What I Made Today ...

They are apple. Yes, they are quite good!

To do

1. Make a beehive out of yarn for my daughter to wear with a borrowed tutu while carrying her striped cat, named Eli, dressed as a bumblebee for a local parade.

2. Learn how to bake the best pumpkin pie in the world (or at least in Circleville), because I really want to win the pie baking contest at Pumpkin Show. It will affirm to me that I can, indeed, use that square box in my kitchen apparently famously known as the "oven."

3. Redecorate. My house needs sprucing. Where's a good place to get ideas?

4. Get a hair cut and go red.

5. Experiment to find out what kind of materials could go into a rainstick to slow down the beans and rice -- Avery thinks chicken wire will be good, I think we should pound nails in a spiral into the stick. Maybe we should do both?

6. Dig up costumes to wear to Rennaissance Festival on Sunday with the children. I can't wait!

7. Clean junk out of purse. Continue to strive for the day that my car, house and purse will all be clean at the same time.

8. Bring in trash cans from curb (I dislike this particular chore and really miss having help with these sorts of smelly tasks).

9. Make vegetable soup and cornbread for supper soon.

10. Don't forget the little Snoopy cartoon mantra that hangs in my office: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a GIFT. That's why it is called the 'present.'"

xoxo Trina

Where have I heard that before?

Can you guess where this quote came from?

“A woman is often measured by the things she cannot control. She is measured by the way her body curves or does not curve, by where she is flat or straight or round. She is measured by 36-24-36 and inches and ages and numbers. By all the outside things that don’t ever add up to who she is on the inside. And so if a woman is to be measured, let her be measured by the things she can control. By who she is and who she is trying to become. Because as every woman knows, measurements are only statistics, and STATISTICS LIE."

Give up?

It's originally from Nike ad in the 1990s. I read it in a magazine when I was in college and wrote it in my journal because it struck a chord.

As I was driving today (I always have deep, existential conversations with myself while driving, don't you?), in my head, I had a pretend conversation with my doctor about my weight.

I said, "I am good at lots of things. I can set goals in other areas of my life, work hard, and achieve. So of COURSE it affects my self esteem that I can't meet this goal that is called losing weight. I wonder, why can't I do this? I do so many other things well, why not this? What's wrong with me that I am failing at this thing?"

The doctor, in my make-believe conversation, listens patiently and then tells me I'm not fat and to go home and stop worrying about it.

At that point, I smack her and demand liposuction ...

So I am posting this Nike ad quote that spoke to me once upon a time about what REALLY matters and give myself a little perspective. If you are like me and are a perfectionist and are way too hard on yourself about this stuff, I give you permission to have a little perspective (and some chocolate) today, too.