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| Flowering plum blossoms, our street trees |
Musical selection of the day: Vivaldi's Spring. It is a very familiar song but appropriate for today. Cue the music and listen while you read the rest of the blog post.
My sister and her husband were in town this weekend. They live in Boise so we don't don't see them as often as we would like. When our kids were young they lived in Tacoma. All important family functions were spent together. I miss that so much. We really enjoyed our time together. Their youngest son just announced his engagement and plans a late summer wedding. Whew, the kids are growing up so fast.
FitBit: I had my fist 10,000 step day this past week. When it happened the Fitbit practically exploded with its weird form of congratulations. I actually didn't know what was happening until I pieced together the pieces later in the day.
Health tip of the week: Apple Cider Vinegar has surprising health benefits from lowering cholesterol, aiding in digestion, even curing hiccups. Drink 1-2 tablespoons mixed into at least 12 oz of water before a meal for dietary help. Admittedly it is an acquired taste but it is doable, not ghastly. I recommend that you buy organic apple cider. It will be a bit cloudy. Read about all the ways that is helps the body here on the Reader's Digest site.
Apple cider vinegar can help you lose weight. Here's why: The acetic acid suppresses your appetite, increases your metabolism, and reduces water retention. Scientists also theorize that apple cider vinegar interferes with the body's digestion of starch, which means fewer calories enter the bloodstream.----Apple cider benefitsJane Austen Week is this week. It starts tomorrow. I am ready. The video has been selected. Prizes purchased. Trivia questions written. I hope to recruit a whole new army of Jane Austen fans. Stay tuned for updates this week. I may have to suspend the video on Wednesday because my Principal decided to host a full-day meeting in the library. I will either have to move the video to the auditorium or just cancel it for a day. For this reason I selected the shorter of the two videos I was considering. (I will reveal my selection tomorrow.)
Book read this week:
- How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig...I LOVE this book and intended to write a review this week-end but left the book at school. Look for my review tomorrow! Needless to say, I recommend it.
- Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. Don and I are sharing the audiobook edition, both listening as we drive to work and back.
- Your Food is Fooling You: How Your Brain is Hijacked by Fat, Sugar, and Salt by David Kessler. I had hoped to finish this book this week-end but also left it at work when I ran out of school on Friday afternoon.
- Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. I'm reading 50 pages a week in a read-along.
- Where'd You go Bernadette by Maria Semple. To finish or not to finish, that is the question. This book is not my cup of tea.
Refreshment Sunday: This Sunday represents the middle Sunday of Lent and is thought to be the refreshment Sunday. Not sure what that is all about but I've decided to take it literally and the family will make a trip to the Root Beer Store in a few minutes. Yes, you read that right. We have a Root Beer store in our town. It makes me smile to even say it. Ha!
Prayers for: Dom, my cousin's daughter's husband, who is shipping out to another tour of duty in Afghanistan this week. We prayed over Dom today in church so I know that he will be safe.
Soup of the week: Corned beef, cabbage, potato soup. Heck, we love our corned beef meal on St. Patrick's Day, why not take the ingredients and make soup? We had it three times and still have leftovers.
Today
If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze
that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house
and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,
a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies
seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking
a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,
releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage
so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting
into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.
Source: Poetry (April 2000).
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| Lovely Spring colors |
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| View from our front yard |
Thank you for your prayers for Dom and Erin. They are both so grateful for the support from so many people. We know he is in good hands.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Vivaldi! Very nice. I liked Your Food is Fooling You -- a streamlined version of the argument in The End of Overeating that was more readable, memorable, and quotable.
ReplyDeleteI hope your Jane Austen week goes well!
Joy's Book Blog
I am honored to be mentioned in your blog. Feel almost famous! Thanks for a truly lovely weekend. It was great to be with all my favorite Washingtonians!
ReplyDeleteOh, I am so jealous of your blooming trees!! We got yet another snowfall yesterday! It's almost April - this is nuts! Supposed to hit 19 tonight and break records - lovely spring weather.
ReplyDeleteI must disagree with you on the subject of apple cider vinegar - it IS ghastly! lol It's supposed to be good for yeast overgrowth which my son and I have both struggled with (due to so many antibiotics for Lyme) - I struggled to drink it down every night for several weeks, but I couldn't get my son to try it more than once! And it remained gaggingly ghastly for me.
As you know, we are on a grain-free, sugar-free diet for medical reasons, but I am interested in hearing more about the book you are reading. My husband has no health problems, and he has much more energy eating this way!
I loved Bernadette, but I think that to truly appreciate her satire, it helps to have kids currently in school - I really enjoyed that book.
Enjoy your books and your lovely spring weather this week!
Sue
Book By Book
Book by Book is now on Facebook!
I must admit, Sue, that the apple cider vinegar is pretty sour but it is doable. Since I should drink more water anyway I just dilute it more and more if the sour taste is too overwhelming.
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