Thank you so much for all of the suggestions, esp the fingerless arthritis gloves! I ordered some and am in love! I plan to get a few more pair soon. They really are amazing for the joint pain in my fingers. I love that I can type and work around the house in them. Thank you. I bought some Cuddl Duds. Thank you so much! I have always been more of a cold tea drinker, but need to switch to hot tea.

So true about the warm rear end! I ended up wrapping a thin blanket, doubled up, around my waist, and was shocked at how much warmer I felt. Our house always feel drafty to me, even after getting new windows a few years ago. We have a ton of windows (38 in a house slightly less than 2,000 sf) and our heat vents are in the ceiling, just not made for warming up the house. I am going to buy a small heater soon. DH keeps one at his office and loves it, he uses it almost year round because his building is so cold.

Thank you so much for the reply. I need to get in the habit of doing some basic yoga and stretching first thing in the morning. I do hot yoga (infrared studio) 2-4 times a week. I wish I could go daily, as it makes me feel so much better (relieves joint pain considerably) but the studio’s schedule and mine doesn’t align 3 days of the week. I have access to an infrared sauna at a nearby spa ($15 for the day), plus regular sauna, steam room and hot tub at the gym. Thanks for the prompt. I told my DH to remind me to take advantage of one of those options the next time I can’t get warm. I am also making up a list to post in my kitchen, “Things to do when I get cold!” May sound silly, but I have really bad memory issues and forget basic things unless I am prompted. I was able to get a thin base layer top and bottom. I haven’t tried them yet, but know we are just getting in to colder weather. Thank you so much for the reply and links!

Thank you so much for all of the wonderful suggestions! I now own some real winter clothes! Also bought some slippers and fingerless gloves (been wearing them around the house and love them!) This Friday is suppose to be cold and wet again, so I hope to be better prepared Sorry it has taken me so long to reply. The med change (adding in a daytime dose of pain med) has knocked me flat for a bit. I am going to try and reply individually. Thank you again.

I have lived in the south all of my adult life and have never really had to deal with cold weather, just a few days here and there, so not enough to really worry about owning winter gear. Three years ago, I was diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s and fibromyalgia. The past two winters have been brutal on me. (The Texas snow event/energy grid failure was really hard on me. DH says he will take me out of state if that ever happens again.) Today, it is 55 degrees and pouring down rain and I cannot get warm or stop shaking. I had a rheumatology appointment this morning and she increased my pain med because the past few weeks, as the weather was shifting from summer, my pain levels have been increasing. She said to expect that every winter now will be like this for me. I am pulling out the electric blanket and extra large heating pad today. I obviously need winter gear, some to wear in the house and some to wear when I am out. Talk to me like I don’t know what snow is. I especially need some thin gloves to wear in the house because my fingers are so stiff they won’t bend. I own a few pair of wool hiking socks, but my feet are still cold when I wear them. I was looking at the REI website. Base wear for snow clothing? Can those items be worn under clothes and add some warmth? Any suggestions, especially brands, would be much appreciated.

Have to say, I was avoiding this thread because. Dead. Waterlogged. Ick. But. So glad I finally clicked on it. Very amusing. Love that video upthread. We watch it every so often just for the sheer vintage-ness of the time period and the shock and horror of it. I am fascinated and horrified by the roadkill taxidermy. We once had a dead water moccasin in our freezer for a few years, mainly because I was preserving it for an accurate identification and then because my DH was appalled by it being in the freezer and I found that amusing. DH did a cross state bike ride this summer. He said there was a team, Team Roadkill. Whenever they saw roadkill, they would stop and dress them up. So you would be biking down some road and come upon a dead animal with sunglasses, Mardi Gras beads, etc. We once had a very large raccoon that expired wedged between in a section of our wood fence and the neighbors. The fence was in need or repair and the raccoon must have thought they could get through, got stuck and put up a fight trying to get free. I had been telling DH that there was a dead animal in our attic. He couldn’t smell it but kept going in to the attic to check. A few days later, our single neighbor lady came over, frantic that her missing cat was dead, stuck in our mutual fence. DH went out to investigate. Thankfully it wasn’t her cat. Moral of that story: When you smell dead animal, look under the hedge of shrubs… Thankfully trash day was the next day, so DH triple bagged the animal and put it in the trash. If it hadn’t been trash day, we would have called animal control. They are really good about picking up dead animals when we have called them.

