We have a quiet day on tap here. I’m planning to work some in our garden, continue painting the flying pig in the shop, balance checkbooks, and other exciting stuff.
I hope you enjoy your day, getting some nice hugs, belly laughs, and huge satisfaction.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Filed under Blog Repost - Wonderful Posts, video
Beth Robertson Fiddes – @Beth_RobertsonF on X
I’m just in awe of this artist’s talent. It should be impossible to paint this well.
Deborah is Deborah Jaroscak, and she has a nice shop on Etsy called Artworks by Deborah As you can see here, she creates beautiful pet portraits, plus other art. I think she’s amazing.
Filed under Uncategorized
It’s quite overcast this morning, but it’s not raining. We have a bunch of errands to do today, so I’m hoping the weather holds.
I just looked at the weather forecast for the rest of the week. Friday, the day we’re supposed to get our long-anticipated driveway repair, looks like rain all day long. :0( I HOPE they’re wrong. The driveway guys have already given me Monday as an alternate date, so help is still on the way whenever Mother Nature will cooperate.
We celebrated the cooking of the turkey breast and the new meat slicer with turkey sandwiches last night for dinner. I made my husband’s with bread and mine with zero net carb Mission tortillas. I ALSO used some lettuce from our home-grown head lettuce! The sandwiches tasted really nice.
The refurbishment of the flying pig project (one of our metal critters we made long ago) is ongoing. My husband has agreed (thank goodness) that we can put him on a boulder at the side of the driveway at almost the top and he’ll look as if he’s about to fly off, rather than trying to stand on ladders and hang him from a tree branch again. I’m planning to wheelbarrow him out to the boulder so we can see if he’ll just stand there (he’s really heavy) or if we need to weld pads on the bottom of two of his feet to attach him to the boulder.
He’s been hanging from a really strong line from a tree branch over the driveway for several years. He finally came down in one of the severe storms we had and was lying in the driveway one morning. I’ve had to straighten some of the feathers of his ‘wings,’ pry off one discolored eye (the other one disappeared), wash all the dirt off of him, and am in the process of starting to repaint him. When that is finished, I’ll put new eyes on him.
Even if you’re not lucky enough to share your day with a flying pig, I hope you enjoy it.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
I cooked a turkey breast this morning, then put it in the fridge to cool. I just finished cleaning up after using my new electric meat slicer for the first time.
I have to admit I was intimidated after reading the manual, which was mostly safety stuff warning me about cutting my arm off or electrocuting myself. It’s kind of amazing that anyone would try to USE this thing after all the warnings. (Kind of like the medicine advertisements that list all the side effects, including death).
Anyway, I was determined to use it, and do it safely. Here I am, typing away at my computer after using the new equipment, with arms and legs intact and not having been electrocuted, with the whole turkey breast neatly sliced and in a big bowl with a lid in the fridge.
Clean up was easy, as well. Mostly making sure I got all the little snibbles of turkey wiped off, then wiping it down with a soft, warm cloth. I took the blade off, too, to make sure there wasn’t anything caught behind it, and put it back on securely. (That’s done very well with the locking piece in the center. You turn it to unlock it with your fingers, hold onto the locking thing to move the blade, clean it, or whatever, and then use the holding thing to put it back on and turn the locking piece to secure it again. No touching the sharp part of the blade unless you want to.)
They warned not to use the slicer for over 10 minutes. I think I used it for 5 or less. It made quick work of the two halves of the turkey breast. There is a dial thingie to indicate how thick or thin you want the slices.
It’s all cleaned up and covered again. The sliced turkey is in the fridge. Instead of eating approximately 764 mgs of sodium with the deli turkey as a part of my lunch, I’ll be eating around 71 mgs. :0)
Filed under Changes, Cooking/Recipes/Low Carb Lifestyle, Delightful Surprises, DIET!
This makes my heart simply melt.
