February 2, 2018 · 10:08 am

Guest Room Closet Project – Progress (?) Report

I spent most of the afternoon getting everything out of the closet except for my out-of-season clothes, which I moved to the far end. Everything else is now out. When I get home from Lunch Bunch and errands, I’ll make lunch for my husband and then clean the closet before even thinking of putting anything else back in.

 

Going through my spring/summer clothes again will wait until I switch over at the end of winter.

 

Right now the guest room looks like a bomb went off in there, doesn’t it. I’ll probably start with linens and bed stuff I want to keep for the guest room. If this takes me through Sunday, I’ll just take time off for the SuperBowl and then do another session. :0)

 

 

 

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February 2, 2018 · 9:40 am

Low Carb “Baked Bacon Wrapped Chicken Tenders” Recipe

Maya of WholesumYum.com really knows her stuff. She prides herself on coming up with low carb recipes to die for that don’t have a lot of ingredients, and the ingredients she uses are readily available. Good food, low carb, delicious.

Yesterday I tried her “Baked Bacon Wrapped Chicken Tenders Recipe – 3 Ingredients”

 

I used chicken breasts, cutting them lengthwise. I have to admit, I forgot to turn on the vent/blower over our stove and the temperature on this is very hot, so two of them went off toward the end of the cooking time, but we removed them and put them outside for the couple of minutes or so left and then during the couple of minutes of broiling.

My husband ate his dinner in front of his computer in the office, waiting for tech support to call. He came out soon after I took his plate into the office, saying, “This is the best chicken of this type I’ve EVER eaten. Juicy and delicious. Please put this recipe in our do-over-and-over group.” To say this happens rarely is an understatement, so I felt good the rest of the evening, basking in the glow of having served such a delicious dish.

THANK YOU, MAYA!

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February 2, 2018 · 9:25 am

And So It Goes

It is lying on its side on the working space between my husband’s computer area and mine in the office, side cover off, all plugged in – but not working.

We got the CPU yesterday. My husband immediately installed it – plus a fan for it – into the computer and fired it up. Fans turned, noises were made, but it didn’t boot. Since then, he’s tried everything he knows to do. And he knows a LOT. A former systems analyst, he’s built, maintained, and written programs for computers his whole adult life.

SO – he finally called New Egg support – since that’s were we bought most, if not all, of the parts. He worked on HIS computer while he waited for the call back, watching to see where he was in the queue. He ate his dinner in here, finally coming into the living room about 10:00 when he figured all chance of call back was over.

He contacted them again, and they’re supposed to call this morning between 8:45 and 9:15. It’s now 9:18….

We’re supposed to go to Lunch Bunch in about an hour. We’ve already agreed that he probably won’t be able to go with me. He’ll either be ON the call, hopefully getting help, or will still be waiting for them to call.

I hate computers that don’t work. I don’t have the smarts to figure out what is wrong or what to do to fix them. I love them when they do what they’re supposed to do and all I have to do is learn how to make them do their magic.

With all of my husband’s expertise, I don’t think we’ve ever had a computer work the way it’s supposed to right off. And so it goes….

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February 2, 2018 · 9:13 am

Birds at Work and Play

“Before the Meeting” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Birds at Movie” – Paul Militaru Photography

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February 2, 2018 · 9:09 am

Snow People – Take 32

partnersRiley

Good form! It’s important to stay fit during the winter.

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February 1, 2018 · 2:12 pm

Thursday+ Project

You already know what a slob I am, and that I put lots of things – almost anything – above cleaning stuff out.  I feel the need, however, every 30 years or so, to go through things.  We have NEVER stayed anywhere for more than 7 years. Our first house closing was in 1970. Our second was in 1977. Third 1981, and last 1987.  ( know these dates because of a wonderful wooden plaque my parents had made. It has a mounted champagne cork on one side and a gold plaque mounted on the other with the dates – added to each time we bought another home. We’ve had it on a wall somewhere since 1970 (some 48 years now. :0) ) When you move, you’re forced to go through things, purging, cleaning and reorganizing.

I use the guest room walk-in closet as storage for my off-season clothes. I ALSO use it for our son’s leftover luggage, some memory boxes I created, bedding for the guest room bed, and LOTS and LOTS of other things.

