Travel Anxiety and Texas Fun, Plus Updates

Good morning. The first Texas video is up. You can watch it HERE. I talk about my travel anxiety and we share with you some Texas fun and some things that were NOT so fun.

As for the current update? Hmm. Here goes.

Busy Week

I am coming off of a pretty busy week last week, getting ready for life group (house cleaning, grocery shopping and cooking), doing a lot of cooking for us too, grocery shopping for Mom, taking her to get nails done and trip to Dollar Tree and Dollar General, and ordering things for her on the internet, paying her bills, doing two video uploads. It was a little bit stressful of a week as compared to most weeks- but manageable since I was not working. The bad part was the last 4 days were harried and nonstop due to the grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning and then taking care of Mom’s groceries and shopping needs. So this week after life group, I’m able to catch up at home a bit.

Severe Weather

It’s severe weather season and these storms are becoming more and more intense as the years past. They are no longer just an hour long threat anymore but long 7 to 12 hour lingering systems that have the potential to send one over the edge. We have high wind advisories today with gusts up to 45 from now up to 4:00 a.m. And the severe storms with possible tornadoes will be here from around 8 til some time in the morning tomorrow. Right when we are trying to sleep. I’ve prayed that God weaken the storm system and protect us. I am trying not to be anxious, knowing I have a basement and just need to be weather aware and initiate a plan.

New Label Maker

I have also spent time in my office using the new label machine. I wasn’t sure I’d like it but I got the device to connect with the app and figured it out and it does the job and was not very expensive. I need to order some more labels though. The thing is, if the app ever goes away, you are screwed, lol. But it was cheap.

Here’s the name of it. Got it on Amazon and ordered the bundle as it came with the case. Want to say it was $23 but could have been $32, forgive me! I don’t recall.

Here’s the case. I think it’s worth having to put the tape and instructions, charger cord, and info in so it all stays together.

The drawer is sooooo organized now with these pouches I had ordered on Amazon a few weeks ago. There were a lot of different sizes for about $13. I think I will order more as I’ve used all of them up and they are perfect for organizing. I want to do my make up with these I think on the next round of organizing. Now I can find things so easily. It’s not all in a tangled mess.

Next Quarter

Well it’s already the next quarter and I’ve worked on the bucket list and filmed that video. It houses all the things we’ll be working on mainly for the next quarter as I am taking it through the rest of summer. A lot of projects and goals.

I did not accomplish everything but we accomplished a lot. I won’t accomplish everything on the next 2 quarters either. But we will get a lot done, I think and hope. Mainly it’s just trying to accomplish the things you know you want and need to do. So it’s just a guide and it’s fun ticking off the boxes!

Here’s the old one. I accidentally had things on there twice.

On my first full quarter of retirement: We went on a Lebanon lunch outing, bought my jeans, celebrated my birthday, created a grandson board, organized the pantry, experimented with the Ninja creamy, clean out the fridge. I attended a World Bible School online seminar. We saw our friends. I bought a new robe just for retirement. I read 6 books but I forgot to check the last one off. We made blueberry pancakes, we planned and went to Texas. George did his yard work, lol. We took an inventory of what was in our freezer. I made a health tracker on Notion. We put up the Christmas decor, lol. I did some YouTube training sessions. I reached 5,000 subs on YT, I did the photo project for Jan and Feb but I have not done March’s. We Marie Kondo’d the dishes, did lots of Good Will runs, cleaned a Family Member’s counters, vacuumed, and cleaned the guest bathroom – but got yelled at over it so I didn’t clean anymore (boundaries) – thus I did not do the fridge clean out as planned.

We used our Long Horn card. I made the Mac run more smoothly. We made homemade pizzas, fixed a family member’s IT set up with laptop and tablet (never again as it made me a nervous wreck as she did not know any of her passwords) and it was very complicated – even for me – who is on computers a lot. I organized the greeting cards by category, and reorganized the laundry room to be more functional and easy to find and maintain. We saw my sister and her family and did Christmas. We celebrated Valentine’s Day – twice, lol. IF YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW. lol. I went to one yard sale with George (there weren’t many yet). I added a birthday calendar in Notion. We really didn’t celebrate St Pats in a big way as we were traveling but we acknowledged it and I marked it off as being celebrated, lol. We had lamb on New Years. I added a place for sleep score in Notion if I want to add the numbers in from my sleep app for quick reference but it’s kind of pointless when I can look at the sleep app itself, lol.

You think we did pretty good?

Here’s the next one – Spring through Summer for the next 2 quarters. She’s a mammoth!

So lot’s to do there, some a lot of work, some fun, and a few things to stretch to reach. It won’t be all done but we have a lot of life to live, Lord Willing!

Diverticulitis

So…yesterday afternoon I began having some twinges of pain. Nothing too bad but just pin pricks. It became more prevalent overnight keeping me awake at times. It’s not constant but just occasional pricks – sharp enough to wake me from sleep. I got up at 2 a.m. and took ibuprofen. And having some occasional pain pricks this morning.

My best guess is that it’s the weak part of my colon. I’ve gone a year now I think with not having any issues. We know from research, that a bad gut biome will make it flair and often the issue is from diverticulosis – a condition in the making that starts long before the actual diverticulitis starts. We often blame the latest food we ate but the gut biome has likely been off for a time. We are coming off vacation where we have eaten out a lot, eaten very fattening food. I also have placed sausage type of processed meat on the suspect list making the gut biome worse for me. We recently had that. Have also had spicy food but I have so many times that the same spicy food does not bother me so I have kinda decided that isn’t doing it so much. I also have had a lot of beef in my diet the last two weeks. This is not good for a lot of reasons.

So, it’s back to trying to eat more chicken and fish, a little pork and much less beef. Much fiber and increase the greens. Increase the green tea and the lemon ginger tea and water intake. But for immediate approach I need to give my colon a break. I need to have mostly liquids today and tomorrow. I will have eggs and applesauce and rice and soft foods, but the more liquid I do today is good. Once I crawl out of the pain then I can ease back in the fiber and eat correctly. I’m disappointed it’s happening but at least we know I went a year without an issue by helping the gut biome. I’m going to go back and watch my diverticulitis video on how I was going to heal myself because it worked. I just got confident and cocky that could eat what I wanted but we ALL really need to keep our gut biomes healthy as it impacts everything in our body and minds, not just those of us with diverticulitis.

Anyway, I didn’t think I had much to share but when I begin typing it just starts to come out. Feeling a bit depressed over this as I love to eat but I’ve been thru this before. I just have to stay true to the course to avoid surgery. It can become a very serious thing quickly if not managed. So pray for me.

Hope you all have a good day/week. The severe storms and wind are beginning to edge this way into TN. High winds currently up to 45 mph. I need to go get some diverticulitis foods as I’ve been bad and didn’t keep anything in stock but I don’t want to get out in this.

See ya Saturday, Lord Willing.

If you need the link to today’s Texas video, you can watch it HERE.