Tag: Weekend

Saturday Excursions and Progress on House Building, Health Challenge, and To Do Lists

On By BackporchwriterIn Life, Lifestyle, Self-Help6 Comments

Well Nadine’s in Hermitage is not very pretty, but we dropped Fancy off for her trim and headed over to this “Pizza Hut turned Diner” restaurant. They have an excellent breakfast. I suppose it is much better than IHOP or Waffle House, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We are vowing to go next door to the Butt Hutt for take out ribs one day. It’s on our bucket list.

We had a good little day out. George got to go to some yard sales and we went to Houston’s Meat Shop (local butcher store in Mount Juliet). We bought steaks for tonight. Mom stocked up on their biscuits which are homemade but frozen. We bought a few other things for the freezer for later. We manage to keep the freezer’s full in today’s pandemic and pandemic aftermath as these are weird times and there are rumors of food shortages and supply shortages with our economy scrambling. I guess most nations are going through the same? Here’s Mom going into Houston’s. She’s wearing her mask.

They also have a little market also. We love to go in here. We always go here when we want a steak or to stock up on chicken. We also stop when we are having company for breakfast for their biscuits. Makes it easy.

After stopping at the house and dropping off frozen goods (we live so close to here) we took Mom to see her house. We didn’t think the garage door was installed but it is. If. you look closely you can see it and the little handles. Look at the garage at the house next door, how it has those little handles at the bottom – well if you look close at Mom’s garage area at the top you can see the little handles. They have it installed it’s just up because they are working on it.

I hadn’t realized it was going to be Tudor style, I had pictured it with stone decor like the others. The outside color and materials were not something you could pick. But it looks nice. It’s certainly coming together. Mom was upset that her front door had window panes as she said she had asked for a solid door. I don’t remember. I remember them asking about the door knobs and maybe the type of design within the door itself but don’t remember any talk of windows being in it or not in it. I’m not sure if Mom and I assumed it was all door and no windows. In today’s world I’m surprised that it WOULD have a window. She’s looking at the contract and we can’t really tell from that. I think she may call about that on Monday. I knew there would be things to crop up that she would not be happy with and I’m sure there will be more. I guess she will have an option to change it afterward. At least I think so. I’m not sure if they consider that part of the outside or not. It may be. I also would not like to go to the door when the door bell rings and be subject to whoever is standing there. People could look in on you. I like to have the option of acting like I’m not home if a salesperson or someone else I don’t want to talk to comes to the door (mostly sales people, lol). So I get it. I’d be upset too. Only I probably wouldn’t have noticed til I got in there. Mom is worried someone will break the glass and twist the door knob. She can get blinds to go over it I guess but you think that they would just have a solid door and a peep hole. Oh well. I mean as far as that goes, there’s windows all around so they could break in to those too. What’s the difference? She wasn’t upset with the windows though.

But it was good to see progress. I wish we could have gone in. But they were working on it and the weeks are soaring by fast so we’ll be seeing it soon and hitting the ground running. It’s VERY exciting. I’m excited for Mom and I’m looking forward to helping her get set up. We’ll have a busy season of decorating and unpacking and setting it up to get her functional and then she can go through boxes one at a time for her 30 years of accumulation. Ain’t NOBODY got time for that, probably not even her. lol. We will help some and perhaps can get her a yard sale together by next spring or next fall depending on the time frames and how much time we have. The community has a yard sale twice a year and that will be great!

That is her patio there. I think they have to pour the concrete in the upcoming week. She gets an email or a phone call with what they did last week and what they are doing this next week. So this is all coming together. The walk through is Mon Nov 1 and the closing Friday Nov 5th.

Around 2 we picked Fancy up and then I offered to take Mom to get a hamburger. She immediately said yes. Now you know here I get my love of burgers huh? Fancy likes to get her own burger – she gets the meat but only part of the bun of a plain hamburger. She always used to get a burger after her trim. Both Mom and Fancy are happy. I did not get a burger. I had pop corn and that was all I needed until our dinner. George fixed us chicken baked in a sauce, acorn squash, and baked potatoes. I had been craving the baked potato. I only had a little butter on mine. It was all so good.

Knocking the To Do List Out of the Park!

