asceticism! (I usually stick to decaf or herbal teas and coffee when I have them.) I also drink a little juice with meals.

Busy days are hardest to keep up. That’s not surprising. I already knew that.

My lowest day was 82 oz. That was Thanksgiving Day which was the busiest day. It was over 64 oz. So, I exceeded my goal amount but during the busiest part of the day I didn’t drink much and got kind of parched. I’ve been told by various medical professionals that it is best to spread fluid intake out over the day and not load up a lot at one time to try and catch up. That is definitely a challenge when I’m busy.

I also noticed a pattern. If I don’t drink much one day then I drink a lot the next and then I don’t feel like drinking as much the next, and so on. Maybe that is OK if it isn’t too extreme.

For example, the day after Thanksgiving I drank the most--120 oz. That is a swing of 38 oz from the day before. It is definitely the widest swing from one day to the next. Usually the swings are between 8 and 16 oz which is probably more healthful.

Tracking my fluid intake is easiest when I’m home all day. The system I came up with is:

I fill a collection of 16 oz water bottles with filtered water in the morning and keep them on my counter. As I empty them I put the empties to the right and then when I get up in the morning I note down how much I drank the day before (counting what I drank in the night). Then I refill them and move them over to the left.

This was this morning. The bottles to the right are what I drank yesterday and last night. The bottle to the left was the one I used from to make my hot water this morning.

Here they are  refilled. The bottle on the right is the one I used out of for my hot water this morning. 

When I want some tea or coffee I pour the water from a bottle into my mug and then pour it into the electric kettle to heat. (The missing bottle is in my office where I am working to write this.)

I seem to drink about 5.5 of the bottles of water per day plus about 16 oz juice.

Usually there is one full bottle left for the next day so I can use that for my morning hot water before I count and refill the bottles from the day before.

Days when I am out a lot are definitely trickier. When I go out I usually take water from one of these bottles and then try to remember to put it back if I didn't drink it all. It's not very convenient. I may stop doing that. If I drink other things when I am out I just try to remember to note that down. I keep my notes in Evernote (an app that I have on my computer and phone)

It's been kind of fun to track all this for this short time. I probably won't do it for always. It does help me to remember when I see the visual reminder on the counter. It hasn't been hard to drink more than 64 oz. The trickier thing is to be consistent and spread it out evenly. I can definitely tell that busy days or days when I am out a lot are much harder to drink an adequate and consistent amount.

So it's nice to know that I am drinking enough.

What was disappointing is how little difference it seemed to make in my overall health. I was still having a lot of fatigue and fibromyalgia pain even on days when I was drinking a lot.

I did some research and have a theory. But I'll save that for the next post.

Some things I'm thankful for in 2019

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in America. To celebrate I thought I would post about some things I’m thankful for in 2019 that I wanted to post about sooner but didn’t. It's kind of a blog catch-up post:

Tree dramas:

I’m thankful that this large broken tree limb did not fall on our house or motorhome--(The Motorhome is usually parked in that gravel patch between the tree and the house. John moved it after he noticed the limb was broken). I'm thankful that John noticed that the limb was broken in time. And that I had the presence of mind to insist that we call a professional when he wanted to try and remove it himself.

This is just after the tree guys got it down and were in the process of cutting it up and putting it into their trailer

Tree Man healing

I’m thankful that our tree man is healing up from his fall from a different tree in our front yard that he worked on later that day. He broke five vertebrae! But it was the "pieces on the sides" and they don't do surgery on those. Here he is on the roof before his fall.

 Painting

I’m thankful that we painted our main hall and part of the kitchen. John said it might be the first time it’s been painted in 40 years. It’s so much brighter and prettier.

Kitchen decluttering

This summer I decluttered the right side of my kitchen counter and drawers. I was inspired from a YouTuber I watch, Dawn from “The Minimal Mom.” She said to help her declutter her own kitchen she pretended it was a vacation rental that just had the basics in it. I love all the space on our counter-top now and my simplified drawers. Here are some highlights:

Before:

The before: Counter top on the right very cluttered! (A couple of years ago I decluttered the left side of the kitchen counter and drawers. I did do a little bit this time on the left hand drawers and cupboards too.)

Junk drawer before--right most drawer next to fridge.

