It was sooo bad.

Well, apparently you can't take a weight through airport security, who knew? The guy asked if I wanted to check it but it was a three dollar purchase at goodwill so spending thirty dollars to check it would have been silly. Today I will go to goodwill and buy another. Yesterday involved some brisk airport walking and that was all.

Two walks yesterday for a total of about 5 miles. Today I'm going to visit my mother and I'm committing to staying on course with exercise. I brought one of my weights so will just do everything twice.

That's just weird.

I like this. Dh and I have small but intense disagreements about 3 times a year. Usually about our business, usually started by me being unhappy with some way that he is not managing something correctly, (in my opinion.) It's a few minutes of each of us saying a couple of very sharp sentences then retreating. One of us usually apologizes after a night's sleep - we sleep in separate beds anyway so never have to negotiate that situation. It's rough enough, I don't know how I would handle yelling and cursing. I probably couldn't.

I took a beautiful 4 mile walk in the woods. The ice is retreating.

A quick two mile walk with friends then some heavy arms last night. I'm going to visit my mother and trying to decide if I can haul along my weights. If I don't I may lose all the progress I've made, so I think I will.

Hugs and hibernation peace to you. I hope warmer weather brings you some breathing room.

32, 32, 28, and 28.5. In addition to certain things I require, they each needed to do a "senior project" which gave them each an extra credit in senior year. The difference between the older two and younger two is that younger two both did extensive extracurriculars at the high school which took a fair amount of time; older two did high school before phones (or the internet, really, for oldest) and were insanely busy. Local high school requires 23.

Holding my oldest son in the light today.

nvm

Yesterday I did a 4 mile summit with a lot of walking on glare ice. Dh gave me a pair of spikes for my birthday which I love, they make it so easy to travel on ice. No snowy owls. It's time to tap trees, though.

I'm a huge fan!

I did a rainy 4 mile walk and ate a lot of icicles along the way. Also a 20 minute arms video with my heavier weights and was happily feeling stronger.

Wood, I prefer the way the knife ends the cut on wood. I like how they look. I'm in need of a new one now, thanks for the nudge! I've read different things about wood vs plastic for harboring bacteria, but ultimately that argument comes down to user behavior: vigilant washing and making sure there's no cross-contamination. I have one that's just for fruit and nuts so my garlic and onions don't make their way into sweets.

OK, my mental image of your username is now undergoing a lot of reconstruction. You, in a bikini and smartwool socks? Merino base layer and a sundress? I'm having cognitive dissonance! @Laura CorinI am green with envy right now. If I could teleport anywhere and drop in for a few weeks, it would be that street. I got in one whole lap of skating on the lake yesterday, lol, and blew off my arms video due to being sore from the day before. Today I feel good but it's pouring rain - I will still do some arms plus a walk in the rain with my hiking bestie who's back for a few weeks.

Yesterday I helped a friend scrubbing boards that were caked on with 100+ years of barn debris instead of doing any other arms workout, and today I can really feel it. Will walk or skate today.

I'm so sorry, and I so appreciate your honesty. I agree with other posters that you deserve to be seen by a health care professional, your children will benefit too. It really sounds like you are in a crisis, not an almost-crisis, but with the amount of mothering you've done and are still doing, you might tend to minimize. Hugs and peaceful thoughts to you, Eos

I've been thinking about these all day, might be ready to answer. I love the "Jack" podcast about Jack Smith. Favorite book: Bury The Chains by Adam Hochschild Favorite purchase: I had some great barters last year, including time for two different friends at my business in exchange for dd19's beautiful watercolored diploma and some meadow plants for this year's garden. Best life hack: paying someone to watch over my mom. Biggest financial regret: not requiring dh and ds to take a truck they wanted to buy for ds to a mechanic. They got it home from buying it 2 hours away and took it to a mechanic down here who told them it was unfixable. It's still in the yard. What did I do to make my life easier this year: didn't work this winter High point of last year: our Smithsonian/DC trip with three of the kids. The best of times!

Also thank you for this. You are a wise person.

Thank you, I just had this thought before reading your post and it's very helpful.

I'll start. Mine: I took three young kids to Italy for 7 weeks and felt sad when my husband visited. Mine lasted about 4 years. Dh bought a tractor.

Have you or a loved one gone through a midlife crisis? I'm trying to avoid the phrase as a joke or meme or a dismissive put-down. What did it look like? How long did it last? What helped move it along, besides tincture of time? Thank you.

Again, please don't quote, thank you. It's been a roller-coaster. In three weeks they've gone up and down three times. Ds has begun personal therapy, for which I'm glad. This morning I had a very long call with ds, who sounded completely normal - sad and frustrated but normal. Ddil called me later in the morning. I listened to her but told her I needed to be supporting ds, and that I would think about what she said. I said a lot of "I'm so sorry, it's so hard for both of you" and other neutral phrases. I felt good about laying down a boundary but also being compassionate. She's miserable but I'm not going to analyze or even discuss ds's feelings with her. OK, here's my concern. Ddil told me she's worried about ds. I think she was implying mental illness. And I knew what she meant - in the last 6 months he's changed his look, bought a motorcycle, and now seems to be heading toward divorce. I believe this fits perfectly with what is dismissively called "mid-life crisis." There's quite a bit of writing about it online, enough that it seems like a genuine set of symptoms. When he first told me about their issues, I did worry. They hadn't come up for New Year's which is unusual, and he hadn't asked us what we wanted for Christmas which was also kinda weird. I know he's unhappy and possibly depressed, which is very different from his usual happy-go-lucky self. Should I be worried about mental illness beyond depression? Or does this seem "normal" for a 34 year old man who is finally coming to terms with the fact that he's done a huge amount of emotional and physical caretaking in his marriage and might be done? How would I know? She's in the throes of grief, and while it may seem like mental illness to her, to him it's been building for a while and he's feeling new relief from allowing his feelings to come out. I might start a spin off about midlife crisis. I fear it's a term that is used as a joke or a meme, downplaying a real issue.

Yesterday was a beautiful and cold walk, would have been about 8 miles but I ended up bushwacking part of it for fun down a gorgeous stream bed that cut about a mile off.