Write Michelle, Write!

I can't believe two months have passed since I've written a blog post! You'll all find that with me, it's feast or famine.

There are days I no sooner lay my head on the pillow and I have to get right back up; my mind a flood with ideas! Flooded so, that I couldn't sleep even if I wanted too. Then, just as swiftly as they came, the ideas are gone again; and months can go by before another idea pops into my head.

Sometimes writing the simplest thing is like pulling teeth. I love to write and when this sort of thing happens, this writers block, it really frustrates me. It's so weird! But, then again, it's me we're talking about and lets face it, I'm just weird in general.

I thought today that I would force myself to sit at the computer and write a post. Maybe, just maybe that would shock my brain back into writing. It's worth a try anyway!

So, this is the result of an experiment to try and inspire myself to write again. Can we inspire ourselves? In some ways I think it all boils down to my view of my life. I just keep asking myself, "What is so exciting about my life. What am I doing in my little corner of the world, that the rest of the world could possibly want to read about?" There in lies the rub!

I guess what I need to do is write for me and my enjoyment. Maybe in doing so I will unwittingly bring enjoyment to others. Yes, that is a good way to think about it.

So go ahead! Write Michelle, write!!!

A side note: My favorite way of putting thoughts into words is by using an IBM Selectric Typewriter from the 80's! Sure wish I had one. I remember those from my high school keyboarding classes. Loved them, especially the sound!

Walking My Way

Walking . . . we do it everyday!

We get out of bed, walk to the restroom where we empty our bladders, then we walk to the kitchen and guzzle down coffee; ensuring we'll NEED to walk to the restroom AGAIN in about 30 minutes. Ha ha, that tickled my funny bone!

We walk to the car that takes us wherever we want to go without the excursion of walking. Maybe it's to the grocery store, where we circle the parking lot wasting about 15 minutes in search of that perfect front row parking spot. Heaven knows we wouldn't want to over excurt ourselves walking into the store. After all, we're going to expend a lot of energy walking up and down those aisles.

Yeah, walking takes us many places. We walk at work, possibly a factory where the break room is about a mile from your work station or in the retail business walking from one end of a department store to another. At home we walk to the mailbox, back to the house, to the refrigerator and then to the couch (classic couch potato maneuver). We walk to the neighbor's house, walk to the park or maybe even to the ice cream shop down the road. All day long, walk, walk, walk. It's a tiring business, walking.

So why on God's green earth would anyone ever want to punish themselves by walking an extra 2-7 miles a day? Well, because it promotes good health.

Yes, we've heard it before, walking is the best form of exercise. Though I'm not quite sure who said it first, I am quite certain that every doctor, nurse, fitness guru or personal trainer has at one time or another said it to their overweight, out of shape public.

With this in mind, I have set out to do just that, walk; and walk I have. In the last 3 weeks I have walked 93.3 miles. Yes I said 93.3 miles. Now I'm not tooting my own horn here, well okay maybe I am in some small way! But for me, a lazy girl at heart, to walk that much! Well, that's no small feat (ha ha, put the word FEET in there and ya got yourself a pun!).

For this overweight couch potato, extremely fond of stuffing her face with high calorie goodies while reading up on and charting out the best course of action to rid herself of her unsightly spare tire; deciding to rid myself of my unhealthy habits is one big task!! I mean I have a whole lot of bad habits to break. This is going to be a long journey and at times I'm sure an arduous one at that!

I started with eating habits. I now eat for my health. I'm NOT using the D-I-E-T word! I am NOT on a D-I-E-T, I'm transforming my eating habits into a new, healthy lifestyle that I can stick with the rest of my life. That was the first step. But this post isn't about the eating part of my new lifestyle, it's about the exercising part. Back on subject here.

You would think a person with weak ankles that ache and legs that hurt under the strain of such excursion would never consider walking to be the best form of exercise. However, I thought about it and a little pain now is worth it in the end!

My goal is to walk a 10k five days a week. I know that I will not always reach this goal and have not made it everyday. There are just some days that I can only handle walking 2-3 miles. But I'm okay with that. Why? Because it's 2-3 miles (a 5k) of heart pumping, lung filling, weight dropping exercise completed! I don't sweat the small stuff like not making it to 6.2 miles everyday. My goal is there as a guideline, as something to strive for, but okay if I fall a little short. I mean, I don't want to injure myself either. I just want to push myself to go a little farther than the time before.

Another mini goal I set for myself, is when I walk to my car and drive to the grocery store, I don't circle the parking lot wasting 15 minutes searching for that front row parking spot anymore. Instead, I pull into a spot as far out in the parking lot as I feel safe with and walk in logging more steps!

