We just put this jack-o-lantern mailbox decoration up. This is the back of the piece.
And this is the front. I wish he glowed in the dark…
Monthly Archives: September 2017
A Cute DIY Idea
re-scape.com via Stephanie Youmans Wilson
I LOVE this idea. I’m going to see if I can get my husband to help me do something similar. They make me smile every time I see them.
Filed under Arts and Crafts - Teaching
“A Blue Critical Eye”
“A Blue Critical Eye” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
New Toy!
I’ve been letting Amber out by herself for short periods of time. She has the shock collar on and if she isn’t where I can see her, I call her, hitting the warning button, if necessary. She can hear this, but we can’t. It’s working very well. She LOVES being outside. I can let her out now for short periods of time without having an ulcer that she’ll run off or not respond when I need her to come in. She loves being with her people, too.
Today I went out to check on her. She was in the front yard chewing on a large branch that had fallen from one of our trees. When she saw me, she happily leaped up with the big stick in her mouth.
Very quickly the stick broke into a gazillion pieces. She kept bringing me pieces to throw for her, dancing around me with joy.
I got her to drop the stick a few times so I could throw it for her, but she really wanted to bounce around the yard with it in her teeth, saying, “Look at me! Look at ME!”
We’re spending a small fortune on chew toys to hopefully keep her from eating the wall on the back porch or the legs of the shelves in the office. It’s nice to know that there is a real DOG in there who loves to play with something as classic as a stick, too, even though it doesn’t squeak.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
A Step Too Far
We got the competitor of the Sleep Number Mattress (Comfortaire) in January of 2006. At that time we would have had to buy a bed frame, headboard, etc. in order to put in the new mattress because it’s basically two fancy air mattresses each with its own control. We looked all around, but were out of style yet again in that people didn’t want bookcase headboards. We decided to build our own.
This is what we built. Not as elegant as what you see in the stores, but the headboard has storage, controls for various things in the middle, lights, etc. The bed frame is solid wood and weighs a ton (more or less :0) ) It’s strong enough to house all the stuff you need to control the air in the mattress, the pump, hoses, etc., and the mattresses themselves, kind of like building a frame for a swimming pool.
We made frames on the headboard so we could decorate it with river rock.
We love this bed because we’re never in agreement on how firm the mattress should be. I also tend to change my firmness from time to time to accommodate my back, while my husband sets it and forgets it, other than hitting the button to replace any air that has been lost.
We also like an electric blanket for the same reason. With dual controls, we can both be comfortable. In January of 2006 my husband decided to ‘be neat’ with the electronics for the blanket. The wires ran all over the place, so he put the wires that ran from the headboard to the end of the blanket in the space under the plywood that was the mattress support of the frame of the bed. He also wired the controls into the headboard nicely, and THEN finished putting the headboard together.
This has worked beautifully for 11 years. I realized that when we put the electric blanket on the bed this time (because we LOVE to have the attic fan on at night when the weather allows it), I had it set on HIGH, but it was only warm. I froze to death several nights in a row, even with adding an afghan on my side of the bed, before telling my husband we needed to get a new electric blanket.
We got busy during the day yesterday, but we decided to plug in the new blanket when we went up to bed last night. Easy, peezy, right?
When it became clear that we would have to take the whole bed apart in order to get the wiring for the non-functioning blanket out, I told my husband I refused. We ended up cutting the wires, cutting off the controls, and cutting off the plug in at the end of the bed. (Needless to say, our former plans of saving the blanket in case of emergency went out the window. It doesn’t make a good blanket by itself, so we can’t even donate it now. :0( ) I did mention that we might have gone a step too far in trying to be neat 11 years ago…
At a little after 1 a.m. this morning, we finally got the bed together again with clean sheets, the new electric blanket with modernized controls, a comforter, etc.
We both slept blissfully well last night. Ahhhhh.
Filed under Challenges, Changes, Housekeeping - Maintenance
Challenge and Laughter
We tend to gauge things around here by “Before Amber” or “After Amber,” since the two parts of our lives couldn’t be more different.
