PictureQuotes.com
Actually, I’m feeling encouraged that I am back on track since yesterday. I am planning what I will eat using MyFitnessPal.com, trying to get as close as possible to my macro percentages again today.
We came through another tornado warning last night with no damage that I have seen so far. I’m am truly thankful. This is one of the days that we are thankful we live on top of a hill because flash flooding is forecast. I will be glad when this mini-monsoon season we’ve been having is over.
To celebrate that, I’m planning to get on my elliptical trainer in the garage after lunch and do at LEAST 15 minutes. I’m hoping that I will be able to do my ‘regular’ 35 minutes; but since I’ve been a slug lately, I don’t want to push it too hard. I also plan to do at least 30 minutes of my “Gentle Yoga” stretches before the afternoon is over.
I am again planning to bake a loaf of keto bread, plus a Twice-Baked Cauliflower Casserole” by Suzanne Ryan. My husband isn’t fond of cauliflower, but I’ll just serve him quietly and see what he says. We will have a hamburger patty and a salad, so he should have plenty to enjoy even if he isn’t fond of the casserole. We’ll see.
It feels good to have a plan and feel in better control. Fingers crossed.
unknown
16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
17. A backward poet writes inverse.
18. In a democracy it’s your vote that counts.
In feudalism it’s your count that votes.
19 . When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
20. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you’d be in Seine
21. A vulture carrying two dead raccoons boards an airplane. The stewardess looks at him and says, ‘I’m sorry, only one carrion allowed per passenger.’
22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall.
One turns to the other and says , ‘Dam!’
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, punny
Read It Forward
These days I am truly thankful we live on top of a ridge line. The rain just keeps coming.
Last night while we were watching TV, the wind came, and really whipped tree branches around, to the point I got worried. This lasted for about 45 minutes, and then things got still. THEN I started to listen for a tornado. Thankfully, nothing happened.
It rained overnight. It’s raining now, it will rain every day for the next week, if the forecasters are right. The air feels like we are sitting in pea soup. We have our doors open now, but we may have to close up and turn on the air conditioner this afternoon for awhile, as we did yesterday until the wind started. I can’t get out to see how our plants are doing. The only thing we are doing is getting the mail and taking our dogs out. Makes us thankful, too, for a warm, dry house.
“Never run in the rain with your socks on.” ~ Billie Joe Armstrong
Animal’s Look
“Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.” Vladimir Nabokov
Quora
“And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.” ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton
Photography Plus
“I’m just waiting for people to start asking me to make the rain disappear.” ~ David Copperfield
Filed under Mother Nature
Andrea Piacquadio
More Wonderful Puns from the forward Marsha sent to me –
8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
9. A hole has been found in the nudist – camp wall.
The police are looking into it.
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana
11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other:
‘You stay here; I’ll go on a head.’
13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’
15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, punny
Askideas.com
The Pandemic is my latest excuse for not sticking to my diet and exercise program. (I have a whole sackful of excuses – and add more at a ferocious rate.) My husband is another excuse – he doesn’t have as much weight to lose. We grocery shop together, and all kinds of things I shouldn’t eat show up at home when we put the groceries away. I have decided to stop using this as an excuse, though. I’m hoping the man will live for MANY more years, so I will just have to be stronger on avoiding his ‘extras.’
Yesterday I got disgusted with myself – FINALLY. I re-read the first part of Simply Keto by Suzanne Ryan. I am feeling re-motivated to get back on track and start losing the lard again. I am now, (starting again yesterday) tracking my food intake on MyFitneesPal.com. Suzanne tells you how to tweak the settings there so that you can follow your macro and even tweak it from time to time as needed. (Your ‘macro’ is the comparative percentages of fat, carbohydrates, and protein you should consume each day in order to try to lose the girth.) I have also decided to spend more time on KetoKarma.com, Suzanne’s website, to try to STAY motivated.
Before I fell off the wagon, I had lost 40 lbs and 43 inches. I have gained 9 pounds BACK since the Pandemic started. :0( Since it is beyond stupid to try to stay safe from the virus while simultaneously stuffing food I shouldn’t be eating into my mouth, I’m promising myself to treat myself better.
