Thoughts on a Wednesday 2-26-2020

Nihal Buyukeroglu-Love Classical Music

It’s not actually snowing here, but I loved this snowman musician and wanted to share him with you. It is still at freezing here, so I’m waiting a bit to uncover my veggie plants in the garden. The weather has been such I’ll bring the sheets in to dry them before putting them back on the plants before dark tonight.

We got to talk with our son in Thailand this morning via a conference call program where we can actually see his face. I made him smile when I told him what a GOOD man he is. :0)

I’m getting a haircut today.  If you’re in the area and are looking for a kind, competent miracle-worker, call Michael Remillard at Tangles. 479-357-9305. 40 Town Square, Greenwood AR 72936. He has taken care of both my husband and me for several years and we truly love him. Today I’m asking him to try to do a ‘shaggy pixie’ or ‘waif’ cut with all different lengths around my face and ears. I’m taking two pics of haircuts I call SASSY….. :0)

UPDATE – Just uncovered the plants – all is fine. Although it is technically above freezing now, it’s C_O_L_D out there! I about froze my parts off. I’m putting the sheets through the dryer so they’ll be ready to spread over the plants again tonight…

I hope you stay warm and dry today.

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Seasons, snow people, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, taking care of yourself, Thoughts on a ________

Thoughts on a Tuesday 2-25-2020

Winston Churchill – Carl Mydans-The LIFE Picture Collection-Getty Images

 

“Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut.”

Leave a comment

Filed under Thoughts on a ________

My Wish for Us

sayingimages.com

Leave a comment

Filed under Attitude, Thoughts on a ________

I Love the LOOK of Winter 6

Life with Dogs and Cats

 

pelfind.net via Justsomething

 

Pinterest

 

Snoopy

 

Snow Addiction

2 Comments

Filed under Seasons, snow people

Earrings Finally Finished

I painted some earrings for myself awhile back. They’ve been sitting on a plate, looking at me, without the hardware on them, for several weeks now. Yesterday I finally took the time to put the hooks on. I’m wearing the orange and white ‘leaf’ earrings now.

 

There are two pairs of earrings remaining to finish. These need holes drilled in them, so they will take awhile longer. I’m pleased that they are so light weight. I almost forget I’m wearing earrings!

If you would like to see more, please click on the link to Eyecatching Earrings on Etsy.

 

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Personalities

pinterest

My husband has lived with me for over 50 years now.  He describes me as, “Mean as a snake.”

 

Grunge

As he has lived with me so long, he probably has a point. I hope, though, that if I AM as mean as a snake, I’m pretty like this one. :0)

AND on our last anniversary in June, he DID ask me to spend ANOTHER 50 years with him. I guess he really LIKES snakes….

Leave a comment

Filed under Family, love

Make the Days Count

lessonslearnedinlife.com via Peace Love and Smiles

Leave a comment

Filed under Attitude

More Pet Portraits by Niki Firmin

Teddy and Charlie

 

 

Argyle

 

 

Jack

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under drawings, Niki Firmin - Pet Portraits

Happy Fish?

Since I added a second filter and changed to glass beads instead of gravel, the aquarium has stayed cleaner longer. I read an article, though, on why the water would turn yellow.  There were things listed, such as decaying plants or fish, the use of driftwood, and other things like that, which don’t pertain to me. They did say I might be feeding the fish too much and suggested I scale back for several days and see if that had any effect.

 

There is a big range of how much food a PINCH is. Since the fish were all the same size when I got them, and you can see one of the goldfish is a lot larger than the other two, you can tell who is getting the majority of the food. I’m watching, trying for a much smaller pinch of fish flakes than I have been giving them. I wonder how one can tell how much is too little, good, or too much, though. The fish don’t say much…

Leave a comment

Filed under Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance

I Love the LOOK of Winter 5

Blaze Press

 

imgur.com via Justsomething

 

imgur.com via Justsomething

Leave a comment

Filed under Seasons, snow people

I Love the LOOK of Winter 4

Z-Man via Yolanda Vanveen

 

Karen Anne McGlinchey

 

You Need More Art in Your Life

2 Comments

Filed under Seasons, snow people

A Spoiled Lady’s Garden

This is the veggie garden of an extremely happy, spoiled woman.

