No one is negotiating our driveway until Mother Nature quits giving us a cold shoulder. We’re still iced in, though our temperatures are supposed to get above freezing today, and things are supposed to start melting. I’ll believe it when I see it. We have mail waiting, plus deliveries scheduled – but all will have to wait until further notice. It’s 28 and a world of white ice right now.
We had a comfort food dinner of chicken chunks, mushrooms and onions in cream of mushroom/chicken soup over rice last night. I got TWO compliments on it while we were eating and help cleaning up the kitchen afterward, so it was a definite success. :0)
I was really happy to hear our generator come on last Thursday, doing its automatic weekly testing, in the middle of our being stuck up here on top of our hill. Thankfully, we haven’t needed it, but I can’t tell you how grateful I am to know it’s there if needed.
Isn’t this an amazing .gif? I don’t know how these are created, but I’m in awe of the talent and creativity of these smart people.
Our snow has stopped now. We only got about 3 inches, but when you have a 650+ foot STEEP driveway, it’s enough to keep us inside. (At least I HOPE. My husband sometimes considers the snow and danger for us a challenge to prove we CAN get down and up our driveway again.) I don’t know yet if the evergreens along the driveway are drooping down into it, cutting off passage. It’s 24 degrees F., but is supposed to get above freezing this afternoon. Maybe the driveway will start melting. Our driveway pad is clear, and the streets may be clear, but the world is white and pristine as far as we can see right now.
I was a good girl yesterday, balancing checkbooks, paying bills, finishing the bookkeeping for December, filing, and getting the makings of beef stew ready to go into the crock pot for today. I’m PLANNING to clean off my desk and then clean up the kitchen, unless I’m overtaken by the great sloth that flourishes inside me. :0)
Today is a quiet day for us, and I’m really enjoying it.
I’m going out later to our shop. I’ll try to repair the pot I made for my friend, Kay. One of the stones fell off the mosaic design. I should be able to fix it. I really want to because she really seemed to enjoy the gift and I want it to last a long time for her.
Yesterday we rushed around doing lots of errands and tying up loose ends before Christmas, so it’s doubly good to be able to simply enjoy the pretty day. My husband and I had a celebrational lunch yesterday, eating French fries for the first time in a year. Absolutely DELICIOUS, and I’m already looking forward to eating them again NEXT year. :0)
We go to join our friends for Lunch Bunch today. We almost always have the ‘Chicken Thingies.” (I can never remember whether they call them chicken fingers, strips, or whatever, but they are served with honey mustard and are delicious.
Since we are TRYING to lose some of our lard, we try to “eat-half-and-bring-home-half” to make chef salad for our dinner on Fridays.
Yesterday I got home from my massage to find my husband waiting for me so we could go out again for another errand. On the way home, he stopped at our local grocery wanting to get lunch from the deli there. We got fish dinners, enjoying every bite, but paying the price for it on the scales this morning. The pound I had gotten off yesterday had reappeared today. :0( Today will be another chance to remove it.
I have celebrated Labor Day this year by NOT laboring very much.
I did the laundry and vacuumed the first floor tiled areas, but that’s about it. I have enjoyed reading and napping and watching TV, talking with my husband, playing with Amber, the dog, and Abby, the cat. It’s been a lovely day.
Tomorrow will be full of work and errands, but that’s tomorrow.
My diet and exercise effort have been sporadic this past week. Until I can get my act together, I won’t see any progress. At this point, I’m just trying not to fall off completely. I feel stressed, and that brings on ‘stuff-my-mouth’ behavior. There are many things over which I have no control. I will try to concentrate on the things I CAN.
I feel happy this morning because I got to chat with our son before he went to bed. There is a 12-hour time difference between Arkansas and Thailand, so it’s a bit of a challenge to have both of us up at the same time. He sounded happy, and that’s all that matters.
Yesterday I stopped by the booth my friend Carla and I share in Rags & Roses Collective in Greenwood to take a few new things and visit with the owner a bit. She showed me a couple of videos of her son doing all kinds of gymnastics with the cheerleaders for a basketball game at school. WONDERFUL! We sold some things yesterday, covering half our rent. Hopefully, this will continue!
