I am an RN, Author, Coach, and Speaker. I write novels about relationships to help people find insight into their own. I guide people to create comfort, clarity, and connection in their lives. By combining metaphysical tools with over twenty-five years of nursing experience, I infuse the 'art of nursing' into my practice by providing partnership and resources help people compassionately honor their health.
Okay, it’s a book (not mine!) title. It occurred to me to apply the philosophy of: “If you build it, they will come” espoused by James Earl Jones and put into force by Kevin Costner in the Field of Dreams movie which coincidently (?!) contained a female lead character named “Karen” (not sure how she spelled it!) played by Amy Madigan.
I decided to build my perfect work day.
Get up–not too early.
Get some exercise. I like Stephen King’s idea from his bookOn Writing where he would take writing breaks and jump on the treadmill that was next to his writing desk (if memory serves). A little bit of yoga couldn’t hurt…
Get some coffee–oh wait! That should be first!
Get some breakfast (ABO…or “Anything But Oatmeal” :)).
Write until noonish.
Get some lunch.
Check email, blogs, FB (you know, all the usual time-sucking suspects) etc.
Read until 4pm. This is when I get to make a small dent in my pile of books, magazines that I am dying to read but have no time to.
Get some more exercise…go for a walk? At the beach! Look for sea glass, sand dollars, unusual rocks and shells. Sigh. Life is Good.
I have to restrain myself or I’d go to Congdon’s every day, since it’s just a few miles from where I live.
It’s dangerously addictive.
Why? Well, let me count the ways:
1. The donuts are amazing. The variety is quite extensive, and includes my favorite: Blueberry filled (see slide show below) donut. (Note: Dunkin Donuts does not have this in their repertoire). Order a dozen at Congdon’s and you will be pleasantly surprised to receive a baker’s dozen: 13 lovely donuts of your choosing. Go when you have plenty of time; it can take a while to decide. If you consult the menu of donut flavors with your family before you go, then you can make a list at home and not annoy the people behind you in line. 🙂
They have a full breakfast and lunch menu. The blueberry pancakes are excellent; I highly recommend them. The service is usually very good. The dining room is cozy and in the warmer months there is extra seating on the enclosed porch that abuts the dining room. Go very early during tourist season: the line to be seated will be LONG. L-O-N-G. (Come to think of it, the line for takeout will also be L-O-N-G).
The muffins are also great. My favorite lately is Carrot, but I have yet to have one that I didn’t want to have again.
They make a whoopie pie that is bigger than your head.
Speaking of a baker’s dozen…sign up for their rewards card now and they’ll give you a baker’s dozen of donuts to thank you. They’ll also send you coupons every month, with extra generous ones for your birthday.
Congdon’s is family friendly. Not only will you want to go there; your kids will as well (this means no whining when you tell them where you’re all going!).
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If you’re going to Wells, Maine, stop in to Congdon’s for breakfast…money well spent!
I have unsubscribed from many of the automatic emails that I’ve been getting. You know, the ones from stores that promise to send you exclusive coupons if you sign up? Well, what I’ve found that (for me) what that leads to is the clutter of the (nearly daily) emails from them in my inbox, which I have to read and then make decisions about. Usually, there will actually be a coupon that looks pretty good to me, sparking that well-worn refrain in my mind of “Hey, I might need that!” which leads me to print it out.
Seems harmless enough, right? But now that coupon will be added to the glut of other coupons that I already have stuffed in my pocket-book: more physical clutter. Then, I will carry it around for a long time, usually for so long that I forget that I have it. If I should happen to recall it when I am at the store (which rarely happens; I’m much more likely to recall after I’ve left the store), the there are so many other coupons in there that I am unable to locate it in a timely manner.
