Monthly Archives: November 2020
End Result
I have now finished hacking down the frozen, wilted leaves on my elephant ear plants. I have dug up the two humongous bulbs and stored them in the garage in trash bins filled with peat moss and potting soil. They will stay there during the winter and then I’m HOPING to be able to replant them in the spring when the chance of freezes is gone.
An Old Broad’s Exercise
I gave myself TWO gold stars on my desk calendar yesterday:
One for 35 minutes on my elliptical trainer in the garage; and another for the 30 minutes or so of old lady yoga stretches I did in the afternoon. :0)
I am planning to do this again today – not making excuses or giving other things priority – a difficult thing for me.
Even though I KNOW that I actually feel better when I exercise – feeling more in control, a bit ‘virtuous,’ and actually looser – I fall into my bad habits over and over.
I’m hoping that the fact that I keep trying is a good thing overall.
I will get some added exercise today – we had a freeze overnight. I thought my plants had come through it, or it didn’t actually get to freezing, but just discovered I was wrong.
My elephant ear plant leaves are hanging over, completely done in by Mother Nature. It’s really cold outside now – 29 degrees F. with a stiff wind, but I will go out and try to cut the leaves off and bring the bulbs into the garage for storage in peat moss and potting soil.
Maybe with the added work outside, I can give myself THREE stars today…
Filed under exercise, Mother Nature
Oil Paintings I Love 3
Filed under Oil Paintings I Love
Winter Approaches
Mother Nature is bringing winter closer in Arkansas in the coming days. I’m not ready.
I’ve really been enjoying the fall. I’m not a hot-weather person. I’m not really a cold-weather person, either. The temperature range at which I feel comfortable has lowered and then narrowed as I age.
Right now it’s around 42 degrees F. and very cloudy, wet, and raw outside. A good day to express thanks for a warm, dry house.
We got our irrigation system turned off, hoses unhooked and drained, vents closed, and outside faucets covered this past week. We’re supposed to have freezing temperatures each morning for at least the next 10 days, starting tomorrow morning.
We have had a wonderful season of veggie garden, flowers, and elephant ear plants, so I’m trying very hard to be thankful for that without being too greedy for more. I love to see things thriving and blooming all over the yard and in the garden, so it’s hard to see that come to an end.
I’m setting up in the garage to have a small place where I can try to get seeds started for my spring garden. If I’m successful, I can get an early start to good veggies for the spring!
I hope you are somewhere warm and dry this morning where you can dream of veggies and flowers in the future.
Filed under Gardening, Mother Nature, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Message from the Scales
The scales are sneering at me this morning, but I don’t care. I am thoroughly enjoying the splurge from Thanksgiving. We still have some deli potato salad and some deli baked beans. The rest is a fond memory.
I even made some chicken chunks over rice for last last night. This time I used small bowls, rather than the large pasta bowls I have used in the past, giving us each a nice portion. After we finished, I spread out the rest into eight individual servings in freezer containers and added them to the frozen meals we get from REAL FOOD and STU’S CLEAN COOKIN’ in Greenwood. I am hoping that this will allow us to enjoy the favorite meals we like in moderation from time to time without undoing our efforts to lose the lard.
I’m heading out to the garage soon to try to do 35 minutes on my elliptical trainer. I’m hoping to continue my resolve to keep good habits going with a 30 minute session of yoga stretches this afternoon. (Two gold stars for my desk calendar…)
Filed under DIET!, exercise, taking care of yourself
Oil Paintings I Love 2
Filed under memories, Oil Paintings I Love
Diet by the Sexes
I am of two minds about my husband’s progress on “OUR” diet.
Even though “I” am the one who plans the meals and snacks, cooks them – or heats up meals from REAL FOOD or STU’S CLEAN COOKIN’ in Greenwood, the one who exercises (elliptical trainer at least 3 times a week, yoga stretches almost every day), my HUSBAND is the one who has almost reached his diet goal.
I look for sugar-free snacks for him, since he is a Type II diabetic. He continues to throw ‘goodies’ with sugar into our grocery basket. I have decided that at 77, he is definitely old enough to either follow what he should and shouldn’t eat, or take the consequences. I don’t fuss at him now, but I do encourage him to eat healthier stuff, and the things I give him or make for him are healthy.
Regardless – his blood sugar numbers are good. His blood pressure numbers are good. He has reached his goal weight, though he snacks several times a day. “I” still have 30 lbs to lose. Is there a lesson here?
The ‘good person’ side of me is happy for him. All told he has lost a lot of weight. His numbers are good now. The ‘bad person’ side of me wants to strangle him. :0/
Filed under Challenges, DIET!
Oil Paintings I Love
Filed under Oil Paintings I Love
Our Job
Filed under Challenges, empowerment, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes, kindness
Thoughts on a Friday 11-27-2020
I will fix lunch for us in about half an hour. We had a nice splurge for Thanksgiving – rotisserie chicken, potato salad, baked beans, and deviled eggs. YUMMY, and for that I’m thankful; though I gained TWO POUNDS yesterday, and I’m NOT thankful for that…
We will finish the chicken and potato salad tonight – being very thankful again while we’re eating – and we’ll finish the baked beans gradually the rest of this and the coming week.
