It’s “Later”

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Things are finally to a stopping point so I can write again. I told you I would write “later,” and the working day is almost over!

I got a haircut and I now look as if ‘someone-had-a-plan,’ rather than my hair flying in all directions. Michael, my stylist, is truly a miracle worker, I’m so lucky to have found him. His birthday is Friday, so I took him a birthday card that was made by an artist who was on my Creative Artworks website years ago. I also included a bookmark made by another artist. He seemed to really like both.

I was delighted to find that the UPS package I wanted to send FIT into the receptacle on the square, saving me a trip to Ft. Smith with my husband in his Vette. HOORAY! He has NOT mellowed with age, and in fact has lost the small residual calm he had with others’ driving, so it’s hair-raising, to say the least. I’m really glad we don’t have to do it.

When I got home, my husband was trying to find some paperwork in order to fill out a form online. I found one of these, but not the other. I ended up pulling everything out of the shelves beside my computer chair and searching until I found what my husband had asked for. When I handed him the two pieces of paper, he said, “Oh, the website was screwed up and I blew them off.” (URGE TO KILL….)

I ended up cleaning up the shelves and reorganizing. I went ahead and did the December bookkeeping for my spreadsheets online and then filing everything. So now I have a clean desk top, a couple of clean table tops beside my chair, and am feeling much more organized. I even called the court house before they closed to assess for the coming tax year.

Things are good here. I hope you’ve had a good day, too, and will have a pleasant and relaxing evening.

Sunny Saturday 9-10-2022

boredpanda.com

Awwwwww. I want to hug this dog.

All About Gardening

This morning I’m planning to get SOMETHING reasonable done outside. I worked outside Wednesday, making some good progress, but then life and other commitments got in the way while it was cooler on Thursday and Friday. I’m hoping to get my sweet red onions harvested from the garden and spread on the trailer bed in the sun to dry today. My garden is awful now, but I’m going to ignore that, doing what is pressing on me the most outside each day possible until things are under better control. Our weather is supposed to be cooler for a couple of day starting tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to that and hope to spend a lot of time outside.

Bookshelves – Guest Room

I cleaned out the books in the guest room and on my side of the bedroom about a week or so ago. My husband just noticed last night when we were getting ready for bed.

Bookshelves – My side of bedroom

Things got busy and I pooped out last night, so we just had soup and crackers for dinner. I’ll cook the chicken and rice dish my husband likes tonight.

And that’s our quiet, happy day. I hope YOU have one, too.

Wednesday Thoughts 8-31-2022

lovethispic.com

We’re about to put this month to bed and I couldn’t be happier about it. I’m hoping we’ll get a cool-down soon – with more than a tease of rain chances – so I can enjoy being outside again.

IndiaMART

Even though my scales are still laughing at me, I saw improvement this morning. I found a new snack – 1 oz of Blue Diamond Lightly Salted Almonds with Sea Salt. The 1 oz is about 28 almonds. 170 calories. Filling and delicious. I’m enjoying them with a bottle of water after my yoga practice (DAY 47).

When we leave for errands today, we’ll change out our mailbox decoration. This scarecrow helps us welcome hopefully cooler weather with open arms.

Right Attitudes

I’m going to concentrate on my bookshelves in our bedroom today. I’ve moved a bunch of books out of there into the guest room, plus gathered a grocery bag of books to donate to the library. Today I’ll see if there is more to donate and then clean the shelves and reorganize the books.

Let’s make today a good one.

One Fridge Clean

itsokaytobeweird

I’m feeling pretty good right now. I just finished cleaning my kitchen fridge.

LG Fridge

This one looks a lot like ours, except the outside of ours is black.

I took everything out, took out and scrubbed all the drawers, wiped everything down with a bleach-based cleaner, then went through everything, throwing away outdated stuff, ‘old’ stuff, and – I have to admit – stinky or gooey stuff.

I’m now using the pull-out drawer that runs all the way across the bottom for the few meats and more cheeses that we have. I’m using the two drawers above for fresh produce – one for salad and cooking veggies and the other for fresh fruit.

It’s easy to see where things are without having to dig down, and – nicely – it’s easy to reach things and get them out without any difficulty.

My husband came in to get a drink while I was working and said, “Wow.”

So – YEAH. Wow. (It’s about time. )

Patting Myself on the Head a Bit

Tenor

Today I’ve made progress on a couple of things –

THING ONE – I got rid of stuff from our kitchen and pantry fridges in preparation for some deep cleaning and reorganizing. We’re not eating NEAR as much meat these days and we’re eating LOTS more veggies and fruit, so we need to rethink storage of fresh food for the kitchen fridge and ingredients for a different style of cooking in the pantry fridge.

THING TWO – I moved a BUNCH of books from my bookshelves in my bedroom to the guest room, gathering books to donate to the library for their fund-raising book sale as I go.