Photo by freestocks.org on Pexels.com

I’m extremely happy with what all I’ve been able to do despite our day out yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the day, was present and mindful and glad we did what we did. But when we were home, I was hitting the ground running. Laundry is done and folded. Sheets changed. Fancy’s blanket is changed out for her little bed. I vacuumed the house. I booked both hotels for our East TN and West NC mountains trip in December. And the big news….drum roll…. I FINISHED THE NEXT VIDEO! ;-). I begin to get cranky when 3 weeks is past and it’s not done. So it was a highlight on my to do list. It will be out soon. I’ve exported it and just have to go through the process of picking out the thumbnail and getting it set up. I’ll come back here and post when it’s out and will also post on social media but frankly it’s just hard to get seen on social media as they squash the links and videos for the most part to get rid of agendas if it doesn’t match the sites goals. I also talk about my vaccine in mine. So even YouTube may not allow this video. It’s mostly encouraging but I did get a fever from the 2nd one and I put that in there so if it’s taken down you’ll know why and you will then have witnessed first hand how our freedom of speech is slowly (more quickly these days though) being taken a way. Not wanting to get off on tangents!

Today’s goals are: getting that video up and posted, likely for a 6 p.m. release time, EST. I have to go the store today, cut George’s hair, do some on line Christmas shopping, make my Christmas lists/notebook where I keep up with everything.

So here’s the To Do List for this past week. I will reset it for the week to come and delete these but I had decided to leave all the check marks there until Sunday because it’s important to see we actually can make some progress, even when we are busy. But I’m so happy and glad to have worked hard and knocked a lot of it out of the park this week. Now THAT’s what I’m talking about!!!

KYD55 Challenge Progress

The challenge is going well. This set up of this, I can tell you, has just been amazing. Here’s what works:

  1. You are not only working toward a health/wellness goal, but also personal goals, and also helping others as well. It’s just all encompassing. (Five pillars of: nutrition, water, moving your body, service to others, reading for goals).
  2. The goals are attainable.
  3. As I’ve said before you can choose to make it what you wish, although they gave us guidelines, it’s exciting to see that you could take this structure and do all kinds of things with it. You could take the 5 pillars and make them different things. Or within those same 5 pillars you can make your own rules.
  4. I can see how the 55 days is to set a habit. These were small changes that I can see as being able to carry on continually. Some small changes that turn out to be big ones to set you off in the right direction.
  5. The limits I set for myself are working- like dessert once a week or two bites if I absolutely have to have it. This is huge! It’s worked. Now I did have “two big bites” on those mini Nothing but Bundt cakes – my “two big bites” there might have actually been 4 but you know what, there were three other nights that I said NO to dessert because it was not a part of my goals because I was setting new habits. And it was ok. I have frozen pineapple chunks if I absolutely have to have something. This is huge for me.
  6. The movements have been big. I just do 80 exercises throughout the day. Arm lifts, leg lifts, windmills, toe touches – all during the day so that I have 80 before bed. Do you know how easy this is? It works. I have been able to do a 20 min walk once per week. Maybe on another challenge for 55 days of needed change – I’ll work on adding it to two a week. This is huge also b/c you are slowly changing your habits to what you want it to look like instead of just setting goals you can’t attain and then get discouraged.

I’m just so happy with it. There have been a few days where I’ve been short on the water goals. I think I slow down when I see I’m doing good and then forget and then the day is gone. But for the most part I’m doing it and as long as I get in about 75 at least I’m good, but 94 is my goal. Flushing those kidneys and liver out.

I’ve also listened to three nutrition Podcasts – part of my bucket list goals and also part of my KYD55 goals. So I’m trying to work some Apple Cider Vinegar into my diet. The nutrition podcasts I listened to were really kinda leaning toward the KETO side of things. I’ve chosen to embrace Whole Foods as much as possible. I’m not totally giving up the “western diet” but for the most part trying to make better decisions toward eating healthier and real food. I like the word “embrace” that is powerful to me and it repeats itself in my head. I’m holding on, clinching to it, and that helps my psyche to know “this is the route I want to take”. It’s subtle changes in the diet, but when making my decisions – this is working. When I pick things up at the store, when I take things to work, when I pick things out in a restaurant. The only thing I’m not doing is making everyone around me eat like I do. If George fixes pizza or we go out for a burger – I’ll eat it. But I’m trying to make better decisions and will order the best options I can, remembering what I’m choosing to embrace as “my thing”.

