Yes!

Honest to Paws

I spent two hours in the yard, cleaning up today. I used the leaf blower to clear the concrete areas first, and then tackled the front yard. It took me quite a while, but I finished it. I did short sessions, resting and drinking a ton of water in-between. I will do more tomorrow, but that’s it for today.

 

I also cleaned out the aquarium. This is an experiment, really, because the filter system says to only change the charcoal filter part this time. I did this, but the water still turned cloudy. I’m hoping that with the fresh water and decorations today, we can go another month before having to clean out again. Next month the schedule says to change the charcoal part again, plus the foam part. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, the fish have sparkling clean water to swim around in. They didn’t say anything about the changes. They are just interested in feeding times, but “I” am happy that we seem to be making good progress on coming up with a better system to keep my fish healthy.

I have now taken a shower and feel MUCH better. I’m planning to veg out the rest of the afternoon, enjoying the air conditioning, my recliner, my book, and maybe a nap.

Hope you’re having a fine day.

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Making Slow Progress

Lowes

I love my leaf blower!  I was able to blow the leaves off the front porch, the sidewalks, and the garage pad this morning. We ate lunch and then I went out again to try to blow the majority of the leaves off the front yard today. If I can finish that, I’ll be satisfied with my progress today.

I’m still having to stop and pick up branches, but the leaf blower is working well. I feel very lucky I have this.

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So How Was YOUR Day? – 3

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Thoughts on a Saturday 8-15-2020

We had a bad storm overnight and into the morning hours yesterday, with a LOT of wind and rain. My husband says it was the worst damage we have had since we have lived here – over 30 years now. We lost a shutter beside one of our second floor windows, and there are branches and leaves EVERYWHERE.

The main loss is our greenhouse.

 

We have decided to take it down. The cost to repair it, plus our labor on it, is just too much at this point in our lives. We couldn’t afford to heat or cool it, so the ability to get seeds to sprout, grow plants for the garden, and over winter plants was disappointing. We will salvage what we can and dispose of the rest.

I am concentrating on cleaning up around the house and the yard first. I spent over an hour yesterday picking up branches and throwing them off the edge of the civilized part of our yard. My back is telling me about it today. I will concentrate today’s efforts on using the leaf blower to clean off the deck, sidewalks, driveway pad and front porch.

Lowes

I am giving myself a gold star for this work, counting the exercise in the heat as my elliptical practice. Today I will do the leaf blowing and then do my yoga to try to stretch things out afterwards.

 

I was so hot and tired yesterday I didn’t get up to my art room to work on the new earrings I have started. I will try to make sure I make time to get up there today. I have the basic solid colors on both sides of the wooden earrings, and am eager to start the decorative fun part as soon as possible.  I will post pics when they are finished.

I told you recently that we bought a new filter system for our aquarium.

It has a three-medium system to filter the water: charcoal, foam, and a stuff they call biomax. The three media are changed at different times – charcoal every month, foam every two months, and biomax every three months. I have had to resort to putting these on my calendar as recurring items with the time differential to keep up. What I have learned to this point is that I will need to change the water once a month to keep the water as clean as I would like it. It has been a MONTH this time (!) instead of every week, but the water is getting cloudy now. This is quite a change and I am grateful. I want to take good care of my fish, but cleaning out the tank and changing the water is not one of my favorite activities. Once a month seems like a luxury!!!! :0) It’s on my list for today.

GMW.cn

 

Due to the South Beach diet and my exercising, I have now recently lost 9 pounds. (A total of 37 pounds and 41 inches since my lardiest.)  I am hopeful to be able to report more poundage and inches lost by the end of Month # 2 on the commercial stuff. I am re-learning portion control and the fact that I don’t need to eat until I don’t want any more at each meal. I am re-learning to serve a SERVING – either as measured by the South Beach stuff, or in my recipe books on servings on my DIY meals each week – reminding myself that there is a snack coming mid-morning or mid-afternoon and I probably won’t starve to death today. ( I DON’T remind myself often that I could live off my lard for MONTHS, if needed, as I am trying to think positively.) :0)  I am carefully planning DIY meals for each week, and my husband is cooperating by not throwing as many poor choices into the cart while we’re grocery shopping.

