Barefoot & On the Mat September 2022: Welcoming My Favorite Month!

[Paine]

I went to 2 markets this morning and will be doing food prep for the week. Ugh, we are having a heat wave, yuck! Yesterday Day 2 of Joelle's Yin Yoga challenge came late in my email so I did that one yesterday afternoon. I will do Day 3 later today.

Sandra, I bet it's frying hot where you live!

Cyana, awww that was a cute video. When we lived in Alaska we often had a mother moose with her calf or calves in our front yard and/or backyard. The calves are so cute! They would play just like kids. Several times we saw a mother moose who had twin calves. The moose ate the flowers and plants in our flower bed. That part I didn't like.
Enjoy the rest of your favorite month of September!

Pat, I'm glad you are feeling better today.

[JustSandra]

Howdy!

Friday was my usual rest day, and I just couldn't motivate myself to do anything on Saturday.

Today's Workout: The Shoulders, Hips & Hamstrings routine (aka The One With the Birds) from Essentrics Strength & Stretch In Motion.

I'm caught up in the same evil heat wave as Paine, and it is supposed to get worse and worse through the coming week. So I'm only going to do stretchy type workouts until it cools down a bit.

Cyana: My retirement starts in 20 days (on Saturday, September 24). Only 11 more work shifts to go!

Waving to all!

[cyana]

Happy Labor Day

I did Lee's Rest and Restore workshop yesterday. I'll be honest and say that I wasn't blown away. I didn't find much new, which was disappointing. I'd hoped to find some new strategies to help me shift gears from the expected crazy busy days during busy season in order to get better quality sleep. There was a tremendous amount of buffering, which was not typical (no one else in my house was experiencing issues, so I don't think it was on my end) and didn't contribute to my enjoyment of the workshop. Hopefully once they slice and dice the material and put it in my subscriber center I'll be able to revisit in small bites. He's also going to do a shorter practice as a bonus. I wonder if I'm experiencing some qi gong burn out since I did those two intensive workshop series in early 2022.

Sandra - Oh my goodness you're going to have brutal temps today and for a good part of the week. Fingers crossed they don't have to resort to rolling black-outs. I'm hoping that once you're into your retirement, hearing about your new lifestyle will inspire me to take the plunge in early 2023.

Pat - Back to the okra, I once made a jar of the okra water - you know me, always looking to do some sort of kitchen experiment - it wasn't unpleasant at all. It would've been interesting to check a before and after blood glucose level (I'm not a diabetic, but a Mad Scientist at heart). I'd advise trying to find okra that looks really fresh - I think one reason people get turned off to it is because what they buy in a store is old and starting to get slimy. It's weird, if I freeze fresh okra, it seems to hold up well in the freezer but I don't find commercially frozen okra cooks up as well. Perhaps if I had an air fryer or used the convection setting in my oven it would turn out better. One last thing - if you can find small, fresh pods of okra, I've even sliced it and put it on a salad (a trick I learned from a farmer) - would've never thought to do that. If you haven't figured it out, I absolutely okra and should try drying a pod or two so I can plant some in my landscape next year.

Paine - Did you find anything good at your markets this week? My local farmers are getting into that transition period where the summer crops (boo hoo - good-bye fresh cukes and squash) are petering out, but the fall crops aren't ready yet. Tomatoes and peppers are still hanging in there. I can't imagine moose eating my outdoor plants - squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits are bad enough. Hope your power stays on during the extreme heat this week.

Speaking of kitchen experiments, I'm going to start some flavored vinegar today - I got a couple of fiery hot peppers from the Food Goddess on Saturday, so I'm going to poke a couple of holes in those, add apple cider vinegar and some lemon peel and see what happens.

Hope everyone has a good day. Waves to ALL!

[Margot]

Hello everyone!

I've been painting and decorating again, which has taken up most of my days. I plan to finish this week for now and then do our bedroom after our vacation. I haven't done much except for Joelle's 3 day program for both Upper Body and Lower Body. Thanks Carolyn for the link. I really enjoy these short practices. It's funny because I thought she was Irish but she's actually Swiss born and now lives in Germany.

I loved all my workouts yesterday:
- Jessica Smith Strong & Centred Fusion Sculpt with gliders
- Karin Flow Tonic Pads Shoulder & Back Strengthening
- Mimi Kuo-Deemer Earth Element (YT)
- Day 1 of Joelle's Yin Yoga

Cyana - Sorry Lee's workshop was a bit of a disappointment. The buffering would have certainly not helped. I tried Okra once and found it slimy. It's good to hear it tastes better when fresh. Have fun with your kitchen experiments. The flavoured vinegar sounds good. I love playing around in the kitchen too.

Paine - How are you enjoying Joelle's Yin program so far?

