THE IMPORTANCE OF MOVEMENT.

                                                 Stretch - Stretch - Stretch.

  I am now 93 very active and enjoying life; river rafting - paragliding - zip lining - ice-caving - indoor rock-wall climbing - jumping rope... and constantly asked: What's your secret? If there's one thing I do pretty constantly it is stretching:

Routine: Ten sit-ups while still in bed, roll over and hold a plank position for count of sixty. Then do a dog and cat stretches, after which I swing my legs out of bed to the nearest wall and stretch as high as I can. Then - tightening my abdominal muscles - I slowly lower myself into squat-sitting, bounce up and down a bit and then slowly rise up again. Stand on one leg for a count of ten then switch to the other. Next I do hamstring stretches and shake my body real good to loosen up!

While my coffee is brewing I do my Microwave-hop, jump and dance and stretch, stretch, stretch :-)

I've found that doing this has strengthen my bones, improved my breathing, decreased stress on my joints. Hardly any  fatigue, due to increased more efficient muscle performance.

For hand and eye coordination I like to juggle couple of  balls. I read recently that squeezing those balls is good for lowering blood-pressure!

ON THE HERITAGE TRAIL IN ICELAND.

                                                 THE HERITAGE TRAIL.

My youngest daughter, Heidi, and I recently got back from Iceland. What a delightful trip, we went on the Ring-road stopping at places of interest to us, we have been to Iceland several times and were not stopping at the usual touristy places. We had something different on our minds.We were on our heritage trail.

From the time I was about six years old I went to my Grandparents farm in Vopnafjörður, on the east coast, every summer until I was in my early teens. Every Fall I would return to Reykjavik to be with my parents over the winter and go to school. Since I married and moved to America I had gone back home several times but always drawn to grandpa´s farm where I had spent so much of my growing up time. Hámundarstaðir was the name of the farm, this was on my Father´s side. I knew where Mother was from on the west coast, Breiðarfjörður, but had not really researched or pin-pointed exactly where.

I learned that she was born in Frakkanesi, Skarðshreppur Dalur. We drove along the entire coastline on one side and mountain ranges on the other. We tried to get to this church but the road became impassable for our vehicle. Maybe next time!
It was easy for me to imagine my mother as a young girl playing and running after sunspots like I used to do! Sweet memories, what a blessing.

FUN TRAVEL !

                                                       
When I heard about my Granddaughter Tashia's plan, to have a professional come to her Alpaca Ranch in Nebraska, May 12,13,14th, and teach her to shear the thirty+ Alpaca's that she had, I was all for watching the event.
The thought of it made me go down memory lane of growing up in Iceland;  holding down the sheep by the horns as Grandpa and my Uncle Bjössi sheared the wool off their body, using large scissors that they sharpened every so often, with the same lava-stone they used to sharpen their scythe-blades when cutting hay.

Plans were already in the works by my family for a party for my 93rd birthday on May 21st. to be held in Chicago. Since I also had plans to travel to Iceland right after that I packed two+ bags; cold weather and warm!

Lucille, (Herman #1) who lives near Lake Bloomingto, Illinois, picked me up and drove  to McDonalds, in Princeton, near I 80 where we met Chris (Christine, Herman #6), who drove from Chicago. She is Tashia's mother. She also, wanted to learn the Alpaca shearing technique. I jumped into her car and we continued west to Alma, Nebraska, where the Butterfield Alpaca Ranch is located, while Lucille drove back home.

After a wonderful weekend of learning about shearing and Alpaca fiber, and some hilarious moments of the temper of certain Alpaca, Chris and I left for home in Morton,Illinois on the 15th. She continued for her home in Chicago the next morning while I did some more packing and planning. On the 18th I drove my Honda CRV over to Lucille's house and left my car and got into hers. We drove to Chicago and had a fun-filled birth-day weekend with Heidi (Herman #10) and her fiance,Raymond, Della (Herman #9) and her husband, Al. Tim (Herman #8) and his wife, Bonnie,  Chris and her husband, Larry, who found this great place to celebrate!

Sunday May 20th, I got into the car with Della and Al and headed for Minnesota, where I had wonderful time watching my youngest grandchild, Morgan, try on some gorgeous wedding dresses for her wedding this Fall.

Then Della and I drove to Wisconsin to visit Marian (Herman #3) and grand-daughter Kristina and grandson Ed, then drove back to Minnesota.
Celebrated Memorial Day with great food and in the 90's, with Della, granddaughter Nicky, granddaughter Morgan, her finance, James and Della's husband Al. Take a good look at his shirt!!!

Will head for St. Louis, Illinois, Monday.and arrive in Iceland Tuesday morning...48degrees?!