Role Models

Months after reading this and mentioning it here, I am still in love with this woman. She is living proof of where we can all be at 83. My favorite yoga instructor in Ann Arbor was 72, and his busy schedule included teaching at least 4 hours of yoga every week.

At last year's Run Thru Hell (Hell, MI), I was talking to a man who had run every Detroit Marathon since the race started in 1978. More notable than his level of physical fitness was the level of happiness radiating out of this guy. He was having a great time doing what he loved to do.

That's something we can lose sight of. It's not totally about being a size 2. It's about being mindful, taking care of yourself, and having fun while doing it. Thank goodness there's a whole generation (or 2) of people still around to show us the way.

Going to workout now.

MBTI = INFJ

So, was going through Nester's archives and saw this entry.

Clicked through and took the test, and shocker: I'm INFJ (Introversion, iNtuition, Feeling, Judging) - making up 1% of the population. I should be a minister, professor, or counselor.
Husband is nearly my polar opposite (an ENTP) but supposedly the best match for this weirdo.

Famous INFJ's? Mother Theresa, Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandella. Wonder if they'd like Real Housewives too?

Balloons in the Backyard

One of the really cool things about living here is probably that our town has a Balloon Fest every summer. If the wind is right, a half-dozen-or-so balloons will take off from or land in the field behind our home. Because the weather was perfect, we saw dozens of balloons float over our roof top. This year's favorites: the carousel balloon that 's a regular sight in town, and a new penguin balloon. I ran up to snap a picture of these two landing in the field this year ('09).

I think that every time I need to vent, I'm going to mitigate it with a picture that reminds me of something cool. In the last three days, both the refrigerator and dishwasher have died. We just had to replace the motherboard on the computer in July and paid over $300 to fix the microwave a couple of months ago. Yes we could have bought a new microwave for almost as much, but I'm feeling like we really need to mitigate the huge footprint that we're already leaving on the earth and actually fix the stuff we have instead of tossing it aside for something new. Another bonus: warranty on fridge expired July 28, and the problem is more costly/complex than pretty handy Hubs can handle on his own.

Aren't the balloons really cool?

Paint Therapy

Lately I've been focusing on things in which I either have no control, or it's my responsibility to take over all control to steer my family onto a very difficult path that I feel will leave us better off in the long run. I know that all of this cryptic vocabulary doesn't make it any easier for anyone to help or understand the situation, but I can't really get into it any deeper here.

Without going into detail, I will say that I've been feeling extremely trapped in my current situation, worried about the welfare of those around me, and the welfare of my husband pracitcally killing himself to make everyone happy with the result of keeping everyone miserable. I've been angry about the situation, scared, sad, even devastated. I've also been working so hard to 'put a good light on it' and just deal with the situation and be happy for everything that's going right. This was working out okay until a couple of months ago when we got the rug pulled out from us in a certain regard. A couple of weeks later there was more bad news that left me depleted, then about a month ago a series of events transpired that basically destroyed any hope that this situation would be fixable in any measure whatsoever. That's when I realized that there is a very sound solution, but this means that I actually have to be assertive in my convictions and that I actually have to lead this family and not just follow grudgingly along the path to ruin. I felt the opaque fog that's been struggling to smother me the last few years go away. Instantly. I've been working on the plan for a few weeks now, and I am more convinced that I'm definitely on the right path, as hard as it is to navigate.

So, I've been finding ways to keep me from dwelling on this stuff 24 hours per day. That's where the paint therapy comes in. I found this little bird for $2 at Salvation Army. I've been wanting to try a project like this to see how it would come out.


After a little white paint meditation, the bird emerges a bit more to my taste. Here he is making my bookcase look so much nicer.

So here's to making things a little better, and a bit of paint to make it all easier to deal with.