“Georgia” – Sean O’Daniels
“Horse” – Arthur Braginsky
Filed under animal paintings, Creativity
“Barn Owl” – Watercolor – Olga Shvartsur
“Famingo” – Watercolor – Olga Shvartsur
Filed under animal paintings, Creativity
i.pinimg.com-originals
scontent-a-ati-xxfbcdn,net
Filed under Art From Found Things, Creativity, metal art
I let Amber out JUST as the mail lady came up the driveway. :0(
I tried to get Amber under control, but I didn’t have the zapper in hand and Amber was SOOOOO excited that someone came to see her! She was trying to jump up, her wagging tail whipping my leg. The lady was smart, throwing a dog biscuit out from her. Of course, Amber went right after it.
My husband came out then, complicating the issue. Amber started being exuberant again, acting as though we hadn’t spent hours and hours working with her. My husband got frustrated and grabbed Amber’s collar. All of a sudden, both of them went down on the grass in a pile. I put the package that the lady has just given me down and went to help my husband up. He wouldn’t let go of the collar – being a stubborn man – and Amber wouldn’t give an inch, either.
Finally, we both held Amber down while the mail lady started back down the driveway. When she had gone far enough, Amber quieted. I felt like a referee between my husband of very stubborn streak and Amber, a big dog with small brain….
No one was hurt, but nerves were frazzled on all parts. Amber has 11 more months to do some growing up and calming down while we try to teach her to be social without being ‘deaf’ to commands and over-exuberant. (We’re told that things will get better when she hits the 2-years-old mark. ) I’m afraid there is no cure for my husband’s stubborn streak.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Challenges, Family
Our NON-frozen food boxes for the first month were delivered this morning. My husband and I have agreed that we don’t want to start the program until we get all the stuff for the first month. I haven’t received emails that they’ve shipped the frozen portion of our order yet.
I have their pictured diagram of what we are supposed to do the first week on the fridge. I have the Turbo13 red box that starts the program for fat ladies, and my husband has a small box of shake powder packets and the rest of his non-frozen choices.
I eat ONLY from the magic red box the first week and he drinks a shake each day, plus has a hunger-curbing bar the first week, plus his regular choices for the diabetic program. He’ll want to try the frozen stuff first, so that’s the main reason we’ll wait to start until that arrives. I want us to be in sync and as happy as possible that we’re starting to get the lard off together.
Example: he looked at the schedule of his eating for a typical day and said, “Okay. 7am That’s it. I’m not getting up any earlier to eat.” THEN, I’m not going to eat 6 times a day.” I told him – gritting my teeth – that all this signified was that he was supposed to eat every 2-3 hours during the day, breakfast – a shake mid-morning – lunch – a snack mid-afternoon – dinner – a snack before bed, starting at 8am and stopping after the after dinner snack. He grumbled, and then said that sounded okay, but that he wasn’t sure he’d eat all the snacks. I told him that if he didn’t, it would actually hinder his weight loss and he wouldn’t get the nutrition he’s supposed to get. I also reminded him that we discussed all this and we agreed to it before I placed the order. Grumbling again….. (I think this is all for show. He wants to lose weight. He just likes to drag his feet.)
I cleared some plastic bins to hold our non-frozen choices. I’ll put our stuff away this morning, labeling his food AND the bins so we don’t get mixed up.
I’m starting to read through the material that came with our food, trying to find out if we need to get something special at the store. So far, I’ve found that we need to buy two shaker bottles for the shakes.
I will measure all my parts so that I can hopefully prepare to be very pleased – if I’m a good girl – with the results.
I’m still feeling pretty overwhelmed, but I’m improving. I’ll wait to start NUMI – their food and exercise tracker – until the first day we actually start the program. Hopefully, we’ll get the emails re the frozen choices very soon.
I’m getting antsy to start!
Filed under DIET!, getting the lard off, taking care of yourself
Filed under Beautiful Boxes, Creativity
tedlilyfanclub.blogspot.com
I just love this picture, so I had to put on MY serious face in order to tackle – and FINISH – going through the last 4-drawer file cabinet in our office this afternoon.
I’ve told you before that I’m a lousy housekeeper. I’m in the process on decluttering/purging/donating/throwing away over 30 years of ‘stuff’. I’ve finished PHASE I (with the exception of the basement, garage, and shop, because I foresee some REALLY serious discussions about what stays and what goes with my husband. These are on the ‘ignore’ list for now.
