Flipping the Mattress

Today we flipped the mattress.  This seemingly mundane chore has had a remarkable effect on me.  Please allow me to explain.

A few months ago, I turned 70.  Initially, I told myself, "It's just a number, so don't worry about it."  After all, David and I enjoy good health, we love our life together, and all our children are leading satisfying, productive lives.  My mother, who turns 98 this month, is still in relatively good health even though she is in nursing home care.  She's always told me the secret to a long life is to choose the right ancestors, so that bodes well for the rest of my life.

Nevertheless, I've been in a funk.  Even David is concerned about me, so "as the mattress turned" today, I decided to make a few changes and share them in a new series of posts dealing with the aging process.  The goal is 70 posts for 70 years, but there is a good probability that will change.

You may consider this ramblings from an old lady, and stop reading right here.  You may gain some insight into your own aging process and continue to read to the end.  Or you may choose the practical middle road and read a few or some of the posts.  Though I'd love company along the way, I must admit, this is mostly for me and to give an outlet for my thoughts.  You are most welcome to comment and I'll try to respond.

Perhaps flipping mattresses is no longer that important, but it makes me feel that minor changes can make things seem new and fresh, an important part of an interesting life.

In "Style"

For several years, I have been aiding and abetting my dear friend, Judy,, with her original style show.  She not only designed and made the outfits but wrote the script and presents it complete with jokes and commentary in her role as the "Common Tater".  You can see her Idaho inspired outfit above.  We recently held the show for the Kohler Senior Citizen group. 

Several friendly models also posed in their trend setting outfits.  Ann chose a casual look in her T-shirt with details by Lipton and Augusta National.  She wears it over bell bottom pants and has added "matching" accessories.  Betty has topped a checkered skirt with a double breasted jacket and the classy pillbox hat, courtesy of Walgreens.  Katchen is all dressed for travel in her nylon dress that never needs ironing.  In keeping with the neutral theme, she chose "toast" accessories.  I also joined the crew with my favorite costume, the "slip over sweater" with "capped" sleeves.  My jewelry (by Tiffany of course) is fourteen carat and you can't miss my "picture" hat!  Finally, we had to have a bride, and my lovely neighbor was persuaded to fill the roll.  She was led in by a bridle and carried a nose gay donated by our local plastic surgeon.  Her sweet little daughter was our "Flour" girl.

Now you see what you can be done with a vivid imagination and a sense of humor!

Surviving Winter with Dinner and the Symphony

You are looking at one of the very best s'mores, ever!  A homemade marshmallow topped light custard last night at Margaux, one of our favorite restaurants here in the Sheboygan/Kohler area.  And one of the best parts was that dinner was almost free thanks to a gift certificate from my daughter and son-in-law, Becky and James Reinhold.  We also enjoyed soup, salad, and two delightful entrees, a baked salmon in leek wrapping over a coconut flavored risotto, and the Margaux steak with pommes frites.  Margaux serves both full and half portions, which are ideal for us.  Our dining experience was superb!

Then all we had to do was walk across the street to the beautiful Stephanie Weill Center for a luscious performance by the Sheboygan Symphony.  Last night they featured Dr. Li-shan Hung on the piano for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor",  and the full orchestra with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4.  For a small city, we are continually amazed at the quality performances.

Now this is certainly a great way to spend a winter evening!

Business and Surviving Winter

This is what you see if you place a special order with Peacox Creations or Peacox Too.  Winter always gives me extra time to build up inventory, even a mild winter like this one.  So I've been hard at it, concentrating on scrubbies, baby afghans, and greeting cards.  When these supplies have been accumulated, photographed and listed in my Etsy shops, I'd love to start on some paper cuttings and pine needle picture frames.  But this is also a good time to place your special orders.

It's time, also, to do some updating and promotion of my shops.  I wish I could get some extra help with promotion.  Of course the ideal person would be one who would take products in trade, but that's only in my dreams!  Publicity is one aspect that needs help as it's not my favorite part of this mini side business!