 

My goal is to only have linens for the guest room plus my out of season clothes. Everything else has got to go – either somewhere else, be donated, or thrown away. I plan to spend a couple of days (or whatever is needed) to take the time to go through everything carefully, armed with a large trash can, large leaf bags for donated items, a pen and paper to list what I’m donating, and cleaning supplies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know. It’s disgusting. It’s a good thing we’re friends, ’cause I wouldn’t show this mess to just anyone….

Wish me luck, please, on healing this.

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February 1, 2018 · 1:52 pm

One Bird at a Time

“Desolation” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Gull” – Paul Militaru Photography

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February 1, 2018 · 1:47 pm

Thailand

Our son lives and works in Thailand. The touristy part of Thailand is in the southern part of the country, from Bangkok south. Northern Thailand is beautiful and much quieter, and he really likes it.

He thinks that it is only courteous to try to speak the language in the country you’re in. When he was in China, he took Mandarin lessons. Now he’s still taking Mandarin and is also taking Thai lessons. In fact, he recently told us he doubled his lessons in both and now feels he’s making good progress.

He has lived in Airbnbs and apartments. One of his big loves, though, is making music. He plays the guitar, drums, a little piano, and loves to create tracks of music for a song, making a track of each instrument and then merging them with his electronic gadgets. He can really lose himself in his music, but hasn’t been able to play the way he would like because it would bother his neighbors. He’s been on the lookout for a house to rent that is by itself a little, yet close enough to his work and his classes. He finally found a really gorgeous place and just moved in today. (He’s sleeping now after a really long day of moving in. There is 12 hours difference between us.)

Here are some pics he sent of his new rental house – (I am DROOLING!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He’s going to use one room as a music room. He plans to start a YouTube channel and list some of his music there. I’m so happy for him and I can’t wait to hear what he creates!

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February 1, 2018 · 9:33 am

Snow People – Take 31

Just Something

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February 1, 2018 · 9:30 am

Cupid

We put up Cupid with the Valentine on the mailbox yesterday. This is a closeup.

 

This is the back. You can see where I tried to blend the support hanger into the design.

 

This is the front. We hope people smile as they either drive past our driveway or come up and see us!

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January 31, 2018 · 12:15 pm

Seed Bead Art – Take 8

Jan Huling-“The Offering”

 

Betsy Youngquist- “Walrus”

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January 31, 2018 · 11:04 am

Snow People – Take 30

bepositive.me

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January 31, 2018 · 11:02 am

“A Little Creek”

“A Little Creek” – Paul Militaru Photography

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January 31, 2018 · 10:46 am

You Can’t Fix Stupid Quotes -Take 1

“Golden, Ripe, Boneless Bananas, 39 Cents A Pound.”
– Ad in the “Missoulian” by Orange Street Food Farm

“Sure there have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious.”
– Alan Minter, Boxer

“How to store your baby walker: First, remove baby.”
– Anonymous Manufacturer

“During the scrimmage, Tarkanian paced the sideline with his hands in his pockets while biting his nails.”
– AP report describing Fresno State basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian

“Most cars on our roads have only one occupant, usually the driver.”
– Carol Malia, BBC Anchorwoman

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January 31, 2018 · 10:25 am

Getting the Lard Off – Progress Report – Jan 2018

Earth Porn

We’ve been down, up again, and all over the place for the past several months in our efforts to get the lard off and move more. We went to our primary doctor yesterday for our quarterly checkup. I can say for sure that two things have remained steady: we’re still alive and we’re still old. This is a new primary doctor for us, as the one we loved moved to Russellville. We lucked out, though, getting a really smart female doctor who listens to us, and works with us. It seems we won the lottery twice on doctors. She approves of our efforts to eat low carb. We’ll see her again the 2nd of May, so we have three months to see some good changes.

I promised to report to you on a regular basis. I find this is much easier when I have good news to report. Not so much when we’ve strayed off the path. We’ve been being good again for approximately two weeks. To date – I’ve lost a little over 18 lbs and 15 inches. We’re redoubling our efforts to NOT use National Pickle Week as an excuse to eat a no-no.

Honestly, if we keep our heads on straight, eating low carb isn’t that tough. The main things I miss are starches, like white rice, white potatoes, pastas, and the salty food group – chips. People tell me a simple thing, like, “Don’t keep that stuff in the house.” The problem is that they are not married to my husband, who says life isn’t worth living without chips. They CALL to us from the pantry! So far, I’m being good.

I’ve been working hard at cleaning things out around the house, so I’ve been moving a lot, even though it’s not with official exercises.