Because of my good friend and hair dresser Michael Remillard, I learned that maltitol is to be avoided. Yesterday, when I was re-reading Suzanne’s intro, I noticed that she mentioned it, too, but apparently I simply read over the top of it. It’s in a lot of sugar-free and no-sugar-added products. It can spike blood sugar and is to be avoided.
Also, because of Michael, I have discovered an ice cream I can eat when I must! The brand name is Rebel, and the flavor I think is wonderful is Mint Chip. I’m also on the lookout for Triple Chocolate. The PINT has 4 net carbs! The pint lasted me for 4 servings. Hooraaaaaay!
One of the things that Suzanne said that really resonated with me was that when you make a mistake at one meal, instead of just blowing off the rest of the day and eating whatever you want because the day is ‘blown,’ you should redouble your efforts by eating correctly the rest of the day, giving yourself a break and sticking to the plan. You don’t have to be perfect – you just need to be consistent.
Yesterday I made her “Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Breakfast Bake.”
“Sausage, Egg & Cheese Breakfast Bake” by Suzanne Ryan, Simply Keto
She encourages you to throw extra low carb veggies in wherever you can, so I throw fresh spinach into her already delicious recipe. (I tried broccoli previously, but my husband didn’t care for it.) He doesn’t mind the spinach at all. :0) 6 servings. We each enjoyed a wedge of this with a big salad.
I’ve gotten pretty good at avoiding carbs. (My personal macro has me staying at 14 carbs or under daily. ) My biggest problem is adding fat. I am studying her meal plans at the end of the book this time to get a better handle on what I can choose to better reach the 70% fat in a healthy manner. I have been tending to eat too much protein, and that can throw you off, so planning my eating with MyFitnessPal will help there. I can enter what I’m planning to eat, see how that meets my requirements, and adjust BEFORE I eat a wrong thing. I am learning to pay more attention – using the tools that will help me, reading labels more carefully, etc.
Snacks and desserts are danger areas for me. I have avoided these area in Suzanne’s book, but found something I want to try after the next trip to the grocery store – “Chocolate-Covered Macadamia Nut Fat Bombs.” I love casseroles, so I’m also going to get set up to try her “Twice-Baked Cauliflower Casserole.”
Another lady I find who has good keto recipes is Kyndra of Peace, Love and Low Carb. She sends recipes to my email inbox.
Sorry if I’m talking your arm off, but as you can see, I am newly motivated. I am hopeful that by NEXT Monday, I can report that I have lost some weight, changed a measurement, or I can report on the new recipes I’ve tried.
Meanwhile, I’ll bake a loaf of my keto bread today.
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Changes, DIET!, Healthy Eating
Quarryville Fire Dept
Today, as we honor those who died defending our country, I wanted to share an forward I received from my good friend, Marsha Koenig. The name of it is, “You Could Have Heard a Pin Drop,” and I hope we keep this circulating.
______
JFK’S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60’s when
DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US
military out of France as soon as possible.
Rusk responded,
“Does that include those who are buried here?”
DeGaulle
did not respond.
You could have heard a pin drop.
______
When in England ,
at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the
Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of
’empire building’ by George Bush.
He answered by saying,
“Over the years, the United States has sent many of
its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom
beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for
in return is enough to bury those that did not
return.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
_______
There was a conference in France
where a number of international engineers
were taking part, including French and American. During a break,
one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, “Have you
heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft
carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he
intend to do, bomb them?”
A Boeing engineer
stood up and replied quietly: “Our carriers have three
hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are
nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to
shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to
feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand
gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a
dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and
from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships;
how many does France have?”
You could have heard a pin drop.
_______
A U.S. Navy Admiral
was attending a naval conference that included
Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French
Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large
group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many
languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, “Why is it that
we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than
speaking French?”
Without hesitating the American Admiral replied, “Maybe it’s because the
Brit’s, Canadians, Aussie’s and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t
have to speak German.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
________
AND
THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE…
Robert Whiting,
an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.
