With COVID going strong, we need to appreciate the days we have even more than ever. At the end of this week, I have now lost 10 patients to COVID–3 this week! 2 of them were gone in a couple of days! Live each day like there may not be a tomorrow. We are not guaranteed this by any means. We can’t live in fear, but we have to use our heads. Don’t take things for granted, and remember and appreciate the things we do have, not what we don’t have. Spend time with friends, like the above picture shows, but you can be smart about it too.
These two pictures are from our run club. The first one this Summer when we were supporting some of our friends when they did their first marathon. It was a virtual marathon, so they were basically running by themselves, with us riding by, or pedaling by to cheer them on. When we are outside we try to keep our space, and limit the actual time we may be together, like 30 seconds to take a picture! If it were not for these friends, this pandemic would be even tougher to deal with. We are like family!
This is where the sunsets come into play for me too. I am by myself, getting lost in nature, and just taking in all of the colors and beauty. Each one is different. It is my wind down time at the end of the day. Lately, it has been tougher to get to see with them coming sooner, and now with Daylight Savings last weekend, there is no way I can get there during the week now. I have Thursday afternoons off, so I have time then, and the weekends. I will still take them in then, but the rest of the days I will still be at clinic working.
Think about this for a minute. Let the meaning really sink in. By appreciating somebody else, and telling them, we not only make them feel good, but it obviously is a benefit to ourselves as well because they were helping us to begin with. Show that appreciation to others as well. And, don’t forget to appreciate those in our own households as well.
Dakota is such a good dog. She just turned one in August. She is always excited to see us, and ready to give hugs and kisses anytime, any day. She loves to go for runs/walks too. Many times she gets to go in the morning and in the evening.
And, I am so lucky to have Sarah in my life. I have no clue what I would do without her! I can only hope I will not have to find out for a long time! I appreciate her more than she knows! And so does Dakota!
So go out to the Lake and watch a sunset, or a sunrise. You won’t regret it! Let your mind go, and your problems as well. Just forget everything else going on right now. And get outside while you can! We got a break from Winter last month, don’t blow it! Take advantage of it for as long as we are going to be lucky enough, and blessed enough to have it. Don’t waste it. Anything that can wait doing inside can wait. You will have all Winter to work on those things. And remember…
Continue to keep reading this slide until it sinks in! With everything going on now, nothing can be taken for granted. Don’t waste anything. Remember to focus on what is truly important, and necessary. Sometimes we think things are important, but they are really not. Keep your perspective on what is TRULY important in your life. Strive to Survive! Keep moving everybody!
I have always said: Lead by Example! COVID numbers are increasing continuously. We are seeing patients with this daily! Yes, many people who get it recover without any long term ramifications. But, many do not. I even had a patient this week who has been off for the last month from work because he cannot get over the fatigue from COVID. He is angry and frustrated. He, like many, did not think initially this was a big deal…until he got it. I have been talking about wearing months for months. I have been on the Watertown Task Force for COVID, and have spoke many times. I have been criticized, sworn at, told to my face that I don’t know what I am talking about. That won’t stop me from doing what I need to do. I will keep talking about wearing masks until this is over. There is a new promotion going on now: #MaskUpWatertown. Check it out on Facebook. It has been in the news, radio, newspaper. It is a means of promoting the use of masks with the high numbers of cases we are having now.
Sarah and I went running with our run group Saturday morning for Halloween. Our costumes were shown above. You guessed it, we went as doctors! After all, we are doctors. We had all our gear on. We did not have to have a mask on running outside. We kept our social distance. We did it to prove a point. It can be done. It is not that difficult. You can also have fun with it.
Be creative. We can wears masks for Halloween, why can’t we wear one otherwise? Protect someone else. Have someone protect you. It is a 2 way street. The number of cases of people dying from COVID here in Watertown is climbing as well. You ask those people’s families how they feel. Is wearing a mask a guarantee that you won’t get COVID, or that you won’t give it to someone else? NO! When is anything in life a guarantee. Will it help? YES! Be like the Nike commercial: JUST DO IT! If we spent as much effort to wear a mask as we do complaining about it, it would not be an issue. I have heard so many excuses already to not wear one. But that is all it is: An excuse! Will I probably have some people complain about what I am writing here today? Absolutely! Do I care? NOT ONE BIT!!!!
We wear masks all day, every day at the clinic. We are seeing COVID everyday! Do I like wearing a mask? HELL NO! But I do it! By the time this is all done, I will have to keep wearing a mask just to hide the permanent marks being left in my face by our N95 masks! #MASKUPWATERTOWN! Just do it! Do it for those around you! Do it because you care about other people. If anything could help with reducing the number of people with COVID, why would you not do it? Every day! If you can’t keep social distancing, wear a mask! If you are shopping, wear a mask! If you are around a large group, WEAR A MASK! Our whole philosophy with this blog revolves around the concept of trying to Strive to Survive! JUST DO IT!! And, keep moving everybody…it truly helps deal with all of the insanity going on currently! Take care of yourself, but help take care of others also!
