Yesterday I had an off plan eat that was at least as many calories as a meal. It should have "ruined my dinner", but didn't. I decided not to step on the scale until Monday if I can keep myself from it. There isn't anything in the house to do major damage, but I had a PB&J, a few extra Brazil nuts and a few cups of leftover air popped popcorn and probably 2 cups of cherries. Luckily I'm eating so much fiber anyway that my system is used to it. If it hadn't been so hot I may have driven to the library to get out of the house, but I just didn't want to go out in the heat.
I do have a library book ready for pick up and I'll do that when they open today. I also decided to do some laundry stripping. I've never done it, but You Tube videos show it whitening dingy laundry. I need to go purchase the products and then I'm going to see if it will help some of my white towels and mostly white dish towels. We'll hit the pool this afternoon since dh has finally been cleared to go in the pool from the orthopedic doc. I'm sure I would have gone in sooner, but dh is a stickler for the rules.
Curlyjax I'm glad work will be busier soon. Boring is awful. They had horrible internet problems in Canada yesterday. Maybe that's why your credit card wasn't working.
Bill Great that you were able to fix your plumbing issue at a very reasonable cost. I totally agree on the cherries. I'm thinking that isn't the safest fruit for me to buy. I seem to overeat them every time.
Nationalparker I have to say it's amazing your sister and dgs had such a long conversation. She must have been pretty good with the questions. I think it would be so fun to have a young one to go to the movies with. I do go to some animated flicks myself, but I would go to more with a child.
VertOlive Oh my you have a lot going on. Will your dh be able to get a bit better I hope.
GardenerJoy I enjoyed your post about Boris Johnson.
Waving to the rest of you and hoping everyone has a good weekend.
I am all packed. It took most of the day. I have decided to bring two summer dresses and no jeans. Daring. I ordered another pair of my favorite lightweight hiking pants instead. The pant take half the space and weight of jeans. I find I won't wear jeans more than twice before I want to wash them and of course I can't wash them on a multiple day journey. The hiking pants Halle II PRana easily wash and dry. Dresses I can wear over and over. Unlike Peru we have dinner out every night. Another daring choice is a pair of dress sandals. La'Artiste. https://www.google.com/search?q=l%27...=914&dpr=2They make me happy and work with all my clothes. My weigh is up a pound inexplicably. I am just at the edge of not fitting into my pants. Drat!! I'll reframe. I am still fitting in my pants thank goodness. I decided yesterday to start back with vinegar everyday to help manage weight on trip. I used old med bottles for a three day supply. 4 bottles and I toss each one when I am done with it. I will add matcha "traveling sticks" That means I will get two of the daily dozen in everyday of the trip. Little steps.
Today I have some puttering. My library libby card stopped working. Irritating. I need to mend a few things. and mail a few things. Getting excited. I received my metal testing kit and I might break it out
BBE; If you gave us the gmail of the site owners, we could complain en masse about the slow loading time. Karen: Shoes are super important. I tell that to DH all the time. He works so hard he puts holes in them. curley: I am lucky to have Mom close by. It would be worrisome if she wasn't.
Wave to everyone else.
I got a good start at preparing for a presentation that I'm scheduled to deliver on the 19th. I went back to look at my last two presentations and I can borrow slides from each of them to make this one. That will help! CREDIT for doing the work in a calm and relaxed way that didn't invite stress eating into my life.
Exercise +65, 445/1600 minutes for July
VertOlive: Good for you for getting back in the game, in spite of the many challenges.
VertOlive and BillBlueEyes: Here's my property tax protest story. We moved into this house in the fall of 2006. One of the first pieces of mail we received at our new house was a property tax assessment that was $100k higher than the amount we had just paid to buy the house. It was an easy and convincing argument to make, but it still required paperwork and an in-person appointment.
nationalparker: We've had some rain over the last couple of days and I'm really excited about a cooler day today. That will make my usual Saturday outdoor event more comfortable, and DH will walk with me this afternoon.
curlyjax: I'm glad that you could get on to post! It's always good to see you here.
karenrn: I've never heard of laundry stripping. DH washes our white towels and dish towels with a little bleach using the sanitary cycle on the washer. That seems to work.
maryann: Yay for being packed! When my library cards stop working it's usually because they expire. I can never keep track because it's not written on the card and they last for more than a year and I have cards from two different library systems. So, I find out that it's expired on the day it stops working. Sigh.
Last edited by gardenerjoy; 07-09-2022 at 11:27 AM.
I ended up making such a large amount of pasta salad, I decided to save the potato salad prep for this weekend.
