Tuesday 5-30-2023

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We’ve just returned from doing errands and it’s time for lunch. I wanted to write quickly to let you know I was still alive, just in case you were wondering. :0)

We gathered trash and took it down. We’re a day later than usual due to the holiday. I’m really happy that this company posts their holiday schedule online so I can print it and check to see if we need to do anything differently.

We got our mail and then headed for town. There was a portable electric sign at the church where we turn to get on the main road, but it was turned so it showed down the hill, rather than where we were. It turned out it said, “Road Closed.” Yeah. They are beginning work on the main bridge between us and town. They let us through, and THEN we saw the sign that was on the other end.

We went to the bank and then picked up groceries. My husband was a Marine. “Marine” is synonymous for “stubborn,’ so on the way back, even though I reminded him that we needed to take the longer way around, he didn’t, preferring them to make him turn around, doubling the distance for us to get home. He lucked out and they let us through. He was, of course, smug. We don’t need to go to town again until Lunch Bunch on Friday, so maybe he’ll luck out again. We don’t know whether they are working AROUND the bridge, or ON the bridge, or REPLACING the bridge. I was reminding him that we need to check to see if the sign is still at the church when we’re going to Lunch Bunch Friday.

This morning was a good amount of reaching out for me, and it’s not over yet. :0)

I had my usual communication with my good friend, Marsha, and my SIL, MaryLou, first thing. I had received a text from my ‘cousin-in-law’ and wonderful friend, Murray. She has just moved and I’ll send her a text after lunch.

I checked to see if I had any messages from our son. While I was writing him a quick note, a message popped up from HIM, asking if I wanted to visit on the conference call thingie. We had the nicest visit. I LOVE being able to see his face. He was worried about two things: THING ONE – he was worried that we were upset that it has been so long since he’s been home. I explained to him that knowing he is safe and happy is paramount. Of COURSE I would love to hug his neck, but with the way the world is, the way things can change overnight, we are all better staying where we are. THING TWO – he wanted to be SURE his dad knew how much he loved him, how happy he was that his dad was patient with him, teaching him things that mean so much to him now. He had tears in his eyes when he said this and I promised I would deliver the message. When I did, I told my husband that our son got the dad that my husband deserved, but didn’t get, when HE was growing up.

So I’ve had a beautiful morning, feeling lucky to love so many good people.

I’m going to fix lunch now and then I’ll do some more posts later.

Hope you’re having a terrific Tuesday.

Back in the Land of the Living

Diply.com

I think I’ll be back to 100% by tomorrow, but I’m definitely feeling human again this morning. And to think I gripe when I’m a bit sore and creaky! I’ll try not to do that anymore. :0)

We have a beautiful, though cloudy day on tap today. The high is supposed to be 74. NO RAIN!!!!

We have front and back doors open, creating a nice breeze through the house. I’m continuing to rest today, gathering energy. This is the first day in three I’ve been at the computer, so I have a bunch to catch up on.

I hope you’re having a nice Tuesday.

Feeling Lethargic

“Dorky Dogs” – BoredPanda.com – Liucija Adomaite and Justinas Keturka

We’re leaving in a bit for my husband’s haircut. We may go for some supplies, but it’ll depend on how my husband is feeling after sitting for the haircut. His back is still an issue.

We’ll get our mail and re-tether our trash can to the pole up our steep driveway. We’re due for rain starting sometime this afternoon and continuing off and on through Thursday.

I hope that wherever you are, you’re safe from the wrath of Mother Nature, somewhere warm and dry and cozy.

It’s Tuesday

Alpaca istockphoto

Good morning!

We’ll leave in a bit to take our trash down, get our mail, and do some errands. Not sure what this beautiful day will hold, but I’m optimistic that I can make it a good one.

For the past week or so, I’ve been jumping through hoops trying to get a medicine that will help my husband. Our doctor is helpful on prescribing several things, but there is the issue of insurance coverage to deal with. We’ve been going back and forth. I finally figured out that going through ‘chat’ with our insurance people is a much better way to actually get answers than trying to get them on the phone. We MAY have an answer now. Fingers crossed.

Hoping for a calm, quiet day for all of us.

Terrific Tuesday 9-20-2022

m.weheartit.com

This isn’t the one we saw yesterday, but we watched a beautiful deer on our way to town. Happily, this one didn’t get too close, or jump out at a time when it would have been difficult to avoid hurting him.

Yesterday I got the garden boxes sprayed nicely with EIGHT – the nice bug killer that only kills bugs – particularly the vicious fire ants that keep ruining my day. I’m almost completely healed from the bites/stings I got recently, plus the mosquito bites I got yesterday while spraying.

We’re leaving for my husband’s haircut in about half an hour. It’ll be too hot when we get back for me to spray today. Then “I” have MY haircut at 2:00 this afternoon. Poor Michael will be overdosed with Lewises today. :0) I’ll plan to do the spraying with the weed killer tomorrow morning.

I got the trash down the morning. It would be nice if that became a routine thing, not fraught with worry about our trash being strewn by animals because the trash people didn’t pick it up on the scheduled day. It gets old having to try not to fall on our heads as we have to get down into the ditch to gather our trash again. One can hope…

Hoping for a quiet day otherwise. I wish YOU one, too. :0)

“Playing Possum”

Slava-Kushvalieva-flickr.com

Isn’t this CUTE? He almost looks real.

