RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
email from Bill Lites
email from Bill Lites
Mithunh Photography via Mara Spirig – LinkedIn
Lettie De Winnaar – LinkedIn.jpg
Jeff Jett – Linkedin
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
*The photos supplied by Jeff Jett and RJ Bennett have been carefully gathered and posted on LinkedIn in an effort to preserve the animals and their habitats. Photographers are credited when possible.
JustSomethingCreative
I’m trying to count carbs, staying at 20 grams or under daily, on the Keto eating plan. It’s easy to fool yourself on how many carbs you’re eating, what kind of portions, etc. I have used MyFitnessPal.com before to track my calories. Now I find I can change the parameters so I can concentrate on my carb count, with an eye to fat and protein in the right proportions.
I just now filled in what I ate for lunch, and then added what I planned to eat for dinner and a snack before bed. It totaled too many carbs for the day, so I played with my plans until I came out fine. This is wonderful. You can TRY different things before making the mistake, rather than feeling bad after you’ve messed up.
Filed under DIET!
NDTV.com
This is a picture of my dad, Jim Wheaton. He’s been gone a long time now and I miss him. As a child, he was just “Jim” to me (He didn’t want my brother and me to call him, ‘Dad.”) Every year I appreciate more how unique he was and how much he taught me.
When he was 3 years old, he fell off a horse and broke his left arm in several places. Back then, doctors didn’t know how to set bones nearly as well as they do now. He ended up with a left arm much shorter than his right, and a hand that was basically useless. He endured bullying at school, but he overcame it using his wonderful sense of humor. He found that if he could make someone laugh, they looked at him differently. From the time I was old enough to understand, my dad was the role model for standing back and seeing the humor in things. This is one of my most important coping mechanisms. I used it only this morning, making my husband laugh TWICE while he was ranting about computers, cell phones, and other technical stuff not working the way they should. It dissolved his frustration enough we THINK we have the issue solved.
Instead of thinking of the things he couldn’t do because of his arm, my dad made sure that he did everything he could one-handed. In fact, he was SO good at it that many times I simply ‘forgot’ that he might have trouble with something. HE made us forget it, not using it as an excuse for not producing. I remember a family trip when we were walking along the sidewalk. There was a man sitting on the sidewalk. As we passed, he held up one arm – remarkably like my dad’s – and asked him for money. My dad stopped, showed him HIS arm, and said, “Get a job!”
Below is an example of two wooden dogs he carved – one-handed!
I also have three of his small oil paintings.
My dad used his talent and humor to provide for us as a family with his own advertising agency, doing radio commercials for clients. His style was so distinctive that his commercials are still played today – as kind of a tribute to his creativity and ingenuity. This URL still talks about my dad and some of his commercials (scroll down to Jim Wheaton box). He won a Silver Lifetime Addy Award for his unique contribution to advertising in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
He taught me that sometimes you need to read between the lines if someone feels embarrassed to say personal things. For the same reason my dad felt uncomfortable being called, “Dad,” he felt embarrassed to show his emotions. When I was earning a Master’s Degree at the University of Tulsa, I had to make a presentation on advertising and how I would teach it to my students. I asked my dad to be a guest speaker. I finished my presentation, then amazed and delighted the class members by introducing my dad – who was well known enough to be a bit of a personality. When he finished a truly delightful talk, punctuated by a lot of laughing, he ended by saying something like, “I love it when I can talk to people about what I do. I particularly love it when I can tell you how proud I am of my daughter. She is Linda Wheaton Lewis.” surprising the whole class AND me.
I STILL tear up when I remember. When the class left, I finally allowed myself to break down. After I cried for a bit, I told my dad he had given me the very best moment of my life. He told me that he was sorry he hadn’t told me – and others – how he felt earlier. As I say – I STILL tear up.
My dad was a wonderful role model in so many ways. His example made me appreciate uniqueness, tenacity, a healthy sense of humor, and telling people how I feel. He is gone, but he lives in my heart. I love you, Jim.
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!
Our weather forecast is the pits. The ‘weather weenies” as my husband calls them are saying that Greenwood, Arkansas (where we are) could get 6 to 8 inches of rain in the next 7 days, starting today. When you look at the map above, we’re in the bright red blob that says, “6” – 8″. Even if we ONLY get 4″ – 6″, it’ll be a big problem for a lot of good people.
It’s times like this when I’m really glad we live on top of a ridge line, but many places in Arkansas and Oklahoma have already flooded, are trying to pick up the pieces, and really don’t need any more rain.
I hope the weather guys aren’t upset with me, but I REALLY HOPE THEY ARE WRONG THIS TIME.
