I’m reading “Life Force” by Tony Robbins. It’s a compilation of information by 100+ physicians speaking about ‘precision medicine that can transform your life.’
It’s interesting. I’m not sure that I particularly want to live that much LONGER, but I AM interested in improving the quality of my life as much as possible.
You might be interested in checking it out, as well.
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.
As you probably agree, being stuck at home during the pandemic followed by being snowed in, and then iced in within a three week period can be challenging. My wonderful SIL and I discuss the idea of a “deep hole in the back yard” (I won’t tell you in WHOSE back yard) beckons when faced with too many challenges of living with our spouses.
My mantra is ‘one day at a time,’ and I’m trying to consciously be as nice as I can while engineering ways to get some space and time to myself each day. I figure if we each do that, we probably come out in the middle – and the hole in the back yard won’t be utilized…
Being iced in and eating comfort food is making my scales smirk at me again. Can you say, ‘Yo-yo?”
It’s 23 now, but it’s supposed to get to 40 this afternoon, with a slow warming trend in the coming days. Our driveway looks like a ski slope, and when we’re stupid enough to try to walk on it, where we walked doesn’t show, as the ice is still much too solid to allow footprints. It’ll be at LEAST another day or two before we venture out – at least I HOPE my husband doesn’t decide to be all macho about it.
When I looked out this morning, my eyes actually hurt, looking at the bright sunshine bouncing off the ice-covered EVERYTHING. It seems as if you can see every branch on every tree. Very pretty, but WAY too cold for me.
My husband requested that I make chicken chunks, onion, mushrooms, and soup over rice for our dinner this evening. I can FEEL the scales smirk. At this rate, a crane will be needed to pull me up out of my chair…
I HAVE been doing my yoga, though, so I’m starting to loosen up, and THAT feels wonderful. I’m doing a session each afternoon.
Since we’re still iced in, no Lunch Bunch today. I called each of my friends, and we visited a bit. Hopefully, NEXT Friday will be a time we can get together again.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay If you’re lost, we’re all a little lost and it’s alright It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay If you’re lost, we’re all a little lost and it’s alright”
It LOOKS like it snowed outside, but it’s SLEET. We’re lucky about that, since according to what I’ve read, sleet doesn’t accumulate on power lines. Today the forecast is for sleet, freezing rain, and rain. I really didn’t know the difference between ‘sleet’ and ‘freezing rain’, so I looked it up. ‘Freezing rain’ falls as rain and pretty much freezes on contact. ‘Sleet’ falls as already-frozen pellets of differing sizes. I guess the difference between ‘sleet’ and ‘hail’ is the size of the pellets. Not sure what the dividing line is between the two – WHEN ‘sleet’ becomes ‘hail.’ At any rate, it’s all white, all cold, and is a problem when it’s on the ground.
When my husband took Amber out last night, he remarked that he didn’t leave any footprints in the white stuff. It was solid and really slippery. UGH. It’s supposed to start warming up tomorrow.
We’re lucky we have a warm, dry house, power, food, and water.
123RF
Since I am powerless to do anything about most of what’s happening in the world, I am again basically hiding from it and trying to not drown in despair. I hate that there are power hungry tyrants in the world making innocent people suffer. I hate that so many decisions are based on people trying to get and maintain power and control others. If I had a magic wand, I would sure be waving it right now.
Dr. Axe – Shutterstock
I’ve been happily finding more evidence of more of the talent and creativity in the world. It’s truly wonderful to be able to type in a few words and be taken to more places than I have time to research, finding jaw-dropping things that people have created that I’ve never seen before. I’ve decided that almost ANYTHING can be made into art. Just put something out there. One person with vision will see it differently – will see the potential of it – and will create something breathtaking.
Yesterday I found some wonderful things I’ll be sharing with you during the coming days. I hope you’re able to stay safe, warm, dry, and smiling today.
Art is all around us. Sometimes I find the work of an artist who is new to me and I share it with you. More often I find things on Pinterest that I love one at a time. I wanted to share a few that I’ve found lately –
I couldn’t find any information on who made this. It makes my heart melt. Mysterious Night – Leonid AfremovTwinkling Eyes-Pavel Guzenko-Artmajeur.comSimon O’Rourke-tortoiseSimon by Hippopottermiss-DeviantArtlivemaster.ru
We awoke to sleet. When my husband went out to fill up our birdfeeders, he said we were having ‘ice balls.’ It’s 18 degrees. You can HEAR the sleet on the windows. I stood on the porch to get the feel of things and decided we’re very lucky to have a warm, dry house. (I just looked out the office window from my office chair. There is a bird feeder in the window, and I could SEE the balls of sleet bouncing off the feeder.) This is supposed to continue until TOMORROW evening, so things could get bad. We still have power, and our generator test worked LAST Thursday, so hopefully we have back up. I THINK I might have mentioned that winter is NOT my favorite season and that I’m MORE than ready for spring…
I’ve been enjoying listening to lots of music lately. I’m a sucker for The Voice, American Idol, and The X Factor, or ________’s Got Talent. I watch the clips on my computer. It’s heartwarming to see how much talent there is in the world, how many truly unique voices and styles they have. I wish all of them could go on to great success doing what they love. I’m also newly in love with Merrick Hanna, whose dance audition several years ago brought me to tears.
Since we’re stuck in the house, I’m trying to bounce between listening to music, reading, cleaning something, exercising, and back again over and over throughout the day.
I hope that the weather where you are isn’t bad. If it IS, I hope you can stay where you are safe, warm, and dry.
Our son is now a property owner all the way across the world from us. This is a view from the condo he bought. Property ownership will make him more secure – always a good thing.
