Rosh Chodesh

Last night I attended the virtual Rosh Chodesh celebration hosted by our Rebbitzin.  It is a spiritual, almost sacred, assembly of women only and is dedicated to renewal and sharing.  I love the mystical quality of the gathering and the fact that it is tied to the cycles of the moon.  It started with a quiet meditation, a lit candle and a short story, and moved on to a topic we could discuss - infusing spirituality into the most mundane of household chores.

This is one activity that is easier for me since the Coronavirus hit - it usually takes place with the ladies meeting in person.  I will miss it if they no longer use Zoom when the pandemic is over (soon I pray).

Home is in the Kitchen

My annual "Home is in the Kitchen" calendar arrived today.  It joins the other seven - 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020 - in my "collection".   I actually had no intention of amassing all these calendars (I just save the envelopes they came in - they have every month shown on the back).  I just needed something that would cover the big gray side of our stainless steel refrigerator and go nicely with our black, red and gold kitchen motif.  But now their cheerful monthly messages are a family tradition and the growing stack of the calendars' envelopes reminds me of how quickly time flies.

And of course, the artist is correct, home is indeed in the kitchen. Good Food!  Good Life!

They Persisted

I watched the four hour PBS series "The Vote", four hours that documented failure after failure, setback after setback, ridicule, beatings, arrests, and even torture that spanned seven decades.  Unbelievable.  A testament to incredible women who, one hundred years ago next month, gave the gift of liberty, democracy and power to half the population of the United States.

Women took The Vote less than thirty years before I was born.  Yet even as a child I believed I could do anything in life that I wanted.  I owe these women, many of whom did not live to see their dream fulfilled, an enormous debt of gratitude.

I will remember them when I proudly cast my vote in November.

Forgive Yourself

My horoscope today was about forgiveness although that word was never mentioned.  I am normally not a big proponent of forgiveness (not even on Yom Kippur) but luckily my rather short memory span allows me to forget a lot of things.  I believe the hardest thing for me, or anyone, is to forgive ourselves. So this little blurb in today's paper was most welcome.

I do have a few silly things I wish I hadn't done or said and I have many more things I wish I had said or done.  A top regret?  I wish I had asked my grandparents and parents for more stories about their lives.  

With a softened heart, I think I will try to forgive myself.

Death Takes A Holiday

Death Takes A Holiday - both the 1934 original and the 1971 remake - has always been one of my favorites.  But yesterday's Fourth of July version became my Number One when I saw the death tolls from the coronavirus top out at 254 (17 in Florida!).

I know you cannot just count on one day's tally but the death trend does seem to be stabilizing.  I will take any good news on the pandemic at this point.  

Did we not have the staff on duty to count all the bodies yesterday?  Does hydroxychloroquine actually work?  Or did Death really decide to give us a small break for the 4th? 

2020

OK so 2020 is not the great year it promised to be in December 2019.  We are only halfway through and yet we know the rest of the year does not look like it will be a big improvement.  Even without an alien invasion or asteroid we can count on more protests after the November election and lingering effects of the economic meltdown and coronavirus pandemic.  

On the bright side, hubby and I are still happy and healthy (Thank God) and still financially sound.  We live in Paradise (without it actually BEING Paradise 😉) and we have a few good friends, great godchildren, a nice Temple, and a classy new car on the horizon.  A little gratitude always helps get us through the tough times (and we've  conquered much tougher ones). 

Still, I can't help but wish that 2021 was here already...

The Street Where I Live

As I perused the morning paper I glanced at the "New Homes and Villas" offered by The Villages in our newest section, an area I think of as The Wilderness.

I have long surmised that The Villages has run out of attractive names for their new streets but now I am sure of it.  The new homes are located on streets with names like "Rebusmen", "Polacheck", "Feulner" "Lazkowski" and "Hickey".  I am sure the ladies and gentlemen for whom these streets are named (I'm assuming The Villages' planners did not make them up) are extremely deserving of this honor but I confess, there would be No Way I would want their names to be on my return address stickers.

The clincher for one home we purchased was when I asked the salesperson what will be the name of the street of the lot we were looking at.  When he said "Live Oak Terrace" I was hooked.  Ah, the beautiful image of soft Southern breezes and shady sweetness.  Likewise, we now live on a street whose name reminds us of the English countryside or the gentle city in Georgia where some great movies were filmed.

Plus I have the Live Oak tree I always wanted!

The Plus

"If you aren’t getting happier as you’re getting older, you’re doing it wrong."

I am eagerly awaiting this new book by Greg Gutfeld.  It sounds like it will be a different take on the zillions of self-help books out there. 

It says it's "self-help for people who hate self-help".  Now honestly, who would hate self-help?  Doesn't everyone want to help themselves? If you don't help yourself who will?? 

I do indeed find myself getting happier as I get older so I guess I am doing something right.  If I make it another 20 years to 90 I should be ecstatic all the time!

Goals

It's been a week since I started using PoundAWeek to track my calories and I am so proud of myself.  I have 4 pounds to go to reach my goal.

One "trick" I have found helpful is to replace food favorites with items with lower calorie counts. I have lower calorie bread, English muffins, egg substitutes, cheese, chicken and turkey breast, sausages (hubby found them), salad dressing, salmon filets and lox. 

Yay Me!

Self Tanning

I had good luck with self tanning about ten years ago so I decided to try it again this summer.  I had a tiny bout with a skin carcinoma around the same time and have been avoiding real sun bathing since.  But my (masses of) old white wrinkly skin, especially on my pale legs, inspired me to dig out the 10 year old can of L'Oreal's  Sublime Bronze spray.

I must admit, it is easy and quick and the result surpasses my rather low expectations.  The can says it's best used within 6 months of purchase but obviously that is a falsehood, hahaha. 

Just point and shoot!