I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. We had a lazy happy day with football games, computers, reading, napping, and, of course, dinner. My husband complimented me on the dinner a couple of times last night and again this morning. I’m planning to fix turkey sandwiches (my favorite part of Thanksgiving) tonight. :0)
Today is warm (54 degrees F.) for this time of year, but it’s gray, wet, and misty. Things won’t dry out enough for me to do much in the yard today, and then we’re supposed to get rain tomorrow. UGH. I’ll never get the yard ready for winter at this rate. The weather makes me want to curl up under my throw.
The only constructive thing I’m planning for the day is vacuuming. I hope that your day is a fun one.
Having a happy day already. I’ve chatted with several friends and relatives this morning, reaching out to share our love and wishes for a happy celebration today. I’m feeling very lucky to be in a warm, dry house, husband sleeping in his chair in the living room, getting ready to start cooking, and feeling surrounded by love. Absolutely priceless. :0)
We should be filled with gratitude for whatever goodness we have in our lives EVERY day, but Thanksgiving reminds us. I wish you a celebration filled with family and friends, good food, and lots of smiles, laughter, and great hugs.
bestfriends.org
It’s rainy here today, just as forecast, so I’m really happy I got the bricks-and-trio-planters project done yesterday. My husband wanted the more traditional Thanksgiving meal this year, so I’m cooking a turkey breast, gravy, and stuffing, and we’ll have deviled eggs and cranberry sauce and a roll tonight. My husband bought a cake at the grocery store to enjoy today, too.
The bricks have been moved from in the middle of everything, between the top of the driveway to the far side, between one place we store firewood and the end of the trio planters. (You can see the bare dirt rectangle on the ground where the stack of bricks was.) I used a leaf blower to clear the area as much as possible and then weed whacked along the edge of the planters on this side and the other side that faces the yard.
Looks a bit more like someone cares now. The rain spit on us a bit on our way home from getting some groceries, but let up when we got home, giving me the chance to finish this project. The rain is supposed to start again in about and hour, then continue throughout the night and into tomorrow. I’m doubly glad I got to a stopping point here.
I’m resting now and enjoying a cup of coffee and then will do my yoga practice for the day. (DAY 131 of yoga practice and I held the plank pose for a quick count of 45 yesterday.)
I hope you’re doing well this morning. I’m leaving in a minute to get a much-needed haircut. I look like a dandelion-gone-to-seed, but I’m confident that Michael can work his usual miracle, making it look like someone has a plan.
Yesterday I got the bricks moved. My husband came out to help me with the last two wheelbarrow loads, and then I raked leaves. I gathered several cloth leaf barrels full of leaves and carted them around to the back, filling up the two tomato planters and the new iris planter. If the rain holds off long enough today, I’m planning to use the leaf blower to clean up the area between the top of our driveway and the trio of planters. That will show if I need to weed whack. I’ll take pics later.
If you’re on your way to see family for the Thanksgiving holiday, I wish you a safe, smooth trip to and from, with lots of love and hugs in-between.
Yesterday I looked for puzzles for my friend, Linda, who is moving to a retirement place any time now. I wanted to find a ‘retirement-place-apartment-warming-gift’ for when she calls me and tells me she is settled.
She really likes to work jigsaw puzzles, but during the past year has become overwhelmed by the huge ones she used to do. I decided to see if I could find one that had fewer pieces.
She loves dogs, and actually HAS her dog who will make the move to the retirement place with her, so the picture on this puzzle should be a happy one for her. It has 300 pieces, and they are 33% larger than the standard jigsaw piece size. This should be much easier for her to work with.
We had already talked about her taking a card table to her new place, so this should work. I’m hoping she still has the roll-up puzzle-in-progress holder I got for her in the past. She could put that down on the card table, work as she wants to on the puzzle, and then roll it up to get it out of the way easily if she wants to.
I’m hoping this will hit the right note with her. She is such a dear lady and I love her to pieces. (pun?)
This pile of bricks is part of a big group that we bought when we needed to replace two brick planters that were failing. These are the leftovers from that project and have been sitting here for several years now. We weed whack around them. We mow around them. They are an eyesore – one of the first things you see when you get to the top of our driveway.
True to form what bothers one person doesn’t bother another. While this pile of bricks has been grating on my nerves for quite some time now, my husband doesn’t even see it anymore. When I talked to him about our relocating the bricks, he was totally uninterested. Since I’M the one this bothers, I’ll do something about it – TODAY.
There is a spot between the far end of this trio of brick planters and one of our firewood holders. This would be out of the way and mostly out of sight. I’ll use the wheelbarrow and see if I can get these moved this morning.
I’m basically still eating in the Mediterranean style, with more veggies and fruit, but I’m making some changes that I HOPE will result in losing some of my lard –
I’m not adding salt to ANYTHING until further notice.
I’m eating HALF the amount of cottage cheese I was eating after my yoga practice, and I changed to the low-fat version.
If I eat anything else between meals, it’s baby carrots. That’s IT. (If I don’t want them, I’m not truly hungry.)
Yesterday I chose more carefully on what I’m including in my lunch, eliminating a few things.
Careful dinner. No dessert. Nothing before bed.
If I’m up in the middle of the night, I will eat carrots. :0)
I’m consciously drinking more water – at least a bottle before lunch AND before dinner.
I will eat Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners celebrationally – then back on Phase I.
I have asked my husband to help me by NOT bringing me ANY wonderful things to eat until further notice.
These changes, along with my daily exercise, should get me started.
DAY 130 on daily yoga practice. Held plank pose for quick count of 40 yesterday.
