Tag: Little Roo

Southern Snow and Getting Work Done

On By BackporchwriterIn Uncategorized7 Comments

I was able to get out and take a few pics today of this beautiful snow, which has been both a beauty but a curse for many. Here in Tennessee we get a good snow about every 3 to 4 years. Usually a 2 to 3 day work loss event and not an entire week and then some. When I say work loss, let me stress the point that many of us are still working but from home and more on that later. Maybe even tomorrow. I slept til almost 6:00 this morning instead of the 4:00 a.m. hour. At the latest I am up by 4:45. I must have needed the sleep. But then I got up and showered and got ready for work (sweat pants outfit and warm socks as I sit by a window). By the time I got breakfast and sat down it was 7:38! So no time for blog entry this morning. I jotted down my outline for what I wanted to remember to blog about though.

This one above, with the focus in the distance.

Below with the focus on the limbs.

It has been just beautiful watching the snowfall. After I fix breakfast, then George fixed me another breakfast. Geez! I should just wait for his breakfast but I never know he’s gonna do it.

We’ve been well fed this week. That is for sure.

Here’s yesterday’s wine glass. After work, I sat in my office’s corner chair and watched the snow.

You can change the focus of the iPhone pics too by touching the screen where you want to place focus. Above I touched the screen where the snow was. Below I touched the screen where the wine was.

Honestly I think the iPhones (and mine is only an 8S right now) really just do almost as well as the camera. Well it does for me anyway since I use the manual settings still. Lessons, lessons, lessons – I know. Time, Time, Time!

Update on Daughter’s Power and Water

They are home with power and water now! And they said River was happy to be home, unbundled, and playing with all his toys – he swats at the jungle gyms and gets books read to him. I love this pic and had to share it. Look at his little legs! They are filling out! I love to see the healthy baby legs! This pic makes me want to hold him so bad. It’s so hard to live 14 hours away. I just can’t believe we do. I can’t believe we are letting this happen. Like we have a choice! Well we could move but George won’t let us. I’m glad we didn’t yet. We’d have been without power. And a shower for several days. Anyway, I’m glad all that worked out. Thank you LORD!

So I entered a bunch of W-2’s and almost finished entering the 188 I have to enter for one of our states – yes all manual as we don’t have the right software to upload I was told. So I only have like 12 left to do and I’ll do that tomorrow.

I have a headache though for dealing with all that today. I guess just from concentrating. I’m sipping a glass of wine now. I’m about to go cook spaghetti for dinner. Not really very hungry though as I had a late lunch of some leftovers and that was my 3rd meal of the day being I had two breakfasts. Oh my I need to exercise now!

Why am I working this Weekend?

Sybil, in the comments, wanted to know why on earth I would want to go in and work this weekend when I’m working all week from home. So I figured I’d answer that here for all.

  1. I have a check box of responsibilities that I do each week for payroll. My week is done when all the boxes are checked. There may be a few things that can slide over to the next week but I would only let that happen if I was on vacation or something like that. I DO NOT like being behind and I always get the most important things done but all of it usually is important and timely as I pay people for living and also pay taxes and do tax returns.

2. At home I don’t have all the supplies to be able to check all the boxes. So my days are usually shorter when I work from home. Maybe not a lot shorter but it is a bit shorter. I also take time to throw laundry in, lay out ingredients for dinner, take care of a pet’s needs (taking out, feeding, etc). I might even clean off the counter or take an extra few minutes at lunch or call Mom to check on her. So I have more time perks while at home to throw in a few things here and there. While I usually start on time, I might let up at 4 or so – but today I worked til 5 since I stopped to go outside and take pics and have a photo session aside from taking a lunch. I had a quota set for how many w-2’s I wanted to enter. I’ve also been checking the weather repeatedly both on line and looking out the window. And since George is home too, we sometimes chat in b/w our work sessions.