This morning is nice and cool. In fact, my husband dressed in jeans, instead of shorts, for the first time all summer. We have to enjoy it while we can, though, because the forecasters said ‘summer is returning.’

Britannica

We caught an opossum in our humane trap overnight. Not only had he eaten all the seed on the deck, he had gotten through our dog door in the garage and broken into the bag of trash we had gathered to go out today. We re-bagged the trash and put it at the bottom of the driveway and cleaned up the garage. My husband will dispose of the hostile possum later today.

Fantastic Pest Control

My bites/stings are larger than these, but you can get an idea of how ‘pretty’ my arms look today. The swelling in both arms is WAY down from my ant bites/stings and I’m just trying to keep anti-itch ointment slathered on myself today.

123RF.com

My friend Linda is in the hospital for tests. They did some yesterday, but didn’t find anything, and so will do more today to try to figure out why she is feeling so weak and dizzy. I hope they find something that is easily fixed so she can feel like herself again.

Make this a great Tuesday.

Tuesday 8-23-2022

renadog.tumblr.com

It’s cool, foggy, and heavily misting this morning. I wanted to sleep in, but our hairdresser called first thing, saying he wouldn’t be able to do my husband’s haircut today. We have since regrouped, taken the trash down to the bottom of the driveway (with Amber enjoying the ride), and will have a stay-at-home day.

My husband had a really nice experience yesterday afternoon. He told me he was in the kitchen when he caught movement outside the dining area windows. He thought it must be a really big dog, but it turned out to be a doe with her fawn! He watched them as they walked all the way across our back yard and into the trees. I was glad Amber wasn’t outside, bothering them. A really special sight. I wish I had seen it.

I discovered yesterday that our town will build a new library to serve a two-county area. It’s still in the design stage, but they’ve purchased the land and are now in the process of getting water and other utilities to it. I’m a bit sad that it will be where the main street in our town intersects with the highway, much farther away from the center of town.

It makes me remember really happy days when I visited my grandparents in a small town called Nevada, Missouri, when I was a very young teenager. My brother and I visited them separately, each for two weeks during our time off from school. They lived close enough to the ‘square’ that I could feel quite independent. I ran errands for my grandparents, but also got to walk to the drugstore for a real coke with a cherry in it, made at the counter where I sat on a stool and visited with the person behind the ‘bar.’ I would walk to the library and check out books, then walk around the square, window shopping, stopping at the shoe store where we knew the owner. It was a really lovely time in my life. There are probably a lot of kids enjoying a similar experience now in our town, which will stop when the new library is built. But maybe they’re not as nostalgic as I…

Happy Tuesday.

Good Morning

Jeremy Paul Wildlife Artist – “Mirror2”

Good morning! I’m up and mostly functional, though I’m feeling a bit blurry this morning.

Our doors are open again, taking advantage of another day of low humidity and ONLY hot temperatures by mid afternoon, rather than the breath-sucking, slap-you-in-the-face heat advisory and excessive heat warning weather we have been ‘enjoying’ lately. This is due to continue until Friday, when we have several days of rainy, humid weather again and rising temperatures. Good things can’t last forever. I’ll take it and grin while I can.

Our first ripe tomato of the season!

Our first ripe tomato of the season last night was cut up with great ceremony and enjoyed with our dinner. It was a pretty tomato with no blemishes or bad spots, and was delicious! :0)

We will leave for errands in about 45 minutes, but we have no big plans for the day. The most ‘exciting’ thing is that the water department folks will leave the sample bottle on the porch sometime today. I have a note beside my computer about it so I don’t forget. I get the sample tomorrow morning and they pick the bottle back up sometime tomorrow.

iStock

I plan to spend some time outside today, doing something constructive in the yard, if possible.

I hope your Tuesday is healthy and happy.

Busy Tuesday Already

bromebirdcare.com

We just returned from running errands this morning.

We caught raccoon # 7 overnight in our humane trap. He was a really big one. He was docile, though, so we drove out and relocated him several miles away from us. I think this may be a record-breaking year for raccoons for us. The memo has definitely gone out that the Lewises have good sunflower seeds in the feeders. I just wish the raccoons could learn to share and not trash the feeders. We spend a lot of time repairing the feeders, plus we have to leave them empty until we catch the newest culprit in the humane trap.

We left our trash at the bottom of the driveway for pickup, noting that, even with the washed out parts on one edge of the driveway due to the incredible rains we’ve had (12 inches in one week!) the driveway is still in the best shape it’s been in forever. Jeremy Young did a miraculous job spreading the crusher dust for us so we could get down and up our driveway again. We marvel each time we drive on it.

We got our mail, went for a haircut for my husband, a shot for him, and then back home in record time. We’re going to have lunch in a minute and then rest a bit before tackling our afternoon.

Mother Nature is giving us a break today. It’s merely ‘way too hot’ outside, rather than ‘excessive heat warning’ today. I’m planning to mix up some KILLZALL and see what weeds I can murder this afternoon. We’re down to zucchini and red onions in our garden, plus the two planters of tomatoes now. Both are on automatic watering systems, although that seems almost like a joke right now, with all the rain we’ve had. Our plumber is trying to get her this week to arrange line #2 in the well house so we can have automatic watering in the front planters, too.