1st Weight Loss Goal – to get to my prepandemic weight loss amount. (That’s 6 lbs. – THEN I’ll make a new goal.)
Good morning! I’m still trying to get my head on straight with a cup of coffee.
We have a quiet day today, with only getting the trash to the bottom of the driveway and going to our routine doctor appointment this afternoon. I’m hoping to get outside for some work in the yard when we get home.
gonedogmad.com
Today is DAY 130 of my daily yoga practice. I’m still giving myself a star on my desk calendar each day, encouraging me to keep this going. It’s still a matter of determination, rather than it being a ‘habit’ or a ‘need’, but I’m making some progress on the poses and I feel better after I do my session each afternoon. Yesterday I held the plank pose of a quick count of 40.
Giphy
Yesterday I talked to my husband AGAIN, asking for his help and encouragement in my efforts to lose the lard. Right now his help is sporadic, at best. He encourages me, and then, like last night, brings me a plate with a slab of his birthday cake with pineapple and ice cream on top…
He SAYS he’ll try to be supportive at least more of the time, ASKING me before he wants to bring me something. I’m hoping I’ll be strong enough to answer, “No, I’m fine, thanks.”
I’m armed with baby carrots ready to eat, and low fat cottage cheese for after yoga. Yesterday I cut the amount of cottage cheese I was eating by half and was fine with it. Hopefully, I can continue doing things like that, making tweaks or cutting things out. My immediate goal is to see a difference in 8 weeks, the time between my doc’s appt today and when I have to go back and get another blood test to see if the new dose of thyroid hormone is the right one for me now. I think that’s a good amount of time to establish some new good eating habits, or at least be on the road to that.
Google Play
My friend, Linda, is moving to a retirement place very soon. She likes to do jigsaw puzzles, but the huge ones are too much for her now. She does the real ones, not the ones on a computer. I’ll look today and see if I can find one with 250-500 pcs, so I can take it to her as a ‘retirement-place-apartment-warming’ gift.
I FINALLY got out our lists of medicines and carefully updated them and printed them to take to the doctor tomorrow. I’m embarrassed to tell you how long I’ve been putting this task off. Since we go tomorrow, the procrastination efforts had to stop.
I’ll start another task as soon as I finish here, but I thought I would take a break and show you some of the work of another talented artist I found today – Valerie Davide.
I now feel good almost every day. My switch to a Mediterranean style of eating from Low Carb – Keto is now complete. I’m still a bit sad to leave the Keto because I was losing weight, but my lack of gallbladder – and maybe my lack of thyroid – and the resulting serious problems with digestion forced the change.
The simple injecting of more veggies and fruit into our diet has resulting in my feeling good with all systems working (with the exception of my current needing to change my dosage of thyroid medication).
The problem from the change is that I’ve been gaining weight – weight I REALLY didn’t want or need. We go to the doctor for our routine appointment tomorrow. I’ll grit my teeth as they record my weight. I have to go back in 8 weeks for another blood test to see if the new thyroid hormone dosage is correct. I’m using this 8 week period to see if I can now switch my focus to eating LESS as well as eating healthy. 8 weeks should be long enough to see some results from the changes I’ll make.
FOCUS 1 – ONLY raw carrots in-between meals. If I don’t want carrots, I’m not really hungry.
Today will still be cold It’s 25 now) but help is on the way starting tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to being able to do a bit in the yard again in the afternoons before winter is upon us.
Doga
I did a lot better with yoga practice yesterday (DAY 128). I’m not sure what is happening, but it seemed that my body is finally able to stretch more in many of the poses. I won’t win any prizes, but comparably speaking, I’m making some sort of break-through – either in stretching farther or being able to hold the pose longer. My plank pose holding is now up to a quick count of 35 – much better than the quick count of 10 with which I started.
BBC Science Focus Magazine
I was a slug yesterday, so my to-do list is the same, and even longer today. I’ll try to do better, though I should win an award for procrastination. I SO enjoyed reading, napping under my throw, and even cooking our dinner yesterday, instead. First priority today is going through each of our medicines list to make sure they are up to date for our doctor tomorrow.
I WISH it looked like this outside today. It IS a cool, very crisp, fall sunny day here, but the main color is beige, rather than the glorious display above. It’s 28 degrees now, and the high is supposed to be a balmy 45 this afternoon. The coming days, though, are supposed to have highs in the 50s – MUCH more to my liking and my desire to get more yard work done.
My husband enjoyed his birthday dinner last night, remarking on it a couple of times. :0) We also had a celebratory piece of Mt. Dew cake, thanks to Kay from Lunch Bunch. The best part of the celebration, from my perspective, is the call from Thailand from our son, short though it was, and the fact that instead of being depressed about aging, my husband announced that he was looking forward to his NEXT birthday, because he thinks 80 is a much nicer number than 79….
He’s still in a birthday celebration frame of mind, and requested that I make soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. Birthday and cold weather comfort food, for sure.
Since it’s too cold to work outside, I’m going to concentrate on paperwork in the office and vacuuming today. I’ll pay bills, study our lab test results and make sure our meds lists are up to date for the doc appt Monday afternoon. Amber has left another dog’s worth of hair on the tiles and carpeting. It’s amazing how much more I have to vacuum on the first floor than the second. The second is what I would term ‘normal’ and the first needs a serious effort at LEAST twice as much. It’s truly amazing (and disgusting) how full the vacuum canister gets each time I vacuum the first floor.
And that’s it for the exciting life of the Lewises in Arkansas. I’m delighted I don’t live in Buffalo right now. I hope that everyone there is snuggled into their warm house and don’t have to get out until further notice.
creativeartworksblog 