Living Healthy

Tea On Tuesday

/ Ally Bean / 18 Comments

a few thoughts while I drink my tea…

::  I didn’t wake up this morning until 8:30 a.m.  I’m usually up around 6:00 a.m. but somehow I slept in this morning.  We had a very busy weekend so maybe I’m catching up on my sleep.  For the first time in weeks, I feel refreshed + focused.

::  It’s wet & overcast gray here today.  The temps are about what I’d expect for Spring– in the 60s.  Tomorrow’s weather prediction is for sunshine, but today I’m sitting inside the house in semi darkness while enjoying the sound of spring rain tapping on the windows.  Peaceful.

::  Looking outside I’m reminded of how most of my days looked when I was studying at the University of Exeter in Devon, England.  Lush + green + ever so gray.  There was something wonderful & reckless about the flora around that university.  Beautiful, really.

::  I made myself a pot of tea this morning.  I’m usually a coffee in the morning girl.  But once in a while when the weather gets a certain way, I pull my little blue teapot off the shelf and make myself a proper cuppa reminiscent of my adventures in the UK.  With milk + sugar, of course.

::  I have nothing planned for this week.  Not. one. thing.  Even for me, an introvert who likes to spend hours on end by myself, that’s unusual.  If the past is any clue about how this week will go, I’ll be writing & reading & researching my hours away.  There are worse ways to spend your time.

Life, Vacation Days & The Pursuit of Home-i-ness

/ Ally Bean / 12 Comments

Here’s the deal.

Zen-Den, who is usually a very organized sort of fellow, forgot to take one week of his vacation last year.  Well, to be fair, he didn’t exactly forget;  he wasn’t aware that he had another week of vacation until the last week of December when HR told him that he did.

Therefore, as per the rules of the company, Z-D is permitted [required?] to take his extra week of vacation this year.  Kind of nice that his workplace wants him to take all of his vacation days, isn’t it?  Even nicer that said workplace makes allowances for a clueless goof hardworking individual, such as Mr. Bean, to use his vacation days later… once he knows that he has them.

 

The upshot of all this is that this week we’ve decided to stay home and get some projects completed.

And man-oh-man do we have a doozy of a list of things to do around the house. Which means that when we’re not gardening, refinishing, hanging up things, caulking holes, painting trim {et cetera, et cetera}, we’ll be going for walks [maybe in city parks?] &/or just plain lollygagging on the screened-in porch [white wine spritzers, anyone?].


But here’s the thing.

There’s a very good chance that this is going to be the only blog post that I’ll write this week.  I actually have a few other topics to discuss with you, but I don’t see myself as having the time & energy & quietness that I need to put real words to virtual paper.  [I’m a very slow and deliberate writer.]

So now, having shared the who/what/when/where/why/& how of my upcoming week, I’m going to wander off, find Zen-Den and start. being. productive.  Later, kids– projects await me.

[As always, click on photos to embiggen.]

Pretty Flowers, Itchy Eyes

/ Ally Bean / 16 Comments

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I’m feeling tired this week.

No energy for writing posts– or doing much of anything else.

While I admit that it is pretty outside now, there’s too much pollen in the air for my liking.

My eyes itch.  My sinuses hurt.  And I’m grumpy.

So I’ll be taking some allergy meds to manage my symptoms and lying low for the next week or two.

Take care everyone.  See ‘ya later.

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This & That

/ Ally Bean / 18 Comments

{march – monday – morning}

√  How great is this unprecedented warm midwest winter weather?  It’s so great that I wore shorts, a long sleeve t-shirt and birks this weekend– and I was too warm.  I needed to stop for an icy cold bottle of water from the vending machine outside of Kroger before we did the shopping.  Never in my life here have I seen winter shift directly into summer– skipping over spring entirely.

Me likey this year’s revised winter.

√  Well, if it’s going to be summer then I’m thinking that it’s time for me to make some The Pioneer Woman’s Perfect Iced Coffee.  I tried her method last summer and enjoyed the results;  the effort was worth it.  I don’t have to have a pot of hot coffee each morning [did I really just say that?] when I can have a refreshing glass of pre-made iced coffee with a teaspoon of sweetened condensed milk instead.

Try it… you’ll like it!  🙂

√  We planted a few pots with some pansies that we bought at Lowe’s.  They had the prettiest/healthiest/cheapest selection anywhere, so I am happy.  Of course, I’m always happy when I see pansies.  Did you know that in the language of flowers pansies represent thinking?

And with those cute little smiling faces and those bright cheerful colors– what’s not to like?

√  I went to the doctor late Friday afternoon.  My stomach has not been right for months now, so I finally decided to go see what the doc had to say.  Bottom line: I’m middle-aged + probably nothing really wrong with me so no tests + take some OTC meds in the way he prescribes = feel better.  I like this guy’s down-to-earth approach to practicing medicine.

Having followed his advice for 2 days I like how much better I feel already.

√  A bit of self-awareness never hurt a soul, now did it?  I’ve been thinking about my use of the internet.  How often I go online, what I do, what I expect to happen when I’m online.  I realized that I’m spending less time surfing the web than I used to do, but more time connecting with people via comments or tweets or pins.  I realized that for me technology is a tool, and will never be a lifestyle.  I realized that while I adore the immediacy of the internet, I also take pride in the fact that I can walk away from it without any sense of anxiety when I so chose.

Yep, I like this newfangled thing called the world-wide web— as long as I use it on my terms.  😉

Later, kids.  The out-of-doors beckons to me.