The glory of a red bicycle!!!

I have my "new" vintage bike--and I have ridden it to work!!! WOOHOO!!! Did have to stop a couple of times to gasp for air but hopefully when I've gotten more miles under my belt that will stop. After I got to work and after a few minutes I felt soooooo great--maybe the endorphins kicked in. I'll try to post a picture of it, but I have to find my camera first, I've put it "somewhere" safe--evidently safe from ME!!

Forgive me blog, for I have neglected you!!

Well, so much for resolutions about blogging, but I've resolved to do some everyday or so. I have found a reason for my recent weight gain and hopefully will be able to reverse that soon. I found out last summer that I have celiac which means anything with wheat or wheat products cause an awful immune system response that involves the small intestine. I saw my gastro guy a week ago and he said the fact that I've gained weight since I've gone gluten-free indicates that my body is now absorbing nutrients etc. Hmmm...kinda a double-edged sword, me thinks. Also, gluten-free foods tend to have more fat and sugar to make them taste better. So I've bought a vintage Schwinn Hollywood Cruiser bike from G. Oscar's Bike Shop in Tulsa and I plan to ride it to work. Ok, I only work a mile from my house so I'll have to ride a little more than that every day to really help me much. But I've always LOVED to ride bikes and this bike is just like the one I used to have and sold in a "garage sale frenzy fit". I'm excited to replace my old bike. I had bought a Free Spirit bike a few years ago but it just didn't sit like my old Schwinn so I didn't ride it much. I have a couple of friends who are thinking of getting bikes also and we can meet up at the River Parks and ride there some. WOOHOO!!

I'm going to be blogging more about my experience with celiac--I guess I could term it a love/hate relationship. I hate that I can't have fresh hot yeasty bread anymore (or even stale cold crusty yeasty bread!!!), I wandered the bakery side of Reasor's this afternoon looking for some gluten-free options--didn't find any there but almost left crying because the cakes and bread looked sooooo good, and would make me feel sooooooo bad if I ate them. I told my husband that I just wanted to fall face down in them and wallow all over them. Oh, well. I did get a Pillsbury gluten-free chocolate chip cookie mix and made that, added English walnuts and oh, man!! They are WONDERFUL!!!! Enough to banish the "gluten-free woe is me" feeling. Mike said they were outstanding, and the chocolate cake I made a few weeks ago he said the same thing about it. So this is a good time to have celiac as there are more and more good things coming out. Now if I can just find a good bread mix!! I haven't made any bread yet so there may be some!! I hope so.

I am one of those few people this year who is loving the cold and snow, that's another indication that my body is using the food nutrients. Last winter I was cold and miserable the whole time but I'm not feeling the cold as much. I am almost ready for spring though and certainly will be by the time I get my bike home (I'm picking it up probably Tuesday). I'll be ready to ride--to work and all around the town. I'll be the crazy librarian on the red retro bike!! WOOHOO!

YIKES! Where's the will power???!!

I've always known that around sugar I'm a weak person. I can resist almost anything else but something sweet gets me every time. This time it was Braum's. And I didn't have 10% less!! My husband might have because after I finished mine I started on HIS. Oh, well, it didn't cause me too much grief, I'll just do better today. And tomorrow. I know that I'm going to slip up but it won't cause me to throw in the towel.

I LOVE snow, I think it's one of the most beautiful things on earth. I love to watch it fall, I love to see it on the ground, I just love it. My daughter Lucy has the gift of being able to "smell snow", she can actually smell the air and tell if it's going to snow. She is always correct in this too. It's an amazing gift I think. She loves snow too, she's like a snowbunny--she's always out in it playing. She has a great gift for playing too. Not everyone has that gift. I think I have it, I love to play--and will drop everything I NEED to do to go play. That is the best gift of all--the ability to play and enjoy life. True, my house is a mess, but my husband likes to play too so we're ok with it.

And the last thing I want to say is...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Resolutions!!