Filed under Mother Nature
Webstaurant Store
This freezer is very similar to ours. Ours has three heavy plastic bins that hang across the top.
Since things tend to go INTO this freezer and never be seen again, today’s project is to clean it out and reorganize it for actual cooking again.
For those of you who don’t know – and can’t imagine anyone having a problem like this – my husband and I have been trying to lose the lard for a bit over a year, starting mid April of 2018. We signed up for Nutrisystem. Except for planned cooking or go-out meals (one each for breakfast, lunch and dinner each week) I haven’t been cooking. We stopped the Nutrisystem program and have recently started the Keto eating plan. I like the idea of eating real world meals again, with leftovers, etc., but have to gear up for it.
I’ve finished PHASE I of the project this morning. Can you believe I had stuff in there from 2013? I KNOW! :0/ I filled TWO doubled leaf bags!
I’m resting now, gearing up for PHASE II, which is trying to make sense of what is in there and reorganizing it so I can find things quickly and stuff hopefully won’t be ‘lost in the ozone’ again. I’m hoping that I can actually move some stuff that is in our fridge freezer out there, making space for more frozen veggies and fruit INSIDE.
I hope you’re having a wonderful day.
HungryGoddess.com
I’m probably the last person on the planet to spiralize a veggie. I’ve made cauli-rice and I’ve cooked spaghetti squash, but just spiralized my first yellow squash last night.
My sister-in-law, Mary Lou, told me that she had done it recently and she thought it was very good. Somehow, in my mind I was waiting to ‘process’ some and freeze it just to eat in place of spaghetti or noodles.
I used my spiralizer (above) for the very first time and it worked like a charm. I sauteed the squash in some olive oil, added some seasoned salt and pepper, and some garlic powder. It only took a few minutes to cook. My husband doesn’t like to ‘fight’ with spaghetti or anything like that, so I cut the ‘squash spaghetti’ into bite-sized pieces and served. I put some on my husband’s plate, along with nice roast beef slices, and asked him to try it.
To my surprise, he said, “This is okay. What is it?” Around our house, this amounts to a judgment of ‘we can eat this again.’ (Not ‘YUMMY!” but it’ll work.) I can now look forward to serving this under recipes that call for spaghetti, angel hair pasta, or even noodles.
As far as our new ‘son’ (we’re hosting a 16-year-old soccer-player from Italy for the next school year, starting in August), I’ll ask him to try it. If he likes it, we’ll all try it with spaghetti and meat balls or a stir-fry. If he doesn’t, it won’t be a big deal to make some actual spaghetti for him.
Tonight I’m trying zucchini!
It’s far from perfect, but MUCH cleaner and more organized than it was. It was almost like a treasure hunt. I found things I didn’t know I had!
Contemporary Closets
I’m lucky. I have a ROOM we use as our pantry. Being lucky is sometimes a double-edged sword, though. Having ROOM results (in OUR house) in things going in and never coming back out.
Ours doesn’t look as bad as this one, but right now ours looks as if a bomb had struck. I’m trying to do a combination of things with the clean out and reorganization –
I’ve spent an hour so far, and am about to do another session. It will take several before things are ‘good,’ but I’m happy to be getting my act together.
I’m not sure what is going on around here, but my husband paid me another compliment yesterday. We were getting ready for bed and suddenly he stopped and said, “You know, when we built this bed frame however many years ago it was, I ‘went along’ with your idea of decorating the headboard with stones, but I really wasn’t wild about the idea. Now I think it’s the best thing about it.”
About 10 years or so ago, we wanted to replace our bed. We hunted for bookcase headboards with frames all over. Apparently, as we find so many times, we are not in step with the current fashion. Apparently NO ONE wants a bookcase headboard where they can actually read in bed anymore. We explored having one custom made and our teeth dropped at the prices. We decided to make a headboard and frame ourselves.
My husband is really good at visualizing what he wants to do and then making it happen. I’m more the ‘go-fer,’ assisting his efforts, running for parts or tools or whatever, holding the other end, etc. When we got to the part where the frame and headboard were together and stained, my husband said, “It’s done.” As usual, we disagreed. I wanted SOME kind of SOMETHING that we could decorate it with to make it OURS – to make it UNIQUE.
To kind of offset all the switches (controlling reading lights, fans, electricity to end tables, electric blanket controls, etc., I suggested we make ‘frames’ on either side of the main panel filled with River Rock. I liked the idea of adding the color, texture, and a bit of 3-dimensions. After looking at me a minute, he said, “Okay,” and helped me with the project, but with a decided lack of enthusiasm. I liked the idea enough for BOTH of us. :0)
To balance things, I added some river rock to the panels on either side of the bed.
