We Needed the Rain, But…

Chaya Boone – Juststartz.com

Yesterday I got lazy, but I’ve been trying to do something in our yard each day. Things are starting to shape up now, but I’m having more and more trouble finding time between rain showers to do much.

I SHOULD have weed whacked yesterday. My husband mowed the yard a couple of days ago, so he’s done his part, but I just couldn’t get motivated. I’ll try to get it done today, though scattered showers are forecast and we are under a flood watch. Adding insult to injury, the forecast is for scattered showers and thunderstorms for the NEXT SIX DAYS!

I’m in the frustrating position of feeling guilty no matter what I’m doing. If I’m outside working in the yard, I feel guilty that I haven’t vacuumed the tiled areas on our first floor. I actually saw a clump of Amber hair floating around yesterday… If I’m inside cleaning or paying bills, I feel guilty because if it’s not raining, I should be outside weeding, pruning, planting things…. THE RESULT – yesterday I read the rest of a book. (I know. I’m a slob.) :0)

SO – when I finish my blog posts for today, I’ll get outside and at least get STARTED weed whacking. I’ll try for two sessions today, plus my yoga stretching this afternoon. I’m also planning to finish off enjoyment of a rotisserie chicken by making chicken salad as part of our dinner tonight.

I hope that your Saturday has both productivity and fun.

Saturday Thoughts 2-24-2024

Unsplash

I’m seeing a bit of progress in my efforts to get my act together. In my yoga yesterday, I was able to do 10 reps of my abdominal exercise (started with 5), and will earn star #6 on my week’s calendar on daily practice. (It felt really good just now to replace the words, “try for” with “EARN”.)

Second, I’m getting a good start on limiting my carbs. I’ve lost 2 lbs since I got serious, using MyFitnessPal.com to work out what I’ll eat for the day. I really like this website. I can type in the name of a frozen dinner, for example, such as Lean Cuisine Herb Roasted Chicken, and it has an extensive data base of foods, added to by their membership, so it’s easy to list and find out where it fits in my plan for the day. They have a place where you can list your own recipes and store them. I can ‘play’ with options for each meal, plus snacks, and see before I screw up how it will work, or if I need to choose something else. Really helpful website if you’re trying to lose weight or just make sure that you’re eating the right foods for a health condition, etc.

I made ‘zoodles’ yesterday. This is a staple for low carb foodies, zucchini taking the place of spaghetti and other pastas.

This is my spiralizer. You cut off one end of the zucchini, put it in the “thick” or “thin” end of the spiralizer, then twist the zucchini. Long ‘ribbons’ of zucchini are formed. The end you see to the right is used when the zucchini is too short to hold, but still has some good ribbons left to make.

I can make my own low carb spaghetti sauce, for example, make some spaghetti for my husband, and heat up a serving of zoodles for me, making both of us happy. One zucchini made three 1-cup servings for me. I froze two of them, eating one last night. Today I’ll make some cauli-rice, a substitute for regular rice. These two things are wonderful for me. They taste fine (although I do miss the real things), allowing my husband and me to eat basically the same dinner, making him happy and taking any guilt away from me, allowing me to stay on my low-carb regimen.

SO – feeling as if I’m making a bit of progress, I will continue ‘onward and downward’ hopefully, with more flexibility and a stronger, flatter abdomen. :0)

Reprieve

Whew! It’s supposed to get above freezing this afternoon, so we’ll hopefully be able to get down our driveway to pick up two days worth of mail and scoot to the local grocery store for goodies before we get snowed in again.

The forecast is for snow starting tomorrow about noon and continuing through Tuesday morning accompanied by bitter cold temperatures for Arkansas throughout the week. The weather people sound really sure this time. With our driveway, we may be snowed in throughout all of next week. We’ll see.

I don’t mind being ‘snowed in’ so much as no one being able to get up here if we need help. The UPS and Fedex people leave our packages at the bottom of our driveway when it’s CLEAR. Emergency vehicles of any kind wouldn’t have a chance.

