Favorites Friday - My Fitbit Charge 2

Welcome back. Today I want to share another one of my current most favorite things in the whole world.

Now that I'm retired I try and pay more attention to the amount of exercise and sleep I get along with what I eat on a daily basis. My Fitbit certainly qualifies as a favorite thing because it not only tracks my daily activity by counting the number of steps I get (I shoot for at least 10,000) but it also tracks my nightly sleep patterns.  

First thing each morning, while I wait for my coffee to brew, I check my Fitbit app on my phone to see how well I slept the night before. I love this new and improved feature of the sleep tracker where it breaks down the four stages of sleep - Awake, Light, REM and Deep. Fitbit trackers can measure your time spent in each sleep stage, as well as your time awake.

Since sleep affects every part of life—your health and your mood, it can help you perform at your best, stay productive, and fight weight gain and depression.

I know I may be weird, but I just think it's fun to pay attention of this stuff.

Here's mine from a recent Saturday night/Sunday morning when it thundered all night, non stop.

 

 

Yikes,talk about sleep interruptus! That must have been one doozy of a thunder clap at midnight! Actually, I thought I had slept a lot less than it tracked but evidently after awhile I just gave in and slept through all of the noise.

Another cool feature is that it gives you a 30 day average of your sleep as well as showing how your sleep quality compares with women (or men) in your age group.

 

 

The percentage on the left in the dark is my sleep pattern and the light sections are the benchmark percentages with their averages to the right. I find it strangely comforting knowing that waking up in the middle of the night is a fairly common practice with women my age, but I clearly need to work on my Deep sleep cycle.

All of this nonsense has led me to research other ways to induce a better quality of sleep, some of which I will share with you later.

I'd love to hear from you on what natural things you do to help assure a good nights sleep.

I'm curious about how many of you sleep through the night. If you don't, do you concoct a magic potion that you drink just before bed? Do you crank up the air conditioner, use a sound machine or take a long bath before turning in? Or do you just hit the sack and hope for the best? 

I'd love to know. Do share!

Encourage one another,

This blog post is not sponsored. All views, observations and opinions are my own.

There's a Change in the Air

 

I can't tell you how excited I am for autumn to arrive here in the Midwest. This is actually our second fall in our new home but I think I was too exhausted from the move last year to fully embrace it.

This year I'm ready!

If you know anything about Shih Tzu's you know that they have a reputation for hating heat and humidity so Bailey has been loving her cooler morning walks with Bill and always comes home with wet feet from running through the dewy grass.

I think my favorite thing of the day is watching my two loves come walking up the sidewalk, heading for home.

Sometimes Bill unhooks Bailey's leash at the corner so she can make a bee line for me as I wait at the front door in my PJ's - first cup of morning coffee in hand.

Ears flying and tail wagging, she's one hot mess. My favorite thing for sure.

On our evening walks I gather acorns and berries from the changing trees, Bailey carries prized sticks home for Mr. Squirrels safe keeping just outside the front door. 

Inside, the house is decked out in all its harvest glory.

The sun has shifted and cast soft morning shadows, reminding me to be thankful for my many blessings and I am.

My house wouldn't seem decorated without a set table or three.

The ginger jars, table cloth and napkins were added this year during a recent trip to Nell Hill's - my favorite place for inspiration.

 

Talk about inspiration!

While at Nell Hill's I picked up these three pieces of fabric for Fall pillows (the first fabric I've bought in over a year). I can imagine this is what my Strawberry Patches customers felt as they got caught up in the moment of impulsive inspiration. Will they ever get made into pillows? Only time will tell, but boy did I love picking them out so that's worth something, right?

I think some of you know what I mean.  

I was thrilled to find pumpkins in my new favorite color - some call it Millennial Pink - I call it perfection! Those blue greenish ones that compliment my wall color and furniture make me so happy.

I found the garlands and leaves on a trip to a local nursery - they were the inspiration for my look this year.  

Sorry for the pink pumpkin overload, but seriously, that color!

I may have gotten a bit carried away with the pumpkins. Ya think?!

 

I light candles every night and we bask in their glow as we eat dinner. I honestly don't know if Bill even notices, but I love how the flickering candlelight looks.There is just something so relaxing about candlelight.

Occasionally we'll enjoy a glass of wine together outside while we grill our dinner.

It won't be long before we can light a fire.

Everyone here keeps commenting on the beautiful, mild weather we've been having and compared to the rest of the country we have so much to be thankful for. We all know what follows autumn so we cherish each mild gorgeous day.

Until next time...

 Encourage one another,