I am not one for New Year's Resolutions as a rule, and this one is not one of those either, but I guess, a New Lifestyle Resolution. As is very common for many people, I have gained weight and need to remove it. So I'm going to blog about that for a while and see if it helps me. Since I found out that I have Celiac I have gained weight. Don't know if it's from "comfort eating" or because food "replacements" made without gluten have more fat and sugar in them to make them taste good, or a combination. I'm NOT going to weigh myself--I'm going to take it from what I weighed the last time I went to the dr. and see if I can go from there. Hopefully my clothes will get looser. I'm going to take Dr. Joe Murray's advice--he's the director of the gastroenterology department at the Mayo Clinic and evidently the top guy on Celiac in the world. His advice is what he calls 10-10-10--eat 10% less, no eating after 10 at night, and walk 10,000 steps a day. I can do the 10% pretty easily, and I don't eat late at night as a rule, it's the 10,000 steps a day that's going to be tough one. I plan on getting a pedometer, and then watch out AMOS!!! He's going to have to join me in SOME of those 10,000!!! He could use a little reduction himself although he's not chubby. I know that I will feel so much better both from exercise and weight loss. Wish there were an indoor pool here in Glenpool, I hate to drive to Tulsa to swim, but that may happen. Or I may wait till summer and use the community center pool. We'll see. Wish me luck!!!!

The kindness of relative strangers!!

I mentioned to a very nice young lady a couple of weeks ago that I was gluten-intolerant--she's a sales rep for a natural foods distributor. She brought me some WONDERFUL gluten-free items--made by Shabtai-Gourmet--and they are FABULOUS!!! You cannot tell that they have no wheat or gluten in them. I am going to work hard to get them distributed in Oklahoma--principally at Akin's. They are THAT good that it is worthwhile trying to get them locally. So...hence the title Kindness of Relative Strangers. It is also inspiring me to come up with some more random acts of kindness--I LOVE those!!! It is pretty easy to do kind things for those you love and know...and also easy to not do them for those you love and know. So I'm going to make an effort to be kinder to my family and friends as well as people I don't know. And I'm going to try to blog every day!!! That's going to be my random act of kindness to myself.

Where does the time go???

Oh, MAN!! It's been TWO months since I've blogged. Well, some things have been going on and I just feel like doing it. We went to Rochester Minnesota to the Mayo Clinic to get Lucy checked out. She's had "stuff" going on all her life. She still has a little going on but all in all, she's in pretty good shape IF IF IF she takes care of herself--but then, that's true most likely of all of us. I've just been diagnosed with Celiac Disease--which means I can nothing made from wheat, rye or barley, no beer, no rye whiskey, no donuts, no bread, no onion rings etc. LOTS of stuff has gluten in it, which is the thing in wheat/rye/barley that my body has an autoimmune reaction to. But i haven't found it too awful so far. I FEEL sooooo much better!!! I'm no longer immensely tired, my stomach no longer aches, I no longer have to know where every bathroom in the country is (unless that is, I eat...GLUTEN!!!). Lucy is most likely gluten-sensitive--she does not have celiac NOW but does carry the genes for it.

After getting back from the cool weather in Minnesota to the hot hot hot summer heat/humidity of Oklahoma we had to get her ready to move to Stillwater to go to college. That has been AWFUL. It's time for her to get out and have a place of her own, but it's hard to let 'er go!! I'll miss her, I've had kiddoes for 35 years so this is something way new for me. She's been snarling at me, I've been snarling at her, her dad has just stayed away from it all but it's been AWFUL. I'm sure we have all kinds of emotions going on, she's ready to get out there, I'm ready to get her out there, but I'm also going to miss her a lot!! It seems like just YESTERDAY that she was running around in a diaper with my nightgown draped over her like a little princess. I keep telling myself that just a few generations ago a "girl" ("woman"???) her age would have been married for several years and most likely would have kids of her own. BIZARRO!!! I cannot imagine that for her. And she told me that when she got out of college she's going to move to San Francisco!!! My gawd--that's a LONG way off!!! That made me even sadder. OH, well, time flies and then you grow up, and your kids grow up. It's not sad... not really...I keep telling myself that...it's natural, but I'm still sad. Where is my baby??? She was just here a few minutes ago...or was that really a few years??? Wow. Anyway, I love ya baby, I love all my babies.... and their babies. Time...where does it go?

Fergie--the Duchess of York

I've just finished reading a great book by the Duchess of York. It's called What I know Now and really really spoke to me. Each chapter is short--mostly about 3 pages but each is filled with lots of wisdom and caring. She has learned a lot in her life--she's made many mistakes but has benefitted from them--she took her mistakes and made them into a learning experience, she didn't blame others for her errors, somehow she realized that mistakes are human and that it is important to learn from them so you don't keep making them over and over. She looks within herself, changes that which needs to be changed and has evolved into a very caring woman of depth.

I would love to have an opportunity to meet her and get to know her, but of course, that is not going to happen. But her books can give me a glimpse, and I do plan to read her other ones too.