Oh my --- you know what they say - what happens at the retreat, stays at the retreat, but I have a couple of things to share. The first is all about the water. Yes, we had a considerable discussion about drinking water - how much is too much? How do you test it? Do you need salt? All kinds of things.
And this might be too much information for you, but here's the scoop. In the past, I would have been lucky if I had drank one of my water bottles daily. (sip, sip!). My water coach was only here for half the retreat, and she left yesterday, but I still drank 2 1/2 bottles, so that is good. Although it helped that someone had a timer set for 30 minutes, and we had sips throughout the day.
I'm on my own now, and I've already drank 1/2 a bottle. So let's hope all is good, and I'll remember to drink when I'm home!
Has it made a difference? By that, I mean—do I feel different? No, but my urine is clear even first thing in the morning. I think I'm drinking all that I need to. I aim to drink 2 1/2 containers of water, equivalent to 8 glasses of water a day. Any more than that would significantly disrupt my day with bathroom trips!
With soup and oatmeal, I have enough to compensate for my cup of tea, which is often herbal. I'm good. I will put the water thing to bed, so to speak! But thanks to everyone for the comments and suggestions. Staying healthy is a full-time job!
The other thing we talked about is mental health, which I think affects all of us to a certain degree. I hope none of the retreat-goers take this in the wrong way. But I think my brain is overloaded! I primarily work at home, and I'm not used to all the stimuli here! Now, part of that is that I'm still writing articles (hopefully, the last one will be done today - NO - the last one has to be done today!) And I've had numerous calls to make or take for work and lots of other stuff.
By about 5 p.m. last night, I was brain-dead! So I puttered in the sewing room and didn't sew after dinner—I don't think that has ever happened at a retreat. But I was done! The other factor is that we are not getting out to walk as regularly as I would like or as I do at home because the roads have been pretty slippery. Plus, the sewing I'm now doing is challenging.
However, it has finally stopped blowing and snowing, so they got the plow out again and cleared everything. Plowing has been a daily occurrence since we arrived, but now the driveway is plowed back, and it looks great.
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| Clearing snow once again |
We moved all the cars to the bottom of the circle drive so they could clean it right up! That will be great when we need to load the cars when we leave in a few days.
Those chairs seem to be getting buried deeper and deeper! I can't convince anyone to go out and sit in one so I can take a picture. Party poopers!!!
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| The fire pit gets more buried every day |
I did go out for a walk in the afternoon and borrowed walking sticks. They weren't necessary, but they were good to have on the walk to the road, as some spots still have ice. It's a country laneway—that's how it is. I've become a city girl with bare sidewalks most of the time. But there's proof that I was out, and it felt good to get out! The road past the house is gravel, so they can't get down to the bare ground.
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| The roads are still covered with snow |
A small creek runs through the property and crosses under the road to the house. It has running water, but it's been completely covered with snow. The creek also crosses the main road, and I walked there to see if the running water was exposed. Nope—it's totally snow-covered. However, if you look closely, one spot might be exposed on a warm day, as the snow cover looks thinner in that one spot.
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| The creek |
You can see the creek's path here, but nothing is exposed. The weather hasn't been that cold, so I doubt it has frozen, but you never know.
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| The creek path |
Here was the sunrise yesterday. My picture does NOT do it justice! It was brilliant and beautiful.
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| Sunrise |
When I went into the kitchen in the morning, I felt like I was home. It was a different brand, and the error message was different, but deja vu!
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| Error message on the dishwasher |
A quick Google search told me nothing, but I was confident this was a drain issue. Something was clogging the drain. I opened the dishwasher and removed the bottom rack. I manually drained the excess water, and then I found the strainer. I cleaned it, and bits of lettuce and other debris were caught in it. But there wasn't a little valve like the one I have. So I put it all back together, and we turned it on, and it seemed OK. Yeah!!!!!
Then I had to clean the iron last night because it was a mess. I'm not sure how it happened, but it happened, and it was smelling pretty bad! A little elbow grease and the iron was shiny clean!
Here's my portable office! I got some bad news yesterday. I had to update my iPad Pro, which I should have done a while ago.
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| My portable office |
The bad news is that I have reached the limit of updates. My iPad is a 2nd Generation - I bought it at the end of 2017. Yikes --- that is the large iPad Pro, so it will cost a little bit to replace it. For now, I'm OK, but I know it's likely that new apps will NOT work on that generation. Yikes - better start saving!
Anyway -- I'd better organize myself to get those blocks done and write the article.
Instead of buy new boots for the country buy a pair of grip/cleats/spikes that will fit over whatever you wear for winter footwear. ie yaktracs Jackie
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