May the Good Lord take a liking to you… but not too soon!
There are only two kinds of people in the world, The Irish and those who wish they were.
May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light,
May good luck pursue you each morning and night.
~Irish Blessing
Filed under holidays
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography
Figuring out what’s happening in our world is more and more challenging.
I read several sources on my computer daily and also watch news programs on TV. The disparity I find is confusing and frustrating, to say the least. I’m not sure whether I need to read more or less!
The images I see say one thing. The explanations from the media say another. It’s difficult to judge what is real, what to think, what to believe in the face of some stories reported on a source or two, yet completely ignored by others. When the subject is covered by several sources, the slant of the media people is like night and day.
It makes me frustrated and hostile, so I tend to vacillate between spending more time trying to find out and avoiding the whole thing.
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as “the most trusted man in America” after being so named in an opinion poll.
I’m so old I remember listening each night to Walter Cronkite. No bells. No whistles. No fancy stuff. Just a reading of what happened during the day. I don’t remember him ever giving an opinion, but I was young at the time and not aware as I should have been about things like that.
I don’t like to be cynical. I don’t want to have to ‘weigh’ what I read or hear, trying to figure out if I can trust the information – if the person speaking has an agenda – skin in the game – an axe to grind.
It makes me tired. I wish I could have Walter back.
Filed under Challenges
Lard is CUTE on this sweet hippo, but not so much on me.
Now that we finally seem to be calling winter over – at least according to the calendar officially designating spring this Sunday – I’m trying to call comfort food eating over, at least until next winter!
My husband and I have discussed NOT putting food that is NOT on the list in the shopping cart. This goes in one ear and out the other with SOME of us. Since my willpower is laughable, I have seriously asked for his help. We’re going to try to get back to our once a week salad night, as well as eating the good individual frozen meals we’ve been getting from Stu’s Clean Cookin’ and Real Food, both of which are easily accessible, now that getting snowed or iced in isn’t nearly as possible. I’m trying to include a side veggie from my list of ‘good’ veggies from various lists that are supposed to maintain or improve the status on our various health concerns. We also have some good low carb dinners we like that I can cook, freezing leftovers into individual dinners.
Happily, spring already brings me to more physical activity with our garden and trying to get the yard and our planters in shape. I’m also continuing to do my old lady yoga stretches each afternoon. If I can, I’m going to TRY to include a session three times a week on my elliptical trainer, now that the garage isn’t freezing.
Losing the lard will be in two phases –
PHASE I – getting back to where I was before the winter hit.
PHASE II – starting to enjoy new territory.
A full two-armed embrace of spring for my garden and hopefully, less of me, with the exception of a huge smile on my face.
Happy Spring!
Filed under Challenges, Changes, DIET!, exercise
I had filled up our raised bed, square-foot planters with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, vermiculite, and three kinds of compost) at the end of fall. We put a square plastic bucket in the middle of each planter, then stretched a tarp over each box, using bungee cords to secure them. We had to replace the tarps about a month ago or so, since the weather and sun had pretty much disintegrated them. The purpose of this was to try NOT to have to spend several days prepping the garden before I could plant.
When I started yesterday, the tarps were completely water-laden. I pulled them off the planters and spread them beside the shop, holding them in place with bricks, to dry in the sun. I stored the plastic buckets and bungee cords in one of the trash cans and put it under one of the planters.
There were VERY few weeds in the planters, so I was able to get started with the planting almost immediately! Hooray!!!!!!
If you look carefully, you can see the wire we strung in two directions, creating the ‘squares’ for planting. I was able to get spinach, red onion sets, broccoli, leaf lettuce, and cauliflower plants in town.
I got everything planted except for the red onion sets. I’ll try to get those planted today.
I need to find the timer for our irrigation system, put new batteries in it, and hook it up to the garden faucet, and then hook up the hoses that go to the garden planters.
You can see the hose that runs down the middle of the three planters on one side of the garden. You can also see the sprinkler in the middle of each box. Both sides are set up the same way, then tied together so the whole system works as one on the timer.
I’ll try to get the red onion sets planted today. We’re due for rain late this evening-into-tomorrow, so it’ll be okay if I wait until the weekend to get the irrigation system set up.
I’ll see what other plants are available the next time we have a chance.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I have a favorite spoon. It isn’t valuable to anyone except me. It’s a great spoon for eating soup and such, kind of between a regular dining spoon and a soup spoon in size. It has a wooden handle, and that sealed the deal for me. I LOVE wood.