When I asked my son what he thought of the pasta salad he told me it has too many vegetables and needs a higher ratio of pasta. Poor kids get too many vegetables when it's my week to cook, and not enough when it's their dad's week. My son laughed and agreed when I pointed that out.
Today, I threw a scoop of regular coffee grounds into my decaf to try and get the pep to get stuff done. I have tomorrow off as well, so the potential insomnia won't be too bad. I've been so low energy the past several days and I'm tired of being tired.
Mommameli, that's a big blow of news and I'm thinking of you all. I'm sure your body/mind is in crisis mode and you feel numb/shock. I hope you can get help finding the resources you need.
Joy, the Boris Johnson scandal reads like the typical corruption that always shows up in government: turning a blind eye and allowing sexual predators to climb the ranks. We like to let them rise the ranks all the way to the presidency, let them wreak havok politically, and then watch huge swathes of the population form a cult fallowing around them. I should go read your blog now to see if you had a similar take.
Chemo started for Dd yesterday. This is super fast growing cancer. We are very fortunate to be able to start chemo so fast.
A distant cousin has found lent us a house in the city. We only need to pay utilities. We are very fortunate to have a large supportive community. My younger kids will be living in the city with us, and my older one is going back to public school. He can stay in the city on the weekends, but at nearly 13, he needs his friends and social life too. It is hard. He’s probably going to grow taller than me this fall. I’m worried he’ll be a stranger by the time I get home.
Money is not a top concern because my husband works in an industry that is booming right now. I guess with the recession looming we may have to worry about that more soon. We have a healthy emergency fund, but we are liable to drain it fast.
I appreciate your thoughts and prayers. I’m sure I won’t be around here much, but it’s great to know you are thinking of us and praying.
Sunday - Lady Godiva rides naked on horseback through Coventry to lower taxes (1040)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Walked, CREDIT moi, through a recently constructed wildlife area that serves as a swale for street water to yield its pollutants before flowing into the local river. It's one of the best uses of public money I've ever seen. Boardwalks cross the wetlands between the gravel road on each side. It's green, luscious, and teeming with wildlife. Best view was a Green Heron flying right in front of our face with frog in mouth to land behind some grasses to dine in private. Some juvenile Red-winged blackbirds were hopping on the rails of a boardwalk where I was resting my two hands while looking. One little guy hopped along, came to my hands, just hopped over them and kept going. Methinks there's been some irresponsible feeding of the birds and waterfowl by visitors who think that white bread is good for them.
Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner on the patio was a tad chilly - but not so much to prevent us eating out there. Omelettes were served. DW was annoyed that one egg had been stuck to the carton - something she religiously checks for before taking them from their cooler in the supermarket. We ditched it; the egg is the most perfect container in nature (except, maybe, the banana peel) but the broken egg is worthless. Of all the food that gets wasted we certainly mourned that one egg a bunch.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Yes, Kudos indeed for avoiding stress while preparing a presentation. Starting ten days in advance is one smart move in that direction. Thanks for your property tax story.
maryann - I do enjoy reading how seriously you attend to packing for your trip to Ecuador. Using old prescription bottles seems like a good idea. My prescriptions used to come in smallish containers; now, due to the amount of information printed on the label, even a small number of small pills comes in the fat container. Makes for bulky packing if there's a handful.
Karen (karenrn) - Had to google laundry stripping. The link to a Maytag site describes soaking clothes in a bathtub so one can experience the joy of watching the water turn dark from the stuff being removed. I didn't read far enough to find out how one then cleans the bathtub. I wish you well. And lots of joy watching, LOL.
curlyjax - Thanks for the reminder to keep pinging the administrators to work the site loading issue. Ouch for the frustration of dealing with your dad's issues from a distance. Hope your ticket to Toronto is resolved.
Penny. - Neat that your DS is aware enough to be able to laugh about the volume of veggies alternating each week.
MommaMeli - Such good news, within such a difficult situation, that your DD is getting chemo right away. So happy that you have a house for your other three youngsters to be with you. Kudos for so clearly understanding the needs of your thirteen-year-old. Continue to send supportive thoughts.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
challenging situation skills
Before the Event
5. Create new and review old Response Cards.
Immediately before - and during the event, if needed - read your Response Cards along with your Advantages Deck.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 135.