So it’s only fair to go in and work this weekend to do the things that are not checked off the list and complete the week. My list usually takes up most of the week, so if I have things left unchecked I’ve not completed enough hours yet. I’ve done this list long enough to know that. Now I’ve had extra work going on with these w-2’s so it’s likely that I’ve put close to 40 in but I’d guess about 35 so far. I haven’t figured it out yet but I’d guess with all the breaks I’ve put about that in. That’s not much. I did relax more on Monday since I worked Sunday. I answered emails but mainly did all the things I would have done Sunday if I didn’t close payroll. We needed whites, towels, and darks really bad! So I did some chores Monday as my Monday and Tuesday goals were met by doing it all on Sunday. So it’s only fair for me to go in this weekend and I’ll probably get another 8, 9 or 10 hours in. If Saturday is not a mess on the roads, I’ll go then. But it’s probably best for me to go once this weekend and work all day Sunday. I could go in both and work two halves but likely I’ll just go in Sunday and give this a chance to melt and go in once.

So that’s the reason! I mainly have to be ready for this next payroll and then do a few things I couldn’t do for this past one. And I will be happy to do it. I never like being behind and I try to keep a life/work balance and keep it fair for both sides. Don’t worry, I squawk loudly when I feel pinched upon! I do feel like you have to protect yourself sometime. It’s often hard to get a Saturday or Sunday back when you work it if you don’t take it right away. I think you grow to regret it when you don’t focus enough on your family life, home life, and do things that are important to you. You begin to feel like an owned robot. I don’t think that’s God’s plan either. I mean He said it. Even He Rested after doing His work, and He’s God!

Ok off to go cook my Mister some spaghetti. Ya’ll have a good evening. Our offices are closed tomorrow. Well, I mean even if it was open, I’d not be driving in this mess! No way! I want to live to see my Grandson!

Oh I’ve been talking with one of the ladies that owns a shop in Breckenridge, TX! I followed her on Instagram and struck up a conversation. I wasn’t sure she’d remember us but we shop in her store every time we go to Graham, TX – The Tattered Pearl! I sent her the YouTube video in TX as I told her we’d mentioned her shop in the video. She sent me a heart back and said she was thrilled we loved to shop there. I do love her shop. I remember the first time when Katy took me there. I was so excited. We love boutiques and they had clothes that fit me and the prices were right. They had cute and different things too. It was a charming place. So if ever in Graham TX, you must stop by The Tattered Pearl!

Ok when is Spring going to get here? When it does I have some plans! I’m going to make some appointments in March for sure. Ok gotta go!

Tales from a Cold and Icy Tuesday

On By BackporchwriterIn Home11 Comments

Good morning! Here was my view yesterday. We had a few minutes of sun and periods where the sun would try to shine through. I guess it gives hope! I called it “Southern Lights” on Instagram lol.

I think this was one of my favorite moments of the day. Because we have not seen the sun in days it seems. It did not last long. It snowed or flurried small flakes off and on all day.

So I had the best banana and peanut butter toast yesterday and drizzled with honey. It was filling. I thought about Elvis. I started my work day with this.

I had a buddy joining me all day yesterday. Little Bit was at my feet by the vent or was on the bed.

Yes I know the vent is rusted. I need to unscrew the vent, get the rust off and spray paint it. I’ve just not been that enthusiastic about something one rarely sees. I mean usually I’m not standing on my head taking photos of the floor, lol.

And then Roger also joined me for a while. He sometimes lets his head sleep on the floor. I think he is sometimes too tired to fool with getting his whole body on the bed and he just goes with that. Roger was mainly in the room b/c his Daddy was in the room earlier on the office part of the bedroom that he uses. The poor guest bedroom is now also two offices including the guest bedroom. And my changing room. Poor bedroom has to be multifunctional.

I think I’ve mentioned before we NOW have 4 computer stations in the house. That is 4 office areas! Two in the guest bedroom, my home office room which used to be a bedroom and then George is using the dining room table as a desk for his work.

Yesterday’s calendar message. These messages always seem to be relevant for the day you see the message. I’ve been prettied concerned for my daughter and her hubby and little Roo. They are just in a situation among 3.3 million other Texans w/o power.

They are staying with friends and was told that someone at the ranch is paying for a hotel room so they could have hot showers. No one has water. The whole town is out except for a few places. This is concerning and I hope the situation improves in a hurry. I keep praying.

Here’s a couple of cute pics Katy posted yesterday.

I just want things to get back to normal for everyone. But I am counting our blessings for being warm and with power and with water when 4+ million people across the nation do not have power and many without water also. I wish I could wave a magic wand. I can do that in a way. There is prayer. And I have prayed.