Both projects are pretty large ones, so I’m trying to do something definitive on each one every day until the projects are finished.

Is It Monday?

vetstreet.com

For some unknown reason, I had my life-long repeating nightmare last night. I’m late, lost, and I can’t get where I’m going. There is no one to help me, no one to ask. I just keep rushing around. The location changes, but the awful feelings are the same.

Happily, I have an antidote to my nightmare. I got up (my husband was already up and downstairs) so I took a long shower and dressed slowly. By the time I came downstairs, my heart had stopped racing and I could mostly calmly tell my husband about my nightmare (on a trip in a humongous hotel this time.) He loves me in spite of my weirdness. :0)

Shutterstock

My scales were a bit less snarky this morning, so that’s encouraging. And I’m on DAY 45 of my daily yoga practice! I now spend 30-45 minutes stretching in all directions. Amber, our 95 pound dog, and Abby, our cat, ‘help’ me with my practice in various ways each day. Sometimes Abby comes and decides to sit on my stomach while I’m stretched out on my back, trying to do several beginning stretches. When I laugh and push her to the side, she moves to my feet, where she tries to make a ‘nest.’ Amber either steps on me on her way to ‘wherever,’ or oozes up to me, snuffling my ear. When I start to laugh, she goes nuts, turning upside down, with her feet in the air, biting her foot, or trying to get as close to me as she can. My husband sits in his recliner, either smirking at me and my predicament or ignoring us, reading his Kindle.

Shutterstock

I gathered another grocery bag of books yesterday I’ll donate to the library. I’ll continue doing a bit of book re-organizing today. I’m moving some books to the guest room shelves. That will give me space in the shelves on my side of the bedroom for my main collection.

Foodmentary

I’m gathering trash to put out tomorrow, so I’ll use the opportunity to do a clean out of the fridges and a small reorganization while I’m at it. Since we’ve changed from low-carb Keto eating to a more Mediterranean style of eating, our storage needs in the fridge are different. I’ll do a bunch of cleaning and decide how to better store our stuff.

groovyPost

I spend time each day finding new things to share with you here. I truly love finding things I think are terrific and sharing them. There is never enough time to find even a fraction of all the talented people on our planet. It’s so inspiring to find some of them.

It’s Monday. It’s almost the end of August. It MIGHT rain here today. I hope YOUR Monday is at least as good as mine. :0)

Sunny Saturday 8-27-2022

horseandman.com

I think this photo is stunning. I almost expect the birds to move their heads! Incredible. Speaking of nature, we’ve seen deer on the way to town three days in a row. I’ve already told you about the doe and fawn we saw. Then, when I was on my way to my massage Thursday morning, there was a doe standing beside the road. She was by herself, or at least I didn’t see any other dear or fawns. I drove really slowly past her. She just looked at me. She was beautiful. Yesterday, on the way to Lunch Bunch, we saw a deer who gracefully jumped in a big arc over the road to the other side.

Pinterest

Today is DAY 43 of my daily yoga practice, trying to make it a HABIT. So far, I can say that my yoga practice takes priority over other activities each afternoon. I feel happy that I’m doing something good for myself.

Produce Market Guide

I only found one ripe tomato on one of the plants in the niche planter beside the house yesterday, and it wasn’t in good shape. I’ll look again to see if there are any green ones that might ripen, but it looks like I’ll need to schedule pulling out of the tomato plants for the year. I will also schedule harvesting the sweet red onions – the last thing in our raised-bed square foot garden – soon. I might have to wait until next week to get these two things done, but they’re on my list.

Alamy

My books don’t look this bad, but I haven’t really been careful about storing new books – and I have a bunch – plus we haven’t been donating books as we usually do, since our local library suspended their book sale fundraisers for about a year now. They just started accepting donations again, so I’m getting serious about going through my books, starting in my bedroom and working my way down, going through everything, gathering books for donations, reorganizing the rest. This is a big project, but I’ll just do what I can each day until it’s done. I’m lucky to have the ‘problem’ of more books than I can handle right now, and I need to share the wealth. :0)

Freepik

We slept later this morning than usual. The conditions were perfect for great rest, but I was shocked at the clock when I woke up enough to care what time it was. I leaped up, threw on clothes and went down to let Amber out. She was patiently waiting, and I feel guilty we made her wait so long. I did our normal morning stuff, and then cut up stuff for a chef salad with chicken tonight, plus a peach for our dessert.

Amber and I tried to be quiet in the office to give my husband a chance to sleep longer. I was working at the computer when Amber started huffing and puffing and running around the way she does when she’s excited. My husband came down the stairs then.

We’re having a nice, sunny Saturday here. I hope you are enjoying yours, as well.

Lazy Monday

Barbara Trauch

This shows you how I feel today. I’m not aware of any sleeping problems last night – I just feel incredibly lazy today.

