My heart goes out to my long time friend Kay who lost her son yesterday to a heart attack. Kay is SUCH a special lady and has had a lot of awful challenges in the past few months. We will do everything we can to help her through this.
Our ‘Lewises-against-the-elements’ challenge continues. Yesterday it was the fire ants swarming when I was trying to clean out the raised bed square foot garden. Today it was the wasps, who have made a home in the attachment to the pole that holds up the mailbox. We drilled several holes in it so that we can attach our mailbox decorations to the mailbox with two bolts and nuts. It never occurred to us that wasps would decide that this was a great place to live. We sprayed the holes down again, taking several sessions to get the other mailbox decoration DOWNand the scarecrow UP. We didn’t get stung, but it certainly adds challenge to the job of changing out decorations!
As we were processing the chicken, frozen fish, and hamburger meat we bought this morning, my husband was taking the packages out to the freezer in the garage for me. He remarked when he came in from the first pass, “Hey! You really DID clean out the freezer!” He added that he didn’t think he would be able to tell much difference, and that he was amazed. He said, “You did a GREAT job!” (I’m marking this day down on my calendar that 1) he noticed, and 2) he gave me a nice compliment!
Today when I go out again to continue trying to clear out the garden. I will hose everything down first with the EIGHT bug killer before I try to do anything else. I would really like to finish this. If I’m successful, my friend Robin wrote, suggesting that I spread Vaseline around the ‘legs’ of the support pieces that hold up the boxes. She says that her experience shows that the ants don’t want to cross the Vaseline or get stuck in it. SOUNDS GREAT TO ME! Thanks, Robin.
I am happy to report that my yoga practice went well yesterday afternoon. My back had protested LOUDLY yesterday morning, telling me that maybe I had practiced a bit too exuberantly for my old body. The use of Muscle Gel with Arnica, Tylenol, and CAREFUL stretches yesterday fixed me up. I was sore again this morning, but I think it’s just a leftover. My husband spread the gel on for me, but I didn’t need the Tylenol and will practice this afternoon. 7 STARS for the week! WOO HOOO!
I hope your Sunday is a good one.
Filed under exercise, Family, Friendship, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, Thoughts on a ________
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Filed under Pastels
I was delighted to see I hit another ’round number’ of blog subscribers yesterday. I danced around the room a bit, then went and told my husband, did some other stuff and then returned to find I had LOST one. A bit later, another was ADDED. :0)
I just wanted to say THANK YOU.
I truly love finding things that I hope you’ll enjoy.
Thanks to the wonderful people who give me feedback. I love getting to know you and the special friendships we’re building.
Filed under Dreams, quality of life
We are about to go to Lunch Bunch – our every Friday brunch/lunch with long-time good friends to enjoy sharing what has happened since LAST Friday, what is coming up, good news, bad news, lots of hugs and laughter. We have done this for some 17 years now and our friendship is priceless. Our son will go with us today, so it will be even more special.
I’m thankful for what should be a quiet day – a treasured thing now.
_____________________
A couple of hours have passed. Our Internet keeps going down, so I gave up and we went to Lunch Bunch. We had a great time. We’ve now replenished groceries and I’m again trying to get a post off before the net goes down again. Challenging, to say the least.
I hope YOUR Friday is a good one, and that you have much for which to be thankful, too.
Filed under Family, Friendship, Thoughts on a ________
“A fox is a wolf who sends flowers.” – Ruth Brown
“Let every fox take care of his own tail.” – Italian Proverb
“A fox should not be of the jury at a goose’s trial.” – Thomas Fuller
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography
I’ve had a productive morning.
I vacuumed the carpeted parts of the first floor this morning, vacuuming up at LEAST one dog’s worth of hair, and maybe a cat, too. It amazes (and disgusts) me how MUCH hair I vacuum up each time, even though I’m vacuuming more these days than I ever have before. It’s a miracle that we actually have two dogs and two cats left AND that none of them is bald! I’m liking our 4 goldfish more and more – THEY don’t shed!