Sandra - I just looked up your temperatures for the upcoming week. Hope the air conditioning can cope with that extreme heat.

Pat - Hope your back is feeling better today.

Garrie - I'm a former FIRM and Tracy Long junkie too. You got me thinking about pulling one of them out again to try. I've been fabric shopping too for curtains and cushions - great fun! I imagine you're buying material for your quilts?

Waves Beth and Pam.

Happy Labour Day to all!

[toaster]

cyana, that sounds frustrating about the workshop. There is a store around here that specializes in flavored vinegars! Did you know adding vinegar to cookies gives them a buttery taste, like shortbread? I have a recipe for that.

Margot, it's nice to have a good workout day like that!

Sandra, wow - I almost forgot that this is your retirement month!

We are not getting quite the heat wave that some of you are. Last weekend was hot, but yesterday and today are cool, barely getting above 70 (which might be nice if it weren't dark and gloomy). It is supposed to warm back up, but I think we're staying in the low 80s.

I plan to finally film another video today; it will be a standing chair practice.

[Pat58]

Good morning and Happy Labor Day! Yesterday I did some PT and repeated the gym workout of recumbent bike and light weight machines.

Beth, I'm glad you enjoyed that little yoga routine.

Paine and Margot, you both have me interested in Joelle's workouts.

Cyana that moose clip was cute! Too bad about the workshop issues. When I attended Lee's "infomercial" livestream a lot of people had problems.

Sandra, good luck with the heat wave.

Waves to Garrie, Carolyn, Pam and anyone who visits!

[Pat58]

Carrying forward Carolyn's link to Joelle's yoga challenges. I'm joining the back pain one, of course.

https://yogawithjoelle.com/free-yoga

[Paine]

Joelle's Yin Yoga Day 4 class
Jackie's Essentrics class

Cyana, no I didn't find anything good at the market. I'm looking forward to when Honeynut squash is back in the market! It should be available late September or early October.
One summer in Alaska we had beautiful tulip blooms and the moose ate them ALL like lollipops! We decided not to grow tulips anymore after that.

Margot, our whole house needs to be painted inside. We painted the outside of our house last year.
I enjoyed Joelle's Yin Yoga challenge. I like the short practices.

Pat, I'm glad you're feeling better.

Beth and Cyana, I order flavored vinegars from California Balsamic. I like their Ruby Red Onion Balsamic and their Simply Lemon Balsamic (both are sweet and I use them on my salad as salad dressing). I like their balsamic vinegars because they have no sugar, oil or salt in them.

https://californiabalsamic.com/produ...gory/balsamic/

[JustSandra]

Hi! Just letting everyone know I'm alive. The high in my town got up to 111, with a similar reading expected for tomorrow. I'm doing my part to help avoid rolling black-outs by keeping my thermostat at 80 -- doable if I don't move around too much! We'll see how it goes tomorrow when people return to work and school. I'm not even going to try for any sort of workout the next few days. Luckily the mornings are relatively cool and I've been about to walk around some outside.

Cyana: I've got at least a couple of my coworkers starting to think about retirement also!

Waving to all!

[cyana]

Double Moan-Day Greetings! I'm not sure what the correct terminology should be for returning to work after a 3 day week-end.

Sandra - I'm glad your power grid is hanging in there - fingers crossed for more moderate temps very soon. Maybe you should start a business as a retirement coach since you're inspiring multiple people to get on the wagon.

Paine - I would've been heartbroken to watch my tulips being devoured by the moose crew! I did a little bulk cooking yesterday - made a batch of egg muffins with tomato, onion and sheep feta and a big batch of hummus. I also got my flavored vinegar started (I let it steep for up to a month). I stopped there, as it was the day that DS called and we usually chat for an average of 2 hours. I still haven't seen Honeynut Squash - will need to keep an eye out this fall. Those vinegars sounded delicious - and very creative.

Margot - Are you heading somewhere wonderful for your vacation? I usually feel compelled to pull out some of my Anna Benson work-outs in the fall - hopefully I'll get back to my roots and do some of those soon. I had the presence of mind to put on some nitrile gloves then I was handling the hot peppers yesterday - those things are fiery!

Pat - Hope your back is continuing to improve every day. I must check out Joelle since she seems to be well-received here. Now that peak tourist season is over, will it be easier for you to have the beach to yourself?

Beth - Did you get your latest video posted? I didn't have a chance to check this AM. I didn't know that about adding vinegar to cookies - interesting.

Must run and grab a cup of coffee before starting my work day. I'm guessing we have one final week of semi-normalcy before things start getting really crazy. Not sure what the work du jour will be - DH slept later than usual, so I wasn't able to do an early morning work-out since I use the bedroom for that. TBD!

Waves to ALL!