We just finished driving our trash down and getting our mail. It’s supposed to be quite rainy today, something that will probably put our driveway people behind one day in their work, meaning they will probably come next Monday, instead of this Friday. Maybe I’m wrong, and they can get their work done before the rain starts in earnest. Fingers crossed.
I’m starting to make significant changes in my eating, trying to make substitutions that result in my eating MUCH less sodium every day. I’m hoping that these changes will improve my general health, decrease my tendency to retain water, show improvement in my blood tests in October, and help me lose the lard. Today I’m down 27 pounds.
I’m cooking some crock pot chicken for our dinner tonight, and just finished cooking a small turkey breast. I’m going to read the manual that came with my new electric slicer (which now has a nice cover and is sitting, ready to be used, on my counter in the kitchen) so that when the turkey breast is fully cool, I can slice some for lunches and snacks!
I hope the weather is good where you are and that you can get out and enjoy the day.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Matt Pinner Photography – @Matt_Pinner on X
Elena’s paper mache’ makes me smile – a wonderful thing, to my mind, in this world of ours these days. What HAPPY art work!
Elena Morozyuk – MyLovinCrafts on Etsy
Filed under paper art, paper mache
Filed under collage, Nancy Standlee Torn Paper Art, paper art
Happy Mother’s Day! Hats off to all of you ‘moms’ – a more-than-full-time, never-ending job chock full of all possible emotions and dedication. A testimony to survival of on-the-job training without a manual where you do the best you can with what you have at the time and hope for the best. May you be celebrated not only today, but EVERY day.
The image above for Mother’s Day was drawn by Hal Thomsen, one half of the husband and wife friends of our family as I was growing up. They both did art that sold commercially to make a living, but we had a whole wall of images Hal drew to commemorate events and milestones in our family. My parents devoted a whole wall in the living room to his beautiful images. Mary Ellen did sculpture and painted, as well as doing artwork that became iconic as beautiful artwork for a fashion store in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Mothers are never truly appreciated until we are adults. Maybe we’re lucky enough to be parents ourselves, trying to be everything to everyone day after day, well or sick, confident or flying by the seat of our pants. This is a role that brings forth every emotion known – some at the worst possible time, teaching us to be less selfish than we were, our hearts on our sleeves, our focus on something larger.
If we’re very lucky, our children grow up, liking and enjoying us as people, rather than ‘just mothers.’ :0)
Happy, happy day to you. I hope you’re surrounded by love and appreciation today.
This image gives you an ‘idea’ of our driveway, though this one only shows what amounts to 1/4 of the length and steepness of ours. Ours also doesn’t have any of the egg crate stuff shown here. Ours is STEEP, 650+ feet, gravel, rutted from all the rain, worse and worse as you get closer to the street, etc.
Last year we got an estimate for repair. We had a couple of people who worked together. The guy who would have done the work had his equipment burn up – down to the ground. So the project was essentially delayed until further notice. Well, further notice never happened, so we have started over.
At the beginning of the week a friend of ours recommended a guy and his dad. He said the younger man did the hauling of materials and his dad did the actual work. I called and left a message on his home phone – the only number I could find for him.
Today he called my cell and left a message that he had just gotten the message. I now have his cell phone number, the one he uses all the time. :0)
He and his dad – BOTH named Joe Comer (they are called “Joe” and “Little Joe” in Greenwood) texted me that they could come today. They have just left.
It looks like they can help us! We accepted the estimate for the materials and the work. They will try to be here next Friday, May 17th, (weather permitting) or the following Monday to do the work. HELP IS ON THE WAY!!!!!
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance
Filed under Matt Pearce Art, paintings I love
I’m feeling really good this morning. It took me a while to wake up, but I’m feeling better and better as I do.
I again hit the ’25-pounds-off-my-heaviest’ mark this morning, so that makes me feel as if the changes I’m making gradually are helping me get on a steady pathway now. I’m still eating from a package of deli turkey (the worst culprit on my ‘too-much-salt-included-in-my-food list’), and some salami, but I won’t buy more once I finish those. The low-carb Mexican chicken and veggies frozen dinner from Stu’s Clean Cookin’ was too ‘hot’ for me (I’m a wuss gastronomically) so I will choose something else next time. The young man who helped us with our purchases there is really nice. It’s so pleasant to find a person who takes pride in his job and makes shopping such a pleasure.
