This may be the simplest mailbox decorations we’ve ever done; yet, it’s one of the most effective as far as showing up long before you get to our driveway.
We love the HAPPY ghost, and we hope he makes people smile.
(By the way, we had a delivery from Fedex a couple of days ago. The man had a huge grin on his face as he handed us our package. He said, “I LOVE your watermelon!”)
It really makes our day when someone enjoys something we’ve done. :0)
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations
low-carb-sausage-balls
I found this recipe on Christy Jordan’s Southern Plate
I was looking for something for snacks, or a light lunch, or….. that was low carb and TASTY. I found it! Hooray for Christy!!!!
Low Carb Sausage Balls
Ingredients:
Instructions:
Notes:
From Christy – *These freeze really well. These have about 1 carb each. Please calculate nutritional information on your own for accuracy.
From me – (I didn’t get 30 balls, but I just made them until all the ingredients were used. I think I’ll line the baking sheet with foil next time for easier clean up.
SPECIAL NOTES : These were absolutely delicious. We have an early ‘lunch’ on Fridays with friends after not eating breakfast, so we get hungry mid afternoon. My husband and I each ate 4 sausage balls. They were filling and YUMMY! I’m going to buy several pounds of sausage Sunday and will make a bunch of these for the freezer. This was EXACTLY what I was hoping for. Easy to make. YUMMY to eat as a snack or anytime.
Christy has a whole section of her website devoted to low carb recipes. I’m following her now, and will keep trying more of these as we have the time.
Filed under DIET!
mountain village china via christian ortiz via email from Marsha Koenig
Filed under Seemingly Storybook Places
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
funtumes.com
halloween-ideas-wonderhowto.com
parents
We’re enjoying two days of fall here in Greenwood, Arkansas – today and tomorrow – before going back to ‘summer’ and a/c for another week or so at least. High of 68 today and 74 tomorrow. I feel just like this cute little girl!
The cooler temperatures make me feel a lot more energetic and simply happy with the world. I love opening our front and back doors, getting a delicious cross-breeze and turning on the ceiling fans. As I type Molly (a cocker spaniel/schnauzer cross, is asleep under the counter at my feet. One of our cats, Smoke, is asleep on my daytimer on the table to my right. Our pit bull, Bambi, is snoring on the big dog bed on the other side of my desk, and our 2nd cat, Abby, is happily enjoying sleeping in my husband’s lap as he works at his computer across the room from me. The only pet that isn’t with us right now is our new fish, Sally, who hides in her neon house in her goblet fish bowl, only coming out enthusiastically when I feed her.
I’m enjoying refurbishing a shovel bird we gave the Taylors a few years ago. I got the second coat on it last night and will tackle the feathers today. I’ll spray him with several coats of polyurethane for protection, and then glue on new googly eyes, finishing the project.
Today I plan to tackle exercising with the big exercise ball. I DID do 30 minutes on the elliptical for the first time since we got home from our wonderful trip to Thibodaux.) I meant to try exercises on the ball yesterday, but ran out of time and energy after spending the whole afternoon going from place to place in Fort Smith, trying to find sugar-free goodies for my husband. Happily, we found a gold mine of a store where we found pies and cookies! I’m having trouble finding a white sugar free cake mix that doesn’t have pudding in the mix. None of the stores had it, and I got on the net when we got home, to no avail. :0(
Today, with a lower temperature, seems ripe with opportunities. I’ll figure out some trouble to get into….
cliparting.com
Filed under Attitude, Mother Nature
On our vacation last week, we stopped at fast food places while we were on the road to get something to eat. We ate quickly, went to the bathroom, and got on the road again. While we were in Thibodaux, we ate well, and Murray and John were really good about showing my husband and me how he could stay away from sugar, and any carbs I ate were my own choice. After coming home, we decided to finish out the week eating things we had missed while we were being good; i.e., spaghetti casserole and Texas toast; KFC meal with mashed potatoes, cole slaw, and the glorious biscuit; etc.
The result is that my husband LOST weight while I gained. His sugar count was up and my scale yelled at me, pleading for mercy.
Monday morning we got serious again about controlling our eating. We have agreed that our one-scoop-of-ice-cream-in-a-cup at Braum’s after bowling on Monday nights is the only dessert we will have, other than an occasional OUTSHINE fruit bar if we really need it. I’m trying to go back to the basics on my low carb lifestyle, concentrating on eating beef, poultry, fish and low carb veggies. I’m also trying to get back to my exercising, though so far, only my intentions have been good.