I got a new book on Yoga in the mail today. It’s called, Big Yoga – A Simple Guide for Bigger Bodies by Meera Patricia Kerr. It provides a gentle program for a healthier body, greater flexibility, and a peaceful mind. Since I’m both older than dirt and have a larger-than-I-would-like body, I’m going to dive into it and see what I want to add to the half hour of “Gentle Yoga” positions I’m doing that I learned from Cat Kabira in her wonderful DVD.

And that’s my morning. Have a wonderful afternoon!

Thoughts on a Tuesday 5-3-2022

Pinterest

We seem to have gotten through the bad storms here last night without damage. If the rain will stop long enough today, I’ll walk around the yard and check.

We’re about to go out for some errands and then will be in the rest of the day. More storms Wednesday-into-Thursday – again probably severe. Keeps you on your toes!

Since it’s rainy, I probably won’t get a chance to prune my tomato plants. I’m intimidated by this whole process, I have to admit. I keep watching the video, but this guy really knows what he’s doing, and I’m just hoping for the best. I really would like to avoid having vines all over the place this year.

Elliptical and yoga for exercise today. Lost a bit more. Down 31.4 lbs. now.

I hope you have a good day.

Thoughts on a Tuesday 4-26-2022

redbubble.com

Good morning! I just have time to say a quick, “Hi” before I leave. I’m doing exciting stuff, like take the trash down to the bottom of the driveway, get the mail, and go get a haircut. Wow. I hope my heart can take it. :0)

Actually, I’m very grateful for quiet, calm days without a big schedule these days. Since my husband had a couple of strokes last year, I don’t make many plans. I take things one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time, and – on rare occasions – one MOMENT at a time, dealing with the changes and some new challenges. He is still ‘in there,’ but sometimes he’s hard to find.

So, quiet, calm, low-pressure days are more than welcome.

Each of us deals with poor health, challenges, fears differently. Respecting our differences, and taking as much time as possible to meet our own needs is key. Love is at the base of it all, and will ever be.

Today is bright and sunny. Our weather will be stellar. I’ll take our wonderful hair stylist a big bag of home grown lettuce as an extra thank you for being there for us.

I’m hoping I can spend some time outside this afternoon, working on the planter I started cleaning out a couple of days ago, checking on the tomatoes.

I hope that YOUR Tuesday is a happy one.

Sunny Tuesday!

Walt Whitman – Facebook

The sight of the sun yesterday and today is really bringing up my spirits. I usually enjoy rainy days, but lately it seems we’ve had more of our share. We’re due for storms tonight-into-tomorrow. :0)

Petr Vaclavek – Dubanci.cz

I bought 12 tomato plants yesterday afternoon and got them planted. I’ll take pics in awhile and share them with you. I’ll also check on my garden. My plan is to use each sunny day to clean out ONE planter in the yard. We have 14 of them, so this will take awhile. We’ll see how I do. We have errands to run first, so we’ll get some fresh air and sun while we’re out.

I was feeling a bit off yesterday, so only did the tomato planting and my yoga for exercise. I’ll try to do my full list today. I’m doing a month-long exercise plan by Mike of MoreLifeHealth.com and I’m eager to see what the new workout is for the week. I’m supposed to do this every other day during the week.

Unsplash

I’ve been cooking up a storm (for me) lately, trying to rely on meals I make, rather than only the Real Food and Stu’s Clean Cookin’ meals. They are too high in carbs for me right now. Two days ago I made a bunch of ‘Bacon-Wrapped Cheesy Chicken Breasts” by Suzanne Ryan of Simply Keto. Yesterday I made her “Keto Chili.” Tonight I’m making bacon-wrapped hamburger patties. I’m freezing the leftovers in individual serving (or one meal for two) packages so that I won’t need to spend a lot of time in the kitchen for awhile. This saves me work, plus decreases the temptation to eat something I shouldn’t.

Have a great day. I’ll check back with you when we’re back from errands and I have pics to share.

Thoughts on a Tuesday 4-12-2022

Pinterest

It’s due to be rainy again today. I’m still breathing a sigh of relief that the warning, with tornadoes imminent and on the ground went JUST to the north of Greenwood. I was watching the experts on our local weather station monitor the tornado warning and the line of the bad stuff was JUST above our town on their map. Hopefully, we’ll have the same luck today.

Allure

Lynn, my massage miracle worker, contacted me to change my massage from Thursday this week to today. I’m delighted that I didn’t have to just miss my massage this month, so my body is already singing in anticipation of her good work. I’ll put the trash out and get our mail when I go.

Other than that, I’m planning for DAY 2 of the month-long program by my ‘weights for seniors’ video guy. He has a stretching video, and then ‘physical activity’ (of my choice) for 10 minutes. I’m going to do my elliptical trainer in the garage. In addition, I’ll do one of the weights videos, and then my normal half hour of yoga stretches. These will be spread out throughout the day.

My husband is still trying to get his computer working as he would like. I’m helping only when he asks – with this exception. He and our son were trying to use the conference call program so they could actually SEE each other and talk real time. Lately my husband hasn’t shown any interest in wanting to do that, so I was delighted that he was trying to talk. They were having trouble getting things set up right on our end so that our son could hear my husband. I went over, looked at things, and saw that his microphone button was off. I pushed it, waiting to hear him yell at me for interfering, but was pleased to see it worked! Instead of yelling, my husband told our son, “She fixes stuff for me all the time now.” I was relieved and melted into my computer chair on the other side of the room.

