I woke up very early the other day and this was nature's gift for doing so!
The sky show was awesome: A spectacular sunrise complete with a plane taking off from PDX. [see video]
Nature is amazing and so filled with gorgeous colors.
The morning sky in Portland is like no other place I've lived!
Love it!
[Well except when it's cloudy and rainy and yukky – but then I dont get up and take pictures
]
Comments? Thank you.
I know – exercise is the last thing on your to-do list and the first thing that gets brushed aside when you are "too busy" or "too stressed" or "too too…"
I admit that I get this way as well. But then I get back into exercising and I feel better, am less stressed and SURPRISE – I can get more work done and in less time!!
We are "supposed to" exercise at least 30 minutes a day and that is difficult for some when they are just getting started thinking about exercising.
"Find another block of 30 minutes? You gotta be kidding."
Well no – you don't need that block of time. Sometimes 3 ten-minute segments is just as good – or – even less is good. A new study in Asia found that:
…those who exercised just 15 minutes a day — or 90 minutes a week — cut their risk of death by 14 percent and extended their life expectancy by three years compared with those who did no exercise. Both men and women benefited equally from the minimum activity.
Article about 15 minutes of daily exercise
Adding more minutes to that 15 was beneficial. But 15 was good in and of itself.
So – no more excuses! You can find 15 minutes! And you may find you are enjoying your day more because you are active for that time.
Thoughts? Thank you for your comments.
For many reasons, largely economic, grown kids are moving back home.
I’ve not experienced this for myself – but soon I will.
My son and daughter-in-law have decided to leave Chicago and move to Portland. While this has never been his “home” they will be staying with me for a while.
I moved to Portland well after my son had left home – and the home he left was not any of the ones he grew up in. So our story is already a bit different than kids returning to their original nests. But – although the nest is different, I am still his mommy and he is still my kid…and it is that relationship that will go through interesting variations.
He has visited me as an adult, even staying for a few months one summer. But even that was different as that's when he met the woman who is now my daughter-in-law and he spent a lot of time at her place. And i have been to Chicago and stayed with them.
But now we will be spending more time together than we have done in 14 years! We will share meals, cooking, household chores and fun times.
I’ve written about issues that arise at holidays when one goes to a parental house for say thanksgiving and one is again treated as a “child.” But over the years my son and I have racked up hours of phone conversations, or in person conversations, and we have been able to pretty well negotiate that shift from parent-child to two equally stubborn, talkative political minds.
And now there will be another person in the mix, my son’s wife, adding to the intrigue. She’s stayed with me when she’s come to visit her friends and family but we have never had all of us together for a stretch of time.
It’s great having a child who knows you write about his life….as he said when referring to You Can Totally Screw Up As A Mom And Still Raise Great Kids “it’s my life but you are part of it too”
It won’t all happen til Fall and I’ll keep you posted about how we manage.
Vibram fivefingers with nasturtiums►
I love my fivefingers!
A shoe that I don't kick off the minute I am inside.
I almost never rave about shoes but I love them so much I even wrote a review for REI [where I bought them.]
Shoe shopping and I have a love/hate relationship. I know we need shoes but the process of my getting them is no fun so I do it as infrequently as is possible.
My feet are not structured like the manufacturers think all women's feet should be made and I've learned to buy men's shoes – but that tends to work only for sandals and running shoes. When I need to get "dressed up" I am stuck with uncomfortable shoes.
Anyway – these are comfy and not too many people think they are odd. But remember I live in Portland where one motto is: Keep Portland Weird.
If you don't go barefoot a lot of the time, these may take some getting used to. But if you do yoga and have learned to separate your toes [like you did as a kid] then these will not feel odd.
They are much the same a walking barefoot and you feel the gravel and rocks underfoot – but they don't puncture the shoe or your foot. I wear them walking and running and found when running, I needed to adjust what I was doing ever so slightly.
Vibram keeps coming out with new styles and so for next winter I shall get a pair that are a bit more water resistance and also some finger socks!
**********
And for those who like shoes without flowers, here is another picture
Go ahead and try a pair, it's like being a kid all over again!!
Age in style!
Comments? Questions?
WALK!!
A study found that walking isn't just great for weight loss or for just plain old exercise –
it's great for your memory too!
…researchers randomly assigned 120 healthy but sedentary men and women (average age mid-60s) to one of two exercise groups. One group walked around a track three times a week, building up to 40 minutes at a stretch; the other did a variety of less aerobic exercises, including yoga and resistance training with bands.
After a year, brain scans showed that among the walkers, the hippocampus had increased in volume by about 2 percent on average; in the others, it had declined by about 1.4 percent.
Your hippocampus is a part of the brain that is important for memory formation and normally it starts to atrophy around age 55 or 60.
The fact that it actually increased is pretty amazing..
It makes me want to go out and walk every day…
Join me?
Comments? thoughts?