I’ve told you that we had 2 of the 14 planters we built around the yard 30 years ago collapse. We rebuilt one of them, and had the second one rebuilt by someone who knows what he’s doing. (It’s beautiful.) My husband worked to make and attach the PVC irrigation system stuff we needed in order to hook the two planters up to our system in the front yard. (It was when he was attaching the PVC pipe to the newest planter that he fell and skinned his leg badly. I put it on my list to use bags of potting soil to fill up the newest planter.
It was the morning after he fell on July 22nd that we discovered he had suffered a stroke. Obviously, we have had other priorities since then, and I’m happy to report that my husband is essentially back to being his normal ornery self now. This morning I decided I would fill up the planter. I filled the wheelbarrow with four 40-pound bags of potting soil and trucked them over to the planter. Our driveway detector went off, and my husband came out to see who was here. He slit the bags and we dumped them into the planter, then got four MORE 40-pound bags in order to finish the job. Now both rebuilt planters are ready to receive new plants, probably in the spring.
We drove down to get the mail (we have a STEEP 650+ foot driveway down to the road where our mailbox is.)
After we got the mail, there was a truck coming down the road the other way. He stopped, obviously wanting to say something to us. When we pulled up next to him, he said, “I’m happy to see you two. I just wanted to tell you I LOVE yawl’s mailbox signs. I come by here every day looking to see what you have up there next. Yawl are really creative.” I thanked him, telling him that he had made our day – week – month – year – and maybe life – with his kind words.
This was about an hour ago. Can you see me STILL grinning? We never pictured ourselves creating things together. We have had a blast fighting over what to create, how to make it, how to paint it, etc. We have SUCH fun with this. We change the decoration twice a month, so are getting ready to put the next one up on the 15th, weather permitting. Now, each time we change the decoration, I’ll picture this NICE, NICE man who took the time to tell us we give him a smile when he passes our driveway. :0)
What a WONDERFUL morning!
I just gave myself a gold star for today. I just finished yoga practice # 3 for the week (#9 since I started my renewed practice after sloughing off for several months.) Things ARE getting a bit easier. My husband and son are both being quite supportive of my efforts which makes it nicer. My BODY, though, is the one I’m really listening to. I’m feeling it start to GIVE after I breathe into the various stretches. It still is uncomfortable when I first get into each stretch but then eases off more and more quickly. I’m feeling looser and relaxed when my practice is over. I’m sleeping better. :0)
“Yoga is 99% Practice & 1% theory.” ~ Sri K. Pattabhi Jois
“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.” ~ B.K.S. Lyengar
“In truth, Yoga doesn’t take time – it gives time.” ~ Ganga White
“Yoga takes you into the present moment, the only place where life exists.” ~ Unknown
Whenever I practice, although I’m doing my own thing right now, I remember Cat Kabira from my “Gentle Yoga” DVD saying, “Relaaaaaaaaxing Jaw……. Relaaaaaaaxing Face…..”
AHHHHHH!
Filed under exercise, taking care of yourself
Filed under paintings I love
We made 13 donations to our local library last year for their fundraisers. ( I don’t know how many this year) We’ve sold a LOT of books on Amazon and eBay. We STILL have books in almost every room in the house. I keep promising myself I’ll get into the mindset to go through our books with the idea of giving them new homes, but I have to admit I’m greedy and want to keep them all, as well as buying new ones.
My husband and I each have our personal libraries of books by favorite authors. His thing is mainly Science Fiction. He reads fast and remembers most of what he reads. At one point, in an effort to conserve money, he read books upside down to try to slow down. :0) He also has technical books of all kinds, math books, books we’ve bought in the library fundraisers, project books, and more. Our personal libraries are in built-in shelves in our bedroom. I guess the only rooms that don’t have shelves for books is our bathrooms…
I am re-reading book #29 (Kindred in Death) from the In Death series by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) I’m fascinated by the world and characters she has created. There are 48 books in the series that have come out in paperback so far, with more to come. I have the latest paperback on my table beside my chair in the living room. I won’t allow myself to enjoy it until I have finished re-reading the 47 books that come before it. I feel lucky to be able to dive into the current one and live in their world for a bit before tackling another item on my to-do list for the day.
