The Laughing Cottage via Carol Auclair Daly
Filed under Bright Ideas, Encouragement, kindness
Word Porn via Meade Dennis Adams
This is me in a nutshell.
I have a boatload of good intentions, but get distracted easily. This results in guilty feelings. If I’m doing something INside, I feel guilty about the things that need doing OUTside, and vice versa.
Yesterday my husband mowed the lawn, so we look pretty good out there right now – particularly if you ignore the fact that we have a collapsed brick planter in the front yard with a tarp load of potting soil covered in front of it. I figured that the LEAST I could do was use the leaf blower to clean up the sidewalks. THAT led to using the leaf blower to clean up our garage , and THAT led to blowing off the garage pad…
When I came INside, I remembered that I really needed to clean off our stove top. The dishwasher is happily cleaning the removable stuff, and I finally got the top cleaned up. When I get it put back together, I won’t want to USE it – messing it up again. :0)
I DID manage to change out the aquarium filter – hoping that that will put off my having to change the water and clean it out immediately. And THAT led to watering the poor window sill plants that were sitting there, hands around their parched throats – saying, “Linnnnnn-daaaaaaaa!” HOPING I would finally notice them.
I very carefully ignored the pollen-covered porch – again – while sitting down to rest. I really DO need to vacuum the first floor today. It’s to the point where the balls of dog and cat hair grab your leg as you walk by.
I realize I’ll never get completely caught up, with all the stuff done inside and out, particularly since my husband mentioned a few minutes ago that he wants to get started rebuilding the brick planter tomorrow…
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
I’m hoping that we’ll have a good tomato crop this year. We have some good looking green tomatoes now. One of our very favorite things is sliced ripe tomatoes.
With all the rain we’ve had and then some pretty warm weather, the tomato plants in our nook planter really took off. I’ve given up trying to ‘control’ them. I’m just propping them up the best way I can and hoping for the best…
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
My husband surprised me this morning by saying he liked the top I was wearing. I broke out in a big grin and he realized I had painted it! He said, “That looks good. I thought it was commercial.”
I’m still grinning.
This is me on our horribly dirty screened-in porch wearing the shirt my husband likes. I’m a slob and I always have tops that are perfectly good, except that they have a stain or stains that won’t come out, no matter what cleaning technique I use. I can ‘bring them back to life’ by painting them!
This shirt is one I like because of the woven ‘ropy’ edge around the top with wooden beads. I accented that with white paint, and then painted the design on the rest of the top.
Filed under Giving New Life to Old Tops
We’ve gone from torrential rain, to “pea soup” humidity here. Last night a cool front came through, taking the humidity with it. Right now it’s 80 degrees F. outside, bright sunshine, and absolutely wonderful. AHHHHH!
I took a walk around the garden and yard to celebrate and wanted to share –
GARDEN
You can see the HEIGHT of the zucchini plants here – well over my head as I stand at the planters.
Lots of vines, greenery, and blossoms. No cantaloupe as yet.
The zucchini is producing nicely.
The tops of my sweet red onions were trashed during the last few storms we had. I cut off the broken tops and trimmed the bent ones. The actual onion bulbs are looking okay, though.
FLOWER PLANTERS
Lilies
Phlox
Roses and Impatiens
Roses and Phlox
Clematis
I’ll show you the deck and our view in another post.
World Of Female
Yesterday I officially started the Keto eating plan, hoping to continue to lose the lard, but also figuring that this plan will be much more flexible with our foreign exchange student, Alessandro, a 16-year-old soccer playing student from Italy. He joins us for 10 months starting in August, and I want to be well into our new good habits by then.
I’m using a wonderful book called, “Keto After 50” by James Wilson. Since “50” sounds young to ME, I like this approach which is modified for older people. I’ve been reading a ton on the net, too, since one of my concerns will be high fat – to be processed by this older body with no gallbladder. Happily, I found that I can take a couple of supplements that will help with this.