I made two phone calls this morning first thing –

1. to our local library to see if they were now taking book donations. We’ve always made a point of taking our books to donate for their book sale/fund raisers, but during the pandemic they stopped taking donations or having the sales. The librarian sounded pleased I called, so I’ll turn my sights toward gathering a good donation.
2. to our local propane supplier for fill-ups on our two propane tanks. We got one tank for the house when we built it in 1987. We got just another small tank years afterward to power the heater in our shop. We top both off once a year. In the last year they have gone to a phone tree system that is apparently service-area wide. Between bad choices and then too-loud music on hold, it’s quite annoying to get to a real person. THEN – that person is apparently in a call center, judging from the background noise, and English is a second language. It took me 20 minutes of giving information and answering questions to schedule the fill-ups for some time in the coming week or next. Nothing is easy anymore.

A Celebration of Reading

I’m pretty much deciding that my next big project will be getting my books under control – going through what I have, deciding what can be donated, and reorganizing the rest. I’ll continue what I have started upstairs and work my way down. We have books in almost every room, so this will take awhile.

fb/barefootfive – brooke hampton

I wish you a good Monday.

Our Plight Continues

Depositphotos.com

I’m feeling like “Ms. Grumpy” this morning, in that our plight of being stuck on top of our ridge line continues. We are still unable to find anyone to spread the big truckload of crusher dust. I’ve left our name and phone number with JoesDriveways.com, plus HomeAdvisor, two of the online home worker finder places, hoping that 1) someone calls me back, 2) we can afford the services, and 3) the person can come soon. Fingers and all other appendages are still crossed. Of COURSE it’s rainy today.

Yesterday I finally finished going through the pantry shelves, throwing things away, cleaning and reorganizing what is left. (I won’t go into detail about a can that ‘exploded’ in the back, leaving a mess that had congealed, or the little bitty bugs I vacuumed up and then sprayed for. All is clean now.

CNBC

We just finished gathering our trash, both for the week plus what I’m throwing out from the pantry. We’re acting as though we’ll be able to get it down to the bottom of the driveway tomorrow. Hope springs eternal.

VectorStock

I’m trying to choose something in the house to tackle each day, particularly because 1) the rain seems to be with us forever, 2) we are stuck up here, and 3) I want to feel as if I’m accomplishing SOMETHING each day. There are MANY things needing attention from which to choose…

I wish you a nice Monday.

The Nose Knows

Pinterest

The pantry is coming together finally. I’ve spent several days in there, trying to make sense of things that we’ve been stashing wherever there was room. Since it’s a walk-in pantry (one of our priorities when we built our home about 35 years ago), there is a lot of room to stash before attention is seriously needed.

This is the ‘supplies’ side of the pantry. It holds kitchen and bathroom supplies, cooking supplies and appliances, cleaning supplies, medicine, etc.

I tackled this yesterday. I hate to admit that I found some cans that had failed on the bottoms, making a mess, expired foods, boxes of food that were old or failing, etc. I cleaned it all out, threw out a bunch, cleaned the shelves and reorganized things so they’re easy to see and access. This was the part my husband noticed yesterday. :0)

This is the area I’m planning to attack today. I have boxes and a loose organization, but again, things have been stashed. Some things need to be tossed, due to age or non-use. I want to organize better, so I can find the things I’ve purchased for particular recipes, as well as figure out things that I need for the new Mediterranean form of cooking I’m starting. I’m hoping that this project will wrap up today. I’m loving the clean smell as I enter the pantry now.

Getting a Handle on It

Handles4U

Yesterday I finally made some progress in ‘getting a handle on’ how I can make the Mediterranean eating plan work for us. (This is complicated because my husband rarely meets a veggie he likes or will even consider eating.)

Yesterday we had a huge fight-with-technology trying to get a Mediterranean cookbook downloaded onto my Kindle. I hardly ever use it, preferring to hold real, treasured books in my hands, but cookbooks are a different ilk, as far as I’m concerned. There are usually only a few recipes I’ll actually cook in each, so I can download a cook book, use what I like, then decide if I actually want to add it to my collection or delete the book from my Kindle and try another.

Making a long story much shorter, we had to DE-register my Kindle because it was listed under my old email address, then RE-register it under my current email address. THEN call for technical help on getting ads off, THEN fight to get rid of ‘freebies’ I didn’t want. I was able to finally get the cookbook and read it last night. As usual, it focused on eggplant, kale, couscous, tofu, Brussells sprouts, cauliflower, chickpeas, etc. Even after more than 50 years of marriage, I know my husband would leave if I tried to cook these things for dinner.

I thought about it a lot, and finally came up with ‘doing my own thing,’ incorporating as many veggies as possible, concentrating on those to which my husband doesn’t object, and flavoring with meats he likes. That means veggie casseroles with chicken or beef or pork ‘flavoring.’ It also can mean stews of various kinds. And fruit as part of our meals and as snacks.