So far, I'm happy with what I've accomplished these last few weeks. I would have NEVER thought I could have walked 93.3 miles, that's over 31 miles per week, a few months ago. I guess what I've learned is not to underestimate what I am capable of.

God has blessed me with two legs and feet that work. They are all the exercise equipment I need to stay healthy! They don't cost a thing and the park doesn't charge me to walk there. What's not to like about that?

What I wanted to share with you all is that starting this year I am making a commitment to myself. That taking care of me and this body God gave me is top priority. It is the first time in a LONG time that I have cared about myself and my health. I have a family that is depending on me being here for a long time!

This year I've also set a goal to participate in as many 5K walks as I can. So far I'm registered for 3 and I am also going to walk in the Mishawaka Relay for Life.

If any of you are interested in supporting my Relay for Life walk just click on the words "Relay for Life" underlined in this post. That will take you to the American Cancer Society home page where you can choose to donate. Search for my name and you can make a contribution online there. Thank you in advance for your donation!

"I am Walking My Way to a long, healthy and happy lifetime! God willing!"

Weight Loss Goals

Hello everybody. I've decided to share my weight loss journey with my blog family.

I've struggled with my weight all my life. As long as I can remember I've been overweight. I've only had brief experiences with what it feels like to be thin. Those experiences were so brief because they were when I was young and went zooming past 80, 90, 100 lbs, on upward!

I started to pork up in 4th grade and from that point on my body inflated at an alarming rate. By the time I reached high school I was almost 200 lbs.

In my senior year, I began losing weight for ALL the wrong reasons! As most young girls usually do. I did, however, lose a significant amount of weight. (For those of you who are Facebook friends with me, check out my High School prom pictures. You will see a BIG --or SMALL difference depending on how you look at it-- in me from my Junior and Senior High prom pictures!!) I managed to maintain my weight loss through graduation and into college.

After high school I went away to college for a year. Where I gained the usually freshman 15! I only lasted a year in college before I longed to come back home. That first year back I met my husband, Pete. We married in 1992 and again my body began to inflate at an alarming rate. By the time I got pregnant for our first child in 1994, I was already well over 200 lbs.

After Zach was born I lost about 4 lbs. and then gained that back, plus some, soon after. By the time I got pregnant for our second child in 1997, I was over the 240 lb mark! It was all downhill from there. Over the next 13 years I would try diet after diet, only succeeding each time to lose, gain and gain some more!

When 2008 rolled in I weighed a whopping 263 lbs. That was when I realized I was less than 40 lbs away from weighing 300 lbs. That meant my health was suffering and it could mean I wouldn't be here for my children in the future. That scared the beejeebers out of me. It forced me to look at my chaotic eating habits and make a decision to take control.

In 2008, I joined Weight Watchers and successfully lost 70 lbs before financial reasons forced me to go it alone. Since dropping out of Weight Watchers, I have gained back 10 lbs. The 2009 holiday season was tough. I knew that if I was going to be successful on my own I had to find an online support group to get me through it.

I had searched for an online support system that was F-R-E-E for a while! Then I remembered a friend of mine, Erica, told me about a website she was a part of that had helped her lose over 80 lbs. It was called SparkPeople.com.

I was so excited to get started! Now I can log on, share my progress, my successes and my failures with a whole online community of people who understand my struggles and can share them with me. (Is that a run on sentence or what?? LOL)

If you're like me with a weight problem, a weight loss goal and looking for a FREE place to track your information, give you inspiration and helpful tips, come on over to SparkPeople.com and join me Anneshirley22. We could lose weight together!!

It's The Real Thing . . .

I love the refreshing taste of Coca Cola! I'm feeling a bit nostalgic and really wish I had an ice cold coke to be sipping right now!!

I love their commercials and I always liked the 'I'd Like To Buy the World a Coke' jingle too. I've always liked the idea behind the song. To love our neighbors and fellow man. To hold a candle of hope that maybe, somewhere in my Utopia, there could be world peace and everyone would just get along. That there would be no need for war. That love would be the driving force behind every action. Even an action as simple as buying a coke, sharing it with a thirsty friend or stranger and listening to one another in love. Maybe I'm just a dreamer! But I like that idea. Here's the jingle just for your listening enjoyment.



Then, today, I saw another Coca Cola commercial I'd never seen before and I loved it. So I thought I'd share it with my friends just in case any of you hadn't seen it before. Enjoy!

A Very Fowl Day

The past several days have been glorious to say the least! Everything has been bathed in sunshine, giving the spirit reason to hope for spring. Though the warmth of the sun was difficult to feel, the feelings of joy and peace it evoked were easy to sense.

There's nothing quite so healing as the warmth of the sun, the smell of an approaching spring and the awakening of nature above and below. It's a magical and magnificent adventure for the senses. It fills me to overflowing and I long to immerse myself in all that God has created!