But today we are to receive our next winter storm. It starts at 3 p.m. today. Well it looks like they moved it to 6:00 p.m. I can see the snow already to our west though and it is supposed to bring 2-4 inches of snow and a .10 of ice. We are already still iced in.

I think it is not supposed to get much above freezing until Saturday or Sunday. I will be working on site once I can get out of the house and safely get there. I just have things to do that I cannot do here. I’m happy to say that many days next week are in the 50’s. At least it looked that way yesterday.

I had to get rid of the Valentine stuff on my phone. So I made a couple of new phone backgrounds via Canva, if you would like to download. I was happy the way they turned out. I went ahead and did one for March too. This first one looks pretty cool behind all my apps.

I have Little Roo on my Lock Screen.

I ordered some pics of Little Roo from Shutterfly earlier in the week. I have had so many things on the to do list but not really a stretch of time to do them. I have a return from Amazon to do. I have to take the receipt Amazon mailed me to the local UPS store. I don’t even have to box it up. They will do it for me there for free. But we have to dig out of the ice first. I have until March something so it’s ok.

I am not sure when I will have time to work on iMovies again. It looks like I’ll be working this weekend again and then we have another work week. And I think the following weekend I’m going to Mom’s. So…..this year has just been one big DELAY. I miss doing them. But I’m at least making progress. At least the upgrade has happened, and I have both external drives, one for back up and one for the files. I haven’t even had time to move all the files over. I need a stretch of time for that when I’m not rushed. So much I want to do but my personal goals are on hold I guess while I deal with life itself and everyone else’s wishes.

Ok I’m going to get off now before I talk myself into being sad/mad about not having any spare time lately. But the chores and work responsibilities have to be met. I have relaxed some and watched some shows here and there. But I’m way behind on that too. It may seem like we have a lot of time at home but we are working FT and then some, and just haven’t had a lot of spare time beyond the chores and such.

I also have to stop and do some mending. My best blue pants, the new ones, the hem totally came out all around. I have to go see if I can find my sewing box first of all, LOL. So stuff just keeps coming up that has to be done before I can start playing again. But soon. I’m not worried about it but I miss working on my hobbies/goals. It does a body good!

And those are my thoughts for the day. How are you doing and how’s the weather where you are? Keep warm and keep hoping and praying for Spring, as well as all those folks without power/water.

Photo by Trang Pham on Pexels.com

Take care. Til Tomorrow.

Seasonal Disorder, Supplements, and Little Roo

On By BackporchwriterIn Uncategorized3 Comments

Oh my gosh ya’ll. I’m struggling here this week. But I know how to fix it. I’ve been behind on taking the daily multivitamin and I’ve not had a wellness shake in a while which is loaded with goodness. So it’ll take a few days to build myself back up with the added nutrients I need. But every day I’ve been getting worse, going into a lethargy, tiredness, and yes, starting to head into depression or sadness. I have been with myself for 58 years now (good thing eh?, lol, that could be debated on many levels) however, I know the signs. I start to feel tired, put out with life, and then gradually begin to lose interest in doing anything, and I just really want to sleep. Every day this has been getting worse – but just in the last two to three days I realize this needs to be fixed fast. Usually warmer weather, a change in routine, something exciting happening can pull me out of it really quick too.

The vitamins….well, I take blood pressure meds which most of the people in the world my age do, but I take supplements along with that – Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Turmeric, and Grapeseed extract which I’ve been out of for about two weeks (it’s ordered and on the way). And I have a vitamin pack that has a lot of other things in it – through the wellness company I use. They pack a big punch! I’m supposed to take two packs a day, but….when I added some other supplements and we started adding fruits and veggies more into our diet, I backed off to one pack a day which served me well (and a better deal financially) until about the time we came back from Texas. For some reason I would take my supplements but not take time to reach for the little pack of vitamins which are only 4 pills but pack a pretty good punch of most of the daily vitamins that women need. I also take two supplements at night – a probiotic and a product called Isaflush which is mainly magnesium, and I do three squirts of a sleep product. This formula contains melatonin, L-theanine and a proprietary blend of natural herbs and ingredients. Sometimes I take an additional supplement during the day which is wonderful and is good for the gut, called Natural Accelerator and it has cayenne, green tea, cocoa seed, and apple cider vinegar. I should take this more often but when I feel I need extra gut health, I’ll take one of these as an alternate friend on the opposite side of the day from the probiotic.

