Adventures of Lolly

24/03/2023

Solving problems in my life (even at 62) - I like to think that problems (solving them) make me more smarter, more creative, more determined, and more evolved. Also my thought is that the more problems I can solve the more growth that occurs. However, problems can be just like the weights and lifting in the gym. I can learn to be better at them. Thinking problem solving can be a skill set I learn, means I don’t have to avoid my problems or hide from them. I can figure out the circumstance behind the problem and then what my thoughts are about that circumstance, and go about solving for them. Also, the easy thing to do is to think that once we solve a problem that there might not be any more problems to solve. That’s surely not reality, not is it what we want. We want to keep challenging ourselves to evolve.

So tonight was hard YMCA of Greater Rochester I had 60 minutes on my Grand Teton training schedule of stair climbing with 20 lbs on my back with a average heart rate of 156 (85% of my max heart rate). I had plenty of excuses with a crazy day but when doubt comes in I have decided to just let it be. Doubting our abilities is normal. We’re human. So doubt comes in and I answer with action. I always honor my struggle and with that I understand that doing my best is always enough. I work hard then assess what went right and what didn’t. Then work at problem solving what didn’t get me the results I wanted. Tonight I did what I said I was going to do except I didn’t wear my hiking boots. I negotiated with myself to wear my sneakers. Still have plenty of room for improvement. Lol 🧗‍♀️💪🏔️

20/03/2023

First time for a new generation of skiers! Total success with Grant taking off by himself after two runs and no more “pizza pie” for him. Independent skier thanks to Tammy Ace - the best ski instructor Cora loved the chair lift (and kept wanting to go faster) and Landon was a natural and fearless. A shout out to Heather for being a most incredible mom and having the courage to venture. The weather and conditions were perfect for first timers. Also so much dancing in the restaurant with a live band! Thanks to Rick for always being all in for our adventures. It’s all about the journey. Want successful adventures- experiences? Treasure the journey. Build excitement and plant the vision you want to create. Be enthusiastic! We managed expectations of falling and getting back up, of being patient, of trying new things, of helping one another (and the list goes on). We painted a picture of what it would be like. So when it came time to put on boots and skis for the first time it was filled with moments of wonderment. This grandma had the best day. ⛷️❄️👶🎿

09/03/2023

Happy International Women’s Day. Here’s to these two MDs and one JD I’m incredibly proud of them and their commitment to serving others (through medicine and law) but also their commitment to each other and family! Blessed to have them in my life! 👩‍⚕️👩‍⚕️👩‍💼💪💕❤️

07/03/2023

23 weeks of training until summit!

My motto: Bet on yourself! Even if you’re the one saying you can’t do something…just keep showing up.

This week surely didn’t go as planned. A bit of a health detour in the middle of it but as in life we just keep our priorities in line and keep moving forward. I also decided to tweak the training this week. Last week the 40 minute stair walking at 5:30 am didn’t seem to elevate my heart rate as much as I would have liked it so this week I added a 15 lb backpack and ankle weights to the morning. Well that did it! Raised my heart rate to a sustainable level. Also the 7 mile/2 hour walk with 20 lbs was challenging. About 3 miles in my right shoulder was bothering my so my default brain went to, “Oh you can just stop and head home you’ve done enough.” My go to when I want to quit something and feel I have a legit reason…is to ask myself if quitting is the only solution? Well turns out when you ask your brain a question it goes about finding a solution. So I decided to just slip my one shoulder out of the pack and have my other one carry all the weight (with my hips taking on some of the weight). It alleviated some of the pain and I finished.

Remember it’s the consistent effort over time that triumphs! It’s the slow progression that makes positive sustainable gains!

03/03/2023

It was an incredible honor to have been interviewed by K**e and Lil on the podcast along with . As a senior athlete training to summit the Grand Teton with I often think when training gets hard “just maybe it will turn out better than I ever imagined”. Remember that thought is available to you when you have trouble visualizing a successful outcome! Keep training hard and consistency over time absolutely brings about amazing results! Link in bio to listen to podcast. 🏔️ 🧗‍♀️💪🌎

02/03/2023

Yesterday I had the privilege of being interviewed on the Huntsman World Senior Games podcast Huntsman World Senior Games about the mindset of being a senior athlete and my adventure to summit Grand Teton. It was my first podcast interview. Was I nervous? Absolutely. However, I did it anyway. Did I prepare? Absolutely- thanks Heather Lander-Winski Sarah Evergreen for the practice sessions and all the laughs. Did I share what I’ve learned? Absolutely. Did I learn just as much? Absolutely. Here’s the thing…know that in the course of life if an opportunity presents itself, don’t hesitate. Take it and authentically be yourself. Know that we are all just learning how best to go through this life together. Thank you Amy Twiggs for sending the opportunity my way! I love you! 💪🌎❤️

