Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

At this time of Thanksgiving I am grateful for my family and the memories we have created together. It also is a good time for me to revisit my bucket list since many items involve my family. In 2011, my therapist (yes, I needed someone to help me get my head in order), recommended I do an activity called " 32 squares ". Take a blank letter-size sheet of paper Fold it in half and keep folding it  in half about 5 times Open it out, you should get 32 (not quite squares) Sit down and write every thing you would like to do/experience, every dream or goal you have They usually work out to be a mix of immediate, medium and long term, maybe even some things you may not ever get to. Welcome to your bucket list. The trick to this exercise, she said, was that the first 10-15 things were usually easy to write, but then by the time you get to 25-32 you really have to start thinking deeply about things you may have given up on doing many years ago. In writing your dreams down,...

I have posted before about the education system and how I felt about public vs private school. After having my son in private school for 3 years, he is now back in public school. See my prior posts here: Path to Private School and My Education Rant. Was it worth it to have him in private school? Now there's a question. I think he would have done well in public school although there is no doubt he did get challenged in private school. It would seem that the question isn't so much public vs private, but more, who is the teacher? I've also taken a step back in my expectations and how I view education. I have always compared the kind of schoolwork that my son does with what I did when I was growing up. I came from a different education system, where we would spend hours doing homework and revision for tests and extra lessons was normal. My son? He is in middle school and does his homework in school and spends no more than 30 minutes at home doing work. If I don'...

I recently had a birthday for which I was very grateful. You never know if you will get another birthday even without having had a cancer diagnosis. So I was pretty sad that my brother didn't tell me "Happy Birthday". I don't have an expectation that my sister-in-law (his wife), would remember, but my brother? He didn't even have to call, since I called him two days before my birthday - he could have said it then. He even had a built-in reminder - his wife's birthday was two days after mine. I never considered myself a needy person who needs encouragement and needs to fussed over unnecessarily, but I just didn't understand it - I still don't . My husband's family remembers every year. But it did get me to thinking about what other friends who have been diagnosed with cancer, have said: Friends fade from their lives, or avoid them. Some friends are so wonderful, they are the cream of the crop. Family get offended if they, (the diagnosed) are ...

It struck me recently that we have relatively low-key cars, my husband and I, even though we both work, and could probably spend our money on something a bit more flashy. But we don't choose to spend our money on that. By my reckoning, we spend our money to buy time and experiences. We buy time by spending money to have someone clean our house and mow the lawn so we don't have to spend the weekend doing it. We get back time that we can take the kids to the movies (or just be lazy if we choose). We also spend our money on experiences - each year we spend a weekend with each of our kids alone, so they have special time with a parent and then alternate (one year I will have one kid, the next year the other). We don't have to do anything fancy - it just has to be alone and special (like going to the movies, Chuck E Cheese, ice cream or a park). But it could be fancy - like Seaworld! Or a family vacation - maybe camping. We are blessed to be able to afford to d...

So, you know how you can't remember your phone number or anyone else's because it is in the phone and you press a button (or use a voice command) and it calls? And how you can't recall anybody's birthday exactly, because you know you put the reminder in Outlook and it will remind you in time to get a gift/send a card? It's the kind of atrophy and decay that sudoku and Lumosity is supposed to fight against. Well, I found myself in a bit of a situation regarding my ipod nano. So I've started exercising and use my ipod to listen to music while I do, but my pants don't have pockets for it. So I started using an old ipod shuffle that has a clip, but it was so frustrating to use it because the shuffle would die on me all the time. Anyways, I went around and around in my head about what to get, use my phone and forget the ipod, continue using the shuffle? Buy an elastic armband to hold my ipod? Or one for my iphone? (Lord knows there are enough i-accessories o...

I don't normally post movie or TV commentary, but every now and then I do (you can read my comments on  Airbender and Smallville ).  I wanted to put in my 2 cents worth. I felt gratified that there were scenes that reminded me so much of Smallville. I liked the characters and story. I really loved Henry Cavill in this role, but I do have a few (unsurprising) quibbles about this movie. I don't like my Pa Kent morally ambiguous. There is a scene in the movie after Clark raises a school bus that went into the river, and Clark asks Jonathan if he should have left them to die,  and Pa Kent answers, "Maybe." My Superman would not leave so much destruction. When Superman was fighting General Zod, I had a really hard time watching all the wanton destruction. My Superman would have found a way to move the fighting and protect the people (and property). My Superman would not kill. So this is a hard one. There probably is a scenario where Superman may, at some po...

Yes, indeed, this past June was two years since my diagnosis, and if you wanted to be transported back to that beginning, you can do so here . But such a post cannot begin without the word gratitude. Gratitude for being able to make wonderful memories with my family and friends over the past two years.  But this post cannot be complete without remembering some of those who have shared this journey with me and are not here anymore. My friend Amy: Amy was diagnosed with stage 2 triple negative back in November of 2011 and she recently passed away in August. I had last seen Amy in July, and while wan and frail, she was so optimistic and hopeful, the way we all are. I feel very sad to have lost her and to know her family and her young son are without her now. Hugs to you Amy, in the beautiful place you are now. My friend Karen: I first met Karen when I had started my chemo treatments. She sat next to me in the infusion chair, and I was very interested in her quilt, since we...