The up side is that there's time to do some planning and thinking!  Winter is certainly not all bad!!!

Presenting: Lizswares More Winter Survival

I'ts a lovely way to spend a winter afternoon:  browsing for jewelry.  And I've found a great spot to do so, an Etsy Shop called Lizs Wares.  You'll find her at http://etsy.com/shop/lizswares  Each bracelet, necklace and pair of earrings is lovingly designed and  made with great care by Liz herself.  I particularly like this gorgeous bracelet with a sparkling winter palette of colors and it can be worn year round.  Please take a moment to visit her stunning shop.  You won't be sorry!

Naming Teeth; More Winter Survival

I'm thinking of naming my teeth.  Now before you think I'm crazier than I really am, I didn't come up with the idea first.  It comes from a character in one of my favorite TV show, NCIS.  In an episode a while ago Abby had named her teeth.  What got me thinking of it again, was some considerable dental work that I'm dealing with right now.  And since I'm down to 31 teeth after Monday,  maybe it's time to identify with each one a little more.  Also winter gives me more time to think of such silly things.

So, it's time to think of names whether I go ahead with this system or not.  At first I thought of "honoring" friends and family, but that would mean selecting certain people and not selecting others and I don't want them to be "insulted"!  Then I contemplated naming them after places I love, but that is a little impersonal.  I'm leaning now to naming them after some of my favorite literary characters that can't come back to haunt me.  Obviously, I'd love to tell you that I'm writing this "tongue in cheek", but my cheek is still sore so I can't do that!

So if you have any ideas for me, feel free to let me know!

Another Way to Survive the Winter; the Winter Survival Kit 4

To each his own!  David has decided that our living room carpet is a great putting green.  So now our front room has a putter, a mock golf hole, and several golf balls as part of its decor.  For everyone who knows us, it is not surprising, as he just loves golfing and a Wisconsin winter is not conducive to much golfing.  I figure that as long as he is enjoying himself and I know exactly where he is, this is a great winter survival technique!

Tomorrow, today's other activities will be explained!

A Day of Guilty Pleasures; Winter Survival Kit 3

I'm still stuck, but that's OK!  Today was truly a day of guilty pleasures.  As it was a late night last night, I got to sleep in again;  this time until after 8:00.  What a treat!!  We enjoyed a great breakfast of eggs Benedict and after a little  computer work, I settled in to the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times crossword puzzles.  As usual, one was much easier, but as you can see, I'll need to take another go at this one tomorrow morning when I'm fresh!

The greeting cards begun yesterday are now finished as far as I can get without buying more tape, and this year's anniversary cards are now designed, but that was the end of most activity other than a load of wash, because our dear neighbors called to ask if it was OK to bring over a pot of chili for an early supper and enjoy the football games with us.  And what a pleasant afternoon and evening it was!

Now it's quiet here and I'm indulging in more guilty pleasure by watching

Downton Abbey.  I must admit it has me hooked with a great story line and superb acting!

Hope you all found some joy in the day, too!

Second Great Day! Winter Survival Kit #2

You may not want to look too carefully at this picture if you regularly receive a snail mail birthday card from us!  The first cards of the year were hot off the press this morning.  At least nine of them are completed and nine more are ready to be assembled.  You're seeing the three colors I've chosen: shades of coral, lavender, and aqua blue.

The 6:00am dip in the pool must have given me the energy!    We are fortunate to have a beautiful workout facility here in Kohler called the Sports Core.  Besides many classes, workout rooms and

tennis courts it features two pools, a lap pool and a family pool.  Being a very cold blooded critter, I  choose the warmer family pool for water aerobics and visits with Sports Core friends.

After breakfast and reading the papers, I assembled all the lovely colored papers, stamps, and inks so I could begin designing.  The above combo was based on an adaptation of a card I had seen before, but I added  some new elements and they turned out quite differently.  Tomorrow I hope to design three more and complete those started today.

