Healthy, Happy Hiccup

I missed posting yesterday because I had a very full day. It was a great day. I was tired at the end of it.

I was on my feet for most of the day, too. As a result my knee was swollen, my back was sore, and my leg was somewhere between sore and numb. See why I'm taking Yoga and T'ai Chi Chih?

My day included many lovely hours with the grandgirls. I presented Big Girl's afghan to her. It's for her bed at home. I've said that, haven't I. She loved it.

"It got bigger," she said; and then, we wrapped her up in it and carried her into the living room. We were all very happy.

I'm also happy to report that Big Girl no longer thinks that "How to Train Your Dragon" is a scary movie. She hadn't thought that it was scary when we saw it in the theater, so I'm not sure how she came to that conclusion but no matter because I put it on and changed her mind. By the end of the movie, she was flying around the house because she was a dragon. After a while, she jumped on my back, and I was a flying dragon. Yeah! All it took was explaining that it was all make-believe/pretend cartoons like her uncle draws and talking through the movie. The whole experience goes down as one of the happiest of my life. Curled up with her in my lap in a big, comfy chair I described the scene where Hiccup and Toothless draw in the dirt. Hiccup dances through Tootless's drawing and ends up right in front of him, and they touch as friends for the first time.

"Oh this is one of my favorite scenes," I whispered in her ear, "See? Hiccup is drawing. Oh, look at Toothless drawing with a tree branch! Oops," I chuckled, "He hit Hiccup in the back of the head. Look at him go. Oooo. Look at that. On the line. Rrrrr. Off the line. Happy. On the line. Rrrr. Off the line. Happy. Oh, Hiccup is dancing through the drawing and..." I gasped, "He right by Toothless. Oh look at this now. He reachs out his hand and looks down. He's saying, 'I won't hurt you. I just want to be friends, but Toothless isn't sure, yet. There he goes. He puts his nose down and touches Hiccup. Ahhh. Now they're friends. They touched for the first time. Oh, but he's got something to do....," I ended, and Big Girl gave me the biggest hug.

We snuggled until Big Girl looked up and saw a few tears rolling down my cheeks. She looked concerned and a bit worried.

"Happy tears," I quickly told her, "MeeMa does that. It's OK." We cuddled some more; and then, it was time for lunch.

I played short order cook for lunch, while GL fed Little One. Lunch consisted of hummus, baby carrots, toast with butter, corn dogs, grilled cheese with raspberry fruit spread, and apple slices. We'd had strawberry Greek yogurt earlier as a snack. The best part of lunch was the sharing. Everybody had a little bit of almost everything. Big Girl shared her toast with Little One. BB shared his corn dogs with Big Girl and me. Big Girl decided she didn't want grilled cheese, so she said that I could have hers. GL shared her hummus and carrots with Big Girl and me.

Little One was in the high chair beside the refrigerator. She got very excited with all the activity surrounding opening and closing the frig. She got so excited that she learned how to open and close the frig from where she was sitting. It was great fun.

There I was in my kitchen, the heart of a home, doing what I love to do the most; spending time with my family talking, playing and eating. I am so much my grandmas's child.

I was able to find the digital camera, so I took some pictures of Big Girl, Little One and GL with Big Girl's afghan. There was a bit of a "hiccup" surrounding finding the camera, but eventually it turned up. I had a few tears over that, too. Silly, I know. I told myself and everyone that I was being silly.

"Women have been making afghans for ages without photographing them, and everything's been fine. It's just that it's my first afghan, and I made it for [Big Girl]," I said doing my best to console myself.

"She can take it home tomorrow, you know," said GL.

I hadn't thought about that. I decided that would be the way it would be until I started asking BB again if he had seen the camera. There's a thing I do when looking for something. I try to enlist the aid of others. Sometimes I ask them to look. Other times simply talking to them will result in finding the object. This was one of those cases where simply talking to BB resulted in finding the camera. I was so glad because I wanted Big Girl to take her afghan home with her that day. Yeah!

