Random 5 for May 14 – Mother’s Day, nipples, tomatoes, cholesterol, nature

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Three of my plants looking healthy

Happy Mother’s Day — When my Mom was alive it was always a low-key day. She would get the geraniums she loved and maybe a gift or two. We didn’t eat out because it was always so crowded. She hated that. Being the practical person we would eat out on a weekday instead. Somehow we made the day special for her. Maybe it was just being there that counted.

Do any of these match your nipples?

Nipples? – I don’t wear as much makeup as I did when I worked but I like to keep up with current trends even if it’s reading about them. I love the “nude” look. The blush and lip colors are more natural looking. Never was one for bright red lipstick except when I was 13. This week I read an article that said the best lipstick matched the color of your nipples. How do you do that? Do you go to a cosmetic counter and whip one out to match? The visual (and ensuing commotion) made me laugh. Perhaps it’s better to do with paint samples.

Tomatoes – I love them. My plants did better this year after the purchase of an inexpensive grow lamp. I am “hardening them off.” That means they spend the day outside but if temps dip below 50, they come inside for the night. When I brush the leaves I get that wonderful tomato smell. If only they could bottle it to spray on winter tomatoes. They will get planted out as soon as the soil warms up.

Miracles – I went off statins (cholesterol medication) in January. My dose was the lowest possible and I had been on it many years. The medical community now has different protocol and I no longer fit the guidelines. Given the choice I opted to get off. My post-statin blood results come in well under the magic number for statins. I am not a fan of taking anything, including supplements, unless necessary. I have digestive issues. My GI doc told me the very popular “fish oil” supplements were wreaking havoc on my system. The only supplement he endorses is calcium and Vitamin D for those with low bone density. Eat healthy and exercise is the best preventative. Is chocolate a fruit or a vegetable? Do margaritas grow on trees? Moderation, everything in moderation.

Beauty in nature – This is a beautiful time in the northeast US. The trees have leafed out and there is a lot of blooming going on. After a dull gray winter, the color is welcome. I soak in the beauty as much as I can and I’m very grateful I live here. When I look at what’s going on around the world, I am indeed lucky.

So how was your week?

 

 

 

80 thoughts on “Random 5 for May 14 – Mother’s Day, nipples, tomatoes, cholesterol, nature”

  1. I’m still laughing at the “color matching” images! So many questions come to mind. Lol! Good for you on the statins! I have lab work (routine yearly) in the morning and the whole cholesterol question always makes me squirm. So far I’ve dodged statins but the line seems to keep moving and I never know what my doctor will say! I’m glad for you!

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    • The protocol for prescribing statins has changed significantly. It used to be determined by cholesterol numbers. Now they take much more into consideration so you may again dodge the bullet.

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    • That lipstick thing really caught my eye because I have a hard time picking one out. They are hard to judge if you can’t try them. Some are sheer so the color needs to be darker and some are opaque and then I like it more muted. After checking out my own, nipple color won’t work for me.

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  3. Being there for or with someone always makes a special day more special.

    I’m not a woman but even if I were I don’t know how you get you mind around the lipstick/nipple thing. Makes you wonder who came up with that relationship.

    Wait!!! Chocolate isn’t a vegetable?

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  4. First of all: that lipstick nipple advice is the best I’ve ever heard. Or at least I thought so until I whipped one out and discovered that color is far too pastel for my taste. Anemic?
    Secondly and most important: chocolate is a fruit. Son and new daughter gave me an edible arrangement that included chocolate covered strawberries and there is no way chocolate doesn’t work well in that fruit bouquet. So fruit it is.

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    • I confess. I didn’t check my boob until after I posted. Mine are way too pale. they are paler than my lips. Maybe they get lighter when you get older? Anyhow if I put that on my lips, I’d look ghostly. Chocolate starts out as a berry so it has to be a fruit! Yum! Love edible arrangements!

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  6. We were dog-sitting today, and while in the garden, I picked the top leaves of a mint plant. What an aroma!

