Less Hustle More Coffee

Hello everyone! So February is arriving! And one month of the year is already gone. Oh my. I’ve set a February Challenge for myself and anyone that would like to join along. February is the love month! So I figure we will pounce on that. Feel free to do your own layered challenge and change it up. Maybe you have different goals this year you are working on so change these out if you need to. If you’d like to join me, please let me know and we can support one another.

February Challenge

• Laugh and share. (Daily). Sometimes we have to seek it out, but we need laughter and so does the rest of the world. Find a post, a joke, a video, a meme – whatever it is – and share.
• Loving act of kindness. (Daily) Even if it is a small thing. Go out of your way to do something kind for someone else.
• Lower the sugar intake. (Daily). Boy did I pick a bad month for that. Doesn’t the Girl Scout cookies come in? And Valentine’s Day is coming. So I’ve decided I can splurge on our Valentine’s celebration if I want to. But all other days are a goal of ZERO added sugar and keeping the total daily sugar intake of 24g or less. I don’t even know if I can do that or not so this is a big experiment for me. I don’t even know what my daily intake of sugar has been, so this will truly be a learning curve. For a side twist, make notes of how you feel to see if you feel any different?
• Increase movement. (Daily). I think it’s good to put measurements in there to hold one’s self accountable. So I am putting 100 movements – which means anything like 20 leg lifts, arm rowing, squats, arm reaches. I’m not even sure what the professional terms are and I’m not professional so it’s ok. But my day is busy and I am horrible about exercise, so I’m going with 100 movements.
• Clean Something. Clean Anything. (Daily). It’s about making your nest feel good. I’ve ignored mine way too long and need to spend time on it.

My Extra Project: Smoothie Bar

I was already going to be working on this in February anyway. So in breaking it down, here’s what I’m thinking.

• Research smoothie types / smoothie ingredients for ideas.
• Visit some local nutrition stores we have here to check ingredients and prices (this takes more time than I have but I promised myself I would)
• After making my decisions, purchase things like: protein powder, collagen powder, greens powder, peanut butter powder (whatever it is I am going to buy)
• Buy little matching containers. I’m thinking tall and skinny. I will be putting it on the counter and I don’t want to be overwhelmed by it.
• Whatever I do, you betcha I’ll be sharing with you. And if you have ideas for me, certainly share them.

Life Update: Sickly, Cooking, Dexter, Ice Storm, and Little Roo

Healthwise: George is pretty much normal now with just stray coughs. He always has sinus issues so it’s tough to tell where an illness is gone and he just has the normal sinus issues. For me, I’m about 3 days behind him on everything so in about 3 days I should be getting back to normal. I currently have sinus related issues, and possibly impacting ears. I still have sore throat sometimes but not always. It’s not strep because it doesn’t hurt THAT bad. It’s caused by whatever/wherever this draining is. It’s like in places that nothing can get to it’s behind the nose, ears and throat back in there and won’t come out by blowing, coughing or anything. It’s so aggravating. I also get tired easily but nothing seems to be going in my lungs and and my bronchials are getting better. It’s the ears that I think I might be having a problem with. I am past the nose blowing miserable stuffy nose stage and on to the coughing stage but even that is calmer today than yesterday. But we enjoyed some jello in the early days when the throat was much more sore and tender.

Ice Advisories. Well we are right there in it. We are hoping that we don’t have power outages. I have brought work home. It was a good day for it. So I figured out the dreaded. I’m glad I’m feeling better, otherwise I’d have not been able to do it.

But I packed the big new work bag that is a laptop case. All this worked beautifully. It was heavy with everything I was carrying in it but not too heavy. I even had to carry my big calculator home. I’ve decided to just buy one for here, so I don’t have to do THAT anymore. We have ENOUGH days where I have to do this that I might as well have one here. And with Mom’s doc appts and mine, and now George’s (he has to have colonoscopy soon), I might as well fix up a work station here and keep it so I can just float from place to place. That way it’s not such a pain to set up. But we need to get me on a wireless situation instead of the blue cord (ethernet). It’s a trip hazard. Our internet should work better now. I’ve just not tried the wireless this time since we’ve upgraded.

I lugged the card table upstairs, found the computer connection cords, the monitor, mouse, keyboard (that is ours), but all the other stuff is the company’s. So when I retire, I’ll give it all back. I have a laptop but like to have a keyboard and mouse as it’s easier. Anyway, this will help me so much I think to be able to work from home on days when there are these appts, then I can get more done b/c I’ll be on the road less. So anyway, more on that later. It’s only on an as need basis. But with an ice storm here, I decided it was a must need. But I don’t want to be setting this up and tearing it down. Just needs to be set and fixed and easy.

This work bag is awesome. It has so many nooks and crannies and everything you need. I loved it for today’s urgent situation where I needed to haul everything. It got as big as I needed. I couldn’t believe it.

I fixed the Hello Fresh Shrimp Scampi last night and it was divine. I learned so much from that. It was easy but yet had more steps than I’d have imagined. You make your garlic butter sauce -adding things like red pepper flakes, parmesan, etc. You bake the broccoli in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper. And you zest the lemon for the dish and also quarter the lemon and use a couple to squeeze in the dish but save one wedge out for each person. You cooked the noodles separately to al dente. And then you washed and patted dry the shrimp and kinda sautéed it in olive oil for a bit and then you started making the sauce up around the shrimp. I think I used some of the pasta water, some kind of seasoning packet, the garlic, lemon, butter mixture and added in the noodles and broccoli. It all came together in the end. I’m sure I forgot some steps, but I learned enough to be able to make something similar. I’d vote for throwing fresh spinach in the dish itself and not having to grill anything, lol. It was so good.

Dexter. He loves to sit in my chair when I get up. Bless him. He snoozed there until George goes to bed and then he comes and sleeps either in my bed, at the foot of the bed on the floor, or in my bedroom chair.

When I get up at night, to go potty, he has started to move into my bed spot, lol. Here I am with one leg on the bed and the other won’t fit. I finally got him over by letting him have a sock. I threw it over on the other side and he went and got it. Then I had to get my sock back. He is too heavy to move. So I had to trick him. Then we snuggled the rest of the night. Well, as much as he snuggles. Sometimes he likes his space but he was nearby. That was good enough. Just doesn’t need to be totally in my spot!

Look at my Little Roo all dressed like a little man for cold weather. Texas can most certainly be cold. The snow/ice situation came by way of them first. They have been out of school and day care. My daughter has been happy at home with him and in fixing crock pot dishes. She keeps sending me her recipes and it looks so good.

And I’ll end on that note. Other to say that George and I are both looking forward to working from home tomorrow. He will go in if it’s not bad. I’m already established here for tomorrow and regardless I’ll stay in. It’s too much trouble to undo it now that it’s set up. But it’s only for a day. I’ll have to be there Thursday for sure. Then Friday is Mom’s doc appt. So I’ll probably just bring stuff here, work from home and take her and then come back and finish up. Get more done that way.

I am hoping the video will be out this Saturday. I should be able to pull it off but we’ll see. I have a little more filming to do for it. But we’ll see. I also need to be filming for the next one, as I’m all out of footage. So I may have to miss a week, but I’ll do the best I can. It’s another busy couple of weeks. I’m not going to stress over it. It’s not like I have a huge audience out there waiting on it, that’s for sure.

Over and out.