Is it in my wallet? Is it in the special coupon holder that I keep to file these things in an organized way so that I can find them quickly (like, when there is a long line of unsympathetic shoppers waiting behind me)? Is it stuck in the front zipper compartment of my bag? Could I have left it in the car? At that point, I”ll usually give up, shrug, and just pay full price. And then when I get home, there it is (of course): right there on the kitchen island where I left it, where I’d be sure to see it before I left the house.
So today, I’m exercising my will power by not cutting out any coupons from the Sunday paper. Hey, at least I’m doing some sort of exercising today!
I was talking with someone the other day about her desire to lose weight.
She and her friend were working on their weight and following a diet. “Which one?” I asked her. “The 6 W’s diet,” she replied. “What’s that?” I asked. Since I work in the healthcare field, I thought I’d heard of them all, but this one was new to me. “We invented it,” she said. Okay, well, that explained why I was unfamiliar with it, at least.
She said it was the culmination of years of ‘trying everything’ that led to her decision to make up a diet for herself. “It can’t be any worse than any of the ones I tried already,” she reasoned. Also, her spouse had gastric bypass surgery, lost a lot of weight, but had already gained back 25 lbs. “See? Even getting the operation doesn’t work!”
The 6 W’s diet:
Watch the fat
Write down everything you eat
Walk more
Water: drink more
Win!!!!
“That sounds great,” I said, “but that’s only 5. What’s the 6th W?” “Oh,” she said, ” I added ‘wine’ to the list,” she said. “‘Wine’ … or ‘Whine’?!” I asked. “Both!” she replied, laughing, “depending on what kind of day I’m having!”
Okay, as you all probably know, I don’t love to exercise. In the spirit of being sprung by Spring, though, I am trying to develop some exercise-program-momentum and keep moving. Because I don’t have to be at work until noon today instead of 9am (that’s a whole ‘nother story that I won’t get started on here. You’re welcome.) I put my daughter on the school bus and then put my sneakers on and headed out. I used to walk fifteen minutes in one direction then turn around and come back when I was losing weight on the Weight Watchers Program a few years back so that I could earn “Activity Points” so that I could (you guessed it) eat more. I did it 6 or even 7 days a week, sometimes twice a day when I was actively losing, and I continued to do it 4 or 5 times a week when I entered the maintenance phase.
Then November came. Now, November certainly came the past several years as well, but for some reason, this November was different. I stopped walking every day. First of all, it was hunting season. There were plenty of pick up trucks pulled over at the side of the road along my walking route, and you just know that (probably liquored-up) half asleep hunters were out there…armed. That, the freezing temperatures, and the piles of snow were enough to keep me on the bench (read: couch) for most of (okay, just about all of) the winter. The less I exercised, the less I wanted to exercise.
Also, I was (over)confident that after maintaining my weight loss for more than 3 years, I could afford to slack off some. Guess what? That wasn’t true. It was just a lie that I told myself so that I could eat a few more of those cupcakes, those Raisinets, those Peanut M+M’s (that I think we can all agree are the devil!). The more I ate from my favorite food group, the more I wanted to eat from it.
Hello, spring. Uh-oh. I made a “5 lbs by May” challenge my friend Sheila. I meant to say, “5 lbs off by May”…the Universe has a funny way of delivering to us what we ask (as I’ve written about before)…so I should have been more, um, precise with my description of my goal.
Spring has sprung me–and as they say, better late than never. My cocoon of too much food and too little exercise has cracked open. What I’ve learned this winter is this: the more I eat, the more I want to eat, and the less I exercise, the less I want to exercise.
My wake up call? Well, that’s just it; it hasn’t been just one thing. I had 4 this week:
My husband said that the way I can always be go-go-going and doing so much and having so much energy have so many projects going was something he loved about me when he first met me. Now? Not so much.
My yoga teacher said: “Are your pants on backwards? That little white triangle thing is usually in the front, isn’t it? Well, it’s on your butt right now!”
Those shorts that were loose last spring have not one iota of extra room in them now. Not. One. Iota.