PHASE II started with going through our office again, this time concentrating on the drawers and shelves not done last time, plus the file cabinets (we have two 4-drawer file cabinets, one 2-drawer cabinet, and two file drawers in my desk.
The picture above shows you the obsolete files I removed from the file cabinet. It doesn’t show you the pile of hanging files, file folders, labels, etc. that also are out of there.
Other than the computer switch we’re suffering through right now, we’re pretty well fixed in the office now!
My husband is working on writing programs that will make backups of each of our computers, storing the backups for mine on his computer and vice versa. We still have the MAC to my left on the counter, waiting to be wiped and sold, the tower for my new system on the counter to my right, waiting to be moved under my counter and all the wiring rerouted and neatened up, and then another computer he’s working on in the corner that goes with his ham radio set up. When we get all this organized, the office clean-out project can be considered finished (except for HIS shelves, which are on the ‘ignore’ list. :0)
Progess is being made in the Lewis house!
Andrew A. Rooney via quotesbuddy.com
And this beautiful dog is the spitting image of our Amber!
Filed under Favorite Quotes
“Golden Hour on the Lake” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
PersonalizationMall.com
I finally got the hang of bookmarks on the new PC! Most of the stuff I’m doing on the new machine, including trying to write blog posts, I’m like an elephant trying to walk between two buildings high in the air on a tightrope – and I’m afraid of heights. I feel extremely awkward, brain-challenged and get frustrated really quickly.
BOOKMARKS – on the other hand – are now good. :0)
I now have all the ones we imported from the MAC, and the others imported that I had put on FireFox, on the new PC. I can now save a website to a bookmark I’ve created, change one to another section, change the name of one, create a new bookmark, etc. Yesterday I figured out how to create SUB-directories, so I was able to organize the many websites I’ve bookmarked for gardening. HOOOOORAAAAY!
One thing learned, a gazillion to go; but the empowerment has begun!
Filed under Challenges, Changes, empowerment, Encouragement
Our yellow Labrador Retriever ‘puppy,’ Amber, is 13 months old and weighs 94.2 lbs, according to the scales at the vet’s office yesterday. She thinks she is a lap dog, though, and regularly walks right up into my husband’s lap as he is sitting in his recliner.
This picture was taken back in November when Amber isn’t as large as she is now.
Amber’s eyes start to gleam while she sits on my husband’s lap. It’s easy to see that she’s planning to jump directly from his lap into mine! NO!!!!!!!!
I leap up and go sit on the couch. She leaps down, comes over, and waits impatiently for me to say, “Okay,” that she can come up onto the couch with me. We snuggle for several minutes and then she gets down, allowing me to go back to my recliner.
You wouldn’t describe Sweet Amber as spoiled, would you?
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
Filed under Beautiful Boxes, Creativity
We talk to our animals. It’s a good thing none of our animals actually talk because I’m sure they would tell you how completely DUMB – although fairly nice – their people are.
One of the things we say to them from time to time is, “What does the dog say?” or “What does the kitty say?”
Today, while I was emptying and completely cleaning out the aquarium, I found myself asking, “What do the fishies say?” In truth, they’ve never said much. The best ‘trick’ they do is to crowd into the corner of the aquarium wriggling as fast as they can, while they wait for me to get a pinch of whatever is in the flakes of fish food I pinch and put into their aquarium twice a day. It shows they know who I am and anticipate the service I perform for them. Otherwise, they’re just nice to look at.
They are very active when I clean the aquarium, too. I change the filter twice a month, but every once in a while, the water looks cloudy even with a new one. That’s when I stop everything connected to the aquarium, put the fish into a bowl and cover it with a towel, and take everything out, siphon the water, add new, scrub all the stuff in there, hook everything back up, and add the fish.
I change the things in the aquarium from time to time. I have no clue if they enjoy me changing the furniture or decorations or hate it. Sometimes I wish they would hold up a sign saying, “We hate the neon thing with the holes in it,” or something similar.
So, even though they don’t say anything – not even blowing a bubble at me – I still ask, “What do the fishies say?” just in case they have something on their minds…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
The ads for men say, “Eat the food, lose the weight.” Simple, right?
I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. My husband agreed to get on the “Diabetic Uniquely Yours for Men, Custom Menu.” As far as HE’S concerned now, it’s ‘Eat the food, lose the weight.” I ordered “Uniquely Yours for Women – Custom Menu” for me.
