Reading Lists

I LOVE lists, but I especially love lists related to reading. It doesn't matter if they are lists I find about reading or if they are lists that I have made about reading. I love them all.

So here is a list of my reading lists:

Battered Pink Spiral Notebook List - I have been keeping this list for almost 20 years. It is consists of a numbered account of the books I have read and their author. I began keeping this list so I could keep track of the books that I have read, I hate buying a book and then realizing that I have already read it. The discouraging thing is, that after 20 years I have only read 821 books, but then when I average only 30-40 books a year I guess it takes a while for them to add up.

Indie Book Lists - These are my favorite book lists to pick up, a new one comes out every month. There is an on-line version, but I prefer the real paper one that I pick up from an Independent Book Seller.

Books to Check Out List - After I go through the Indie list and highlight the books that look good to me, I write the title of the book and the author in this journal. This list mainly stays in my car, so it is always handy when I am at the library or at a bookstore. After I finish a book I really like, I will go on Amazon and find related books that people have liked, those titles go in this journal as well.

Summer Reading List - This is a visual display of my planned summer reading list. I am going to try and be good this summer and stay away from the library so that I can make a small dent in my many unread books at home.










Computer List - I also have an Excel spreadsheet on the computer that lists Title, Author and number of pages read for each book. The spread sheet calculates my total number of pages read. Since I started this list in March of 2004, I have read 119,883 pages.

So as you can tell I am a little obsessed with my reading lists. If you know of any good reading lists that I haven't discovered yet, please let me know.

Mothers - P52 Week 20

This week's theme was a challenge for me and to be honest it was one that I would have skipped if I hadn't made the commitment at the beginning of the year to "Becoming a Finisher" . In my things to "finish" this year, #1 on the list of things to finish is all 52 weeks of Project 52.

I don't have the best relationship with my mother. To be honest shopping the card isle for a Mother's Day card puts me in a state of panic. All the cards talk about loving relationships and how their mother has always been there for them. I am one who has to truly feel the words that are written in a card. So if you get a card from me those words truly express how I feel about you. This year Mother's Day cards seemed to be particularly challenging, not a single generic card in the bunch. I finally resorted to making a card and stamping "Happy Mother's Day" inside. I figure my love went into making the card instead of the words.

Morning Routine

After my first round of problems with herniated disks seven years ago, my morning routine became a maintenance routine. I did physical therapy after an MRI diagnosed that I had two herniated disks in my lower back. My therapist was awesome. She had the just right bubbly, perky, encouraging personality that I needed to make me stop feeling sorry for myself and do the work that I needed to do to get better. I wanted to avoid back surgery at all costs. Angela gave me some exercises to do at home, so I incorporated them into my morning routine. I still do those exercises every morning along with some new ones that I got when I had my second round of problems three years later. I can't tell you the last time I missed a day of doing them. It is too important to me to not go back to that prison of pain again.

My morning routine starts with weighting myself. I did this even before I started Weight Watchers. I need to stay accountable to myself each and every day. After I weigh myself I come upstairs and check my email. Lately, my emails are filled each morning with encouraging words from the on-line classes I am currently enrolled in. After email is cleaned up I make my breakfast, which never varies when I am home. Two 8 oz. glasses of chocolate milk, one to take with all my vitamins, and one to enjoy with my toasted english muffin spread with Cherry Republic Cherry Berry Jam.

I do my daily devotions while I eat breakfast. I have been reading through the Bible and just started over with Genesis. (I started with the Psalms, not sure why I started there, I just did)

After breakfast it is shower time, warms up the muscles before my stretches. I do about 20 minutes of stretches after the shower and then a 15 minute core muscle strengthening yoga routine. I started doing yoga about 1-1/2 years ago through our local hospital wellness program. I find it to be very helpful for my back and builds my core strength.

My dogs know my routine so well, after stretches and yoga, I go upstairs and grab my socks and tennis shoes, and a couple of dog leashes. Riley, Scout and I set out for our 3 mile morning walk. Dogs are a great motivator to walk. All Scout has to do is stare at me with his puppy dog sad, brown eyes and I am a goner.                                                        

Once we get back from our walk the rest of the day can begin. It takes some careful planning some days to make sure I can get it all done, but the fear of going back to that house of pain that I experienced seven years ago keeps me on the straight and narrow path of a reality pain free life.

Jewelry - The Story Behind the Necklace

Last July my husband and I celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary.  We got married young and didn't have any money for a honeymoon. We were more interested in saving our money and paying off our mobile home, so that we could buy a house. So 25 years later we finally took our honeymoon... a cruise to Alaska. We took a week long cruise and did three days on land in Denali National Park. We also took our 17 year old daughter, so not quite like a honeymoon.