My husband is a Type II diabetic (although he only admits to having a ‘sugar problem’) It’s super important to me that I keep him on an even keel. He is almost to his weight goal now (within 10 pounds – HOOORAAAAY!) while his WIFE continues to battle the lard. :0)
At this point I’ve lost 43 pounds and almost 48 inches. I want to lose another 30 to 35 pounds and then stay there, with good eating and exercise habits.
We started on Nutrisystem, but then decided that we have learned 1) what we were doing wrong, and 2) how we’re supposed to be cooking and eating. We are almost doing the Keto program already, having stopped (mostly) eating bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, sugar, and salt. We splurge every once in a while, but that’s a quality of life thing for us.
I’m ordering supplements and gathering good recipes. I’m trying to reorganize our pantry – AGAIN – both to plan for the new eating system AND to make room for a lot more cooking than I’ve done in awhile. (It’ll be a real culture shock for us to feed a 16-year-old athlete – and from ITALY!)
Since I’m working in the yard and/or the garden almost daily, I’m going to TRY for more formal exercise three times a week. I’ll stick with my elliptical trainer, my yoga for ‘older’ women, and either the walking video or the dance video each week.
I told you I started this yesterday. The scale showed me down 1.2 pounds this morning, so I’m encouraged at this point – knowing that my weight loss will slow with time. I’m concentrating on doing the first two weeks – eating 20 grams of carbohydrates or less per day.
Wish me luck?
Filed under Challenges, Changes, DIET!, exercise
Corrine Hartley via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Filed under paintings I love, paintings of children
I’ve told you before that when my husband wanted us to be a host family this year, I agreed. We have been notified that we are accepted to receive Alessandro, a 16-year-old boy from Italy for the coming school year. All we know at this point is that he is quite the soccer player, has pets at home, and sounds really nice. He will be here August 6th and will stay with us 10 months.
Since we’re a bit long-in-the-tooth and set in our ways, we’re looking for things we need to change in order to be the best host parents possible.
Of COURSE we plan to encourage him to be active in as many things involving school as possible. Classes, sports, clubs, new friends, outings, etc. We will encourage him to bring friends home or spend time at their houses. We’ll look for fun things to do and places to go. WE will also try to be as active in his life as we can – a real change for us. :0)
We have decided that we’ll be decadent and slothful until July 1st, at which point we’ll start setting the alarm for 7 a.m. August 1st we’ll start setting it for 6 a.m. Alessandro will be here on August 6th and school starts on August 13th, so we should be ready – with our Circadian Rhythms in sync, hopefully.
We’ve also been eating only poultry and fish, and we’ll expand that to include beef and pork again, but use Keto recipes. I can also cook pasta for Alessandro (and probably my husband, who refuses to eat alternatives) but “I” will try zucchini noodles or cauli-rice with my portion. (The only concern I’ve found is that I need to do a bit extra on supplements to help me handle the higher fats without a gallbladder.)
I’m sure we’ll add a whole bunch of other changes to our list as we get closer to the time Alessandro arrives, but I think we have a good attitude and are starting to adapt. (I’m checking to make sure soccer and basketballs are aired up, badminton set is intact, board games are available, checking our sports channels on TV….. )
I’m happy to hear my husband thinking about what we need to do. He seems energized by the changes we’re making, thinking about things we can do to make our ‘temporary son’ (or grandson) feel welcome and happy.
Filed under Challenges, Changes, character-building exercises
Doug Powell via email from Marsha Koenig
I went outside to clear my overloaded brain and check on the veggie garden. I heard Amber (our 94-pound lab PUPPY) barking behind me, somewhere over by the greenhouse. I continued on toward the garden and all of a sudden, she bounded out of the shop and was running toward me a breakneck speed!
I averted getting knocked down flat on my back by making a quick turn and running toward a tree. She skimmed past me, then turned on a dime and tried to jump up on me, tongue lolling as she laughed.
I yelled, “DOWN!” To my amazement, she did it! This is probably a fluke that will never happen again, but I feel empowered right now. :0)
(By the way, the veggies are doing fine.)