We are happy for him. He is living where he wants to live, although the next dream is a second home ‘in the country’ there. He is as safe and secure as there is in the world today. He is able to live the way he wants. It just doesn’t get better. WE would be happier if he had someone to share his life with. My husband pressures him for ‘rug rats.’
Happily, he seems to be accepting our words about how proud we are of the man he is. I honestly have never personally known anyone who is kinder or more generous than he.
May he be ‘happy as clam’ (where did this expression come from? Are clams really happy?) in his new place.
The rains started last night with a lot of thunder and lightning. They continue today. I’m not griping TOO loudly, though, as this is much better than what we’ll have starting tomorrow – ICE. Ugh.
We’ll leave in about half an hour to run errands, keeping appointments and picking up supplies for the coming winter storm.
I’m very happy we have a warm, dry home to ‘weather’ the storm in. I have to admit I’m more than ready for spring to arrive, though. Yesterday we saw veggie plants for sale at the local hardware store. Just too soon to plant, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t want to have to cover the plants every night from now to mid March – though I really felt drawn to the plants…
Mother Nature is trying to give us a lesson in humility, and not taking her for granted in the next few days.
This morning, while the weather was nice, we went to Ft. Smith to leave our tax stuff with our wonderful CPA. While we were there, we were able to swing by and see my good friend Nora, who is office manager at an insurance agency. I hugged her neck quickly, then again, because we don’t get to see each other often.
Tonight Mother Nature is serving us some possibly severe weather. Tonight-into-tomorrow, heavy rain and thunderstorms, some possibly dangerous. Heavy rain tomorrow, and then ice and snow Wednesday and Thursday. Great week, huh!
We will do errands tomorrow and pick up supplies in case we’re stranded up on our hill again. I rescheduled my massage that would have been Thursday, so that won’t be a worry anymore.
Yesterday I gathered a few more blooming daffodils for us to enjoy inside. They were lying on the ground, but still pretty. My favorite is the one that dares to be different in the center of the pic. I wish I could bring them ALL in. Hopefully, there will be more after the freeze, ice, and snow of Wednesday and Thursday.
There is one large perk in getting older that I am cherishing more and more.
I think a lot of people have trouble sleeping as they age. This becomes much less of a problem when you retire and no longer have to show up ready to put in a good day’s work. In fact, it’s life saving.
My husband and I vary all over the block on how we sleep. We have always stayed up late, heading up for bed around 11:30, midnight, or after. Sometimes I have trouble actually GETTING to sleep. Other times I wake up with my hips hurting, or have had a bad dream, or….
I come downstairs and read until I’m sleepy again. We don’t get up until 8am, so this usually isn’t a problem.
Last night I noticed the light was on downstairs and joined my husband about 3am. We read for awhile, and then went up to sleep. I again noticed the light on later, but was too sleepy to join him again. I don’t know what time it was. Then he was up when I woke up again at 7. I got dressed and we started our day.
We will both probably end up asleep in our recliners after lunch.
It’s a really good thing we can plan our day – usually – around how we are feeling. We have times during the day when we feel awake, alert, and energetic, and times we can hardly keep our eyes open. The perk of being able to give in and sleep when you would like is a luxury beyond price.
It may be an odd way to live, but we aren’t bothering anyone else so we’ll take it.
I did my yoga practice to earn one star, then my husband and I took off the fragile tarps and bungee cords from the garden planters and replaced them with new tarps and cords. We also put new tarps on the cement mixer we use to mix our Mel’s Mix for the garden planters and the pile of potting soil bags we keep to replenish the brick planters around the house. With temperatures in the 60s and bright sunshine, it was the perfect day to do it – earning a second star. The third was for the scales smiling a bit at me yesterday.
We have another stellar weather day today before things deteriorate tomorrow and into the coming week. I’ll make sure to get outside and walk around the yard this afternoon to show my appreciation for the day.
_______________
I actually just came in from walking around the yard and taking a few pics to share. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to spring. As we uncovered the planters before covering them up again yesterday, I wished I could start playing in the dirt.
Here are our raised-bed square foot planter boxes. I was pleased to see only a few weeds in the Mel’s Mix of the planters. They’ll be ready to plant when the time comes. I’m having trouble waiting. :0)These are the trash cans that hold all the ingredients of Mel’s Mix for my garden: peat moss, Vermiculite, and three different kinds of compost. You can also see a tarp over our used cement mixer. I throw all the ingredients as I measure them into the mixer, then mix and pour the contents into containers to haul over to the planter boxes to fill them up. The mixer does a great job and saves a lot of effort and time.
I also took some pics on the way back to the house from the shop and garden –
Some of our “emu” planters waiting for me to fill them up with potting soil and plant some flowers. I’ll have to clean out this planter, but I’ll plant some colorful flowers around the feet of our ‘peacock.’ This is on one side of the top of our driveway. We have a sign in the tree saying, “Trespassers will be composted.” Our ‘watermelon’ propane tank is in the background toward the top of the picture. You can see colorful pieces of the peacock and one of the emus at the top on the right, plus our ‘crow’ shovel bird on the right, standing on the boulder. Our “turkey” helps a ‘guard dog’ with a rifle stand guard on the opposite side of the driveway.shovel bird that doubles as a bird feeder in one of the trio planters that are between our driveway and the front yard.
I love wandering around the yard. I had to stop myself from spending time weeding and getting ready for spring, since I wasn’t wearing a jacket and it was in the 40s out there now. I’m still hoping the weather people have it wrong and we won’t get ice Wednesday and Thursday….