Exercising and Losing Weight

 

This is a not very good picture of me taken in a mirror, with a surprising mess in the background.

But hey, I don't take pictures of myself often so here it is.

Anyway.

I have slowly been gaining weight over the last few years and I don't like it. It obviously isn't healthy to keep gaining weight and gaining weight and gaining weight. Also, I am diabetic which is another reason to not be happy with getting heavier.

Last week I was thinking about this. The thing is, I hate being hungry. Like, really. Eating less is stressful. I have never had to go on a real diet in my entire life because I used to be effortlessly thin.

Then I thought, well, I could at least start exercising regularly. That would be good, right!

Then I thought, WHEN? I have a busy life.  Except that I often get up pretty late. So I decided I would start getting up at 8 a.m. (which is not THAT early) and exercise.  I have done so the last 6 days. I already feel more energetic which is impressive.

Regarding losing weight, nada so far. I am about the same. But I will focus on the exercise part before tackling the eating part.

Speaking of eating, I have been having lower blood sugars the last few days, and I can feel it. That is not a happy feeling. Now I am not on insulin so I am not in danger of going REALLY low, but it isn't comfortable when I drop to the mid 70s. I feel shaky and weird.

Anyway. I am paying attention to how I feel. It may be I have been running rather high for awhile, and am lower because of exercise and my body is confused. I have an appointment this week and will see what my latest A1c is. I hope not above 6.5; if so, I will be seriously annoyed with myself. for eating carelessly. Or maybe I need to add some other meds.

We will see!

Sarah

 Our seventh child turned 14 this month. Wow.

She is taller than Daniel, age 12.

She is taller than Mom, age 55! I am 5 ft 8+ inches tall and none of the older girls are taller than me. But when you throw the genetic dice enough, eventually you get a very tall daughter! I think it is fun that she is 5 ft. 10 inches tall though hope for her sake she doesn't get a lot taller. Because buying clothes is harder when you are super tall.

She is probably about done growing.

I took her to the doctor for a teen checkup and she is very light for her height and age, and actually lost a little weight last year. That isn't very good though I have had other children who were overly thin. However, after discussions, we realized Sarah just isn't eating a lot. She is the kind of person who eats a lot when she likes the food, but doesn't feel like eating when the food isn't wonderful. We discussed this and agreed she needs to start eating more. Joseph is the same way and is slowly crawling higher on the weight scale, which is a good thing. 

I was thin in my youth as well, but I always ate. I like eating. The idea of just not eating when the food is boring isn't the way I operate :-).

But yes, she is working on eating more.

She is very creative. She made this little plushie on her head with no help from me. Nada. I am very incompetent with sewing and she and a couple of the other girls are AMAZING!

I am very thankful for every one of the children. Sarah was a 'triple rainbow' baby, which means she was born after three miscarriages. I thought she would be our little caboose and then God blessed us with Daniel and then Rose!

One of the funny things around here is that because Angela and Sarah are over three years apart, I have long lumped the six older ones together and the three younger ones together, and for years I called the three younger ones "the little ones."

Now Sarah is taller than me so that doesn't work :-).

So now they are "the younger ones".

Thanksgiving is this week and I am excited and grateful for many things.

Kevin and Monkeys

 

Kevin turned 54 in the last week. I turned 55 a few weeks ago. I am just a little more than a year older than he is

I love him so much. He is very smart, and hard working, and we have a lot in common, and he loves Jesus, and me, and our kids.

Please note the jade plant behind Kevin. Usually it lives in our sun room but we have been hosting a cat who has a bad ear infection. Twice a day I get to snatch her and pour drops in her ears. She doesn't like it, but she is improving.

So the plant is indoors. Now the plant is interesting because it is alive. I kill plants.  Like, I am so bad with plants. I am great with kids, but not great with plants. So every living plant in the house is thanks to Kevin. He does a good job.

So yeah, great husband and father and editor and grower of jade plants.

Why did I mention monkeys? Why, because about a week ago, more than 40 monkeys escaped their enclosure in Yemassee, South Carolina. MORE THAN FORTY!

Crazy stuff! They have managed to capture most of them but apparently there are still 13 on the lam.

It just makes me feel kind of, I don't know, happy, to think of monkeys leaping on trees and fences and generally causing chaos, so long as no one gets hurt, of course. It is funny. So far, the captured monkeys have all been well. Now realistically, the sooner they are captured the better, but there is this certain joy in thinking about them carrying on and leading their caretakers a merry dance.

Post Election

 Before I talk about the election, I have sad news. Our random rooster died at the teeth of some predator. Poor Cogburn. Chickens are generally stupid and he lasted months, which was surprising, really. But yeah, something got him a few days ago. We will miss him.

Ok, the election. Obviously Trump won.

I am a conservative and so I voted for Trump and I am happy that he won.

I know lots of people, including some people I love very much, have VERY different views of the matter, and are very sad that Kamala Harris lost.

When I was considering the available information on Monday night, with the polls supposedly tight as tight in the swing states, I was frankly confused. I thought it SHOULD be a Trump landslide, not necessarily because of Harris's deficiencies as a candidate, but because she is VP during a time in American history where inflation has been high and people are nervous about bills and groceries and all that.

