Woolly Mutts

Warning: possible TMI regarding my digestive track.

My intestines and I have never gotten on well.  I've had each and every unpleasant medical procedure to diagnosis the problem and the final answer is, IBS.  IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome, is a sort of clearing house for nasty digestive issues that have no real medical cause.  My gastro doctor says I am a gut reactor.  Nice.  Everyone has their weakness and mine happens to be my gut. Super nice.

I have drugs.  Drugs for going and not going.  Drugs to relax and drugs to rev up.  I hate them....would rather not take them at all.  The problem is, I hate suffering even more, so I take them when I must.  Over the years (and it has been almost 30 years I've been trying to play nice with my gut) I've learned a few tricks, but there were times when I got in such bad cycles that I rarely left home.  (Here comes the TMI) Cause when it goes bad it's not just a little inconvenient, it's curled in the fetal position on the bathroom floor sweating and cursing bad.  (OK, you can look now.)

A couple of months ago my doctor suggested that I up my calcium intake, which I know is a really good idea.  Problem is that, for me, calcium and my gut  are like the Hatfields and the McCoys.  No love there.  At all.  Choices, choices, brittle bones or unhappy gut?   Ah ha!, says my doctor, I have the answer.....gut bacteria of the good kind.  You take a pill (yet another pill) and it makes your intestines go to the happy place.  Really?   Hmmmmm.  So I go to the pharmacy, purchase the calcium AND a box of Align.  I bring them home and....look at it but don't take it, cause what if, instead of going to the happy place it goes to the bad place?  I mean, just because the doc says so doesn't mean it's always true.  Right?  (Back me up here.)

Two weeks ago I broke down and took the Align and guess what?  It worked!  It took a little over a week, but my intestines are indeed, in the happy place, or at least I think so since I haven't actually been to the happy place in a LONG time.  I feel good.  I haven't added the calcium yet.  I'll keep you posted on that one.  (I bet you just can't wait.)  

Moral of the story is; some times you have to have a little faith and just do it.  Now if I can only make myself open the bottle of fish oil capsules.  (I really hate fish.)

 

And, just in case you've forgotten that we have a new family member, a picture of Miss Cambria Joy in all her Halloween pumpkinness.  Not everyone can pull off orange, you know.  I've decided that I bore the daylights out of her cause she is sleeping every time I see her.

The siren song of urban living.

Every now and then I get a bug to move to a city.  A big ol' city like Chicago or Minneapolis or NYC where I could have a grand  (more like closet sized on my budget) apartment with a view of the night lights.  A place where we could walk to our local grocer and get things for dinner or meet friends down the block in a cute little cafe where the owners know our names.  A walk to the subway or the museums or the trendy shops.  A place where I would not spend the better part of a day mowing or weeding or watering and could just walk out on the the patio and tend the pots of lovely things trailing over the rail.  I think I could enjoy this life for.....maybe 2 months and then the noise and population and lack of green space would suffocate me.  I suppose it's a *grass is greener* thing, except that the grass here in my little corner of the planet is very green already.

If I lived in a city I would miss moments like last night when all the baby toads emerged from the old pond to experience life on dry land.  They were so tiny and so eager to get off the lily pads and discover new ground.  I wish I would have taken a few pictures.  AH has purposely been keeping water in the old pond so the toad babies would have a place to live until old enough to move on.  Good timing on their part since excavation for the new pond has resumed.

A city dwelling would not have an abundance of these milkweed plants.  Many fuzzy bees were enjoying a morning drink of milkweed nectar this morning when I went out to check on them.  These plants are volunteers in an area that used to be a garden space, but too much shade took over and plants needed to be moved.  One day we will reclaim this area, but until we do the 5 or 6 milkweed plants are most welcome since in a few weeks the monarch caterpillars will come and make the change to butterflies right here in our yard. 

Mrs. Wren has made her home in the tail of our dragonfly again this year.  Wrens are funny little birds with big voices and I enjoy watching she and her hubby fly back and forth to the nest area with bugs for the babies which fledged early this week.  AH would have been able to get a better picture, but he was not here.  You can look right into the tail and see the nest.

Our large amount of land gives up a place to have a garden with plants like these roma tomatoes still dripping from their morning drink.

And the green beans working their way up the poles built just for them.  Their leaves begin this almost chartreuse green and then turn to emerald as they get bigger.  I say over and over, no once does color like Mother Nature.

And finally, city dwelling would not have space for our glorious pin oak tree that gives such joy to be able to stand beneath and gaze upward.  It was planted almost 30 years ago as a little tree and today it is SO tall and majestic offering home and shelter for birds and animals and wonderful shade for us.