At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport
in his carry on
“You have been to France before, monsieur?” the customs officer asked
sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
“Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.”
The American said,
“The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.”
“Impossible.. Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France !”
The American senior
gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he
quietly explained, ”Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in
1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find a single Frenchmen
to show a passport to.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
Filed under Blog Repost - Wonderful Posts, holidays
Julia Brodskaya
Julia Brodskaya – Birds
Julia Brodskaya – Flight
Julia Brodskaya – Hand
Yulia-Brodskaya-Lionfish with Man-Strictly paper
PictureQuotes.com
I’m going to have to switch gears for the coming week, starting today – hopefully.
I’ve been working outside, whacking down weeds, cutting back trees, spraying weed killer and ant killer, etc., in an effort to keep Mother Nature from reclaiming the totally wild, wooded land we bought around 33 years ago now. (We built our home on top of this ridge line in 1987.) This is a full-time, never-ending job, and I have to say that we grow some really healthy, impressive weeds here. Some of them are taller than I am!
Last night, while my husband and I enjoyed a much-appreciated evening on the deck while grilling our dinner, we talked about the fact that the ‘weed trees’ were again encroaching on our view of the valley below. The slope of our land is impressive, too, and there are totally rocky places where it is treacherous to even think about walking. This is where the weed trees are. I am going to attempt to cut these down, a few at a time, over the coming weeks to try to reclaim our view.
This gives you an idea of what we can usually see.
That said, here is the 10 day forecast for our area –
Maybe I should be trying to built a raft or boat instead of thinking about weed whacking….
The end result of a forecast like this is I want to take a nap. I feel super lazy. I can’t even get excited about playing in my art room right now, though that could change once I’ve finished my coffee.
The only thing I PROMISE I will do today is make a ‘sausage-egg-and-cheese bake’ for our dinner tonight. This is a wonderful keto recipe from Suzanne Ryan of Simply Keto. My husband grinned and gave a happy thumbs up when I told him what I planned to make today. Actually, I’ll promise another thing – I will do at least 35 minutes of gentle yoga stretches today.
Otherwise, I’ll have to fight my natural inclination to stretch out in my chair in the living room under my snuggly throw and take cat naps (with at least one, if not two, actual cats!) today.
I hope you have a happy Sunday.
Getty Images
We had a beautiful day today. In the hope we would ALSO have a beautiful evening, I thawed a steak we had kept just for an evening like this. I marinated it all day in the fridge, hoping that Mother Nature would be kind.
The weather could not have been more perfect! The sun went behind some clouds. We had a nice, cool breeze. It was quiet. We had our animals playing around us. My husband enjoyed a beer – a nice gift for him, and I had a cup of coffee sitting in one chair with my feet up on another, totally relaxed, drinking in the gorgeous evening.
We chatted, laughed, and had the best time. As the sky darkened, I plugged in the rope LED lights we have strung around the inside edge of the deck roof so it was festive.
The steaks and salad tasted really nice.
DOUBLY nice because we have rain in the forecast every day, starting tomorrow, through the END of next week.
A reminder to enjoy each day as it comes!
AHHHHH!
Filed under Family, Mother Nature
ViralWildlcom
I’m trying to do intermittent fasting and keto in order to lose my lard. The pandemic is my latest excuse for having trouble sticking to it. The biggest problem for me lately is that my husband is requesting dinners like spaghetti with meat sauce, or one of our favorite dishes – beef with mushroom soup, onions, and things over rice or other pasta.
Lately I’ve had trouble serving my spaghetti sauce over zoodles or spaghetti squash, or the soup and meat or chicken sauce over cauli-rice or whatever. I’ve really been missing PASTA.
My friend Marsha came to the rescue, telling me about a new non-carb pasta she found. The brand name is Banza, and they make all kinds of pasta – penne, shells, and rotini plus spaghetti. The pasta is made from chickpeas. It has a LOT fewer carbs. Not as few as I would prefer, since my goal is to eat 20 grams or less carbs per day, but a huge improvement over regular pasta. I can now splurge every once a awhile, solve my cravings, and hopefully stay on my eating plan.