When I unexpectedly had some unstructured time, there were so many things I wanted to do that I wasted some of the time because I couldn’t decide what to do!
I decided first to pause and reflect…this lasted about 30 seconds. Through my indecision I was conscious enough to note that it was 61 degrees out and sunny, and the huge snow banks had (finally! finally!) melted so that it was safe to walk my neighborhood streets again (read: drivers could see me). Before I did what I do best–that is, talk myself out of exercising, I grabbed my jacket, shoes and keys and headed out.
When I got back, I realized that it was time to eat something…not because it was suppertime (although it was: 5:10PM), but because I was really hungry. Usually I have others to cook for and feed, but tonight it was all up to me; I had only myself to please~”Party for one!” as my friend Denise would say. I had a greek yogurt doctored up with frozen blueberries, flax meal, and cinnamon and a big cup of ice water. After I finished, I checked in: yep, still hungry. I slathered a slice of my homemade bread with almond butter and honey. Yum!
Then I wrote this blog post. I wrote a book review. I made and froze some lentil soup for work lunches this week. I edited several pages of my book.
Sometimes by pausing, you get more done than if you just pushed full steam ahead.
I always wonder how best to celebrate my kids’ birthdays. Every year there is some sort of friends’ party and then a family celebration to cap things off on the actual day of birth.
This year, my daughter turned twelve: the last bastion of childhood, the threshold of teenhood.
The friends’ party was at Get Fired Up in Sanford with cupcakes from the Cupcake Fetish Bakery, also in Sanford. Both were big hits with the kids.
The family celebration was trickier this year. My son was working on her actual birthday, but for once my husband and I were both not working. Even though it was a school night, we decided to take her out for supper and let her choose the restaurant. Last year she enjoyed celebrating my birthday at Famous Dave’s in Scarborough that she said, “I want to come here for my birthday too!” and eleven months later, we did.
We had a coupon from the restaurant (Join the Pig Club and you can get one for your birthday too!) for a free appetizer; we tried the new Loaded BBQ Chips. For dinner we chose the Tuesday night special: $6 off the massive Feast for Two… which fed 3 of us with three boxes of leftovers that fed 3 of us the next night too.
I mentioned to the server Seth that it was my daughter’s birthday and at the end of the meal, a chorus of “Happy Birthday!”‘s from the out-of-sight kitchen preceded him carrying over to us a heated brownie with fudge sauce and whipped cream sporting an impressive flaming candle and 3 spoons. (NOTE: she was warned not to try to blow it out, but to let it fizz out on its own if she wanted to keep her eyebrows, which she did; a decision we fully endorsed).
Only two notes: they were out of corn on the cob (for which we could substitute another side order from the menu), which was a total bummer, and the brownie sundae would have been vastly improved by the addition of some vanilla ice cream. I’m just sayin’. The service was great. The food was great. The atmosphere was great. We were so full we could barely move to get to the car and we’d eaten less than half of the food presented to us…and we had an ice cream birthday cake waiting for us at home in the freezer.
Oy!
I may want to return here for my birthday again this year too (you know, if I’m not still full!).
So, week two with the peeps and life is good. Losses have been minimal (despite the frigid temperatures after the balmy ones and a malfunctioning heat lamp). In about 5 months, our egg production should be through the roof. We’re gathering about 30 (or more!) eggs per day now and the peeps are eating and drinking twice as much.
We got about a dozen chicks from Tractor Supply Company, half Comets and half Barred Rocks. A few days later we got about 2 dozen more from Longhorn. This second batch was a mix of White Leghorns, Gold and Silver Lace Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, and a couple of Buff Brahmas (with the feathered feet!). The majority of these breeds are brown egg layers. We’ll get the white and the blue/green egg layers in June~none were available in February.