I hope you have an enjoyable day today.

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The Goodbye

via Jennifer Ann Mitchell Carroll

Thank you, Molly, for sharing your life with me.

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So How Was YOUR Day? – 2

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Salad

PictureQuotes.com

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Charcoal Art

ART@FPD-blogger

 

 

DessinTigre-Pinterest

 

 

PortraitFlip

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Leaves, Leaves Everywhere

My husband got out and mowed the yard yesterday evening. It looked particularly good. Then the storm came and everything looks truly awful. It’s mainly cosmetic, with sticky leaves on windows and doors, and eaves, etc, plus ‘stuff’ all over the yard.

We are really lucky that it seems that all we have lost is the greenhouse. We are pretty much in agreement we will salvage what we can and dispose of the rest.

I’m hopeful that we can do the clean up a bit at a time, rather than my husband wearing his Energizer Bunny hat and deciding we can do it all in one day….

 


 

 

On the way to Lunch Bunch this morning, there were some large limbs of two trees all the way across the road. While we were sitting there trying to figure out what to do, a lady on a tractor came up behind us and then passed us. She had some fork thingies on the front and used them to lift the branches and then move them to the right into the ditch!  We have no idea who she was, but she sure was wonderful.

I’m resting a bit before doing a first session in the yard. I’m going to give myself a star for my activity in picking up limbs and raking up leaves instead of doing my elliptical practice today.

I hope things are good where you are.

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Before and After the Storm – Greenhouse

Imgur

We had quite a storm overnight. We lost power for a very short time over and over. Our alarm clock went off at 3am, having lost its mind. I reset it and we were able to get back to sleep.

We looked around this morning. It looks as if the combination of wind and rain was something we don’t see often. We don’t think we have any HUGE damage. There are leaves and branches all over the yard. The biggest thing I have found so far is my greenhouse.

BEFORE –

 

 

AFTER –

I will send pics to our insurance agent to see if we can get any help on rebuilding this. I’m a bit ambivalent on the subject to be honest. We built it with high hopes. We would have gotten a lot more use out of it it we could have afforded to heat and cool it. As it was, it was too hot or too cold most of the time to extend the growing season the way I was intending. I’m just not sure what we’ll do now.

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Playing in My Art Room This Afternoon!

artstudio-ABSTRACTS by Sabina via cathy ruggiero

I am finally giving myself the gift to play in my art room this afternoon. I have a new size of wooden earring blanks, and my head is buzzing with possible ideas for painting them.

I will post them when they are finished.

I hope that you are having fun today, too.

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So How Was YOUR Day?

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Fabulous Drawings

PencilArtDrawing – blogger

 

 

 

PNGkey

 

 

 

Stoddard_3 – FansShare

 

 

 

http://www.dzimirsky.com via Webneel.com

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Rain

Pinterest

I’m getting ready to leave for a much-needed massage. It looks like I’ll get a second shower, too, as it’s dark outside with thunderstorms predicted. I’m not water-soluble, so I’ll be happy if there is no hail associated with the storm.

I’ve been working hard lately cleaning, so I’m hoping to reward myself with time in the art room this afternoon. I have a new design for earrings in my head, and I would like to see how it goes. :0)

Our irrigation system brains in the well house keep getting zapped by the various short power outages we’ve been experiencing lately. We ordered a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) lately and my husband put it out there and hooked it up. Hopefully, now we won’t have to reset the thing over and over again. Fingers crossed.

I gathered some tomatoes yesterday. Most were the size of cherry tomatoes, but I will happily use them in salads. Nothing else from the main garden at this time, except some good-looking weeds.