We live on top of a ridge line and had to have some soil trucked up here in order to have grass around the house. You cannot dig a hole anywhere without immediately hitting rock. We made 14 brick planters around the house in order to be able to plant flowers and bushes. Several years ago, I found the book Square Foot Gardening by Mel Batholomew.  We cleared a spot, used some lumber to make two rectangles on the ground which was covered by black weed resisting plastic and filled the plot with Mel’s Mix. (peat moss, vermiculite, and 3 kinds of compost). This got around the fact that we had no soil, but it was still hard on me because, other than being older than dirt, I don’t enjoy bending over double for long periods of time or getting up and down from the ground.

Then we read about RAISED BED square foot gardens.  My husband can figure out how to do most anything, so we decided we would build some for ourselves. We ended up welding 6 ‘table-like’ structures where the wooden boxes could ‘sit.’  The boxes are 4 feet square and 8 inches high with bottoms that have plastic on them. We included drain holes so that excess water can get out. We made it so they aren’t just ‘raised,’ they are my chest height so I can just walk up to a box and weed, plant, harvest, add more soil, whatever.

 

You can see the wire we strung to demarcate the ‘squares.’ I am spreading things WAY out this year because the plants seem to grow together too closely if I don’t.

We built an irrigation system that is on a timer so I don’t have to remember to water or get out there with a hose.

 

We put a fence around the garden to keep critters out, such as deer. I will add some glow in the dark tape around so that the deer don’t run into the fence. We also put chicken wire around the bottom for smaller critters.

 

I have a wonderful set-up on trying to grow veggies. I am truly spoiled. I hope I can keep the sweet plants alive during the nights where we get down to freezing!

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, quality of life, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, Uncategorized

Our Baby is Back!

GTCarLot.com

In November of last year, my husband inadvertently backed our 2003 ‘Vette into a truck in the post office parking lot. The truck didn’t have a scratch and the owner looked it over carefully and told us to go on. Our Vette, however, was a different story. There was a huge squashed place on the right rear to the right of the tail light, and part of the adjoining part was dented.

We took it to our wonderful insurance man, Phil Hicks of Shelter, Insurance, and he told us to take the Vette to Greenwood Collision for an estimate. They sent us (and Phil) an estimate. Vettes are not cheap to fix and the back end of the car, plus the adjoining piece, would have to be replaced. The estimate was $3374.65. Thank GOODNESS we were only responsible for the $500 deductible. The insurance company sent us a check for the balance after the deductible was taken out and we were good to go.

The problem was, no one had the body parts we needed. One of them came in a reasonable amount of time, but the other was on backorder. We waited and waited, with Patty, the kind lady who handles the office, calling us with updates, or lack of them. She called us last Monday, telling us the final part had arrived and that we could bring the Vette in for repair.

Today she called, telling us the Vette was ready!  My husband was very happy with the job they did. Patty had our bill ready, made us a copy of the check I wrote, and we were on our way.

I told her that I wrote a daily blog, that I had written about Greenwood Collision before, and would do so again. They couldn’t have done a better job for us. No one can help parts not being available. On everything they had control over – the estimate, the ordering parts, the communication, the repair of the vehicle, and handling the payment and paperwork, they could not have done a better job.

I highly recommend both of these companies –

Phil Hicks, Shelter Insurance Company, 1740 W Center St, Greenwood, AR 72936, (479) 996-2171 

Greenwood Collision, 2615 W Center St, Greenwood, AR 72936, (479) 996-9922

Leave a comment

Filed under Great Companies Who Deserve Your Business

Imperfect

Marc Jacobs via 2 STAR art

Leave a comment

Filed under Attitude

I Love the LOOK of Winter 3

Nikita Veprikov via Maria D’Angelo

 

Newsner.com

 

Sand-Re-Scape.com via Yolanda Vanveen

Leave a comment

Filed under Seasons, snow people

Forever Free

Frederick-Douglass-EbookFriendly

I truly can’t imagine my life without reading.

I feel very lucky because once I finally got my Master’s Degree, I lost my enjoyment of reading. I had to read so many things that I found dry, useless, and a total waste of time that I would do almost anything before I sat down to read something. And when I did – even if it was the newspaper or the crossword puzzle, I tensed up, reading as if I would have to spit it back out, word for word, for a test. It was actually about a year before I finally read for the simple pleasure it should be.