    I wear lipstick about once a week, because I have no color from the neck up. If I wear colorless clothes, people might bump into me. About ten years ago I found a color I loved and bought three tubes. The last one was thrown away when it was concave. Having nothing to compare it to, I chose a new one. One look in the bathroom at home, and I knew I’d made a mistake. What does a miser do with a mistake? She lives with it! I didn’t have your advice at the time, but I don’t think it is applicable. Anyway, I hope to use up the new lipstick before I die. I apply it liberally, then wipe it off as hard as I can without erasing my smile. That leaves about the right hint of color.

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    • I can relate. Up until last year I had a stick blush that I’ve been using for 30 years. (I don’t use a lot.) Haven’t been happy with new stuff. You deserve a new tube of lipstick. Lipsticks are hard to judge from the color on the tube. Some are more sheer and others are full coverage. Makes a big difference in how it looks. I like something to look like my lips are just a little darker. No crazy colors for me.

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  7. A am really not much of a lipstick person. And I hate red lipstick. My Mom could and always wore that color and it suited her perfectly. It looks terrible on me. As for Mother’s day…well, perhaps this is blasphemous, but I have this nagging feeling it is more of a Hallmark Card day, then a real special salute to mothers. We should recognize and honor our Mother’s everyday. I would love to be able to do that.

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  8. I was on a statin for probably five years. Then my doctor died and I started seeing a new one. She sent me in for labs and said my cholesterol was awfully low and wondered what would happen if she took me off the statin. The answer was that I did find and my levels never went back to where they ostensibly were earlier. Not sure why, but I’m grateful to be off another med. Oh, and two of those lipstick shades appear to match mine; thanks for asking. – Marty

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    • I have a visual of you with your phone or ipad or something next to your naked body color checking. Wish I had a pictures of that. Good news about your statins too. I never thought that the numbers would go down. I was told at the onset that this would be a “forever” pill I’d need the rest of my life. Ha!

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  9. Glad your off statins. My previous GP kept trying to force them on me and I kept refusing. It was a six monthly ballet which would have saved him time if he’d only bothered to read my notes and not call me in to dicuss medication I wasn’t on. Diet, exercise and the weight loss have worked wonders for me and the only meds are the menopause in a box pills, but I can live with that.

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  10. Oh my gosh! The nipple thing cracked me up. I am not a fan of lipstick but I will remember that tip. 🙂

    Mother’s Day is not a huge affair. Its just a relaxing day of being with the family and doing what I want. When the kids were small my hubby would fix lunch and supper for us. For really taking 2 little ones out to eat is not my idea of relaxing!
    Now that the kids are teens they know how to behave at a restaurant and we go out. 🙂
    Yay on going off the statins. My sisters and parents are on them. Our liver produces too much cholesterol , my neices and nephews have had high cholesterol since they been little. They have to take statins too. Unfortunately bad genetics, but somehow I lucked out!! Never had a problem with cholesterol. Am thankful!! Diet and exercise can play a big role but unfortunately genetics do as well.

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  11. Nipple matching lipstick. You are very hip.

    All our winter greenery is starting to brown as summer approaches the Southwest. Bummer. Soon we will be the brown state again. But my cactus bloom was amazing. 🙂

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  12. I am sorry your mother is no longer with you. We don’t go out to eat because of the crowds too so I make a brunch for my mo, sister, niece and great-niece. That is funny about the nipples 🙂

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    • I can’t remember exactly what we did on mother’s day but it wouldn’t surprise me if my Mom made dinner. She was like that. We ate out on a weekday instead. Yes about nipples. I always try to get a shade darker than my lips. Never thought about a nipple match and mine are lighter than my lips.

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  13. I’m happy to hear you’re off the statins, Kate. The less prescriptions we can take, the better off we are. I am a proponent of supplements. My vitamin D level was down to 19, but after taking 2000mg of D3, my recent blood work had me up to 40, well within the normal range.

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    • I take calcium with Vit D in the same supplement and my test showed in the mid-normal range. I’m not a fan of prescriptions. I took hormone replacement therapy (after refusing for years). Ten years later they halved the recommended dosage. That’s happened a few times. I have this theory that my docs don’t necessarily subscribe to. I’m small and weigh 110 lbs. I get the same dose as a 200 lb. male. Don’t seem right to me.