I’m hoping that over the next three months we’ll be firmly back in the saddle of our low carb lifestyle, losing weight and inches. Getting older makes it harder, but we can do it.

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January 31, 2018 · 9:53 am

Good Morning!

“Catching Bubbles” – Jabbok Dawn

 

We missed the Blood Moon and the eclipse this morning. Abby, one of our cats who is supposed to go out at night, jumped up on our bed this morning (at 0-dark-thirty – but AFTER the eclipse) meowing to go out. I’ve hugged both Molly and Amber first thing this morning, so my clean tee is now covered in dog hair, and I feel good – that this day is ripe with possibilities.

Our son is in Thailand, living and working with some good friends also from the states. He is in the process of applying for a ‘wider’ passport which has more pages and more space for stamps. He is moving into a new rental HOUSE in Chiang Mai tomorrow, where he is far enough away from his neighbors that he can play his electric guitar, drums, and other music makers without bothering anyone. The longer walk to meet with his friends is a small price to pay to be able to fully enjoy creating. (I’ll post some pics of the house when he moves in.) He is taking classes in both Mandarin and Thai. He is living life in a beautiful place where he can work hard for clients they choose, play hard, meditate, and enjoy life.  We couldn’t be happier for him.  We communicate with him on an almost daily basis via a chat program, and sometimes on a program called appear.in which, like Skype, allows us to see each other as we visit.

We have an absolutely free schedule today. The day is wide open, waiting for us to decide how we will spend it. I love days where we don’t have a bunch of ‘have-to’s, appointments, pressing things that MUST be done today. My spirits soar on a day like this. :0)

I think I’ll fill this day with things I’ve been putting off with my emphasis lately on cleaning out and purging around here. Today I’ll –

  • change out the water in the aquarium, scrubbing it and its contents (except the fish) before filling it again and changing the filter.
  • I’ll do routine stuff, such as changing sheets, doing laundry, and vacuuming the unending supply of dog and cat hair
  • We’ll change the mailbox decoration today from the Cheshire Cat to a Cherub Holding a Valentine Heart for Valentine’s Day
  • I’ll work on repainting the jack-o-lantern mailbox decoration in the shop
  • I’ll choose my next clean out project from the wide array of possibilities around here
  • I’ll transfer my new celery plants to soil-filled pots and put them on the window sill
  • I’ll start a roast in the crock pot

Such is “Life-in-the-Fast-Lane” at the Lewises in Arkansas. Can you see us grinning?

Enjoy your day!

 

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January 30, 2018 · 11:42 am

Death of a Dust Mop

Yesterday I wrote you that I finally cleaned out my cleaning closet, after some 30 years of stuffing more and more into it.

One of the things I put out as trash was a dust mop similar to the one above. I hardly ever use it because I’m fighting pet hair, and the dust mop just makes it swirl around in pretty circles and fall to the floor again. I put it in the garage next to the trash can for my husband to add to the burn barrel, maybe cutting the handle off for use elsewhere.

I just found what is left of the mop in the front yard. There were a gazillion neon yellow ‘hairs’ all over the yard where Amber had pulled them out of the mop head, chewed on them a bit, and then spit them out. I picked up the majority, but I didn’t get down on hands and knees. Maybe the rake will help later, when it warms up a bit more.

Amber

Today has been a character-building day for me so far.

Molly

Sweet Molly, who is now 13, had accidents in two places overnight. She almost never has accidents, but she IS getting on in years. I cleaned those up and am trying to get her outside, whether she asks to go or not, to see if she can control things better.

Abby

THEN Abby gave her breakfast back on the kitchen floor while I was concentrating on getting my first cup of coffee for the day.

Hopefully, things will tame down a bit as the day goes on.

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January 30, 2018 · 11:21 am

SuperPower

G.D.Falksen.com via Cathy Ruggiero

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Image

Snow People – Take 29

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January 30, 2018 · 11:15 am
January 30, 2018 · 11:09 am

Seed Bead Art – Take 7

Lucille -Owl-Betsy Youngquist

 

 

Where the Buffalo Roam-Keep Calm and Bead On

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January 30, 2018 · 10:47 am

Life Lesson

Gilda Radner via GoodTherapy.org-via Carol Auclair Daly

 

“Delicious ambiguity.”  What a WONDERFUL way to describe life.

I’ve spent much of my life wishing it away – wanting to be out of high school, waiting for my now-husband to come back from the Marines on leave and then for good, wishing away much of college because we were again apart, wishing the time away so we could finally get married.