If I cook these, making enough for more than one meal and freezing the leftovers into individual servings for the freezer, I can have lots of meals both of us like, increasing the veggies and fruit I want in my diet and not causing a revolt-among-the-masses. I can also try the recipes that sound reasonable. If my husband doesn’t care for them, I can freeze any leftovers for ME to eat later when my husband is having a Lean Cuisine, Real Food, or Stu’s frozen meal on busy days. Not a complete plan, by any means, but a workable start.

I’m feeling better every day now, with my digestion getting back to normal. I’m now taking my thyroid medicine first thing, eating a small breakfast an hour or so later, then taking the rest of my meds with lunch. This is workable for me. :0)

It’s still rainy here, so the guy bringing us a truckload of chat for the driveway hasn’t called or come. Neither has the plumber, whose work will be outside in the well house. If we can go to town between showers, we’ll get another timer to join the one we just installed in the well house, to be ready when the plumber does his thing.

Meanwhile, my husband actually NOTICED that I had been working in the pantry yesterday! I’m making my way through the food side of the pantry, getting rid of a lot of stuff, cleaning, and then re-organizing. I may finish the main part by the end of the day today. It feels good to be getting things easily accessible, plus smelling the ‘clean.’

If it ever stops raining, I’ll need to get out to my tomato plants and my garden to catch up there…

I hope you’re having a wonderful Wednesday.

Pantry

Facebook.com/DiedLaughing – momzdailyscoops.blogspot.com

Yesterday was rainy, so I turned my attention to doing things INSIDE.

Amber

I vacuumed a dog-and-a-half’s worth of hair from the combination of the first floor tiled areas (pantry, kitchen, dining area, utility room, plus 2 half-baths) and the carpeted areas, (living room, foyer, and office.) I vacuum a lot, but am continually amazed that we have ANY dog left, or that she isn’t completely bald.

Then, since I couldn’t work outside, I cleaned and organized another small area in the pantry. I’m almost completely finished with the ‘supplies’ side of the pantry and am now working on the food side. I’ll try to get another area cleaned up today.

A terrific Tuesday to you! :0)

Thoughts on a Friday 5-13-2022

Anne Jaravan Panhuis

Isn’t this photo wonderful? I love the look on the giraffe’s face as he (or she) stands with the bird (kingfisher?) sitting on his/her head. And the catching of the water (and the frog) are priceless.

We’ll leave in about 45 minutes to join our friends for Lunch Bunch. My friend Kay’s daughter from Albuquerque has been visiting, but she left yesterday. Kay is always a bit sad after her daughter leaves. I haven’t felt well enough to gather veggies from the garden, so won’t be taking anything to share today. Hopefully I can get out this weekend and make up for lost time.

My pantry project is about half done at this point. I’ll start the ‘food’ side of the pantry today and see what I can accomplish.

We’ve had record breaking heat this week. On the heels of this are thunderstorms with possibly severe weather this afternoon-into-this-evening. I hope we just get some good rain. I haven’t been able to set up our yard irrigation system yet this season, so things can really use a drink.

I’m feeling better and better. Soon I’ll be my regular, ornery self and can look for some mischief to dive into.

Enjoy a nice Friday.

Pantry Progress

BEFORE– To say the pantry ‘needed work’ is a vast understatement. After the third day of working on it, light is beginning to show on the ‘supplies’ side of the pantry.

BEFORE-I’ve thrown away a bunch, relocated several things, then cleaned and re-arranged the rest. I’ve tried to get things we don’t need often up (or down), using the most accessible shelves for things we use all the time.

BEFORE-One thing about having a nice, walk-in ‘room’ for a pantry is that there is lots of room. The downside of that, though, is that we tend to ‘stash’, getting lazy and finally ending up with a mess.

Below I’ve got a couple of pics of improvements I’ve made so far. There are more things on the ‘food’ side of the pantry that need to be moved over here, but the big part of the reorganization is finished.

AFTER-My husband even said, “Wow.” I spread our meds out into categories, with clear labels and the current stuff we use all the time the most accessible.

AFTER– There will be tweaks needed, but I’m breathing a sigh of relief. I actually ‘found’ several things I didn’t know we had. :0)

I’ll try to start the ‘food’ side of the pantry tomorrow.

It’s Wednesday

Hello!

L. Roche Art-via Karen Miller -Pinterest- The Rose Gallery-“Happy Hoglet”

I hope that Wednesday is being good to you.

Ours is starting off quietly – a thing for which I am very grateful. My husband is still having technical issues with his Kindle going wonky. He is trying to find someone in support he can understand and who might be able to help him get it back on track. Otherwise, we’re waiting for a deposit to show up on a thing we sold so that we can box it up and get it shipped.

