Catch up

It's been a bit since I've been here. Solid proof that good intentions never get a body anywhere. I was going to tell everyone about a new ministry I joined, "Nana's Nails, where we go into nursing homes and pretty up the nails of the residents. But I'll save it for later. It's too good to rush through.

So instead, I'm just going to catch up on what I'm up to:

Reading:  Fannie Flagg's All Girl's Last Filling Station, for our neighborhood book club. Sweet story, but if I wasn't in book club I'd be reading Lakehouse by Kate Morton, which is sitting by my bathtub, not being read and my time to have it is getting used up! No renewals since there's a waiting list a mile long. That in itself is what makes me go back and forth about book clubs. I love them in theory, but when I'm pushed for time, I want to read what I want to read.

Doing:  Going to physical therapy, for my lower back, and realizing we should all be forced to wear bikinis for our entire lives, not just until we're 18. If we had to do so, we'd stay in better shape, we'd keep those stomach muscles strong enough to be presentable, rather than letting them go soft and hide under flowing tops. So I'm the recent purchaser of a stability ball (third one, gave the other two away), a gait belt, 5 lb hand weights, and a notebook full of pages of core exercises. The bad news is that I have to do those exercises several times a day. The good news is that it's really helping, I'm getting stronger where I need to, and more flexible where that was lacking. Like most really important stuff in life, it's not much fun, but helpful.

Knitting: A hat for ME! In soft mustard with some to be decided grey accents. I found out the hard way that fingering weight yarn is not a 3 in yarn, rather it's a 1, and if you knit a hat using a 3 for a 1 you get a hat that will fit Shaq, or his big brother. I have knit a good dozen or so hats, but never for me, and it's chilly right now in Texas - don'tcha know? Walking Miss Lily 45 minutes every morning we're needing a hat. Me, not her.

Listening to:  DAB, or Daily Audio Bible, with Brian somebody narrating. My dear friend, Cathy, recommended it to me, and I started it January 1. He reads a different version every week, with a bit of Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, divided up into 365 slices of reading, then a commentary at the end. It passes our walking time so quickly and I am absolutely loving it. I look forward to it every single day. If you're interested, it's a free app at the app store, for your phone or pad.

Going: Nowhere. Blessed nowhere. I'm loving staying home, and my next travel plans are for our girl cruise - me and my two daughters, the end of February. I'm getting excited. They're giddy - but then they are up in cold, snowy Idaho and still at the diaper changing stage. Can't wait, but happy to be home for now.

Writing: My book. The book. I mentioned previously that I'm doing a NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month challenge, held in November of every year, but January for me. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word rough draft in the span of one month. It took me a solid week to figure out the outline of the book, since I'm doing a memoir. The genre is, officially, coming of age, survival, memoir that is creative non-fiction, which means I can add or change stuff, in the spirit of the book, to protect people who might hate me afterwards if I told the complete truth with their name attached. I'm at 15,000 words today, behind by 7,338 but making progress. My sister, Barb has been a wonderful help since she is five years older than me and can remember details I can't. If anyone else out there is interested in doing the same, writing a memoir, I'd recommend "Breaking Ground on Your Memoir" by Linda Joy Myers and Brooke Warner - great help in getting started and figuring out where to go from there. I also read No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty, the guy who came up with the idea for NaNoWriMo.

So that's what's up for me. It's Thursday, date day at our house, so we're off to see the new movie about the housing crash, The Big Short, starring Brad Pitt and other people.

Oh yeah, CS and I are still doing the DASH diet, and exercising a lot more than normal. He's down about 20 lbs, and I'm down a little over 10. We're both glad we didn't know we needed to lose so much when we started this, but both of us are feeling better all around. That being said, I'm off to eat an entire bucket of movie popcorn, which means I'll be having salad for dinner. Some things are worth it.

Back soon,

Bev