Wraps and clips before--drawer next to stove.

Exploded junk drawer! How did it all fit?

And Now...

The right counter top with so much less clutter! I love all the space!!

This used to be the wraps and clips. Now it is the utensil drawer. 

Wraps and "junk" combined. It's not really junk because I use it. The rarely used things are put away elsewhere. The true junk is gone for good :-).

New Kitchen role cart with cabinet

I’m thankful for this new roll cart in my kitchen. The cabinet gives me more storage space. The bottom shelf has my china in protective sleeves. It will be nice to have the china so accessible for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

The drawer is a good place to hide the things that used to live on top of our other stand that was there. So, it has the potential at least of being less cluttered on top. 😉

Here it is in use ;-). I considered removing the things from the top but I wanted to be honest! The kitchen wall is bare since we painted as I haven't figured out what I want to put on it.

Here is the old stand--behind the table--and the kitchen wall before we painted. As you can see the previous stand had no storage below and a lot of stuff lived on top out in the open.

Cross stitch hung at last

I finally framed this cross stitch I made years ago. We hung it in the bedroom in our motor-home. It’s nice to be able to enjoy it when we go on trips. I got the  frame for a dollar at a garage sale. It was all gray but I painted it aqua and white to make it look like a frame with matting. We hung it using strips of stick-on Velcro.

Implant complete

I was so pleased when my new implant was finally completed in August after many delays that I couldn't resist taking this photo. It's the back bottom molar on the left side of my mouth, but on the right in the photo. I am also thankful that the pain I had around it at first has now mostly subsided.

Vacation

Here are a few photos from our second week of vacation. We were at Talimena State Park in Oklahoma:

Fungi

Nearing sunset--view from the Panorama Vista on the Talimena Scenic Drive

You can read about our first week at Robbers Cave State Park, part one is here and a post script is here.

A new habit

I love water--lakes, oceans, streams--I can look at them all day.

But I often forget to drink it.

It's essential. I know that. In fact I keep discovering more ways that dehydration could be impacting my health. And they're not good.

There are the obvious ones like dry mouth and dry tongue. Then there are less obvious ones: fatigue, irritability, dizziness, confusion. All things I struggle with and all can be caused by dehydration. Poor sleep can also be a symptom.

Last night I read that waking up groggy and cranky in the morning can be because our bodies have been without water for several hours.*

There are many other symptoms of dehydration. Please look it up if you suspect you might not be drinking enough.

I have other physical problems too. I wonder how many of them could be from not drinking enough water.

So what is enough? Some articles say we need 64 ounces per day (the old 8x8 rule: eight 8 oz glasses per day). Some say it depends on your activity level and the weather. Others I just read this morning say we need one ounce of water for every pound we weigh. Yikes that's a lot! I won't tell you how many that is for me. You can do the math for yourself ;-).

Anyway, I want to make a new habit of drinking more water. I'll aim for 64 oz. for now. That seems more manageable. Other liquids count too. But I want to at least try to get most of it in the form of just plain water.

This morning when I first woke up I drank 8 oz. And while I've been writing this I drank the other half of the 16 oz. bottle. I'm surprised by how easy it was. In fact I was still thirsty so I got another bottle.

So far so good. Maybe I can teach this old girl a new habit! I'll try to let you know how it goes.

_______
* from "The Joy of Missing Out--live more by doing less" by Tonya Dalton, page 120

Vacation 2019 - Week One Post script - Surprises from John's camera

I remembered last night that I still had not looked at John's pictures from our vacation. They are well worth the look! He definitely gets the prize for the most varied wildlife (and the most turtles)!

 Turtle crossing the road near our campsite. 

I was about to pass the next picture by because I thought it was the same as one I included in my last post. Then I spotted a second turtle poking his head up out of the water near the one on the stump.

A closer look.

Raccoon trapped in a dumpster. Rangers said they would put a branch in to help it climb out.

Coon Creek Lake, the smallest of the three lakes at RCSP.

Looking down on Lake Wayne Wallace from the Mountain trail.

John saw lots of spiders when he was out walking at night. He said it was particularly creepy to shine his light into the woods and see millions of tiny spider's eyes shining back at him.

