Country Corner via Carla Morton
Books Rock My World via Cathy Ruggiero
I have just started re-reading the “Twilight” series by Stephenie Meyer again after several years. The 4-book series includes “Twilight,” “New Moon,” “Eclipse,” and “Breaking Dawn.”
I can’t say my usual reading preference is for Vampires and Werewolves, but I find this series – and the movies that were made of them – fascinating, truly transporting. I can dive in and live in a completely different world, leaving little problems and worries behind.
If you haven’t read the series, you’re missing a wonderful experience, engaging characters, and plot.
Massageaholic.com
There is no way to tell you how much I look forward to my monthly massage. Lynn Moody is my massage therapist. She is SO good. She listens. She can feel with her magic hands where you have knots, sore spots, stiffness and take them away. I can trust her to FEEL when what she is doing is too much. She knows what to do to ease whatever you walked in with.
I’m not sure if I particularly needed her today or if she just was able to reach me particularly well, but I feel really great right now.
I used to feel that massage was a total luxury. Now I consider it a taking-care-of-myself thing.
If you haven’t tried masage therapy and live in the Greenwood/Fort Smith/Hackett area, call Lynn Moody and make an appointment. It’ll be one of the best decisions you’ve ever made. Her number is 479-629-7601.
If you live outside this area, FIND someone and start feeling better soon.
Filed under quality of life, taking care of yourself
Scary Mommy
“I love the rain. I want the feeling of it on my face.” – Katherine Mansfield
No work in the garden or weed whacking today. The bug spraying man came this morning, spread granules outside, treated the inside of the house and then left just before a gentle rain started.
Because of unforeseen circumstances, we had to make two trips into town to get our errands done this morning, but the rain mostly stopped when we had to get out of the car.
Now we are in full of a good lunch, enjoying some quiet time. We have front and back doors open so we can enjoy the nice breeze and the soothing sound of the rain…
“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.” – Langston Hughes
Filed under Mother Nature, Seasons
DripDepot
Each year my husband does his magic, making our irrigation system work again. This year we’ve had more of a challenge.
It’s been a LOOOOOONG time since we put things together in the well house. We had a really bad leak last night after testing things. My husband changed a hose connection, making the leak much better, but it didn’t solve the problem completely. This morning we found a replacement valve thingie on the net and ordered it.
Our timer for the systems, front and back, was acting wonky, even after we unplugged, rebooted, and changed the backup battery. We bought a new one today that we’ll install this afternoon or evening – weather cooperating. The face of it is backlit, making it much easier to see. Hopefully, we can get it programmed correctly.
We had the inevitable blow-outs that happen because of the system being exposed to our weather. We can’t completely drain everything, though we drain what we can. Most of the front is working, but we have to figure out where the breakdown is and try to fix it so that everything is getting water again.
A couple of places aren’t working the way they should, not allowing us to control the amount of water flowing into a pot. We bought replacement parts for that, plus some end caps for lines we’re not needing this year. We’ll keep testing and reworking things until all is happy.
Filed under Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance
Adrina Meiss via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Alina Ciuciu – “The Sun Goes Down” – LinkedIn
Anwar Haq – “Nature Whisper” – LinkedIn
Filed under Acrylic Paintings I Love, Oil Paintings I Love
Fledderfly Designs – Etsy
Yarnuh – DeviantArt.com
Filed under Beans & Seeds Art
Michigan State University
We looked for spinach plants at four different places while we were out, ASKING at each place. The consensus seemed to be, “We have seed, but no plants this year.” I have officially thrown in the towel on getting spinach plants, just hoping that the little sprouts in the middle of several squares in my garden are, indeed, sprouting spinach seeds.
We got zucchini and cantaloupe plants today and I’ll plant them in just a few minutes. I’m not sure how I’ll do this because both of these would rather be on the ground in a place where they can spread their runners wherever they want, but I’ll give it a try. If I’m successful at all, I’ll use my spiralizer gadget to make zucchini noodles for myself.
