The Gift of Time (And Some Great Tea!)

It's been awhile. This year has been a year of change. My company took medical insurance off of the benefit list, and I have a long string of pre-existing conditions which exist in the medical world, but not very much in my physical world. In the past I have been diagnosed with, and suffered from fibromyalgia, asthma, back trouble, a cancerous polyp, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), and I had a total hip replacement in 2008. All of this adds up to being uninsurable by today's standards. 

Unfortunately for me, insurance companies don't ask what lifestyle changes a person has made. I work out, eat a vegan diet, and lead a less stressful life. My blood pressure is fine now, and my cholesterol (apparently more genetic than diet related) is getting closer. I haven't had an asthma attack since I quit ingesting dairy products, and the fibromyalgia is gone or so mild that I don't even notice it. Both of my hips, new and old, are doing fantastic, and my back doesn't bother me if I don't do anything stupid like lift a 50-pound sack improperly. My colon ... well, really, do we want to go there? 

In an effort to even the score, so to speak, I decided to semi-retire by taking Social Security Survivor Benefits. (For those of you that don't know me personally, my husband passed away in 2003. I qualified for benefits when I turned 60.) I would make the same amount of money, and with medical insurance off the table, I couldn't come up with a good reason to continue to work full time. I cut back to what Social Security allows me to make per month without losing any benefits. In my case it works out to three, six-hour days a week. 

So, the biggest change has been the gift of time. I manage to get everything done around the house, joined a community center and workout several times a week, take my dogs for a daily one-mile walk and still have time to read, take classes, volunteer, play flute in the New Horizons Band and enjoy life.

I recently decided to schedule my daily tasks such as working out, walking the dogs, and actually writing my blog! So, I got out my Blackberry and put recurring appointments in for each day of the week. I'm hoping that by adding this level of organization I will be able to get more out of this gift. So far, so good, I'm writing an entry today!

The weather was awful a couple of weeks ago and so I decided to stay in the entire weekend, during which I got my recipes organized ... YAY! I had them in a binder, but with the switch to eating vegan came a love of recipe collection and they quickly outgrew the binder. I had some room in a file drawer, so I made a hanging file for each category and now I just drop them in. Sweet!

Speaking of recipes, Kansas City has a magazine, Enhance, that is a wellness-focused publication. In the Nov/Dec issue they had a recipe for Ginger-Lemon Tea. It is my new favorite winter beverage! Here's the recipe: 1tsp of freshly grated ginger, 2 lemon wedges, honey & cayenne pepper to taste. Grate the ginger over the cup, fill with hot water, squeeze in the lemon juice and add honey and pepper to taste. It's awesome and provides a powerful immune system boost!

That's it for today. I have Blogging scheduled for Monday and Wednesday morning ... Y'all will know how well my new schedule works! ;)