Home alone

Not the movie...me. I'm home alone for the week (well, Lou is here, but no other humans) as hubby left for a business trip. I feel all over the emotional map today for a million reasons.

I can't go any further without mentioning that my daughter Jean, who is a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic, just returned from spending a week at a mobile hospital camp in the south of the DR that was set up for Haitian earthquake survivors. I spoke with her over the weekend and knew the experience was incredibly powerful for her and that she was planning to write about it. I came home a bit ago to see that she did write a lengthy post of her experience. I literally sobbed reading it, and while I don't want to shamelessly promote my child, her recounting of the experience gives a personal view of the Haitian situation that is profound. There is one fairly short post that includes some pictures, but the post below is her text. If you're interested, you can find it here.

I feel almost ridiculous writing my own post now, but have to know that I am living my own life and it's okay to be in it. In fact, I believe I'm called to be fully in it, which is part of what comes through Jean's musings about how God oversees all of creation and the seeming randomness and frank unfairness of disaster, glory and resource distribution. So, I will write on, with a deeper understanding of just how ridiculously good I have and always have had everything in my life.

Lisa, at One Mom's Eating Recovery gave me this award that I'd seen floating about other blogs, and I'm excited, because I am a pretty good BSer! If you haven't checked out Lisa's blog, do, because it's great and she has an awesome sense of humor. Thank you, Lisa - for your faith in my lying ability!

The rules are:
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell up to 6 outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Nominate 7 "creative writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.
Here we go:
1. I won first place in an art competition for a purse I designed, knit and then felted about three years ago.
2. While I was living in Atlanta, I ran the annual 10K Peachtree Road race (helpd July 4th every year) for 3 years in a row, until we moved to PA.
3. I went as far as the district level of the Spelling Bee when I was in 7th grade.
4. I broke my left arm in 5th grade, on a skateboard - doing a donut maneuver in a mud puddle.
5. I absolutely love milk. It's the beverage I'd want to have if shipwrecked on a desert island.
6. I'm one of the few people my age (56) who still has her tonsils and adenoids. My mom wouldn't let them take 'em out.
7. My very first paying job was working at McDonald's. Hence my lifelong love of their fries. Beef tallow be damned!

Okay - now passing this on to 7 other bloggers I know and adore:
Tammy
Jodie
Bethany
Helen
What a Splurge
Loretta
Beth

I tried to find people who haven't already received this - If you have, thumb your nose at me! These are all great blogs that I read daily, so hopefully you'll stumble upon someone new if you go to check them out!

Also, Sunny gave me the Sunshine award which is given to bloggers whose positivity inspires others. I'd already received this, but realized I hadn't thanked Sunny. She also has a great blog, and you'll see that they don't call her Sunny for nothing! Very upbeat and positive, no matter what's going on!

My food hasn't been as tightly clean as I wanted it to be this weekend, so I opted not to weigh this morning. I'm planning on a clean day today, and without having to prepare food for anyone but myself, this should be easy. SHOULD. I planned on clean days Saturday and Sunday and ultimately fell off the wagon a bit. Not into binge-hell, but too stuff that is bad for me, counter productive and self-destructive. I'm a poet.

I did go to the gym Saturday and did 5 slow minutes only on a stationary bike at no resistance. It felt fine, but for once I didn't shoot myself in knee by doing more "because if felt fine". Good thing. I was generally more active all weekend with shopping and a short neighborhood walk - .4 miles. This morning both knees feel achy and stiff. So today, couch, movies and books. Except I do have to walk this fellow who definitely doesn't understand why his mom is so unable to do the usual 4-5 mile walks he's enjoyed for all these years! He will get quickies this week unless friends come by to take him further, which several have offered to do. Why is it so hard to let others help us?