The After Christmas, January Blues

Things to do to try to overcome the Blahs....

Try going on a diet, a healthy body is a healthy mind. If you look good on the outside...you feel good on the inside and it will give your mind a new direction of focus and new enthusiasm.

Pack up the christmas decorations and give your house a full cleaning from top to bottom. More space and a fresher look will make you feel better. Start by doing one room at a time.

Look at the doodads you have and redecorate with a theme. I'm working on an animal theme. I have a Noah's Ark and a couple of Tiger and Jaguar decanters that look great over the fireplace mantle.

Start decorating and planning for Valentine's day. Plan something special for your family. They are the loves of your life. Challenge yourself to work toward sweet surprises that are healthy instead of the usual valentine candy.

My personal secret: Color - I collect coloring books among many other things. I got out some of my collection to show my Granddaughter and she is learning to recognize people's names mostly by the first letter.

I have had a rule over the years that when you color in one of my books, you have to put your name and the date on your picture. She saw her own mother's scribbling when she was 2. It was so exciting to her! She saw her cousins colored pictures from 1996 and her Grandfather's colored pictures from 1985. She was thrilled at how old they were in years.

So we sat and colored and wrote our names and the dates. She said when she grows up, she wants to look at them all again as we get more and color more and she wants her little girl to see them too!

Sometimes, when you are down and out, it's the best time to start a new tradition.

Some of my coloring books are yellowed from age, but I wouldn't take anything for them or for the excitement on her face and joy in her eyes.

It's really interesting to see the differences in the things you had back then, to compare them with the quality of things you get now. The coloring books were detailed and textured 15 to 20 years ago. Most of them told a story you could read at the bottom. Now they are just an outlined picture to color. I wonder what they will look like in 15 to 20 more years?

Coloring is good therapy. Master the art! Wake up your imagination! Grab a crayon and express yourself!