When they were finished, our son wrote ME, asking if I wanted to talk, so we each had a wonderful catch up time with him. Absolutely beyond price. :0)

I hope your Tuesday is a good one.

Late Start

eBay.com

hahahahhahahahah. Actually, I’m not stressed, just late today. I just loved the picture above. :0)

I’m having a very late start to blogging today. I had a haircut appointment and errands to do this morning. By the time I got home, it was time for lunch. THEN, after we ate, I got sleepy and took a nap…

We’re having a weird day today.

We were just checking a detail on our investment account and saw that Schwab had generated a corrected tax form for us. We printed it, and then I emailed our CPA that we were having to mail him a correction for our tax stuff.

My husband wanted to check to see if we had gotten a delivery from Fedex or UPS (sometimes left at our mailbox at the bottom of the driveway) and said he would mail the corrected forms when he went. We talked about how it would be mailed, etc.

Then I started to work on the computer. I heard the driveway alarm and realized my husband had left. The form was still where I left it, so my husband didn’t take it. Wonder what he’ll think when he gets to the post office. Getting old is SO much fun. I’m glad I don’t have to do it alone.

Thoughts on a Tuesday 1-25-2022

Bright Side

I’m a bit ticked off by January this year.

I spent the first half of it worrying that my time here was up. As soon as I got the news that I would be here to annoy people for hopefully a good while longer, my husband got sick, and then graciously gave it to me. I’m enough better to be ticked off now, so maybe I’ll feel fine again soon. Today my plans are to make myself into a human sandwich in my recliner – heat pad under me, throw over me, and me comfy and cozy in the middle. My husband will do the errands this morning. He leaves in about 10 minutes, actually. We’ll see how he does. :0)

Our weather has been gorgeous the past few days. I wish I could have gotten out and enjoyed it. Tomorrow evening cold weather is supposed to come back, but hopefully it will just tease us a bit, rather than dumping on us. (Susy, I hope you’re digging out now.)

I had a nice chat with our son this morning. He is buying an apartment and will hopefully get all the details handled by the end of next week. I’m excited for him. He sounds happy and excited – just the way we love for him to be. :0)

Happy Tuesday!

Thoughts on a Tuesday 11-30-2021

DailyElephantsoninstagram.com

My heart melted into a puddle when I saw this photo. :0)

We have errands starting in a bit, and then I want to play in my art room today. I’ve had an idea rattling around in my head for several days, and dreamed about it last night, so I’ll see if I can paint it today.

We turned off our irrigation system and most things are looking sad in the yard right now, and NOW, of course, we’re having “Indian Summer” with temperatures into the 60’s. Our wave petunias are still doing pretty well, though, so I’ll try to get some pics today to share with you. I’ll also start neatening things up in the planters while the weather is nice.

This is the last day of November. Hard to believe we’ll be into the last month of the year tomorrow. My hair is blowing as the time blows past.

Have a beautiful Tuesday.

Thoughts on a Tuesday 10-19-2021

BBC One – buzzfeed.com

Another beautiful fall day. Sunshine and 54 right now. The forecast is for 78 this afternoon. I’m getting spoiled.

We’ll leave soon for appointments and errands, but when they’re finished, I plan to spend some time in my art room. I want to try impasto painting. I’ve watched some YouTube demonstrations and my juices are flowing with possibilities. I need to clean things up before I start, but I’m really looking forward to it.

I’m feeling very lucky this morning. Things are calm, allowing me to enjoy lots of good moments. I’m thankful for the people in my life, filling up with beautiful images and experiences.

Life is good.

Keepin’ on “Keepin’ On”

Ranker

I’m keepin’ on keepin’ on regarding my efforts to lose the lard. My old body is stubborn, but I’m eating right, exercising, either going by my routine or working outside in the garden. I’m trying to drink all the water. My efforts vary, but yesterday was a 4-bottle day. Nothing exciting to report, but efforts continue.

This is my square foot garden. I finished the weeding of the six 4’x4′ foxes. The next step is to spray the soil alternative with EIGHT to kill the bugs and KILLzAll to take care of any weed roots I missed. Finally, I’ll cover the boxes with tarps to stay until the next planting time. The heat index today and tomorrow are supposed to be around 110 F., so I’ll do what I can in the mornings and then wait until the next day.

The onions are drying now. The sun, wind, and any rain will work together so I can put them in mesh bags and hang them on hooks in the pantry soon. I’ll check when we get back from doing errands to see if we have any ripe tomatoes to gather.

Not sure what the rest of the day will hold. As usual, I would appreciate a quiet day.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Thoughts on a Tuesday 6-8-2021

NinoChakvetzdze-fineartamerica.com

You HAVE to laugh when you have to “update” the first blog post of the day 5 times to get rid of as many mistakes as possible. My lesson learned for the day is that you CANNOT cut and paste from the Etsy website to the blog without a MESS. Sorry about that. I think it’s straightened out now.

The Etsy shop is NOT messed up, and I AM offering a 25% discount on any two pair of my hand-painted wooden earrings – dangle/wire, post/stud, and/or clip-ons plus free shipping. If you’re interested, please take a look and take advantage of this and other discounts. HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy.