After 9 days, my arms feel less fat, my chin feels less fat, my stomach is begging to flatten just a tad – I can feel some burning of fat taking place.

What’s not working

My legs have been very weak this week. My guess is that the new Vitamin D’s I’m taking are not getting through, not being absorbed. I looked and felt of them closely. It was a new brand I tried claiming to have more in them. But the shell was harder than most and I’m not sure that it was a natural shell or casing. So I’m going to have to order some of what I had been using. I can’t afford to not be able to walk and I’ve been having issues simply just getting up from a chair because my knees and legs are so week. It’s very scary. I’m almost to the point of being like Mom and she is 20 years older than me. So I must get this under control. I do think I damaged my knee doing pushups and so I had to give that up. The ISA shakes from the wellness company I use help with leg weakness and also the Vitamin D does when working. So I have to figure this out. This past week has been difficult for getting up out of a chair and also for climbing stairs. I’m only 59. This should not be happening. So I have to figure this out and quickly.

I’ve rallied on enough here. It’s been nice to blog on a day without restraint, without looking at the clock, and without hurry.

Hope you all are doing well and I’m gone on to eat breakfast and shower and try to get this video loaded and get George’s hair cut.

Are you all having a good weekend?

Saturday’s Strange and Erratic Schedule

On By BackporchwriterIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Friday, I had a pretty severe craving for a steak and baked potato. I don’t usually have cravings for things anymore. So when it hits, I usually allow the splurge. Although probably erroneous thinking at times, I think that giving in to a craving maybe something my body needs. So I went to Logan’s and got the smallest steak, 6 oz, that they had. It was Friday and most of the week for a couple of weeks, I had eaten at my desk. A little treat out was what my psyche needed. I just needed it to be the weekend already, with so much to do at home. I had made a lot of progress at work, starting out the week a little behind and very busy, but quickly caught up to where I should be.

Saturday was very busy. And I was anxious to get things done at home and be able to make some progress on my list, but we had a mix of appointments, visits, and a couple of fun stops. Here’s kinda how that went.

*Dropped Fancy off to Groomer’s (8:00)

*Nader’s Donut Shop (8:15 Sausage Biscuit and Apple Fritter for later). Went in and got it to go.)

*Paul and Judy’s Yard Sale (8:30 Sadly, our friends are moving to FL soon)

*Farmer’s Market (9:30 Fresh tomatoes – they didn’t have the kind of beans Mom wanted)

*Car Wash – (9:45 got Mom’s car washed at a dance team’s car wash event)

*Bone Density Test (10:15 – Yes it’s a Saturday appt – done and over with).

*Houstons Butcher Shop – (11:15 Needed some chicken for the freezer and theirs is reasonable. Got a hamburger to go with fresh ingredients and like home grilled -very thick and very good)

*Home to drop off chicken to freezer, eat burger (12:00 ish and Mom is getting concerned because they have not called for us to pick up Fancy from spa).

*George and I went back to Paul and Judy’s to get a musical item Paul talked George into buying for a good deal. (12:40 ish and thinking the spa will call soon)

*Catch 22 (1:00 for a beer while killing time waiting on Fancy – hoping they will call while we were there. They didn’t)

*Home again (2:15 ish and set into laundry and vacuuming the house and working on things in my office. Now I’m getting concerned about Fancy and called to check – went to voice mail! :-O)

*Back to Pick up Fancy (3:00 ish – Got the call finally – last time it was 10:30 a.m. when they finished is why we were worried.)

*Fix popcorn for Mom and I (4:00 ish as rain rolls in and I’m tired and dinner is 3 hours away. Watch Hurricane coverage).

*Hang out in office (5:00 p.m. and also do some more laundry, plan next week’s wardrobe, reload my weekly vitamin container, clean up a bit, download iTunes songs I’d saved the names of to add to my iTunes.)

*Dinner (7:00)

*Watch Flip Wilson (7:30 watched the DVD pick after playing a game of elimination. Don’t tell anyone but I snoozed.)

*Texted with friends (8:30 One friend has two family members sick with “the dreaded” and another who lives in the neighborhood heard a loud boom or gun fire and wondered if we did too – No I didn’t hear it, Yes George did).

*Bed (9:00 ish – Laid in bed and watched the pet videos, OCD stocking of fridges, and other funnies on Tik Tok til my eyes were so heavy they couldn’t stay open.)

