A Week of Contentment and Joy

It’s been a fun week this week and a week of just inner joy, enjoying retirement – no real place I had to be and just being able to live a slow but yet fulfilling few days. I have been bad about writing. I am trying to figure out why because it used to be the first thing I did when I got up. I was anxious to tell the world about my day the day before. Now it doesn’t seem that urgent to get my thoughts out there in the world. I tell a lot of my story on YouTube, I no longer feel the need to “tell my side of the story” on things, and I no longer seek approval, don’t really have many new exciting events and or thoughts to blog about, and I’m re-prioritizing my time I guess. Those are the reasons I came up with.

I still like to write though. And I’m having a blast now that I’m here. Mon thru Wednesday I worked pretty heavily on the YouTube video. Yesterday we just watched it and I did the thumbnail. Today I’m just cleaning up the files and tomorrow I’ll transfer the new files over.

Tuesday George and I went to see Project Hail Mary at the Roxy Theatre. They have reclining seats. I DID get the buttered popcorn and they put so much butter on it that it was almost sickening. And it leaked out the bag onto my new sweater. So fine. I will take my own popped popcorn and despite the rules, do my own thing. They never look in our purses, and if they did the worst thing that would happen is they would confiscate it. I also bought a Coke Zero, b/c at this point, a little Aspartame is probably less likely to damage me as much as the sugar itself. I DO NOT make a habit of aspartame consumption is why I can say that. Only in situations when you desparately want a coke or a coke comes with a deal and you don’t want the sugar. So I have changed my stance on that. Please no slaps to the wrist, I have done my research for me and decided that if I’m going to do it and Stevia is not an option then I’ll do Coke Zero in a pinch. But mainly I drink a lot of water. But I do love a coke in a movie theatre but the sugar is just too much of an issue. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about finding the best choice in a situation that works for each person. What works for one may not for another. For example some of my family absolutely cannot have any aspartame without having some very real issues like headaches and intestinal sores which are like Crohn’s Disease.

My SIL, Susan spent the night with us Wednesday night due to a mid-week funeral in KY Wednesday that she and George drove to. George and I agreed that I should stay home and be available to pick up Dexter from doggie daycare and be able to get Maddie out for her pee times to avoid piddles in the house. She goes on the paper but usually misses it so….

This gave me an opportunity to get some much needed grocery shopping done. We had gone to Costco the Friday before but you know – they don’t have all the smaller grocery items you need. Everything is on a massive scale. So I was out of a lot. I enjoyed myself walking through the store Wednesday. It was nice to only have one list to work from instead of juggling both mine and Mom’s lists on my iPhone back and forth as I go through sections of the store. I did not feel rushed. I love a nice slow walk through a grocery.

Once George and Susan were back from the funeral, we had a little happy hour at the house. They shared news and delights over seeing extended family (often takes a funeral or a wedding to get everyone together at times – like most families). After that we took Susan to Tholos. We wanted her to experience it. It’s a Greek/Mediterranean restaurant. We got to meet the chef and tell him ourselves! That was so neat. The waitress brought him out after we raved over our food.

Once home we sat and talked for a while and all hit the hay. I gave Susan my bed and so I had washed the sheets and bed quilt and taken all my nightstand needs over to George’s bed. Then Thursday washed sheets again for my move back into my bedroom. I can’t say that my sleep was very good, lol. There were no snores that I recall so that is good. But I don’t know I woke up a lot and Maddie was confused a bit and unsettled some. Anyway we were fine but went to bed late and work up early.

Susan didn’t want breakfast and just wanted coffee before hitting the road. So I fixed George and I some eggs and bacon later on. I realized my legs were so weak. I have been walking a mile a day on the treadmill or doing some type of workout. Sometimes my legs need a break after a mile walk. And hauling the groceries took 3 times up the stairs by myself on Wednesday also gave the legs and workout. But my legs were so weak yesterday and by sun down my right leg was just DONE. It was muscle in my right thigh but I traced it back to my right hip and right back area – all were similarly very sore. So I hurt so bad that I was having an issue sleeping on my right side. I lowered (softened) my bed number and was able to sleep on a less firm mattress b/c I like moving from left, to back, and eventually to right side over night.

So here we are on Friday. The pain is getting better in my leg and worse in my hip, so it’s almost like it’s moving around some. I only did an arm day today to give my lower body a break. Maybe I will do one of my powdered drink additives to my water to help with the recovery. I’ve so far avoided ibuprofen.

I’m enjoying the week though. Above you see where I made some “whole grain” biscuits. I also have a new custom of making cinnamon sugar twists out of the remnant biscuit that we always called “the Humpty Dumpty” after rolling out the dough and you have just a bit of leftover dough. So I make a cinnamon roll with it. That way it’s only one and it’s small and not much sugar, it gives me a delightful treat that makes me smile.

So I’ve made regular biscuits with plain flour and then also with whole wheat flour. I’m experimenting. My biscuits are not rising much so I’ll probably try a different recipe. But the point of it is I’m enjoying it so much. It used to be a burden to make the biscuits, but it’s becoming a privilege. I want to keep them made up for the freezer. This morning I made sausage patties in the George Forman grill and put them in the leftover biscuits for freezing so I have sausage and biscuits that I can heat up one morning. So my goal is to always have it ready to go. But I don’t want to eat biscuits every day. But I am also experimenting with different types of flours. So it’s been fun playing with it and what makes it no longer a chore is having the Kitchenaid Mixer and the mat to roll the biscuits out on.

Strangely enough, I’ve even been enjoying doing the dishes every morning. Often the dishwasher is full or we have some big pots or some wine glasses we don’t put in the dishwasher so it’s only a piddly few. But it’s peaceful to turn on a YouTube upbeat Bossa Nova beach scene or coffee cafe while doing it.

So I have some other things I’m wanting to do today. Mainly here on the computer. I’m also cooking tonight. It’ll be a pasta shrimp dish with lots of tomatoes, wine, cilantro. It’s a summer beachy type dish.

OK tomorrow I’ll be posting the video for the week. See you then.