Category Archives: holidays and observances

Health, holidays and observances, women's health, pregnancy and childbirth

New Year’s Resolutions Approved by Grandmas

January 2, 2019 Aletha Cress Oglesby, M.D. 10 Comments

With people living such long lives now, most of us will spend a large portion of it as grandparents, even great-parents. But today’s grandmothers aren’t just sitting in rocking chairs knitting.

Modern grandmothers do everything. They run businesses and run for office.

There are grandmothers in Congress and on the Supreme Court.

Grandmothers run marathons , teach yoga, and compete in ballroom dancing (like me).

Some retire from long successful careers and some start new careers.

And some grandmothers write blogs.

BLOGGING GRANDMOTHERS GROUP

I joined a grandmother bloggers group founded by Dee Blanding, who blogs at Grammy’s Grid. Dee is a nurse with a creative side. When she quit working due to health issues from fibromyalgia she started a blog. She invited other grandmother bloggers to join her group, Blogging Grandmothers . As she explains it-

I’m just trying to bring together a tribe of blogging grandmothers for friendship and networking. We grandmothers have to stick together you know!

These grandmothers’ blogs cover a variety of subjects-

home,marriage, family, travel, cooking, fitness, retirement, faith, genealogy, crafts, gardening, books, health, DIY, and of course grandchildren.

find hidden opportunities hidden in each new day — Michael Josephson-ethics law professor– affiliate link

2019 New Year’s Resolutions

Dee asked us to share our New Year resolutions for a blog post. Here is what I shared.

Aletha – Watercress Words:

I’m a stickler for definitions so I checked to see what “resolution” means. It is a “firm determination to do something” or the “act of solving a problem.”

So I don’t do New Year’s resolutions because I think we should be doing resolutions all the time; if we think of it as just a once a year process, we miss multiple opportunities to accomplish new things or solve problems.

So, I do resolve to continue learning new things and improving my skills. In 2019 I will be required to recertify as a family physician, so I have a “firm determination” to pass the exam.

I also want to improve my ballroom dancing skills, learn new steps and routines.

I want to update old blog posts with newer information and address important medical topics that I haven’t tackled before.

I want to spend quality time with my friends and family, nurture my faith and find new ways to give back to my community.

This bright new year is given to me to live each day with zest-William Arthur Ward — William Arthur Ward- author and pastor– affiliate link

More grandmothers’ resolutions

Here are summaries of what the other grandmothers shared with a link to their blogs.

Kimberly – Passing Down the Love:

finalize my retirement plans,

move my feet a little more and

look for happiness in the little things.

Donna – Retirement Reflections:

healthy diet and increased exercise.

Sylvia – Grace for a Gypsy:

to organize and publish my family research

Angie – Flippin Fanchers:

fully transition my DIY blog to a grandma blog.

Louise – Going Ba-Nanas for Baby:

To pray with consistency, and not just when I need help.

To thank God for my blessings instead of complaining about my challenges

To request, each and every day, that my loved ones and I will be watched over from above, and always kept in the light of divine grace.

Marilyn – Marilyn’s Treats:

To simplify my life.

To spend more time taking care of “me” so I can be there to enjoy family and friends.

Cathy – Life of 2 Snowbirds:

Start my healthy diet and exercise more.

Nikki – Gwin Gal Inside and Out:

to host more family get-togethers much more frequently in the coming months.

Renee – Grandmommin:

to be more verbally appreciative

Pat – Mille Fiori Favoriti:

to live even more healthfully, with more exercise, and to

be proactive about going to exams and tests to monitor our health.

Marisa – All Our Way:

I’m signing on with an agent which leaves me free to work on my blog

I want to double my page view by next year.

Christie – So What? Now What?:

to accomplish or experience things during 2019, focusing on

health, joy, learning, and relationships.

Beverly – Across the Boulevard:

for blogging, to re-evaluate what I want to accomplish and to take steps that puts it on the path I want for it.

For home, to sort through our storage room and donate, recycle, or dispose of lots of items

Grammy Dee – Grammy’s Grid:

I am hoping and praying that my life is filled with joy and positivity, and the same for my beloved family and friends!

Here’s a link to Dee’s post where you can read all the resolutions

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR 2019 FROM THESE AWESOME BLOGGING GRANDMOTHERS

How about you? What do you resolve, plan, hope, or want to achieve in 2019? And why not ask your grandmother what her resolutions are?

The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year, but a new you.

the HEART of health

Thanks for joining me to explore New Year’s resolutions and the HEART of health. Will you resolve to share this blog post and follow Watercress Words? I appreciate your support.