Happy Halloween on Saturday! Spider-Man (aka Corbin above) is super excited for today–trick or treating fun! We couldn’t get Super-Man (aka Carson to sit still long enough for a picture yet-he’s a busy 1 year old!).
Check out these tips below to help you and your kids have a safe and healthy holiday today! Full Reference: http://n411.consultant360.com/n411/toddler-kid-center-your-patients/articles/8-halloween-tips-trick-or-treat-night#main-content
1. “Have a plan to start the night: A group of hungry, dehydrated, excited goblins is a frightening picture for any parent! Make a plan for dinner and trick-or-treat start time, and ask for your children’s input. Agree on a nutritious dinner – perhaps with a Halloween theme, and plan it ahead of time with your children’s help. Let them know that you will eat early on Halloween night so that they will have all the energy needed for a successful Trick-or-Treat night. Make sure they drink enough fluid. Children can get overheated in Halloween costumes, especially when it is combined with running from house to house throughout your neighborhood.
2. Set limits in advance: Ask your children to help you decide on the route you will take, how many doors you will knock on, and what hour they will turn back into “pumpkins.” Having an end goal will help you avoid the “just one more” or “but we have not gone to…” meltdown that persists all the way home.
3. Agree on a candy consumption: limit Agree on how much candy your children can eat on Trick or Treat night and each day thereafter. You may want to make a similar confidential agreement with yourself. Note: “unlimited access” or “until the chocolate is gone” is not a good plan.
4. Provide healthy snacks: Keep healthy between-meal snacks in view and accessible. A bowl full of juicy red apples, bananas, or seasonal fruit is a better centerpiece than Skittles®, M&M’s®, and Tootsie Rolls®. Keep the candy out of sight. Assign a kids’ shelf in your refrigerator and fill it with low-fat yogurt, low-fat cheese cut in interesting shapes, and fresh-cut vegetables.
5. Teach and model moderation: Do not give candy more status than it deserves. In some instances, the more something is forbidden or overly restricted, the more desirable it becomes. Teach and model moderation. All foods can fit, if we are reasonable about the amount and frequency.
6. Do not attach emotions to candy: Try not to use candy to reward, bribe, punish, or convey love. By attaching emotions to certain foods, you may inadvertently set the stage for disordered eating in the future.
7. Begin some new family traditions: Try to take the focus of the holiday away from the candy. Make it a time to begin new family rituals, such as stuffing a scarecrow full of leaves for the front porch. Carve pumpkins and roast the seeds. Hold an annual scavenger hunt for fall items, such as acorns, pinecones, woolly caterpillars, animal tracks, and colorful leaves. Begin a new photo album that holds pictures of Halloween celebrations, past and present. After trick-or-treating, collect the extra candy and box it up to donate to military troops or participate in a Buyback program through a dentist’s office or local business.
8. Keep it safe: Above all, have a safe and fun Halloween. Your children are only small for a short while!”
We hope your day is filled with more tricks than treats! Enjoy! -Kelsey
Last week I wrote about taking the time to appreciate things, and looking at things around us. My main pictures were sunsets when it was calm. When things are calm, and steady, things are easy. But what about when it starts getting a little more turbulent in our lives? What about the storms we encounter, and some even on a daily basis? How do we deal with things when the going gets tough? What we do depends on what we look for. You may have to dig a little further into your own self to decide what this may be, and look for the good in things yet. You can still see some amazing things during the turbulent times as well.
Things could always be worse, right? We have to keep telling ourselves it will get better. Stay strong, stay focused, and sometimes it may feel like we are just hanging on. But the above says it all! Look beyond. Think of how things are when that storm, or “turbulence” is over. How much better do we feel when we “weather the storm”?
Stand tall! Yes, just like a strong wind, you wonder how you can stand up to it all and deal with it. There is where exercise comes into play for me. It is my escape. My time for me. My time to forget everything else around me that is going on. This Summer really opened up my eyes when I would go for my walks along the Lake. It was my time to relax, and I was forgetting everything else. I looked at the sun setting like I had never seen before. And you know what? It truly was like I was seeing it for the first time! It has been right in front of me for years, and I just never paid attention to it. Don’t let life pass us by. The years go by fast. Appreciate each day like it could be our last, because you know what? It could be!