My husband looks appalled when I mention zucchini or yellow squash ‘noodles,’ cauli ‘rice’ or ‘mashed potatoes,’ or spaghetti squash ‘spaghetti,’ so I’ll make these for myself and make him regular pasta, potatoes, or rice rarely. He does love cantaloupe, though, so I’m especially hopeful I can get some of these to grow well. Fingers crossed.
“Two Crowns” – Paul Militaru Photography
Karly Campbell – That Low Carb Life
If you are trying to eat low carb, check out Karly Campbell’s website – That Low Carb Life
Last night I tried her “Easy Baked Chicken Parmesan.”
It has 6 grams of carbs, lots of protein, and only 2 grams of sugar (important to us because my husband is a Type II diabetic.) It was 4 servings.
My husband’s comment – “This is YUMMY!” (And THEN he went back for another serving!) We had this with a side salad and will definitely put this in our ‘make again’ recipe book.
Next time I’ll probably make a double recipe. A serving would be really nice for lunch, or we can have more than one meal with only one cooking session – always a plus for me. :0)
THANK YOU, Karly! I’m eyeing your “Keto Chicken Salad” next.
Filed under DIET!
I now have enough of OUR fresh grown broccoli to make some soup!
And this is the lettuce I harvested. I could have brought in lots more. We eat salad each night, but I’m not sure we can keep up with all we’re growing this time.
This photo shows many of our lettuce plants, plus you can see the onions in the rear of the picture.
This is the second row of planters. You can see the broccoli plants and some of the radish sprouts.
I planted several squares of radishes. I eat some raw every day at lunch, along with carrots, cherry tomatoes, and celery.
I have all appendages crossed that this is one of several sprouts of ‘something’ I HOPE is SPINACH! Time will tell.
Close up of one of the lettuce plants. This is ONE plant taking up a whole square. It’s HUGE.
This isn’t a garden plant, but I’m so pleased with it this year. It’s a perennial ‘something, and it has had only weak blooms each spring until now. I just love it!
More work tomorrow, but it’s that time of year! :0)
Amber helped us reclaim our porch yesterday. It started with my husband removing three 4 x 8 foot sheets of plywood we had laid end to end across the bottom of the screened part of the porch and screwed into the uprights to try to keep Amber from destroying it. We decided that even though she is still definitely a puppy, we could now risk reclaiming part of our view.
We had an enormous amount of dirt, dog and cat hair, and a super-thick layer of pollen all over everything. I moved everything around, wiping the table and sweeping twice before ever trying to do more. Finally I got to the place where I could actually start CLEANING things, rather than simply uncovering them.
Our porch isn’t fancy, but we love the few weeks each year that we can eat out there, free from bugs and enjoying some glorious weather. Right now it’s too chilly for breakfast, perfect for lunch, and too chilly for dinner. We’re hoping to enjoy several meals before Mother Nature turns up the heat too much.
The porch is connected to our covered deck – again not fancy – but definitely a quality of life thing for us. I just planted a bunch of flowers in the deck planters, and we’re working on making sure the irrigation system is working properly to keep all happy out there.
I hope that you have a place that you can “bring the outside in” a bit, too.
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, quality of life, Seasons
Slice of Life via Marianna Bellantoni
Esma CETIN – LinkedIn
“Petunias and Dahlia” – Paul Militaru Photography
Lin Ching Che via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Lin Fengmian-via Elena-via Rachel Perman – LinkedIn
Lovka Mechkarova Via Tetiana Shevchuk – Linkedin
“Magnolia 1” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Why Not Always Pink?” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Seasons
The Funny Beaver
I’m working on Day Four of doing what I’m supposed to do on my eating and exercise plan. I just put the fourth gold star on my calendar for the week, starting with Wednesday.
I’ve lost 3 pounds this week and have exercised every day since the magical Wednesday.
