Tag: Stress

The Irony of Eating, Big Bad Wolf BBQ, and George’s Birthday

On By BackporchwriterIn Food, Restaurants, Uncategorized11 Comments

Oatmeal and Chocolate – Fighting the Stress

There’s such irony in our eating decisions. Mine especially. I go to great ends to find oatmeal that has no sugar content, only to throw chocolate in my cart as well. What can we do with ourselves? We just have to keep trying and recognize we WILL have inconsistency and splurges and urges, especially prompted by stress. Lets just call it a “delta variant” purchase and also blame it on George’s birthday week????

It’s so hard to find just plain oatmeal to take to work without it having loads of sugar in it or various “bad” ingredients. The regular oatmeal I guess I could put it a baggie, and take but it doesn’t do as well as the instant does. I’ve NOT tried this yet, but was happy to find it at the DOLLAR STORE amidst their bare shelves. I usually try to find the Organic Oatmeal by Quaker, but it’s hard to find. And I end up paying a lot for Bob’s Red Mill on Amazon. Have to order an entire box of it but it’ll last a long time as I don’t really eat it but about once a week. I like a variety of things for breakfast.

So I add my wellness programs stress formula which if in hot water by itself tastes like hot apple cider (to me anyway). Often I just have that. But I’ve found it quite pleasing to add to oatmeal and it gives it a sweet taste. But it has adaptogens in it and other things that calm me down. The stress formula is called “Ionix”. I no longer use the name of the wellness company on my blog b/c they had asked me to remove their name when I typed a paragraph with the “illness” that has been going around. As you know there has been an attack on our free speech lately. It made me mad so I vowed no more free advertisement for them. If they want it out of a paragraph, it comes out of the blog entirely. I spent hours removing their name from my blog of several years. I still love the products and I know they were being pressured by those in society that throw their weight around, but still. Stand your ground or lose it. They lost their grounding on my blog by letting fear get to them. But yeah, I still love the products and although pricey – it is pricey anywhere to get your hands on true nutrition. I get enough to alter whatever has gone on with my body from a auto-immune situation. (Always tired, random pains, random low grade fever). And now with pre-diabetes and high blood pressure it has been wonderful to offset those with good quality supplements and nutritional food types). I’ve just worn it out during the years on the snacks, shakes and breakfast bars but I still use the supplements and in a big way and the shakes occasionally.

All that to say…..I found some oatmeal for on the go! 😉 I’m a wordy sort, ya know? Gotta tell you EVERYTHING I know about a subject and then some. Which is usually not much but I can dredge it out. lol

And also all that said…..there is this side of me when stressed:

Mom and I went to the Dollar Store again as she needed some things. The first time I went by myself and passed over the candy. The 2nd time I was not as strong. I love a bit of something sweet after lunch – or around 3 p.m. but I really don’t need it. And those M&M’s are tricky. there are 120 calories on the bag but there are about 3 servings in that bag alone right there. And I almost ate the whole bag yesterday. I just cannot quit eating them. Then I had to drink butt loads of water so I didn’t have some kind of sugar attack. And then at dinner time I was not very hungry. Don’t worry. I was able to eat. lol Now I feel bad for eating that many this morning and vowing to have my “greens” for breakfast.

Don’t overlook that chocolate wafter in the right corner. I LOVE THOSE! I allowed myself to get them. I had that for breakfast yesterday. Yesterday was a bad sweet tooth day. Now I have to detox myself. lol Someone HELP!

George’s Birthday Week, Day 1, The Actual Birthday

We were so excited to get to go to The Big Bad Wolf yesterday for George’s Birthday meal. We have tried off and on for years to get here, usually with friends. And they are only open at night on certain occasions. They do a BIG catering business. So usually when we are wanting to eat out they are closed. And sometimes they don’t even follow their hours very well. If they get a big catering event, they will close the restaurant. So it’s spotty. But it’s so good.

It was great. I got the ribs. And I kinda wish I had known they had salad. I didn’t see it on the menu but Mom’s salad looked good. I got beans and potato salad as that seemed to go with ribs but I realized later – more starches that turn to sugar. I had a really bad day yesterday and I need to do better than this. Let’s chalk it off to George’s birthday. I’ve blamed his birthday before, lol. But seriously need to do better. I really need to try and detox today and have my greens and get this sugar out of my body.

We posted this yesterday on social media. It was very popular, lol.

On the way home we saw two Bambi’s in our neighborhood. We had about 5 deer in our yard. They just come and hang out and stroll through. Sometimes we have days where we don’t see them, but I think that is just a timing thing. But they are all around us every day. We love seeing them.

