February in the Northwest is a tough month. The days are short and it’s still cold and blustery. It’s a good time to concentrate on sparking energy into your day and creating an oasis in your home.
Head to the Bellingham Athletic Club
An important way to combat the doldrums of winter is to get to exercise. Working out is just as good for the soul as it is for the body. Get your sneakers on and head to the Club to unleash your endorphins, be social, and feel good about yourself. Bring a friend along for encouragement and accountability.
Lighten Your Home
Clear the clutter. Start with stowing away anything holiday-specific, such as red, green, and blue ornaments, ribbons, and dishware. Separate the items you need to have, want to have, from the rest of accumulated stuff laying around. Now is an excellent time to re-organize with baskets and storage boxes. Be discerning when choosing what to keep. Don’t store things that should be donated, up-cycled, or tossed out. Tip: check your closets and garage for empty storage boxes before buying more.
Refresh the Indoors
There are many season-neutral decorations and colors that reflect light in a room. I like to use white, silver, and gold tones to add brightness. Shimmering mercury votives, twinkle lights, and mirrors are some options.
Bring a little outdoors to the indoors. Greenery goes a long way to freshening an entry, fireplace, and coffee table. Put a branch or two of variegated holly leaves with red berries into a tall glass vase for a pretty pop of natural color. White baby’s breath adds a light and lacy look to a dark corner or shelf.
Refresh your framed photos. Print a few current favorite photos from the holidays or highlights from the past year. Replace the old with the new pictures in the same frame. They will add warmth and happy memories to your décor.
Use warm throw blankets to make a room feel cozy. Colorful pillows add attractive pops to neutral walls and furniture. Candlelight creates a pleasant ambiance during dark winter nights.
Embrace February. The days are getting longer and lighter, the birds are singing, and little buds of crocuses are starting to pop. Spring is right around the corner—hang in there!
Susie Landsem
Aging in Place by Design
Susie is a consultant for Aging in Place. Contact her if you have questions about adding safety and comfort solutions to your home.
We will be open regular hours with regular classes on President’s Day, February 17th.
February is “get fit with a friend” month.
Learning to swim should be a priority for every family. It’s an important life skill that can play a key role in helping to prevent drowning—a top cause of death among children. Children, and their parents, need to learn how to swim to help keep time in the water safe and fun!
A great deal of the mental ability lost with age can be attributed to lack of use, (just like our physical selves). Our mental function depends on neural highways, which like neglected roads eventually become unavailable for use. But we can continue to learn and grow new connections (or highways) in our brains throughout our lives. Any type of learning can provide this stimulus: courses, conversations with friends, learning a language or even word games can keep us mentally sharp. By keeping physically and mentally active, we are two times less likely to suffer from dementia.
February’s “Equipment Spotlight” is a piece of resistance equipment called the “Smith Machine”. It is a plate loaded piece of equipment in which weight plates may be added to the bar on each side, much the same way as a regular barbell. The difference with the Smith machine bar is that the bar travels on two guide rods with safety hooks attached to each side of the bar. This gives the bar a stable path of movement with the ability to hook the bar safely at different heights.
Melissa Yuryevich joined BAC several years ago when she was new to the area and looking for a place to stay in shape.