The graphics and photos in this post are from Lightstock.com, an affiliate that helps me fund this blog. Thank you for considering.

Happy New Year.

Lightstock-quality photos and graphics, get a free photo here.

(This is an affiliate link)

Dr. Aletha

“Tis the season, again

December 12, 2018 Aletha Cress Oglesby, M.D. 2 Comments

This is one of my favorite posts, probably because I had fun writing it. There’s no serious medical information in it, but I hope you will find inspiration to stop and think about the “reason for the season”.

Don’t we celebrate more special events and holidays the last six weeks of the year than the rest of the year combined? It feels that way to me. We have these three major holidays-

Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day

Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve have become mini holidays too.

And when Christmas and New Year’s Day fall on the weekend, Friday or Monday will be a holiday for many people.

First we had Black Friday. Then they added Cyber Monday. Now we also have Giving Tuesday, which I think is the only one that really counts.

beautiful large Christmas tree — Christmas at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

Some people observe the special celebrations of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

In the United States, we observe December 7 as Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, the day in 1941 the United States entered World War II. That event changed our country forever, and created my generation, the post-war Baby Boomers.

The USS Arizona Memorial — Pearl Harbor Memorial to the USS Arizona

On December 17 , 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made their famous flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, ushering in the age of air travel, another historical turning point.

aircraft airplane antique classic — Photo by Inge Wallumrød on Pexels.com

The shortest day of the year occurs on December 21, the winter solstice and first day of winter in the northern hemisphere.

And there are other special holidays and events observed too.

Besides holidays, other matters demand our time and attention during this season also.

College students face the end of a semester by studying for finals and finishing term papers and projects.

Renewal notices for subscriptions, licenses, and memberships show up in our mailboxes or inboxes.

Charities offer us one final opportunity to make tax-deductible donations.

Patients call their doctor’s, dentist’s or optometrist’s office for that last chance to use medical insurance before the new (and probably higher) deductible kicks in or use medical spending accounts.

red gift boxes — Christmas birthdays can be messy too.

And in the middle of all this, I celebrate my birthday.

Having a birthday close to Christmas makes both occasions rather messy for you and your family. As my friend ,whose birthday is on New Year’s Day, wrote, “You feel like you get cheated on your Christmas/birthday gifts.” But there are perks.

Your neighbors remind you your birthday is coming by hanging lights on their houses and turning them on every evening. (My husband claims that’s not the real reason. He doesn’t believe in Santa Claus either.)

You can go to a holiday party and pretend it’s for you.

You can listen to Christmas music on your birthday without seeming weird.

Your husband may hire a limousine to drive you around town looking at holiday lights displays. (No joke.)

boy and woman with birthday cakes — Celebrating a long ago birthday with my son. I don’t know why I had two birthday cakes.

Thank goodness, so far, no one else in my immediate family has chosen to be born or married this month. (Although I was delighted to learn recently that two distant cousins also have December birthdays.)

But the best part of any birthday, no matter when you observe it, is reflecting on your life, both the successes and failures, the joys and sorrows, and remembering and reflecting on the people and events that brought you to where you are now.

Birth and death comprise this journey we call Life. Long ago I recognized that we physicians do not ultimately “save lives” or “prevent death”, but we can sometimes impact the time and circumstances.

A Bible book, Ecclesiastes chapter 3 addresses the extremes of life in this passage which is often read at funerals or memorials-

For everything there is a season, and a time for

every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

This year I have celebrated with friends who welcomed new babies into their families. I watched a friend face a disabling illness and death with the same faith, courage, enthusiasm, dignity and humor that he had lived life. I have mourned with his family and others who have lost loved ones this year.

Some people dread birthdays, but I believe they are a blessing; I am grateful for another year of life and hope to use whatever time I have left productively. I agree with Oliver Wendell Holmes

“To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.”

Buzz Aldrin, one of the Apollo 11 astronauts and second human to step on the moon’s surface , trekked to the South Pole-at 86 years old.

A woman celebrating her 103rd birthday made the news. As always, she spent the day at a senior citizen center- as a volunteer!

In January, our country observes the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I doubt my birthday will ever be named a holiday, but I hope something I do in life will leave this world a little better.

A birthday creates a new beginning and so does a new year. Perhaps we can all use the New Year’s Day holiday to remember, reflect, renew and recharge our hearts and minds for another season of life.

watercress words-exploring and sharing the HEART of health

Category Archives: holidays and observances