TheSprucePets-GettyImages

We’ve been setting a humane trap each night on our deck, trying to catch the critter who has been emptying our bird feeders lately. No luck until this morning, when we caught a cute raccoon. He didn’t hiss or spit at us, even though he was in the cage. We went out in the rain, put our trash at the bottom of the driveway, got our mail, and then drove out about 5 miles to relocate the raccoon in a stream. Raccoons don’t share well. They not only clean out all the feeders – they TRASH the feeders. He probably has brothers or sisters, mother and father, cousins, etc., but it’s ‘one down’ now.

The Mercury News

It’s raining, of course. I drowned putting out the trash. My husband had put the cage with the raccoon in it in the back of the truck, plus the bags of trash around the cage. I couldn’t get the bags out without moving the cage, scaring the poor raccoon as I drowned. Of course, he had pulled part of one of the trash bags into the cage with him, and I had to extricate that, as well. I was not a happy camper when I got back into the truck. My HUSBAND got drowned when let the raccoon out, so we’re even. :0)

Since it is supposed to rain off and on all day, it’s a great day to now stay home and stay inside. I plan to do a few things on the ‘should’ list, read, and maybe play in my art room today.

Have a Happy Tuesday.

Thoughts on a Tuesday 3-23-2021

Camelot Care Centers

There are lots of reasons to be down these days. Some of them we share. Others are personal. I think it’s more important than ever to be grateful we are HERE and ALIVE, and live with enthusiasm for the gift.

I just went out to check our spring garden. The plants are totally unaware of any possible problems in our world. I’m not advocating being UNAWARE. I guess I’m advocating living as IF “heavy, heavy” isn’t hanging over our heads. Much of what is happening is beyond our control. We can be aware of those things, but concentrate on the things over which we DO have some control.

My spirits rose today as I saw that my garden plants – well watered from an overnight rain – seem to be thriving. On the other side of our property, our tomato plants are also looking good. I stopped to remove the PVC irrigation pipe that was shattered on one brick planter during one of our last winter storms, saving the faucet part that we can reuse. There are many things to be done in the yard, and I’m happy for the normalcy of that.

I’m taking a new direction in selling my craft products. I’m concentrating my efforts on my page on Amazon Handmade, listing new stuff in a steady stream. Linda Lewis Artworks If you happen to visit, I would very much appreciate your honest feedback.

My husband and I are both in reasonably good health at this point, although our bodies remind us that we might have taken on too much sometimes. :0) We are trying to get the lard off, and I am trying to exercise and move more on a daily basis to stay as healthy as possible. We will both get our 2nd COVID shot next Monday. I will feel relieved that two weeks after that, we should be as protected as we can be and will not be a source of the virus for anyone else.

Today we are scheduled to have some windows replaced. Several years ago we had all of our windows replaced by Window World. We have lived in our home since we built it in 1987. Obviously, some things have really gotten better since then. Replacing our windows made a big difference in our energy bills, but also in the QUIET. Many times we get a hard rain and don’t even notice it! We are very pleased with this company. It has taken a long time for us to get the replacement windows, but we are lucky we are all in a position to do this at all. Hopefully, it will happen this afternoon.

Everett Ruess via Lisa Bearnes Richey

Thoughts on a Tuesday 1-12-2021

BBC

Happy Tuesday!

AceGif.com

Happy Birthday, Laufrain!!!!! Have a wonderful day celebrating YOU!

I will go to town twice today. TRIP ONE: drive trash down to the bottom of the driveway, get the mail and run errands. TRIP TWO: drive to Rags & Roses Collective in Greenwood, taking the things I want to put in to the booth I share with Carla, reorganizing the booth, and bringing some things home.

I have 2 stars on my desk calendar for my exercising yesterday and hope to earn 2 more today.

I’m planning to spend time in my art room making more magnets, plus clean up a bit so I can decide what I’ll try next. I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting, trying new forms of art, playing with techniques, seeing what happens.

We’re having a gorgeous day with sunshine and a high of 53 degrees F. today – can’t beat that for the middle of January. :0)

I hope that you will make this a good day, too.

Terrific Tuesday

Forward from friend Bill Lites

The photo above was just what I needed to lift my spirits this morning. I hope it does the same for you.

We are all living through a roller coaster of emotion this year with politics, the pandemic, the economy and worry about what lies ahead.

My personal way of dealing with all of this is to concentrate on doing things that bring me joy or a sense of accomplishment, things that allow me to escape for awhile, to concentrate on one day at a time, working on things I can control, cherishing the wonderful things in my life, trying to sustain through humor.

Forward by Bill Lites

I am concentrating on how very lucky I am at this very moment. My family is doing well. We are trying to stay safe, being as careful as possible. I have a wonderful group of friends who mean the world to me. I’m concentrating on trying to let them know.

I’m working to fill each day with as much joy as I can.

This is a terrific Tuesday. I hope you feel the same.

Thoughts on a Tuesday 9-29-2020

dogspotting-Bored Panda

Today is cool, sunny, and beautiful.

Today is a two-outing day for us.

We’re leaving in a couple of minutes to take out our trash in the truck, get our mail, then run errands. Later today I’ll go out again for a hair cut. Exciting life we lead!