Amber will be 7 months old next week. We got her when she was 10 weeks old and weighed 16 pounds. The last time we weighed her (almost a full month ago) she weighed 62.8 lbs. I think she’s probably around 70 lbs now.
Other than trying to eat the wall of the porch, she has made a LOT of progress in the little over 4 months we’ve had her as part of our family, we’ve ALL done a bunch of changing. Amber is smart and hard-headed. When she was still a baby, she wouldn’t stop barking. Even with her on the porch and the door shut, it was loud enough to hurt your ears and put your nerves on edge. We got a no-bark collar and within days, she stopped barking. In fact, though she whines, she almost never barks now.
She was growing super fast, and we had her on a retractable leash, each walking her several times each day. She is super strong. And did I mention she’s hard-headed? She pulled harder and harder no matter what we did, several times yanking us so hard as she hit the end of the line that we were almost pulled off our feet. Since we’re not getting any younger, we got a no-pull leash. Again, within days, she no longer pulled on the leash. (The one exception to this statement now is when we go to the vet and there are dogs that would like to eat Amber in one gulp.)
She laughed in our faces for quite awhile, making us hoarse and out of sorts after repeating the same command over and over with differing, non-lasting results. We got shock collar which has a warning sound and then another button for shocking her. Now, instead of ignoring our commands, most of the time she doesn’t even have to be warned. We pick up the controller and she does whatever we’ve asked her to do without our having to repeat. Sometimes I’ve even just held up my hand as though I’m holding the controller and she immediately decides to do what I asked!
It’s also helpful that she’s food driven and wants to be with her people. She really tries to be good so that she can stay inside with us, go outside with us, go to the shop, ride in the car, or take a walk. She will also do almost anything if a treat is involved. The one exception to this, we’ve found, is getting her to walk down the stairs to the basement. She’ll go up and down the stairs going to the second floor, but will NOT go down the steps to the basement. The biggest difference is that the inside steps are carpeted. I’m not sure why she’s afraid to go down, but she’s adamant. She actually whines and barks as my husband tries to entice her to come down there to him. So far, only two feet on the 2nd step…
Her newest word is ‘out.’ She will come over to me and look at me expectantly. If I don’t respond immediately, she whines. If I ask her, “Do you want to go OUT?” she gets up and leads me to the door. Now we’re trying to teach her to bark when she wants to come in. So far, with the doors open to the cooler breeze, she whimpers and we get up and let her in. Molly barks to get us to open the door. Maybe Molly will teach her.
Much progress is being made. Much work left to be done. Definitely a difference in our lives before Amber/ After Amber. Interesting, challenging, exhausting, delightful.
lapdog
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
“Lake in September”
“Lake in September” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Steaks, Potatoes, and Woofles
I just love this picture!
We’re cooking out tonight – steaks and baked potatoes – we’re not really cooking ‘woofles,’ (sorry, Amber and Molly) but I just HAD to share this picture. :0)
I love cookouts. It’s only going to be my husband and me, plus most of our animals. We all end up in a pile on the deck, surrounded by aromas that make my mouth water just thinking about them. Most everyone is there – the dogs (Molly and Amber) the cats (Abby and Smoke ) – everyone except the fish, who couldn’t care less about cooking out, and our son who is living across the world from us.
As the evening gets darker, we turn on the rope multicolored LED lights, and then, finally, the yellow light that allows my husband to see to cook. :0) He has a beer in hand. I usually have coffee. We’re gradually getting Amber to quit dive-bombing all the others…
It’s a time to enjoy the wonderful weather. A time to r-e-l-a-x. A time to play with the animals. And a time to talk – all of us enjoying being together in no rush to accomplish anything or go anywhere. The potatoes have been nuked and then transferred to the oven to finish. The charcoal is getting hot and ready to use. The steaks are ready to bring out.
If we’re lucky, we’ll still see a hummingbird or two, maybe a firefly, maybe the pair of doves who sit on the electrical wire together. I would love it if deer would visit us, but our animals keep that from happening. We did see a deer on the way to Lunch Bunch this morning. I’m glad he decided to dart back into the woods, rather than running into the car. He was there and then gone in the space of a second or two. A beautiful bright spot of nature reminding us to be in the moment, appreciating everything around us.
