Practicing Gratitude 11 of 31 | 101 in 1001

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practicing gratitude 11 of 31

Practicing Gratitude 11 of 31 | 101 in 1001

Hi, it’s Day 11 in the practicing gratitude in October. I am grateful for date night.
Seldom can I get Kevin to go on vacations and real dates. We had a real date! 🙂

The wedding I crashed a few weeks ago was at the Lidia’s Italian Restaurant. Lidia and the restaurant celebrated their 25th anniversary. Before leaving the wedding, I booked a reservation for me and Kevin. This was our real date 🙂

I did good! Kevin had a wonderful time. He watches cooking shows on the weekend. Lidia is one of those shows. Normally Kevin will not let anyone take pictures of him. He runs when the camera is pulled out. On our drive to dinner, I asked for one picture of the two of us. He agreed. I was a happy wife!

Lidia's Italian Restaurant
Lidia’s Italian Restaurant

Dinner was delicious. The one picture I missed taking was of the menu.

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

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October in review:



Practicing Gratitude 11 of 31 | 101 in 1001

Practicing Gratitude 9 of 31 | 101 in 1001

Posted on by GmasPhoto 7 Comments
Practicing Gratitude 9 of 31

Practicing Gratitude 9 of 31 | 101 in 1001

Hi, today I am grateful for toilet paper! 🙂 For real.

toilet paper
A household necessity 🙂

WW Update:
Since Start Date; -20.4lbs

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

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October in review:


What to Wear | September

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what to wear September

What to Wear | September

Hi, we have some holidays soon approaching and this means family time! With family time there will be many photo opportunities. Remember, taking the shot is the first step in getting a good picture. And that is the most important step. However, you may be wondering how to make the picture a better picture. This is the inspiration for the What to Wear posts!

It is not necessary to purchase new clothing for better images. When planning the wardrobe, do wash and dry the clothing. Immediately after drying, hang the clothes on a hanger. Or iron, if you like. The main goal is wrinkle free clothing.

Shoes do not need to be new either. New shoe laces is an inexpensive purchase to spruce up the look. Polishing leather or washing canvas shoes is another solution to brighten their appearance.

Have the socks match either the pants or shoes. This is important for anyone who may be sitting or squatting in the group. Imagine if the pants are navy blue, shoes white and you see bright green socks. Very distracting. Your eyes will go straight to the green socks and not the person’s face! However, if the socks were either white (matching shoes) or navy blue (matching pants), your eyes will flow over the person and land on the face/eyes of the person in the picture.

what to wear September

What to Wear will feature different palettes providing ideas when you plan the wardrobe for individual pictures or your family images during the holiday gatherings.

What to Wear | September features ideas for all family members: mom; dad; big brother; big sister and little brother and little sister. Have fun preparing your stylish look for family pictures!

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

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Make a List

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make a list

Make a List

Hi, have you ever gotten to the store, bought your things and once home you realized you forgot the item you specifically went to get? This is happening to me more than what I like to admit. And it’s not limited to just buying things at the store.

This week I had to run errands. While at the house I thought about all the things I needed to do. The car was on empty, get gas. I like going to Sonic to get a route 44 tea. Then into town to go to the Social Security office. I was prepared to be at the office most of the day. I remembered that line can be extremely long.

I got into the car to leave. My drive will take about 40 minutes. I stopped to get my Sonic route 44. Then as I left Sonic I began to think what I needed to do when I got to the social security office. About 10 minutes into my drive I remembered I needed gas. Uh-oh…..

empty gas tank

I had passed up the last gas station before I got to my destination. As you can see my tank is on empty! I took the picture and probably was not the smartest thing to do while driving. I had approximately 25 miles to go to get to town. Keeping fingers crossed, I did not run out of gas. The first gas station I came to, I stopped and filled up!

Luckily I did not run out of gas. That would not be fun. This has made me think about making a list, shopping and to do list. Which would make shopping easier. The need to remember would be eliminated with just looking at my list!

I must admit the older I get, I recognize changes I am experiencing. Memory loss being one of those. Of course I did Google about age and memory and was comforted to know this is normal for persons 50 and older. If my lists do not help me, I will definitely consult my doctor.

One source I visit often is the Mayo Clinic. This article mentioned misplacing keys, forgetting people’s names but remember them later. This describes me.

