Month: September 2013

Unfulfilled Wishes from Week #3, #4 and #5

Whoopee!!!!  Hooray!!!! Finally, I fulfilled two of the three remaining Wishes from Weeks #3, #4 and #5:

 On Saturday, I Exercised in the Pool for 45 minutes for the first time; since, I quit the Aqua Zumba class at the YMCA in August to go on vacation.   Wish Aqua Zumba was offered year-round; I will miss going to my “pool party” every Saturday morning.  I loved everything about this class.  Especially, the “salsa/hip hop music;” “low impact aquatic workout;” and, I had the “greatest time” with an “energetic and enthusiastic” group of women.  Since the pool will soon close at the YMCA, I will have to exercise “solo” in our pool at home.  Unless, I can get Hubby to join me.

Grateful for Exercising in the Pool and until the cold days arrive in Florida; I plan to merge water aerobics into my overall exercise program.

I Prepared a Healthy Meal from a Recipe, Fried Corn Zucchini Medley

Thanks to Grandma Loy’s Kitchen for sharing this quick and easy recipe on her blog.  I wanted a vegetarian dish as a side to grilled, skinless chicken breast; so, I omitted the bacon topping as she suggested.

Photo Taken on My IPAD

I urge you to visit Grandma Loy’s Kitchen for her recipe as well as a beautiful photo presentation of the dish posted on August 30, 2013.   I know you will not be disappointed.  Grandma Loy has collected recipes for over 50 years; and, I am so happy to have access to her Holiday Cookie Mix recipes when the Grands come for Christmas.

Sadly, I failed to fulfill my Wish to Learn About My New Digital Camera.  But, I did overcome my anxiety about digital camera technology.  At the beginning of last week, I removed the camera from its packaging, read the directions, and charged the battery.  Then realized, I should have purchased a “memory card.”   So, I placed an on-line order, which arrived on Friday.  I will revisit this project next week.

Fulfilled Wishes from Week #5

I did fulfill my two new Wishes for Week #5 to make blog connections with caregivers and survivors of Breast Cancer and Chronic Pain.  I toured Blogosphere and subscribed and/or joined:

• 12 Chronic Pain Blogs
• 34 Breast Cancer Blogs

My stay at each blog site was very brief; given the thirty-four that I located and visited over a seven-day period.  But in the coming months, I plan longer visits to each blog.

As a survivor of both Breast Cancer and Chronic Pain, I am excited about connecting with other survivors with the Wish of sharing and learning about the personal experiences, opinions, attitudes, and/or sentiments of survivors, families, and/or caregivers.

My Wishes for Week #6

• Prepare a Healthy Dessert
• Review YouTube Videos on Canon Digital Cameras
• Calendar of Activities:  Breast Cancer Awareness Month
• Post Breast Cancer:  A Grateful Survivor – Part 1
• Visit and Comment on Eight Breast Cancer Blogs
• In Support of Sisters Network-Milwaukee Chapter:  Display Pink Wreath on Front Door

“Transitional Neighborhood is a neighborhood that is “changing” it can be from good to bad or bad to good, but usually it is from bad to good.” (Wikipedia)

When our youngest daughter left for college in 1985, Hubby and I became “Empty Nesters.”  We enjoyed the down sized apartment style of living until 1999.  Then WE got the “home ownership bug” again. 

WE found the perfect four-bedroom tri-level home in a nearby suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.   Originally built as a model for the Parade of Homes in 1962, this house ticked every box on “our wishes and needs checklist.”  It, also, met our “must haves”?

• Quiet Neighborhood – Eight homes on a dead-end street separated by spacious lot sizes on both sides.

• Scenic Views – Rear of home backs up to wooded conservation area.

• Lower Traffic – One street entrance and exit.  Limits unknown people and vehicles passing through.

• Like-Minded Neighbors –  Empty Nesters

Our “Cul-de-Sac” House

Hubby and I were the newbies.”  All of our neighbors were now “Empty Nesters” who had lived in the neighborhood since before the 1970.s   We heard stories about how alive and active the “cul-de-sac” had been back in the day when their children were growing up.  But, when we arrived in 1999, the “cul-de-sac” was an “Empty Nesters” haven.

Somewhere around 2009, the house across the street from ours sold to a young couple with a 2-year-old little girl.  Even with this younger household, the “cul-de-sac” continued to serve as a sanctuary for “Empty Nesters. ”

Then, in January 2012, the neighborhood began to shift toward becoming a “Transitioning Neighborhood.”  Our Son, a single father with a 4-year-old daughter, rented our home; which had been empty since Hubby and I retired to Florida in 2010.   Now, there were two little girls living in the “cul-de-sac” attracting children from the adjoining cross street.

This summer Hubby and I visited our Son.  I spent most of my time sitting in a wicker chair on the front porch.  Watching the neighborhood children – playing, riding bicycles, tricycles, scooters, and other four-wheel battery-operated vehicles took me back to my childhood.   I was not only an onlooker, but the:

ü  Mediator of disputes,

ü  Judge for competitive activities; and

ü  Nurse with the band-aid who kissed the “owies.”

Two Car Garage:  Granddaughter’s “Cul-de-Sac” Transportation

Son and Granddaughter  Playing Around in the “Cul-de-Sac”

“Cul-de-Sac” Neighbors

“Cul-de-Sac” Race

Granddaughter’s Favorite “Cul-de-Sac” Transportation

Granddaughter’s Other Mode of “Cul-de-Sac” Transportation

Granddaughter’s Front Porch Flower Garden

I enjoyed the changes in the “cul-de-sac.”   But, I no longer live there.  I return for several weeks each year to visit my children and the grands.  However, I was curious about how the remaining “Empty Nesters” felt about the influx of children in the “cup-de-sac”.  Seeking an answer from at least one of the neighbors, I approached my next-door neighbor an 88-year-old, widowed about six years ago, who lives alone. When I asked about the “changes” in the “cul-de-sac”; she said, “I love to sit at the window and watch the children play.  It brightens my day.”

Like me, she sees the “Transitioning” as “good” and not “bad.”  Our “cul-de-sac” is welcoming in a new generation. 

Unlike, the following quote by Jane Jacobs, the Death and Life of Great American Cities:

“Neighborhoods built up all at once change little physically over the years as a rule…[Residents] regret that the neighborhood has changed. Yet the fact is, physically it has changed remarkably little. People’s feelings about it, rather, have changed. The neighborhood shows a strange inability to update itself, enliven itself, repair itself, or to be sought after, out of choice, by a new generation. It is dead. Actually it was dead from birth, but nobody noticed this much until the corpse began to smell.”