Today I’ve found the exercise instruction sheet that came with my new exercise ball. There are 9 different exercises listed:
dumpaday.com
So far – I’m intimidated. I think I’ll go do my elliptical (hoping for 30 minutes) and then try ONE of the exercises with the ball. I can tell I need these exercises, but I’ll work into them slowly so I don’t fall on my head.
SO –
I’m determined to get the weight off that I gained last week plus get started again with my exercises. Hopefully, I’ll can report good progress next week.
Filed under DIET!, exercise, getting the lard off
Evie Zimmerman, trendingly.com
Filed under Grin for the Day, lost in translation
costume-works.com
She can even hang her candy bag on the walker! :0)
drovam.com
“Pink and Green”
“Pink Roses”
“Pink Wild Rose”
Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Thanks to Marsha Koenig for her email.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography
Whoever “Sam” is, I applaud this drawing. I love the color and the sense of humor! Great job!
This morning I’m remembering our recent vacation, where we drove to Thibodaux, Louisiana to visit our cousins/good friends Murray and John.
To say we had a wonderful time just doesn’t say enough. I’ve been having lovely, random thoughts and emotions ever since we came home. Here are some of them –
I could go on. I find a happy image floating in front of my face from time to time. Or I grin, thinking of something we talked about. We are so lucky to have relatives/friends who encourage us to come see them, make us SO welcome when we do, give us such good feelings to enjoy long after we come home, plus memories to last a lifetime.
Filed under Family, Friendship
An amazing 2 letter Word
A reminder that one word in the English language that can be a noun, verb, adjective, adverb and preposition.
UP
Read until the end ….. you’ll laugh.
This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is ‘UP.’ It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].
It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car.
At other times, this little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.
And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out, we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, the earth soaks it UP. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP, for now . . . my time is UP!
Oh . . . one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night?
U
P !
Did that one crack you UP?
Don’t screw UP. Send this on to everyone you look UP in your address book . . .. or not . . . it’s UP to you.
Now I’ll shut UP!
______________
*Thanks to my friend Marsha Koenig, for sending this email.
Filed under Grin for the Day
We made a shovel bird for our good friends, the Taylors, and gave it to them several years ago. Mother Nature has done a number on him, as she always does, making it necessary for some serious refurbishment. I’ve taken pics of the sweet bird BEFORE I start cleaning and repainting him.
One of his googly eyes fell off, and his beak looks like it was never painted.
Even with using rust resistant paint and then spraying on several coats of polyurethane, there are patches of rust. Of course, he’s dirty, also, having stood in the garden, weathering wind, rain, sun, and snow.
The first thing I did was pull the other eye off. Then I spent a long time cleaning him from top to bottom with Simple Green. Now I’ve painted the first coat of paint.
It will probably take two or three coats of paint, then I’ll use a silver pen to do the ‘feathers.’ I’ll paint on some polyurethane, rather than using just the spray, for as much protection as possible, and finally, I’ll glue new googly eyes on him.
I’ll take pics when he’s ready to go back to the Taylors.
Filed under Lewis yard art, project refurb
videohive.net
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I could only carve the most rudimentary of jack-o-lanterns, but I love seeing what creative people are doing these days, from the very traditional to objects-d’-art.
collegehumor.com
Needless to say, I also get a kick out of creative Halloween costumes, particularly ones that are DIY and the product of wonderful imaginations.
A hundred years ago when I was a child, we hadn’t become aware of the awful things that could happen to kids out alone at night. My friends and I went trick or treating together as a group, walking several miles to gather goodies, having the best time ever. I brought my candy home. My parents took a perfunctory look for razor blades in apples, and then tried to get me to eat only one piece – a thing that never happened.
I always wanted a costume from the store, a thing that also never happened. Usually I ended up with a mask, carried a sack, and enjoyed every minute.
As an adult, when my husband and I lived in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in a neighborhood FULL of kids, we took our son out to houses we knew, gathered a bit of candy, came home early and went through each piece carefully, and then gave him a couple of pieces to eat. He was very young and didn’t have particularly characters in mind that he wanted to be at that point, so we did the best we could do fashion something he liked.