I hope you have a nice evening planned. I know a special lady who is having a birthday today who I hope is being treated like a queen in celebration. Even if this is a day like most others, I hope you enjoy it to the fullest. Maybe you can make some ‘woofles!’
Filed under Family, Favorite Things, Mother Nature
Wonderful Way to Start the Day
There is 12 hours difference between where our son is and us, so it makes it a challenge to visit. He arranged a secure chat program before he left so that we can leave messages for each other, send pics, ask questions, or sometimes catch each other at just the right time and type at each other in real time.
I just finished a wonderful conversation with him, and I’m still a bit teared up over it.
So many people have kids living in the same city and don’t see or talk with them very often. Visits are ‘have-to’s,’ as short as possible, tense. My heart goes out to these people because the joy of knowing your kids and appreciating them as adults is one of the best things there is in life.
Our son is a great communicator, so we can almost forget that he’s across the world from us. When we get the change to really communicate more than what’s happening, his help with a computer or other technical problem, or that kind of thing, it’s such a privilege. I’m still kind of vibrating from our conversation – the real exchange of ideas and the love exchanged, if only by the typed word.
How lucky I am to be able to reach out – or have him reach out to us. A virtual hug is a wonderful way to start a day.
Filed under Family
“Hereafter”
I’m probably the last person on the planet to see “Hereafter,” since it came out in 2010, but just in case you haven’t seen it, I recommend it highly.
“The film tells three parallel stories about three people affected by death in similar ways—all three have issues of communicating with the dead; Matt Damon plays American factory worker George, who is able to communicate with the dead and who has worked professionally as a clairvoyant, but no longer wants to communicate with the dead.”
Directed by Clint Eastwood, I found the characters and their situations riveting. There was great character development. I cared what happened to these people. The actors were well-chosen, and I found the characters they played appealing.
I have just ordered the DVD for our collection so that I can watch it again.
Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews
Louisiana Hot Sauce
This is Amber, our soon-to-be 7 months old yellow labrador retriever. She looks sweet and innocent, doesn’t she?
Amber’s area is the back porch. Her crate is there, a lot of her toys. We feed her on the porch and a water bowl is out there. She spends less and less time out there, since she is making progress toward becoming more polite every day. She likes to be with us, so she spends a lot of time in the house wherever we are, and then spends more and more time outside.
This does NOT keep her from chewing on the one wall that is vulnerable on the porch. Two of the other walls are brick, and the fourth wall is screen protected by plywood sheets we added.
The fact that she spends a smaller and smaller amount of time out there, plus the fact that she has a gazillion chew toys from which to choose, seem to make no difference.
I’ve tried spraying the wall with a vinegar and water solution. I’ve sprayed it with Bitter Apple. Today I painted the spots she’s chewing with Louisiana Hot Sauce. With my luck, though, she’s a Cajun through and through and will lap it right up with more wood and paint – asking for more with her breakfast and dinner…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
The Go-Out Table is Healed!
BEFORE
The table in the foreground is our dining area table. The table by the wall is the “go-out table.
As you can see, there is barely room for the stuff we need to take with us on our next errands.
The mess has spilled over onto one end of the dining area table…. :0(
AFTER
NOW I have space to put my purse, the mail we’re taking, other paperwork, and the list of errands all on one end of the table. I got all the ‘stuff’ off the dining area table, too. The danger of avalanche is past, PLUS I found several things I didn’t know we had! :0)
Anger Management
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Funny Signs - Humor
Slow, Steady Progress
I’m trying to use each day to dig out from my almost-a-month of being essentially useless because of really bad back spasms and pain. Thankfully, I’m back to being ‘mean as a snake’ as my husband describes me, so progress is being made, albeit slowly – kind of like a government project…
Today I’m trying to accomplish two things:
THING ONE: finish the clean up of our master bedroom and bath. I need to finish scrubbing our shower stall and our whirlpool tub and then I’ll declare that area ‘healed’ for now. (subprojects: cleaning out my bookshelf, going through my jewelry)
THING TWO: We have what we call ‘the go-out table’ in the dining area that adjoins the utility room and garage. We put things we need to take with us on errands, (purse, errand list, associated paperwork) etc. Since I haven’t been monitoring it, the ‘etc’ has exploded to the point we’re fearing avalanche.