So tomorrow, I’m hoping to give you a list of all the Sailing folks that I follow on YouTube. I don’t want to include it on this blog entry. I want it to be its own entry, for the most part. This is my plan anyway. If today contains a lot of blogworthy content that needs blogging tomorrow morning I will delay the Sailing entry.

Today I get off early as I take Mom for her eye injection. We have a busy weekend ahead also it’s George’s “birthday weekend” and we are heading out with Kevin and Susan. We are also eating burritos tonight at a new place in town with just Mom, George and me. And then Sunday George wants to have an excursion out to a brewery. So we’ll have a lot of pics and then Monday I’ll be complaining that I need more time off b/c I won’t have been able to get my weekend things done. lol. But what is life if you don’t have fun and celebrate birthdays. We just celebrate several days in a row.

So this is what George wanted from me for his birthday. I also gave him some random extra things like flair pens that he likes, expensive beer that he won’t buy himself, and some gourmet food items. But this is “The Who” box set. lol lol

This photo pretty funny as Mom’s feet is in the upper left corner and my messy hearth in the background (top).

Random Thoughts Over Coffee

Well, I suppose I’ll head out soon. Need to get another cup of hot coffee which seems so good right now. But at least it’s Friday. I’m so glad to at least have a day to sleep in – in the morning. We still have church on Sunday. So as of right now it looks like it’ll be very hard to get anything done this weekend but maybe I’ll get some time at home to do *something* at least. I’ll just do the most important things first. And I’m hoping to at least have the morning tomorrow.

It’s kind of been a stressful week in some ways. I’m trying to shake a few things off as “not my own” worries – especially on the work scenario. So far so good.

George got his 1st shot yesterday and I’m proud of him for finally doing that. And he did it on his birthday! His 2nd one is Sept 9th. Mom was telling him to stay away from her because now he has germs in his system. She is anti-V I guess you’d call it. She is afraid of it. It’s a personal decision but she still went on the birthday outing and we can’t oust him out of the house, lol. (She has a way of making a person feel so special sometimes with her honest assessment. lol lol. I guess its her way of letting him know she is not happy with his decision to get the shot.) But it wasn’t her choice to make. None the less she made it very clear she is worried she’ll get the “illness” from him getting the shot. Some have said that has happened. Don’t know for sure what is fact of fiction. But we are doing the best we can and it appears we are soon going to have to show proof to be able to do things so…..

Meanwhile in Texas

Little Roo’s day care teacher is out with “the illness” – yes THE variant illness. And so my Texas family has been exposed. I also have been exposed where I have been. So there’s that. Also Katy went for a root canal yesterday and had to be stopped because it wouldn’t stop bleeding. I’m confused as I don’t know why that happened. Is that normal sometimes? She hadn’t taken an aspirin. Or did the dentist do something wrong? So she has to go back in a month after it heals. Has anyone heard of that before?

Anyway, I need to get out of here and get more coffee.

More tomorrow, Lord Willing!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Monday

On By BackporchwriterIn Uncategorized6 Comments

Sneaking a blog entry in this morning but I took my shower last night. Still going in early to work.

Storage dilemma.

Sometimes the early bird gets the worm and sometimes it doesn’t. Yesterday I called to check on the storage place to make sure the guy is still moving out of it on the 18th as we were to take possession on the 19th. I had not gone out to sign anything as they said they couldn’t til he was out. I had a funny feeling. You know I’ve lived life long enough to know that this guy was probably not going to be out right. So it never hurts to follow up and plan. It averts surprises later.

True enough, I call and the owner says “oh I was about to call you”. Oh no. “The guy is not going to be out of the unit yet as his house is not ready”. I say “oh no”. She said “what are you gonna do?” I said “find another storage unit I guess”. I told her I figured that was going to happen and that is why I’m calling. I actually said “good thing I’m efficient, huh?” lol

Anyway, I made a call to another nearby storage place. It’s actually a little closer to Mom but still on the way from our house. We got the one big unit available and I have already given them the account number and they are mailing me the papers. They don’t have an office. The owner runs it by his phone but the boat/marine place next door that he used to own, helps him out if there is an on site problem. George went to Lowe’s and bought a disc lock which is recommended for storage units.

Sunglasses dilemma.