One thing I did that is helping me stay on track is re-sign-up with MyFitnessPal.com. There are fancier food and exercise tracking sites, but these people have the easiest food tracking system I’ve found. I don’t have to put in EACH ingredient in a recipe, for example. I can check-mark a repeated food each day without having to enter it again. I’m trying to stay under 1200 calories per day, but I’m combining that with recipes from my Keto book and other low-carb books, so I’m not as worried about it – just trying to keep myself honest about what I’m stuffing into my face.
I’m also trying to do
Both of these things make me feel I’m accomplishing something, plus keep me moving.
So far, it’s working.
I’ve lost 40.6 pounds and 43 inches so far. My goal, at this point, is to lose another 30 lbs. I want to be in the average range for my height (and I’m getting SHORTER, rather than taller) on BMI charts, and fit into some reasonable size at a regular department store for clothes, rather than having to hit the fat section of Walmart forever. I want to be as healthy as I can for my age (72) and not be restricted so much on what I can do without my body complaining.
One day at a time – today I’ve done my exercising, cleaned the back porch, and now I’ll head out to do some weed whacking.
I hope you’re having a happy day.
Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Attitude, DIET!, exercise
Saverio Scoleri – LinkedIn
Saverio Scoleri – LinkedIn
Saverio Scoleri – LinkedIn
Saverio Scoleri – LinkedIn
“Bean” – Saverio Scoleri – LinkedIn
Filed under drawings, Saverio Scoleri Art
Filed under Bethany Kerr, drawings
indulgy.com
I just came in from my third session of weed-whacking this afternoon. To say I’m done for the day is an understatement, but I’m glad I made some significant progress on neatening things up. My husband mowed the lawn a couple of days ago, and it was only fair that I get out and do the trimming. He actually came out with me the third time, hooked up the water that will go to the bird bath and then held the cord for me, gathering it up when we finished for the day.
Weed whacking is one of those jobs that is never finished. You know you’ve made some progress, but there are other places all around the yard speaking to me as I get near, saying, “Look at me! Look at me!”
We’re supposed to have several days of good weather, so I’ll plan to get out and do more tomorrow. Next up – around my greenhouse and around the garden.
Filed under Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance
The Age of Enlightenment via Janet Melendez – LinkedIn
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, giving, kindness
“The Water” – water variation 19 – Brooke Chapman
Marina Syntelis – LinkedIn (Marina said this still ‘needs a few highlights…)
These two paintings are beyond amazing. I’m so proud to live on the same planet as these two fine artists.
Filed under water paintings
Terrance E Stock – LinkedIn
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Family, Friendship, quality of life
The purple iris bloom first. As they fade, the yellow ones start.
This is now my husband’s favorite flower, so each time the blooms are spent, I split some and plant them in another place in the yard.
The wisteria has given us a nice display this year. We’re trying to get it to go up into the tree on the opposite end of the wood pile. We actually saw some blooms up there this year! Our rose bushes were looking sad at the end of the season, so I cut them WAAAAAY back, figuring they would either like it or croak. They seem to be happy with lots of buds right now.
We have some yellow blooms since this picture was taken. I’ll see if I can get a pic to share with you later.
I love this time of year!
Filed under Mother Nature, Seasons
Beautiful Wildlife – Lettie De Winnaar – LinkedIn
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography
Depositphotos
We had strong storms last night with lots of lightning and thunder. Quite impressive. I was relieved to see that we had no discernible damage this morning. It’s raining now, but a quiet, soaky rain that will benefit everything – though my husband is grumbling because he can see the grass growing and he JUST mowed…
I’ve switched to INSIDE stuff today – regular household chores, but I’m going to make some breakfast and then do a session of yoga this morning so I can add another gold star to my calendar. :0)
I hope that the weather is nice where you are and that you’re enjoying your day, too.
Filed under Mother Nature, Seasons
Daniel Wall via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Alina Ciuciu -“He Reminds Me Blue Eyes” – LinkedIn
Andrey Shishkin via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Anna Sokolova via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
“Autumn Morning” – Grigoriy Myasoyedov via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
creativeartworksblog 