Less Hustle More Coffee

A Fall Walk. Happy Sunday here. The rain fell over night and the dark clouds remained so the sun did not wake us up this morning. The result was a nice 10.5 hour and much needed sleep versus the 6.5 I normally get. Sleep is good for the psyche. And so is walking.

I did the twenty minute walking early in the day, before the rain threatened and before my day took me on other paths. I enjoyed the walk. I paused to get a picture of a lonely red leaf that caught my attention, stuck between a tree and a fence post. A sure sign of fall. Subtle changes of color can be seen in some trees but middle TN is mostly green at this point.

Halloween Decor marks one of neighbor’s yards.

A bright idea! Back home I fixed scrambled eggs using frozen onions, and three types of bell peppers. I’m not sure why I never considered this before. But while watching Traveling Robert on YouTube when he fixes his “one pot meals” he often will put either frozen veggies in things or frozen onions and bell peppers. Duhhhh why didn’t I think of that. So I bought some this past week and it was great in the eggs. I let the onions and bell peppers sauté a while in olive oil before adding the eggs so they would cook some of the water out and not be frumpy but closer to caramelized.

Right away yesterday I worked on the Fall Bucket List. I kept waiting thinking I’d have time to add a few more things. I left space at the bottom for any George had. He added things into January like celebrating my birthday. Which that is ok, b/c likely I will not have time to do the winter bucket list. It’ll probably be “Winter into Spring”. It’s looking like not a lot of free fluff time until Feb or March of 22. (Sonster, dear, don’t get started!)

Getting things done and update on the challenge. I was able to get laundry done yesterday and work on my grocery list as it has a lot of things on there for helping to meet my goals for the KYD55 challenge. I need to go to the store today and I’m looking forward to that. I met all my goals yesterday for the challenge, moving and doing all my 80 movements, including the 1 push up at days end. Surprisingly my arms was slightly stronger but not by much. I’ll keep trying. My right arm is the weakest one and I will have to be careful to do a slow strengthening so I don’t tear the muscle. I hurt it pulling a suitcase while traveling several years ago. But yes, so far success. After two days of the slightest changes with the increased water, getting in greens and fruits, and moving more, it feels good. It just feels good to be able to do this and I’m so glad I ran upon this method of improvement. I feel like God led me to it. It’s not just about weightloss or nutrition but a whole life experience, all encompassing. I’m most impressed with the method or the pillars. The focus of 5 things. I realize now you could make these 5 things ANY THING you wanted it to be. I love the structure of it.

So my breakfast was pretty filling and it was more like brunch as it might have been around 9:30 or 10. So about 1:30 or so I was getting a little hungry. I didn’t want bread or sandwich or a small frozen pizza. The goal is to embrace as much whole food as I can for the 55 day spread and try to develop new habits, find new foods, and new ways of doing things. So this was lunch. A few walnuts, carrots, string cheese and applesauce. Might not have been low carb but most of it was real foods. The applesauce is the no sugar type. The collagen elixir also was included. I have decided not to cut out cheese. But for the most part I’m doing the doctor recommended string cheese. I just don’t think I can give up cheese but I’ve dramatically reduced my intake of it through the years. Some has been added back (shredded cheese) since Mom has been here. I’ll probably not keep it in the fridge after she is gone. I didn’t really miss it honestly.

So I did get a few things done this past week. I will be updating this list today for the new list and giving a week’s outlook for what all is coming next week b/c ya’ll like watching a 58 year old woman squirm and wrestle with her schedule and her life right? lol I keep saying I’m 59 but that’s not til January. I guess I feel every year of that and then some, lol.

Afternoon out with friends. Last night we went to Catch 22 and sat outside with about 10 other friends. It was great to get to see them. Great to have laughter again. And we enjoyed it so much. I followed my rules perfectly. I had two beers but only if I had a glass of water in between. We were there for 3 hours! I had some wing appetizers and that is whole, lol. I did a two bites of a reuben egg roll which was out of this world. Two bites was ok. They were mini sized and sliced in half. And I ordered a salad. I don’t have any rules on the dressings but plan to generally stick to vinaigrettes during this 55 day period. This one was a mustard vinaigrette – bacon was on it – and that’s ok. I can have bacon! Tomatoes and blue cheese was on it. It was so good. Got my greens in! Got my fruit in! Of course applesauce was my fruit anyway earlier.