I hope that your day is filled with fun.

 

 

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Fabulous Pencil Drawings

BabaMail

 

 

 

Behance

 

 

 

Esminity

 

 

 

Hari Willy-ArtPeople.Net

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What You Deserve

Nanea Hoffman-Sweatpants & Coffee

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Best Friend

PictureQuotes.com

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Thoughts on a Tuesday 8-11-2020

Soul Alchemy

We were very lucky not to be affected by the derecho storm that hit yesterday. So many good people are dealing with damage from the hurricane and now the derecho. I hope that you came through both well, too. We have the possibility of strong, gusty winds and hail with storms this afternoon and evening. Hopefully, they will just be the ‘normal’ summer variety. Mother Nature seems to be in a snit – and on top of the pandemic problems and troubles in some of our big cities. It seems we are having more than our share of character-building exercises lately. May we give each other strength.

Today is one of our DIY dinners for the week on the South Beach eating plan. I got some stew beef in the crock pot this morning. I will serve this with a bit of rice for my husband and spiralized squash for me.

We have several errands, plus appointments this afternoon. By the time we finish those and my exercises (elliptical and yoga), the day is almost gone before it starts. I will check for ripe tomatoes (fingers crossed) this morning and will try to get up to my art room this afternoon to at least start my newest earring blanks with my new design ideas. (Fingers crossed on THAT, too.)

I hope that you are feeling strong, healthy, and full of enthusiasm for this day.

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Today’s Harvest

 

This is what I found in the garden today. I had about given up on getting anything but green plants and blossoms, and the plants are looking stressed right now, but I had two zucchini and a mystery thing I GUESS is another type of zucchini. I planted zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, but this doesn’t seem to be either of those. It will be interesting to cut it open and see.

I went out to the garden at the end of my elliptical trainer practice, so I was already hot. I was all in by the time I walked out and back from the garden in the heat, so I didn’t check for tomatoes today. I do that tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.

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More Incredible Paper Art

hanging kitten-MyModernMet.

 

 

 

Margaret Scrinkl

 

 

 

Shilp_the_craft – Fiverr

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Rise

Suzanne Weyn-keepinspiring.me

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Normal Summer Has Finally Arrived

Twitter

High in the upper 90’s, heat index of 105+, relentless sunshine – finally here today. They say, on the weather website, that we COULD get pop-up showers in the afternoon and pigs may fly –

Although we MADE a flying pig and she flies in our driveway –

We have doors open and ceiling fans on for awhile more this morning, but will have to close up and turn the a/c on soon.

I will check our garden, though it is mostly played out now, and will check to see if we have any ripe tomatoes. We haven’t had any in several days and the plants are stressed – part of the perks of living in Arkansas. I feel lucky that we got anything to grow this year.

My hat is, as always, off to people who not only can grow enough food for their families, but also enough to give away to neighbors or sell. It requires a lot of expertise, knowledge of how to make it through weird weather, determination and stamina.

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Sunday’s Project – My Art Room

The combination of zipping into my art room, doing a project, and zipping out again, plus having other projects take priority, resulted in a mess in my art room.

I just got some new wooden earring blanks that I have ideas for, but decided that my art room deserved a good straightening up and cleaning before I started something new. As you can see, things are in a mess.

 

 

I spent quite a bit of time there this afternoon, and think I did enough good that I can begin the new earrings tomorrow with a clean conscious. –

Here are the AFTER pics –

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Poofy

memesbams.com

This poofy lady has lost pound # 8 via South Beach – (37 pounds via various methods since my heaviest). I still have more to lose before I hit ‘new territory’ on my weight loss efforts, but I feel that I am on a roll now. I don’t care how long it takes for me to lose it. I feel good that my scale numbers are going in the right direction now.

My measuring tape is showing positive signs, too, as there is less of me now – 40 inches less – than when I was at my lardiest.

