January 12 - 18th.... cleanse theyself

january 12th
this is my third post and i feel like i'm starting to get a little more into the flow of things. remembering to take my camera with me, though i'm still kicking myself at the end of the day because forgot to take a pic and  missed a photo op...darn it all.  


 

deep breath...fourth day of my fast and drinking 32 oz of apples juice is easy peasy.  apple juice so sweet and good,  yum.  hope it doesn't mess with my blood sugar too much. one thing i've noticed since i started the fast is that my stomach is not bothering me like it was before.  i'm very happy with this diet...vegan-licious. 




january 13th. 

friday the 13th...colonic therapy today in prep for the final stage of my cleanse.  the office was in a beautiful old apartment building in east mount airy. big wide airy hallways, with beautiful  wooden staircases, floors and wainscoting.  i love these old buildings.  i was a bit nervous about having this treatment, i've only done it  once before...back in the early 1980's... and it was not a pleasant experience.  no wonder i was somewhat  apprehensive going in, but it all was for naught. the practitioner was a lovely woman who made me feel very comfortable and explained everything to me.   i learned some interesting facts about my body and the digestive process.   

january 14th

my mother-in-law's 80th birthday party today, but i was not able to attend because i was in the middle of this cleanse. my husband drove all the way to windsor, ontario on his own, nine long hours, while remained at home alone to finish up what i started.  big long walk in the morning.   then yoga.  the holly  bushes in our yard are beautiful.  so many berries on them. usually the birds get them all, but it seems this year they left them in for me to enjoy. 
coming the end of my cleanse.  finished my last meal and drank the last the apple juice by 3pm.  at 6 pm i mixed up 32 oz of water mixed with epsom salts. i squeezed in some lemon juice and drank my first 8 ozs of this concoction.  ughhhh...well it wasn't so bad, very bitter. drank another 8 oz at 8pm and then at 10 i drank the dreaded olive oil and grapefruit juice smoothy. surprise..it was really very tasty.  then to bed to await the morning flush








january 15th

up at 6am. drank another glass of epsom salts and water.  another a 8am. it was quite the morning.  when all was done i was exhausted.  i rested and read and dozed in front of the fireplace untill the early afternoon. i was still feeling weak, but i got up, bathed, dressed and went over to spend some time with my grandchildren. 

u. love's to play "two the same" in fact it's usually the first words that come out of her mouth when i walk in the door. i'm always happy to play with her.' she has a little basket that she keeps all the pieces in and she dumps them out on the floor, we turn them l face up so we can see them. "there's only one hedgehog" she tells me with a big smile on her face. okay i say...can you find two the same?  we've never  finished a game entirely, but we've gotten pretty close once. when she's done playing, its time to pick up the tiles and put them in back in the basket. she begins clean-up without saying a word...signaling that it's time to move on to the next activity.  

l's house for dinner, scrabble, and then watched masterpiece theatre's latest installment of  'downtown abbey'. 

l prepared some delicious roasted veggies, ymmm.  and she won the game, it was close though.  it was one of those games that started off with a rack like this:  a e o o u i i ....i'm not kidding...i went first by throwing in all my tiles.  unfortunately it didn't get much better throughout the game.  very sad. 





 january 16th ... soup's on

 my daughter and i had another dinner date....we made a big pot of orange lentil soup.  there was some discussion about the nutritional footprint of red lentils as opposed to other types of lentils.  it turns out that red lentils are a rich source of both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber. one-quarter of a cup of lentils contains 7 grams or 28 percent of the daily recommended intake of dietary fiber. good to know.   it turned out to be very delicious and we made enough to last for a few days. :-)

january 17th

oshtie enjoying a the sun on this beautiful day.  what a life....how i wish i were able to sit outside and enjoy the day. but no...i must drive to work and then sit at a desk all day. boo hoo.

january 18th...knit one purl two

our knitting circle meets once a month, usually at my house. but this month  we had the pleasure of meeting at the home of my dear friend  c. who lives in dresher.

here's lisa learning how to cast on a new way.









cheryl's is tackling her first pair of socks...a very brave feat in my estimation.  working with five needles takes a lot of patience, especially with such fine yarn.

January 5th - 11th And so it goes...

January 5th **** one of my New Year resolutions this year is to increase the amount of dance i am doing and improve my technique. luckily i have some wonderful women to dance with. so this evening i jumped into this tribal belly dance class. we are learning a new choreography to some very lovely flamenco style music. so nice.

January 6th ****friday i managed to get out of work early enough so that there was still have some daylight left. it was a beautiful day and i hurried over to my son's house to take u out for a walk.  she wanted to ride her bike again...so on went the pink snow boots and out the door we went.  it was lovely out, warm and sunny.  she was still cautious but is gaining confidence every step.  her dogs  mala and pelu watched with interest as she moved

January 7th **** saturday morning yoga....ahhhh. felt so good to stretch.  then off to meet l for breakfast at a local diner (that was a huge mistake) and though these very nice folks mean well, the food made me absolutely sick for days afterwards ughhh. another new year resolution was to eat with purpose and consciousness as it relates to my body and what my body needs. certainly not diner food, inferior in every way.

yes, it's cheap, but the toll on the body is costly!!

on to my favorite thrift shop to take a peak around. love this place, the proceeds go to support a home for abused woman. these are who are in transition, perhaps leaving unhealthy and/or violent relationships, and trying to start a new life for themselves and their children. i donate here regularly and also come to shop. i have often found some treasures here for myself and my family.

next stop my friend j's beautiful new vintage store "not just antiques" in glenside...wow, she has some beautiful thingsand her shop is gorgeous.   if you love vintage clothing and memorabilia this is a place to check out.....











saturday night stepping out to do some zydeco dancing with a couple of friends.

