Sky, trees, and neighborhood lights on our greenway walk last night. I walked about 4 miles yesterday --- logged some on my phone app, but walked more without the phone --- and did some standing crunches and some arm work with a stretch band, as well as dyeing clothes. Every time I consider that I'm going to be 59 in November, I think: EXERCISE NOW. DO NOT BE SEDENTERY. YOU A DECADE FROM NOW WILL THANK NOW-YOU FOR MOVING YOUR BODY TODAY.
Mostly, of course, I don't pay that much attention to aging, other than to notice attractive, vital older women and think, Yeah, that's how I want to be. And I pay more attention to things I ought to be doing: eating well, staying active, working on strength and balance, because if I don't do that now, later might be too late. Mind you, I'm not an athlete, which I've had many years to understand. I don't really want to be an athlete. I don't at all want to go to the gym, or do exercise for which I have to change my clothes. But there are things I can do throughout even a busy day: 10 standing crunches each side when I take a break from work, 50 reps with the stretch band, a few minutes standing first on one leg, then the other, without wobbling. And I take my vitamins and drink my first cup of coffee with a scoop of collagen peptides, all of which I hope helps. I'm sure the supplement makers hope I hope it all helps, so that they can keep selling me these things.
Today:
* Write another Sun essay
*Lesson plans for these classes I'm teaching for the recorded archive at Homeschool Connections --- I began that yesterday and hope to have at least one whole course done by the end of the week.
*Walk and exercise, especially as the weather continues pleasant: 88F, which while warm sure does beat anything in the 90s.
AND it's really August! The first day of a new month. There's always something invigorating about the start of a month, like a tiny little 1/12 New Year's feeling: a clean-ish slate, a new-ish start, a turn toward something fresher than whatever you were turned toward yesterday. This month the progeny go back to school, the husband goes back to work, and I resume my more hermetic rounds, all of which, I must confess, I look forward to. I'll see the kids off with a pang. I'll feel a similar pang at my husband's going out the door all day --- mostly because I know that he would have liked the summer to go on forever. But I'll also enjoy having the house to myself --- myself and Dora, anyway. Having Dora around is decidedly not like being by myself.
Still, I thrive on that kind of life, more than I like to admit. I enjoy the prospect of not being disturbed for hours and hours. There have been a few days this week, in fact, when everyone was out: offspring at work, husband at the gym or running errands or having coffee with somebody, and I thought, ahhhhhhhh. It's not that I don't like having people around. It's more like . . . I don't know . . . I enjoy the idea that they're out there flourishing, leaving me to flourish right here where I'm sitting (but not sitting for too long because I do not want to be sedentery, no no no).
I'm very happy to be able to start the month in --- not a new dress, but a renewed dress. It's an incalculable lift to the spirits to put on my green Sierra today.
I might look dubious, but trust me, I'm not.
It's true that this dress did not shrink, like at all, in yesterday's dye process.
I guess I could imagine wearing her unbelted. I mean, I did wear her unbelted for much of the last eighteen months and counting. But at some point this just started feeling like an awful lot of fabric.
It's the length more than anything. If I ever order another Sierra, and I can certainly see doing that, I won't order the long again. I don't mind wearing this dress belted, but I could see wanting another that really performed more like a swing dress.
But!
Here's the trusty double-wrap leather belt to the rescue. I thought it would look good on a field of dark green, and I think I was right. This is still, honestly, a nice earthy combination. I just like that there's more color to it than there was before.
And there's definitely more shape with the belt than without.
I'm wearing light-colored things underneath to test for dye transfer. That's still something of an issue with my redyed Camellia, and I'm curious to know whether Jacquard performs better or not.
Either way, I am enjoying the new richness of this color.
As you can see, it still has a lovely heathered look, which makes it feel more dimensional and lustrous. It also feels like a dress with more potential to dress up than it had before. I did wear it to parties when it was one of two wool dresses I owned, but as I've acquired more dresses, this one has slipped into "definitely everyday" territory, and out of "could be special." It's still "definitely everyday" --- to my surprise, it was my most-worn dress in July --- but now it feels as though it could be special, too.
I also love that this dark green is clear and blue-toned. The dark green offered in the Sierra model --- though I think maybe it's discontinued --- was a color called Forest Night, which looked very muddy to me by contrast. A great shade for people with apricot skin, red-toned hair, overall earthy autumnal coloring, but not great for people like me, who do blues and clarity. I like the earthy feel of today's outfit, but it looks good on me because its predominating color is not, in fact, an actually earthy, as in muddy, color.
Eating a little late breakfast, finishing my coffee, fixing to walk the dog for a bit before work.
EVENING UPDATE:
I have:
*written a Sun essay
*edited my colleague's Sun essays for the next week
*attended a Homeschool Connections teacher orientation Zoom meeting, which was useful even though I am teaching direct-to-recorded courses instead of live ones
*attempted for the second day in a row to pick up my son's ADHD med prescription, which the insurance is clearly refusing to pay for
*walked 3.21 miles so far (and we're fixing to walk 2 more miles on the greenway in just a little while)
*made some version of shepherd's pie with ground turkey, and I don't know what to call it, because it wasn't lamb. Beef is cottage pie, but what do you call turkey? Poultry Yard Pie just doesn't sound . . . quite . . . like something you want to eat, but it was good.
*worked on plans for these HSC classes, so that I can start uploading stuff into the course software, preparatory to teaching the classes. I still need to write quizzes and (sigh) make whole power-points, so that'll take some more time . . .
*considered how this merino bralette I'm wearing is giving me my grandmother's waistits, if you know what I mean. Not to be crass, but I can't think of anything else to call this effect.
*BUT ENJOYED MY REDYED SIERRA, thankyouvery much. It's been a less-hot day than we were having for a while there, but even so . . . I've felt pretty good. Color really does affect your perceptions of things. Just not feeling that I was wearing a sweatshirt dress has made some difference in how I have experienced time outside today. Granted, now I look like I'm wearing a sleeveless Christmas dress . . . but I'm okay with that.