Yesterday I finally felt well enough to actually get started re-organizing the meds in our pantry – a project I told you about several days ago, but never actually did. I made a first pass and improved things a lot. We can now easily see what we have, things being divided into labeled trays and open boxes, such as, “cold and flu,” “digestion,” “current meds backup,” “pain,” “supplements”, etc.

Today I’ll continue making my way around the “supplies” half of the pantry, trying to figure out the best place for things, continuing to throw out and re-organize.

We went from “winter”-to-“wild-thunderstorms-spring”- to “full summer” in the space of several days. We’re still kind of in shock, amazed that we need to turn on our a/c. This is the quickest change I can remember. We just got our snow tires off and the regular tires on in the shop the other day! I’ll need to switch to being out either in the morning or late in the afternoon on working outside now. I would like to check on our veggie garden and our tomato plants very soon.

MoreLifeHealth.com/Seniors

Today I’ll plan to do the 3 short exercise videos: ‘warm-up,’ ‘stretches,’ and one of two ‘weights’ videos from Mike at MoreLifeHealth.com plus my yoga stretches this afternoon. I’m happy that I’m feeling well enough to PLAN for that today!

Make this a wonderful Wednesday.

Thoughts at the Start of the Week

A6605247-flickr.com

WOW! Last week I was still checking to see if we would have a freeze overnight and needed to cover up my plants. Today our high will be 90 degrees F. ! Mother Nature is anything but subtle. We ran the a/c last night for the first time. We woke up freezing early this morning and turned off the system and snuggled in while it warmed up. Now I’m turning on the ceiling fan here in the office. We have the doors open, but may need to close up and turn on the a/c downstairs this afternoon. Mother Nature’s middle name is ‘Abrupt.’

Spoon University

I’m inching toward my next incremental goal in weight loss. I’m trying to only look at 5 pounds at a time. That’s a “doable chunk” as my friend Maria encouraged me to do. It’s wise advise, particularly when the whole goal is super intimidating. Two more pounds and I can toast my efforts with a glass of water and a dance around the living room. :0)

I tried a new recipe for bread, sent to me by my friend, Susy. It’s called, “Bagels with Fathead Dough (Keto and Gluten-Free) by Maya at Wholesomeyum.com. My friend Susy said she baked them as ‘rolls’ rather than bagels, and I did the same, doubling the recipe. Maya made this quite simple. I just changed ‘6’ to ’12’ and the quantities of the ingredients magically changed on the recipe page. NICE! I found them quite interesting. Nice and chewy, satisfying to eat. I sliced one in half, eating the half, rather than the whole thing last night, cutting down on the number of carbs to stay under my limit. I’m a happy camper.

I have a complication on eating keto. I had to have my gallbladder removed several years ago and that changes digestion. Thankfully, the keto people are addressing this issue, so I’m working now to follow their suggestions, hoping they work for me.

We have no exciting plans for the day. I’m still working on re-organizing our medicines in the panty.

I hope this is a safe, happy day for you.

New Project

We had this house built 35 years ago, in 1987. One of the prime things we wanted was lots of space for storage because we had never had even close to enough. We modified the house plans so we could include a ROOM for our pantry right off the kitchen.

Since our home is on top of a ridge line, with a long, steep driveway on the north side of the property outside of the city limits, we wanted to keep stocked up so we wouldn’t be in too much of a mess if we got stuck up here due to bad weather.

One year we had a particularly bad ice storm followed by a lot of snow. We were stuck up here for some 12 days or so, with no public power and no public water. We switched to well water and used a China Diesel generator for a small amount of power. We have a wood-burning fireplace for back up heat. We have a propane-powered stove so we can cook even without power.

Over the years we have refined this, but still don’t like being stuck up here, not able to get down our driveway, having to use a chainsaw to ‘cut our way’ down to the street.

My new project is to try to reorganize the ‘stuff’ in the pantry so things are more easily accessible. I’m going to do this a bit at a time, because looking at the whole is intimidating. I’m going to start with our medicine/supplements area first and see what sense I can make of that. This will be a multi-part reorganization/cleaning/de-cluttering project.

Thoughts on a Friday 4-2022

Schulz – Peanuts

We have been very happy this month that we live on top of a ridge line in Arkansas. Being up a bit has its own dangers – lightning and gusty winds and tornadoes being some – but we DON’T have to worry personally about flooding, though we HAVE discussed tying a rowboat at the bottom of our driveway in case we need to get to town at times. We’ve had a LOT of rain this month. May might bring dryer weather, but it won’t bring calmer weather. We’re under a tornado ‘watch’ much of the summer. We’ve gotten to the point where we don’t really pay attention unless the weather alert says, “A tornado is on the ground in Greenwood, headed for the Lewis’ house.” I’ll be happy to wave goodbye to April tomorrow.