 

 

 

 

 

I am going for gold stars # 13 and 14 today for the week – for my elliptical exercising and my yoga practice. I am feeling less like a fool that I ‘exercise for stars’ as if I were a little kid. There are lots of ways I haven’t really grown up, and if this works – RUN IT! :0)

-ClipartLibrary

We are on Month #2 of South Beach. I will figure out on which days I will fix DIY dinners, lunches, breakfasts, and snacks (morning and afternoon) – 2 of each during the week.

Fingers crossed the progress continues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Beautiful Paper Art

Butterfly-Hina-Aoyama-japanobjects.com

 

 

ColorsPaper – blogger

 

 

Discount School Supply

 

 

Fish-Masayo-Fukuda-japanobjects.com

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Raccoon # 11

Wired

I find this hard to believe, but we just returned from relocating raccoon # 11.

I think the previous record for a season was 5, so this is really incredible.

I hope we never meet the people who live close to the little creek off the side of the road where we ‘rehome’ the raccoons. It’s about 5 miles out farther into the country. We can’t SEE any houses around there, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.

I concentrate on thinking happy thoughts of all of the raccoons high-fiving each other when they meet along the creek, re-establishing their relationships and having a happy raccoon life…

Meanwhile, we continue to hope that this is the last one for the season. We’ve just filled up the bird feeder again. We’ll check it before bed. If it’s empty in the morning, the humane trap will again be set.

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Pawprints

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Earning Gold Stars

Penn Fitness Warehouse

My first gold star for the day was my practice on my elliptical trainer.  I made it to 35 minutes today! This is the first time in MONTHS that I have made it this long, so I’m feeling good about it. I have a box fan attached to the wall in front of the trainer, so I don’t melt into a puddle out in the garage. I also have my MP3 player, with some of my all-time favorite music on it, to listen to. Pretty nice set up, except for when it’s really hot or really cold.

 

 

Bored Panda

I am about to go do my yoga practice for my second star of the day.

I do about 30 minutes or so, mostly of old lady stretches, but also abdominal exercises of various types. I am beginning to feel a difference in how my body is reacting to my practice, after about a month of practicing daily.  I am still fighting general stiffness everywhere (I AM old, you know) but I feel looser, and I have less discomfort. I definitely feel more relaxed after I finish.

I am happy about my daily exercising now. I’m trying to stay motivated, listing elliptical and yoga on my to-do list each day now.

Time for my yoga practice!

 

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Two Projects for the Day

PROJECT # 1

Amber’s feeding station is a pretty well-designed heavy rubber/plastic? thing that is in two parts – the upper part that holds the water and food bowls, and the lower tray part.  Amber is creative, though, and immediately decided that she would take the upper part (the whole thing – full of water and food) away to ‘somewhere else.’  This led to my husband screwing it into the wall.

 

This was really gross, with dog hair, white water dental hygiene additive residue, dog slobber, etc. I was able to get the tray out from under the screwed-in top part and scrubbed it in the kitchen sink. I tried to unscrew the top part, but the screw wasn’t in straight and I was afraid I would mess up the whole thing trying to get it out. I just brought all the cleaning stuff to the station and did the best I could.

It isn’t perfect, but at least I’m not cringing when I walk past – several times a day – now.

 

PROJECT # 2

My kitchen is a busy place in our house. I try to clean as I go, but it gets to the point where I need to scrub the stove, scrub the sink, move everything off the counters, etc. Today was the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only problem with all this is that now I don’t want to mess it up!  :0)

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I Love Paper Art

Behance

 

 

“Between the Willow” -Pippa Dyrlaga-Superstition Review-Arizona State Univ

 

 

“Blue Whale” – Nahoko-Kojima-japanobjects.com

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DS Photography

“Path to the Shire” -DS Photography

I would love to be on this path right now. I might never come out. It looks so inviting. Calming. Care to join me?

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