I think I'll continue dreaming of urban living while being suitably grateful for the green life I already live.

More Lush to Love!

*Before I even begin, I've got no connection to LUSH whatsoever.  If they ever brought a store close enough for me to work there, that might change.  For now, I am just a very satisfied customer.

I am a barefoot kind of girl.  I know, not good for your arches and the two scars across the top of my foot from where I dropped a glass pitcher on my foot attest to the safety concerns, but I'm just happier barefoot.  This being the case, the bottom of my feet are always a disaster.  About a year a go I met a super sweet girl who introduced me to the wonderful world of the pedicure and I was hooked.  LOVED them, but also, really love her.  Part of the fun was spending the time talking with Beki.  Bad news is that Beki is moving to Madison, and while I am confident there are many competent people to take up where she left off, I'm hesitant.  Maybe I could just save the money and do it myself.

Here is where LUSH comes in.  Remember we went to the burbs on Sunday?  Gotta hit LUSH when we go there, so I did some research and came up with a couple of products that I thought I might give a try.  Earlier today I did just that and am thrilled to proclaim that I have, again, struck LUSH gold.  Meet Volcano.  Volcano is a mixture of vegan ingredients that you generously apply to your feet, cover in plastic bags or plastic wrap and take a break for about 10 minutes.  I think I gave it more like 20, but anyway, after that you rinse with warm water.  I followed by a quick scrub with Running to the Embassy , a pumice body butter, and a nice coat of Dream Cream.  ( I'm also a fan of Pied de Pepper which has a great clove aroma.)  Kids, my feet are soft, tingly fresh and happy, happy.  It's not magic, I've still got calluses, but I think with regular use I could say goodbye to the pedicures forever.  Seriously.  Ok, there was no one fun to talk to, or to paint my toe nails a nifty color, but I can do that myself (paint, not talk).  All of these products are middle of the road in pricing and come in cool black jars that can be returned to the store for recycling when you've emptied them.  Personally, I use them for other storage, buttons, hair ties, etc, but options are good.  LUSH has such a great enviromental philosophy that's a nice plus to super products that generally do what they say.  (Bath Bombs, people.  Get them.  Use them.  Have FUN!)

I love you LUSH. 

A word about wii fit.

FUN!  It hasn't been all wedding stress and garden work around here.  We've found some time to play with the wii.  Fun, fun, fun.  Really.  Oh, and that isn't me in the pic....like you might have thought it was. :-)  My tree pose is good, but not that good.

Meditation for beginners.

I've been practicing yoga, on and off, for a couple of years now.  Whenever I begin again after an "off" period I always wonder why I get so lazy.  The yoga I practice is beginner level and very gentle (cause I'm old and round), but also very effective.  Good stuff is yoga.  Beneficial to the mind, body and spirit.  I wish like crazy that there was a yoga class in my area that was aimed at my age and level, but there is not and I am not advanced enough to begin one myself. (Fifty, Fat, and Fabulous Yoga?)  I have several DVDs that I rotate to avoid boredom and I try to practice at least 3 times a week.  I recommend yoga for EVERYONE.  If I can do this, so can you.  I am much more flexible and strong during an "on" period.

So anyway, this week I decide that I want to add meditation to my practice.  Keeping my mind focused is really difficult for me.  It's one of the reasons that I am not a great sleeper.  As soon as my body relaxes my brain goes into overdrive.  I'm thinking meditation could help with this.  Since I am a complete beginner, I decide that some form of guided mediation would be helpful and I find a DVD aptly titled, Meditation for beginners.  Yesterday I get out the mat and try it for the first time.  She begins the session with 15 minutes of basic yoga to get your body ready.  This makes sense to me since the breath focus in yoga really does help with the mind as well.  The teacher, Maritza, is an excellent yoga instructor and gives perfect prompts to get maximum effect.  After 15 minutes we move onto a body scan where you lay in corpse pose and she directs you to keep your mind focused on your whole body, beginning with your toes and moving up.  For 20 minutes I work to keep my mind exactly where she tells me and I was surprised at how well I did.  It wandered now and then, and surprisingly she seemed to know and gently brought me back. There was another 20 minute seated session that I opted out of, but am eager to try today.  I'm sort of fascinated by the concept of enlightenment.

This morning I have decided Maritza, quiet, centered, calm Maritza, is knowing more about yoga than first meets the eye.  Today I have met muscles that had not formerly made my acquaintance.  That was some serious get-ur-done yoga. I am impressed.  Go Maritza!

Tomorrow (are you sitting down?) knitting content.