Good/Bad – GOOD: We saw our second hummingbird of the season this morning! We’re not sure if it’s the same hummingbird we saw yesterday or a different one, but he/she took a good, long drink before flitting away. BAD: It looks like we might have another raccoon. The feeders were all absolutely empty this morning after my husband filled them up yesterday. The suet holder on one end of one of the feeders was pulled out on one side. We have yet to see a bird who pulls out the side of the suet holder to get at the suet. We had a suet holder down on the ground below the deck… We’ll have to set the humane trap and see if we can catch the critter for relocation.

CLEANING: I was planning to tackle cleaning up our porch as my next project, but I think I’ll postpone that, since the weather forecast for the next few days is really gusty winds and chances of rain and severe storms.

Instead, I think I’ll work on our pantry. It’s gotten out of hand over the past couple of months, since there wasn’t a good place to put extra supplies and things tended to get ‘stuffed’ wherever it was out of the way a bit. This will be a several day project, but it’s overdue and I don’t have to get the cooperation of Mother Nature to do it.

FRIENDS: Today is Lunch Bunch. In fact, we leave in about 45 minutes to meet our friends. I think that Kay’s daughter will be here, visiting from Albuquerque. She’s a wonderful person and I really enjoy it when she comes home to her parents. :0) Catching up on Fridays rounds the week off nicely.

Have a fabulous Friday.

The Good News Is

I found the counter in my part of the garage, putting as many soft drinks and bottles of water into the fridge as possible, throwing stuff away, and consolidating. You can actually see there is a counter there now. I will do more at a later date, but the main focus today was finding the garden irrigation system timer.

The good news is that my area is much cleaner now.

The bad news is that the timer is still missing. I have no clue what I did with it. It isn’t in any reasonable place. I’ve even looked in some UNreasonable places…

So – we’ll have some lunch, I’ll rest a bit from all the pulling, hauling, and cleaning, and then we’ll go to Yeager’s and see if we can buy another timer.

I “FOUND” It!

Before

After

The biggest thing that doesn’t show is that the things IN the desk have been reorganized. I deleted, changed, and added files that will save me work at the end of the year when I have to organize things to give to our CPA for taxes. Other things were moved to my art room upstairs, to shelves in the office, etc.

I have to admit that the only time my desk looks this clear is when I’m not doing anything. :0)

Thoughts on a Wednesday 2-16-2022

Petr Vaclavek – Dubanci.cz

We have some interesting weather here in Arkansas the next couple of days. We have a ‘wind advisory’ today – even warning about being watchful of gusts when driving! THEN we have ‘heavy downpours,’ ‘thunderstorms,’ and possible severe storms late this afternoon and overnight, a cold front moving in tomorrow, with possible FLURRIES (It’ll be in the 60’s today…). It’s ‘hold-onto-your-hat weather!

I MAY finish the infamous ‘Find-My-Desk’ project today. My husband mentioned that he saw there was a piece of furniture under the piles yesterday, but then his intelligence kicked in and he wisely shut his mouth rather than adding to his observations. :0)

Tenor

My simultaneous ‘Shut-My-Mouth-and-do-More-Yoga’ project has a good start now, though the results may not show for quite awhile.

youshouldgrow.com

A third project I’m beginning to think about is my Raised-bed, Square-foot Garden project for the spring. I’m getting out my grid paper and will start to plan what I’ll plant and where I’ll put it in the garden. This is all based on where I put things last year, so I’ll have reasonable crop rotation, and then I want to have a ‘square’ between like plants (like I don’t plant broccoli plants in adjoining squares) so cut down on any disease problems. I use up lots of grid paper as I dream, making notes on when I should start looking for plants in our local stores. I want to be ready to plant broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, and spinach, for example, as soon as I can get them into the ground. I’ll group them so I can cover them each night with tarps until the weather is more cooperative, making their growing season as long as possible.

As soon as I finish at the computer, I’ll get to work on my desk again. I’ll post pics when this project is done. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Hopeful Tuesday

I just came back in from driving our trash down to the bottom of our driveway and getting our mail. When I started to go down the driveway I caught a glimpse of yellow out of the corner of my eye. When I got back, I got my camera and went out in the yard to find two groups of daffodils budding and blooming in the middle of February! Talk about something that really lifted my spirits. I wanted to share them with you. I KNOW that they don’t realize that it’s still the middle of winter here and that they’ll get frozen one day soon, but their determination to bloom in the middle of whatever is happening around them is motivation for me to try to do the same.

My “Find-and-Re-Organize My Desk” project is going slowly, but I’m definitely making progress. Instead of just stuffing things away somewhere else this time, I’m really trying to re-think where it makes the most sense for things to live – rather than piled on my desk. This takes more time, but will be helpful in the long run. I’ve already cleaned out my tax records file drawer in the desk, caught up with January 2022 records on new spreadsheets on my computer, and filed January’s stuff in old-plus-added folders. It won’t look like I’ve done anything on the project until it’s finished, but I’m plugging away at it with several sessions during the day, with walking out to the shop and back between sessions to enjoy the weather and get my body moving more.