I got a haircut yesterday, and two of my best friends in the world thought it looked good!
I have gotten past the stage where the most difficult part of my yoga practice is getting back up off the floor. Enough time has passed that I have devised ‘methods’ for this and don’t have to hire man with a crane. Still, this sweet, fat kitty resonates…
Last week was a good week. I am almost to my first 5-pound-off goal! (I am still re-losing weight gained during the pandemic and holidays, so it’ll be awhile before I break new territory, but progress is progress. I am down 4.4 pounds since the beginning of our ‘get-serious’ decision. I will measure at the end of the month and see where I am on lardage.
I have admitted before that I have never grown up and am STILL motivated by the idea of the gold stars I used to try to earn from my teachers for good work in school. Last week I earned 6 gold stars for exercising – doing my elliptical trainer in the garage and yoga stretches in the afternoon. This week I will try to earn 14.
I am moving more, too, as documented by the small, cheap pedometer I keep in my pocket. I’m a bit teed off that the steps on the elliptical don’t show on the pedometer, but that’s life. I’m afraid I’ll never be a walker, unless I can solve the problem of my hips yelling at me after I walk a short distance. (Oddly, if I sit down for just a moment, my system ‘resets’ and I can walk again without pain.) Unless I carry a chair, or there are places I can sit along the walkway, I’ll just try to keep walking around my yard when the weather permits.
As soon as I hopefully build the habit of elliptical in the morning and yoga in the afternoon, I’m thinking of trying to add back my ‘Annoying Leslie’ walking video a couple of times a week. She really grates on my nerves (I hate people who are bubbling over with joy at exercising), but she really knows her stuff.
I have a good start now and hope to be able to report that I’m keeping it going. For now, I have a gold star to earn – as soon as I finish my coffee. :0)
“May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your debts. May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet of $100 bills. May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips! May your clothes smell of success like smoking tires. May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy. May the problems you had forget your home address! In simple words ………… May 2021 be the best year of your life!!!” Author Unknown
I just had the joy of chatting with our son. He lives in Thailand, and so is 12 hours ahead of us. He said the fireworks were starting there.
I also went ahead and started my 2021 calendar, needing the boost of another gorgeous Australian firefighter with sweet animal to start my day. I figure with the way the world is, YOU might need a boost, too –
So, here are Richard and Abigail to welcome us to January 1st tomorrow. :0)
Our weather sucks – it’s 33 degrees F. right now with heavy rain and local flooding forecast for this afternoon through tomorrow. It’s a very good day to have a warm, dry house on top of a ridge line.
I am enjoying watching YouTube video demonstrations of the bleeding tissue paper art technique. I’ve watched two very different techniques, both with stunning results. My wonderful sister-in-law sent me a big package of large bleeding tissue paper sheets in assorted colors, so I spent last night dreaming of things to try with it. I also received 1″ round magnets I ordered that I’m going to try to paint and sell at our local booth. I’ll spend some time watching a few more videos and then go up and start getting my act together to try some new art!
My husband has requested I make chili mac tonight for dinner. I’ll do that – kind of as a ‘last hurrah’ from our ‘hang-the-diet’ eating splurge of the last few weeks. I am talking to myself (I know) – trying to get ready for a new day, new year, ‘new-motivation-for-diet-and-exercise’ frame of mind for tomorrow.
Enjoy your New Year’s Eve celebrations wherever you are. I wish you the very best for 2021.
I have a beef roast in the crock pot, and I need to put the trash at the bottom of the driveway on the way to the post office to mail a book we sold, but that may be in for the day.
I am feeling at loose ends and incredibly lazy. I just wish I looked as cute as this kitty not getting anything done….
I told you yesterday that I ate my way through a session of being up in the middle of the night, not able to sleep. I looked just like this cute little guy – except I wasn’t eating carrots.
Today we’re celebrating my husband’s birthday, so all bets are off on our diet again.