I have two people who have kindly offered to sign the petition I started to do away with the rest of this winter and move straight into spring. The petition is here, waiting for more signatures. I don’t know how many we would need in order for something to HAPPEN, but I’m ready. :0)

In the meantime, stay safe, dry, and warm.

Drizzly Saturday 12-16-2023

Pinterest

I don’t know who the artist is, but I think this elephant is wonderful.

Lunch Bunch was fun yesterday. Kay and Bud were there, plus their neighbor, Cheryl. We had a good time. I reminded Kay about our gift exchange next Friday, but she acted as though we hadn’t already talked about it and agreed. Our waitress asked me as we left. I told her that I had reminded Kay and would remind Patty and Linda at the first of the week, but that I wasn’t sure of anything anymore…

I didn’t receive my wood burning tool protection stuff I ordered yesterday. Maybe today.

‘Something’ other than birds has been eating our birdseed lately. Last night we caught a possum inside the garage in our humane cage. My husband will take care of this later. This is one thing I’m happy I don’t have to do. We relocate raccoons, but not possums.

Women’s Health

Shout-Out to Marsha, MaryLou, and Bill who are all on the wrong side of Mother Nature’s temper this weekend. I hope you all come through the coming bad weather healthy and happy.

Shout-Out to Cathy, who has health issues she is handling with much more grace than I would. I wish you lots of good rest, feeling better, and good results.

Sunny Saturday 7-22-2023

HANDMADEHAVENBYLINDA ON ETSY –

Memory Box – Hand-Painted – “Rooster” – The dimensions of the box are 4.25 inches long, 3.25 inches wide, 2.25 inches deep, and 2.5 inches high. FUN present to give to one of your own children, a grandchild, or fun to give as a birthday present. – $17.95 with FREE SHIPPING to the contiguous U.S.

Questions – lindawlewis1@gmail.com

Link to Rooster Box on Etsy

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As soon as I finish with blog posts, I’m heading outside to see if I can get our back yard weed whacked. I’ll do short sessions with lots of rest and hydrating in-between; but I would like to get that done today. I’ll also check to see if we have tomatoes to bring in. It’s been so hot that most of the garden veggies are gone. When we have heat indices to 115, there is no way to get enough water to garden plants. If you push it, you end up with ‘boiled’ plants, so it’s best to just give it up if we’re having a summer like this.

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Raising Children Network

I’m still dreaming of art projects, but there have just been too many priorities or my energy taps out before I can get upstairs to my art room. Maybe today, if I can finish the back yard….

Hoping for a nice Saturday for all of us.

Rainy Saturday 7-8-2023

Chainsaw Art – Unknown Artist – Pinterest

The sky is dark, the doors are open to the breeze, a quiet rain is falling. The washer is running, my husband, dog, and cat are sleeping. A ‘lulling’ kind of day, encouraging laziness.

Freepik

Yesterday Lunch Bunch was a bust. No one was there to meet us, plus the restaurant had a closed sign on it, saying they would be closed from the 5th-10th. My only gripe is a lack of good communication. We skip breakfast on Lunch Bunch days because Kay wants to eat so early, so we ended up running our errands and returning home, THEN fixing a late lunch. No problem, just a bit of aggravation.

EmojiTerra

My husband states he used up all his patience in the Marines – patience for standing in lines, dealing with paperwork, people….. Now we’re dealing with the fact that MY fount of patience with HIS lack of patience is hitting really low levels.

The latest example is dealing with Humana. We’ve tried to insulate ourselves every way possible, but occasionally, they do need to communicate with us. It really gripes my husband that they send him an email, and then make him jump through a bunch of ID hoops before he can find out what they need to know. He’s been ignoring them lately. He yelled at his computer a couple of days ago because they wanted him to sign in again, and then give his birthdate. He figures they KNOW all this stuff. They contacted HIM. He left in a huff and today asked me if I could find out what they want. I’m still trying to get through to them…

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On the nice side, we have a nice, gentle rain, no flying hairballs, a nice breeze, and no scary things to deal with today. We’ll take that. :0)