What is your secret for good health?

I had fun yesterday, and while I'm waiting for the washer to be done so I can go to bed I thought I'd do another one!

I don't know that I really have one. At least not a secret one. I guess for me the secret would be to be happy. When I'm happy - I eat better, I sleep better, I do more activities. And all of those things help you to be healthy. And for me being happy has a lot to do with my meds as I have been learning over the last few years, but even more so this year. It helps to see the change in me as my meds really starting working the last few weeks. It just gives me hope that I can be a happy, normal person. I wake up planning my day in the morning, instead of just hoping I make it through the day. I know that it's not only the meds too, I have to choose to be happy. Even on Prozac I could still be unhappy about my life. But the meds help me to be able to have a choice! This last week has been great for me. I've gotten so much done and I feel so much better. It's amazing how a clean house can put you in a good mood!

Most of the other things I can think of are very generic.

Exercise - I'm looking forward to Christmas (we're having a Wii Christmas this year! YAY Fit!) and I'm hoping that the rec center has the pool done soon so that we can renew our family membership next year. That was probably the best exercising I'd done in quite a while. We'd go as a whole family and Dean would work out while I was swimming with the girls and then I'd go work out and he'd swim with the girls. And then I got pregnant and the pass expired, then the pool was shut down for remodeling.... But I'm looking forward to starting up again.

Eating healthy - mostly it's just staying away from the fast food for me. So as long as I cook at home we're pretty healthy, although the girls could do with eating more veggies. 2 years ago I started substituting ground turkey for ground beef. And I must say I like it better. Except for meatloaf - I still have to use beef for meatloaf. Not only is the turkey less fatty - it's cheaper!!! By almost $1 a pound at my Wal-Mart.

Keeping up with Doctor visits - especially if you have health issues in your family. The easiest way to prevent a problem is to be proactive. Although I have to say with Mom's health history - I'm not looking forward to the battery of tests I should probably have done....okay really it's just one test (colonoscopy)....and I'm probably not going to follow my advice and put it off for as long as possible!!! But I am proud to say that I went in this year and had some moles tested for cancer - and they were benign!

I feel we're a pretty healthy family. Yes we get the occasional cold, but I very rarely (knock on wood) have to take the girls in to the doctor for sick visits. In fact I don't know that Alexandra has ever had to go in because she was sick. And I think the last time Riley was at the doctors it was 1st grade - and it was to have them test her eyesight because she kept getting headaches. Mostly it's just been well-check visits and one broken arm. I'm also not all over the sanitizer craze. Yes, it's nice every once in a while, but seriously using that stuff like 10 times a day is overkill. And when you kill off viruses and germs they just mutate and come back stronger. Plus I've always felt you need to let your immune system work at least a little bit, so it doesn't forget what it's supposed to be doing.

If you could be a flower, which one would you choose and why?

When I thought about this, I first thought of roses. My reasoning was that roses are very pretty, but the thorns can keep people away (Actually my exact thought was more like "the thorns can stab people you don't like"). And then I thought I don't really want to keep people away. There are days....but for the most part, I like people! Then I thought about flowers that I love to see when I go by the flower arrangements in the store. My favorites are when they have taken carnations and dyed them colors that they could never be.

My absolute favorites are probably the green ones, but I couldn't find an awesome picture on the Internet. Well, I stopped looking after 15 minutes, I'm sure there is one out there somewhere, just not on the first 3 pages of links from Google.

I love them because they are unique! They stand out! You notice them over the other flowers!

If I could pick a flower to be, that would be the one! Plus carnations last FOREVER compared to other flowers.

My Journal Jar

A few months ago we had an enrichment (it was still called enrichment then!) about getting to know yourself. One of the activities was to make a Journal Jar. My calling is Enrichment Leader - or now known as - Assistant to the Counselor over Additional Activities. I was in charge of getting the jars and all the questions together. I had a great time pouring over websites and making all the questions. As I was typing, I would get excited to think of how I would answer them. I decided that I was going to make a blog for my Journal Jar. Blogs are easier to me then an actual handwritten journal. I can go back and erase or rephrase so much easier. Plus it has spellcheck! It has taken me several months and an increase in my medication, but I'm finally up to starting this task.

I am hoping to write at least one Journal entry a week. We'll see how it goes, but that is my goal. I will pull out a question and then answer it. I'm gonna try for Sundays, since that would be a great Sabbath activity. I'm even hoping that some of the questions will lead to more then one post!

I'm looking forward to documenting my life and I hope that you will look forward to reading and getting to know more about me.