I also have to mention that GL was able to put Little One down for a nap when she didn't want to go to sleep for me. Little One wanted her mom. In under two minutes, GL emerged from my bedroom and rejoined Big Girl while she was painting.

We did a lot of things yesterday, and it was just serendipitous. We had a wonderful visit, and we get to have another one today in about three hours.

Of course, that wasn't the only part of my busy day. I got to go see the horses again yesterday. It was great. I'll be seeing them once a week at least from now on. I'm thinking twice a week will be better, so I'm deciding on what other day I will do that.

I need to lose more weight and get in better shape because grooming the horses and walking with them strains my knee, leg and back. I'm thinking that as I get going with the Yoga and T'ai Chi that things will improve. At least this is the "Master Plan."

After seeing the horses, I went to the grocery store to get some food for lunch and snacks today. My surprise purchase was some individual containers of Greek yogurt in more flavors. According to the packaging, Greek yogurt has 0% fat and only 120 calories per container. I've found a new favorite food.

I also got some organic blue corn chips, "cheesy broccoli rice", Cherry Coke (of course - my favorite vice), some ice cream, Eggo waffles, an avocado, tomatoes, apples, lettuce, some Puffs (sweet potato and strawberry), and a Marie Calendar's Turkey Pot Pie. Many items were on sale, of course. My coupe was the pot pie. The Marie Calendar's stuff is on sale til the 23rd, so I'll be back to stock up. Two bucks for each dinner is a great deal. It's nice to have a few things in the house to throw in for a quick meal.

I just remembered that I forgot (LOL) to get the Provolone for the tomato, onion, lettuce and Provolone sandwiches. Oh well. No worries. Today's lunch menu is chicken, "cheesy broccoli rice" and apple slices. I'll probably pick up the cheese later today. I love those sandwiches, and "they're so good for you."

So all in all, I put in twelve hours of activity yesterday mostly on my feet. I even got some more knitting done on Big Girl's scarf. I sat for that.

Little One's baby blanket and sweater are next to finish up. I haven't forgotten her. I just forgot what I was doing with her blanket. I've remembered now, I think. Goodness.

So that's it for "yesterday's post." We'll see how I feel at the end of today. I've got another twelve hours or so of activities scheduled again; mostly on my feet. The best part is spending time with the people I love, of course. The benefits are obvious; health and happiness.

I'm losing weight and eating better - for the most part. I'm moving around which in the end will only help everyone for obvious reasons. My next trick is to continue to treat myself this well when the grandgirls and kids are not around. I am a typical maternal-type woman; I take much better care of the people that I love than I take care of me. That's practically a life-long habit of mine that needs to be consciously broken. I'm working on it. It's hard to change a habit that started when I was four years old, but I believe it's possible; so there.

In parting, I'd like to again say that the reason that I love "How to Train Your Dragon" is multi-faceted. It's obviously a story of change based on a quote, "Everything we know about you is wrong." One "misfit" goes out into the world and has the courage and curiosity to discover the truth which leads to transforming "the world" for the better. It strikes a major blow for the abilities of the physically challenged because injuries and prostheses are dramatically represented. The man who was in charge of animating Toothless had just gotten a kitten. He'd never considered himself a "cat person" before, yet fell in love with his new pet. He did a brilliant job of representing the cat-like qualities he loved in Toothless, so it strikes a blow for cats, too. It's about Vikings, so I'm hooked there. Hiccup looks like my son and reminds me of his personality, too. Astrid is a strong female character, so we girls get someone to cheer for. "We" get to ride dragons and fly! Everyone changes and the evil monster is vanquished. It gives me hope that we can all change for the better. It inspires me to be a better parent (still - stop the nagging and all that - see my children for who they are and are meant to be - let them figure out how they're going to "fly"). This applies to the grandgirls, too, of course. You know what? It applies to me, too. It inspires me to go for my dreams and work hard discovering new ways of approaching life. What's not to love with this movie?