AMANDA'S BASKETS: FALL'S ARRIVED, BACK TO BIKING AND UPDATE ON GOALS

Monday, September 21, 2015

FALL'S ARRIVED, BACK TO BIKING AND UPDATE ON GOALS

It's cool...I mean really, really cool!!! I think fall has arrived, right on schedule. Hip Hip Hooray - let's hear it for Fall... All together now...Hip, Hip, Hooray!!!

I took my bike out today. I actually got on it and rode without falling!!! I wasn't quite sure how I would handle it...you should have seen me the first time I tried riding after several decades of no biking. I thought my oldest was going to faint, I was so wobbly!

Not trusting how I would do, I stayed in the parking area today. Think a four block long parking area along side the street. After riding the length ten times, I realized that it had been a long, long while since I last rode...that's forty blocks, folks. My legs were burning.

So, I got off and rested for twenty minutes, then rode another five lengths before calling it quits. Oh, and it was cool enough for a zip up hoodie!!!

So, tomorrow, I will ride again. I think I will stay in the parking area one more day before tackling the bike path along the water. I should have it down pat by then...still getting used to changing gears.

The bike I had before this one only had three gears (My new one has three on one side and five million on the other!?!?!) The the one before that - my first bike - had no gears!!!

So, I promised an update on my goals:
Work on the book of meditations - I try to write each day but life intervenes so I write about four days a week.
Bring remainder of furniture down to NYC - This is getting closer as I am doing it in conjunction with one of my sons depending on when he gets an apartment and I think he will have one the beginning of October
Create a more permanent home/studio - That will get underway as soon as I get my stuff...but in the meantime, I have shopped for a table and chairs as well as some office desks, used of course. I will be going out this week a couple times to look for items.
Decorate for fall -DONE
Attend Quilter's Take Manhattan - That's this coming weekend - just in time for the Pope's visit. Should be an interesting time...I think most of Manhattan will be in a mess. I take mass transit but I think lots more folks will be also.
Back to regular exercise - Biking and Walking
Back to better eating - Probably should cut back on the coffee and Diet Coke, but hey, they are my mainstays!
Lose five pounds each month - I have lost three so far this month
Join Craft Group at local Library - Craft Group discontinued but I did join Empire Quilters - DONE
Learn GIMP - Continuing to go through the tutorials, layers getting easier to understand
Learn to juggle - Let me just say that I am a clutz when it comes to this, but I persevere
Gear up for long bike rides - Got a good start this morning!
Begin planning and creating gifts for the holidays - Love that first ornament I made.
Continue exploring NYC - Of course,

Football this past weekend was great...lots of good games...along with a few that weren't so great. But, hey, it's football...what's not to love!!!

There's a new weekly prompt posted.

Tomorrow, I'll take a picture of my bike...you know, I don't have a name for my bike, I'll have to come up with one since I plan on spending a lot of time on it!!!

Thanks for stopping in...
Talk to you tomorrow...

CRAFTING IDEAS

I am always looking for a small piece of paper to write down something which will later be disposed of. I decided to use some of the scrap paper of which I have a ton. I mostly use the paper for glueing projects. I decided to cut the paper into a small size. (Six pieces from a piece of copy paper.). But just having them sitting on my desk would get messy without a container. So, using a cardboard box, I cut it down to size and using a hot glue gun I glued the ends together. Using a picture from a magazine cut into pieces and stick craft glue, I glued the pieces to the box inside and out. I also used some decorative tape for the outside edges. And to finish the top corners which were not covered, I used straight pins with colorful tops. Looks nice and works well.

MAGAZINE IDEAS

(New) One article in the Farmer's Almanac 2024 is a list of trends. One I knew about is the trend to downsize in just about every area. Another trend that I was surprised about was called ''The Human Library' which offers people on loan to talk about specific subjects. Finally, more folks are adding pets to their family and as a result, stores are adding more pet food, toys and medication to their offerings. There's also a nice garden article which suggests mixing vegetables and flowers together for success.

RECIPE IDEAS

Have you every made Cherry Dump Cake. It calls for 2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling (21 ounces), a white cake mix, 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted & 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. In a 9 by 13 pan, spread both cans of cherry pie filling. Add the melted butter to the cake mix and break apart the resulting mixture and crumble it evenly over the pie filling. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Fast, easy and very delicious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What if you want to establish better habits, then decide what habit you want to work on. Again, try an easier one first for that good feeling of success. Let's consider more exercise. Start small. Don't try to run a marathon right away. Set the amount of time, the type of exercise and when to do it to begin making sure that it is within your reach. If it works for you each week add a bit more. Walking is one of the best ways to get good overall movement but there are many exercise videos on YouTube of varying lengths and difficulty to check out. Change your exercise routines to eliminate getting bored. For hardcore exercise with weights, give yourself a day in-between to recover. Even on days you would rather not exercise, do it and see if you feel better. It takes an average of 66 days to establish a habit. Just think 66 days to establish a good habit for a lifetime. Sounds like a good thing to me...how about you?