C is for Cooking

I'm not into cooking. It's like laundry. I don't mind doing it, but it's not my first choice of something to do. It's just another necessary part of everyday life. I know some people, like my brother-in-law, find it relaxing. Others find it creative. And some cook so they can eat well. That would be my son, Theo. 

Theo approaches cooking like almost everything else he does. He studies it and has learned to cook beyond the skills I taught him. He understands spice blends and flavor combos better than I do, and he can tell you the science behind cooking techniques. That's why I'm so happy that we have recently started having a weekly cooking session together. We meet on one of his days off and do a large batch of something we split to have for the next few days. While Ward and I enjoy having a fridge stocked with ready-made meals, the best part is spending time with Theo. It actually makes me look forward to spending time in the kitchen. 😀

Below are a few of the things we've done so far. Sometimes, I remembered to take a picture, but sometimes not.

Today, we made cabbage roll soup. Theo's pot had more hot pepper in it than mine did.

Last week, it was chicken enchilada casserole.

This was the second time we made chili.

This day, we had teraki salmon. All of the sides had a Chinese flavor palette. That was Theo's doing. He thinks about those kinds of things more than I do.

I didn't get a picture, but Theo borrowed our slow cooker and cooked two pot roasts and veggies another time. I made a fruit salad to share. 

Cooking with Theo first started when we were discussing chili recipes and decided to make it together to nail down a recipe. It just kind of evolved from there, but I'm so happy it did.

Until next time...

B is for Blogging

This month marks my 14th anniversary of blogging. When I started, I wasn't quite sure what a blog was, but a friend encouraged me to start one to share some of the stories I had told her. As it turned out, the stories I thought I would be telling were not mine to tell, so I wasn't quite sure how to proceed. 

But I kept writing anyway, trying all kinds of things, hoping to find my voice. Sometimes, I wrote something meaningful, and other times, I felt like I had nothing to say. But I had made friends over the years, and this blog is where I visited with them, so I started Speed Blogging—meaning I'd set a timer (usually 15 minutes) and write for that long about whatever. When that was done, I was done. 

Some day, I am going to revamp and update my blog, but until then it will be my little place to share my thoughts and visit with friends.

But until then, below is my first post --the post that started it all.

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Sunday, April 17, 2011

What's in a name?

I've been toying with writing a blog for a while now and decided it was time to put my thoughts into action. It all seemed so simple. Use one of the free blog sites and start writing. But wait, what was it going to be about, and what would I call it? My kids advised me that I needed a subject, or it would be nothing more than an online journal. Well, since I'm not that knowledgeable or passionate about any one subject, I decided that it would be personal reflections. My idea was to make comments about things I experience or see around me that other people may be able to relate to. Now, what to name it. It's not as easy as it would seem. With the millions of blogs out there, there's not much left to choose from.

My first idea was Observations of an Everyday Boring life. However, it was suggested that I don't need to tell people ahead of time that my life is often boring. Next, I played with Run of the Mill, Matter of Fact, and So on and So Forth. All taken. Next was Watching paint Dry, but that was taken also with actual web cams set up to watch paint dry. How about Dull as Dishwater?  Maybe that was giving too much away ahead of time again. (BTW, the original phrase was supposedly "Dull as Ditch Water.") 

I was going to have to get creative. The family started brainstorming. Running with safety scissors and Your guess is as good as mine. Taken. My personal favorite was one I thought up- Lend me your nose. A play on Lend me your ear but using nose indicating that you should Take time to stop and smell the roses. 

After several more hours of deep thought, I settled on Live and Learn-Toss and Turn. This title is supposed to indicate that no matter what happens to us, we can always learn from it, and the unknown can still be a little scary and cause us to toss and turn. Or maybe the title just means, that I was really tired and the rhyming of the words seemed good enough. This morning, my son asked me what name I came up with, and after I told him, he replied, "Well, it's not as bad as I thought it would be." I don't think I will ever be able to live down, "Lend me your nose."

Until next time...

A is for A-Z Challenge

EEK! How did that happen? I have been toying with the idea of doing the A-Z Challenge, and now it's already April, and time for it to begin. The A-Z Challenge is a blogging challenge to post every day in April, except Sundays, with each post related to a letter of the alphabet. There are 26 days in April without Sundays, so it works out nicely. 

I've done this challenge a few times in the past and have a love/hate relationship with it. I find posting daily arduous, but I am often more creative when I have a deadline every day. So, I guess I'll give it a go for a couple of weeks anyway. I'll be traveling at the end of the month with unpredictable internet, so I may pick the challenge up in May, where I leave off. If I had been coordinated, I would already have my posts ready. But that didn't happen. 