I recently pulled out my old book, Green Smoothie Revolution by Boutenko. I really like all of the recipes I have tried over the years.

I love seeing the 50+ year old group at the gym, esp those you know are 80+. So inspirational. Great way to age gracefully and stay mobile. I esp marvel at seeing ladies that most likely didn’t have access to sports when they were growing up. I grew up in a rural area in the early 1970’s and even then our options were limited to softball, track and basketball.

I agree on the yoga and planks, etc. I have lost 50 pounds in the past two years and would like to lose another 10-20 pounds, depending on % of body fat lost going forward. I have been noticing lately how muscular (in a good way) my shoulders and neck have gotten. For still being technically overweight, my neck area is doing mostly okay for an almost 55-year-old. I think hydration is also key. One of my favorite instructors at the gym is a few years older than I am. She says that as women approach menopause, we actually need to work out harder because the aging process starts accelerating so it takes more just to keep up. All that said, I am also going all in on scarves. More because I love the look of them and I have started sort of collecting vintage ones.

I am so sorry.

That pumpkin pie banana nice cream sounds great. I may try it tomorrow. I bought some pumpkin recently to add to oatmeal or smoothies. I love using dates as a sweetener. You are inspiring me to eat greens for breakfast. I have made 1-2 green smoothies a day for the past two weeks. I think it has helped my energy levels.

I can’t imagine doing that, but our former neighbor girl did that with her husband and their toddler. They loved it. (Neighbor girl babysat for us, when she was younger and lived at home. I still can’t think of her as all grown up. LOL) I think for someone younger it is likely a good way to get affordable housing right now.

Selkie, I am super impressed at you growing that many microgreens! I love growing them and am hoping to get a larger setup. We have a spot that would be perfect for a large shelving unit for microgreens, I just haven’t taken that step yet. Soon. Right now I grow them on our otherwise unused kitchen table. LOL Currently I am growing two red goji berries in the garden. I have some seedlings of black goji but they are a long way from ever producing. I have five types of pomegranate, 8 types of fig trees, 2 types of persimmon and some assorted other fruiting trees and shrubs, as well as blackberries and raspberries. I am trying to garden myself healthy or slow the progression. I feel your pain on rural Midwest. DH and I are from the rural Midwest and it is so hard to find fresh, healthy foods when we visit. The next time we go, I will likely take most of my food. I should look into Misfits Market. I see their truck around here. We are very fortunate to have a few really good grocery stores that stock a lot of organic items, plus year round farmer’s markets. A few of the vendors that I favor practice regenerative agriculture.

Thank you so much for thinking of me. I greatly appreciate it. Do you mind me asking what general area of the world you live in? I am so impressed with your variety of fruits and vegetables. I am in SW United States and, thankfully, have good access to fresh produce. I started shopping at a farmer’s market after my diagnosis, at first because my sense of smell went into hyperdrive as part of the Parkinson’s (I am losing my sense of smell, some things I can’t smell at all while other smells gag me instantly). But now I shop there to get the freshest, widest variety of produce. I am also growing some my own food, such as goji berries. I started consuming at least one green smoothie a day last week. This morning’s contained frozen peaches and pineapple, kale from the farmer’s market, ginger and coconut water.

I have never made medical appointments for my DH and we have been married 30+ years. I also don’t make him breakfast, pack his lunch or buy his clothes. I also cook what I want to eat. So many people my age ask me how my DH allows me to make / serve him vegetarian or raw vegan. My go to answer is, “He’s a grown man. He knows he can cook what he wants if he doesn’t like what I make.” I spent years asking him what he wanted to eat, only to be frustrated when he always answered that he didn’t care. So I cook what I want. He doesn’t complain.

I love all that. In fact, my kitchen color is named cilantro green, which is really just the new name for avocado green. I am an antique dealer, though. Well, more vintage than antique. I just picked up an avocado green travel bag from Sears yesterday, along with a harvest gold Haeger pottery piece. The ‘70 look has been a strong seller for the past three years. I am totally out on the shag carpet. That was nasty. But latch hook, macrame and string art are in again with the bohemian style, so shag carpet may be next. I hope not.