Right now I am re-reading several Nora Roberts books. I’m fascinated by her creativity and ability to write in different styles. There are the romances, which I love, where I can dive in and get lost, enjoying the wonderful characters, situation, and dialogue, knowing that somehow things will work out.  There are the series, where there are 3 or 4 books that together tell a larger story. She has unique stand-alone books. I’m reading one called Shelter In Place, which is the story of a mass shooting and the lives affected by it. Her In Death series, writing under the pen name of J.D. Robb, is a stunning series of 50 books now in which Eve Dallas is a police detective, dealing with the horror and grittiness of New York in the future, yet providing a cast of characters I would truly love to actually know.  All of these are simply reading for pleasure.

I have a nice collection now of keto recipe books, allowing me to cook some delicious meals while I try to lose my lard. In combination with these, Suzanne Ryan’s keto website, and the Cronometer website where I list what I’ve eaten and my exercise, I have access to motivation, recipes, and record-keeping which – unless I eat stuff I shouldn’t, will help me be as healthy as possible.

Art books are a constant delight. I love to grab one, being awestruck by the talent shown, along with details of how I might improve my skills. I combine this with wonderful videos on YouTube and find my spirits soaring.

When I finish re-reading my collection of Nora Roberts books, I’ll change and start re-reading my collection of Robert B. Parker books….

Leave a comment

Filed under quality of life, Reading is FUNdamental

Not Alone

allgreatquotes.com

2 Comments

Filed under Family, Friendship, kindness

I Love the LOOK of Winter 2

Heavenly Recipes

I don’t really like cold weather, but I do love making snowmen and playing in the snow. I remember one year when my husband-to-be and I were dating (a hundred years or so ago) we built snow people in my parent’s front yard. A man and a woman. Quite traditional. THEN he really wanted to add anatomically correct – even exaggerated – parts to each one. He was very disappointed when I told him we would NOT do that!

 

Alex Howitt

One of my favorite things is to look on the net to find snow people I haven’t seen before and share them. I’m so happy to live on the same planet as people who not only think outside the box, but burn the box!  There is so much humor and creativity out there.

 

Alex Howitt

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Seasons, snow people

Wonderful Wednesday

sayingimages.com

My early spring garden seems to be doing well so far. I got out my trash can full of old sheets, plus clothespins, putting it under one of the tables, so I can cover the plants tonight. I’ll be doing that a lot until the threat of freezes is over. I will try to get onion sets when we do errands today. I would love to finish weeding the other boxes in the garden and get the onions in as soon as possible.

I’m trying to ignore the fact that – wherever I look – things are calling out to me to be SEEN and FIXED. I have made a priority list for the day. If THAT gets done, I’ll move on to the lesser list. (Who would have thought I would now have TWO lists….

The roast I cooked in the crock pot yesterday turned out really well. My husband asked if we could have the rest cut up with onions, mushrooms, and cream of chicken/mushroom soup tonight over rice (for him.) I’ll do that with cauli-rice for me. :0)

The sun is shining brightly today, so my spirits are lifted each time I look out the window.

Hopefully, I’ll be playing in the dirt this afternoon!

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

 

Leave a comment

Filed under DIET!, Gardening, Mother Nature, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

One of the Many Reasons I Love Arkansas

This is a beautiful state. We live in Greenwood, about 9 miles southwest of Fort Smith – right on the line between Arkansas and Oklahoma. We live about 3-1/2 miles outside Greenwood, on top of a ridge line where we can look at the view from our back yard and pretend we own all we can see.

One of the wonderful things about Arkansas, aside from the beauty, is that the state government has made some great decisions. One of them is early voting.

My husband and I weren’t even aware when we went to town this morning that early voting for Super Tuesday had started. We saw the signs posted at City Hall as we drove in.

We changed out my products at Rags & Roses, mailed a book we sold, and then circled back around to City Hall. We walked right in, right up to the wonderful volunteers who do the work allowing people to vote early, voted and went on our way. We thanked the ladies profusely for putting in the time that allows such an easy, CIVILIZED way to vote!

Leave a comment

Filed under Cause for Celebration

I Love the LOOK of Winter

Aurelia Pinzari

I love the look of winter. The cold, the snow, the gorgeous scenery covered in white. The reality of it, trying to get down my 650+ foot driveway and NOT end up in the field across the road from the bottom of the driveway, and making my way in hilly, curvy roads into town and back again, forces me to enjoy winter vicariously.