In order to get him to try this, I had to do a LOT of prep work. We’ve been on Nutrisystem before, several years ago. We quit because my husband was irate that they discontinued all the meals he liked, one at a time. The number of choices wasn’t as good back then, and they didn’t offer frozen stuff as they do now. He’s really gun-shy after our first experience, so I’m trying to run interference as much as possible.
I finally got things so he could sit down in his chair beside me at the computer and he could choose what looked good while I made notes. At one point when we started with his order I thought it was ‘game over,’ because his lunch choices weren’t coming up when we were on the lunch ordering page. I contacted the chat expert, and we finally figured out that do to some error on my part, we had somehow gotten on the dinner page. THAT was why the things he wanted didn’t show. The chat guy, Jeff, helped us figure things out.
I then fought through trying to order MY plan. At first they wouldn’t let me use my email address with another password. I got on chat again, explained my husband didn’t want to receive any emails from them, so I had used my email to order his plan. She figured out a way around the problem, guided me through the maze again, and I was really grateful.
Nutrisystem
Since we placed our orders, I’ve been reading everything on the website, trying to figure out what to expect. You can find answers, but there is a LOT to go through to get them. I’ve finally started a notebook, printed things and put them in the notebook for quicker reference.
I found out through the reading that they ship the non-frozen stuff separately from the frozen stuff. This makes sense because the frozen stuff comes in a truck rigged to carry frozen things. I got the emails that both of our non-frozen orders were shipping today. I can’t track them yet, so I don’t know when to expect them. They’ll send more emails when the frozen stuff ships.
I have cleaned out freezers to get ready to store our food when it arrives. The non-frozen food won’t be as hard to store. I’ve figured out a system for marking my husband’s food so we don’t get things mixed up. He’s sneering at me, but doesn’t have a better suggestion, so I’ll do what I planned and see if it works.
I’m still looking for the cut-off date for changing the items on our next order is. I’m sure that we’ll find things we really don’t care for (at least we did the first time.) I want to be sure I can change our order in time that we don’t get 6 more of something we hate the next month.
I have put up ‘what we eat the first week’ on the fridge in the kitchen. I’m sure my husband will balk at eating 6 times a day, but I will encourage it, just the same. Then, if he doesn’t, at least I tried.
So far, I’m ending up brain-dead by dinner time, after working on this a lot of the day for several days now, trying to figure out what to do when we start. I’ve decided our “4 servings of veggies each day” will be salad with lunch and dinner. Otherwise, if needed, I’ll have cherry tomatoes and celery ready to put on our plates.
I have some of our flex meals figured out. We have ice cream after bowling once a week with friends. That’s our on-our-own snack for the week. Our on-our-own lunch will be when we meet our friends for Friday’s “Lunch Bunch.” (I’ll switch to making a salad at the salad bar.) Not sure what we’ll do for our on-our-own dinner, but I have time yet. On-our-own breakfast won’t be a problem. I like that they are encouraging us to pay attention to what we’re eating from the beginning of the program, both what is prepared for us and what we choose for our flex meals.
Just “Eat the food, lose the weight.” Yeah.
Filed under Challenges, Changes, DIET!, exercise, getting the lard off
We have made a major decision on our efforts to get the lard off.
I’ve been cooking low-carb for quite a while now. We’re healthier than we were, but one or both of us keeps cheating and it’s been going on too long. My appetite is enough to kill a horse, and my husband describes me lovingly as, “Mean as a snake” when I’m hungry. He is Type 2 Diabetic (although he doesn’t admit it, thinking you’re only diabetic if you need to inject insulin). He eats what I fix him and THEN also eats no-sugar-added stuff, plus regular stuff he shouldn’t, and then gets frustrated when his A1C numbers are still too high. We had a frank discussion and decided that we have been kidding ourselves and needed help.
We were on NutriSystem before, several years ago. We did well, but we quit because they discontinued all the things my husband liked, one by one, and there weren’t that many choices. When we quit, we put the weight right back on. :0(
Since then, they have developed a program for Type II diabetics! There are 150 choices on his plan, plus a LOT of frozen choices, allowing the food to be a lot more appetizing. (At least they sound and look that way in the pictures.) We ordered the first month’s “Uniquely Yours Diabetic Plan for Men – Custom Menu.”
I got the regular plan for fat ladies – “Uniquely Yours for Women – Custom Menu.”
We used their chat service for ordering both, since we had a lot of questions and had some problems navigating the site. Both people were really helpful. Our first month’s food is on its way.
