Story A Day

Today I had a moment today of pure appreciation.  I was walking on the trail with the kids, the wind was freezing our faces, the windchill below zero, and then…we turned toward the sun.  We stood there for a few moments letting the sun warm our faces, and it warmed our faces well!  The last couple days have been so sunny and I have thoroughly enjoyed it!  Now, if we could just get some snow that glistens like diamonds on a sunny day.  That would be a perfect winter day… 

It’s cold.  I am happy to say that I splurged and bought a new winter coat yesterday, a nice goose down one from REI.  I’m glad I did too!  I am guessing that the windchill today was in the single digits at times during my time outside with the kids.  Thankfully the sun was out as well!  In fact I did this experiment on the prairie with the kids where they stand facing the sun for a minute or two.  Then I take the surface temp of their coat using a special thermometer.  The kids with black coats were up at about 85 degrees!  The girl with a light pink coat was only 37 degrees.  That’s why I bought a black coat!    Stay warm tonight everyone!

I was on my way into the clinic today to get my allergy shot.   I snuck into the elevator with three elderly women, all together.  One used a walker and had a bakery box sitting on top.  I wondered what for.  As we exited the elevator the younger of the elderly women told the others to hang back so they didn’t “give away the surprise”.  They hid around a corner behind a plant until one of the clinic receptionists finished a call.  Then the youngest of them started waving her hands like a band director and they all sang happy birthday.  The eyes of the receptionist lit up in surprise.  The whole room went quiet and everyone watched with smiles on their faces.  It was a sweet surprise.  The whole room clapped when they were done singing.  I would say it brightened not only the day of the recipient but added some sweetness to the days of all those watching.

That’s the expression that comes to mind every time I sit, stand, walk or do anything that involves leg or ab muscles.  I’m a weakling apparently.  See I had this great idea yesterday to start doing my workout videos again.  Perhaps I should have started with the 30 minute one rather than the 50 minute one.  Ouch.  I am sore.  Apparently all the squats, sit-ups, and leg lifts were a bit excessive for someone who hasn’t done a formal workout in a few months.  Ouch.  It wouldn’t bo so bad except that every time I get off the couch Tim says I look like a 100 year old   Ouch.  I hope it isn’t quite as bad tomorrow.  Is it true that if you work out more when you’re sore it doesn’t hurt as much?  I wasn’t gutsy enough to try that today   Maybe tomorrow…

Today my sisters, mother and I carried on what has become an annual tradition.  Christmas cookie baking!  We make three varieties – magic cookie bars (known by many as 7-layer bars, but I like our name better ), butterballs and frosted sugar cookies.  Yummmmm.  By the end of the day we had enough cookies for each of us to bring home about 3 cookie tins worth each.  And we wonder why the holidays often bring a few extra pounds!  Hopefully Tim will be helping me eat them!

The past two days have been DIY (do-it-yourself) days around our house.  Our goal for the weekend – get the garage door opener installed.  It may have taken us almost 8 hours, but we did it!    That glorious feeling, pressing the button and watching the door go up and down.  You’d appreciate this as much as we do if you knew what we went through all last winter.  Each day when leaving and coming we had to open and close the door by hand.  This wouldn’t really be a big deal except for one thing…our garage is up a slight, gravel covered hill that is hard to shovel.  The final ascent is a smooth ridge of concrete.  Thus, on snowy days, without a running start we could get our cars about halfway up the small hill and then it was wheel-spinning time!  Since we had to stop and get out of our cars to open the door we didn’t make it up the hill from a stop on many days.  Alas, the garage door opener has come.  I can hope that I might be able to park in the garage most days without a wheel-spinning adventure.  And then, of course, there is the satisfaction of knowing we did it ourselves.  Sweet success.

The holiday eating season is beginning.  I’ve been pondering lately how I mark the seasonal changes with adjustments in the candy bowl in the house.  Nothing all summer.  That’s the healthy time of year   Then at Halloween comes the candy corn.  Followed soon after by the chewy Christmas tree mints for this time of year.  And then for early 2007 it will be filled with whatever goodies I get in my stocking this year.  Yum.  Not so healthy, but yum.  It’s a good thing that I am starting the 10,000 steps program again this year in conjuction with the holiday eating season to keep me in check   For those of you who are unfamiliar with the program – I have to wear a pedometer for 6 weeks and track the # of steps I take everyday as a measure of how much physical exercise I am getting.  I have to fill out a 6 week log and mail it to my health insurance if I want my copays to stay the same next year.  This year Tim and I are both wearing pedometers in an effort to help “motivate” each other.  Or we are just like a bit of healthy competition   The results so far…Monday:  Jennifer = 18,736 steps, Tim = 1,683 steps.  Tuesday:  Jennifer  = 12,103, Tim = 1,987 steps.  I think I am noticing a pattern here.  I have more steps by 9:30 am than Tim gets all day – the price he pays for a desk job!  And I have shorter legs, so he says I have an advantage – I get more steps for going the same distance   We’ll have to get him walking so he can keep up count with me!  Safe travels to all of you that are heading to be with family the next few days!

As a naturalist I have become fairly desensitized to dead and sometimes mangled animals.  Some of my coworkers have this habit of bringing road kill to our center and adding it to the wooded area we appropriately call “the boneyard”.  Many a dead animal has been left there to be grazed on by the resident carnivores.  The newest addition was a road kill deer.  The impact didn’t do much damage when the car hit it because it was completely intact.  Internal injuries must have killed it.  But it wasn’t intact for long.  I always describe the scene first before taking the kids, letting them decide whether they want to see “real life nature in action” or not.  Of course, the ALWAYS want to see it.  About a week ago it was in a very graphic state.  The coyotes had eaten the eyeballs and had chewed a hole in the rear end, pulling the guts out through that hole – yummy!  The amazing thing is what we saw today…nothing!  With the exception of one leg.  I presume the coyotes tried to drag it away by the leg, the leg fell off and they left the leg behind, pulling the rest away.  They are known to drag things away but I couldn’t believe they managed to pull the whole deer away!  With no trace other than a few tufts of fur here and there.  The kids and I searched through the woods to see if we could find anything else and there was no sign of it.  They were pretty excited, however, to say they saw the leg and proceed with the exciting story of what most likely came of the rest.  Nature in action

The church we go to has a new priest.  I feel a bit relieved after seeing him run the mass for the first time.  You see, we go to quite a liberal church and there are quite a few things that are probably a bit out of the normal “tradition” but we love it that way.  I am happy to say that the power of the patriarchal church structure is not enough to subdue the wishes of a dedicated group of worshippers and a willing enough priest.  I suppose the “willing enough” priest is really what I am amazed by.  I am happy to see that not every one of them is convinced of the value of extreme traditionalism.  We like our happy little community and I am relieved to see that is might just survive this leadership change relatively unscathed.  Yipeee. 

Year one of home ownership we discover that our basement is very moldy.  Part way into year one we have a company come in to remove all the moldy stuff from the basement walls.  They take wood, insulation, lots of stuff.  Winter of year one our house is very cold, especially the floors.  We assume drafty doors and windows.  And then…the revelation.  When they removed the moldy insulation they left the bottom foot of every wall, just beneath the floors essentially exposed to the outdoors.  Nothing between the indoor air except a plank of cedar and our siding.  Alas, we know why our floors are so cold!!  The best part is that it’s an easy fix!  We bought three packages of R-25 insulation today to plug into each of the openings.  We are hoping this will help with our heat bills!!    That would be good.