Hey now! The ‘70s were awesome! Granted some of the dress styles were a bit funky, but the florals and mushrooms were amazing and I am super excited they are trendy now. I can’t wait until cooler weather so I can wear the vintage orange and mushroom scarf I bought on Etsy a few months ago.

Oh, yes. We went to a niece’s high school dance team competition about five years ago. It was extremely uncomfortable.

I totally agree and I am normally quite liberal. Nudity in art doesn’t bother me. Bikinis at the beach don’t bother me. The homecoming dresses I have been seeing the past two years are shockingly short.

I have young onset Parkinson’s and my blood pressure is all over the place. When my pain level is high, the bp goes up. Other times, it goes extremely low where I feel like I am about to pass out. I battled extremely low bp all summer. My Dr advised me to make sure I was drinking a lot of water, reduce caffeine intake and… add salt to my diet?! I started using LMNT brand salt/electrolyte once a day and my bp has stabilized. I just had an appointment with my neurologist and he told me to keep taking the salt/electrolyte daily and explained why/how it works. Best wishes!

I am still trying to figure all of this out and I still carry a lot of hurt my family heaped on me when my child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. One of my parents told me to my face, in front of my then 10-year-old, that it was my fault and that if I had only worked more with my child, they wouldn’t have needed the diagnosis. One of my siblings text me, “I don’t see it. Shrug.,” which still plays over and over in my head. I was still reeling from all of that when I was diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s. My family doesn’t acknowledge it, at all. They live across the country from me and i haven’t seen any of them in more than five years. One of my parents now has advanced cancer and I sometimes receive text messages telling me that I need to get there to help with caretaking or that I need to commit to driving the parent to chemo treatments for x-time period. I generally reply that I am dealing with my own health issues and am not able to physically be of assistance. I also don’t really feel any sense of need, given their response during my child’s diagnosis. (And. Yes. I am in therapy for that.) Most people associate Parkinson’s with little old men, not middle age women, and they don’t have any idea the 20+ some symptoms and issues it can cause. I know I certainly didn’t before I was diagnosed. I knew Micheal J Fox has YOPD, but I didn’t realize all of the many challenges it comes with, from sleeping and eating to digestion to balance and cognition.

That looks and sounds fantastic, Selkie. Thank you for the photograph and additional information. It doesn’t sound too complicated, but we eat a ton of fresh fruits and veggies and once one gets proficient at washing and chopping, it really isn’t bad. I have never had beans in breakfast cereal so sounds a bit odd but intriguing. We do eat a lot of beans and I add them to almost everything, except breakfast cereal. Very inspirational. Thank you!

I am 54 and have had two already. My first one was about 22 years ago, after I was in a bad car accident and x-rays should cause for concern. My second one was at menopause age. I have struggled with low vitamin d all of my adult life (and likely did as a child) and have a family history of osteoporosis.

I am super curious about all the fruits! Do you make a fruit salad? Smoothie? Also curious about the muesli with soybeans. How are the soybeans - raw, cooked, hot or cold? I have never had soybeans with muesli so trying to picture how it would look and taste. I know from other posts that we eat in a similar manner. I have some serious chronic health issues and am trying to eat as many colorful plants as possible. I love the idea of eating greens with breakfast. I need to incorporate that.

I tried to start one about six years ago. I wanted it to be a self study, teen-led group. I didn’t get any response from people my child’s age. I got a ton of response from moms with much younger kids that wanted a drop-off activity, which is not what I envisioned. I didn’t want to “babysit” or monitor younger kids. Shortly after, our county’s 4-H club, which we had not previously been involved in, split off and formed a STEM club. We went to the introductory meeting, which was awful and my child begged me not to make them go back. I insisted we try one more meeting. At this meeting, the club decided to compete in robotics. My child was hooked. It was such an amazing experience and blessing. The team competed in competitions around our state and won many tournaments, including a nice scholarship at one event. All of the team members are now in college, studying related fields and still great friends. My child is studying software engineering, another is studying mechanical engineering, all are in STEM fields. I am so thankful this turned up when it did, as it fulfilled my child’s need to be around like minded individuals.