SPRING YARD PROJECT – I think I finished the spring project of the main pruning and weeding of our brick planters around the yard – plus the pots on our deck – yesterday. I plan to concentrate on the veggie planters today, taking care of tomato plants, harvesting a bit more (my lettuce is starting to bolt with the high afternoon temperatures now). I sprinkled some zinnia seeds in a couple of planters yesterday. I’ll start buying some flowers next week. It looks like someone cares in our yard now. My husband was complimentary about my weed whacking efforts a couple of days ago, saying I had made it easier for him to mow, and, due to his good efforts, the yard is freshly mowed. :0)
PROJECT REFURB – Every couple of years I try to do some refurbishment of some of the yard critters we’ve made. Being outside is really tough on them. Cloth disintegrates, googly eyes fall off, the critters get dirty, sometimes moldy, paint fades or peels, etc. I either try to repaint them where they are in the yard or bring them one at a time into the shop, give them a makeover, and then put them back out.
This is a critter we made years ago. It seems especially apt these days, as pigs are flying all around, with things we never thought would happen in the world. We spent a long time suspending the flying pig from a big branch over the driveway several years ago. It did really well up there, but finally was down in the driveway one day as we were trying to leave for errands.
He needs a full makeover. I have him in the shop now, where he has been sitting on my work table for several months. I need to clean him up, unbend parts that were damaged when he fell, give him a total repaint, replace his eyes, etc. I’m planning to ask my husband to drill holes in a boulder beside the driveway toward the top where we can attach him to the boulder. He’ll look like he’s ready to take off, and we won’t have to stand on ladders trying to find a good strong branch and try to hang him from a line again. I’ll post pictures as I work on him.
Our weather here is beautiful now, with lots of sun and a bit less humidity. It’s a great day to be outside working in the yard or in the shop, working on the flying pig. Enjoy your day!
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
My new electric meat slicer was delivered yesterday. I reorganized part of my kitchen counter so the slicer is now on an easily moveable place mat so I can slide the slicer out a bit for use, with a NON-slide place mat on top of THAT so the slicer won’t slide when I’m using it. :0) I just ordered a cover that’s made for this particular slicer, rather than the towel I’m using now. I’ll read the manual for this later today.
Here’s the cover.
I’m set up now so I can cook and slice most any meat to eat for my lunches, taking the place of the deli turkey I THOUGHT was healthy, but turned out to be sky high in sodium. (Same with salami. )
I did find some lunch meat that’s half the sodium or less than what I’m finishing up now while I’m gearing up to do all my own.
I also found some low carb, much-lower-sodium frozen dinners at Stu’s Clean Cookin’ in Greenwood. I will try all of these, but some are higher sodium than I would like for the long run. It will depend on how the food changes come together (shown clearly on MyFitnessPal.com) before I make long term decisions.
Meanwhile, my doc has increased my thyroid hormone dosage, so that should help, as well, though it will probably take several 6-week trials before we zero in on my new good dosage.
I’m finally getting my act together on eating healthier, plus I’m working in the yard most every day and doing a session of yoga stretching in the afternoons at least 3 times a week if not every day. Hopefully, the lard will start coming off in a more steady manner and my next routine blood tests in October will show significant improvement. :0)
Filed under DIET!, Changes, Challenges, exercise, taking care of yourself
Filed under collage, Dawn Maciocia Torn Paper Art, paper art
Lettuce
Spinach
Head Lettuce
It looks like my lettuce is coming to an end. I’m seeing signs of bolting already, due to the temperature getting up into the 80s most afternoons now. Lettuce is a cool weather crop, and we have about 4 days of spring between too cold to plant with overnight freezes to too hot for lettuce…
I’m going to work in the veggies today, pruning, weeding, tweaking, and I’m hoping to finish the last two brick planters.