Giphy

I actually did a session of yoga yesterday afternoon. It felt so good I’m going to do another today, rather than waiting until Wednesday.

I hope that you enjoyed your Valentine’s Day yesterday and that you’re having a hopeful Tuesday, too.

Back on the Wagon

Dogster-shutterstock

Okay. The Super Bowl is over. I love it that they were so evenly matched. I was happy the Rams won because they won it the same way they got to the Super Bowl in the final game that won their place there – a come from behind win. I switched allegiances several times during the game because I love a really close, nail-biter game more than anything. (My husband is still rolling his eyes because I liked the uniforms of the Bengals MUCH better than those of the Rams.)

We enjoyed our splurge dinner of chili mac with onions and cheese, thoroughly enjoying every forbidden bite. :0) Splurge mode is officially over now. I’m using cronometer.com to track my eating. I’m still trying to work out how to eat the foods that are supposed to be good for my husband’s and my various health concerns – building a master list of foods to INCLUDE as often as possible and ones to AVOID. I’m adding to it as I read more and reprinting the list so I can keep it on the fridge to remind me.

I have a yoga session on my calendar for today. I’m also going to include a walk out to our shop and back each time I take a break from my ‘find-my-desk’ project started yesterday and continuing until the emergence of an actual piece of furniture, rather than a pile of STUFF.

Today’s Project 2-13-2022

I will at least get a start on unearthing my office desk today. The poor thing is buried with the residue from several projects. Some have been going on simultaneously, but some of this STUFF is from projects that have been finished for awhile. It’s now to the point where I can’t find anything, or if I do and try to pick it up, things fall. UGH.

It’s a very good thing my husband didn’t marry me for my housekeeping skills. He is wonderful, in that he doesn’t seem to notice when things get awful, like my desk, but DOES notice it if it’s suddenly clean. That a wonderful survival skill for him – since he isn’t great about cleaning, or helping to clean…

This will probably be a several-day project, particularly since the Super Bowl is this evening. I will work on it a bit at a time. Eventually I will find the furniture under the pile.

Thoughts on a Saturday 2-12-2022

Giulia-flickr.com

Ooh! It’s pretty cold here in Arkansas today. It’s 24 degrees F. with a wind chill making it FEEL like 13. BRRRR! The sun is shining, though, and this is a one-day thing. Warmer tomorrow. :0)

iStock

I’m doing really well with my getting our tax stuff organized in the office efforts. I’m waiting for our investment stuff to be available for download and print. Then we can bag everything up for taxes and dump it on our wonderful CPA.

I made new spreadsheets for 2022 and will enter January’s information into them today. Then file that stuff, having decided to refine my filing system for less sorting at the end of the year. I’ll make the extra folders today, plus reconciling checkbooks.

Once that is done, the next step will be to find my desk again. The poor thing is buried alive with STUFF. You can see there is ‘something’ in that part of the room, but it’s not clear it’s a desk. LOTS of things to put away from lots of projects…

iStock

I’ve figured out a NICE way to tackle this stuff. I listen to music, write blog posts, then tackle whatever the project is. Work for awhile, get to a good stopping point, take a break and listen and type again. This way I get something good accomplished with some good enjoyment keeping my energy up.

Insider

2022 will be a good year for me to get serious about getting rid of more stuff. Seriously. I hit some roadblocks in 2021 on this, with our library not accepting used books and our wonderful Veterans Thrift Town not accepting donations. I will call both first to see if that has changed and then plan accordingly. If they are not accepting donations, I’ll have to find other organizations to get things to people who might be able to use them. Maybe our churches.

I hope you’re having a happy Saturday, too.

Patting Myself on the Head

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I’m patting myself on the head a bit right now. I’ve been trying to get up to my art room for a week or more to clean up a bit and clear the decks to try the impasto painting technique. Excuses abound, as usual, but the fact remains I’m lazy. I’ve been enjoying lots of other things and just haven’t made the time.

This afternoon I finally went up there. I wrapped the Christmas presents I’ve made for friends, still sitting on the table where I brought them in from the shop. So now they are on another table, ready to go out the door when it’s time. :0)

I cleared off the drafting table so I have room to try the new technique. Right now it’s clean and clear. I’ll leave it that way until tomorrow, when I’ll gather the things I need to try the technique. I’m really looking forward to giving myself time to experiment and play, not worried about whether it will ‘turn out okay’ or not – just enjoying.

I hope that you found something satisfying to do today, too. If so, pat yourself on the head and enjoy some good relaxing. If not, give yourself a break and find something fun. It’s not too late :0)

Sing It!