I’ve used it for YEARS. One day several years ago, the wooden handle split. I tried to be adult about it, but I was really sad. I’d never seen one like it and knew I couldn’t replace it. My husband managed to find a wooden shape that was perfect. He spent a long time carefully drilling a hole down the middle of the complicated shape and glued it on the metal end of the spoon. I was delighted, and have used THIS ONE for years.
Well, as you’ve probably figured out, the handle finally gave up the ghost again. I mentioned it to my husband, but figured he probably wouldn’t be able to get more wood the right shape. His hands also shake now, making precision work much more difficult. I put the spoon with the split handle in the cutlery drawer, just keeping it, even if it couldn’t be used anymore.
When I was getting my coffee this morning, my husband went outside. He came back with this –
It might be dumb to cry over a spoon, but I did. He explained that he got more than one piece of wood years ago so he could repair the spoon again if the handle failed.
The hole I’m digging in the back yard for him will definitely have to wait awhile. :0)
Filed under Cause for Celebration, Family, love, marriage
Filed under drawings, Julie Rhodes
I’ve told you over the years how proud we are of our son, who lives and works in Thailand.
To give you one example of why we are proud –
He is really good at languages and keeps finding ways to improve his skills.
He speaks English, of course, and also Mandarin and Thai.
When he was home last time, he showed me that there was an app on his phone where he could help people with the language. People wrote in, asking for a translation, or ‘how do you say,’ questions. He would read the question and then answer it. Sounds simple? Sometimes the writer was Chinese, sometimes Thai, sometimes from an English-speaking country. He had three keyboards on his phone that he used to answer in the language of the writer, telling them how to say ‘—-‘ in Thai, or Chinese, or English. I would have happily watched him doing this in real time forever.
His newest thing is flashcards. You notice there is no English on them. These are for Chinese people trying to learn Thai. He is using these to refresh himself on Mandarin and learn how to spell Thai words. (He knows how to SAY many more Thai words than he can write.) He will work with these every day to increase his expertise in both of the languages.
I have no idea where he gets his ability to learn languages. His mom and dad still struggle with English from time to time (I’ve heard word retrieval problems are one of the perks of getting older.)
He considers learning a language well as respect for the country and the people where he is living.
Filed under empowerment, Family
Filed under Gorgeous Gourd Art, Gorgeous Gourds
With all that’s going on in the world, it’s hard to keep your head above water. It would be easy (and understandable) to simply give in to all the ugliness and pain and be crushed under its weight.
I’m finding ways to get through –
What do YOU do to cope?
Filed under Challenges, coping mechanisms
You’re not fat, you’re just… easier to see.
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor
Filed under sculpture, willow sculpture
hahahahhahahahah. Actually, I’m not stressed, just late today. I just loved the picture above. :0)
I’m having a very late start to blogging today. I had a haircut appointment and errands to do this morning. By the time I got home, it was time for lunch. THEN, after we ate, I got sleepy and took a nap…
We’re having a weird day today.
We were just checking a detail on our investment account and saw that Schwab had generated a corrected tax form for us. We printed it, and then I emailed our CPA that we were having to mail him a correction for our tax stuff.
My husband wanted to check to see if we had gotten a delivery from Fedex or UPS (sometimes left at our mailbox at the bottom of the driveway) and said he would mail the corrected forms when he went. We talked about how it would be mailed, etc.
Then I started to work on the computer. I heard the driveway alarm and realized my husband had left. The form was still where I left it, so my husband didn’t take it. Wonder what he’ll think when he gets to the post office. Getting old is SO much fun. I’m glad I don’t have to do it alone.
Filed under aging, Challenges, Thoughts on a ________
Filed under Amazing Animals, drawings, Julie Rhodes
Thanks to Linda Teddlie Minton – Houston Quilt Festival
Filed under Embroidery/Sewing Art, quilts
The world is such a challenging place now. We do what we can to help and reach for inner strength to cope. Love is a big part of that. Reach out.
Filed under Challenges, coping mechanisms, love
We’re still eating ‘sicky-food’ around here, at least another day – soup, crackers, eggs, toast. I awoke suddenly last night with my husband being sick. We got his system settled down with Alka Seltzer. I dealt with the aftermath and then couldn’t sleep, so came downstairs and read for quiet awhile. We both slept in this morning a bit. My husband slept through the night and is feeling stronger today, thank goodness, but we’ll be very careful with his food again today, hoping this will be past us soon.
One of the really LARGE perks of being old and retired is that – if you’re up a lot of the night for one reason or another – you can take a nap or two during the day so you’re not TOO much of a zombie. To say we’re grateful for this is a vast understatement.
If my husband’s health improves, we may look for garden plants this week. I’m just ITCHING to throw off the tarps from our raised-bed, square foot garden planters and get some plants growing! If I do, I’ll take some pics to share.