My husband enjoyed dressing up and giving out candy. One year, in particular, he dressed up in a scary rubber mask, a big blanket over a humpback, etc. The kids would scream bloody murder when they saw him. Then – they would tell all their friends and come back! Everyone had a blast that year, but we spent WAAAY too much for candy. (I went out twice to get more when we ran out.)
Now we live at the top of a ridgeline up a steep driveway with few close neighbors, so the trick or treating thing is only a memory. So I look online at Jack-o-Lanterns and great costumes that I’ll happily share with you.
I hope you enjoy them!
E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web, via Encurious.com via Melissa A. Eastman
Filed under Favorite Quotes, Reading is FUNdamental
Evie Zimmerman, trendingly.com
Filed under Grin for the Day, lost in translation
Thanks to Emily Davis, trendingly.com
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography, Family
Thanks to Marsha Koenig for her email
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography
I enjoyed harvesting some lettuce and a batch of radishes today.
We put up another raised bed planter recently. It’s the first of three on the north side of the garden.
You can see that I’ll need to make more Mel’s Mix to fill this planter up. You can also see the template we use to figure out where to drill the holes for the planter legs standing up against the back fence of the garden.
This picture shows the spot between the raised bed planter and the last on-the-ground square foot planter. I dug the Mel’s Mix out of the one in the middle, putting it into three trash cans, waiting for us to install the 2nd planter. That will leave just one more planter and our project will be finished and ready for next spring’s planting.
Meanwhile, we’re really enjoying the fall garden in the raised bed planters on the south side of the garden. Here you can see the empty square where I harvested the batch of radishes. I’ll plant some more in the next day or two. The empty looking square next to the corner one has a piece of celery trying to grow.
The other two planters have a bunch of healthy looking greenery from cauliflower and broccoli plants, but nothing that looks like veggies yet.
This is a close up of the lettuce plants. Some are called ‘salad blend,’ and the bright green are head lettuce. (Please pretend you DON’T see the little weed in the bottom right hand corner…) :0)
Filed under Arkansas, Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
“Ornamental Flowers” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
We aren’t the only ones happy with the cooler temperatures. Here you see some of our twice-blooming iris, and a resurgence of bloom of a nice pink perennial flower.
It really makes me happy to be able to bring some of our flowers inside. Happy fall!
Filed under Mother Nature
We left Monday morning to drive 9-1/2 hours to Thibodaux, Louisiana
to visit our relatives/good friends, Murray and John. We got there about 5:00 in time to relax before a wonderful dinner and great conversation.
I can’t say enough about our visit. It was so good to hug their necks and have two full days to enjoy them. They always offer to take us all kinds of places, but we wanted a relaxing visit to catch up on what’s been happening without a huge schedule to follow. Our time with them was perfect, though never long enough. We drove back Thursday, getting home about 6:00 in the evening.
I came home with goodies – some beautiful earrings from a shop called Old Estate (I think), though our relatives call it “Jerome’s” because they know not only the owner, but the whole family. My husband chose the earrings, so I love to wear them, knowing they were hand picked.
I also came home with things that have been in the family for years. I’ll treasure these, finding each a place to live in our home.
We made a shovel bird (our version of a bird feeder with personality), since Murray has a gorgeous court yard type of garden lovingly tended by Robin, whom we met. She’s a lovely person, taking good care of their yard and all the plants. The shovel bird was new, so even though it had bird seed in the shovel part, no birds were using it. I figured the paint and polyurethane smell, plus its being new in the garden, made it unattractive to the wonderful variety of birds they have. Murray texted me while we were on our way home, saying, “A bird is in the shovel bird!” :0)
Murray and John are watching sugar, too, and introduced us to many things that made my sweet husband start to believe that avoiding sugar doesn’t have to be the end of the world! We found
In my own efforts to get the lard off, I’m reading a lot of information on the paleo form of low carb eating. I downloaded and printed a bunch of information and will plow through it this weekend. I’m trying to get my body’s attention, since it seems to have gotten used to my regular efforts and I’ve been on quite a plateau.
We’re pigging out the rest of the weekend and will get serious Monday morning.
Happy vacation to us! We couldn’t have had a better time.
I hope that you had a great week, too.
Filed under Family
spectrumnews.org
Too much to do now to have fun posting to you. Have a wonderful week, and I’ll see you again soon!
Filed under opportunities
A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh, via Encurious.com via Melissa A. Eastman
Filed under Favorite Quotes, Reading is FUNdamental
creativeartworksblog 