It has been, as I said, 10 years or more since we built the bed frame and headboard. I’m still surprised that he suddenly told me yesterday that this has grown on him and now he likes it.
Maybe it’s something in the water. Maybe it’s the fact that I accepted when he asked me yesterday to spend another 50 years with him. I don’t know – but I love the compliments and hope they continue. :0)
Filed under Cause for Celebration, Family, Lewis projects
Since my husband has 10 or so pounds to lose, and I have 30-35 pounds to go, we have started the Keto eating plan. I’ve also told you that we’re going to be host parents, starting in August, to a 16-year-old soccer player from Italy. This way of eating will be MUCH more amenable to cooking for a family again, rather than the Nutrisystem plan we were on.
Recently I ordered Simply Keto by Suzanne Ryan of KetoKarma.com. In the book, she explains her own weight loss journey (a loss of 120 pounds), the Keto eating plan, and a good recipe section, plus resources for further study, etc. I like her recipes because, so far, I’ve only had to go online for ONE ingredient. Instead of finding several recipes that sounded possible or interesting, I feel as if I’ve won the lottery on good recipes to try! The recipes are straight-forward, not fancy, and sound wonderful.
Last night I tried the first recipe from the book. It’s called “Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Breakfast Bake.” My husband’s reaction was, “This is YUMMY!” and he said it two or three times. He also remarked, “This tastes too good to be what we’re supposed to be eating.” We went out today to get another Pyrex pie plate so that I can double the recipe next time. The leftovers are good in the fridge for 4 days, and a serving is great for actual breakfast (though we enjoyed it for dinner), a snack, a lunch…. We can simply pop a serving into the microwave. We agreed this would become one of our staples.
My biggest problem is getting my husband to pay attention to the details of the new plan. He is a Type II diabetic. With the Nutrisystem plan, he was able to eat some fruit again – something he sorely missed. I’ve told him that fruit is quite limited on this plan, plus he should forego the sugar-free ice cream he’s been eating at night. (Right now I’m trying to entice him with strawberries and heavy cream for tonight.)
If you’d like to try the recipe above, here is the link
ENJOY!
I’m hoping to be able to give you progress reports as I try to lose the rest of the lard.
The Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland went up this morning.
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked. “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” ~ Alice In Wonderland , Lewis Caroll
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, metal art
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
58 years ago we fell in love. (He was 17. I was 14). We waited and waited – through my last year of junior high, 4 years of high school, his Marine Corps service, and 4 years of college – and then we finally married June 14, 1969.
Today we mark our 50th wedding anniversary.
My husband describes me as, “mean as a snake.” He has asked me for 50 MORE years, so I guess he likes snakes…” :0)
I graciously accepted. If we make it the NEXT 50, I’ll be 122 years old….
Hanka Koebsch via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Filed under Cause for Celebration, Family
If you haven’t already, meet Amber, our 94-pound, two year old yellow lab “puppy.”
Sweet, huh? Loveable, yes. But FULL of vinegar.
We were sitting in the office, each at our own computer, enjoying a rare day of having the front and back doors open to receive a nice breeze, when a truly awful smell permeated the room. It was SO bad I almost got physically sick.
I got up to find that Amber had found ‘something’ that had been dead for several days and brought it to the front door. Isn’t that SWEET.
I yelled, help – asking for my husband to get rid of the ‘something’ while I started handling Amber.
We chained her up to the deck, hosed her down, poured doggie shampoo all over her and I scrubbed, and scrubbed. We hosed her off, soaped her again… several times before we thought maybe we had done enough. We changed the chain so she was on the deck and couldn’t get off and left her to dry.
I went inside and was STILL smelling the awful smell from just walking her through the house from the front to the back door, so I sent around with Febreze – probably one of the biggest tests of its life, spraying everywhere as I walked through the foyer, the office, the living room, the back porch, the kitchen, the pantry, the two half baths, the dining area, several times.
Then I went to the sink and used the metal soap bar thingie that you’re supposed to use when you’ve been cutting up garlic or onions and can’t get the smell off your hands, then soap, then the metal bar again….
I then went out and toweled Amber off to the point that she could come in. I couldn’t smell it anymore, but maybe my nose died!
My husband didn’t say anything when I let her in, so maybe we’ve met the challenge.
I will never understand why doggies love to find something truly awful and roll in it.
Sweet doggie – BAH! HUMBUG!
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
BethanyKerrFineArt on Etsy
BethanyKerrFineArt on Etsy
BethanyKerrFineArt on Etsy
BethanyKerrFineArt on Etsy
Filed under Bethany Kerr, Watercolors I Love
This will be the last note card set I’m listing on my new Etsy site. I’m calling this the “Rainbow Flower” set.
