Jul 25, 2011

Resolution Tuesday: 23 Weeks to Go



Area 1: Weight

I'm UP 3 pounds. Combine some water retention with NO walking this week. We have been eating lots of salads as my lettuce is still going great. I can just FEEL the vitamins vibrating into my body as I eat lettuce that's only minutes old!

Area 2: Family

Here's a question that came up for me recently: When you listen to someone talking, do you actually see that PERSON? Do you admire their particular verbal skills or knowledge of the subject? Or, do you (like I noticed about me), listen with one ear and formulate your own feelings and what you're going to say when they take a breath?

I forced myself to be aware of that yesterday. When my husband was speaking, I was focusing on his face--the face that I remember being 16yo! I listened until he was finished and then had nothing to add. He had covered the topic without my butting in. Imagine that!

I tried that with my son, too. If given any encouragement, he will talk nonstop until your ears bleed. I tend to tune out if I'm not interested in the topic. This morning I focused on his beautiful eyes and listened to his sweet, young voice. I paid attention without throwing in any corrections or comments. He didn't rattle on like he usually does. Imagine that!

Area 3: Schedule

Having the basics under control has been an excellent thing. It has freed me up to be spontaneous. Outings, people coming over, sitting on the porch and reading for an hour while J is splashing in his pool. I love summer.

Area 4: Chassis Maintenance

My particular chassis has always been an insect attractor. I was always the kid covered in bites while everyone else was standing around comfortably. I also reacted to them with swelling, hard, hot areas inches and inches around each bite. For decades.

I recently discovered two things that have revolutionized my insect attracting life:

1) When bitten, IMMEDIATELY put cold packs from the freezer on the bite and keep it there on and off for about 10 minutes. THERE IS NO SWELLING! It also takes away the itchiness.

2) If a cold pack is unavailable and a bite ends up swelling, take apple cider vinegar and pat it over the whole area several times. I did this recently after the swelling had been there for two days and we were hitting the hardened up level. By the next morning, it was no longer hot and you could feel softened areas. By the following day, it was down to normal-people bite level!

47 years of suffering. Hopefully someone else will read this and avoid decades of this torture!

Area 5: Debt

No change except that we're paying extra on all debts. Whittle, whittle, whittle.

Area 6: Garden

My garden is totally flourishing. We've almost broken even with the amount we spent on the garden in lettuce alone. We're still waiting impatiently for tomatoes, though. That's the REAL purpose of a garden, right?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Roxanne!

Recently, I wrote a comment about the fact that I usually don't notice if one of my friends has gained or lost weight because I always see twinkles of their eyes, the little wrinkle in their nose, the fun way they act, etc...not the weight. But, I'm not going to lie, I still do butt into what they are saying quite often. Part of it is because I'm enthusiastic about what they say!

But my husband is stunned when I let him talk for 10 minutes in row and just listen. I should probably do that more.

:-) Marion

Packrat said...

Hmmm, back to an earlier comment - for some crazy reason, I really hadn't missed very many posts, but Reader decided that I had. Crazy.

I'm so terribly bad about not paying full attention when someone (especially family) is talking to me. Mostly, because they tend to pick really inconvenient times to talk, which to me is almost rude on their part.

I understand about being a bug magnet, getting big welts, and the itching that lasts "forever".

Roxanne said...

Marion--I asked my dh if I was talking too much the other day and he said no, but then I'm not sure he would know what "too much" is for me after 25 years of marriage LOL!

I'm more aware of what I'm doing now that I've been thinking about it. It's NOT easy to slow down on this, but I've been working on it.

Roxanne said...

Packrat--Interesting point about family timing for talking. I'm more the one who does that than my dh. He's so patient that I don't realize very often that I'm butting into something he's trying to get done.

My son, OTOH, takes after his mama in this area...

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