27/02/2023

I remember the saying (I’m paraphrasing) that it’s not the number of breaths you take in this life but the moments that take your breath away. Today was one of those, take your breath away moments. Our Adopt A Maple Tree annual outing! Always a treasured outing. Family togetherness is what I treasure. Traditions that we continue to cherish that bring value to our lives. I love that Kettle Ridge (Sugar Maple Joe) shares his love of making maple syrup. His love of teaching a new generation about the gifts nature share with us. I love that he spoke of thanking the tree for its sap and yes even giving the tree a hug…because trees that get hugs (just like people) thrive! I love that we get a breakfast in an igloo, along with a tub of maple ice cream with our tree tapping today and that this summer we will get three bottles of syrup from our tree. I’m also thankful for for continuing to prioritize traditions. I know the effort it takes and appreciate it tremendously! Also a big shout out to Uncle Marc for being the rock star tree decorator this year! Well every year, since he’s 6’6” and can help the kids with giving the tree some love! ❄️🥞🌳🙏🌎❤️

25/02/2023

Remember to stay away from the “I will be happy when…syndrome”!

When we make more money, when we buy that dream house, when we buy that thing we’ve been wanting. The world tells us there are 1 million things we need to be happy. We cannot acquire our way to happiness! This syndrome robs us of he opportunity to experience happiness right now. We don’t need to throw out our ambition to be happy. We can still want things and achieve things! However, the concept is we don’t have to be unhappy before we get that thing we are working towards! We don’t have to be miserable pursuing a dream! Take in all the wonderful small incredible moments in your day!

Live a life of appreciation instead of a life of expectation!

23/02/2023

Mind the Gap!

The gap you have between the stimulus and reaction that split second pause allows you time to choose how you’re going to respond can affect the direction of your entire day. So always choose your response. Don’t react. I tell my clients to know the result they want ahead of time before they respond. Your ability to pause, consider and intentionally choose your response can affect your reputation as a leader, as a mom, as a friend, as a member of a community.
Being able to pause, and choose intentionally your response, is a direct reflection of your ability to lead. Choose to master your response.

20/02/2023

How to enjoy the hard parts of life:

1 Don’t try to make your life easy. An easy life won’t make you stronger. Keep coming back for more.
2 Fall in love with an impossible goal. It’s only impossible to the person you are today. Process of changing to do hard things.
3 Decide to do a hard thing instead of wanting to do it. The harder the thing you’re going to do. the stronger you’ll be whether or not you complete it.
4 Don’t take on hard things and then beat yourself up if you don’t achieve your impossible goal.
5 Enjoyable part is the process of showing up. Are you going to be crumble or thrive? Choose to thrive!

Above all find opportunities for growth in the journey.

19/02/2023

Keep promises to yourself! If you say you’re going to do something do it! The most important promises are the ones we make to ourselves. ❤️💪🥾

18/02/2023

A morning hike to a most amazing private beach! We happened upon a couple of private beaches early morning! The rock formations, waves, beach tunnel, and solitude made for an adventure to be remembered. Love the terrain and of course the cliffs make for the best views! 🥾🌎🙏❤️

30/01/2023

Adventures of Lolly Takes Flight!

Making me happy is managing my thoughts of overwhelm!

Imagine it was just before Christmas and a magazine reaches out and wants to feature you? I would like to say I jumped for joy (maybe initially) but I was busy with so many things (juggling what it felt like bowling balls at the time, not beach balls lol). I decided to connect with the writer and at least explore what it entailed. Discovered, it entailed much more than I anticipated. It was an article to be published in February so the deadline two weeks away. Also it featured winter activities and Valentine’s Day projects for grandchildren. And…we didn’t have any snow on the ground. I thought about the opportunity and the time I would need to devote to setting up photos and Valentine’s craft images, finding/taking winter images, outlining the article, etc. Yes my brain went directly to “it’s just too much work,” and “another opportunity will come along.” Needless to say, I was motivated by the support of my family and dug in to get the article and photos done. Not only did we get them done, it actually was fun. The kids were excited and we all came together!