I absolutely love going out and taking these pictures. I am coming up with different ways to capture the moment. Some of these times are indescribable as to the things that go through my mind when I just “let it go and take it all in”! Every sunset is different. I now am seeing the changes when the wind picks up, and the waves are crashing, that each one of these adds a different dimension to the moment. Yes, it is turbulent. Yes it is hard to always stand tall during these times. But you have to look beyond…look deeper into the moment in order to help get through it.
No truer words have been said! Calm yourself! Easier said than done. Find out for you what it is that is going to help calm you. Go walk, get active, blow off some steam. Take the surroundings in, and pay attention. You will see things you truly have never seen before. Start living!
Let the waves roll on by! Get past those tough times. Look beyond. Strive to take life in for what it is…a gift. Never take your life for granted. For all the tough times, there are many more good times. And, the tough times make the good times even better. Keep moving everybody!
It’s that time of year again. Not only are the aisles of Wal-Mart strewn with witch hats, zombie make-up and fairy wings, but of course there is the looming aisle of Halloween candy. It can be easy to over indulge on treats this time of year. Most of the candy passed out to trick-or-treaters comes in “fun size” or “mini” portions. However, looks can be deceiving; people often believe that since they are smaller in size, more can be consumed. Calories from Halloween candy can quickly add up. For example; 3 mini snickers bars pack 300 calories. To burn off that many calories you would have to walk at a brisk pace for 1.5 hours or run for 40 minutes. Fortunately the 31st of October doesn’t have to mean automatic weight gain. Try waiting until the day before to buy treats to pass out. You will be less likely to feel the need to nibble if you don’t buy it a month ahead of time. Keeping it out of sight, such as up in a closet you rarely use, can help you forget that it’s even in the house. The biggest challenge with Halloween candy is the leftovers. After the trick-or-treaters have come and gone we are often left with the reality that we stocked up for 400 doorbell ringers, and only got 15. Buying candy that you don’t like is an easy way to keep you from eating it both before and after the holiday and you can always donate it to get it out of your house. Below are some healthier options to pass out next week! Halloween the Healthy Way….treats/prizes to try:
Sugar-free gum
Boxes of raisins
Animal crackers
Pretzels
Trail mix
Fruit snacks
Lollipops
Non-Candy choices: stickers, small toys, erasers, etc.
Pictured above are my boys from last year: Buzz Lighyear & Woody from Toy Story. Be sure to check back to our blog on Halloween for this year’s costume! -Kelsey
If you have never taken the time to go view a sunset, especially over the lake, words cannot describe the peace that can come with this. It is easy for your mind to “unwind”, and just relax, and look at he beauty that is being created in front of you. The scene is different every time! The reflections, the calmness. Somedays though are not calm, and the waves are rolling in. The beauty is still there, but different. Life rolls like this as well. Some days are very straightforward, calm, relaxing, and other days are not. You have to be able to handle it both ways. I like these next two quotes: “In calm water every ship has a good captain” (Grover Cleveland); and “It’s all about finding the calm in the chaos” (Donna Karan).
Clouds create even more beauty with the sunsets. Sunsets are proof that no matter what happens, every day can end beautifully (Kristen Butter). Every sunset is an opportunity to reset from what when on during the day. If our day was not the greatest, we can have something to look forward to tomorrow. Words can’t always express what goes through your mind as you watch things unfold as the sun sets. I dare anybody to watch, and actually take the time to watch, and not let your mind drift off, and dream, especially when the waters are calm, and the reflections back on the water allow you to see the potential in everything in your life.
I find the reflections always tell a story, and it is always a different story. There may be similarities, but there are always differences. The answers to things in life are not always clear, but I can tell you some of the answers come to me while sitting back and really taking these views in. It is one thing to think about things at the time I am taking these pictures, but it is another to look at these later and be able to reflect back on some of those same thoughts, but also come up with some new ones as well.
The answers to issues don’t always appear right away, but eventually open up with ideas and thoughts about how to handle things, and how to approach things in life. Everything now is always so rushed. We have to hurry to do this, and do that. We all need to learn to slow down, calm down, and take it in. Solutions often come easier to mind when you do.
It is truly amazing that something so simple can also be so complicated. Each sunset tells a story. I have found too that the day was calmer when the water is calm, and the day was a little tougher when the water is really rolling as well. That will be next weeks blog topic. Sunsets with wind/rough waters. Even though those days can be tougher, they have a different distinction and beauty all of their own. I find it very relaxing. All of these pictures were taken by me. I took the time… I took the time to take it in, and appreciate it, and learn from it…and enjoy it. We all strive for things in our life. Taking some time to slow down can actually help us in the long run. Enjoy life. See what it has to offer. We are all busy enough during the day. Unwind. Take a deep breath. Relax! And…keep moving everybody…but slow down enough to enjoy life as well.