A short while ago I did add to my key ring an Apple AirTag. It’s already been helpful. I was at the doctors office and had set my keys down in the lobby. After my appointment I went to my car and could not unlock it. Used my phone to find my keys, worked like a charm!

key ring on chain

Remote Shutter
AirTag

This week’s WW meeting topic: Single Tasking. I have not heard of this before my meeting. Multi-tasking is a term I am familiar. Single tasking focuses on the moment. My list is multi-tasking. Each item on the list, a single task. Focus on one task at a time and not the whole list. The idea of a single task is to eliminate stress, focus on the moment and stop the squirrel like thoughts running in the mind. Allowing me to focus on the pleasures of the now, not be thinking of other things needing to be done and ruining the pleasures of the moment.

single task

WW Update:
Since Start Date; -11.6lbs

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

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I Have Crohn’s Disease

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I have Crohn’s Disease.

Hi, this past week I was not feeling well. It affected my regular weekend activities. One of which is going to the library to write my weekly post. I was debating on what I would post this week. This week post will be about Crohn’s Disease. In a nutshell, it’s ulcer’s in the colon.

It was the summer between my junior and senior year of high school I was diagnosed. My first flare was the diagnoses itself. The second was just before my wedding. And the third was during the dark time of a close family member’s diagnosis.Crohn’s disease

Thursday evening is when I began feeling uncomfortable. Friday was the beginning of the worst. I knew I was constipated. Constipation and Crohn’s who would have thought the two would be associated! Friday night I did not get much sleep. I moved to the couch so I wouldn’t wake Kevin up each time I had an urge getting up to go to the restroom with no results. I did manage to have a couple trips that produced, TMI 🙂 And felt somewhat better by Saturday morning.

Kevin took me out to breakfast which I looked forward to. I never ate Friday and was rather hungry by Saturday morning. I had gotten up, took a shower, got dressed, put on make up. After we got home I felt uncomfortable. The exercise must have stirred things up! The grand girls were coming to the house to spend the day. Well I retreated to the bedroom to get as comfortable as I could. I resorted to taking stool softener.

Sunday evening I was finally feeling better and comfortable. I had to Google on how to prevent constipation Include plenty of high-fiber foods in your diet, including beans, vegetables, fruits, whole grain cereals and bran. Eat fewer foods with low amounts of fiber such as processed foods, and dairy and meat products. These are not on the diet for people with Crohn’s Disease!

What I can do is Drink plenty of fluids and stay as active as possible and try to get regular exercise. One of my 101 in 1001 goals is exercising more.

I look forward to aging. There was a time aging was not a certainty for me. So each day my feet touch the floor I praise to God. Getting older presents some new challenges and constipation is just one of these!!

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

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Life Balance

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Life Balance

Life balance using a chairHi, today I would like to share my experience with balancing. It began right after my car wreck. While taking showers it has become necessary for me to hold on to the rail as I turn in the shower. I hold my head up rinsing the shampoo from my hair, facing the shower head. During the rinsing I turn around to have the back of my head facing the shower head. During the turn is when I need to hold onto the rail. If I do not, I loose my balance. Have you ever experienced this? The first time I have ever had this sensation was when I did a lemon drop with my eyes shut. To do a lemon drop stand flat foot, squat down, wrap your arms around your knees and simply lean over the end of the diving board dropping into the water head first. Creepy feeling!

Originally I thought it was the brain injury I suffered from the wreck that was causing issues with my balance. However as I was searching on the internet I discovered balance begins to decline as early as age 50.

Getting dressed is another instance I have noticed my balance is not as good. Standing on one leg while slipping the other into a pant leg is not so easy now. I found when I sit down to put on pants and shoes this works much better. A chair is now part of my dressing routine.

Any chair will do. I follow these steps when getting dressed:

    Sit down;
    Slipping into underwear;
    Socks;
    Putting on pants;
    Shoes.

And I do this in the order listed. Yep, the socks before my pants. The pant legs are not in the way while I am putting on socks. And for shoes, I have found the Sketchers Slip Ons a blessing!

My goal is to age gracefully. I will still go to the beauty salon for my low lights and wear my makeup. What I will not do is worry about my wrinkles. Wrinkles are my smile lines and I sure like to smile and laugh! I will have another post on what exercises I do to assist me with my balance and staying active.

The image above is a chair from the library. When I write my posts, I enjoy going to the public library. Even a picture of a chair can look ‘professional’ taken with your phone. Just need to take the shot!

Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

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