Filed under Amazing Animals, Challenges, Family, Funny Signs - Humor
Psychologies
My poor brain is overflowing with good suggestions for how to make my new Etsy shop better. I’m feeling totally overwhelmed right now, not knowing which way to jump.
I’m going to go do something else from my ever-growing to-do list and then come back and choose ONE thing to do in my shop.
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Changes, Dreams, empowerment, learning new things
“Doe in Summer Woods” – Peri Ann Taylor – fineartamerica.com
I’m feeling rich right now.
We just came home from Friday Lunch Bunch with our good friends. On the way to our house, we saw a doe right at the road’s edge, looking out at us. We slowed down to take a good look while she continued to look at us. Then she darted back into the woods.
I love living outside of the city limits, where we have neighbors, but all of us value space, privacy, and natural surroundings. It makes me feel rich to see deer, dogs, cats, horses, turtles, road runners, eagles, hawks, buzzards, rabbits, squirrels, and other animals as we go to and from town. :0)
Filed under Amazing Animals
All kids would have a dog –
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Email from Bill Lites
Email from Bill Lites
Email from Bill Lites
Email from Bill Lites
Email from Bill Lites
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography, CUTE!, Favorite Pictures
Home Guides – SFGate
The rain finally stopped! I’ve just spent an hour tying up tomato plants for better support and then weeding in our raised bed square foot garden. I used “Eau de OFF!” spraying myself heavily from stem to stern before heading outside. I forgot to wear my sweat band, but I’ll remember that for session 2 today.
I finished two more of the six wooden box planters in the garden. I still need to finish the onion box and then things will be pretty much under control again. I’m planning to take radish seed to get more started in several squares.
__________________
Finished session 2. I’m still working on the onion box. I asked my good friend Reagan Opio from LinkedIn what I should do about the damaged onion tops. He said, “Leave the ones that are only bent. Cut off the ones that are broken.” So that’s what I’m working on now. As I type here, though, this old lady is huffing and puffing and guzzling ice water. So the rest will have to wait for session 3.
I wanted to share with you the progress on the zucchini! I’ve never grown it before, or seen it grow. The only thing I figured was that it was a vining type plant and would probably take up a lot of room.
The zucchini are almost like a ‘bouquet of bloom.’ There are actually FOUR zucchini growing on this plant.
More on another plant.
And two more here.
And three more here!
I’m about to head out to finish cleaning up the onion tops a bit, and then that’ll be it outside for the day.
I hope YOU are having a fine day, too!
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Barbara Kingsolver via Lisa Bearnes Richey
Filed under Attitude, Dreams, Encouragement
Animal’s Look
Yet another rainy day. It was foggy, too, when we awoke this morning, but that has mostly gone. I MAY be able to do a bit of work outside later, but I’m not going to hold my breath. I’m switching to my INSIDE to-do list.
I feel guilty for gritching a bit about the rain. We are so lucky. Our house is dry, sitting on top of a ridge line in Arkansas, when so many good people are suffering from a 500-year flood. The Arkansas River finally crested at around 20 feet above flood stage. MANY people have had damage to their homes and businesses – or complete loss – in Fort Smith, Van Buren, and other towns in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Some of the roads and bridges are reopening as the water recedes, leaving the devastation clear.
AND, while I gritch about another day of rain, others in the U.S. are dealing with drought and wildfire!
Perspective is all.
“It’s good to shut up sometimes.” ~ Marcel Marceau
Filed under Mother Nature
Credit: U.S. Army/The New York Times
“The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of German-occupied France (and later western Europe) from Nazi control, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.
The Allies failed to achieve any of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, a major objective, was not captured until 21 July. Only two of the beaches (Juno and Gold) were linked on the first day, and all five beachheads were not connected until 12 June; however, the operation gained a foothold which the Allies gradually expanded over the coming months. German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead.” ~ Wikipedia
WSAV.com
Filed under holidays
Filed under Watercolors I Love
“Once Upon a Time” – Alina Ciuciu
Alina Ciuciu – Linkedin
“Blue Harbor” – Alina Ciuciu
Alina Ciuciu – Linkedin
Filed under Acrylic Paintings I Love
Wild Abundance
Our weeds aren’t QUITE as bad as these, but I’m having to really work to try to catch up. Our monsoon-like rains here have resulted not only in a pretty stellar veggie crop this year, but also ‘weeds as high as an elephant’s eye’ (“Oklahoma” musical paraphrase).