People often post with a theme, and I tried that once but didn't find it any easier than random topics. I've been toying with the idea of looking through the Wayback Machine and reposting things from the past. I've been casually blogging for 14 years, so it could be interesting to take some trips down memory lane. And if past experience with this challenge has taught me anything, I never end up where I thought I was going to go.

So, without further ado, let the challenge begin.

Until next time...

Don't Shoot the Messenger

I heard a story recently that disturbed me. A young family we know was Swatted. I wasn't familiar with Swatting, but Ward says it's been around for a long time. It involves making a false 911 call about a dangerous disturbance at someone's house. That activates a heavily armed police response, often a SWAT team. It has been deadly at times, with the homeowners shooting what they think are intruders invading their homes in the middle of the night. The SWAT team fires back, shooting to kill. The Swatting call is meant to harass and intimidate.

Both parents were at work, and the babysitter was home with the toddler when the police arrived. They were responding to a call about loud arguing at the house that sounded dangerous. When the police arrived, the house was quiet, so luckily, they didn't break down the door. They asked to come in. However, the babysitter, a newly arrived au pair from South America, wouldn't open the door until she called the mother and asked what to do. (By the way, everyone is happy how the babysitter protected the child and just didn't let the police in until she was sure it was safe.) The mother said to let them. They did a complete search of the house, found nothing, and left.

I guess you could say that all's well that ends well, except for the emotional trauma caused by the whole incident. I can only imagine how terrified the au pair was and how unsettling it was for the family to think about someone wanting to Swat them.

An investigation is underway, but no one knows who made the call or why. The father is in law enforcement, so maybe someone didn't like what he stands for. Or maybe someone thought the au pair was an illegal alien. 

This is another example of the shoot-the-messenger mentality. Too often these days, people's anger is directed at the messenger, not the real cause of their anger. And they don't think about all of the innocent people they hurt along the way with their "protests". There are many examples I could give of this, but I think I'll end now before this post gets too political. But it all makes me upset.

Exercise This Week, March 21

Since retirement and more free time, I am focusing on getting more exercise. I give weekly updates here to make myself accountable and see my progress. 

This week was full of dancing, and a couple of gym classes were thrown in for strength training. I am continuing to challenge myself, but I seem to spend most of the time with sore muscles. My thoughts fluctuate between maybe I need to scale things back a bit or just keep doing what I'm doing. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will my fitness be.

Friday, March 21:

Strong and Balanced: This is a good class for me, and I am making an effort to get to it. It works at strengthening and stretching all parts of the body. It especially helps strengthen my back and shoulder muscles, which I have problems with. Today's class had two older women (80-something and 90-something.) who were hunched and had difficulty walking. To look at them, you would use the word feeble. However, they were both using heavier weights than I was. The 90-something sat for some of her exercises but has given me something to aspire to. 

Ballroom Dancing: Our ballroom dance class had a practice party tonight. We brought refreshments and danced for two hours, practicing what we had learned and trying to remember dances from the past. It was fun and definitely a good workout.

Saturday, March 22:

Free Day: Nothing much happened today, exercise-wise, not even yard work, because it was cold and windy. I was okay with that because I had two good workouts yesterday.

Sunday, March 23:

LIIT (Low impact interval training) This class continues to be the week's biggest challenge. I tried hard to pace myself with lower weights and a slower speed than the instructor, but it still wiped me out. But I went, and I consider that a win.

Monday, March 24:

Ballroom Dance: We reviewed the waltz, learned left turns in the rumba, and added to our samba routine. When we were getting all of the parts of the rumba, it felt good and was fun. I was confused during the new samba parts we "learned" at the end of class, but I will try to practice them. The class got my heart rate up comfortably. 

Tuesday, March 25:

Line Dancing continues to be the highlight of the exercise week. I've been going for over a month now, and I am learning some of the dances enough that I can occasionally give them some flair—more than just trying not to bump into anyone. We learned a new dance today, but I couldn't tell you what it was. Hopefully, it will look familiar next week. 

Wednesday, March 26 

Free Day: The day was full of other commitments, so I didn't do any extra exercise. 

Thursday, March 27:

Line Dancing: We went to a new-to-us venue sponsored by the same person we see on Tuesday mornings. It was not close by, but we went to learn some couples' country dancing. We learned El Paso, and it was fun dancing it together. We were there for three hours, and I danced about 1/2 of that time. It was a good aerobic workout; however, by the end, my knee was really hurting. I'm just beginning to understand ways to modify some steps to put less strain on my knees. 

Also, I'm starting to tire of these posts, but I will keep doing them for now. I need all the gimmicks I can think of to keep this fitness journey going.

Until next time...