I drive several miles away to Hermitage to drop off my sunglasses to see if they can fix them. I’m asked if I have an appointment. No I’m not being fitted but dropping off broken glasses to be fixed. I’m met with “oh with Covid though you have to have an appointment”. “Just to drop off my glasses? I took off work and drove all the way from Nashville as you all are not open when business people are off in the evenings and weekends, can’t I just talk with the optical folks and leave them my glasses?” I had to leave them at the front desk with a girl named Shaundrette. Who put a sticky note on them with my name and number. They had orders but I had a few of my own. I paid dearly for those sunglasses that broke right after my warranty and I said “can you please put a rubber band around that so it doesn’t fall off. I don’t want to lose my glasses!” Since they would not let me hand them to optical myself, I asked for her name and told her I was holding her responsible for my glasses. I don’t like leaving them at the front desk of the big place. I later thought I was probably ugly, but then I thought no I wasn’t. I didn’t have a tone. I was just letting her know I expected my property to get where it was supposed to go. Later, the Optical place called back. I was going to give them a couple of hours and call and make sure they got my glasses. But they called me first. She said it was out of warranty. I figured that. Funny how my old pair lasted over six years. (I’m having to go back to wearing them so I can drive in the sun.)

The optical lady said she is calling the manufacturer to see if they will fix it or replace it or have a replacement part. If not she is looking for similar frames the lenses will go in. If not I’ll have to buy new ones. I don’t want the frames of my old ones b/c I like the style of my new ones. I just wish they were more durable. I want what I want especially when I’ve paid dearly for them. And of course they did not last. I may find out what brand they were so I don’t buy those again. I don’t abuse my glasses. I always take care of them. So I am NOT a HAPPY camper. I even thought about using a different place but I want to see if they can give me a deal. I will let them know that I’ve never had a pair of glasses that broke so quickly and that this was my first time to use their company’s glasses. Things are too expensive to have to buy prescription glasses every year. No ma’am. That will only happen once, I say.

YAY. No Masks at Work – Finally

The dawn finally came. We got the memo we don’t have to wear masks. It came with two pages of disclaimers and FAQ’s. We still have to wear them to go in the building and take our temps. If we don’t have a temp then we can take off the mask. ok. So somehow I can make myself wear it for the 15 seconds to walk in the door and take temp. So I am wearing make up today, full on. I’ve noticed most employers have relaxed their requirements as well. Except for doctors offices. But that is understandable. Well maybe not the optical place, but….whatever.

How to Like and Subscribe on YouTube

Several people have asked how to like or subscribe. I guess you probably have to sign up, to subscribe and like things, but I could be wrong. It’s been so long since I joined. No cost. I think you just have to have an email and a password- it’s just like anything else on the internet. If you sign up, though you can subscribe or like away for sure. Then you find things you like and subscribe and get notifications when they have new content. Here is what it looks like on my phone. Keep in mind this is going to look a little different as it is MY channel but it will look similar on your phone or tablet. You select the video you want to watch or like or leave a comment on.

And it has a place to give a thumbs up, subscribe, or leave a comment. If you don’t see those options then try signing up and I bet you will!

Hope that helps. I have a couple of new subscribers this time. So I appreciate that. And I think it had 48 views in the first 48 hours, so that is good. I will take it. It’s nothing compared to most but if 48 of my friends / blog buddies checked it out, that is at least something! 😉

A little Bit of Good, A little Bit of Bad!

Unloaded my work bag full of goodies for the week. You can’t see the peach.

My office space is below. Not sure what made me want to take the pic. I am hearing we will be moving in January ish to a new location that is a further drive. My guess is it will take me an hour or so. I’m not a happy camper about that. Not sure even how long I will be able to do that. We’ll have to see how it goes. I have no desire to spend that kinda time on the road twice a day nor deal with that dangerous interstate down there. So I’m really not sure what will happen when that happens.

Why things have to get all mixed up – I don’t know. One thing is certain right? Change happens. And when it does it changes more than just a few things. Adjustments have to be made as does decisions and so forth. You figure out what you are willing to adjust or settle for and what won’t work at all. And go from there.

Mom got to See her Grandchildren for the fist time in two to three years.

My sister’s husband, my nephew and niece and the nieces boyfriend went to get the desk my sister wanted that was my father’s. So Mom got to see them. I was so happy that I actually cried. I’m glad Mom got to see them before she left town. It’s sad what family squabbles can do. It breaks my heart. I think what if I wasn’t able to have had my own grandparents in my life, how sad it would be. I was so close to them.

I was stressed after the day’s struggles last night so I fixed my comfort food, spaghetti and listened to a nice YouTube relaxing music channel. So nice. I took a pic and cropped the scene on my phone. I think I will clean house to this next time I get a chance. I think it’s been almost 3 months since I’ve been able to dust, lol. Seriously. We have not been home! Ok maybe 2. But it could be 3. I did a nice cleaning around Easter. Dead serious. I’ve only had time to do laundry and blog and make videos, LOL. Not willing to give up my creative time. It keeps me sane.