Normally when I type in bullet fashion, I’m tired. But I had a good night’s sleep! Here’s some pics!

Fancy was one excited girl to get picked up. Her report card said she did good. She said hello to everyone in the lobby. And she gave me a hug in the car. We made it home just in time for the rain which mostly missed us.

George’s Cornish Hens
Cornbread Salad

So there you have it. A very busy Saturday. And you know what we are doing today? GOING NOWHERE! I was expecting to have had 1/2 of the day yesterday to get a few things done. While I made progress in sections, it was not as productive as I’d imagined. So I’m going to see if I can progress today.

Already this morning I’ve changed the sheets. I’m partially finished with cleaning up of my office. I am hoping to consolidate some notes. I am really feeling scattered as I have notes I’ve taken for about two months, maybe three – blog ideas, Christmas ideas, things to research, vlog ideas. And it’s driving me crazy having so many pieces of paper. So I’m converting it to Evernote and/or creating spreadsheets on the Mac so it’ll be across all devices. I think I started this project once not to get it finished. I have to look on my computer and see. It’s frustrating to start and stop so many projects and then try to figure out where you are when you pick up again. But I’m going nuts until I get this DONE so I can relax my thoughts and quit moving this stack around my office! lol.

As you get into your upper 50’s it’s especially important to write things down, I find. I won’t remember it later if I don’t. These lists keep me going. They keep me energized, in forward motion, and make life more fun. I like to plan and think things through. That said I’m not as complete with that as George is. He has a lot of lists that he likes to make too. A lot of what he focuses on is: our dinners, our excursions, and yard work. He also focuses on the finances and his hobbies of music and reading! Ya’ll know me and my hobbies!

I slept til 7:11 this morning. It’s 9:20 and I’m thinking I’m still not awake yet after 2 cups of coffee. So I’m going to go grab breakfast, a shower, devo, do more laundry, ironing, and then working on consolidating those lists.

Ok so I’ll do a blog tomorrow morning – that is the plan.

Are you having a good weekend? What is up with you? And what is your weather like there? Hoping none of my blog readers are in the path of this big monster below. We are supposed to get rain from it Tuesday/Wednesday.

Ok off to work (at home) and play! And tonight we have Fondue for dinner!

Easter Fun, New Homes, Good Food, and a New Wellness Checklist

On By BackporchwriterIn Uncategorized5 Comments

We have really had the fun this weekend. It’s been a blast having Mom here. We have done our toes professionally, did our OWN nails the next day, have eaten like there is no tomorrow, fixed fancy green teas, and have visited models of open homes, and watched movies. It’s like having a new best friend around. Of course George has been here too for a lot of it. Maybe not the pedis. lol. But today I take her home. Here are some pics of our adventures and meals.

I went with a color that was between a really dark pink and a light red. It seemed to say “summer is coming”.

George fixed a heavenly BBQ meal Friday night. YUMMERS!

George took a slice of cornbread before I could get back to get a pic. lol And it was good! Here was the board for our weekend of meals.

The above is our board for upcoming meals we are wanting. We had avocado toast and eggs Saturday morning. We also had Sister Schubert rolls with those little weinies inside.

I made the green matcha pineapple tea like Starbucks. Boy that was an adventure. The emulsifier did not work well – well I used it in the wrong way I guess – green powder blew up everywhere. Then green liquid flew up everywhere. It was kinda like when you make cake batter in a small bowl and flower and icing goes everywhere? There were green dots everywhere! LOL LOL LOL. You can see a green dot on my thumb. The picture is deceiving! Ha! I also did not know that I needed to shake the can of coconut milk so we had a very creamy drink. I made a 2nd one as I had matcha mixture left over. And the rest of the coconut milk was not as thick on the 2nd one. However, the little cans of pineapple juice have a LOT of sugar in it. So I’m going to have to find a different recipe I think. But it was very good. I will keep tweaking, but I’m going to have to order the bamboo whisk to mix the match up. Either that or just pour in the green powder and mix the whole drink with the emulsifier instead of just mixing the match up with hot water. I should have seen that coming! Just call me Green Freckles!

Fancy enjoyed her time here too. And I think Roger liked having the extra company.