TOMORROW we will be good little soldiers again – at least “I” will be. My husband will still be enjoying his pineapple upside down cake, I hope, since it has been a year since I baked one for him.
I think – at least I HOPE – that if I eat the way I’m ‘supposed’ to at least 98% of the time, I will reach my lard loss goals eventually…
I’m still smiling from finding this! I LOVE this cat!
It’s gorgeous, sunny, and 64 degrees F. here in Arkansas today.
I’m still patting myself on the head because I was able to figure out why our yard irrigation system was failing to come on. I don’t know what got it ‘wonky,’ but I was giving it a last-ditch-effort, having tried everything I could figure out to do on reprogramming the thing, and it FINALLY came on as it was supposed to. My husband was impressed. I just smiled – as if it were no big thing – but INSIDE I was jumping up and down. :0)
I will try to spend some time working on my garden boxes today.
I love this. If “I” tried to do it, though, there would probably be a huge rock at the bottom of the pile waiting for me to bash my brains out jumping in like this. I’m mentally enjoying pretending I am this man, though. It is 60 degrees right now and very cloudy. It’s supposed to clear up and be in the low 80’s with sunshine this afternoon. Mother Nature is really smiling on us right now. LOVELY fall day.
Today we meet our friends for Lunch Bunch and then do a few errands.
Yahoo! Sports
Yesterday I won an award for laziness and procrastination. I had a whole list of things to do, but didn’t do much of anything. I ended up taking a nap in my chair, instead. SURELY I can do better today!
Top 100 Funny Quotes via CoolFunnyQuotes.com
The project for the day is cleaning out the shelves in our master bathroom. There are two floor-to-ceiling sets of shelves, plus a big medicine cabinet – all full of ‘stuff.’ I’m going to see if I can get those cleaned out today. I started to do this recently, but got snafued.
I hope that you have a nice Friday and an even nicer weekend.
We have both doors open, encouraging an airing out of the house. My husband is taking a nap, covered with a blanket in his recliner. I had the happy thing of getting a bit TOO chilly while working at my computer, and so got up and turned the ceiling fan OFF! It’s still too wet to work outside, so I’m still concentrating on INSIDE stuff today.
I’m having an easier time of my exercise time on my elliptical trainer. It’s in the garage, so the outside temperatures are a big factor for me. I don’t have to use the fan on the wall in front of the machine now. The little built-in one on the machine is enough. :0) Coupled with my old lady yoga stretches, I feel I am getting a reasonable amount of exercise each day.
“Caught Red-Pawed” – Audrius P. – Bored Panda
I can’t express how excited (and relieved) I am to have found the frozen meals at REAL FOOD in Greenwood. (We put our pre-order in on Wednesday afternoons and then pick the order up the following Monday.) We are building our eating day around the frozen meal as the main meal of the day, eating very lightly the rest of the day. Both of us are continuing to lose weight. I’m am still cooking keto on the weekends. We won’t break any records on fast weight loss, but the scales have quit cringing so much when we get on. I’m also encouraged to have finally re-lost most of the weight I gained during the pandemic, now ready to break new ground in my losing-the-lard efforts. 40 pounds off is a nice, round number. My next goal is 45. I am hopeful that when I measure at the end of the month, my tape measure will be happier, too.
I was dreaming last night of a new group of products to make in my art room. I love quotes, and am really inspired by some, laugh at others – so I’m going to do some paintings on small hard canvas boards, using Unicorn Spit paint, watercolors, acrylics, melted crayons, etc. and then letter good quotes that people might like on them. The ideas are rattling around, so it’ll be fun to get to my art room and see what happens.
I’m still working on cleaning out and getting rid of things – donating the things that others can use, pitching other things, cleaning and reorganizing the rest. I haven’t decided on my project for the day, but I’m leaning toward our master bedroom bath.