However, there are, for sure, opportunities that I’ve passed up intentionally. I believe that saying No is just as powerful as saying Yes…because when we say No to something we get to choose Yes to something else. However, the key is intentionally. I try to decide, not on default mode! Not just because it isn’t convenient or it’s hard. I decide with intention. Also, I take time to make decisions and if it’s a no thank you…I make sure I explain that I feel very honored and privileged to have been asked but it’s just not the right time for me to commit. I’ve gotten better at saying No because the older I get the more valuable my time become. So…when I decided to say yes to the article I was all in. I decided to make it fun. I decided to celebrate the decision. I decided I was going to love the article regardless of how nervous I was to put myself out there. Yes we can decide ahead of time to love something.

While the magazine isn’t out in print yet, I have a copy of it (three pages) and yes I’m mentioned on the cover. It makes me sincerely grateful to all those who have supported me in my Lolly Adventure (grandmother adventures)! Also I’m so excited to see it in stores. I hope you love it as much as I do!

Thanks so much for joining me on this new adventure!

Through optimism and continually learning…I am passionately in love with my life! I hope you are, too! Here’s to hoping that what made me happy this week has some value in your life!

https://theadventuresoflolly.com/f/adventures-of-lolly-takes-flight

27/01/2023

Dream big, my friends. I’m reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. (She is also the author of Eat Pray Love) In the book I find it interesting that she talks about when were younger and if we can’t be the best at something and we’re not continually winning at it, we stop playing. Her concept is what does winning have to do with playing? She believes that playing is a big part of building relationships. It’s part of continuing to learn. I believe what’s important is just being the best version of ourselves! So embrace playing, because that’s how we connect with others. Remember you can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures!

27/01/2023

Excited for my early morning flight ✈️ back home! I love to travel, but always love heading home to be surrounded by those I love - and all the little ones who have so much enthusiasm for life! 👶🙏💕❄️

25/01/2023

Hey all of my Rochester friends! Just a reminder that a great gift for your family is adopting a Maple Tree at Kettle Ridge. It's an awesome way to spend a Sunday morning - tapping your own Maple tree and then having a family breakfast in an "igloo" Check it out https://www.kettleridgefarm.com/adopt-a-maple

25/01/2023

Here's to a 2023 and building in some new longevity habits! Who's in???

Making me HAPPY this week…

22/10/2022

Check out my new travel blog post! Our adventure to Pocono Biking and our 25 mile biking adventure!

https://theadventuresoflolly.com/f/adventure-time-to-jim-thorpe-pocono-biking

08/10/2022

Ever feel like the world is conspiring in your favor! Yep that’s what I felt like today National Aquarium

02/10/2022

Boston is incredibly kid friendly! It’s easy to navigate and the New England Aquarium was awesome. All you need to do is bring your curiosity and they do the rest. If you love sea turtles be sure to check the times they feed Myrtle their 500 lb sea turtle. Also check out their sting ray touch tank early (we arrived when they opened) otherwise it gets crowded. The sting rays come right up. The penguins were fun to watch along with the different kinds of jellyfish.

30/09/2022

Who else loves ”Make Way for Ducklings”? It’s one of my favorites. Boston surely is an awesome city to explore!

17/09/2022

Here's to prioritizing the sauna. I've found that, especially after a workout, that it helps relieve muscle pain caused by an intense training session. The heat also helps remove lactic acid from your muscles. This appears to help me recover faster. According to Harvard Medical School, blood flow nearly doubles when in a sauna. As the blood flow increases, the muscles become more relaxed.

Additionally the sauna can help you sweat out metabolic waste products that accumulate in us. Most of us don't sweat enough, which leads toxins to build up in our bodies. A deep sweat from a sauna or intense workout can help release toxic minerals. It's a great detox.

Also there was a 2007 study that showed that sauna after exercise can improve your workout endurance. Athletes who took 30 minute saunas for three weeks showed that they had increased their running endurance. It was speculated that the sauna improved the cardiovascular of the runners thus improving their oxygen levels.

Check out the links in my full blog post!

https://theadventuresoflolly.com/f/sauna-advantages

07/09/2022

Well here’s my read for September! I did a happiness master with Shawn Achor and figured that I loved his definition of happiness as the joy we have while teaching towards our full potential. Most of us equate happiness with pleasure high he states is unsustainable. Check out his book this month. 📖 🙏💕

06/09/2022

Witness the power of your own MAGIC!

Making me happy this week….

