Quick and Easy gift too make..........

This cost me nothing but time as I had all the bits in the house.  There is nothing better than sitting in front of the TV with a bowl of soup on a cold winter's night.  It's made all the better when you don't burn your hands on a hot soup bowl!!

I made a Soup Bowl Hot Pad using this tutorial.

All you need are two 10 inch squares of fabric
Two 10 inch squares of batting, toweling or flannel (padding to go between the layers of outside fabric)
Coordinating thread
Scissors
Ruler

It's sewn with a straight stitch, so if you can sew in a straight line you can do this.  The pad itself is completely reversible and it is washable.

A couple of these along with a jar of soup mix (recipe here) would make a great Christmas gift.

I am going to sew some more of these now I have made my first one.

Sleep...........

This article arrived in my inbox the other day all about sleep.

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One of my favourite things about my FitBit is the sleep app part of it.  I love how it shows you not only how long you slept for, but what different types of sleep cycles you went through each given night.

You usually move from light sleep to deep sleep, back to light then onto REM.  

You can be awake between 10 - 30 times per night, but most are so short you will not remember them.  

REM typically occurs later at night and has been shown to improve your mood and memory. During this stage your dreams are more vivid, your heartbeat is elevated and your breathing faster.

Light sleep is very important, it makes up most of your night and promotes mental and physical restoration.

Deep sleep helps with physical recovery and helps with memory and learning.  If you wake up feeling refreshed you probably had a good deep sleep.

On an average night I should be awake 12% to 24% of the time.  In REM 15% to 25% of the time. Light sleep 40% to 60% of the time and deep sleep 8% to 16% of the time.

Everyone is different.  Me personally, I do best if I can sleep 9 hours per night.  If I could sleep longer I could and I would!!  I need my sleep.  I average around 8 hours sleep per night.

The other night for instance these were my numbers:

Awake: 9%
REM : 18%
Light Sleep: 56%
Deep Sleep: 17%

I also tend to fall into a deep sleep right away as per my FitBit.

Are you a good sleeper?

Oldies Exercise Class............

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Add gallons of sweat pouring off me and that image above would be correct.  I swear I ache in places I didn't know existed.  Yesterday was the first time I had been since the end of August so to say I was out of shape wouldn't be an exaggeration.  

I was shocked though when I walked into the place as it was packed.  Did a sneaky count while I was stretching and there were over 50 of us there.  There were only 4 lb hand weights left, so I took a couple of them, but they were way too heavy for me.  So I need to pick up some hand weights of my own.  Not sure if it's because golfing season is over with; so that's why people start to come to the classes?

Regardless I had a good time, though I was disappointed only one of  the steroid ladies was there and I was behind her, so couldn't really see what she was up too.  There was a couple of older gentlemen there whom I had never seen before; both probably in their late 70's to early 80's and one in particular when I saw him I said, "Oh Bless Him," to myself.  He obviously didn't own any clothes to exercise in as he was wearing a pair of regular shoes, a pair of regular slacks/trousers and a very nice sweater/jumper.  I couldn't see from where I was if he had a shirt and tie on underneath it, but that wouldn't of surprised me.

He actually sat down for nearly all the class, but I would have given him 10 out of 10 for effort, he really did well.  I too sat down for bits of the class, and I am at least 20 + years younger than him!!

The good news was, what with my early morning walk and walking back and forward to the exercise class and doing the exercise class, I had logged in over 11,000 steps and over 90 minutes of exercise all by 10:30 am on Tuesday morning.

I am getting back into the swing of walking and exercising!!

Vegetarian and recipe...........

I am not a vegetarian and probably never will be but, I am eating less and less meat as the years pass by.  Last week I did have some bacon on a Caesar salad, but that was it.  I am trying to incorporate more fibre and vegetables in my diet as the older I am getting my digestive system seems to be changing.

After making my veggie and lentil curry for the past couple of weeks, I decided to make a chickpea and vegetable curry.  I mean who does not love cooking a meal where all you do is cut up veggies, throw them in a pan, add some spices and other ingredients and let it all bubble away for half an hour?  And the best thing of all is you can use up what you have.

So here is a photo of what I used in my chickpea and vegetable curry:

As you can see, I used carrots, onions, half a package of frozen spinach sort of defrosted, an orange bell pepper, a big can of chickpeas (got it on clearance for 50 cents), 1/2 can coconut milk, large can diced tomatoes, dash of olive oil and two heaped teaspoons of Patak mild curry paste, salt and pepper and the garlic from the hummus.

For some strange reason, our local Walmart has trouble keeping the regular Sabra Hummus in stock, and for my lunch I love hummus and rice crackers.  I had to pick up the garlic hummus which I find too garlicky for me.  So I decided to use the garlic in the hummus in my curry, see all that garlic in the middle of the tub:

To a lot of people this type of recipe is something they make all the time, for me it's something new and I am loving it.

I made some brown basmati rice as a side just because if I give dh the curry he'll need more carbs.  I will have a little rice but fill up on the curry itself.  This big pan will be enough for dh and I for one nights supper and me for another three or four nights supper.  I'll just cook something else for dh the other nights I am eating this; he likes his meat!!!

Also with the cooler nights, this is both filling and warming for the body.

10,604

That's how many steps I have done so far today at around 2 pm EST  The last time I hit over 10,000 steps was back on September 11th.  I have been sick or not been able to exercise much since the beginning of September.  I am hoping that health wise I will be back into the swing of things soon and those 10,000 steps per day will soon become a daily thing again.

Tomorrow I will be going to the "Old Folk's Exercise Class," again.  I haven't been since the end of August.  I wonder if the "steroid girls" will be there?  I know I won't be able to keep up with them but do know I will just do my best!!!

Meanwhile I'll just keep on walking......

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Bat Out Of Hell

So excited, just bought tickets to see the show:

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Haven't been to the theatre in a few years.  We're not going until December, can't wait........

Along with snow tires for the car, this is our Christmas present to one another!!

Anyone else seen this show?

Yummy.........

Our daughter made these for a fundraiser at work.  Wish I worked there!!