I just came in from pruning our rose bushes to encourage more blooms and weeding and cutting back in our trio of brick planters between the front yard and the driveway. There is always more, but they look as if someone cares now. :0)
Yesterday I spent about an hour weeding in our veggie garden. The sheer volume of weeds won. I’ll go out in a few minutes (wearing a sweat band and having sprayed with OFF!) – I DO learn from mistakes! – and I’ll see if I can finish weeding the boxes today.
This year it seems as though we’re always trying to get something done ‘before the day’s rain.’ Today we have a 50% chance of heavy rain. 80% tomorrow. 50% Friday…. you get the idea.
I told you yesterday that I would try to get pics of our tomato plants. I forgot, so I’ll go out and get some now.
It’s been a couple of days since I checked on the tomato plants. We have some green tomatoes!
We have 4 tomato plants in this planter.
And two more plants here. (These were so large I had to string wire to hold them up!)
This is one green tomato from these two plants.
Did I tell you I’m having trouble keeping up with things with all the rain we’ve been having?!?!
Heading out to the veggie garden to see if I can finish weeding there.
With all the rain we’ve been having, the weeds have gone nuts in my garden. I just spent about an hour pulling out spent broccoli plants and weeding. I forgot to wear a sweat band AND forgot to spray myself for mosquitoes, so came in hot, tired, wiping my forehead while grabbing a cold bottle of water, and scratching bites…
If you’ll look carefully, in the center of the picture is a cute little zucchini! My first! I’ll have to read up on what to do, but I’m excited. :0)
The main part of this photo is a celery plant, grown from a stalk I bought at the store. I’ll continue to try to grow some. I’m not sure when, but I’m supposed to bind the little stalks tightly together so they look more like what you buy in the store. More reading!
More zucchini vines and blossoms. They will soon take over the boxes.
Technically, it’s too warm for spinach, but I’m still hoping.
My husband wanted me to try cantaloupe. Since we both love it, I was happy to accommodate him…
This gives you a better idea of how LARGE these zucchini plants are!
I guess the hard rains we’ve had did a number on many of the green parts of my sweet red onions. I only weeded a small amount of the box these are planted in, but it looks like the actual onions are okay. I’ll work on it some more tomorrow.
I’ll also see if I can share pictures of our tomato plants tomorrow.
Filed under Changes, Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I have a new store on Etsy called ArtworthyNoteCards.
I would appreciate it VERY much, if you have the time and/or inclination, if you would go to the site, look around, and then tell me what you think.
THANK YOU!
Filed under Uncategorized
Remember it takes a college degree to fly a plane, but only a high school diploma to fix one; a reassurance to those of us who fly routinely in our jobs.
After every flight, UPS pilots fill out a form, called a ‘gripe sheet,’ which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight.
Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humour. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.
By the way,UPS is the only major airline that has never, ever, had an accident.
P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
*
P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.
*
P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.
*
P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
*
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200-feet-per-minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
*
P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed
*
P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.
*
P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That’s what friction locks are for.
*
P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF is always inoperative in OFF mode.
*
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you’re right.
*
P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.
*
P: Aircraft handles funny. (I love this one!)
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right and be serious.
*
P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.
*
P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.
*
And the best one for last
*
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from the midget.*Thanks to Marsha Koenig for her email. I snorted, grinned, and laughed out loud at these.
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor
Today’s Parent
We HOPE we have reached the end of over two full days of NO Internet service. Granted, our weather has been bad off and on, but the last couple of days have been relatively nice. There seemed to be no reason for the outage. Of COURSE, it was on the weekend – starting Friday evening – outside of regular working hours.