Filed under playing in my art room
One view of our deck. We usually plant mandevilla in the 4 large pots, but we think the wave petunias this year are wonderful.
Another view.
We’ve enjoyed spending time out here, mostly watching it rain so far.
The roses I pruned are starting another bloom. (Plus, you can see the second planter we’re going to rebuild and the pile of potting soil waiting.)
More roses
Roses and phlox.
Stella d’Oro lilies.
Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening
My great day continues with listening to Steve Earle on YouTube while writing this. :0) I just came in from checking on the garden and planting a few more radish squares. I was actually FEELING the sun frying my neck, so I prudently decided to cut my time out there short.
Here are 3 of the 6 planters.
The remaining three planters. I planted 4 squares of radish seeds in the planter closest to you in the picture.
In the foreground is celery, and the rest of the picture is ONE cantaloupe plant vine.
Even though the onion tops are pretty trashed from recent storms, the bulbs are looking good.
Zucchini – there are 4 so far on this one plant.
This plant only has one zucchini. I have no clue what I’m doing, but I’m having a great time.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Anwar B – Linked In
I may have indicated before – or you probably have picked it up by yourself – that I’m a very spoiled woman. :0)
My husband and I are retired, meaning that we can now decide what we want to do most days. We are so busy now that we honestly can’t figure out how we got everything done when we both worked full-time, many times with my husband in another part of the country on a work contract.
I honestly can’t imagine being bored. See what I mean? I’m SPOILED.
I have SO many things I want to do each day that I don’t have the time or the energy. I also have the wonderful freedom to decide to do NOTHING.
I honestly love my life, moving between online things – friends to chat with, my ArtFire site, my new Etsy site, this blog, plus watching webinars and YouTube to learn new things until my poor head explodes, playing in my art room, working outside in my greenhouse, my flower planters, my veggie garden… reading all kinds of wonderful books, watching TV and movies with my husband, planning and implementing new projects with him, such as, mailbox decorations, stained glass projects, mosaics, and more.
This coming school year, starting in August, we’ll be the host parents of Alessandro, a 16-year-old boy from Italy who loves soccer. This will open up a whole new world of attending sports matches, events, shows, and such at the school, meeting the friends he makes and hopefully will invite to our home, going places we don’t take time to visit when we’re by ourselves, taking him to his friends’ homes, cooking a LOT more – and differently… A teenager-centered home after some 25 years.
Happily, we’re pretty healthy for our ages, and getting healthier, since we’re trying to lose the lard and exercise. We want to feel good enough to enjoy our lives, not be crawling back and forth from doc to doc, feeling lousy and our world becoming smaller due to that.
Today I’m bouncing between some very much needed housework – to errands – to cutting up strawberries – to my art room – to my veggie garden – to weed whacking – to re-reading a loved book – to catching up with friends via email – to talking to our son, who is across the world from us.
Did I tell you I love my life?
My Artistic Wonderland via 2StarArt
I spent a little over an hour upstairs in my art room yesterday afternoon and I had the BEST time. Sometimes things get so busy around here that I go for several days – or even weeks – without giving myself permission to play. Yesterday I started a group of note cards that I’ll list in my new shop on Etsy.
I love playing in the paint, experimenting with media and techniques, whether they work or not. The playing takes me back mentally to childhood, where I can imagine I’m playing with finger paint. It doesn’t matter whether what I do is ‘good’ or not. I just get lost in the joy of colors, textures, and dreams.
Though other things are pressing on me a bit today, I’ll make time to try to finish the note cards this afternoon, listening to some of my favorite music on my MP3 player, a hot cup of coffee in the warmer beside me… AHHH!
Filed under Attitude, playing in my art room
The Laughing Cottage via Carol Auclair Daly
Filed under Bright Ideas, Encouragement, kindness
Word Porn via Meade Dennis Adams
This is me in a nutshell.
I have a boatload of good intentions, but get distracted easily. This results in guilty feelings. If I’m doing something INside, I feel guilty about the things that need doing OUTside, and vice versa.
Yesterday my husband mowed the lawn, so we look pretty good out there right now – particularly if you ignore the fact that we have a collapsed brick planter in the front yard with a tarp load of potting soil covered in front of it. I figured that the LEAST I could do was use the leaf blower to clean up the sidewalks. THAT led to using the leaf blower to clean up our garage , and THAT led to blowing off the garage pad…
When I came INside, I remembered that I really needed to clean off our stove top. The dishwasher is happily cleaning the removable stuff, and I finally got the top cleaned up. When I get it put back together, I won’t want to USE it – messing it up again. :0)
I DID manage to change out the aquarium filter – hoping that that will put off my having to change the water and clean it out immediately. And THAT led to watering the poor window sill plants that were sitting there, hands around their parched throats – saying, “Linnnnnn-daaaaaaaa!” HOPING I would finally notice them.