I finally figured out the reason the airline wouldn't take my credit card is because...I forgot to pay it, oops! But they wouldn't take the other one either. And then they were trying to validate the purchase by sending a text to my home phone which no longer exists. I tried to fix that online -needed to validate something with another phone number that kept going to the wrong person at the cc company (!). FINALLY I reached a human being who fixed the phone number issue, and I was able to buy my ticket! I'm going to Toronto in November for Camp Widow, and a new friend is going with me. I've been wanting to go for a few years, it sounds like a very healing experience being with a lot of other folks who really get it. Crossing my fingers we don't get a covid surge by then.
I did get rid of a lot of trash yesterday, and DS loaded a big box of things that I will donate to savers at some point, so I feel good about that. Today is groceries and some meal prep. Karen- I haven't heard of laundry stripping either, interesting. I wouldn't want to go out in your heat either. Maryann- I always enjoy your clothing descriptions. I'm such a slob but I do wear dresses in the summer that look better than my old shorts. Gardenerjoy- that is too funny about your property tax assessment, geez. Penny- i'm tired of being tired too and my body doesn't always let me sleep late on the days I can, which is a bummer. Mommameli-so glad you have great support and they can start the chemo right away. Bill-that wildlife area sounds wonderful!
Food was on plan yesterday and I did get on the scale. I'm up less than a pound, which is no big deal.
Yesterday was a pretty boring day, but I did go to the store to buy laundry stripping products and the library to pick up a book. The store didn't have the washing soda so I had to purchase on Amazon, so no laundry stripping yet. One of the reasons I want to do it is to see if it will whiten some kitchen towels. They are mostly white with some blue in a window pane pattern. I buy them at Williams Sonoma so I don't want to get rid of them, but I don't really want to bleach them because of the blue on them. I have actually used a bit of bleach, but probably not enough. We did go in the pool for a bit yesterday but it was too hot to stay in long. I had a nice phone visit with my cousin who I camp with and we may go in September. I wish one of us lived where it is cool in the summer and we could just go visit. Maybe I can get her to move somewhere. ha ha.
I just talked to ds and he is doing fine. He is working on a remodel of his hamburger stand in Thailand and has gotten approval. It seems to be doing very well, which is amazing.
Curlyjax I'm glad you figured out the credit card issue and it was a fairly easy fix. Camp Widow sounds very helpful. I see they have on in Australia.
Bill The wildlife area sounds great. Incredible that the red winged blackbird hopped right over your hands.
MommaMeli I hope the chemo isn't too hard on your little one. How far from home are you when you are in the city? So glad you have been provided with a place to live. Prayers continue.
Penny I hope the caffeine gave you a little pep in your step. Funny about the difference in food between your cooking and dh. I can't even imagine what would be served around here if dh cooked which he doesn't. Thankfully he will eat whatever I cook and even appreciates it.
GardenerJoy That's great that you can use slides from your last couple of presentations. So nice not to have to start from scratch.
Maryann That is great that you're all packed. The sandals are very cute. I may try to find a dress to take before I leave. If I don't I do have a couple of cute skirts and tops that will be fine. I plan to take one of them anyway.
Nationalparker Did you get to the Minions movie? It's so funny about the 3FC. It loads quickly on my phone, but I can't see older posts and it's too difficult to type a response on there. On my laptop it takes about 3 minutes to load the current page.
It's fly day! I head down to LA to SIL and then Tuesday at 7:00 am fly to Ecuador.
I drank my vinegar and matcha tea. I did my yoga. I keep eating in the yellow light range and not losing a pound. I can't bare to come back from Ecuador in the 80s and I am so close. So I have decided to reframe Ecuador into a kind of glamorous "health spa" although I am tempted to call it "fat camp." I am bringing a yoga mat which I will do in the mornings. I will drink Greger drink. I will focus on the experiences and not the food. Fingers crossed. The goal is to come home still under 180. I remember ten years ago I brought my scale when travelng but I do not have that kind of room. SIL is very healthy food conscious so I will eat what ever she eats
Joy: I went to the newly remodeled library in town. It has been closed for 2 years. I was so happy to see it completely redone. The libraries and the schools change communities and support the most vulnerable in any community. My firm belief. I was shocked how many fewer books in the stacks. Probably like our high school library the majority of non fiction section was dumped. research is now done nearly entirely online. Somehow they had canceled my card altogether. The young man resurrected it! Karen: I promise to invite you to Truckee in the summer when I am around. It is the coldest place in the continental US every now and then in the summer. that is why DH bought it. Curleyjax: I have an old email that sometimes is the ":security code." I can't get into it. Very frustrating. Penny: LOL when I was gone and DS was little, I swore Dh and he would get scurvy from lack of vitamin C. BBE: I wonder i you can recycle those med bottles. We will see how they travel. Momma Meli: Best thoughts.