TheSilentConcert-badpsicsofbugsetc-fyeahshoebills.tumblr.com

It’s quite cool right now – 46 degrees F. and sunny here. It’s due to get to 74 this afternoon, so no complaints whatsoever from me. :0)

I’m pleased that the “ugly” Wonder Wart-Hog is up on the mailbox now, ready for the school kids to see it as they pass the bottom of the driveway on the bus tomorrow morning. I wonder if they’ll like it. My husband seems pleased with it, so that’s the most important.

Since I’m split between “should clean up my art room” and “should do some clean up in the yard,” I’ll try to devote half my day to each of those.

My art room is still a mess from the last ‘acrylic pour’ attempts (no success there yet), so I’d like to get it cleaned up and try to do one of the ‘impasto’ technique paintings with a pallet knife.

I’m trying to do a bit outside each time the weather is cooperative to get us ready for the winter.

Such a beautiful day! Enjoy your Sunday.

Disorganized

A. A. Milne – E. H. Shepard – Winnie the Pooh – DreamsQuotes.com

Yesterday I started trying to once again clean up my art room. A lofty goal, and one that I occasionally actually DO. More often, I START – find something wonderful – and then spend the rest of the allotted time playing. :0)

We converted a third bedroom into my art room years ago. My husband built shelves that go all the way across one end of the room for supplies. On the other end of the room, he built more shelves. On the window side I have two tall sets of shelves…

Then there is the closet which has built-in shelves on one side and a plastic set of shelves on the opposite side.

I have two counters, one long table, and my drafting table.

My art room is a place that allows me escape. Alone time. Time to nurture, to dream, to experiment, to play.

Right now I have to tell you that it looks like a bomb hit. I am working to at least be able to walk through without falling over something or having to move a bunch of stuff.

I’ll do a bit more in there today. Maybe I’ll actually get something cleaned off!

Thoughts on a Monday 5-10-2021

Lydie Steyer

I’m finding it hard to grasp that we’re already into May, and a third of it is gone!

Arkansas is having a ‘monsoon’ season this year. I’m growing some veggies in a raised bed square foot garden and they are loving this weather. It’s been cool and wet. For example it’s overcast, looking like it could rain any second, and is only 49 degrees right now. Friday I was able to share some spinach and lettuce with good friends. I’m planning to do my third harvest of the season today, if the weather will cooperate.

lettuce

spinach

Yesterday, after over a year of absence, I started accounts on Facebook and LinkedIn again. My accounts had been hacked and I couldn’t change my passwords or get any help from support at either place, so I gave up and closed my accounts. I missed some of the people I had met, so yesterday I created a new email address so I could sign up again. I have no idea of anyone remembers me anymore or will connect with me again, but I figure it’s worth a try.

My latest project – after putting the house back together after new carpet and porch flooring – is to switch my winter clothes for summer ones. Funny timing, since we may be setting a record for the coolest May we’ve had since I’ve lived here, but I’m in the middle of it now. I have the actual clothes switched. Now I’m trying to get things organized, plus I’ve promised myself I will try things on, going through for things I can donate.

We are continuing to enjoy getting healthy, individual portion meals from Real Food and from Stu’s Clean Cookin’, both of which have opened in the past year in Greenwood.

Calvin & Hobbes Mailbox Decoration

We haven’t been putting up mailbox decorations for awhile, due to the chaos in the world. We finally put up my favorite recently. I think we can all use a hug.

I hope that you are having a good start of a new week, too.

It’s Monday

Giphy

I’m waiting for my coffee to kick in. It’s overcast and rainy-looking. Severe storms are forecast for this evening, so I’ll need to get out to my garden and do a second harvest in case we get the hail they say we might.

I’m also going to try to finish getting things put back where they belong after our new carpet and flooring project. Even though I’m sleepy, I’m smiling every time I see the carpet and walk on it. It’s nice. And new, And clean. I also love the way the porch floor looks like weathered wood. I have my side of our entertainment center in the living room to straighten out and then things will be done. Hooray!

The garden was looking strong and healthy the last time I checked. I’ll try to share some pictures with you. I have all appendages crossed the the storms this evening won’t break the plants. One year we had bad hail that battered things so much I had to cut everything WAY back. Then the weather turned really warm and the early spring plants gave up the ghost.

If you’re feeling sleepy too, I hope we can both wake up and enjoy the day.

Almost Finished!

Steemit

I’m getting ready to do some serious relaxing.

I finally finished getting our office back together after the carpet installation. I went through everything, trying to make it easy to find things. My husband will let me know if I was successful the next time he wants a new highlighter or something. Fingers crossed.

This is the main area in question. If he wants dividers for a notebook or tabs to go inside them, or whatever. I’m hoping he can simply go look for a couple of seconds and see that all the stuff for notebooks, dividers, and files are together on one shelf. Same for pens, pencils, tape of all kinds. etc. We’ll see. You can see that Amber is worn out after helping me organize.

My desk is newly cleaned.

These are things listed on Amazon – used books, and then my Amazon Handmade stuff.

This is the way the office looks as you look in from the foyer.