Tag: thoughts

Posted in 2025, Healthy Living, life

If…

Posted on by nancyb422

If I say the number on the scale is “just a number” when it goes up, why don’t I say the same when the number goes down?

Here I am again analyzing what I ate that would cause the scale to increase by .6, yes, half of a pound. It never ends.

Does it reside in my head past the weight check? Really, that’s all it is, it is a weight check.

No, I realize it doesn’t. There are so many factors that can cause it to shift. The delicious sourdough cinnamon raisin bread with butter I had after dinner last night comes to mind….

But I drink my coffee, fill my water bottle, and head out the door for my morning workout.

My Peloton stretch after my workout
Posted in 2025, life, This Old House

The Eensy-ish Spider

Posted on by nancyb422

“The eensy weensy spider came down the water spout”.

Was it eensy because it was in the great outdoors? What about if it’s inside your house? Still eensy or does it look like a tarantula? And where does it come from??

When I got into my glass enclosed shower this morning, I saw nothing unusual. When I got out of the same shower, there was a spider on my counter! Of the 27 or so listed on Spiderid(dot)com said to be local to Connecticut, I didn’t see my guy, but I’ve seen him before.

My colleague would have gone screaming out of her bathroom, but me, I just grabbed a tissue and – I’d like to say opened the window and let him go, but I wasn’t taking the time to think – squished him like a bug and dropped it in the toilet.

This isn’t the first time a bug mysteriously appeared in the bathroom. I guess when you live in a home a year shy of 100 (or it could possibly already be), there’s probably a whole host of things living in the attic amid the insulation and air cooling system. Maybe he dropped through the cooling vent in the bathroom? Would he have taken the long arduous route through the bathroom exhaust fan, moving forward and getting blown back each time it went on?

I don’t know how he got into the room but I’m more interested in How did he go from NOT being there to BEING there? Jump? Web and pull it in behind him?

Are you squeamish about bugs like my friend? Would you have opened the window and let him be free? Would you have shrugged and let him be?

Did someone escape?
Morning after a spider party
Posted in 2025, Healthy Living, life

Taking Care of Myself

Posted on by nancyb422

How do you practice self-care?

Physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, social, and relational. When I looked online for self-care, I found those categories.

Based on the descriptions, I was pretty surprised that I have always practiced self-care but never put the two together.

I eat heathy and work out every day. I write in my journal daily. I read my Jesus Calling devotional every day, followed by the associated bible verse. I read at bedtime and play the New York Times games (almost) daily. I have been working on my relationship with my husband to be more open and honest about things that concern me.

I was going to say that my social self-care would be where I was lacking but I realized – that’s not true! I belong to a group at the library, and attend library events at least twice a month. I meet with former neighborhood friends every month for dinner. I meet with our class reunion committee monthly, which consists of 6 other women who really like seeing each other every month because our next reunion is still 3-1/2 years away!

I could improve on all of that if I could stay off social media!

Posted in 2025, life, Writing

Rain Rain Go Away

Posted on by nancyb422

This weekend in Connecticut is the SEVENTEENTH consecutive weekend with rain on one or both days. That means, since February we have had “weather” on the weekend. We may have had beautiful weather for 5 or 6 days and then, Boom!, the one day you have off or something planned for outdoors, it can’t be done.

Rainy morning

My husband tells me it was predicted and it’s just for the morning which is good because the Travelers Golf Championship final day is happening Cromwell today. It will be hot again after the rain, so hydrate!

Posted in 2025, life, thoughts

Curiosity Killed the Cat

Posted on by nancyb422

I’m curious by nature. I ask (a lot of) questions when I meet someone or when I’m talking to a friend because I enjoy a conversation. Sometimes though, it’s because it takes the spotlight off me.

I like to comment and ask questions of the bloggers I read as well and I like when they comment and ask questions of me (hint, hint 😉).

I’ve been following a blogger, I don’t think she follows me and I enjoy what she writes. She’s from a different part of the country, has a different lifestyle, and still raising children while I’ve raised one.

I’ve read back posts and had been trying to follow the threads of her life, and was looking forward to upcoming events.

I made a comment to her latest post, and now she’s gone. Perhaps in saying I’ve known those feelings in the past, I overstepped the bounds she felt were acceptable. I appeared to be the only person commenting so it must have been something I said! In this case, I’ve tried to ask general questions because it’s a public forum and you never know who else is reading.

I read many blogs that I really enjoy for a variety of reasons, and I’m really disappointed that she has disappeared.

Have you ever felt a well-intentioned comment you made caused someone to disappear in real life or online. Notice I said “well-intentioned” because we know how our keyboard fingers can fly when angry!

Posted in 2025, life, Memories

KFC

Posted on by nancyb422

Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?

I grew up in a traditional household in the 60s and 70s. Sundays involved the 9:15 mass, picking up newspapers (New Haven Register, New York Daily News, Boston paper) with the possibility of a comic at Boylans, and a stop at my aunt’s house before we were home. Once home, we read the papers, and waited for Sunday Dinner which happened anywhere between Noon and 2 p.m. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating, but some Sundays it felt like it was that late because everyone else was out playing while we were still waiting to eat!

Except for that rare Sunday when we got Kentucky Fried Chicken….

Kentucky Fried Chicken. There was a store across the street from our church that opened at noon. On those Sundays (usually during the summer), my mom would head back out to pick up a box or bucket. They would also get the cole slaw and mashed potatoes and gravy that went with it.

