5 Favorites: Because I Need To Have 7 Posts In 7 Monkey Flippin' Days!

3 posts down, 5 to gothiswascrazywhatwasIthinking?!?!?!?!?

I've decided to do my inaugural 5 favorites post and link up with Hallie at Moxie Wife.  Sometimes people have a theme for these posts...my theme will be Random Awesomeness.  So without further ado here they are:

~1~

If Leslie Blodgett asked for a pint of my blood I would give it to her no questions asked because she is a sorceress.

I love Bare Minerals.  I see on the package up there that I'm supposed to spell it bareMinerals, but no matter how you spell it if you are a Mom you must RUN to the nearest Ulta/Sephora/whateva and get you some BAREMINERALS.  Why?  Because there is no blending.  Because you can put them on with one hand while nursing a baby.  Because they will make you look natural and not like you are exhausted even when you are pregnant and getting chemo.  I always put on my bareMinerals before chemo.  I called it my "Dear Medical Community: If I don't get better you will look like loser because look how I'm glowing!" face.  Maybe you've seen Leslie Blodgett working her alchemy on QVC and become mesmerized by her putting Mineral Veil on some girls face and just when you were about to order the spell was broken and you wondered if it could all be true and I am here to tell you it is true.  Maybe you're not a make up person and you think you'll mess it up.  You won't.  You can't.  They last forever.  You will love them forever.  Get Ye some BareMinerals.

~2~

More Alchemy

If you have kids or pets you need Folex.  I read about it in one of Dwija's Five Favorites and I'm so glad I listened to her.  Always listen to Dwija is the lesson there.  I'm a bad blogger.  I had amazing time lapse photos of marker on my couch cushions disappearing before my very eyes but I deleted them on accident.  After 3 minutes all the marks were barely visible and then I threw the cushion covers in the wash and they were perfect.  Did I mention that the slip cover in question is off white?  I've used this on all the bodily fluids and ahem, solids, that little people can deposit in your home and on your stuff and you need this.  

~3~

Not the bug.

Do you listen to podcasts?  I listen to eleventy billion podcasts and this is one of my favorites.  The Moth describes itself as follows:

 The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. It is a celebration of both the raconteur, who breathes fire into true tales of ordinary life, and the storytelling novice, who has lived through something extraordinary and yearns to share it. At the center of each performance is, of course, the story – and The Moth’s directors work with each storyteller to find, shape and present it.

Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide.Moth shows are renowned for the great range of human experience they showcase. Each show starts with a theme, and the storytellers explore it, often in unexpected ways. Since each story is true and every voice authentic, the shows dance between documentary and theater, creating a unique, intimate, and often enlightening experience for the audience.  

Moth stories dissolve socio-economic barriers, expose vulnerabilities, and quietly suggest ways to overcome challenges and see with new eyes.

I don't know what happened with that formatting up there when I cut and pasted and I can't deal with it now.  Each podcast is a recording of one these storytelling events.  If you love stories you have to start listening to The Moth. 

~4~

Nerd Alert

In order to heal my Chemo Brain I'm supposed to do puzzles and things to exercise my memory.  Michael and I play Ruzzle on the iPad, and it's really fun, but I'm a word nerd and just slapping together letter combinations for points and with no value for actually knowing words feels icky to me.  It's so mercenary.  Don't get me wrong, we still play and it's really fun, but what I love about this game is that it's really about the words-- knowing words and learning words.  There are 4 different games: Speed Drill, Tunnel Vision, Name That Thing, and Hidden Letters.  All the games with the exception of Name That Thing are different plays on finding synonyms and in Name That Thing you just Name That Thing.  If you love words and want an app that is really about words and not just arrangements of letters you will love this.

~5~

Apparently Mark Spitz was so fast he didn't worry about drag.

Can you believe that picture?  It was one of the first images that came up in a Google Images search for Olympic swimming.  Michael Phelps wears those super high tech expensive suits and Mark Spitz couldn't be bothered to shave his mustache.  I've been swimming a few times a week for over a month now and let me tell you it is hands down THE most underestimated workout.  Hands. DOWN.  Just a few weeks after chemo I made an ill fated attempt at getting back into running and the pain in my knee made one thing abundantly clear:  until I regained some of the muscle mass I lost during chemo there was no way I could even think of running again.  I decided to give swimming a try so I could have a low impact cardio workout and now I'm hooked.  It is a full body workout and according to coolrunning.com: To get a workout roughly equivalent to running, you have to swim only about 1/4 as far as you would run.  I hate getting in the pool, I'm a huge baby about cold, but gosh once I get going do I ever LOVE swimming.  I just swim laps, I'm working up to doing sets of 100m of freestyle at a time.  I'm not there yet but I'm seeing progress.  I usually try to tread water for a while too, talk about a butt kicker!  I'm up to treading water for 15 minutes at a time and that's another great exercise for your body AND for your mind.  If you're looking for something to shake up your workouts or you want to get back into exercising but you're worried about your joints, seriously, try swimming.*

*I know what you're thinking...if I swim...I have to wear a bathing suit.  I know, but the good news is that not that many people swim.  When I go it's usually just me and 2 old men.  Who cares how you look in your bathing suit.  If it makes you feel better I started swimming when my hair had just started growing back in and I was still way out of the routine of any underarm maintenance.  I got to the Y and started to change and realized much to my amazement/chagrin/relief/frustration that I was sporting a very euro underarm look.  For a minute I was like ugh, now I have to go home after I made all the effort to get here.  Then I realized that was dumb, I'm a 34 year old postpartum cancer survivor and if someone was offended by my hairy pits I would survive and so would they.  I got in that pool and swam and swam like a little fish.  Whatever your story is that makes you not want to put on a bathing suit, well, that's the thing that makes it all the more admirable when you put it on anyway.  The End.

P.S.  If you haven't could you like me on Facebook?