The first thing making me happy is that we can bear witness to our own MAGIC. It gives us the opportunity to dream about the possibilities of what we can achieve. It’s about how we can optimize our life through hard work. When we believe in our own magic we step into what’s possible. I’ve witness the magic of others, who want more. They possess a willingness to go farther, to do hard things, to continue to know that they make mistakes, and that none of us are perfect. However, they are able to keep learning and taking feedback.

Making me happy was the magical moments of family dinners! Four generations of saying grace and sharing our favorite parts of our day! Hearing stories of the “good ole days” from my parents and treasuring dinner with our grandchildren knowing these are the good ole days.

Also making me happy is that…for me it’s about being better than yesterday and not about being better than others. When we compete against ourselves we are accountable for the results we get. We get to modify and set boundaries for ourselves. For me personally, it’s about not accepting excuses. When we compete against ourselves we are internally motivated. We get to choose the parameters that we keep track of and the ones we get to be proud of obtaining.

Making me happy is choosing to surround ourselves with people who believe in our magic. Also knowing that if we have people in our lives who don’t believe in our magic and don’t have any abracadabra it’s acceptable to not have them influence our lives. It’s about not letting others tell us what to do with our magic. It’s more about…about sharing your “magic wand” with those who can benefit from it and watching what they are capable of believing in that magic!

Through optimism and continually learning…I am passionately in love with my life! I hope you are, too! Here’s to hoping that what made me happy this week has some value in your life!

04/09/2022

There is something special about time spent on the banks of a pond. To me it always feels like a gift from God. A gift that continues to give as long as I take a few moments to take it all in. To appreciate what is right in front of me. I continue to remind myself joy is a choice, gratitude is a choice, unconditional love is a choice! Let us all intentionally choose to see what an honor and privilege it is to live another day on this Earth. 🐠❤️🙏🙏🌎

02/09/2022

Hi All….Trying to catch up on all of the products you’ve requested info on. The snack canisters (https://amzn.to/3R60IKt )( ) that stack and hang from my wonder wagon are incredible. They’re also great when you have a child with allergies because they come in different colors and you can put each child’s favs (allergy friendly) in their color. You just need a giant carabiner to hang it from your stroller.

31/08/2022

31/08/2022

Daisy came to visit Aunt Heather today and this grandma was happy to see these two cousins enjoying each other. Landon (13 months old) just wanted Daisy (6 months old) to feel his hair. It was the funniest thing. 👶👶🙏❤️

29/08/2022

How do you help children/grandchild thrive on hard work? The thought that comes to mind is praising their effort not the final product (not the A or a perfect outcome)! I’ve always been so incredibly proud of how hard they worked - with that sometimes comes good outcomes but not always. Praise growth and progress not perfection. 🙏👶💕

29/08/2022

The Science of HAPPINESS

Making me happy this week….

The first thing making me happy is spending time with Alex and Jordan taking engagement photos. The idea of capturing their love story behind the lens of my camera surely makes this mom happy. As a mom, all I want is to see my children in a relationship that is supportive but also allows for both of them to grow (individually and as a couple). These two have always impressed me with their ability to prioritize their relationship while supporting each other as they grow their professional careers – Jordan is an attorney and Alex is in medical school (MD in training).

Also making me happy is the science of happiness. I recently completed a happiness master class (who knew such a thing existed lol) taught by Shawn Achor. One of my take aways was that most of us (me included) equate happiness with pleasure. If we do that it seems that happiness is frustrating since it passes quickly and is not sustainable. However, Achor likes the definition that, “happiness is the joy you feel moving towards your potential.” YES… I like this definition.

However, consequently the question I asked myself was…Can we feel joy while doing difficult things? The answer is YES! Maybe not in the moment but it is through difficult moments we get a glimpse of what we are capable of and we get to see opportunities for growth. Also we can watch our strengths grow. However, we can only see those things if we are looking for them. Remember awareness is the key.

The last thing making me happy is that what we focus on, is what grows in our lives. If we look for the good in the world we will find it. If we look for all of the awful things in the world we will surely find that, too. Decide what you want to look for – because life is a struggle at times – but we can grow and allow it to make us stronger or we can allow it to defeat us and become a victim of circumstances. So start to look for your ability to grow when you are doing difficult things (even if those difficult things are not of your choosing). Through those moments you can still become a stronger version of yourself. You can still raise you happiness index by not seeking pleasure but seeking your full potential.

Through optimism and continually learning…I am passionately in love with my life! I hope you are, too! Here’s to hoping that what made me happy this week has some value in your life!