The Lion King

I'm up .6 pounds this week.  That's probably because of the pizza I ate last night along with last weekends indulgences.  Doh!  I knew better, but I gave into temptation.  The pizza left me bloated just as I was getting dressed to go see The Lion King with my family.  I was still able to zip up those pants I found in my drawer, but they were quite a bit tighter, and I was kicking myself.

The show was wonderful!  It was a thrill to experience a big show like that through my kids' eyes.  They loved it too, and were exhilarated afterwards, chatting on the way home about their favorite parts of the show.  The costumes were amazing.  Hands down, they stole the show.

Now today it's back to real life; a house to clean, groceries to buy, and once again, outlawing pizza from my diet.

The Trees

I've mentioned the pendants I started making a couple of times now, and I thought I'd post a picture of a couple of them, but first there's an interesting story about those pendants.

For a couple of weeks I was seeing trees everywhere.  I don't mean real trees outside.  Of course, I always see those, but I was seeing the imagery of trees in articles I was reading, shows I was watching, tattoos.  Everywhere, every day.  I was beginning to wonder if it was a sign from the Universe or if there was some message I was supposed to be getting from the trees.

I thought maybe it had to do with pruning and new growth because I had been experiencing some of that in my life, and then after seeing a Celtic tree of life symbol as a tattoo I Googled, "tree of life," and I found beautiful jewelry that I wanted to wear with trees on it, and then, because I make jewelry, I thought instead it would be more meaningful if I made myself a tree of life pendant, and that's how I started making them. 

When I shared pictures on Facebook of the pendants I was making, people started asking to buy them, and then I stopped making them, which is weird, but I think it was as Magic Mentha mentioned, a difficulty with receiving that made me stop making the pendants when others expressed a desire to pay for them.

There is another layer to the whole "tree" thing, and another possible message from the Universe or my psyche, and that is that I should begin working on a novel I started last year.  I only wrote a few chapters, but when I looked at the very last sentence I had written I couldn't help wondering if the trees were telling me that I needed to tell this story.  The last sentence I wrote was, "Kali scratched her head while working on her History test and suddenly remembered the strange vibrating tree in the middle of the woods."

The trees.  They are giving me something, and I'm still not sure if I'm imagining it or it's a true sign, but it doesn't really matter, does it?  Anyway, here are the pictures I promised:

The pendant on the right is actually larger than the one on the left.  Here is a picture of them together so you can see their actual size:

Goodbye September

September is usually my favorite month of the year.  I can always count on sunshine, crisp and cool mornings, and a feeling of renewed motivation.  This September has been a disappointment.  It has been gray and rainy, and yesterday was my wedding anniversary, but I spent it sick.  I'm still sick, and there is more gloomy weather to come.

I probably shouldn't complain.  We just had one of the nicest Summers I can remember, but I feel like I squandered it.   I should have used the time to get my body moving and develop some healthy habits so that I would have a leg up as I enter the time of year that I find most challenging. 

I gained weight this Summer instead of losing it.  Now what can I expect for the dark days of Fall and Winter?  More weight gain?

But see?  This is the type of thinking that I'm working to change.  Beating myself up for not doing what I should be doing is my norm, and it's not working.  Trying to make better choices so that I can be happier is not working.  What if I decided to just be happier regardless of the choices I'm making?  I wonder if being happier would lead to better choices and not the other way around.  I know it would, so I'm going to resist beating myself up and go back to accepting and loving myself, knowing I can be happy right now.

I'm also going to let myself rest and recover from this illness and shake this feeling that the house is falling down around me because I don't have the energy to get it cleaned up.  I'm going to spend the next 30 seconds grieving for the loss of my favorite month, (lost because I thought I needed the sunshine to allow myself to be happy in it, not because it was gray) and look forward to the days to come because I'm going to be happy in them no matter what it looks like outside and no matter how tired and achy I feel.

Inspiring!

This lady is such an inspiration to me.  She is 76, and began her journey to becoming a bodybuilder at the age of 71.  It just proves that it really is never too late to get fit, and that being 45 is no obstacle for me.