Actually, I can use a BUNCH of ‘ordinary,’ ‘quiet,’ ‘normal,’ and ‘peaceful.’ All really beautiful words and much appreciated. I plan to do a bunch of relaxing between outings.

 

Last night we tried our first frozen dinner from Stu’s Clean Cookin’ in Greenwood. 1435 West Center St., Greenwood, AR 72936.  479.597.3242. the meal was “Chicken, Brown Rice, and BBQ Sauce.” The chicken was excellent. The rice, not so much for me. I got one mouthful of really HOT (to me – a real wuss) BBQ sauce. My husband loved the dinner and said it was one of his favorites since we’ve been eaten food from the two new places in Greenwood. He didn’t have anything hot. He said he could have easily eaten twice as much of the chicken – but that has been our problem – reasonable portions for a human. We were both satisfied, so that was good. I’ll make sure we order this again for my husband next time. Tonight we will try “Pork, Black Beans, Brown Rice and BBQ Sauce.” Their store was clean. There were two really friendly guys who greeted us, had our order ready, and we were out the door in under 3 minutes flat. Impressive. I also like the fact that they print the nutrition information on their website, on the packages, etc. so you know what you’re ordering and eating. I am feeling SUPER lucky that we have TWO new places that BOTH offer good, convenient frozen foods for us to plan our dieting around. :0)

I seem to be in an ‘advertising-frame-of-mind’ today.  I have awful hair – thin, fine, yucky. I’m lucky to have a wonderful hair stylist, Michael Remillard in Greenwood at Tangles, 40 Town Square, Greenwood AR 72936. 479-996-6636 who understands this. I’m going for a haircut today. He knows that my hair doesn’t do anything good on its own. The best thing I can do for it is keep it clean and go to Michael for good hair cuts. I wash it every morning and blow it dry. He cuts it so that it looks like there is a PLAN. Mine is very short now, kind of like a pixie cut. It’s easy to take care of.

I have found a shampoo that I REALLY like. It’s called “Herbal Essences Bio:renew, Blue Ginger & Micellar Water Refresh.” Quite a mouthful, isn’t it!  I like it because

• it smells good
• it makes a truly wonderful amount of lather
• it rinses out really well, without my feeling I have any kind of residue

I looked for it at Walgreens today. They had Herbal Essences, but not this flavor. I just ordered it online. It comes in a nice twin-pack. :0)

I harvested these sweet little bitty tomatoes yesterday. This may be the last of the year. I’m continuing to work in my raised bed, square foot garden. I’ll show you pics when things get a bit farther along. The tomatoes come from two brick planters on the opposite side of our house from the garden. We converted them from regular planters, filling them up with Mel’s Mix. Even with the weird growing season we have had this year, we had a nice crop.

While we were out doing errands, we saw our plumber, Travis Hawkins. 479-461-8347. He helped us recently with a water pressure problem, and then with a follow-up problem with our master bedroom shower. He told us that when we called about the shower, he tried to get to us himself, but got covered up in work, so sent his co-worker, Josh. He said he MEANT to just stop by and not charge us. Since Josh DID, he said he ‘owed us a service call and won’t charge us for the call the next time he comes.’ To say we feel lucky to have found him is a HUGE understatement. He is a really first-class person.

I hope that your Tuesday is a fun one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on a Tuesday 9-22-2020

“The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.”
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 

Evgeni Evgeniev-Unsplash

Fall is my favorite season.

I love it when I am a bit too cool and need to throw on a hoodie to be comfortable. I enjoy snuggling under my throw in my recliner and nodding off when I get sleepy. One of my favorite drinks is hot chocolate. A fire in the fireplace is a luxurious, comfort thing. The colors of the leaves lift my spirits.  I hope we get a good, long autumn this year!

Gardening Know How

I got SOME of the onions harvested yesterday before I pulled one and a gazillion ants swarmed out. Thankfully, I was armed with my new 2-gallon sprayer of Eight Bug Killer and hosed down the planter box again. It’s raining today (Tropical Storm Beta) but I’ll try it again when the weather is cooperative.

 

Depositphotos

I also managed to file (or throw away) the huge pile of paper sitting on the table beside my computer yesterday. Today I will tackle August bookkeeping. Hopefully, I can get that accomplished today – since September’s stuff will be staring me in the face soon.

 

“Caught Red-Pawed” – Audrius P. – Bored Panda

My husband and I enjoyed Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad for our dinner last night from REAL FOOD in Greenwood. It was truly YUMMY. We are so lucky it is so good and so convenient for us. I also lost a bit more weight! I looked at my records for South Beach and BistroMD, and I’m losing at the same – if slow – rate. If I live 100 more years, I’ll eventually reach my goal! :0)

Penn Fitness Warehouse

Another thing I love about the fall – I can use my elliptical trainer in our garage in a lot more comfort. My husband mounted a wall fan on the wall in front of it for the summer, but I still end up overheated when the temperatures and heat indices go nuts in the summer. I won’t say I look forward to going out there, but putting in the time is much more palatable now.  My yoga stretching in the afternoons is rounding out my exercise nicely.

I don’t have a big project for the day. We drove the trash down to the bottom of the driveway, and I have load #2 in the clothes washer. The dishwasher is running. I’ll go do the elliptical (hopefully doing 35 minutes) and then hit the bookkeeping. I live such an exciting life! :0)

I hope that things are good for you today.