I ordered six boxes – 2 each of Penne, Shells, and Rotini. I’ll let you know how my new discovery turns out.
123RF.com
Filed under Challenges, DIET!, getting the lard off
National Geographic
We captured Raccoon #4 in our humane trap overnight.
We got our mail mid morning and drove out to the stream about 5 miles from the house to relocate him. I have a happy mental picture of him reuniting with Raccoons 1-3 and enjoying the rest of their lives together.
I’m amazed that he showed up since we had such horrendous weather last night. When my husband let him out, he just leaped happily into the stream and was gone in a flash.
I really wish we could all simply co-exist, sharing the bird seed we supply. We have learned the hard way, however, that raccoons don’t share. They want EVERY seed, and many times completely trash the feeders. We can’t afford to buy new feeders every other day, or buy more than a 40 pound bag of seed every week, so I’m just pleased that the humane trap we have captures them without harm and allows us to ‘relocate’ each one and give them another chance to be happy.
Filed under Amazing Animals
Lunch Bunch was rained out yesterday. :0( It got really dark and rained heavily right when we would have been ordering and trying to eat at a picnic table in the parking lot of the restaurant. I was disappointed because I wanted to see my friends, plus take them some fresh lettuce from my garden.
Later in the afternoon, things got serious. It rained and hailed, we had gusty winds, harder rain, lightning, thunder, and flying hairballs. The weather alert went nuts, saying we were under a tornado warning and to take shelter now! (Of course, my husband just scoffed and ignored the whole thing.) I finally sat down in my chair, thinking if we were going to get hit, I wanted to be with him. Luckily, the bad weather passed, after raining a lot of the night.
I haven’t found any damage so far. I will go out to the garden later and see what’s what out there. We are having a lovely day so far today. We are planning to try to cook outside this evening in celebration, for we are due for more heavy rain tomorrow and Monday.
I hope that YOU are safe and well, and that Mother Nature will treat you well today and the rest of the holiday weekend.
Filed under Uncategorized
Calvin Nicholls
Calvin Nicholls – “Freddy”
Calvin Nicholls – Wolf and Hawk
Filed under paper art
My husband and I cleaned out the aquarium this morning, putting in a new decoration after taking everything out, cleaning, replacing the filter, putting in freshly treated water, etc. I didn’t actually scrub the fish, themselves, but I have a feeling they would not look kindly on that.
I got the new decoration at the exclusive emporium of Walmart. The fish seem to like it. They immediately checked it out, swimming around and around it, hoping it was edible.
I don’t really know much about fish, but I have never had any fish grow like these two have. Each was about an inch-and-a-half at most when I bought them. The whiter looking gold fish is about 3 inches long now, or twice as large as it was. The gold fish is at least 4 inches long now, maybe more. I had to get a larger mesh fish scooper because the gold fish would no longer fit in the smaller one.
I have talked to them about the possibility of them learning a trick or two, but so far, all they express interest in is feeding time…
Filed under Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance
Stacy-Bettencourt-Quilled Phoenix-QuantumArtistic.com
Tamsyn-Gutierrez-Frida Kahlo Portrait-Strictly Paper
Tomris-Acar-Strictly Paper
Webdesigner Depot
First thing this morning I went out to harvest some lettuce so I could take it to Lunch Bunch and share some with Linda, Kay, and the two waitresses at The Pizza Barn, Susan and Mikey. I knew we had rain forecast for today, but it looked like it might hold off until we could share lunch at the picnic table in the parking lot before it started.
I brought the lettuce in and dumped it all into the sink. 45 minutes later, I had several small heads of lettuce and a lot of extra lettuce leaves ready to put in bags.
About an hour ago, Kay called, telling me the forecast now said we would get at least two waves of storms – each possibly severe – with hail. We agreed to call off Lunch Bunch for today. :0(
I let Amber into the truck and we went down the driveway to get the mail. Just as we pulled into the garage after getting it, the rain started. We haven’t had hail yet, but it’s obvious we are in for the day now. The sky is dark, almost like night. The garage door is shut to protect our vehicles.