I have all books written by Robert J. Parker and enjoy re-reading those, too. (I feel sorry for my husband that he remembers books and movies so well. I don’t have that awful ‘affliction’ and can enjoy things over and over again almost as if it were the first time) :0) Another favorite is the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovitch. I think there are 25 paperbacks in that series so far.
I plow through truly wonderful art books that are everywhere. I can’t ever get very far when I look at them, though. I get caught up, grabbed by an idea, and have to go play in my art room to see what I can do with it.
We had another set of shelves built for my husband to add on to his space for his personal collection. Mine spilled over into the built-in shelves in the guest room. We feel rich in books.
I would (and probably should) give up many things in life, but reading is something I’ll do with great enjoyment until my last breath!
Filed under Hobbies, Reading is FUNdamental
I don’t mean to give you the heebie-jeebies or bad dreams, but our son found a scorpion on his carpeted bedroom floor this morning.
This isn’t the one, but this was shown as an “Arkansas scorpion’ on the net, and looks like the ones we find.
We have the whole house sprayed each quarter since we live out in the sticks. I tell them to spray for ‘everything’ including elephants. Josh at Tri-hill Pest Control has been doing our treatments for years. A new man, Adolpho, came almost a month ago now, and did a very good job for us, as well.
Usually, the treatment comes with a free re-spray if you have bugs within 2 weeks. I called Tri-Hill this morning after I had the chance to talk with our son, who told me that the scorpion he found this morning, upstairs in the bedroom, on the carpeted floor. He wasn’t sickly, either.
Alex, who answers the phone and does the dispatching, looked up our treatment date and saw it was almost a month ago. When I told him that I have never called for a re-spray before, but tended to take lively scorpions on the second floor more seriously than other things, said he would arrange a re-spray for 10:30 TOMORROW, and that we would not be charged.
You can’t ask for better attitude or service than this.
If you are lucky enough to live in our area – please consider giving these people your business.
Tri Hill Pest Control, 1308 Zero St, Fort Smith, AR 72901. (479) 782-2847 tri-hill.com – Alex – dispatcher Adolpho (I hope I’m spelling this right) – treatment specialist.
Filed under Great Companies Who Deserve Your Business
Bethany Kerr is an extremely talented artist, as you can readily see here, with her drawings of her kids. She also does commissions of all kinds, plus murals in homes and on buildings in her town, plus watercolors, teaching art, local shows with one of her daughters….. I feel extremely lucky to know her as a person, as well as artist. She listed her work on my website, Creative Artworks, and that is where and how we met.
I admire her as a person. She is a beautiful wife and mother of many.
You can see more of her work at
Filed under Bethany Kerr, drawings
Filed under paintings I love
Good morning! (barely)
I’m getting a really late start again today because our Internet service is super wonky again today. I’m looking at this problem as another of life’s character-building exercises. I get halfway through a post, email, or reading an article, and everything goes dead. The sun is shining. This seems to be a case of being attacked by gremlins.
It occurs to me that when you retire, many things get turned upside-down.
One big example is a change in perspective – how we feel about Mondays.
We have worked most of our lives. Mondays were something that happened with great regularity – like clockwork – and meant an end to most free time and lots of hard work for the coming week. We lived for the weekends, getting to sleep in (until we had kids) and then rushing around to get all the errands done while the stores were open that we couldn’t make time for during the week. We made a point of playing hard, wringing every ounce of fun out of our time off, only to return to yet another Monday. The week would C-R-A-W-L past (even though I liked most of my jobs a lot).