Thoughts on a Tuesday 8-11-2020

Soul Alchemy

We were very lucky not to be affected by the derecho storm that hit yesterday. So many good people are dealing with damage from the hurricane and now the derecho. I hope that you came through both well, too. We have the possibility of strong, gusty winds and hail with storms this afternoon and evening. Hopefully, they will just be the ‘normal’ summer variety. Mother Nature seems to be in a snit – and on top of the pandemic problems and troubles in some of our big cities. It seems we are having more than our share of character-building exercises lately. May we give each other strength.

Today is one of our DIY dinners for the week on the South Beach eating plan. I got some stew beef in the crock pot this morning. I will serve this with a bit of rice for my husband and spiralized squash for me.

We have several errands, plus appointments this afternoon. By the time we finish those and my exercises (elliptical and yoga), the day is almost gone before it starts. I will check for ripe tomatoes (fingers crossed) this morning and will try to get up to my art room this afternoon to at least start my newest earring blanks with my new design ideas. (Fingers crossed on THAT, too.)

I hope that you are feeling strong, healthy, and full of enthusiasm for this day.

Choose-Day

Unique Teaching Resources

The weather is beautiful here today. Right now it’s sunny and 66 degrees F. Just couldn’t be more perfect. We’re enjoying low humidity today, as well. I will make sure I spend some good time outside. We have doors open and ceiling fans on. It’s SMILING weather!

I will leave in about an hour to take the trash down to the bottom of the driveway, get our mail, and go to Rags & Roses Collective, the wonderful local Greenwood shop where I share a booth, Blasing Bright, with my friend Carla. I will change out some stuff, pay our rent, and visit a minute with the owner, Joanna Brandt.

We are having a quiet day so far, for which I am thankful. Yesterday brought a couple of ‘episodes’ where my husband was unable to speak, but he seems to be fine today. He is calm and seems to be upbeat. We will do the best we can each day, thankful to HAVE another one.

My exercise efforts are going well. I am feeling better – a bit more energetic – and looser. I am earning two stars on my desk calendar daily, one for my elliptical trainer in the garage and the other for yoga stretches and abdominal exercises.

I will see how our garden is doing later and check if we have ripe tomatoes to gather.

I’m not sure what my project for the day will be yet.

I hope that YOUR Tuesday is a nice CHOOSE-DAY. :0)

 

 

Weird Cravings

123RF.com

And NOOOOOO! I’m NOT pregnant. I’m 73 years old, and even with our modern medicine, I don’t think they can pull THAT off – AND wouldn’t want to!!!!

The thing I really don’t like about cooking is figuring out what to cook.

I was like this when I was young, too. When my friends wanted to go out to eat, we would try to figure out what we were hungry for. THEN we would try a process of elimination, trying to name things we DIDN’T want…

I was trying to figure out what to fix for dinner tonight, deciding I didn’t want to be cooking at 7:30 or 8 when I’m tired. Suddenly, beef stew popped into my head.

This is really weird because I consider beef stew a winter comfort food. The heat index today, after the rain, is supposed to get to 105. We still have doors open, but will close up soon, since the humidity is at 95%.

I love microwaves. I was able to get out a package of stew meat from the freezer, defrost it, and then brown it while getting the rest of the ingredients together in the slow cooker.

Now, dinner prep for tonight is done and the dishwasher is running!  AHHHHH!

Thoughts on a Tuesday – June 23, 2020

Our forecast is ‘Downpours this morning and scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. Chance of rain 100%”

 

Jimmy Nyakora via Scene and Heard – Match Box Quotes

Other than the downpours and thunderstorms, I’m hoping for a quiet rain. I have no big projects for the day. I wanted to finish weeding my veggie garden, but it looks like that won’t be in the cards today. My husband planned to mow the lawn, but that probably won’t be happening, either. All that will be waiting for us when Mother Nature decides to cooperate.

Our DirecTV system has a nice feature where you can pause a program and it will record it for you until you want to resume watching later. This causes a ‘buffer’ to form, where you can then fast-forward through commercials. We are totally addicted to this feature.

My husband and I have a running ‘discussion’ about why the feature doesn’t always work the way he thinks it should. It will hold about 40 minutes on pause, and then it starts playing. (Hopefully, we have it muted, or else it sounds like the TV is possessed, coming on by itself and talking erupting in the living room while we are in our home office.) Either way, the buffer is filled up and the TV plays. Sometimes the buffer is retained and sometimes not. We cannot see a pattern.

It REALLY irks my husband. He is careful to set it up at night so that we have a full buffer in the morning and he is able to zip through commercials to his heart’s content.  When, for some unknown reason, gremlins have done their work and the buffer is ‘gone,’ he gets frustrated and angry. Our ‘discussions’ haven’t solved the problem. He refuses to call DirecTV to try to get an answer. And so, the ‘discussions’ continue…

We MAY have another raccoon. This would be #6 this season.

Getty Images

The sweet things won’t share, or we wouldn’t have a problem. They eat EVERY seed in EVERY feeder, and many time trash the feeder in their efforts to chow down. My husband will set our humane trap tonight and we’ll see if we capture another member of this year’s family to relocate with the others.

