Mom's Day

Dianne of Schmidleysscribbling commented that she thought I had good genes since my mother appeared to be in good shape.  Well, it's true that her mom lived to be 87, but her dad passed away when he was not yet 70 of colon cancer.  Neither of her parents smoked, ate very healthy (mostly vegetables and fish) and were constantly active.  Mom says her dad's life was shortened from his 2 years in the Siberian prisoner of war camp.  Also, as a Buddhist priest, his body was often pushed to some extremes.

Anyway, mom has always encouraged me to exercise and eat healthy.  She and Art really think alike although she thinks Art overdid it with the marathons.

At 82, mom is looking pretty good, but this is what her day is like.

She gets up around 5:00 AM and eats her oatmeal, prunes and papaya breakfast with coffee.  She watches the early Japanese language news and gets on the treadmill for about a half hour.

7:00 AM: Comes out and chats with us to inform us of the world condition.  Goes out to do all the laundry, running in and out to check on what she's hung up on the clothes line.  She's got to keep checking because the weather keeps changing. (Yes, she does the laundry every day except when there's a hurricane.)

In between all that she works on the yard, picking up leaves, pulling weeds, applying fertilizer, pruning plants, watering with her bucket and probably coaxing the plants to grow.

11:30 AM:  Eats a small, healthy lunch.  Sometimes she'll snack in between with yogurt or a banana.

12:00 Noon:  Reads 

1:00 PM:  Naps

2:00 PM:  Reads or watches educational videos that her sister, my Auntie Grace tapes for her.

3:00 PM:  Starts preparing dinner.  She doesn't know how to prepare quick meals.  Her meals always take a lot of prep time.

5:00 PM:  We eat dinner (mostly heavy on veggies and almost always with miso soup).  She usually prepares fish, tofu or hamburger stretched with veggies.  If I'm cooking, it's usually chicken.  Art has his special veggie omelette and teriyaki sardines with Maui onions.

6:00PM:  She's on the treadmill for a half hour.

6:30 PM:  We bring her a little smoothie, fruit, or whatever treat somebody has given us for dessert.  Yes, we do love our desserts.

7:00 PM:  Bath

7:30 - 9:30 PM:  TV, read or videos

And that's mom's day.  She says that if she stops moving, her health will decline.  I do believe she's a lot more active than I am.  Art says I'd better hope nobody asks what my day is like.