Once I finally had my family, I switched gears – NOT wishing the time away, but worrying about what MIGHT happen, trying to CONTROL as much of it as I could.

What a waste. I finally learned that there is little of importance I can control and that worrying about something that might happen just stresses me out and doesn’t change the outcome. I’m apparently a slow learner, but I HAVE made some good changes.

  • Now that I’m older than dirt I realize my limitations and don’t stress (much) about things over which I have absolutely no control.
  • I realize that my warped sense of humor saves my sanity, allowing me to stand back a bit, and if not laugh, give it a great smirk.
  • I realize how wonderful my life is now. I truly appreciate how spoiled I am.
  • I’m grateful for the husband who drives me to distraction much of the time. How empty my life would be without him. I’m grateful, too, for our animals – even though I spend much of my time cleaning up after them – for their unconditional love and companionship.
  • I treasure the friends I’ve made. I don’t make friends easily. I have people I enjoy doing things with, but real friends are rare, and I’m lucky to have some.
  • I have more interests than I have time or energy. I love being able to mostly choose how I’ll spend my time each day – diving into projects head first, feeling the satisfaction of a job well done, or playing in my art room, dreaming about my greenhouse and spring in my raised bed square foot garden, re-reading wonderful books I’ve collected over the years and finding new authors I love, re-painting some of our mailbox decorations or metal yard critters that need attention in the shop while my husband works on a project at the other end of the room…
  • I’m grateful that I’m healthy enough to do most of what I would like to do.

None of us knows what will happen next. What Gilda Radner says about ‘taking the moment and making the best of it’ really resonates with me. Life is a series of ‘moments.’ If we concentrate on paying attention and making the most of each one, we can relax and enjoy her ‘delicious ambiguity.’

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January 29, 2018 · 4:35 pm

Monday’s Project Update

Before – I honestly couldn’t get much more IN, and actually had a few things falling on me while trying to take things out. I filled a leaf bag, relocated some things, cleaned the shelves and the floor, and then put what should be in there back.

 

I don’t think a cleaning closet ever looks ‘pretty,’ but this one looks a  LOT better than it did this morning!  I’m not sure you can tell, but there are about HALF as many bottles of ‘stuff’ as there were this morning. You can actually see the floor now. Things are clean and organized as to type of cleaner, and – best of all – nothing falls on you when you try to take something out!  Hooray!!

Since we’re bowling with friends tonight, I’m going to declare victory for the day and do some serious resting before we need to leave.

I hope you’ve had a good day, too. :0)

 

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January 29, 2018 · 12:57 pm

And Yet Another Project…

laughpls.blogspot.com

This purging/cleaning/re-organizing ‘trip’ I’ve been on continues. It may drive me to drink because it’s not like me at all. I may be in the running for the world’s worst housekeeper. I’m not DIRTY, but I’m not NEAT, either. It has been over 30 years since we built our home on top of our ridge line in Greenwood, Arkansas. We have a nice, big house that encourages one to keep bringing more into it. And we have. Things come in, but rarely go out.

I finally decided that enough was enough (to coin a phrase :0) ) and am determined to use this year to really clean things out around here. I’ve also made a promise to do it again every thirty years…..

I’m trying to get donations together once a month – every month – this year for our local library in Greenwood and the Veterans Thrift Store in Fort Smith. We made a donation to the Veterans store earlier this month, and today we took several bags of books to our local library, just in time to make our goal for January!

My new project is to go through what I call my cleaning closet in the utility room. It’s to the point that if I brought another cleaning supply of anything into the house it COULD IN NO WAY go into the closet…. Things don’t fly out at you when you open the door, but….. UGH.

This is the infamous cleaning closet in the utility room. I had to open the door to the garage to get these pictures.

Ugh. Things don’t fall out when I open the door, but it’s close. Things have been jammed in there for years and I can’t even see what’s behind the stuff at the front of the shelves.

top shelf

 

I don’t believe anyone could get one more thing on these shelves. I hang my head in shame, but I AM going to try to do something about it now.

Pretty frightful, isn’t it.

 

I’m going to tackle this one shelf at a time. This may take a couple of days, but I’m determined to make this much more usable.

Here I go!

