A Balanced Life

We hear a lot about keeping balance in our lives, Yen versus Yang.  Example, all work and no play makes _________a ____________.  You fill in the blanks.  If we want good health and longevity, we need to balance diet with exercise. 

I like keeping a balanced household.  We have two dogs, one twelve year old female and one young two year old dude.  A female cat that is small and dainty and a younger tom we refer to as our mountain lion.  All balanced between young and old, male to female and big to small.

My husband and I balance, he needs to gain weight while I need to lose it.  Now if only those treatments that claim to melt fat could magically melt it off me and inject it where he needs it.  Our habits are in balance, he puts things away and I simply leave them where they lay.

My inner thermometer runs hot and his runs cold.  In the summer you can find him wearing sweats with a knit cap on his head while I’m sitting there in a bathing suite or shorts.

I keep our meals balanced, I try to have a meat, a starch and something green.  My mother taught me how to keep pies and cakes balanced by trimming off any uneven edges. 

Even our respective families balance each other.  He comes from a large Catholic family while I come from a small Presbyterian one.  His family reunion filled a hotel while mine couldn’t fill a port-a-potty. 

Balance is good.  By staying balanced we stay on the narrow tight-rope of life, but if you think about it, it’s the unbalanced ones that fall and hit the net to experience life outside the box.

Until next time, do what I do as I’m evening up the edge of an Apple Pie popping the trimmed edge into my mouth; tell yourself it’s only fruit.




















 

Mucking Around In The Mud

“Summer time and the living is easy…”.  Children are out of school and parents are pulling their hair out while it storms in parts of the country keeping everyone inside.

So, what do you get when you mix children and summer rain?   You get a whole lot of fun in the mud.    Mud puddles are magnates.  If you doubt this, watch a child or dog after a good rain.  They will go out of their way to jump in the middle of the biggest puddle making as big a splash as possible. We used to have a leaking sprinkler head that made a huge puddle.  I would watch as our dog made a bee-line for it and splashed until she was soaked and caked with mud.  She always had a happy, goofy look on her face when she finished. The look on my face was not happy or goofy.

Recently, I saw a picture of someone covered in mud.  I mean they looked like a mud sculpture they were so completely covered.  I clicked on the story to find it had to do with a mud festival up north.  I was intrigued. Were there more mud festivals, you bet.  I found celebrations involving mud all over the globe. 

Reading about the celebrations of mud I thought about all the fun I had as a child making mud pies, squishing it between my bare toes and yes, throwing a big handful on someone.  Today mud is used in spas.  Most of us have watched a scene where the character(s) are sitting in a tub of mud, or laying down swathed in robes with mud all over their face.  I, myself, use a powdered mud product I mix and put on my face.  I have to say, it does pull the impurities out of my skin.  Maybe I should try a full body mud treatment.

Children know instinctively what to do with mud, but for those of us without imaginations there are web sites dedicated to activities involving mud.  Children love the stuff and according to the pictures I saw of celebrations and festivals around the world dedicated to mud, the fun doesn’t stop in childhood.

A neighbor told me about how she and her cousins used a muddy field, a tractor and skis or a boogie board to go, as she called it, Redneck skiing.  It sounded like fun.  Guys and I guess gals too put huge tires on their trucks and head on over to the local mud ranch to sling  as much mud as their trucks can muster.  

That’s all for today until next time take off your shoes the next time it rains and be a kid, run without abandon through the nearest mud puddle, you’ll be glad you did.

From Dog House to Spa: The Ultimate Pampered Pooch

          Back when I was growing up, taking care of the family pet was a walk in the park.You took them for their shots once a year and when they looked or acted poorly you took them to see the local vet.  They ate Gravy Train for dinner and slept on a rug or in a basket.  Children went out to play and Rover followed them all over the neighborhood. 

Speed forward fifty years.  You can still buy Gravy Train but there is also Chef Michaels’ gourmet stew in small tubs, no left-overs for fussy eaters.  Bakeries that cater to the canine palate have sprung up across America from big cities to small towns.  Birthday parties as well as weddings complete with dresses, tuxes, rings, cakes etc. can be catered and orchestrated.

If you have an uptown kind of dog, you can find collars with jewels that cost more than my daughter’s college education.  And of course you can buy the most chic outfit to show it off.

It used to be you went off with your girlfriends for a spa weekend.  Now you can have a spa weekend with your pooch.  She gets a blueberry facial, massage, aroma therapy and a swim.   If you live in the city and work, you can send your best friend out for a good run with an athlete or send them to doggie daycare.

   Want to spend more time with your doggie?  Take a yoga class with him/her.  When the owner is relaxed and feeling good, the pet relaxes and a strong connection is made between the two.

If you live in California, you can subscribe to Dog TV.  They show a variety of shows to relax the anxious dog, stimulate the sluggish dog and entertain.  At some day care and boarding centers, they show dog friendly movies and give aroma therapy.  

For pet lovers who don’t have a pool, you can join a swim club for dogs.  One of our local vets has a bone shaped pool behind her clinic.  She hosts dog swim parties a couple of times a summer. 

Have a best friend, who is a little large for a pool?  Take him to a dog beach and play together in the sand.

There are as many extravagances for dog lovers and their constant companions as there are breeds.  That’s all for today, I have to go massage my Angel while her blueberry mask sets.  Then we’re going for a swim.  What do you do to pamper your furry loved ones?  Tell us in the comment box.