New Year's Tips and Encouragement: Part Third

Part Third is about EXERCISE.  First, I will put in a disclaimer.  I am not a doctor, nurse, nutritionist, therapist, personal trainer, professional athlete, or anything of the like; therefore, nothing I say is intended to substitute for the professional advice of any of the above.  I am simply going to encourage you with what I have found works for me.

I am not an athlete.  My high school basketball and softball coach could tell you that, even if it has been *ahem* I-won't-say-how-many years.  Even when I was much younger--right out of college--it took me nearly a year of running every weekday morning to work up to running a mile without stopping and without nearly collapsing for want of air.  I wasn't overweight, either.  I have just never been very good at physical exercise.  In fact, for a long time, I didn't do much at all.  However, in the past few years, I have come to discover how much I need exercise for my health, and not just for trying to stay slim, either, though that is also something for which I strive.

In Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Marmee tells Meg that "want of exercise robs them [women] of cheerfulness."  I have found that when I exercise, I am more cheerful and feel better physically and mentally.  The context of the above quote is that Meg has been in the nursery with her twins and not doing anything else, thinking that this was her duty.  She is tired, cranky, and upset, and her relationship with her husband is strained.  Those of us with children understand that.  We want to be there for our children, to take care of them, spend time with them, train them.  Sometimes we forget our responsibility to our husbands and ourselves.  This is not to say that we should be selfish, putting ourselves above our family, but to say that there is a time and place for everything and all focus on the children to the exclusion of all else will rob us of energy and a rich relationship with our husbands (and teach our children that they are the center of the universe, a very unhealthy attitude).

So here are some suggestions.  I am a morning person, as my non-morning person friends and family will tell you, so I get up before the family is up to exercise.  I don't do a lot, but I do enough to make me awake and alert.  I sometimes walk around my neighborhood.  I sometimes use an exercise video.  Choose one to your taste.  I like Billy Blanks Tae Bo; it works cardio and muscles with punches, kicks, squats, lunges, and the like, depending on the version you use.  I also do a little yoga for stretching and strength.  I am not a yoga expert by any means.  I use one that was introduced to me by a family member: Baron Baptiste Core Power; not too difficult and lots of good stretching.

If you can't do that, work exercise into your day.  When you take your kids to the park, don't sit on a bench; play with them, swing them, climb with them.  Park far out from the grocery store so you have to walk a ways to get into it.  Let the kids play outside while you rake leaves (in the autumn, of course) or shovel snow (in the winter, of course, if you live in a colder climate or even this year in the Southeast).  If you have stairs, walk up and down them frequently during the day.  The strangest thing I've ever done was to do squats every time my daughter spelled a word correctly.  When I worked in an office, I would go to the bottom level of our building and walk around the elevator banks for half an hour at lunch time.  I sat at a desk most of the day, so the walking felt good.  If you are like me and your muscles get tight, stretch while you are standing at a counter or reading something.  Do some jumping jacks or sit-ups while watching TV (although I contend if you have time to watch TV, you have time to exercise); if you have it, walk on a treadmill or some other machine while you watch TV.

Even if you don't necessarily need to lose weight (I will never advocate for looking like a stick figure), exercise is necessary for a healthy body.  I believe you will feel much better physically and mentally if you do. Healthy bodies, healthy minds, healthy spirits.

Valentine's Day Projects

My daughter enjoys making things.  And by that I mean she just makes things out of her head, ready to re-invent the wheel and not bother with how anyone else has done it.  Generally, that's a good thing.  So here are some Valentine's Day cards and other projects.  Now, let me say at once that I know quite well these are not worthy of a DIY blog, but they are fun and might give inspiration to mothers and daughters (or fathers or sons if they are of the creative bent) who want to spend time together.

This is a Valentine's Day Medal.  To find out how it's actually supposed to be done, go to Handmade Charlotte for the instructions.  However, I can't sew (other than the occasional button or mending) to save my life.  My best friend, who is an amazing artist, can testify to this, as I helped her sew some buttons for a project once.  The buttons stayed on, but thank goodness they didn't show.  Therefore, we used glitter glue to frame the circle instead of sewing.  My daughter also insisted that we put words on the medal, instead of on a card to which we would attach the medal.  It's hard to write on felt, so we used glitter glue again (she loves glitter glue).  One word of warning: it takes a lot of time to dry, especially if it is thick.