I started by taking everything off the table and out of the associated cabinet. I actually DID have some avalanches as our dining table didn’t want to hold it all.
I’m resting for a bit because I found myself starting to ‘stash’ things, rather than either purging/putting away/donating/reorganizing. Time for Phase Two…
“Want To” vs “Doing”
Translating intention to action to results is difficult. If I could bottle it, I would be a gazillionaire and could stop entering PCH and MegaMillions.
Trying to get myself to actually DO the things day after day that will get the results I want seems like a pipe dream at times. When I’m eating right, doing yoga and my elliptical trainer, and concentrating on moving more, I feel better – physically, mentally, and emotionally. So why am I still having to MAKE myself do these things, lapsing for a day or two, losing my motivation, failing to take each day at a time?
I am again talking to myself – pretty harshly – since I think I may be like our lab puppy, Amber, and need a shock collar to take things seriously, rather than blowing things off.
THIS TIME – I have my ducks more in a row (if you’ll pardon the pun on the pic above.)
- I’ve been missing bread a LOT. I’ve now found Bob’s Red Mill Low Carb Bread Mix that is a net 5 carbs per slice. I wrapped it around a hot dog yesterday and bit in with gusto. (I’m still going to try my new weird screaming green silicone bread maker thingie, but I’m finding other priorities at the moment.)
- Thanks to my son, I found a new nutrition counter and log called “Cronometer” to replace MyFitnessPal, which is good, but the people don’t maintain the website well. The front page hasn’t come up for months. I haven’t tried to add a recipe new to the website yet, but, so far, entering what I eat and logging in my exercise daily is quick and easy.
- Since my back finally quit hurting (still no clue what I did to cause the situation) – I am able to do careful stretching in prep for getting back to my “Gentle Yoga” DVDs with Cat Kabira.
- Also, since my back quit hurting, I am able to start catching up with all the house cleaning that was ignored while I vegged out in my recliner on my heat pad on muscle relaxers, ointments, pain patches, etc. Feeling that I’m doing something significant each day to purge/clean/reorganize is making me feel more together and in control of things. (Today’s project is finishing up scrubbing the master bathroom)
- We’re supposed to get rain today/tonight and a very welcome cool front, lowering the temperatures and humidity that have it feeling like over 100 degrees F. for the past month. We are more than ready, and I’m itching to get back out to my square foot garden and see what’s what. :0)
Tonight we’re having spaghetti and salad, with a bit of bread. (Newman’s Own Marina sauce is low-carb. My husband prefers small elbow macaroni to spaghetti, so I’ll fix that for him. I’ll have spaghetti squash as an alternative to spaghetti, and a piece of my low-carb bread I made.)
SO – desire to be healthier, get the lard off, increase my flexibility and overall health merge with good intention, motivation, means, and attitude to give me a good start. One day at a time.
TaoLife.com
“Solitary in the Sky”
“Solitary in the Sky” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Cork Art – Take 3
blog.lightopiaonline.com
I’ve always loved corks. I’m not sure, really, what their appeal is, but I used to save the few I came across. I never would have thought of trying to create things like this, though. I love what people think to do with everyday things, making them into something super special and unique.
descriptionebooks.com
diycraftsfood.trulyhandpicked.com
Filed under Cork Art, Creativity
Disenfranchised…
As you get older, it doesn’t take much to make you feel disenfranchised, lost, with the emotional rug pulled out from under you. We’ve had two such occurrences lately, so I’m trying to be proactive so we can feel support under us again as soon as possible.
