mavis fodness
By Mavis Fodness, reporterJanuary 17, 2024For the new year, I am participating in a 12-week Healthy Human Challenge with about 120 like-minded individuals. Daily points are assigned for meeting our nutrition and step goals. More points are added for drinking water, getting enough sleep, and listening to a self-improvement podcast. I’m motivated to amass the 2,600 points necessary to fulfill the three-month challenge. One thing I’ve…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterDecember 27, 2023Last Tuesday the Star Herald newsroom received devastating news from the Luverne community. Josh Stroh, a 15-year-old student at LHS, died at home, another precious child lost to suicide. Our hearts instantly hurt, the shocking news momentarily bringing office chatter to a halt. In the silence, the news began to sink in and my reporter instincts began to rise. I asked myself, is this incident…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterNovember 29, 2023Spending time with my grandchildren over Thanksgiving brought home the fact that they never sit still. If they needed to get somewhere, they ran. Running, to children, is second nature. Running, to an adult, means relearning what used to come naturally. I want to regain that carefree feeling of my childhood, where I could run for what seemed like miles with very little effort. For several…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterNovember 08, 2023Several times I’ve watched Chelsie Hermsen’s YouTube videos. I’ve learned she is funny, poignant and a realist. Never mind she uses a wheelchair and her cerebral palsy slows her speech. The spunky 38-year-old started her own channel in March, regularly producing and posting videos. Her goal: To reach 300 subscribers. She currently has 65. I don’t know Chelsie personally and only became aware…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterOctober 18, 2023Members of the S7 Wellness Group (which includes me) have been challenged this month to get more individuals signed up for our virtual health group. For each new member we attract, we’ll receive $100 — that we can split with the new member. I thought I would give the challenge a try and completed the required Facebook posts about my own wellness journey that began a year ago. At that time, I…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterSeptember 27, 2023A teal-colored envelope arrived in our mailbox last week, days after our farm dog, Lucy, was struck by a car. The card inside read, “There will forever be a place in your heart for such a good and faithful friend.” Its message brought tears, and they spilled over to sobs when four squares of paper slipped out of the card. Inked on each square was a single paw print – for each of Lucy’s four…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterSeptember 06, 2023The weather this past Labor Day weekend met (and even exceeded) the predicted hot and humid forecast. To beat the heat, I spent a portion of Sunday at a water park with my oldest grandchildren. We happily joined other adults and children who chose to don swimsuits and jump into the cooling water. As I looked at the faces of the other adults, I noticed not many were old enough to be…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterAugust 15, 2023As I stood at the starting line of the Celebrity Donkey Races at the county fair, a feeling of doubt came over me. Doubt that I could even get on this animal’s back. Doubt that Ex-Lax (the donkey’s stage name) would even want me riding him around the course. I was wrong to doubt. When organizers announced that the women riding in Heat 3 were to go counter-clockwise around the course, I gained a…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterJuly 18, 2023For more than a decade I’ve been mad at God. It seems funny to be mad at someone you’ve never met or really know if he’s even real. My Christian upbringing, however, says he is there and, thus, he is the one I am directing my anger toward. My sister died unexpectedly in 2011 and I’ve never forgiven God for taking her away from her family. We all prayed for a miracle that she would recover and…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterJune 20, 2023Half of 2023 is already behind us. Almost six months ago, I “double dogged dared” readers to get off the couch and become more active and not to say “no” to a physical challenge. Now it’s time to check in to see where everyone is. With six months left in 2023, there is still time to reach those goals set earlier this year. I recently revisited my goals, and you know what? I’m doing pretty good.…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterMay 02, 2023Each day in May I’m walking at least 9,000 steps, and walking more than four miles a day allows for a lot of thinking. A recent New York Times article with the headline, “Lean into negative emotions. It’s the healthy thing to do,” has me thinking differently. It appears when we experience a bad feeling, we don’t have to love the feeling. We just have to try to feel neutral about it. The study…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterApril 11, 2023Are you a procrastinator? I know I am. Dozens of household and work-related tasks go uncompleted or finished at the very last minute. Procrastination drives me crazy, and it’s become a habit I am determined to break. To help me break the habit, my daughter sent me a podcast by Mel Robbins called “The Only Way to Stop Procrastinating (Based on Research).” It’s worth a listen. (Of course, the…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterMarch 21, 2023As the weekly blizzards keep bearing down on Rock County this winter, the library is providing me with some needed sunshine. Thank goodness for an electronic connection to the Plum Creek Library System. I haven’t needed to worry about not having a good book available, and with road closures being a weekly occurrence, there’s no stress of returning books on time. The easy access is much…
By Mavis FodnessFebruary 07, 2023The calendar’s turned to February, marking a month into 2023 and those New Year’s resolutions I wrote in pencil. Instead of erasing those words of what I intended to do this year, I’ve embraced those goals. I vowed to be more active and not to say “no” to a physical challenge. With the resolution in mind, I picked up a bowling ball Saturday for the first time in years and competed against my…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterDecember 27, 2022Why do we lose things? The question nagged me during the two days spent at home as a blizzard raged outside. It was especially brought to focus when my husband, Bryan, handed me a small pair of scissors he had used while in the horse barn and slid into his coat pocket. The scissors, instead of becoming lost, is now permanently kept in my home office. Engraved on several places around the blades…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterDecember 05, 2022While taking pictures at the Luverne Cardinals season-opening gymnastics match, I knelt down to get a better shot of the athletes. It’s not unusual for me for me to duck down, mainly so I don’t block any of the spectators’ views. What made last week notable is that I easily stood up without the usual grunts and side rolls to push myself off the floor. A month ago I joined an online fitness group…
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