Better go to work. I’m 20 minutes over what I meant to spend doing this. So gotta hurry now.

Ya’ll take care.

Dinner out with Family, Stress Levels, Blood Pressure, Time Shortage

On By BackporchwriterIn Uncategorized8 Comments

We had a grand time with extended family last night at Margarita House in the Providence area of Mount Juliet. Left to right, Me, Aunt Felicia (back), Susan (front), George and cousin Mollie! NO it wasn’t George’s birthday but we had a photo app and took it! I called us the Fabulous Five for the evening. It was so much fun we vowed to do it again in another quarter or so! I loved hearing the stories and reminiscing on George’s side of the family. Lots of laughter. It’s been a good week for smiles and laughter.

The fajitas were good. The steak and shrimp was exceptionally good as were the peppers and onions with their chargrilled taste. The chicken was a bit mushy though. It wasn’t really very good. I’m not sure what happened there except maybe it was overcooked or something, so I ate all the shrimp and steak and left the chicken. lol

I Get the Moderna Vaccine Today

So I get my Moderna shot today around lunch time. And then I will get something through a drive thru for lunch on the way back. I might oughta eat first to tell you the truth. Not sure if there will be a wait or what. I’m a little nervous about it.

Stress and Blood Pressure

Also my blood pressure was worse this morning. It was 165/89 the first time and I took it three times. The longer I sat there, each time it got better. It was 149/88 at the lowest. I don’t know why the meds are not working anymore. However, it’s been almost 24 hours since I took it. I take it in the mornings when I get to work. That seems the best time to take it.

I really need some solitude and some down time. I would like to take the rest of the day off today, but it’s quarter end and I’m going to need all the vacation time I have to get Mom where she needs to be the rest of the year with this move and doc appointments and such. On the other hand, I’m no good to anyone if I stroke out. But I’m sure I’ll head back over to work like a good little girl. But I covet the thought of just being able to come home and get things done that have been nagging at me, getting laundry started, dinner started and chilling out. But I guess that won’t happen.

My to do list is stacking up as we have not had ANY free time at home to get anything done but just eat and sleep. And most of our weekends we will be gone to pack up Mom’s house. I’m trying to meditate some as I can find a few seconds (bathroom stall to be quite honest, TMI!!!) for just a moment of deep breathing and releasing and letting go and just letting the thoughts come in and go out.

There are some things I want to do in the house with housework, shower gift to wrap and get in the mail, moving things around a bit to make room for Mom’s stay here, and not to mention all the personal “to do’s” that I have.

Time Shortage

Photo by Jordan Benton on Pexels.com

Anyway, I just need some rest and rejuvy time but there is none to be had. We’ve pretty much gone about 3 weeks straight with no down time and it’s really starting to wear and tear and show in my mind and body. I’m trying to hold it together. My mind and body is also requiring a full 8 hours sleep and honestly that does not seem to be good enough. It’s so hard to get up in the mornings. One morning I slept through two alarm clocks and George had to wake me.

Self – Care

I’ve also decided I want to go shorter on my hair as I’m having to mess with it so much to get it to work. It’s hard for me to cut the back. So I think I will move up my appointment and that will help me to get a bit more time in the morning. If we can get rid of the masks soon I’ll start wearing makeup.

I’ve also decided that I’m going to start getting my nails done again as a treat to myself. I don’t ever have time to do them now as it takes a good hour or so with the filing, painting, and drying time and such so I don’t mess them up. I don’t have an hour every week to do it now. So I think I’m going to make an appointment and what they do will last 3 weeks. That will save 2 hours a month! lol Then when I retire I will go back to doing them on my own.

Life is Good

Life is good though. I just have to get settled and figured out and adjusted in this year’s new normal. We’ve been used to a slower pace. I’m happy and content and excited about getting Mom up here so we can be with her and help her. She is excited about the new place. But I do need to see what is going on with the BP. I am going to monitor it for about a week and see if this is just a fluke b/c of all the additional stress lately or if it’s truly the meds are not working anymore. It may be he needs to adjust the meds. So I’ll monitor for a few days and then make a doc appt I guess. Or call. Maybe he will just change the prescription.

In the mean time I’m also trying to figure out natural ways to reduce the BP levels and the stress! So Ya’ll take care and say a few prayers for me to get straightened out. I’m thankful for the weight loss tracker though – b/c I’d not known that my blood pressure was high. I knew I was stressed a bit, but didn’t know the meds were not working it’s magic.

Off to work…always off to somewhere…