Looking at a Model Home for Mom

We were having a relaxing Saturday at home and Mom’s realtor (Cody’s Momma, Julie) called and said she found another property for us to tour. It’s the same company of builders building a community up but it is in Lebanon and only 15 minutes away. Of course Lebanon is in our county and honestly it’s easier to get there than the one that is 15 minutes away in Mount Juliet. It’s just less traffic and less red lights! I think it was about 7 miles away from us. A very easy time getting there and back quickly. A very nice neighborhood. It’s an HOA and so she would not have to do a lot of yard and maintenance work etc.

This is the model below. Mom loved it. It had the nice patio. And enough grass for Fancy to safely run out and pee out back. What? That is important for the dog to be able to pee w/o fear of a car on the street being a 1 or w feet away! We came back and talked about it and I think Mom is going to do it. She said she was awake all night moving her furniture in. LOL It’s a sweet deal. It’s a new build, she can pick her preferences and upgrades, they will take her contingency on selling her house for up to six months. She has to have a contract though before they start the build. And if it doesn’t sell in 6 months the deal is off. But we think her house will sell. It’s going to be very busy for ALL of us until the move is complete. But it’ll be a fun buzz of busy. And it will take a lot of our time but we will help her do this! Then we get to see her and can be together when she is up here! And we can help her. The move in time would be around November/December if all goes to plan. I’m so glad this looks like it will work out because there are not a lot of deals right now that would work with a contingency. And quite frankly not a lot of affordability. This one is a stretch as it is, especially with the upgrades that are really non-negotiable like the flooring. Mom can’t have carpet with the dog and she can’t live with dark cabinets. ;-). Blue flooring comes to mind but we won’t go there. lol. Anyway hopefully Mom will have her new house soon and hopefully I’ll GET MY FLOORING and rid of my ugly blue linoleum and this nasty carpet! We will all be straining the monthly budgets so as to not tamper with investments. But we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully EVERYONE can be happy this year! If not, we will have given it our best shot. And I’ll move in with Mom if we don’t get this floor done. HA! I’ve been patient for this for a long time and it’s time.

I was waiting til this weekend was over to push the flooring issue. We were going to work on that after Mom left. Mom has asked for us to come get her next weekend so she can come back and go through the model house again. I told her we could do both. I DO want to go to the flooring place. But I think we can work both in. Picture me cross eyed and running around like a chicken. lol

Health and Wellness Tracker

I snuck away a bit of time this weekend to do this hobby of blogging and also to work on my personal to do list, one of which was to start at weight loss/wellness log. I did just that. It’s on the Mac and also I guess on all my devices as it’s in the cloud.

This is a work in progress. I took the “travel” template that was already a template in the Mac and converted it. I am sure I’ll change it a thousand times. I tried to think of how to best measure my progress and quickly. I needed a place to park ideas and so it’s a 3 pager. So much for simplicity. (It really is simple though, a tracker page and then some behind the scenes places to work in if I have time or need inspiration). So there are three tabs: Tracking, Notes, and a Bucket List. But this first tab is my accountability chart of sorts. I added some photos to make it fun. I intend on entering an entry every weekend!

Meanwhile Back in Texas

River was not a happy camber for his Easter pics! lol

But here in Tennessee we ended our day yesterday with our Easter Meal:

The broccoli salad I fixed turned out good. And of course George’s meals are always good! But the real bacon is a must in the broccoli salad and totally makes a difference. I garnished with a few pieces as well. Even the doggies were laid out afterwards. We watched a movie called “MUD” before heading to bed.

Roger though was up and walking around and is not pictured.

So all going well but then Mom fell this morning here in the house and gave us a scare. Luckily nothing broken. I teased her we may need to skip the new home and go straight into assisted living, that she can’t be falling or that’ll mess things up right away! So glad she is ok. If something had been broken that probably would have changed everything.

Pray for us as we go through this adventure. And I hope things will all work out.

I have to take Mom home today and luckily was able to get our laundry done throughout the weekend. I had cleaned house at night all through the last week so just have to refill vitamins and do some ironing when I get back from taking Mom home. It’s 3 hours + round trip so much of the day gone already. We are going to eat breakfast this morning, I’ll get a shower and then we’ll to take her home and back. I’m sure I’ll be worn out by the time I get home.

Anyway, that was our weekend in a nut shell. I’ll probably be back mid week or so. I’m anxious to work on the new movie! Looks like my time will be quite absorbed. But I’m trying to still hold on to some of my hobbies and keep *SOME TIME* for myself.

Ya’ll take care.

Over and Out until I can get back!