Since we retired, we have the opposite situation. We like to have all the stores open, deliveries being made, mail being delivered, banks open, etc. We stay super busy, not able to figure out how we EVER found time to work full time. Our lives are full of interesting and fun things to do. Many of these things come to a screeching halt when it’s the weekend or a holiday. We start to do something and the bank is closed, or the stores are closed, or….
I’m not REALLY complaining. I’m just trying to explain the change in perspective now that we’re as old as dirt. :0)
Filed under drawings, Niki Firmin - Pet Portraits, Suzanne Starr Art
On Tuesday of this week I renewed my yoga practice after sloughing off for a number of months. Excuses abound, but I KNEW it had been doing me a lot of good. I felt the progress, the loosening of my muscles, the relaxation. Tuesday I finally decided that I needed to take better care of myself and that started with practicing yoga daily. My husband’s question every day now is, “Are you going to yoge?”
Since I’m a bit age-challenged (I’m 72) and basically enjoy mostly sedentary pastimes, I really have to MAKE myself exercise even though I’ve proven that I actually feel better having done it. As a former student, then teacher – I learned the motivation of the Gold Star. It STILL works for me. I can be really tired from working in the yard and I look at my desk calendar, seeing 5 stars for the week – lacking the 6th – and I go practice my yoga to be able to add the star. Stupid – Silly – but I figure whatever works….
SO – Since I ‘yoged’ Tuesday through Sunday this first week of renewed practice, it’s a 6 STAR WEEK! :0)
“It’s not about being good at something. It’s about being good to yourself.” ~ unknown
I’m basically starting over, having sloughed for such a long time, but I am already seeing a bit of progress. I can again touch my toes. I do have to bend over and really breathe into it, but
g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y lower with each long breath so that eventually my fingertips touch the mat. It takes me almost a full minute of lying on my back for muscles to stop clenching, but I am relaxing a bit more quickly each day. I am still a wonderful model for the old Rice Krispies advertisements – snap, crackling, and popping my way into each new pose, but I AM able to get into them. The worst is sitting with my legs spread out to either side and then trying to bend forward. My “Gentle Yoga” instructor, Cat Kabira, bends forward and lays her forehead on the mat. Yeah. Right. I bend forward and the insides of each leg start screaming immediately. I am taking Cat at her word, that stretching as far as you can into the pose and breathing into it will bring rewards, whether you can touch your forehead on the mat or not….
“Inhale the future, exhale the past.” – unknown
The big thing I’m noticing is that the stretching in all directions and forcing myself to relax – eventually – makes me feel better. It used to be that I would stretch and some muscle or other would cramp. That is not happening now! This is a benefit of the practice before, but I’ll take it. I still hurt when I stretch, but NO cramping! Hooray!
“A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.” ~ unknown
I’ll have to admit that I’m interrupted in my practice more by my own laughing than anything else. My husband never fails to remark at all the popping sounds my poor old body makes. I simply look at him, then can’t hold it in any longer and start to laugh. I tell him that he can make fun when HE is there beside me trying to do it, too. That usually results in his going back to reading on the tablet. :0)
“The pose begins when you want to leave it.” ~ unknown
As we age, balance becomes a problem. We tend to start shuffling our feet a bit or walking more tentatively, rather than striding as we used to. I have found that the yoga practice results in my feeling more steady, feeling my muscles work as I walk or stand.
“You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.” ~ unknown
I may always be creaky, but I’m really going to try to keep this going. I need to be as strong, flexible, and reasonably balanced as I can going forward. These ‘old lady stretches’ are really helpful – assuming that I actually continue to get down on the floor and DO them.
“Just breathe.” ~ unknown
NEXT week will be a 7 gold star week!
Filed under aging, Attitude, Challenges, exercise, taking care of yourself
“Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.” ~ Allen Klein
“The whole point is to live life and be – to use all the colors in the crayon box. ~ RuPaul
“Believe in yourself, go after your dreams, and don’t let anyone put you in a box.” ~ Daya
Filed under Beautiful Boxes