 

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January 29, 2018 · 12:30 pm

Amber’s Horizons are Widening

THING ONE:  This may not look like much, but Amber has been afraid of stairs. Since we live in a two-story house with a basement, this has been a challenge for her. It isn’t that she NEEDS to go up and down stairs at our house; in fact, we think it would be better if she didn’t. She WANTS to, though, even though we keep the doors shut on the rooms upstairs, even when we’re IN them during the day, and even though there is no reason for her to go down into the basement, she WANTS to. She has been really intimidated by the prospect, and finally overcame her fear, adding going up and down stairs to her skill set. Here she is – at the top of the stairs – feeling victorious. I was at the bottom of the stairs, having just come down. She really didn’t want to listen to my request that she come down. I left her there and went into the office. Since she wants to be with people more than even the victory of the stairs, she soon joined me.

THING TWO: For some reason we cannot figure out yet, Amber seems to want to bring everything that is now in the garage out into the front yard. She has brought a few plastic buckets and things, bringing them into the front yard and chewing on them. Yesterday it was one of our big shovels! It is all metal, so she didn’t want to chew on the handle or something like that. I have no clue even how she got it. We usually keep most of our tools on nails on the wall. Maybe the shovel was just propped up in the corner of the garage….

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January 28, 2018 · 4:17 pm

Bookshelves Project Finished!

It took me two days, but the purging/cleaning/reorganizing of the guest room bookshelves and my bedroom bookshelf is finished!

This is the set of guest room bookshelves. The guest room is our son’s old bedroom – hence the really large built-in bookshelves, a desk, a walk-in-closet, etc. When it was no longer needed by our son, we hired a man to cut a doorway between the bedroom and the bathroom, allowing us to give our guests more privacy with a private bath they can access from the bedroom.

 

This is the set of built-in bookshelves on my side of the master bedroom.  I can now see what I have, reach everything, and it’s CLEAN.

I gathered enough books in this project that well have a nice-sized donation to take to the local library tomorrow for their semi-annual fundraising sale.

NEXT PROJECT:  the cleaning closet in the utility room. (Pics to follow)

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January 28, 2018 · 12:15 pm

A Good Life

GrowingBolder.com via Cathy Ruggiero

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January 28, 2018 · 12:13 pm

Murphy’s Technology Laws – Take 3

Interesting Facts

Murphy’s Technology Law #13: New systems generate new problems.

#14: To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.

#15: We don’t know one-millionth of one percent about anything.

#16: Any given program, when running, is obsolete.

#17:  A computer makes as many mistakes in two seconds as 20 men working 20 years make.

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January 28, 2018 · 12:07 pm

Watercolors I Love – Take 30

“SnowScene-Hiker”-Roy John Fuller -www.royfuller.com

 

 

Karlyn Holman-www.karlynsgallery.com

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January 28, 2018 · 12:04 pm

Shhhhh!

I saw a set up for selling plants at the co-op as we drove by last week. I did some research and discovered that February is a good months to start onion sets in Arkansas.  We’ll check there tomorrow and see what’s what.  We had such good luck last year that I’ve been enjoying them since harvest and still have two nice hanging mesh bags of onions in the pantry. :0)

 

We have six 4’x4′ raised bed planters like this in our square foot garden. If we DO get onion sets, I’ll first have to mix some Mel’s Mix to top off a couple of the planters. We don’t have string strung yet to create the ‘square feet’ for the garden, either.  I’m not really in planting mode yet. I’m still thinking about how I’m going to set up my greenhouse so that I can get seeds growing. And I really wasn’t planning to start THAT until March….

______________________

I’m still in cleaning out mode, feeling better and better as I get areas around the house finally cleaned out and decluttered.

I’m working upstairs today – the second day of working on my bookshelves on my side of the bedroom, plus the shelves in the guest room. I’m hoping to finish that today.  During this process, I found a bunch of books that I no longer need, so I brought them downstairs to the office. About a third of them were saleable on Amazon, and the rest I listed to donate to our local library.  I have to concentrate on the ‘cleaning’ part of this because I see a book on art, want to sit right down and look at it, drooling over the pictures…

My goal this year is to continually gather donations for our local library fundraisers and the Veterans Thrift Store in Fort Smith. I would like to be able to make a donation each month this year. I’m also trying to gather an extra large bag of trash each week. This week I’ll be putting out TWO extra bags!

_______________________

I hope you’re having a nice Sunday,too.

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January 28, 2018 · 11:26 am

Seed Bead Art – Take 6

Heidi Kummli

 

 

Streetwire-fairtrade-www.southdesign.nl

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January 28, 2018 · 11:22 am

Snow People – Take 28

Godzilla – Mental Floss

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