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  14. Took my mom out for dinner on Thursday to avoid the crowds. Don’t wear lipstick (or make up at all generally) and congrats on getting off meds! Since I lost 42 pounds my numbers are really good now too!

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  15. To avoid embarrassment when buying lipstick, and after your sage advice, I plan to take a few selfies of my breasts. That way I can pretend I’m checking important messages while asessing just the right lip color! You “are a caution” Kate. I believe that is an old saying that means “you crack me up.”

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  16. I just had a look … (Home alone, nobody gets traumatised) – slightly darker than any of your lipsticks, close to the third from the right, if you want to know … I, too, chose in my 20s lipsticks to come near my natural lip colour. Bright red was never a colour that I could wear. These days, and I am not yet 50, I prefer to go without lipstick – even ten years ago you could see how wrinkled my lips are when I put on lipstick.

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    • If I wear lipstick it’s a shade darker than my lips. You couldn’t really tell. Very natural looking just for color. I have never liked the feel of lipstick even when I was an adolescent. I had oily skin and greasy lipstick (and it always felt greasy) could make me break out around my lips. Much more of a mascara person although with dry eye syndrome it’s better if I pass.

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  17. This was me:
    *decides to look at morning blog feed before getting out of bed*
    *reads through blogs at a good clip*
    *thinks “ah! Kate wrote! How nice”*
    *begins reading through Kate’s post at a good clip*
    *reads question ‘do any of these match your nipples’*

    . . .

    . . .

    *rereads question ‘do any of these match your nipples’*

    *blinks*

    *blinks again*

    *decides to put down phone and close eyes for just a moment*
    *falls back asleep*
    *wakes up 45 minutes later*
    *finishes reading Kate’s post, decides comment MUST be left*
    *also decides lipstick-to-boob color-comparison NOT required, on account of “if my nipples are ever any of these colors, would mean I am terribly ill. Or probably a zombie”*
    *satisfied with personal not-a-zombie assessment, returns to reading blog feed at a good clip*

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  20. Nipple color? LOL! Now that was a new one for me and I wondered the same exact thing as you did…do you whip one out at the counter? ROFL!!
    Congrats on getting off of the cholesterol medication.
    Happy Mother’s Dat to you, too. 🙂

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  21. My Mom wanted a grilled steak and a baked potato for Mother’s Day. We stayed home and did yard stuff. As she got older and I got older we occasionally took her out for dinner. It wasn’t as crazy as it is now. She loved a Manhattan, a steak, and a baked potato and a salad…. 🙂 I am not a Mom but enjoy celebrating all the Mom’s.

    LOL with the nipple color and lipstick. I just heard this past week from somebody that your lipstick should be close to your lip color. I just use cherry flavored ChapStick and ocassionally a colored lipstick.

    Tomato plants and tomatoes do smell wonderful… they take me back and always make me think of my Dad.

    It is beautiful here today. We will be heading to The Mama’s (CH’s Mom) later this morning. Have a lovely Sunday, Kate!

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  23. I’m obviously still asleep at the keyboard . . . congrats on getting off the statins! My blood work came back this week ~> all good. Cholesterol and triglycerides have gone down and the good cholesterol has increased. Yay!

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    • I was surprised. I’m 10 years older and my cholesterol is lower than it was when they put me on statins. Makes no sense to me at all except I’m not working (less stress) and I eat differently. Huge cutback on meat — not out of health but because I like veggies better. Whatever, I’m happy.

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  24. I hadn’t heard that about the best way to choose lipstick color. Maybe they should start selling lipstick in the women’s locker room at the gym instead of at department stores. I don’t think that color would work well for me anyway 😀. Enjoy your spring; I bet it’s beautiful there after all of your rain.

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  25. We went a hand-picked a bucket of tomatoes last week and have been eating red ripe tomato sandwiches and salads all week. YUM!

    I don’t wear lipstick . . . but thanks for the tip. 😀

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