Dinner was actually nostalgic for me as I made potato pancakes, an old recipe that was taught to me by my paternal grandmother.  It isn't actually a recipe I guess, as she taught me by how the ingredients look and feel as they're mixed.  I was so pleased to have mastered it as my mom did not like them and preferred not to make them, so after Grandma passed away I could make them for Dad as a real treat.

The clean up did not take long, giving me time to finish my book and get my nap in before an easy supper.  Then it was a quick hop next door to babysit while her Mom and Dad stepped out for the evening.  She's such a delightful baby and so easy to enjoy.  I got quite a kick out of her hitting her plastic golf ball with her little plastic clubs!  I also started a new winter hat for her as she has outgrown the ones from last year.

What a great day!  There's only the coffee pot to set up and the bakery to raise before the warm, wonderful bed will call. 

Buenas noches!

Winter Survival Kit

Isn't this the best way to survive winter??  Our darling little neighbor went sledding for the first time in her life and loved it!!  Winter, however, is the bane of my existence.  Living in Wisconsin, there are few choices other than enjoying it or coping with it, and as hard as I try to choose the first option, it never seems to work.

Winter arrived a little later this year, thank goodness, and that gave me time to develop a new approach.  I'm...chronicling my days until spring (which to me means no more snow and high temps at least in the 40's) to see if they really are as bad as I think at the time.  I hope to be pleasantly surprised!

Today really did start out rather nicely.  David let me sleep until almost 7:00, just in time check email and to slip into some very warm clothes (it was below zero at the time) and head out for the weekly breakfast with three other couples.  As we tend to have a great deal of fun at these events, we choose different restaurants so the same place doesn't have to put up with our nonsense week after week.

This morning the conversations ran from the frustrating to the hilarious.  The frustrating was hearing that the Sheboygan middle school teachers are each going to have to pay $50.00 of their own money to insure the I Pads that the school system has purchased and mandated for every student.  Because all of us are retired teachers or spouses of retired teachers, that was hard to swallow.

Good thing that breakfast was not!  This particular restaurant serves Swedish pancakes with lingonberries which is one of my favs and the hilarious conversations covered everything from different types of honey produced by bees who pollinate different flowers to remodeled bathrooms.   I'll leave it to your imagination to imagine the on and off color jokes that followed.

Then we tackled one of our least favorite chores, the semi-monthly trip to Wal-Mart to pick up items that are definitely less expensive there  I'm pleased to say we survived without David getting too impatient when I can't find things.


Then it was back home to put items away, sweep the sidewalk salt away that we had been tracking in the last couple of days, do a load of laundry, unload the dishwasher and check our mail and Mom's mail.  That left me an hour to continue my new book, In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson the author of The Devil in the White City.  It deals with the Ambassador to Germany in the early 1930's at the time of Hitler's rise to power.  I'm finding it fascinating and a great review of that period of history.  Also it provided great dinner time conversation!

Good thing dinner was quickly prepared (we eat our big meal between noon and one) thanks to great leftover enchiladas.  Even clean up was a breeze.  That left time for playing a few internet games and read more before my afternoon nap.  Now let me do a little explaining here.  I do get a little more than 8 hours sleep a day, but I do it in shifts....about 6 1/2 hours at night and almost 2 most afternoons, a great pattern for someone almost 70 years old.  Even more reading was on the docket while David cleaned up the snow that had fallen this afternoon.

After a quick supper, which I have to admit included some great blueberry pie, we got comfy in the den and watched a little mindless TV,   The only crafting today was making seven scrubbies completed at this time.  Guess it's really time to get cracking on my crafts and Etsy shop which has been in the doldrums after the holiday.  Perhaps tomorrow will bring more inspiration!

If you've lasted this long through a rather personal and uneventful day, I have the feeling you are thinking,  "That's a pretty good life", and I must admit it is!  Even writing this has made my winter mood more mellow!

So I'll post this blog, finish my book, and as Samuel Pepys would say, "And So to Bed"!