My daughter also wanted to make cards for family.  This one is for her aunt.  We used a blank card and glued felt on the top.  Then my daughter decorated it as she saw fit.

This one is for her best friend.  The hearts are stickers, and for some reason, she prefers to use wrapping ribbon, as opposed to cloth ribbon, for her bows.

My daughter has also been "decorating" the house with heart stickers, bows on the banister, a string of rainbow hearts hung across a doorway, and other creative, handmade decorations.  It's encouraging to me to see her creativity and enthusiasm.  (When I was her age, I was not so much interested in this world as in my own other worlds.)  And we just enjoy doing crafts and projects together.

Of Music and Melodrama

My family is a musical family.  If we were Austrian, we could add "Von" before our last name and be famous.  But we're Scottish, which is another story in itself.  Mom has been playing piano since time began, and music is her gift.  Musicals on cassette tape like "Kids' Praise," "Antshillvania," "Nathaniel the Grublet," "The Music Machine," and "Sir Oliver's Song" were a major part of our lives.  If anyone who reads this can remember those, here's virtual high five.

Mom played the piano, and Daddy played the guitar.  Great singers such as Kenny Rogers, John Denver, Ann Murray, and Neil Diamond could not have rivaled the music that rang in our home.  Four-part harmonies led the religious charge, hymns being the weapon of choice.  "Grandma's Feather Bed" by John Denver was one of our favorites, though it was years before I understood what "took a whole bolt of cloth for to tick" meant.  And we were all in choirs and/or bands or orchestras, whether it was at church or at school.

We did not have a television until I was nearly ten, so we had to create our own entertainment (and I don't think we are any the worse for it; in fact, I think the lack of imagination and creativity these days is a sad loss to society).  Mom and Dad read aloud to us quite frequently.  The Chronicles of Narnia, the Little House series, Character Sketches, Uncle Remus stories (Disney version), and various Golden Books and Fairy Tales were the stuff of which daydreams were made and imaginations were strengthened.  Worlds were created, peopled, destroyed, and remembered.  By me, of course, since my sister claims she was just dragged along in my wake as I conquered Worlds beyond the realm of visibility, never forgetting that the unseen things are eternal.

Which necessarily brings us to the melodrama.  Our whole family is wont to be dramatic.  My sister may not have much of an imagination, but she's got the drama down pat.  And not just in real life.  From primary school on, plays were the thing.  To my knowledge, we didn't catch any consciences, but we entertained with "Kids' Praise" plays, Singing Christmas Trees, scenes from "White Christmas," and we cannot forget the family affair which was my final project in college: South Pacific.  I can say with reasonable certainty that without the participation of the whole family, South Pacific would have sunk.  My sister played Nellie and did a magnificent job.  My brother helped with the set construction, along with Daddy's mechanical expertise, and also stood in for an actor who had a death in the family.  Mom played the piano, which we had to rent, South Pacific not being considered High Art enough for the Music Department at my college, though it is a classic, having been around long enough for Daddy to have had a role in it when he was in high school.  So one might say South Pacific is a family tradition.  We don't drink, smoke, or live out songs we wrote (the only one of us who writes original songs is my brother; he writes Gregorian Chants, and I don't know if they qualify as songs), but drama is a tradition.  My brother kept up the tradition with a role in West Side Story when he was in college.

Now my children are keeping up the music and the melodrama traditions.  Living in our house is like living in an opera.  If my daughter isn't singing songs (the few lines she knows if she doesn't know the whole song), she's singing her daily activities.  If she's not doing that, she's talking to the friends that people her world.  My son sings when he's contented.  They both love the drama, though my daughter has chosen real life as her stage, not an actual stage.  The world absolutely comes to an end when anything goes wrong for her or her little brother does something to annoy her.  The wails, the crying, the running to her room and slamming the door are all acting techniques in her repertoire.  And woe betide you if you correct her!  For then follow the wails of "I just can't do it!"  My son has the woebegone, pathetic looks down pat; he even outdoes our Chihuahuas, who have until now been the experts.  He'll even try to manufacture tears when he wants his way or wants sympathy.  When my daughter is excited, she can't sit still and declares that she has butterflies in her stomach.

My world is far from boring, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  And if your life is anything like this, especially if you have kids, know that you are understood.