Historically, when the American people think the nation is "on the wrong track" in large numbers, they vote out the party in power. Presidents have a lot of power, but still, life happens -- the COVID pandemic caused a lot of trouble and while I definitely did not approve of many of Biden's decisions, I am aware that the troubles of our country cannot all be heaped on his shoulders. But people look at their own lives and if things aren't going well, they tend to vote for a "change" candidate, and while Harris tried to make herself out as a change candidate, it was hard for her to do so given that she is the VP at the moment.

The whole thing was a mess for Democrats in other ways, of course, given that Biden stepped out of the race only a few months ago. Now I would argue that was a mistake on the part of the party; the man is obviously declining mentally, and shouldn't have tried to run again. But I also have sympathy for the situation. He IS the sitting president. And people with dementia often don't know they HAVE dementia. How do you tell someone who is the most powerful man in the world that he should NOT run again for President?

As for Harris, I am confident she is an intelligent person with many gifts, but she is not, frankly, a gifted speaker. She repeated herself a lot, and there were the word salads, and she just didn't connect well with a lot of "normal folks". I understand she talked at one point about how much she loves Venn diagrams. I love them too! They are so awesome! But apparently Venn diagrams leave most people cold.

One thing that is undeniably true is that people are individuals. Yes, black men OFTEN vote like other black men, and women with college degrees vote like other women with college degrees, but not everyone thinks the same way within the blocs. I am a highly educated white woman who would never, ever, ever, ever, ever vote for Kamala Harris because a huge part of her message was abortion rights, and I HATE abortion. I hate it. It breaks my heart. To be clear, I recognize there are rare occasions when abortion is the only viable option, like life of the mother, but in general, I think it horrific, and the one thing that Harris was very clear on was her defense of abortion, up to and including post birth. I mean, it is happening in Minnesota. Babies have survived abortion and been left to die, and Walz, her running mate, signed a bill so that medical people don't have to tell anyone if an infant survives abortion and is left to die. So we don't know how many almost full term babies are dying post birth in Minnesota. Now I think a life is a life is a life regardless of gestational age, BUT that is infanticide. That is carrying a baby somewhere and leaving him or her to die. It is another level of evil.

One of the vibes from the Democrats was that women should vote for Harris because she is a woman, and we should want one of "our own" to be in the White House.

I have no problem with a female president. Maybe in my lifetime, there will be a female president. But by God, I will NOT vote for someone MERELY because she is female, or black or whatever. We are talking about literally the most important job in the entire world, and we need someone who can do the job. I think Trump can, nor will he be a dictator.  Lots of people hate his guts. I get that. I respect that. If people voted for Harris because she was NOT Trump, I understand.

In my case, I would have preferred a different Republican, but I was never going to vote Harris and I think Trump will do a good job.

So yeah. I am going to pray for our nation and that our government can do the right thing. And I'm going to focus on the most important thing, which is my job as wife and mom and child of God.

November!

 

I love fall colors so much! Gorgeous! I don't even know where this tree was. I found it on my phone. I took the pic but don't remember where I was at the time.

So...

Lots going on. First a new book launched a couple of days ago. It is doing fine, though nothing like the last book, which was called Elizabeth is Not a Bennet. That one was a BEAST. But this one is doing fine so far.

Our church had a Trunk or Treat ministry on Thursday, Halloween.

Angela manned a table and also did the decorations and made the Flower Face for herself. It comes from a video game. Isn't it cute?

We had about 400 people go through.

Yesterday I went to the funeral of my friends' seven year old son. It was a powerful service and also so incredibly sad. I thought the pastors both did a great job. They didn't speak empty platitudes. They said, yes, we have a Lord and Savior who loves children and this little guy is with the Lord. BUT this is agony for his family. We don't understand it. We may never understand it.

So yeah, that was a hard service. I wish I had brought more Kleenex. I am praying for my friends and also will be available to help them in the future. 

This is funny to me... I have been watching a lot of shows and video clips that have little commercials mixed in. It seems like no one knows who I am because the commercials are absolutely aimed for someone else. I keep seeing a wine commercial. I hate the taste of wine so much. I keep seeing commercials for special shampoo for black women's hair. My hair is straight and boring, not beautifully curly and able to be braided in a fancy way. I also keep seeing Pampers commercials, sometimes in Spanish. WHAT? I mean, yes, I had plenty of babies, but a long time ago!

Rose learned to ride a bike this last week. Yes, it was late but she took to it like a duck to water. Then yesterday she and a couple of other kids were doing the Death Gully Challenge and she crashed into a tree. She is fine though has a bruise on her leg. Like why, kids? Why be so crazy?  Because they are young and full of vim and vigor.

Obviously the election is on Tuesday. A lot of people are stressed, including me. It has, if nothing else, been a whacky election cycle with a previous president running again, and Biden dropping out, and assassination attempts, and other insanity. 

I keep trying to remember that God is God. Sometimes the "wrong" leader comes to power. God is still God.  

We do have seven voting Kendigs and will be doing our part on election day. 

One thing that is regrettable is that people generally ascribe rotten intentions toward people with other views. I can believe someone to be wrong while still understanding the motivation behind it. There can be good intentions which lead to bad outcomes.

Well, we will know soon...