We have a stunningly beautiful morning here, and I’m looking forward to working outside for several sessions.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Peter Hogarth – @peterhogarth55 on X
I just love Peter Hogarth’s portraits. I almost expect them to react to my wanting to touch and pet them. Beautiful, distinctive art work.
Filed under animal paintings, Peter Hogarth - Artist
This reminded me of a song we used to sing a hundred years ago or so –
“Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree,
Merry merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra,
Gay your life must be!” (Except for some reason, we sang, “That’s not a monkey, that’s me. Ha. Ha!“
I’ve never actually HEARD the sound the Kookaburra makes, so I looked it up. (Isn’t the Internet wonderful?)
Filed under memories
It’s almost like a ‘wonder-of-the-world’ thing to see the SUN shining this morning. It’s BEAUTIFUL. We came through some really pervasive yellow and red blobs on the TV screen weather warnings of ‘severe thunderstorm warning’ and ‘tornado watch’ with some heavy rain and LOTS of lightning last night, but no damage we’ve found yet. We’re very lucky and very thankful.
Since my energy level has been really low lately, I was happy when our doc saw that my blood test showed that my thyroid replacement hormone dosage was too low. She increased it, so I’ll get another blood test in 6 weeks and we’ll decide if any further increases are needed.
I was expecting my electric meat slicer to be delivered tomorrow. It was just delivered by our wonderful mailwoman today! She is a really nice lady and drives up our driveway as if it isn’t a mess. AND she brought the slicer! I’m going to rearrange things on my counter so it can live and be well-used on a regular basis there. I’m thinking I’ll see if I can order a cover for it, as well.
I MAY have a line on a father/son team who can repair our driveway. I got their name from a friend, plus the name of the chat that is used on streets that my friend said we should put on the driveway.
Today we’ll go to Stu’s Clean Cookin’ in Greenwood to get some frozen dinners. My husband has always liked their dinners, but they didn’t meet our needs a while back, so we stopped going. I discovered last night that they have new low carb offerings that are also quite reasonable on sodium. HOORAY! Soon I’ll be able to cut my intake of salt in my food by at least half, if not more.
I plan to harvest lettuce and spinach from the garden and finish cleaning up in two brick planters today. Then I THINK I’ll be ready to go buy some flowers to plant. :0)
I hope you’re doing well and can make this a very enjoyable day.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
I’m trying to eat 20 or less grams of carbohydrates per day. I’ve cut out added sugar, and try to buy no-sugar-added or zero sugar products. I’ve cut out most starches, like most everything white (potatoes, rice, pasta). I’m not eating desserts.
I told you recently that I’ve discovered I’m eating too much salt, even though I quit sprinkling it heavily on almost everything I ate for years. (This has been a huge, difficult change for me). I have now found that even though I’ve stopped adding salt to everything, I’m eating it IN the food I’ve been eating – particularly deli meats.
I found an article that listed some much lower sodium lunch meat offerings, including the brands of Boar’s Head, Hillshire Farm, Applegate Naturals, and Oscar Mayer. Today, if we get to the store, I’m going to look for these with my lower sodium “READ-THE-LABELS” cap on firmly. Meanwhile, I’ll buy some frozen turkey breasts to cook. I have ordered an electric meat slicer that is supposed to be delivered Friday, since it looks like I’m going to be cooking and slicing my own meats for lunches in the future.
As of this morning, I’m 24 pounds down from my heaviest (nothing to write home about, but a good start). This new emphasis on avoiding sodium might result in decreasing many of the bad effects of eating too much salt, as well as hopefully resulting in a steadier loss of the lard.
“Eating healthy” is a very complicated subject and seems to be different for each of us. Cooking for two complicates things, as things I’m willing to change my husband firmly isn’t. I’m trying to research and improve what I’m eating or avoiding to make the best result for me.
Filed under DIET!, taking care of yourself
Filed under Amazing Animals
Filed under Stone/Pebble Art
creativeartworksblog 