I wish us a calm, quiet day.
Filed under aging, DIET!, Family, Gardening, taking care of yourself
Owl
Wiser than can be
Seeing great at night
Flying quieter over the sea
Making hope shine bright
“The owl,” he was saying, “is one of the most curious creatures. A bird that stays awake when the rest of the world sleeps. They can see in the dark. I find that so interesting, to be mired in reality when the rest of the world is dreaming. What does he see and what does he know that the rest of the world is missing?”
~M.J. Rose
“A wise old owl sat on an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren’t we like that wise old bird?”
“He respects Owl, because you can’t help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn’t spell it right.” A.A. Milne
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Quotes
I’m having trouble eating the right things lately. What I HOPE is the last gasp of winter has encouraged comfort food. I’m getting so ‘comforted,’ I’m almost comatose.
I titled this post, ‘Sad,’ because I saw a thing on aging –
and it made me HUNGRY…..
Old, hungry, and ticked off by pet peeves can be a lethal combination….. :0)
Filed under .gifs I Love, Funny Signs - Humor
As I age, I find I am less gracious about things that tick me off – like Daylight Savings Time.
The idea behind it was supposedly giving the farmers more daylight for harvesting their crops, or something to that effect. It’s bogus, in my humble opinion. :0) Farmers get up before the sun comes up and go to bed when they are too tired to do anything more, whether the sun is still up or not. They have never been ‘by the clock’ people.
I’m not suggesting any kind of conspiracy, but I would gladly bite whoever came up with this a bite in the leg, and I have NOT had a rabies shot.
Several states are reconsidering whether they want to continue to comply with this or not. Arkansas tried, but the bill failed, for some unknown reason. I hope they take it up again.
The aggravation this causes outweighs any benefits. I wouldn’t mind changing to Daylight Savings Time and then leaving it at that, whichever way the majority think it should go. But then STICK to that. Don’t make us leave reminders all over the place so we don’t forget and be late or early to an appointment. Don’t make us have to go around changing all of our clocks, watches, stove clocks, alarm clocks, clocks in our cars (I have to re-figure out how to change these every time), make sure the computers are showing the correct time, etc. :0(
Filed under Pet Peeves
Filed under sculpture, willow sculpture
My husband and I were up most of the night. Something didn’t agree with him and he was really sick. I finally got some Alka Seltzer into him and that settled his stomach enough that he could finally sleep. I stayed up for a couple more hours after he went to sleep to keep a careful eye on him, then rested as much as possible, alert for any movement, the rest of the night. He’s weak and a bit shaky this morning, but is in his chair resting now and reading or watching TV. I’m hoping he’ll take a nap and rest. I’ll be relieved when he’s his normal, ornery self again. Meanwhile, I’ll watch him like a hawk.
Our snow is melting fast. I’m waving ‘bye-bye’ without the slightest regret, silently telling winter not to let the door hit it in the butt on its way out. :0)
I wish you a happy Sunday.
Filed under Family, Thoughts on a ________, weather
In innate perversity, I want to start my garden today so badly I can TASTE it – in the middle of the snow we had yesterday. If the weather were beautiful, I probably wouldn’t be feeling so antsy to start it. :0)
I looked at the weather forecast for the next 10 days here in Arkansas, though, and there are NO freezes and beautiful weather ahead, so my plans to get my early spring garden going have me chomping at the bit.
I think my husband would seriously think about having me committed if I wanted to go shopping for plants today in the middle of the snow, so I’ll wait for it to melt. Maybe we can shop Monday…
I want to look for spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and as many kinds of lettuce as I can find to start. I’ll also start some radishes and sweet onions. Anything more would be gravy.
As soon as the snow melts, all I have to do this year is pull the tarps off, hook up the irrigation system, and plant.
The idea is to alternate plantings so you get the benefits of crop rotation, disease prevention, and weed control. For example, I could plant one broccoli plant in the middle of a square, skip the adjoining squares, and then plant another. You can plant 4 spinach plants in a square, but I choose to only plant one, giving it plenty of room. The picture also doesn’t show the hose that runs down the middle of three boxes, with a sprinkler in the middle of each box, for irrigation. We connect the hoses to a timer.
There is a fence around the six planter boxes to protect the garden from deer. We have chicken wire around the bottom to discourage rabbits, etc.
We’ve also converted a couple of brick planters on the other side of the yard to square foot planters for growing tomatoes.
I’ll post pics when I get the garden started. Ooh! I can’t wait!!!!
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Source: Linda Teddlie Minton – Fiber Reflections
Filed under Embroidery/Sewing Art, quilts
creativeartworksblog 