So by the time I get through with all that, I’m worn out of reaching for supplements. You can see why eh? Not having the multi-vitamin though is bad. So for the next five days to a week, I’m going to try my best to take these packs twice a day as recommended. And then go back down to one. I guess I will need to set a timer or place it in a time that works. I have placed in on both desks – at home and at work – and on my bedside stand and I tend to overlook it and say “later”.

Also during the months where we are closing quarter end, I wave it off because of the time and being busy. And also I don’t eat as well those months. So probably have had fewer greens and definitely fewer fruits. When I get busy I go back into a rut, slowly, without realizing it – of forgetting to eat right and grabbing whatever is available. It’s a cycle that I struggle with. I buy carrots and forget to grab them, but grab the frozen meal from the freezer on the way out the door. One thing that has been helpful though is to keep a stock of applesauce and a can of pineapple and a can of mandarin oranges in the fridge – at home and at work. I try not to drink juice because it seems to have a greater quantity of sugar absorbed all at once by the body.

Missing Maisy Dog

So I’ve been thinking about another dog as I’ve been missing Maisy so much this week now that my mind is slowing down some from our trip and from Christmas and from getting the house back to normal and working on the iMac – basically I’m getting time to miss her again – and I do so much. Her photos pop up and I miss her following me and being by my side and loving me. And now moving into the guest bedroom makes it seem even lonelier – but don’t get me wrong – I’m enjoying and needing my solitude of sleep right now. I just do. And it is not going to be time for a dog for a long time. Well it is, but I think we need a break to be able to do a few things without dogs. We will see how long that lasts!

So it was pretty fitting to see that the calendar said what it did yesterday about the puppy. The Aloha pic above was over the weekend. That was appropriate too because I need some sun! I need some palm trees too. I need some tropical weather. I need a tropical healing.

All I Want to do is SLEEP!

So my last task of year end, besides boxing up 2019 files to make room for 2021 ones, is to get one of our states w-2 reporting done. It’s a big state and even though the plant number of employees is small – I’m thinking 50 or so, the turnover is bad so I’m entering 188 w-2’s for this location. I have all month to do it. I’ll probably get most of it done this week or early next week, depending on how busy it is. I’ve broken it down into sections of twenty at a time. It’s just cumbersome. It’s kinda fun but it is relaxing to just sit and do data entry and so it nearly put me in a coma. I wanted to sleep so bad! I only got 13 done! I entered a few more as I had time yesterday. I had to go get coffee at like 10 a.m. I never get coffee until after 1:30 and sometimes not until before the drive home so I don’t get sleepy. The weather is not helping my cause any here!

I just took a snapshot of the pop up weather on my computer. Rain and temps going down again. And a lot of clouds.

iPhone Wallpapers

I put the 2nd one as a background wallpaper and the first one as the Lock Screen wallpaper. I think it’s fun to change these out monthly. I also change the phone cover and my Apple Watch band. You can download these if you want. They came from CANVA.

Little Roo!

I have some baby pics to share. Sometimes I’m sent them, and sometimes I steal them from Katy’s Facebook or Instagram page because they are too darn cute.

The faces of Little Roo!

Here’s 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks old.

Collagen

I have also been taking Collagen which I failed to mention earlier. It’s this:

It has quite a few things in it too like zinc for example. Taken from Google: Collagen Elixir™ is a potent marine collagen supplement infused with vitamin C, minerals, and superfruits like goji and acerola berry to help hydrate and nourish your skin from the inside out. It tastes just like church communion. Here’s some results from it that Trudy posted yesterday for us all to see. This is someone I follow on Instagram who is on the same system I am. I’m only 9 days in with 8 drinks as I forgot it on Friday. I can tell a subtle difference. I’ve ordered more but will run out before it gets here. I don’t intend on taking it forever, but will take it periodically if I don’t have anything else I’m needing or I think my skin needs the help. My skin always needs the help! But I won’t do this ongoing b/c it’s too expensive. While still working I think it’s ok to splurge on it a few times – especially to keep my auto ship going b/c I want to have access to the products at a discount if I can.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on with me! Now I need to get ready and get to work and I’m not moving too fast these days. Ugh! Come on Spring!

What vitamins or supplements do you take and do they help? Do you tell a difference when you forget to take them?