I’ve already told you in other posts that our dear dental hygienist and her husband died in a plane crash in August. The hole in our hearts will remain a long time, freshly opened every six months when we go for exams and cleaning. We went for our regularly scheduled appointment this month. As I expected, Dr. Moore found a winner for the position. She had worked there part-time and everyone there liked her, including Shannon. I had my exam and cleaning first. When my husband went in for his, Dr. Moore came out to visit with me, ask me what I thought of Alisha, and hug my neck for the card and letter I sent. Thanks to Dr. Moore for choosing someone who would fit in well with the rest of the kind, caring folks in his office. We remain in good hands.
The next blow came when my friend Kay asked us at Lunch Bunch a couple of weeks ago, “What do you think of Dr. Jackson leaving?” She knew, by the way our mouths hung open like gutted fish, that we didn’t know. After checking with the clinic and doing some research, we have found that our wonderful Dr. Jackson has relocated to Russellville, about an hour and a half away from us. His new situation is definitely good for him and his future. We’re happy for him and sad for us. We wrote a letter thanking him for his good care of us.
We researched the physician who will take Dr. Jackson’s place. She seems very qualified. When I read the part that listed her hobbies – one of them being ‘hunting,’ my husband was sold. He immediately said, “We’ll go to her.”
My husband is running out of samples of a drug that is really working for him. We didn’t get a prescription yet, so this is a bit of a problem. I kept calling to try to get an appointment with the new doc, but was told to try back in a week or so – they weren’t okayed to make appointments with her yet. Finally, last Friday I called and got both of us an appointment with her on her first day at the clinic, October 2nd.
To this end, I thought it would help her if we could give a short description of who we are and what we need. That’s more difficult than it sounds. I’m making a list for each of us of our prescriptions, dosages, times we take them per day, and what for, and then the supplements we take. I’m also going to scan our quarterly blood tests from last month. This way, in two pages, she can see each of us in a nutshell without our taking an undue amount of her time.
Maybe we’ll feel the ground settle a bit after we’ve seen her, get the prescriptions we need, and set up for our first quarterly appointment. Changes aren’t fun. They’re disconcerting. But, happily, in our case so far, the changes are doable.
Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Challenges, Changes
Project of the Day
funnyfreeanimalspictures.blogspot.com
Since it’s still too hot for me to do much outside, I’m trying to do one significant thing inside each day.
Today’s project is the master bedroom and master bathroom.
I’ve just spent an hour upstairs and haven’t really made a dent in the project. I DID move a bunch more books out of my bookshelf in the master bedroom into the guest room and gathered up a bunch of jewelry I want to go through and put it in the art room where I have a big drafting table on which I can spread things out.
My husband has three floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and I have one. All of these are crying for some really serious dusting. The amoire, dresser and bookcase headboard we built are sobbing, too. If I can do those this afternoon, I might have time for the scrubbing of the bathroom and then the vacuuming. Otherwise I’ll do the rest tomorrow.
From time to time I think about having a housekeeper. Then I laugh. I can just see someone coming and trying to decide how much to charge me – starting with a bulldozer and several of those humongous construction bags they advertise on TV that the big truck with an overhead crane lift up and haul away.
I’ll just continue to peck away at it…. 
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
“The House Under the Rainbow”
Two days ago in the afternoon, my husband said, “You’ve got to go outside. Walk halfway out to the shop and then turn around and look.”
The temperature had suddenly dropped by about 20 degrees. There was a fabulous breeze and this gorgeous rainbow over the house, though no rain. I just stood, drinking in the breeze and the beautiful rainbow for several minutes before coming back in. My husband caught this pic while he was out. Neither the rainbow nor the rainbow lasted more than a few minutes, but what glorious minutes they were!
Filed under Delightful Surprises, Mother Nature
Hot Dog
hot Amber
With the temp and humidity today, this afternoon will FEEL like 106 degrees F. UGH. Our forecasters are saying that tomorrow we’ll finally get our first rain in over a month and a bit of a cool down. Hooray! Meanwhile, we turn on fans, A/C, drink lots of cold drinks, and pant a lot.
hot Molly
The cats and the fish are taking things in stride.