Plans today and anticipation of the move. So today I will go to the store and the plan is to go to Cracker Barrel with Mom for car side pick up of lunch. I didn’t really want to be gone all afternoon but I know she needs to get out of the house. It has to be depressing just sitting here all week. I know she is probably tired of us, tired of our ways, not having things set up like she would have it, and she can’t see and we move everything around all the time in the fridge, freezer, and pantry.

She despises Little Bit the cat, as he gets in her way when Fancy goes out. (This week he got sprayed by a skunk – he’s an out side cat- and then rubbed up against Mom on the porch). I hear her constant sighs of frustration. I also hear her “whewing” after any movement at all. She is quiet and depressed it seems. And doesn’t talk to us much anymore. I asked her if there is anything she wanted to do or any places to go or places to eat or take out for the bucket list? She said “no just get me moved into my house”. I said, “wellll – ohhh kay”. The way I took it was that she was “past ready”, lol.

I get it. We also have things we will look forward to after she goes. It’s no offense to anyone on either party. I mean after all, I get my bed back, my chair back, my fridge freezer back, my closet back, 1/2 my office back, my shoe rack back, my jewelry box back, my big chest of drawers back, my TV time back and mine and George’s dinner time shows (we used to eat while watching a show), my bathroom drawer space back, my towel rack back and my robe rack back, my kitchen counter space back, more space in the kitchen back, more room in the fridge back, can do laundry mid week if I wanna, can listen my news briefings from Alexa in the mornings in the bathroom while getting ready and not waking anyone up, or run the vacuum at 2 pm on a Saturday when it’s during her nap time and she’s asleep in the chair. So I get it. I know she is ready to move on and we’ll equally be ready to enjoy having our routines and space back. But we’ve been fine with doing this for her on a temporary basis. We want her to be comfortable and by all means HAPPY.

On her end I can only imagine the inconvenience of living with us. The temps are colder here than she would like and at night George’s movies are really loud on the surround sound forcing her to bed early. George’s finances and computer and office is in her bedroom and often he is in there when she wants to change or get a shower or go to bed or do her church service on line on Sunday’s. Often I’m in the shower when she gets up in the mornings so I know she tries to wait until I leave for the bathroom. She tries so hard to stay out of our way. We can tell. So I know she’ll be glad to let her guard down and do as she pleases. I mean this is a woman that likes to do what she wants when she wants so I’m sure this has been hard.

So I know the days will be minimal here – just a few short and busy weeks to go. We are in the last stretch! Then she will be on her own again and can have fun setting up and unpacking. Since we will have minimal PTO days left after the move – she’ll have plenty to do – one box at a time. We can donate a few hours a week to help her get it set up, run errands, and her groceries and stuff. But I only have two full days to donate to the move or set up then we will be left with weekends during the busiest time of our year. But we will do what we can when we can.

Thinking about the days to come. We may have to get hired help to clean because I won’t have a lot of time to keep up two households and that my friend is a fact of life. I pretty much have issues keeping our own clean. But I will do what I can, when I can, as I can. I just can’t live there once she moves in as we have to work Full Time. But we will do our best to sustain her there as long as she can shower, make meals, and get up and get dressed. She cannot see well enough to see when things are dirty, dusty, crumbs on counter or floor. But I won’t be there to put her clean hand towel out twice a week, throw away trash, clean her toilets, refill her toilet paper- she will have to do those daily things now that she’s had done for her here. She’ll probably miss that hotel vibe, lol. I will only have time to spot clean here and there. I only have time to do that here as it is —really.

As for the driving. It’s her decision but it’s not going to be any different over there than it is over here. Traffic is heavy, busy, and very aggressive. I often have to slam on the breaks because people pull in front of me. And some people tail you. You really have to watch. She often cannot even tell or see me if I’m in the room so how could she see a child on the street or a person on the road? Would she be able to live with herself if she ran over a child in that neighborhood, or someone’s pet? It scares me. But she’s Momma, and you are not going to tell her what to do. So it’s her decision. If she gets out and kills herself or someone else –it’s on her. She can’t read the road signs because she can’t read a menu on the board and her font on the computer is 148 – I’m just kidding. I’m just worried for her that she can’t see well enough to drive and be safe for her or others. Oh well. I guess we’ll see what happens.

Ya’ll have a good Saturday. What ya doing today?