I’m trying to get organized for the new program. I cleaned out our freezers as much as possible, since both of us ordered a lot of frozen foods. It’s supposed to come on a truck made to carry frozen stuff. If we’re not here to receive it when they come, they pack it in dry ice that will keep it good for 6 to 8 hours. I think our food is supposed to come within 4 to 10 business days. I’m going to see if I can narrow it down so we can make plans. I don’t know if the non-frozen stuff comes separately from the frozen or not.
There are several guides on the website. There was a mention of supplementing their food with salad and veggies. I’m trying to look at these, print them, and make notes on what we ordered. We decided to use the auto-delivery system, saving money, and we’re supposed to be able to change our next month’s order if we want to. I’ll have to find out when the cut off date is for that.
The low carb eating plan is a good one, but not when you stray off the plan for excuses, such as National Pickle Week, Friend’s Day, or whatever, constantly, it understandably doesn’t work well.
The new Nutrisystem plan is attempting to guide you on eating sensibly when you’re not eating the prepared foods, so you’re on your own once a week for a breakfast, a lunch, a dinner, and a snack. (We can build this into our lives fairly easily, using our “Lunch Bunch” on Fridays as our lunch out, and our bowling evening as our snack out, and then winging the on-your-own dinner and breakfast each week.
We’re hoping that there are enough choices that even if they discontinue things we like, we can substitute others. Time will tell.
I’m going to use their “NUMI” tracking software, too. I’m planning to really pay attention to the ingredients on what we’re eating, reading labels to get an idea of what we’re eating, how many calories, etc., so I can plan to carry on when we don’t need to be on the plan anymore.
We’re looking forward to actually getting the lard off, instead of just kidding ourselves.
Filed under Challenges, Changes, DIET!, exercise, getting the lard off, Healthy Eating
Doggie in the window
This is what we see each morning when we’ve fed animals and are getting ready to eat our breakfast.
This is the gate that is between the kitchen/dining area and the living room. Amber eats on the other side of this gate and then she waits for us to let her in when Molly is finished eating her breakfast, food has been prepared and brought to the table, and one of us is sitting down. Amber could probably just bull her way through the doorway – bringing the whole gate with her if she really wanted to, but she sticks her head through the door intended for smaller dogs and/or cats and waits with rapt attention. She really enjoys sitting with us while we eat – hoping to get a bite or lick a bowl when we’re finished. She actually obeys our “DOWN!” command while she waits hopefully.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
Each week (schedules allowing) we take our good friends bowling in Fort Smith.
Since Amber loves to go in the “CAR!” we now prepare for bowling night by vacuuming the back seats and the floor of our vehicle, plus wash the back side windows and back window due to Amber’s exuberant enjoyment of what wonderful things are outside. We have “nose art” all over the windows except for the one evening we go bowling. (We also clean off the cat paw prints all over the windshield.)
We exhibit her art on our front storm door, too. Since I’m a lousy housekeeper, I only ‘notice’ it when it gets pretty bad or when we’re expecting company and then do something about it.
Our friends and visitors like animals, but carrying the dog hair around on their clothes or having to look through nose art while trying to see out the windows of the truck are asking a bit too much…
Filed under Beautiful Boxes, Creativity
Amber – 11 months old
Yesterday I received emails from our veterinarian’s office saying the Amber and Smoke needed to tell their owners that they needed their annual shots. I called the office and found out that if they didn’t need an exam, we could come any time. I said we would try to come first thing, which meant about 8:30.
Smoke – about 2-1/2 years old.
My husband found Smoke this morning and stuffed her into the cat carrier. Amber loves to go anywhere in the car, so we just said “CAR” and she followed us out, jumping into the car with a look of joy on her face.
Smoke meowed plaintively a couple of times on the way to the vet, but wasn’t completely freaked out, as our other cat, Abby, was, recently.
On the way to the vet’s, we saw a CALF crossing the road! Amber immediately wanted to go SEE the calf, getting the whole upper part of her body out of the window. I yelled at my husband, having to CONVINCE him that if the dog DID get out, all he could say was, “I really didn’t think she would/could do that.” AND we would have to deal with the consequences. He finally raised the windows a bit so that Amber was free to stick her head out, but nothing more.
When we got to the vet, my husband thought we should change Amber’s collar from the regular shock collar we use during the day to the no-pull collar we keep with the leash in the car. Since it’s a hassle, and I thought the shock collar would be good enough, we didn’t change and went into the vet’s office.
There were two other dogs there. Amber, of course, wanted to see and sniff each one. My husband tried to keep her under control, but she was strong enough the leash wasn’t holding well. It kept slipping because she was so strong even though he was using the zapper. I was wrong and admitted it when we got back into the car after we got the shots. We will just take the time necessary to change collars the next time. (We weighed Amber, and she is now 94.2 lbs.)
