If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I feel like I have been gone forever from you dear friends! The month of December flew past in a whirlwind! Things are settling down now and I can get back into a comfortable routine. That is to say, “I make lists.” I like everything in neat little boxes. I like knowing what I did last year and what I plan to do this year. I keep track. For example, I looked at the blog stats…….last year 16,300 folks looked at my site. The garden posts were the favored, which surprised me, because I would have thought it would be the travel posts or the door posts, but they did come in very close behind the garden posts. Thursday at 5pm was the day and time most people read my posts. That would suggest to me that it is the Door Folks, since the posts are called Thursday Doors (hosted by Norm) and are posted on Thursdays. Most of my readers were from the US, then the UK, Canada, Australia and then a big jump from the folks in India. I met a new friend this year from India on our cruise. My stats have jumped significantly from India. I think she has passed the word around about my blog, or at least I would like to think so.  I will continue to do what I have been doing in the blogging arena.

Following my health pursuits has been interesting too. I wear an Apple watch and I do virtual walks from Yes.Fit. That means I track everything, ha ha. Last year I walked 2,787 miles in 50 designated walks. I burned 309,000 calories! My goal was to walk 2018 miles in 2018 and I did more than that. I also had surgery on my spine in October. It’s a good thing I did extra miles last Spring or I would have been short on my goal. I walked right up to the morning of my surgery and I walked a couple of days following my surgery. Laying down and sitting down were my problem! But, now I am as good as new, so I am off again this year.

I also document everything I eat and I mean everything. I follow a few apps to keep up with this. The SparkPeople have many followers and there is a lot of incentive to keep your motivation up. I like the tracking and the health articles and meeting all the folks. I also follow LoseIt, because the app is so easy to use and every food I eat can be found in their data base. They both track my walking miles automatically too.

I found a new App in December and am so happy with it. It is called PlanToEat. I like finding and trying new recipes, but half the time I can’t remember where I found them. I would go to the grocery store (with yet another list) and then when I went to make something with the food I couldn’t remember what food was for what or what recipe I had bought it for! There is no problem now that I have PlanToEat! I can put any recipe, either from the web, my own cookbooks or something I have scribbled down, automatically in my PlanToEat. Then I can put the recipes on my calendar for what day I want to make it. I can add the ingredients of the recipes that I am making to a specific grocery list for my specific grocery store. I can add staples to that list that are not in my recipes, but that I need. If I need an onion for 3 recipes it tells me that and which recipes it is that needs the onion! And, then I only buy what I have printed on that list! Love It! It has saved me so much time! And, I know where all my recipes are!

Now you must think how anal I am. But, I like getting things done and knowing what I do with my time.

Are you a planner? Do you like lists? Do you keep track of things? Let me know what you all think………..until next week, have a great cup of coffee and enjoy the day!

PS You are probably wondering about the photos today……..On our cruise this summer to the Mediterranean, we had a butler. We’ve never had a butler, so we were not exactly sure what a butler did……….Well, they do just about everything! Just ask…….

After a week on the cruise the butler asked us if we needed any clothes washed or pressed. Now we have always done our washing and pressing and the facilities on board the Regent ship were fantastic, located on every floor with little to no time waiting on washers, dryers or the ironing board. But, we didn’t want to act foolish so we said “yes, that would be fantastic,” and quickly gathered up two bags of laundry, one of darks and one of lights. When the laundry came back two days later, this is what we got. Our dresses, shirts and pants were all hung in garment bags. Our undies had been washed, ironed and folded, and placed in a nice sturdy box with tissue paper.   My husband’s socks had their own special box……. so you see I am not the only one with lists and to-dos that need to be kept track of! Enjoy your day!