My husband talked with a tech a couple of nights ago, who confirmed there was an outage in our area. He said they were working on it, and should have it fixed by yesterday morning at 10 a.m. He told us to call if we still had problems. I called yesterday after 10 a.m. and they told me the outage had been fixed.
I CALMLY said that was lovely, but we still didn’t have service. Finally, after many “put-on-holds-and-thank-you-for-the-patience-that-had-long-since-been-used-up” sessions, they confirmed that there was still an outage affecting where WE lived. Duh. They said they were working on it…
I had been trying to watch a webinar for the full two days. It was concerning my new Etsy store, and what I should do to give it the best possible chance of success – something I really wanted to watch and hear. My frustration level was through the roof.
I used the time we didn’t have Internet to finish inventorying the supplies I had for filling orders. I also reorganized what I had so I could put my hands on things quickly.
This is my newly-cleaned-off-thanks-to-the-outage drafting table.
This are my note cards and stationery supplies shelves.
A close-up of the labels so that I don’t have to approach the shelves with a ruler each time. :0)
Combination freebies-to-be-included in orders and wrapping station.
I was FINALLY able to watch the hour long webinar at 1o:00 last night. :0)
Now that we have Internet service again – HOOOOOO-RAAAAAAAAAY! – I’ll concentrate on trying to implement one of the many great suggestions my expert, Renae Christine, had.
Filed under Challenges, Organizing/DeCluttering
We have a really good chance of more severe weather this afternoon and tonight, so I got out and cut some of the lilies that are blooming in one of our planters.
Here are more of the yellow ones in the planter.
And I HOPING that this beauty won’t be harmed by the storms.
Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Mother Nature
Alina Ciuciu – “Now I Need to Sleep” – LinkedIn
Vintage Dragonfly Mosaics via Cathy Ruggiero
Tetiana Shevchuk – LinkedIn
TheCatHouseontheKings.com via Cathy Ruggiero
Animal Wallpapers – Desktop Nexus
Our Abby
Our Smoke
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, quality of life
shutterstock.com
We trapped two raccoons – one each night, and relocated them about 5 or 6 miles away from us – both in the same creek so they could hopefully find each other and enjoy their lives elsewhere.
Now it has been two days with NO raccoons. The humane trap is set – with Ritz crackers and peanut butter – door open – but was empty again today.
We don’t know if we got all the raccoons that have been eating all of our birdseed and then trashing the feeders, grill covers, and the cup of the trap – or if they are playing a sly game with us, lulling us into complacency once again, only to return in force in a bit when our guard is down.
Our dogs have quit freaking out every time we take them out. Amber, our 94-pound yellow lab PUPPY, has finally quit barking at the empty trap, and no longer is afraid of going up on the deck.
Molly, our sweet, elderly cocker spaniel/schnauzer cross, followed Amber’s lead and barked like a nut when they went out for their last outing of the night.
We have to admit that we don’t miss having to put the trap full of raccoon into the bed of the truck and driving way out into the country behind our house to relocate yet another critter first thing in the morning….
Filed under Amazing Animals, Challenges
Love To Be Busy
These aren’t MY shelves, but I’m spending time in my art room inventorying my paper supplies, calligraphy pens, wrapping supplies, paints, boxes, ribbons, envelopes, and more to be sure I can fill orders without delay.
I’m making lists of what I DO need to order, and then reorganizing my shelves so that things I need are super easy to find.
I’m excited that I have found Renae Christine, a lady who has been super successful in online shops of her own, who makes videos for others like me, helping them to correct mistakes they might be making, helping them rethink what they are trying to do, and helping them get set up. I signed up for one of her webinars today at 2pm, and have an alarm set and note-taking supplies at the ready!
She is very smart. I’ve watched each of the three videos I have twice, trying to absorb everything and use her suggestions in my new Etsy store, ArtworthyNoteCards.
P.S. Our Internet only functioned in spotty fashion the whole day, so I missed the webinar. I THINK I can save it and watch it tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
Filed under learning new things, opportunities, Organizing/DeCluttering
creativeartworksblog 