 

“First Snow” – Nino Chakvetadze via Penny Yaffe Krakow

I haved loved Nino Chakvetadze’s paintings for years. She puts so much heart into her work.

 

Javad Soleimanpour via Ferit Temur via Penny Yaffe Krakow

simply stunning.

2 Comments

Filed under paintings I love, Seasons

Daffodils, Veggies and Fish – Oh, My!

Listal

Yesterday was a productive day for us.

Greenwood Collision called us in the morning, saying that the part we needed for the Vette had FINALLY arrived (it was ordered in November) – so we took both vehicles there to leave the Vette to be fixed (after my husband insisted we stop at the car wash to give it a bath before we left it with them.)

We then drove to Fort Smith to leave our tax stuff with our CPA, Mike Schluterman, at Lawrence, Schluterman & Schwartz LTD. They will call us when the returns are ready to sign and send. I LOVE it when we can dump the stuff on Mike and we can be sure all will be handled competently.

On the way back we stopped for groceries, gas, and a couple of other things. I fixed lunch when we got home. We got a text from our friends, saying they wouldn’t be able to bowl last night, so I decided that, since it was a GORGEOUS day, I wanted to go back to town and buy spinach and head lettuce plants.

I spent a happy couple of hours getting the weeds out and then planting the spinach and head lettuce. I spread things out more this time (though my hat stays off to Mel Bartholomew of Square Foot Gardening.  In MY garden, things tend to grow too closely together, cutting off oxygen and resulting in spoilage. So this year, I’m planting one plant in each square and will see what happens.  (I went out this morning to take pictures. When I was out walking Molly earlier, there was just a very quiet sprinkle from the sky. When I went out to take the pictures, it was a steady rain, so I was glad I took my umbrella.)

To the early spring garden, I will add sweet onion sets. Then I’ll watch those until it’s time to plant tomatoes and yellow squash, and whatever my husband would like me to try.

On the way back from taking pics of the garden, I got a couple of pictures of my daffodils, stubbornly blooming even though it will probably freeze twice this week. I can and will cover the plants in the garden, but I can’t cover the yard, so I hope they can ‘weather-the-weather.’

 

 

The last thing I did yesterday was clean the aquarium.  The fish seem happy and healthy, although they don’t say much.

Running the TWO filters has lengthened the amount of time before I need to change the water again. The new, stick-shaped aerator we’re using now makes ME happier, and the change to the glass beads instead of gravel is much nicer.

So there you have my yesterday. Today is an inside day. All will depend on when the rain stops, or if this is an all day thing.

I hope that YOU are staying warm and dry and happy.

 

6 Comments

Filed under Family, Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Seasons, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, Thoughts on a ________

Snow Goon Mailbox Decoration

One of the many Snow-Goons created in Calvin & Hobbes comics by Bill Watterson

 

Even though we are having mostly spring-like weather here in Arkansas this year, we wanted to be sure to honor one of our favorite cartoonists, Bill Watterson.  I’m really hoping that we can get through this month and half way through March without more ice or sleet or snow, but I AM smarter than my daffodils – already blooming and probably soon to have their beauty cut off by Mother Nature…

We had fun with this one, particularly because of the 3-D nature of the piece. We had to make his arms and hands, welding them carefully to the two pieces without blowing holes through the sheet metal. This is one of our larger, more bulky mailbox decorations and we smile each time we put it up.

 

2 Comments

Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, metal art

Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole

info@cj-caldwell.com

I tried a new recipe from Claudia J. Caldwell a couple of nights ago, and my husband and I think it’s a keeper and will enter our regular rotation of ‘good keto recipes’

I received an email from her, offering this recipe. You may need to go to her Facebook page and sign up to receive emails in order to get it. I’m really glad I did, and am trusting her more and more to give us recipes we will enjoy.

The recipe gives you 6 servings at 1 gram of net carbs per serving. We had a salad with it. I may tweak it a bit and include some spinach and mushrooms in there next time. Delicious!

Leave a comment

Filed under Keto Eating Plan and Recipes We Like

At Dusk

“At Dusk” -Julius Sergius von Klever via Dr. Cyril Thiaudiere PhD -LinkedIn

Leave a comment

Filed under paintings I love

Thoughts on a Saturday 2-15-2020

The sun is ALMOST shining today and it’s warmer, so I’m a happy camper.