Now we appreciate being able to stay inside a warm, dry house and hope that we JUST get rain today.
Andrea Piacquadio
My friend, Marsha, sent me puns this morning. I’m still grinning –
1. The fattest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference.
He acquired his size from too much pi.
2. I thought I saw an eye – doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.
3. She was only a whiskey – maker, but he loved her still.
4. A rubber – band pistol was confiscated from an algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.
5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.
6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering
7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, punny
Slice of Life
we remember there is beauty all around us, if we just take the time to look and appreciate. Fill your soul.
Filed under Cause for Celebration, Mother Nature
Gary Wing
If you would like to see more, go to this link – Gary Wing Illustration
Calvin Nicholls – A Bracelet of Art
Calvin Nicholls – Follett Library Resources International Branding
Calvin Nicholls – Frog
Calvin Nicholls – Nuthatch
Calvin Nicholls – Splash Dance – Atlantic Salmon
Filed under paper art
I have told you that our son lives and works in Thailand. He LOVES living there. He was in an apartment in Chiang Mai, but decided he wanted to live out away from town, where he could have more privacy, plus create and play music without bothering anyone. He has recently rented a house about 13 miles outside of town.
He is happily settling in, ordering things and having things delivered – although deliveries are a bit of a challenge because the street he lives on has no name. Luckily, there is a unique place that was converted to a coffee shop down the road, so he can give that as a reference point.
Yesterday he sent this picture –
He took the picture through the screen on one of his windows. Impressive!
I tell the bug people who come to my home to spray quarterly to spray for everything – including elephants – since we live in the woods. I’m not sure there is a spray that would deter something like this…
Filed under Family
source unknown
I have found this to be good advice – smiles are contagious, and they make you AND the recipient feel better.
That said, I just had words with my husband. He was in our home office, working at the computer, so I decided I would use the opportunity to vacuum the 1st floor carpeting. Suddenly, he and Amber, our 95-pound yellow lab,
were in the living room with me. They decided to go out on the back porch, but we had the door open, creating a nice breeze. I was vacuuming and suddenly was hit with 95 pounds of dog flying into me, trying to go after the ball my husband threw for her. I scowled at him, and he grinned sheepishly at me, after helping me up. The SECOND time the dog came flying past me, getting tangled in the cord, I put her out on the porch and shut the door. I finished vacuuming and put the dog bed back down in the living room. I opened the back door to allow husband and dog back into the house. The next thing I knew, the dog was flying for the ball into the front of the living room into her bed, sliding about three feet with the slobbery ball and bed. I then told my husband in no uncertain terms that I had vacuumed in the living room in order not to bother him in the office, and that consideration seemed to be only going one way this morning. He agreed, grinned again, hugged me, and sat down to read in his chair. (It is now time to look at the picture and suggestion above again.)
National Geographic
We trapped Raccoon # 3 of the season overnight and so took a trip to relocate him first thing this morning. I have a nice mental picture of him finding the two others we have relocated so far this season and having a happy reunion far enough away that they won’t return to our home. My husband cleaned out the humane trap, had to replace the plastic bowl we use to hold the bait because the raccoon trashed it, and refilled our bird feeders. We have no idea how large the current raccoon family is. We’ll see if we get all the bird seed cleaned out tonight.
We have had two absolutely perfect weather days,
Clipart Library
and I can’t sing high enough praises. I like rain, but it starts to be depressing when you get day after day of cool, gray, rainy weather. I am smiling at the sunshine, trying to encourage Mother Nature to provide more of this. Since it’s supposed to be nice today, I’m planning to do some weed whacking in the area behind the shop and beside the veggie garden, where my husband can’t use the riding mower. When I get that all cut down, I’ll also spray some weed killer right around the big trash barrels that hold the ingredients of Mel’s Mix for the garden, plus around the propane tank that serves the shop. I’ll take some pics when things are presentable.
I hope that you are safe and well, having a happy day.
creativeartworksblog 