I very carefully ignored the pollen-covered porch – again – while sitting down to rest. I really DO need to vacuum the first floor today. It’s to the point where the balls of dog and cat hair grab your leg as you walk by.
I realize I’ll never get completely caught up, with all the stuff done inside and out, particularly since my husband mentioned a few minutes ago that he wants to get started rebuilding the brick planter tomorrow…
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
I’m hoping that we’ll have a good tomato crop this year. We have some good looking green tomatoes now. One of our very favorite things is sliced ripe tomatoes.
With all the rain we’ve had and then some pretty warm weather, the tomato plants in our nook planter really took off. I’ve given up trying to ‘control’ them. I’m just propping them up the best way I can and hoping for the best…
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
My husband surprised me this morning by saying he liked the top I was wearing. I broke out in a big grin and he realized I had painted it! He said, “That looks good. I thought it was commercial.”
I’m still grinning.
This is me on our horribly dirty screened-in porch wearing the shirt my husband likes. I’m a slob and I always have tops that are perfectly good, except that they have a stain or stains that won’t come out, no matter what cleaning technique I use. I can ‘bring them back to life’ by painting them!
This shirt is one I like because of the woven ‘ropy’ edge around the top with wooden beads. I accented that with white paint, and then painted the design on the rest of the top.
Filed under Giving New Life to Old Tops
We’ve gone from torrential rain, to “pea soup” humidity here. Last night a cool front came through, taking the humidity with it. Right now it’s 80 degrees F. outside, bright sunshine, and absolutely wonderful. AHHHHH!
I took a walk around the garden and yard to celebrate and wanted to share –
GARDEN
You can see the HEIGHT of the zucchini plants here – well over my head as I stand at the planters.
Lots of vines, greenery, and blossoms. No cantaloupe as yet.
The zucchini is producing nicely.
The tops of my sweet red onions were trashed during the last few storms we had. I cut off the broken tops and trimmed the bent ones. The actual onion bulbs are looking okay, though.
FLOWER PLANTERS
Lilies
Phlox
Roses and Impatiens
Roses and Phlox
Clematis
I’ll show you the deck and our view in another post.
World Of Female
Yesterday I officially started the Keto eating plan, hoping to continue to lose the lard, but also figuring that this plan will be much more flexible with our foreign exchange student, Alessandro, a 16-year-old soccer playing student from Italy. He joins us for 10 months starting in August, and I want to be well into our new good habits by then.
I’m using a wonderful book called, “Keto After 50” by James Wilson. Since “50” sounds young to ME, I like this approach which is modified for older people. I’ve been reading a ton on the net, too, since one of my concerns will be high fat – to be processed by this older body with no gallbladder. Happily, I found that I can take a couple of supplements that will help with this.
My husband is a Type II diabetic (although he only admits to having a ‘sugar problem’) It’s super important to me that I keep him on an even keel. He is almost to his weight goal now (within 10 pounds – HOOORAAAAY!) while his WIFE continues to battle the lard. :0)
At this point I’ve lost 43 pounds and almost 48 inches. I want to lose another 30 to 35 pounds and then stay there, with good eating and exercise habits.
We started on Nutrisystem, but then decided that we have learned 1) what we were doing wrong, and 2) how we’re supposed to be cooking and eating. We are almost doing the Keto program already, having stopped (mostly) eating bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, sugar, and salt. We splurge every once in a while, but that’s a quality of life thing for us.
I’m ordering supplements and gathering good recipes. I’m trying to reorganize our pantry – AGAIN – both to plan for the new eating system AND to make room for a lot more cooking than I’ve done in awhile. (It’ll be a real culture shock for us to feed a 16-year-old athlete – and from ITALY!)
Since I’m working in the yard and/or the garden almost daily, I’m going to TRY for more formal exercise three times a week. I’ll stick with my elliptical trainer, my yoga for ‘older’ women, and either the walking video or the dance video each week.
I told you I started this yesterday. The scale showed me down 1.2 pounds this morning, so I’m encouraged at this point – knowing that my weight loss will slow with time. I’m concentrating on doing the first two weeks – eating 20 grams of carbohydrates or less per day.
Wish me luck?
Filed under Challenges, Changes, DIET!, exercise
Corrine Hartley via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Filed under paintings I love, paintings of children
creativeartworksblog 