Oh that chicken! So crunchy and greasy. I probably ate it for the skin more for the chicken. You can have those big old chicken breasts at the bottom of the box or bucket! Give me a leg or thigh for that juicy dark meat. As a last resort, I’d eat the breast but I’d need a lot of cranberry sauce to wash it down.

My father would jokingly swear that the cole slaw tasted “just like ice cream” and I’m sure we choked it down. Not like now – I love cole slaw!

Stores still exist, but the one across from our church is long gone and it’s probably a good thing because, like anything else that tastes so delicious, that skin is not good for you!

The last time I had it was in 2022 when we were traveling in California to visit my father in law and we stopped to pick it up and bring it for a dinner with him. It was as good as I remembered it and I’m sure as I did every other time I ate it, I told my husband the stories of my families KFC Sunday dinners.

Posted in 2025, family, Home, life, Writing

This Weather!

Posted on by nancyb422

Here in Connecticut, it has rained at some point during 15 consecutive weekends. Maybe one day, maybe both days.

When we moved back here in 1995, me, the Connecticut native, told my husband, the California native to expect at least one day on a summer weekend to be rainy. I think I did pretty good with that assessment. Overall, this has been a Really Wet Year and it doesn’t look like much is changing.

Now that we are in “summer”, the humidity rises. And falls. And rises. I can handle it but my poor husband suffers from the Jekyll and Hyde atmospheric pressures. Vertigo, sinus conditions, headache – he’s had them all!

Do you have constantly changing weather where you live?

April Showers Bring May Flowers
Posted in 2025, hobbies, leisure time, life, Politics, relaxing

Madam Secretary

Posted on by nancyb422

The television show, Madam Secretary, had been on my Netflix Watch List for a very long time. Just when I went to start watching the six season show in early April, I discovered it was leaving Netflix forever on May 14th!

97 episodes. Could I do it? That would be an average of 3.5 shows a day! Highly unlikely. But I started watching anyway.

As my bedtime approached last night, I had managed to get through 4 complete seasons – 67 episodes. Many days it was 2 episodes a day, one at lunchtime and one in the evening. One rainy Saturday, I managed FIVE! It wasn’t totally “unproductive time” as I could knit and watch, and many times, scroll on my phone and watch.

Obviously, I really enjoyed the show! Since it ran for six seasons I felt it must be a somewhat realistic look into the federal government and the State Department in particular. Handy for our current situation!

I learned of how we aid(ed) countries around the world and I learned what you see on the surface is not always what’s happening below. Foreign Ministers, corrupt governments, and who’s helping who behind who’s back.

I enjoyed Téa Leoni as Elizabeth McCord, the Secretary of State. A former CIA agent, she was realistic, but could be emotional, she could be tough but remained diplomatic. Her Department staff as well. Assistant, speech writer, press secretary, foreign policy advisor, chief of staff, no idea of many of these positions before this show, and now my eyes and ears perk up when I see or hear those words.

Tim Daly as her husband who was a professor at the war college (and was recruited for some CIA work), and her three children, also grew on me. When the show began, she had been tapped as Secretary when the current one’s plane blew up over the Atlantic Ocean (season one’s mystery!). They had to move from their farm in Virginia or somewhere, to Washington DC, so culture shock and living in a fish bowl hit them hard. They learned to navigate it over the seasons.

This morning, my Netflix popped up and Madam Secretary was gone.

I still have 2 seasons (30 episodes) to watch and according to my local library’s catalog, they have all five seasons on DVD. Lucky me because I still have a portable DVD player! I’m going to give myself a little break before I head to the library to pick up Season 5.

Have you ever watched the show? Did you like it? Think it was realistic or not? Let me know!

Posted in Books, family, Home, life, Memories, thoughts, Writing

My Road to Motherhood

Posted on by nancyb422

It wasn’t a smooth path. There were bumps, and potholes, and, what felt like, a mountain to climb.

But in the end, there he was.

“Motherhood is seeing your heart walking around outside your body and hoping the world is gentle with it” – Elizabeth Stone

I was not prepared for a boy. I thought “ugh, messy, muddy, eating everything in sight”. But he was not.

He was sweet, not messy/muddy, but still had a mind of his own. He would tell me how pretty I looked and ask, “is that a new dress?”

I’m now a mother of a 35 year old married man.

He is still sweet and thoughtful and I’m grateful to be his mother.

Posted in 2025, life, Memories, Music, thoughts, Writing

Ear Worms

Posted on by nancyb422

I know that ear worms are usually associated with songs but I have an ear worm of a poem running through my head:

Summer breezes softly blow
Memories of long ago
Happy places
Smiling faces
Loving you

It is from SO long ago, and from a random place that I’m not sure it’s exact so maybe I’ve made some parts my own over the years.

I started enjoying poems when I was in my early teens. In our local newspaper was a weekly section of reader submitted poems. Being a love obsessed teen, the poems of that type were right up my alley! I was also in the early stages of typing so I would sit on the floor of my room with my aunt’s portable typewriter and type out the poems I liked. It was a great way to practice, progressing from “hunt and peck” to “not hunting but still pecking” to straight up “no look typing”.

I kept them all in a small book of sayings (about love, of course) that I hung onto for years, moving it with me in my “box of treasures” where ever we lived. Unfortunately, in the course of “simplifying”, the box with this book and some other items got thrown out with the rest. I feel a little heartbroken about it and feel like it’s going to magically appear one day!

Are your ear worms mostly music or do you have a favorite poem that pops into your head too?