Glad the surgery went well, Jessica! Definitely send flowers.


Taryl - hope your head is better. I am fighting a cold I think, I hope it doesn't linger for weeks and weeks.

Michele - weigh now, get it out of the way.

Our plans for the day keep changing. I always find that difficult to deal with, but I'm going to stay on course with my food plan, at least.

paperclippy: so sorry for your mom and about the way that messed with your holiday plans. Flowers and gifts are a lovely idea. She might need special clothes. My Grandma wore button-down-the-front house dresses when she couldn't lift her arms up.

ICUwishing: love your Reformed Advent calendar idea!
I loved it one year when a friend got me tea for a Christmas present. There are lovely flavors out this time of year and it's so much easier to incorporate into a healthy eating plan than cookies.

Joy, I'm the same way. My eating is fine when my day is well planned. But the more chaotic my schedule becomes, especially with unexpected changes, the harder it is for me to keep myself in line. These days I just freak out with food that's permitted on my diet, and try to mitigate how extensive and frequent the freak outs are. That's good enough at this point!

Big hugs, Dagmar and Jessica!

Feel better, Shannon!

Headache went away with me pushing fluids and taking some ibuprofen. Cold is still here, unfortunately. It's easy for me to get dehydrated on our out-of-house day, since I'm usually gulping water all day at home and cannot pack that much away from the house, not remember to drink with the same frequency. Nursing exacerbates that.

And front fastening bras. When my MIL had shoulder surgery she had to have front fastening bras and all button down shirts--no shirts that go over the head. And that includes night gowns. The range of motion is severely limited for several weeks after surgery.

Oh yeah - front fastening bras, button down shirts and gowns, pants with elastic that don't require much pulling and tugging to put on. I can't tell you how hard it was to get along every day when I couldn't even brush my hair for four weeks. Whew.

Sweat pants are a gift rom heaven when you break a shoulder,

How is everyone this morning? We have snow still falling. Exercise will be shoveling our very steep driveway. We don't need to get out, but DH goes a little nuts if he thinks we can't.

Good grief, Bargoo, did you do that?

Wishing you well on your ongoing journey.

BIG snow here - 10 cm today and 5-10 more tomorrow. I spent an hour playing crazily in the 3-4 cm that's already down with a young golden retriever. Made the drive home (usually 5 minutes but took 25 today) totally bearable as I thought about how much that dog loved what we did.

Winter is a hard season for me but the joy the dogs feel when out in the snow is contagious and takes me through the worst.

Dagmar

My apartment complex doesn't allow dogs, so I am not enjoying the snow, as I envision having to excavate my car tomorrow morning from the storm that's been going on steadily since my spin class met up at 9 AM today.

I kind of like one effect the snow is having, though. Usually on weekends I second-guess myself over whether I've gotten enough errands & etc. done. Today, I trudged through the village and did what I could there, but driving was out of the question. I grew up in a snowy area, but they are lousy at snow removal here and I fear other drivers' ineptitude. And so I made the right choice; I had to, because I made the only choice, as I saw it, since my choices were narrowed down considerably by the weather. It's rare that I feel that okay with what I've done during a day.

saef: I know that feeling of never feeling okay about what I got done during the day, never getting to the end of my to do list. I've been a bit better with that lately -- mostly that I'm constructing more realistic to do lists than that I'm getting more done. I've already started thinking about how I can bring that into the new year with renewed vigor. I don't know if being satisfied at the end of the day is a secret to happiness, but it's certainly a pre-condition, for me.

The to-do-list used to be a personal nightmare of mine. I never, ever got even close to getting everything on it done. Then DH asked me why I didn't do up the day's list and then, knowing I wouldn't get it done, give him some of the tasks and eliminate those that really, really were unnecessary. His suggestion was that if the size of the list made me feel sick with anxiety then the list for that day was too big.

I do that now and, while I still don't get everything done, I know I took a good run at it on any given day and am satisfied with that. There are things that will never get done but they are things not worth caring about.

How many people who come over will pull the fridge out and look to see if I dusted behind it?

Dagmar

There's a back to the fridge ?

Dagmar, my dog loves the snow (though only when I'm out in it with him) and I thought he was rather peculiar- I assumed most dogs hate to have their paws get so cold. Now I'm tickled, thinking that lots of dogs do what he does- like putting his muzzle into the snow then heaving the snow up and around with it. And eating it. And jumping in the drifts. And rolling in it on his back. It's all very cute and toddler-esque.

I gave my 15 yo DS his first driving lesson in the snow today (we've gotten 8 inches over the last 36 hours). He's been getting pretty cocky about his driving (got his permit in October and has done about 20 hours so far). First couple of slides followed by fish-tailing and he had a new and proper respect for the challenge. I think DH will need to take him to a big empty parking lot tomorrow to practice braking/skidding and re-righting himself. Can't believe we have to teach 3 boys to drive; my nerves are already shot with the first one.