Our son lives in Thailand. He said he had been getting some rain lately. Then he sent us a video that he took outside his yard –
“Labor Day 2020 will occur on Monday, September 7. Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers and is traditionally observed on the first Monday in September. It was created by the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal holiday in 1894.” ~ http://www.history.com
In 1918, my dad was born on Labor Day, September 6th that year. He always said he thought it was ‘appropriate.’ :0)
This Labor Day is a bit sad because so many good people are still out of work due to the pandemic. In addition, we have people who have lost homes, businesses, and jobs due to Mother Nature and the hurricanes and flooding. Hopefully, all this will improve soon. It seems we have already started, though more rapidly would, of course, be better.
We continue to eat our way through our BistroMD eating plan. Last night we both ate a chicken, rice and cheddar casserole with broccoli. It was the best thing we’ve had so far, but neither of us was impressed. We have to accept an order for next week, but we have cancelled the program.
Our yard is looking pretty good now! (for us). My husband got the grass mowed a couple of days ago. The day before yesterday I weed whacked what he couldn’t mow, and yesterday I used the leaf blower to clean up. One would actually think we might be civilized around here! Today I will mix up 2 gallons of EIGHT bug killer and hose down the garden before I try to harvest the rest of the onions. I’ll also spray the trio of brick planters between our driveway area and our yard in preparation for weeding and pruning things there. I do NOT want to get stung/bitten by ants again!
I’m also thinking of checking the co-op in town to see if they have lettuce plants. If they do, I’ll take the tomato plants down in the planter close to the house and plant lettuce there. One year we were lucky, having fresh lettuce into early February!
I will call to find out if the new place in Greenwood called Real Food is open today. I interested in seeing the place, plus possible getting a couple of frozen dinners to try.
Tawny Frogmouth Owl-hcreations72 via Penny Yaffe Krakow
I LOVE this bird! So ugly she’s beautiful. AND unique in the world.
Lowes
I will finish the yard clean up today from our storm last Friday. I have used all the picking up branches and using the leaf blower to try to clear up the yard as a stand-in for my elliptical trainer since Friday. I have done at least two sessions each day in the hot sun, getting my heart rate up, breathing hard, then resting and drinking LOTS and LOTS of water to re-hydrate. I’ve been finishing that off with an abbreviated session of yoga each day to stretch out my poor, sore muscles. I had one day of neck, shoulders and arms really complaining about working with the leaf blower again, so finishing today will be a good thing.
I have a haircut this afternoon! I go to Tangles in Greenwood, owned and operated by Michael Remillard. He has cut my husband’s hair and beard, plus my hair, for years now. He makes us look presentable, and that’s no small task! I went really short last time and I have really liked it, so I’ll ask him to do that again. I just wash and blow it dry every morning. No muss, no fuss. Wonderful! If you would like to contact him, his phone number is 479-357-9305. He is the best.
I have lost almost 10 lbs via South Beach now. I am about to break into new territory on my losing-the-lard efforts, rather than re-losing what I lost before. I will be really happy when I reach that point, and will probably make you roll your eyes with my jubilance when that goal is reached. :0)
Gfycat
I am trying to finish my newest earrings today, putting various findings on them, (pierced, post, or clip-on) so I can take individual pictures of each pair and list them for sale on my EyecatchingEarrings on Etsy website.
I have no big project today, other than finishing the yard clean up. If I can do that, plus get the newest earrings finished and listed, I will be happy with my day.
It’s still rainy here this morning, but it’s supposed to clear this afternoon. Isn’t the .gif above amazing? Inna Kashkovar does beautiful work.
My newly planted annuals, as well as my garden veggies, got a hefty drink yesterday. I’ll try to get out later and take some pictures of things – hoping they all enjoyed the water, rather than getting washed out.
After planting 5 flats (180 flowers) Friday afternoon and evening, and then helping my husband mount a humongous nut and bolt bin on the horizontal support beams on one wall of the shop yesterday, my husband and I are enjoying a much quieter day today.
He’s going to go out to the shop and enjoy organizing and labeling the slots of his new bin today. I’m not sure what’s on tap for me, but I’m thinking about playing in my art room. BOTH of us are looking forward to seeing Game of Thrones, Season 8, Episode 1 tonight.
Inna has a wonderful talent – she takes already ‘nice’ images and then adds life (like the rain here), bringing them to an art form. I just love her work!
creativeartworksblog 