Abby
Smoke
“The Guys”
So, until about noon, we’ll all just sit under the ceiling fan with the doors and windows open, then be really thankful for the a/c until this evening. Some of us hang our tongues out straight, some out the side.
If we get the forecasted rain tomorrow, we’ll all go out (except maybe the cats and the fish) and dance in the rain while my husband can finally burn some trash….
Happy Tuesday everyone!
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, Mother Nature
For Jane – City of Joy
My friend Jane Daniells sent me this exquisite picture from Medellin, Colombia of a several story shopping mall with a stunning peacock made of flowers and surrounding garden area. It really blew my mind, as she knew it would. :0)
I’m returning the favor by posting two pictures of Kolkata, The City of Joy, posted by Mukesh Sharma on LinkedIn.
Lake Road in #Kolkata being hand-painted by locals before the arrival of Goddess Durga.
Durga Puja is the greatest festival of the Bengalis and is dedicated to the worship of Goddess Durga.
I love what creative people can do when they work together.
Filed under Art Around the World, Creativity, Favorite Things
Sometimes
Purple Clover via Rebecca Kanner Kelman
This made me laugh out loud.
While I don’t think the answer to everything is money, having a surplus is always welcome.
My son, even though he doesn’t have much surplus at all, is giving all he can to help kids get surgeries they need. I would love to be able to help truly good, honest organizations help others. I would love to give friends and family a boost so they never have to worry. I would love to be able to give encouragement to more people daring to start businesses on their own. I would love to give locally to our community so it can continue doing good things and expand.
I have the important things.
- I’m lucky that I don’t have to choose between whether to eat or take my medicine.
- I have family, pets, and friends.
- I have dreams and things around me that bring me joy.
- I have reasons to laugh every day.
So, money isn’t the answer – but I love the suggestion.
Filed under Attitude, Favorite Quotes
Cork Art – Take 2
Filed under Cork Art, Creativity
New Counter
My son told me about Cronometer.com this morning. I checked it out, signed up for a free membership, entered my information and will see how it goes.
Cronometer.com
I was able to set up a profile, add my goals, list the food I’ll eat today – plus the exercise I’ll be doing – all within about 10 minutes. No muss, no fuss. It told me how much more I needed to burn than I ate in order to reach my desired lard loss each week, and it was easy to see how many calories I was eating, how many carbs, etc. They actually gave me more information on nutrients than I need to know (I think), but it wasn’t distracting or annoying.
If you’re looking for a good way to monitor your progress, check this out. (I just checked MyFitnessPal.com again after several days. They’re free, but they still haven’t fixed the main page, so I’m looking around. I’m hopeful that Cronometer.com will be my new home.)
Filed under Cooking/Recipes/Low Carb Lifestyle
Slob Cycles
This is ‘my’ corner of the garage. As you can see, we put up some good, sturdy, shelves, a peg board on the wall, and some really nice counter top. There is a good amount of storage space under the counter top.
The problem is that this space is used for a LOT of different things –
- a holding area for no sugar drinks, no sugar tea, beer, wine, water bottles
- my elliptical trainer
- my new roll-around scooter for gardening
- all of my gardening supplies
- gourds ready to be prepped and painted
- wreaths
- cat carriers
- sprayers
- a ladder
- etc., etc., etc. – (I always think fondly of Yul Brenner and “The King and I” when I say or type this. :0) )
The other problem is general laziness. I come in from working in the yard, too spent to put things away properly. My husband sees the empty counter and uses it as a staging area for a project, place for things that don’t have a home yet, etc. All too soon it’s completely covered. From the amount of junk, it’s obvious that ‘something’ is holding it all up, but you can’t walk without real care, you can’t find anything without moving a bunch of ‘stuff,’ etc. The price we pay for being slobs.
We had let a bunch take over the area. Then I did whatever mysterious thing I did to my back and a month was lost. Yesterday I decided that it was the day to clean it off again. I told my husband I had a big laundry basket of stuff that needed to go out to the greenhouse. My husband, who doesn’t notice much, came in telling me how WONDERFUL my area looked.
And the cycle begins again…
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
creativeartworksblog 