I had a productive Saturday, which is unusual for me. I'm going to see if I can learn from it to do better in the future. I developed enthusiasm around recording the books that I've read so far this year -- I made a half-year post on my blog and marked a bunch of books as read on Goodreads. I'm still several reviews behind, but I got caught up on the easy things.
Exercise +55, 500/1600 minutes for July
MommaMeli: My non-Hodgkins lymphoma was extremely fast-growing, too. I encountered a doctor years later who remembered my petri dish because it got passed around the lab to show everyone what a fast-growing cancer looks like. I was told that, if caught early, fast-growing is actually good -- chemo is better at killing fast-growing cancers than slow-growing ones.
The bit of caffeine I drank yesterday did give me some pep, and I was out and about with my 11yo. I bought some more tennis equipment and practiced hitting the balls on the court again.
I've been avoiding making potato salad but the pasta salad is gone so today has to be the day.
Mommameli, what a whirlwind! I'm glad the response has been swift.
Bill, the nature area sounds great! It always makes me chuckle a little that birds are suckers for bread just like us. When given a charcuterie of fruits, vegetables, and seeds, my conure parrot I had back in the day would much prefer whatever I was eating, especially tortilla. I asked the bird vet about it and she said birds are like us and also prefer the junk.
Maryann, have a fabulous trip!
Curly, I want to go to adult camp. That sounds fun! I need to plan a me holiday soon. It's been too long.
When we have the DGS I just seem to run out of time to do anything of mine alone. I even have to lock the bathroom door when I take a bath if he's awake. I hear it rattling and he yells, "Nana!! Nanaaaaaa" to which I reply, Papa's in charge right now. I never thought of that implying that all other time I am, but ... hey. So I have been MIA from here. Food has been fine, with the exception of last night's dinner when, again, I took spaghetti and added a bit of spicy garlic chili olive oil and seasoning instead of red sauce. I only eat a little pasta with red sauce. I don't love it. I now know I LOVE pasta this other way and I cannot do it without measuring out a cup and measuring the oil as well. I think I actually ate closer to two cups, but I also know that I estimate high if I think I've done poorly. But weight remains in same pound range, so onward. He is a funny dude. DGS: Achoooo! AAAHHHCHOO! Me: WOW - wait! Don't wipe your hands on my pillowcase! I'll get you a wipe! DGS: You're 'posed to say Bless You.
He keeps me on my toes.
MommaMeli - I know you probably won't be on here to read but if so, know I'm adding your family to two prayer chains through my sisters' friends - and these have come through in the two ongoing cancers I've sent their way (pancreatic and brain). That is good news from Joy - I didn't know that.
Maryann - Safe travels and have a wonderful healthy trip! I had never heard of those sandals and so had to scroll through many of them. So fun!! I like packing light for plane trips but I don't for car trips and it bugs DH. I said I don't get a gold star for only one bag on a long driving trip. But when we spent the first night in a hotel, I just took a large purse in with all my stuff in for the night/next day. He was like OH! I can be sneaky.
Karen - We did see Minions yesterday and it was really cute/funny. I am looking forward to Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris next. I just saw it was a redo of a movie that had Angela Lansbury in it years ago. I'll see the new one first but might just see how they did the original. Partway into the movie, my DGS leaned over and whispered, Why don't I got a drink? (His parents buy drinks, popcorn AND CANDY every time they go to the movie). I did go get us a drink to share then as I got suckered in. His grammar is terrible and I try to work on it every visit. It drives me bonkers. His mom talks baby talk to him STILL.
Bill - Your cool evening has me rather envious. I love hot days (not Karen's hot, though) and cool nights. I love visiting Montana for the 80s to 30s drop in Glacier NP. Do you have many mosquitoes there? When we've tried to eat outside, it's a feeding frenzy for the bugs. I hate the idea of spraying for them, because we have a lot of songbirds and a few bats.
I need to finish up on personals tomorrow, I'm a slow writer tonight.
Monday - Harper Lee publishes "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Walked to a local playground with the visiting (2 yo) DFGD, CREDIT moi. She can go non-stop moving from one climbing structure to another. When she saw a "baby" (her word for the actually 1.5 yo) just sitting in a swing, alone, with no one pushing her, she trotted over and pushed her. For some time. I was impressed. Was concerned that I couldn't spot the kid's mother until I finally looked in the other direction to see the TALL father perched even higher on his electric-assisted bike with a rack that held two kids. "It's our primary car; back and forth 1.5 miles to the school twice a day. Love it. We almost never use the real car these days." I asked if the carrier would hold an adult. "Oh, yes, when my brother-in-law visits he insists that I give him a ride in it." The battery is unlocked to carry inside to be recharged; gets about 25 miles on a charge. Neat technology.
Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner on the patio was the second dip into the dish we call "burger, beans, and rice" - this batch made with Impossible Burger. I pulled a 1 inch thin "thing" from my serving. Complained, "there's a chicken bone in here; Impossible Burger gets its great taste by cheating." DW insisted that it was vegetation, most likely from the can of beans. I threatened to take it up to her professional dissecting microscope to settle the matter, picturing a major lawsuit exposing the secret of Impossible Burger. But got distracted when cleaning up and the "thing" went down the drain. Will have to find another amusement.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Like that you're trying to keep track of the books that you've read. I was doing that for a while with the list kept by my library's data base - until the list got swamped when I started checking out kid's books by the dozens for the DGD.
maryann - Waving back toward LA and Ecuador. Neat idea to think of your trip as a visit to a "health spa."
nationalparker – LOL at having to lock the bathroom door to get a moment's privacy from your ever-active DGS. Yep, pasta with olive oil slides down so easily. We don't tend to get mosquitos - don't exactly know why. When a few arrive, once or twice a year, we're reminded how lucky we are.
Karen (karenrn) - I anxiously await your laundry stripping story. We, too, have some kitchen dish cloths that we're fond of because they were a gift from the DD but look like they've been used in an auto shop. I asked why we didn't just buy some new ones but got the eye-roll like I understood nothing. Good to hear that your DS is getting stuff done despite his hand injury.
curlyjax - Congrats for digging through the bureaucracy to finally buy your airplane ticket to Toronto. I know that despair when some computer robot insists on sending text messages to a landline of long ago and far away. Yay for finding a human being to solve your dilemma.
Penny. - Smart to invest in enough tennis balls to keep you and your DD satisfied. Interesting that your conure parrot preferred junk food. Who'd a thunk.
MommaMeli - Waving - thinking of you guys.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
General Plan for Eating Out . . .
Hors d'oeuvres or appetizer: None, unless there are raw vegetable (without dip).
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 134.
Nice day yesterday in the beautiful temps. I hit two grocery stores, cleaned the bathroom, washed some icky stuff like rags and then ran the washer for a self wash spin, made meatloaf for another night, and some peanut butter-banana-oat cookie crumbles. Cleaned up the kitchen and finally put away my clean laundry. So I definitely felt productive even though I still haven’t put away stuff that has been sitting around the living room for eons, and I haven’t tackled the outside greenery which was also on my list. I listened to a silly book on tape as DS was out with a friend for hours, and that really does help keep me focused. Karen- great your DH appreciates your food. My DH was a bachelor for awhile so he definitely appreciated having dinner made and would eat just about anything. So glad DS is doing well. Gardenerjoy- so interested about your cancer and so glad it had such a great result! Penny- I’m actually going to a beach retreat in late August nearby which will be more of an adult camp- Camp widow is more of a conference in a nice hotel But they usually have some kind of themed dance for one night so that will be fun. Nationalparker- my parents house that I grew up in had a screened porch, and I remember reading out there on summer nights, it was so wonderful when it cooled down. Oh, the energy of a little one! Maryann- I giggled about calling Ecuador fat camp. Have a great time! Bill-Brave parents to ride their precious cargo to school on a bike in the city- I would be too much of a nervous nellie to try it. Lucky to have few skeeters- here in the burbs we have them in droves.
I did my first weigh-in on Noom to find myself down by 2.7 pounds this first week. I’ll take it. I’m struggling to invent a go-to lineup of on plan meals though; I suddenly don’t know what to eat anymore!
I had an uneventful weekend, reading, working out, and practicing my harp. It’s that time of year when I begin to learn a new Christmas tune for the holidays. This year I chose “Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella” which is lovely and sprightly on harp. It does require a 4th finger on the right hand, so I’ve had to improvise a bit. The Dr. says I have at least 2 more months’ wound care ahead of me; can’t wait to get these dressings off!
DS has added a culinary class to his homeschool curriculum. He is considering going into the Coast Guard and interested in a chef’s posting there. First topic: Food Safety so he’s mixing up bleach sprays and insisting on double utensils for grilling chicken.
Sunday - Lady Godiva rides naked on horseback through Coventry to lower taxes (1040)
