25 Days of Wellness - Day 2

Any soreness from yesterday? While it was not the most difficult exercise, I had a 25 pound weight sitting on my toes some of the time. On to today:

Weak in the knees

This one is fairly easy to do, but after seeing patients of degenerative diseases struggle, might as well keep up what you have. Me too, of course.

Use a chair or wall for support, if needed. Bend at the knee until the calf is parallel with the floor and return. This focuses on the knee joint, so no other joints should move. Add a little more challenge by adding weights to the ankles or don't use support in order to challenge your balance. Then try it with your eyes closed while the other leg is on tip toe. Maybe that's a stretch. Do this enough times at a slow and even rate on each leg to feel like you've done something.


If you want to make things really fun, add yesterday's exercise too.
Day 1

25 Days of Wellness, Day 1

Merry Christmas, World!

During that time of year when every day is packed with music, gifts, food, and little time in between, it's easy to push fitness time aside. Every day until Christmas, I plan to post little exercises to fit in the day. These exercises are meant to be done for a minute or two when you need a break from your desk, the kitchen, the line at the store, or anywhere else. The body is such a great gift! Follow along, if you like!

(I probably will steal ideas from other sources. If there are links to other sites, I'm not receiving any compensation from it. Thought you should know.)

Let's start from the bottom and work our way up. How are those ankles feeling? Try a few calf raises by lifting up onto the toes and lowering down again at a slow rate. Exhale as you go up and inhale coming down. This can be done on both legs or one at a time. Feel free to use a chair or the wall for support. To add even more interest, roll back onto the heel and lift the toes after coming down each time. Keep the knees straight and avoid rotating the feet.

Enjoy this little gift to the ankles today!

Sunflower bouquet

Here's a bunch of cupcakes. I made them for the 2 year old birthday we just celebrated. They are decorated with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. The chocolate hardens in the refrigerator, which makes it like a candy center. The whipped cream is tinted with turmeric. It worked well, but took quite a bit of spice, enough that I could taste it. A leaf tip made the petals. And I found a really simple chocolate cake recipe (but I cut the sugar down by about 1/2 c...and left out the espresso powder. As a non-coffee drinker, I don't understand why all chocolate needs coffee flavor.) that stayed really moist for the next few days. Now you want to eat one. So do I.

Soft serve

Hungry for something new? We tried ice cream cone cupcakes, complete with chocolate/vanilla swirl whipped cream. Tasty!

How? Fill the ice cream cone about 2/3 full and bake as directed, with a few minutes extra. We baked them on a mini-muffin tin, but mostly just be careful not to spill as they are top-heavy.

Whip some heavy whipping cream with sweetener. Remove half into one side of a large pipping bag fitted with a large star tip. Sift cocoa powder into the half remaining in the bowl and mix briefly. I used about a teaspoon for 1/2 cup of cream. Fill the empty side of the bag with the chocolate and swirl away.

An account of the creation of the world, and also of Adam and Eve

Here are Adam and Eve, our first parents.

Adam's face pieces

Specs on Adam:
He is zigzagged onto the backing completely. His face is velcro as are his various face pieces. His hair is from an old puppet I made for 7th grade English class. His coat is from a 'leather' shoe I wore at my sister's wedding. His robe is from some of my Dad's pants. He doesn't wear them anymore. His hands and feet are the lining of a tank top that wore out. His eyes are the shortened hem of my husband's gi. Not sure where the red mouth came from. The Princess likes to make him a Picasso face.

Specs on Eve:
Eve's skin is the same tank top lining. Her hair is an old t-shirt I bought for my mission. Her arms are stiffened with pop-sickle sticks, so they can be inserted into the sleeves of the dress. Her 'legs' are also free to fit in the bottom of the dress. The buckle on the dress shown above is from the Mister's watch band. She can be dressed and her hair braided. Or tied in knots or crocheted. That might be a little advanced just yet, but it's something to work toward. So far Eve's dresses are from a pink jacket that never fit right, but I planned to remodel one day. I guess that day is now, just a different remodel that I anticipated. The green dress (seen in the previous post) is mimicking a bride's maid dress for my college roommate. Since I was a bride's maid for several of my favorite people, and made two of the dresses, I had a little left over. On the line-up for other dresses are material from my Prom dress (aka mine and Mister's first date), material from my Homecoming dress (aka mine and Hubby's other major dance date), and some from the alterations on my wedding dress (aka Eternal Date). Nostalgia and toys all in one.

Wanna play?



The rest of the book:
First 
Second & Third
Fourth
Adam

Adam was first formed, then Eve.

I like this one. Here's your preview. But Eve is in the making. Her dresses are in the making too. More soon. Enjoy!

The rest of the book:
First 
Second & Third
Fourth
Adam