We are still very much on a learning curve as far as taking animals to the vet. Smoke was very calm, meowing only a few times on the way home and calmed down when I stuck my fingers through the front caged door of the carrier and talked to her. Amber was fine again when she got back into the car.
LESSONS LEARNED –
THING ONE –
Only let the car windows down half way in the back when Amber is with us.
THING TWO –
Don’t let Amber out of the car until we have changed from the shock collar to the no-pull collar.
PLUS – it would be a good idea to continue to walking-on-the-leash lessons at home because when we are out in public, Amber is a BIG dog with LITTLE brain…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Challenges, Changes, Family
PersonalizationMall.com
This old lady ain’t dead yet! I’m learning a LOT about how to create and manage bookmarks on the new PC using Microsoft 10 and Chrome.
I now have ONE list of bookmarks, all on Chrome. (I deleted Firefox as a browser)
I now can –
I’m in the process of looking at each one, deciding if I still want it, figuring out what folder to put it in if I want it (or create a new one). I’m actually making progress now and feeling much less frustrated.
Thanks to those of you who offered encouragement, commiseration, or wished good luck. It has really helped!
Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Challenges, Changes, Encouragement, opportunities
PersonalizationMall.com
Can you hear me gnashing my teeth and muttering bad words?
I’m TRYING to move my computer FireFox bookmarks from the MAC to my new PC. I’m also trying to export my FireFox bookmarks on my new PC to Chrome, because my husband hates FireFox for some unknown reason. Since I need for him to help me on the computer, I’ll set things up the way he thinks is best and THEN I might bite him in the leg. I mainly want to be able to find things and use them, so I don’t really care how things are organized. I’m so awkward on the new computer anyway, it won’t make any appreciable difference in my learning curve.
I have NO patience with hardware or software. I only know enough to USE things once they’re working properly. Right now I have to tell you I’m thinking about throwing ALL of it out the window…
My project for the day is to try to use the newly imported bookmarks list to
In order to stop myself from automatically clicking on the FireFox icon, I have deleted it, leaving only the Chrome icon to get to the Internet
I’m going to tackle my bookmarks now, taking a deep breath and determinedly diving in.
Wish me luck?
Filed under Challenges, Changes
AntiqueRoses.org
AntiqueRoses.org
no1pdfplans.de.vu
Filed under Beautiful Boxes, Creativity
Robert Mallet via GrowingBolder.com
There are two main areas in our house where things go IN, but never come OUT: file cabinets and freezers.
FILE CABINETS– Recently I finished cleaning out a four-drawer file cabinet and two file drawers in my desk. I’m trying to get motivated to go through the other 4-drawer file cabinet in the office, but it has been low priority. I’ll attack it soon.
FREEZERS- Since we’re on top of a ridge line outside the small town of Greenwood, Arkansas, we have always tried to prepare for bad weather, bad events, bad luck, etc. To this end we have backups on a lot of things, like a generator to start up when the power goes out, well water if the public water isn’t available, a fire place to warm us if we can’t use the heat (like when the generator is providing power) etc.
Since food is far too important for us, we have a fridge in the kitchen, another in the pantry, a third in the garage, plus a chest-type freezer in the garage. Since I’m also lazy, food has been put only in freezer bags and put in the various freezers, rather than using my vacuum sealer all the time, labeling and dating things that go in. The end result is a hodge podge of ‘stuff’ in the freezers, comforting in general, but pretty pathetic if actually used, since a lot of the items in there have freezer burn, are mystery items, or have been in there since 1492….
My efforts to purge/clean out/donate/throw away/clean/reorganize centered on the freezers the past week or so. I finally finished most of what I’m going to do in Phase I of the project this morning.
We have FIVE 39-gallon trash bags full of ‘stuff’ for the good trash people to pick up this week. We’ll put it down at the bottom of the driveway tonight on the way to pick up our good friends for an evening of fun, exercise, bowling and ice cream.
I have now promised myself that I won’t let this happen again. I have a nice vacuum sealer readily available in the pantry. From now on I WILL USE IT so I won’t have any more mystery items. I’ll be sure to label and date each thing and come up with a system for getting rid of things that have been in the freezers too long in the future.
*So promises the lady who religiously cleans every 30 years without fail!*
It DOES feel good to be able to open freezer doors and actually have space available……
creativeartworksblog 