Our second port-of-call, Juneau, landed on the day of our anniversary. We had a forest hike excursion planned for the day. The weather was not being very friendly that day, rainy and chilly. Fortunately, by the time we got off our tour bus at the Mendenhall Glacier the rain had let up. Our tour of about 30 people  split into two groups, the first group took off with their tour guide. Our group, the ones that had to make one last trip to the bathroom, brought up the rear. The first group was probably 5-10 minutes ahead of us. Our group started down the hiking path and a short distance later we came to a foot bridge. The foot bridge crossed a rolling stream with some nice sized salmon swimming in it. Of course with salmon present everyone was looking for bears, someone asked our guide how often he saw a bear here, and he said not very often. Wouldn't you know just then we hear a rustling in the branches along the stream, and lo and behold ambling out of the underbrush in a female black bear, thankfully no cubs in tow. We watched her, mesmerized as she crossed the stream and went under the foot bridge we were standing on. We watched her come out on the other side, and not more than 20 feet from where we were standing, she decided to do a little fishing.

That was one of the best hikes of my life. We did not see any more bear that day, but the rain forest  area was beautiful, and looking down on the Mendenhall Glacier was awesome.

The next day we were in Skagway, and after we had walked past all the cruise ship owned jewelry stores, I happened upon a local craftman's jewelry shop. In the window was this necklace...

It is the perfect reminder of a wonderful day and a wonderful life.

Mother's Day 2011 - Mother's Day 2012 A Year of Change

A lot of changes have happened in my life since Mother's Day last year. Last Mother's Day I was already unhappy with the weight I has at, after that day I was even more unhappy. We went hiking at Ludington State Park for the day and I had Mallory take some pictures of me. When we got home and I loaded those pictures that was the slap in the face that I needed to do something about it.

Mother's Day 2011

I immediately sat down at the computer and signed up for Weight Watchers online. Over the last year I have lost 20 lbs.  and have been able to keep it off. I don't always track my food every week, but if I notice the scale number start to creep up, I immediately go back to tracking everything, and within a week I am right back down again. I am still not at my ideal goal weight, but that is something to keep striving for. It also may be something that I never reach, the point is I feel so much better about myself and more confident this year compared to last year.




Some other changes that have occurred in these past 366 days:

• I sent my only child off to her first year of college, a college that is 8 hours away none the less. Leaving her there after we had moved her in was the hardest thing I have ever done. She, though has flourished. I am so proud of the confident, strong, social young woman she has become.
• I decided to leave my part time retail job that I had been at for the past 5 years. Now I have more time to get house projects done, more time to work on improving my photography skills, and more time to just be me. I have more time to be there when Mallory calls and wants to talk, that is priceless time! I do work a few hours a week for a local furniture store taking pictures of their inventory for their Facebook page and their website. It is the perfect creative outlet. 

I have been taking some photography classes on line. In particular a self-portrait photography class for the last 3 weeks. It has really made me look at myself and be proud of the things I have accomplished in the last year. I look forward to what I can do between now and Mother's Day 2013. So here's to the next 365 days :)

there is STILL LIFE in this old dog - P52 Week 19

I noticed the first real signs of aging in my beloved Scout this spring. A few weeks ago we went for a 4 mile walk instead of our normal 3 mile route. He was fine during the walk and for the rest of that day, but I noticed the next morning that he was favoring his right hind leg. I thought maybe it had fallen asleep when he was laying down, but as we headed out for our normal 3 mile route, he didn't get any better. In fact, he got worse. A few houses down from ours I made the decision to turn around and take him back home. This decision killed him as much as it did me. Scout has always been my dog itching for a walk, he actually gets depressed (and naughty) in the winter if we can't get out everyday because of snowy or icy bike paths.


Golden Retrievers are a breed more prone to hip dysplasia, a fact  I know all to well having worked at a Veterinary Clinic for 8 years. Even when both parents are OFA certified there is no guarantee that your puppy is safe when you take home that cuddly bundle of fur at 8 weeks of age. Or in Scout's case a leggy, floppy eared bundle of fur at 16 weeks of age.


The good news is, for now a baby aspirin twice a day seems to be handling the situation. When the time comes for stronger medications that is the direction we will take. Some of the meds. that are out there these days are pretty fantastic. We will keep my boy going for his walks as long as we possibly can, and after that we will snuggle by a cozy fire to warm those old joints. Both his and mine.

Fiesta or Siesta - P52 Week 18

Tonight is time for a Siesta...
Tomorrow is a Fiesta!!

Tonight I am snuggled into my hotel room bed reading a good book, getting ready for a good night's siesta. Hopefully that is, since I already had to call down to the front desk to complain about the noisy children in the room next to mine. I mean really, it is a Wednesday night in Mackinaw City, where it is not tourist season until July. Shouldn't these children be at home doing their homework. You know it is bad when one of the moms is standing in the hall talking on her cell phone, and tells the person she is talking to that she can't be in the room because it is too noisy.













Tomorrow, however, will be a Fiesta! I will be seeing my daughter, who is just finishing her first year of college. I know it has only been two months since I last saw her, but I miss her. We have a good mother/daughter relationship. I feel honored that she still wants to call me most everyday and share what is going on in her life. I hope that never changes.

So Tonight Siesta...

Tomorrow Fiesta!!