Today was no exception. It was another glorious day and the only thing to be done with a glorious day, is to get outdoors and enjoy it.

I just know that spring is drawing nigh, I can feel it in my bones and smell it in the air. The air is sweet and fresh, the birds are busy and happy, their songs so joyous. Trees and other plants are beginning to bud and everything is coming to life again. All of nature is awakening from its' long winters nap.

My outdoor adventure today, focused on waterfowl in our local park. It was A Very Fowl Day indeed! Now why this play on words you might ask? Well, I live near the St. Joseph River and Merrifield Park is right along its' banks. The waterfowl are plentiful and absolutely gorgeous. The only problem with that is, when waterfowl are plentiful so is their poop! It's literally everywhere and that is very, very foul indeed.

So that's how I came up with the title for this blog entry.
I thought it was funny and I hope you do too!

I love the Mallard Ducks and Canadian Geese that swarm when bread crumbs are tossed into the water. While the regulars gorged themselves on bread, I noticed an unfamiliar goose among them. You'll meet him, or her, a bit later. But first, let me introduce you to the most friendly and handsome of all the mallards today.

This fellow was very friendly, even tempered, wasn't shy and not afraid of me at all. He didn't mind my taking his photograph numerous times either. I found him to be the perfect subject.

When I started taking his picture, he was searching feverishly for something to eat under the surface of the water. As I snapped this shot, he had just arose from the depths allowing me to capture the water droplets all over his face. The light hit his feathers just right to make them stand out.

Here it looks like he is checking out his reflection as he approached a female Mallard gliding along in front of him. It wasn't long before my subject found other things to be interested in, instead of the woman with the camera!

Meet the competition! She was gliding along so gracefully and captured my friendly Mallard's attention completely. In a matter of seconds he was in hot pursuit. As I said before, spring is drawing near. I don't know much about ducks or their matting habits, but he seemed very interested!

See! There he goes, with grand hopes of finding a mate for life! I sure hope he picks wisely, that's a BIG commitment. She did seem calm and very pretty! Sorry folks, that was my poor attempt at humor. It made my husband laugh at least.

Remember that unfamiliar goose I told you about earlier? Well here he is. I was fascinated with him, though he was extremely aggressive. He didn't like me AT all. Definitely not as friendly as my friend the Mallard Duck!

When we got home, my husband looked up geese and found out what type of goose he was. This handsome guy, or girl, is a Toulouse Goose. He swam around so peacefully, but when it came to bread crumbs in the water, he was anything BUT peaceful. As a matter of fact, he was down right nasty!

After I had my fill of photographing the waterfowl, my family and I headed home. We enjoyed our Very Fowl Day in the park and before we know it, spring will have officially arrived. Then there will be many more sun soaked days likes these to share.

Gooseberry Patch

To the left of this blog is a photo badge that links to the Gooseberry Patch blog. I thought a couple of my friends might enjoy reading their blog too.

I've also included a link to the Gooseberry Patch website, where you can purchase their wonderful cookbooks and other items.

I absolutely adore Gooseberry Patch cookbooks. Though, oddly, I don't own a single one of them. Hmmm . . . These would be great Christmas and Birthday gift ideas for my family to get me, wink, wink, hint, hint.

Meandering through the pages of their cookbooks takes me back to my childhood. They remind me of home, family, love, happiness and great food. Of gathering family around the table to share a bite to eat and a bit of good conversation.

I remember watching my Grandmother as she prepared meals for our family. She would have several things going at once and everything was always hot and done at the same time! Amazing.

I would stand on a step stool beside her at the sink, as she would peel potatoes, cut up watermelon and clean the veggies and fruits. She always let me play in the peelings, rinds and clippings. I had so much fun pretending to cook like Grandma did, with all that slop for the garden pile out back.

My Grandmother was a magnificent cook, God rest her soul. She made the world's best fried chicken you'd ever sink your teeth into. Move over Kentucky Fried Chicken you aint' got nothing over on my Grandma Richhart's mouth watering fried chicken. MM mm . . . I can almost smell and taste it now. I'd love to have a piece. But what I'd love even more is to be able to enjoy it while talking with her across the table. What I wouldn't give to be at the table with my Grandma again.

Grandma Richhart also made the world's best coleslaw. We've all tried to duplicate it, some have come close, but none of us can get it perfect. She had a talent all her own, that's for sure! The recipes and secrets went with her.

Well, I've successfully made myself cry to share this link to Gooseberry Patch cookbooks with you. Since I can no longer see through the tears, I'll close for now.

Banana in your ear

For some reason today, I am in a childish mood and this episode of Sesame Street came to mind! Just had to make it a part of my blog!! As my husband said, and I quote, "If you don't love this video, you need to go back to bed and get up on the right side this time!"