Foundation Pest Control

I mentioned that it MIGHT be the squirrel family we have this year. Yesterday I saw THREE squirrels at once being quite active and athletic on the feeders. That’s the first time I have seen three at one time. One was sitting in the shovel bird feeder, eating the seeds we leave there every day. A second was at the main bird feeder, hanging from his back legs as he avidly ate as much as possible using both hands to grab seeds. A third was in the gallon-sized clear bottle that sits on another feeder in our window. He was all the way inside the bottle, filling his cheeks.

Mourning Doves-Shutterstock.com

We usually have a pair of doves who sit on one of the electrical lines that cross the back of our yard. I haven’t seen them lately. I hope they are okay.

I hope that you are having a really nice day.

 

“It’s Raining, It’s Pouring…”

PictureQuotes.com

I love rain, but I would rather be on the inside looking out at it.

We just got back from doing our errands for the day. It’s 40 degrees with a cold rain. We didn’t have many, but we DROWNED doing them. It’s a very good thing we are not water-soluble. I’m having a cup of coffee now, trying to warm up. A wonderful day to be inside. :0)

I’m feeling good because our veggie garden is under good control right now, plus we got the yard mowed and weed-whacked before the rain started. I can enjoy the inside days with a clear conscience – happy to be warm and dry.

I’ll fix our lunch and then I’m looking forward to spend some time in my art room. I’m painting some wooden earrings which will have posts, and I have some ideas (thanks to my good friend, Marsha)  for some things I can create with my Unicorn Spit paint and put them in the local shop booth I share with my friend, Carla.

When I saw how cold and rainy it was this morning, I put ingredients for a beef stew in the slow cooker so we can enjoy some hot comfort food tonight. It’s odd – our weather forecast is for cold and rainy today – but WARM and rainy the rest of the week, including thunderstorms and possible severe weather. Mother Nature is being quite active lately.

I hope that you are weathering whatever shutdown restrictions you have without too much discomfort. Gradually, things will reopen and we can adapt to the ‘new normal.’

Take care and stay safe.

 

Thoughts on a Tuesday – May 5, 2020

Simply-Beautiful

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Some really good friends of ours celebrate an anniversary today. I wish them many, many more happy years together.

Last night my husband and I cooked out on the grill for dinner. Severe weather was forecast, but we decided we would go ahead with it, hoping we could finish before the rain started. We have an LED rope light that we strung around the deck top, and I plugged those in while we sat and talked, enjoying the cool down and the breeze while the meat cooked. The lights instantly make us feel festive!  We got our dinner cooked, and I stored the grill cover on the back porch as we went inside, having lost one before in the same situation.

As we sat down in the living room with our dinner, the rains started. They came in waves, sometimes quite hard. It was loud, too, with lots of lightning and wind. I closed the garage door, finally shutting the front and back door due to the blowing rain. It was quite something.

This morning the sun is shining and all is quite beautiful. It amazes me that it can be so fierce during the night and so lovely the next day. There are leaves and small branches all over the front yard again. (I just cleaned up a big bunch from the last storm.) I have not found any damage yet. Our tomato plants are still looking good. I’ll give them closer attention this morning, as well as check on our garden veggies to see if all is good out there, too.  I’ll try to get some pictures to share with you.

I had a wonderful thing happen this past week. I received an order for a set of glassware on my painted glass website.

I was slow acknowledging the order due to our severe weather causing Internet problems. I wrote the customer, apologizing for the delay. He was very nice, saying they had the same problem where he was. He received the glassware yesterday. I wrote to see if they arrived safely and if he was pleased. He said, “Hi. I just opened them and they are wonderful! Thank you so much. I will be using them a lot.”  Needless to say, I’ve been walking about 3 inches off the ground, grinning like a nut…

My friend Kay from Lunch Bunch called me yesterday, asking if my husband and I wanted to meet this Friday, having our lunch served outside at the picnic table our restaurant has set up. This will depend on the weather cooperating, of course, but I said an enthusiastic “YES!”  Fingers crossed Mother Nature will be in a good mood.

I hope that you are having a good day today.

Hope is in the air!

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on A Tuesday 4-14-2020

New Animalbook

• I seem to be UNABLE to stop touching my face!  I’ve tried several things without success. As much as I pull on my nose, I should look like Pinocchio!
• I am using every excuse in the book (and even inventing some new ones!) to cheat on my diet and exercise.

Fat Animals-Rollin Wild by BMC-Nasim Biswas-2018

Each day I ‘start over’ in my mind, looking forward to exercising and eating right. Maybe TODAY I’ll get going again!

• My sweet veggie plants and new tomato plants made it through another freeze. As far as I can tell, this is the last time I’ll need to cover everything. I have the first load of sheets in the washer to get all clean and dry for when they are needed again. If the weather warms up (it’s 40 now) I’ll try to get a good start on getting the TEENY, TINY weeds out of my veggie garden today.
• My goldfish have done their trick of dirtying up their aquarium again, so cleaning that is on the agenda for this morning. Happily, I am able to get everything out, clean the aquarium and put all new stuff in it in about 35 minutes now.
• I have an idea for a painting rattling around in my head. I’ll try to get up to my art room today to get a start on it.
• Bacon-wrapped keto chicken is on the menu for tonight. I’ll fix a nice salad – with spinach and lettuce from our garden – to go with it.

I hope you are finding good ways to spend your days as we all hope that we can put the threat of the virus, as well as financial worries from the economy being shut down, in the rear view mirror.

Stay safe and well.