I was delighted to see the order for these earrings on Amazon Handmade pop up in my email this morning! We just returned from mailing them and running a couple more errands. :0)
I’m not sure what else the day will hold today. I really should get outside and cut down a few things, since our high today is forecast to be in the 60s, and a cold front is on the way tomorrow evening. I’ll give myself a good talking-to and see if I can convince myself to actually get out there.
I hope you and a good Thanksgiving and that you are staying safe and healthy.
Last of the Cat Beds
Thanks to Viktorija Gabulaite and Liucija Adomaite of Bored Panda for the wonderful pictures.
Filed under Amazing Animals
Happy Thanksgiving 2020
I plan to be very lazy today.
Our Thanksgiving celebration will be my husband and I this year. Our son lives in Thailand and we – and all of our friends we usually ask to share our meal – are all in the high risk group in the pandemic. We are thankful we are here to celebrate a hopefully calm, quiet day filled with good food and lots of love.
I will make deviled eggs today – one of my husband’s and my favorite things. Other than that, we will just heat things up when we’re ready to enjoy. We’ll have rotisserie chicken, potato salad, baked beans, and deviled eggs, with peanut brittle for dessert. :0)
We will probably watch more of a new series (to us) we discovered last night. It’s called, “His Dark Materials,” and it a series with a similar theme to “The Golden Compass” movie. We binge watched 4 episodes from Season 1 last night and are hooked.
I’m planning to be super-lazy today. No big projects inside or out. I’m going to enjoy reading my book in my recliner and maybe even curl up under my throw and zonk out for awhile. Ahhhhhhhhh!
I hope that you are safe and well this Thanksgiving.
Cat Beds 5
Filed under Amazing Animals
Thoughts on a Wednesday 11/25/2020
Mother Nature played the Big Bad Wolf last night, huffing and puffing and trying to blow our house down, first with a tornado warning and then with a severe thunderstorm watch the remainder of the night, but we seem to have come through fine, with no damage we have seen so far.
The reason for the histrionics was a cold front, lowering our temperatures quite a bit. Right now it’s gray and 40 with a nippy wind, but it’s supposed to warm up to the mid 50’s this afternoon. It didn’t freeze hard last night, so we still have our plants.
This morning we will head to the exclusive emporium of Walmart in an effort to gather goodies for our lazy celebration tomorrow for the two of us. We will try to get a rotisserie chicken, potato salad, and baked beans. I hard-boiled some eggs this morning in preparation for making deviled eggs tomorrow. We’ll also get some raw veggies – because life goes on after Thanksgiving gorging – and we’re enjoying those with Ranch dip for a snack in the afternoons in our efforts to lose the lard.
My efforts to cull our books are going well. I have my shelves upstairs in my bedroom cleaned out now, down to the books I want to keep mainly. (The only other candidates for culling are my art books, and I’m not ready to let go of them yet.) The guest room shelves are no reorganized and neat. We are selling several books each day, so I’m happy with our efforts to get rid of things at the moment.
I’m not sure what I’ll tackle today yet. There are SO many areas crying out for attention it’s hard to choose, but I’ll tackle something. I will also choose a container to fill with a combination of peat moss and potting soil – ready to receive my elephant ear plant bulbs when the first freeze zaps the leaves. I will keep the bulbs in the garage, ready to put out in the planter again in the spring.
I hope that your Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving is a safe and happy one!
Last Hurrah?
The cold front seems to be coming through now. It’s cold and rainy – a GREAT time to have a warm, dry house.
When we got home from errands, we went back outside and shut down the irrigation system. This involves turning off a control, disconnecting a hose and rerouting a water system in the well house, and then disconnecting a main hose that runs across the front of the yard just off the civilized part we mow. We then gathered outside faucet covers and installed those all around the house, closing the vents. The forecast is calling for a light freeze overnight, so we’re just in time.
I then came back outside again and gathered what will probably be the last of the tomatoes.
We have had a really good run of tomatoes this year, despite a lot of weird weather. These are mostly cherry tomato size – perfect for salads and snacks.
This is probably the last of the roses and one twice-blooming iris I found.
And finally is my elephant ear plants. They are tall enough to almost cover the window in the garage. The research I did said that after the first freeze, I should cut the leaves off and store the bulbs in a combination of peat moss and potting soil in the garage until the spring. Fingers crossed that will work.
So, a last hurrah for a good year of growing. I lost my green house in a bad storm, but I will try to start seeds on the counter in my garage for the spring. I’ll need to clear things off a bit again, but I have a grow light set up, Mel’s Mix in a small trash cans, and my trays, so I should be in good shape to start up again, probably in February.
Cat Beds 4
Filed under Amazing Animals
Sweet, Happy Fish
Yesterday afternoon I took the time to clean the aquarium. My fish are now happily swimming in a squeaky-clean tank, even though they haven’t said anything about it.
They did, however, both get into the corner of the tank and wiggle their little bodies at me, opening and closing their mouths, hoping I would put some extra food in the tank. (I caved and gave it to them.)
Filed under Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance
Cat Beds 3
Filed under Amazing Animals
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