We just got back from running errands. We have two main things on our list today –

THING ONE – getting a replacement collar for the shock collar we use rarely with our 94+ pound yellow lab, Amber. The shock part is still working, but the collar is too short now. Once we get one we can use, we’ll start working with her again in the yard. We need to be able to take her to the vet, for example, without worrying about her pulling my husband or me down and making us face surf on the ground. Our biggest problem is that she minds well when we are by ourselves. She looks at us as if she has never seen us before and is totally deaf when we are out in public.

THING TWO – adjusting a door knob assembly so that the door to the guest room closes and stays closed, rather than opening with the nose of a dog or cat.

I told you that we don’t really celebrate any holidays like birthdays, Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, etc. My husband was raised without big celebrations and I don’t want him to feel obligated to get me something just because of the calendar.  When we find something we think the other will like, we get it and give it, regardless of the day.

I have also told you that I’m a very happy, spoiled lady who is treated better than I deserve 99% of the time. Two examples –

He bought me these earrings a couple of weeks ago. I just love them. They gave me some trouble trying to actually get them into my ears, though. The post is curved and didn’t want to go through the hole in my ear. I kept trying. I finally decided to wait until my earlobes were completely happy and THEN try them. I wore them yesterday!!!! My husband was a bit disappointed, saying they were ‘small,’ but they looked pretty. I tried to get a pic of them with me wearing them, but I wasn’t able to.

TODAY I opened a package in the mail to find these –

The picture doesn’t show how sparkly they are. They are called, “sidewinders” or something similar because you see the whole circle while they are in your ear, not just an outside edge. I will put them on and try to get a picture. Fingers crossed!

See what I mean about being happy and spoiled?

After several days of running like a nut, I’m fairly caught up today.

I am planning to –

  • Bake a loaf of keto bread
  • Get back into exercising – with my elliptical trainer in the garage plus a session of yoga later today.

I hope that YOUR Saturday is a fun one!

2 Comments

Filed under DIET!, exercise, Family, giving, Housekeeping - Maintenance, love, Thoughts on a ________

The Art of Joya Cousin

Joya Cousin – LinkedIn

Leave a comment

Filed under paintings I love

The Wonderful Art of Bethany Kerr

Bethany Kerr Fine Art

Leave a comment

Filed under Bethany Kerr, drawings

I Found My Desk!

I told you that I FINALLY made myself quit procrastinating and got the tax prep for 2019 mostly done. I then went through the file cabinet drawers for our stock records and found something ELSE that should have been a long time ago – updating our stuff and making sure that our records agreed with our broker’s. As I was working on those things, plus getting things ready to put in the local shop for St. Patrick’s Day, I ended up ‘losing’ my desk.

I love this desk. It’s impractical, but I love it. It has a top that rolls down so you can’t see the top at all. (I had so much STUFF on it – that was impossible) :0)

It also has a bunch of little drawers, nooks & crannies, slide-out trays, etc. It even has a KEY to lock it, though I never use it.

Today was the day I was going to do two things:

THING ONE:  Go onto our broker’s website and see if I could download and print what we needed to finish our taxes.

THING TWO:  FIND my desk again.

_______________

My desk is FOUND again!  As usual, I threw away a bunch of stuff, put things back where they belonged, found new places for some of the stuff…

I was able to download and print our tax stuff, so I’m in the process of going through the packet one more time, making sure I have everything included – with the backup receipts needed, and then we will drive to Fort Smith Monday and leave it with our wonderful CPA who makes sense of all of it and hopefully tells us we don’t owe anything.

As soon as I finish going through the tax stuff, I’m planning to dive into the book I’ve been reading and enjoy!

6 Comments

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Organizing/DeCluttering

It’s 29 Degrees F and…

This was taken at the same time I took the photos of my daffodils blooming, even though it wasn’t the middle of February.

 

I took this photo this morning. It’s 29 degrees out there and look at this!

I was out walking Molly when I saw this, and I have to tell you, my heart simply filled with joy and hope. Cheesy, maybe, but absolutely true.

“Spring is nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!” – Robin Williams

Leave a comment

Filed under quality of life, Seasons

Happy Valentine’s Day 2020

If there ever comes a day where we can’t be together, keep me in your heart. I’ll stay there forever.” —Winnie The Pooh

Leave a comment

Filed under holidays