In June we will also have a first. Our first Italian chickens! My husband’s nod to my love of All Things Italian: Anconas. I can’t wait! I wonder if Ancona eggs will make better frittatas? 🙂
We recently returned to the Hayloft Restaurant in Moody, Maine after a 10 year (give or take) break. We used to frequent this restaurant with the kids but after getting a bad salad (not to be confused with the “big salad” of Seinfeld’s world), we stopped going.
Every summer when my son was small he would participate in their coloring contest and every summer he won. They would mail out a coupon for a free appetizer that we would look forward to using on our next visit.
Until we got the bad salad.
I recently saw a coupon on Groupon.com for the Hayloft, so after consulting my husband (and after learning that they were under new management), I bought it. We arrived, coupon in hand, expectations set reasonably at moderate level, on a Friday night. There were not many cars in the parking lot, but in fairness, we had received almost a foot of snow earlier in the day so people may have just been staying put.
We ordered the special: Fisherman’s Platter for two, which was plenty for the two of us and our daughter to split when combined with appetizers. Speaking of appetizers, we ordered the Buffalo Tenders and the Potato Skins with cheese and bacon.
Rolls were brought out for us after our order was taken. They were hot and crusty with soft interiors, and the three of us agreed that they were excellent.
The tenders did not come with celery, which would have been welcome (as well as a little less breading), but did come with blue cheese dressing. They were good and spicy. The potato skins were cut smaller than I usually see, but I liked them much better this way (they weren’t so overwhelming) and were delicious. The main course consisted of fried whole clams, large scallops, shrimp, and a good-sized piece of haddock, French fries, and about four onion rings. This was great; usually onion ring orders are much too excessive for anyone to actually appreciate them. Four large hand cut onion rings were perfect.
Verdict: the Fisherman’s Platter wasn’t quite as hot as it should have been, but was still good. Both appetizers were served piping hot, which made me wonder if the former was ready first and waiting for the latter. The real surprise was the cole slaw, which our waitress told us was made fresh daily. It was excellent.
Just a note on the soda: it had a nice, clean taste. You know how sometimes you order a Diet Coke and it has a metallic taste? You will not find that here.
For dessert we were persuaded to try the homemade (from a family recipe) hot apple crisp a la mode, which was also very good. We took home a chocolate whoopie pie, made by Laura’s Pastry, for the road. We’ve had these before and know how good they are!
Our waitress, Rose, delivered the best service that we’ve had in any restaurant in some time. She is the reason that (although the food was good) that we will be returning to the Hayloft again soon.
Have you noticed that there has been a span of several weeks with no G-rated (or PG, for that matter) choices for movies? After a long hiatus, enter (finally!) something that my daughter and I both wanted to see: the Wimpy Kid sequel, based on the book by Jeff Kinney, which I thought I’d bought Izzy for Christmas and I also thought she’d read.
Wrong. And wrong.
I took her anyway to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules this past Sunday at Wells Five Star Cinema. This is the movie where Greg (the aforementioned Wimpy Kid) and his older brother Rodrick (read: torturer) work on their relationship to try to make it civil. This is also the movie where Rodrick (much to my surprise) becomes a human. Briefly.
The potty humor for the kids (and–dare I say it?– the men) abounds, but, thankfully, it had more than that to offer. Rachel Harris plays Mom, and many of us (moms) will relate to her asking her kids the quintessential Mom question: “Can’t we all just get along?” The answer is: well, yes…eventually. Probably. Not!
This story is about the brothers’ struggle to coexist, but is also about the Mom’s efforts to guide and support them. With Dad in the background making faces.
For food: we had nachos, popcorn, and M+M’s (her) and Peanut M+M’s (mom) from the gumball-type vending machines they have at that theater. If you’re short the approximately $15 needed to purchase a snack or two at the concessions counter, these coin-op machines can be really a good bet. Of course, you only get about 8 Peanut M+M’s for your quarter, but that’s about all a serving size amounts to anyway (about 1/4 cup), so it’s good for your wallet and for your efforts to keep your current size pants fitting you this week!
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