January 8th ****

beautiful sunny morning....i went for a long walk around the neighborhood.  my sweet little oshie (she's 22 years old) sunning on the front porch in her little bed.   the rest of the day i spent working around the house and in the evening went to see "the artist" at the local theatre with a dear friend. it was good timing because she helped me decide to do a gallbladder cleanse starting monday! 










January 9th ***

full moon....start of my cleanse today...drinking 32 oz of apple juice, and eating veggies, oats and beans.  lots of fiber.  this is a 6 day fast that should result in getting rid of lots of toxins and hopefully leave me feeling much better. i love to eat greens anyway and beans (though hard to digest) are also good.  i'm not a fan of apple juice so drinking 32 oz. was a challenge. 

went over to my sons house to spend time with my little love....a friend was over and they were making pizza (of course i could not partake because of my fast) but it was fun to watch everyone prepare the beautiful gourmet pies...










January 10th ****

dance class with h...my 98 year old modern dance teacher....it must have been at least a month if not longer since i was last at class. first there was hanuka and new years, then h went to boston to visit her daughter, and then i went to cananda to visit my family. there were just three of us at class this week and h killed us with floor work urghhhh...it's good that she's 98 otherwise i don't think i could keep up with her. our improve was excellent...sometimes she asks us to dance a tree or some other object, or express an emotion through movement.    i love winter because in winter when all the trees are bare you can really see the silhouette of  a tree. 

January  11th ***

my son & wife had a baby a couple weeks ago...he is so adorable. sadly i have not had much opportunity to bond with him yet, but looking forward to when i'll be allowed to hold him and we'll really start to get to know each other.  i am blessed that i get to see him, but truly i didn't realize how touch is to the bonding process.  through this period  i am learning some valuable lessons about touch and bonding. 

January 4th.....bedtime routines

after work i stopped in to spend time with my favorite granddaughter. U is 2 years old and the joy of the my life. we have a routine. we play 'two the same' which is a game that involves finding two tiles with the same pictures. U loves this game...we don't play it very long as her attention tends to wander at an amazing rate. we read books, played with her babies & stuffed animals, rode her bike (a new skill), she enjoys her ipad and had some new stuff to show me. she ate dinner and then we played more 'two the same'. we read several books...her current favorite is a brian whitsmith abc book...a is for ardvark, b is for butterfly etc. at each page U says "pleased to meet you aardvark, pleased to meet you butterfly" etc. i could eat her up!! time for a bath/math. the bathtub is the perfect place for learning math, her nesting cups provide endless fascination as we move water from one cup to another, or use the cups to fill a big bucket. we almost always blow bubbles and she loves to soap up herself and then swim like a fishy. water is such an amazing substance...totally alters ones consciousness, it calms the nerves and creates a very reverent mood. after bath we brushed our teeth and flossed. she loves this part of our routine "its picey" she says with a big smile (she's talking about the toothpaste). pj's next and then its time for me to leave for my dance class.

soup and scrabble

january 3rd

my daughter came over this evening for dinner. we made a big pot of orange lentil soup with lots of yummy veggies. while the soup simmered on the stove we played a game of scrabble. this is a new development for us (the scrabble) because for years anjuli would complain "i can't spell" and "you always win" and she would never play with me.

however, i recently noticed she'd started playing lexulous on facebook with her friends. and then last week she challenged me to a game and it looks like she's winning that game. yikes!!
so tonight when i suggested we break out the board she agreed. we settled down in the family room to play, oshtie (our aged cat) watched with interest as we parried back and forth. anjuli managed a 7 letter word early on in the game taking the lead. but i managed to catch up gradually and we were neck in neck as we neared the end. and then at final hour, with no letters left in the bag, i scored a triple word for 60 points! it could have been discouraging....but she's a good sport and she played the game to the end with enthusiasm. the score.... 397 to 305. the soup was delicious, with plenty leftover for lunch tomorrow. yay!

dinner at d's

January 2nd

who says three is a crowd??? D, L and i beg to differ. we manage to get along famously and have many awesome adventures together. we've all been so busy with family stuff over the holidays we chose the 2nd for our evening to get together, cook good food and enjoy each others company. i love D's house, it so cozy and warm. positively filled with beautiful things, many from and or inspired by nature. green is the prevailing color and other earthy tones. as always, dinner was devine, the company exceptional and the conversation titillating.

new year, new blog, new skills.

what better way to spend the first day of the new year than with my my son and two year old granddaughter. i'd been home for a couple of days recovering from the stomach flu, so when my son called to ask if i wanted to join them i jumped at the chance. first we went to the farmers market in chestnut hill to purchase some fresh organic veggies and fruit. then we went for coffee at out favorite cafe 'chestnut hill coffee'. the highlight was playing in the beautiful playground at john story jenks public school. my granddaughter loves the mosaic mural of the rainforest. it is alive with color and life of every description, if you haven. i got some great pics & video of my little one. her energy and enthusiasm for life is contagious. the day was unseasonably warm and sunny, the lighting was so perfect i kept on shooting till i ran out of room on my memory card.