This spiders was in our RV one night. It looks like the one that I saw in my bedroom when I got up in the night to use the toilet. At least I thought it was in the night. The time on this photo says this was taken at 8:30 a.m. so maybe it was later than I realized. Anyway it looked the same as this one. I decided to let John be the hero and woke him up. I do remember now that he got his camera and took a picture before dealing with it. I guess he wanted a trophy :-). 

A much more appealing critter!

Picnicking at Lake Carlton

Our first picnic at Lake Carlton was actually dessert--mandarins and chocolate! 

I know I also had a picture from here in my last post, but like I said I really like this place! It's one of my "happy places." I get into vacation mode faster here than most places. 

It wasn't always that way. I remember one of our first vacations at RCSP sitting on a blanket and feeling distracted and tense. I was worrying about my job or something else back home and not getting much good from being on vacation. Finally by God's grace and sheer determination I got control of my thoughts and kicked worry out of my mind and focused on the beauty around me. And the result was bliss! For a little while I was in a timeless vacation zone of peace and rest. It was like the still waters and green pastures of Psalm 23. 

Naturally after a while the ground felt hard and I had to get up and do other things. But I have carried that experience with me ever since. Being there again brings back some of those feelings. Even just memories from there can do it. (Of course wherever I am if I trust God and reject worry I can feel peace!)

It also helps that we have layers of happy memories from our other times there. That's one of the advantages of returning to a place several times for vacations. Over time happy memories have accumulated. So even though there are less happy times, the happy memories outweigh the bad.

When I wondered what kind of bird this was and John said "it's Bird #5." 

I thought it was a wren but after looking at my Merlin bird ID app just now I think it might be a young male Eastern Bluebird. The blue color is more apparent in the next photos.

After it flew from the disc golf basket to a park bench John got the next pictures

Vacation 2019 - Week One - Robbers Cave State Park

As I stretched out my post breakfast cup of tea and cajoled myself to start writing I googled “reluctant writer.” I thought it might help generate some sort of motivation while at the same time procrastinating just a little bit longer.

I am not alone, I discovered, there were lots of articles advising school teachers on how to get their “reluctant writer” elementary students to do their writing assignments. I guess I’m sort of like a beleaguered teacher trying to cajole her recalcitrant elementary-student self to do what I know she really does want to do--deep down.

One article advised having the students start by drawing pictures and talking about them.

Oh, I thought, that’s like me sharing my vacation pictures and telling you about them. I can do that 😊.

The first week of vacation was at our old favorite, Robbers Cave State Park (RCSP), near the town of Wilburton in Southeastern Oklahoma.

It was our fifth time at RCSP, the last time was in 2014, before we had our RV. I was thrilled to be going there again. I was looking forward to seeing and doing all of my favorite things.

The first day, after getting the RV parked, leveled and connecting to the water and electric we went for a drive through the park in our little Honda tow car. It was nice to see that things were mostly how I remembered them.

Unfortunately, the rest of the week filled up fast with other not so fun things. Between lots of heavy rain and plumbing and electrical problems in the RV and a minor injury to my right elbow we only managed one hiking expedition together and no canoeing. I think John fit another hiking trip in by himself. We also had a few picnics.

I still got quite a few photos, though:

Morning sun on RV site across from ours before neighbors arrived

Site 31 -- The trees were pretty but spider-y! Three spiders came in the RV.

John out for a stroll. Yes it really is Oklahoma!

Picnic at Lake Carlton--I love this place, especially when it's not crowded.

I played around with my camera's art mode to try and capture the colors better. It did something interesting with the center and background too. It wasn't too far from reality.

American beauty berry bush

 --
When squatting down for the wildflowers got painful I went looking for something at eye level and found this little pine cone wedged in this tree's bark. 

Fungi. I love the detail!

Very tiny Fungi. Tiny white things are often difficult to photograph well and this was no exception. My long-suffering husband let me drag him back to look for this again so I could have another try! He is worth more than any fungi! :-)

Foot bridge over Lake Carlton.

View of Lake Carlton from the foot bridge

Water lilies from bridge

Gazebo at Lake Carlton. Looking from the other side of the foot bridge.

An actual lily on the water lilies!

There weren't many flowers on the water lilies but there was a very patient turtle.

And we took lots of pictures of him:

I was excited to get such a clear photo of the detail on his head.