Mom

Mom fell and broke her arm. Who knew how hard that could be to deal with for her, for us? They can't set it due to location. She is in a SNF for now, needing help with simple things - like getting up! The rest of the family is near enough to go visit her daily. All I can do is sit here and think about her, hope it gets better for her, wish things did not have to be hard for her at this point. But for many it is it seems, more often than not, and frequently much worse than it is for her now. You start to really feel the years that have gone by, when your mom is 87, hurting, and might not go home again. No more acting like things will never change, and on to accepting and dealing with what is - as best we can.

Goodbye 2011

Not a very memorable year for me unless I count turning 60 as something big. Well it is in a way. Officially joining the ranks of AARP now! oh what fun!

A rather uneventful year but that has its good points. No big highs and no deep lows. Ah peacefulness! So I find myself not that interested in keeping this up yet not letting it go, hence a short rather dull end of year post.

Happy New Year everyone!

On the road again

Fall in Kentucky

Cats!

 Precious sleeping in the cradle

 Mellow waiting by the go-out spot (they all figure that out so fast!)

 Angel has claimed her spot on the cat tree.

BK doing what BK loves best, chowing down.
Not pictured, Fela and Lucky who are outside enjoying the morning!

Grapes!

Planted three years ago to shade the cat pen I never gave much thought to fruit. It is loaded with lovely clusters and my phone really does not show them well. The birds have finally discovered them though so will no doubt get most. Happy eating birds!

Doodling, now new and improved

Oh the latest thing that has crossed my path has surely got to be an inspired way to kill time: Zentangle®.

Now this is not particularly new. I can find references to it from 2009 and admit I made no effort to look back further. It is new to me and I'm sure many have yet to hear of it or try it. At first I was amused. Then hooked. This is fun! and takes focus if one wants a neat result. Hence the "zen" in the name, as it becomes a way to meditate, focus and relax. Zentangle takes doodling to an entirely new level. Creating tangles can even leave you with a free form drawing worth hanging on your wall or a way to decorate a pair of shoes. Whatever you do with it, you are sure to enjoy it!

You can find information on youtube (of course) and on the web. Just know that the word Zentangle has been patented, so giving credit where credit is certainly due - check out these links!

http://www.zentangle.com/index.php

http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-zentangle

http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/Zentangle

http://www.youtube.com/user/Zentangle

http://www.flickr.com/groups/zentangle/

Alone in West Texas

Temporarily, as son is off in Europe! what a cool trip he has had the opportunity to take. It is a college course affair and they are hitting several cities. I do believe I envy him. It took him a while to decide to go, or so it appeared to me, while I was saying Go Go Go!! Can't wait to hear all about it when he gets back.

So, alone. It's not half bad. Nothing really changed. Same routine. None of his tales of school or biking to entertain me but am pleased to think of him in Europe seeing all the sights and learning.

Meanwhile the cat is having to adjust. No John to pick on. She can't go to the living room and meow for him to let her out, then run around to the back yard, slip in the window and return to the living room to meow for him to let her out. Again and again. No, instead she is harassing me. Not as much fun I am sure since this crabby person refuses to open the front door for her. However with it getting warmer the window is closed so I have to open a door for her. If only I could tune out her little high pitched mew. Which would not really help as the dog thinks the cats should have the door opened for them when they ask and if mom does not notice, she points the situation out to mom. Sigh. I might as well give up.

So, not totally alone. There's four cats and a dog. Amazing how much attention and time they take up!

What do I want in my life?

I read an interesting post a while back. It seemed like a good one to just think about, and to make my own list. Check theirs out:

http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2010/12/being-satisfied-with-enough.html

I do not want to repeat their list here obviously, so go read it! but much of what is there would be my own desires as well. These days as a widow and soon to live alone (son has been here finishing his Master's) it seems good to give this some thought and action to make it happen!

One we all need/want =

• a reason to get up every morning

You'd think that would just be built in but the number of people on anti-depressants might be a clue that for a lot of us, it is not. Or perhaps I should say a better reason than just having to let the dog out!

Being 'retired' if I can call it that, not ever having a full time job in years, instead of constructive fulfilling job I will put down :

• a way to give back to society

Feeling productive usually means greater satisfaction. There is always that need to feel needed, somehow, somewhere. Fortunately it is in our power to make that happen. There are many volunteer opportunites all around us. The group I like to volunteer with is Christian Women's Job Corps.

Then:

• to keep learning


• keep family ties strong, by putting love and tolerance into action and the effort required to keep relationships strong


• to live consciously as much as I can


• to be faithful in my Christian walk

Enough to keep me busy, or as busy as I want to be! Just have to work on that number one, though perhaps the rest of them answer that one.

What would your list be?

Fela's new hair cut

This is what happens when you don't brush :)

Welcome 2011

Not sure I ever thought about this year back when it was .. oh.. 2000...   I can't imagine 2021 now  so that's not peculiar. What a year 2021 sounds like! Something so far into the future!

Oh well today is now and it is a new year so off we go with New Year type things.

Money.  Always number one with me! I ran across this article and don't we all remember those seven habits books? Being frugal is now the 'in' thing so this is perfect to begin my year with -

7 Habits of Highly Frugal People

With the economy the way it is today perhaps the book will make a comeback and do better than it did in '89!

One sentence in this stands out as I have heard it so many times before - between the stimulus and your response is your freedom to choose your response -  and that applies to money, food, conversations with others, anything we do. Live consciously (another favorite of mine). Make better choices. Choose your response.

Perhaps having a reactive dog it means more today than it did say.. ten years ago or so. Su is 12 now, and we have worked hard to help her be a better dog. Today she is a lovely pet but there is still that underlying issue of the reactive dog. I suppose no matter how much I want to choose more wisely, to stop and think, it will always be something I will struggle with rather than something that is automatic.

So here's to better responses in 2010!

and just because I like pictures here is one of my occasional assistant:

And it is Christmas!! Yee Haaa!

So sorry, no snow pics, no snow here.
No tree pics, no tree here.
Just cats, dog, and son John.
 No turkey either.

Will left over roast do?

 Enjoying my Christmas, hope you are enjoying yours too!

Happy Thanksgiving

happy turkey day to everyone. I am back in Texas and (gasp!) actually cooking a turkey. Figured Suza would enjoy pressure cooked turkey remains and we might enjoy bits of it ourselves. Can't believe I'm not just planning on Denny's. Well that might happen too...

In the forties here? and will warm up to high fifties? yikes. At least we don't have the white stuff.

You all stay warm!

Vinegar or honey?

I have always liked the little book Silver Boxes: the Gift of Encouragement for what it has to say about our words. Words can hurt or they can help. Which do you choose?

Then I thought about that old saying, "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar". My grandmother introduced me to that proverb when I was young. Apparently it comes from Torriano's 'Common Place of Italian Proverbs' (1666). Though I suspect most of us would be more familiar with it in Benjamin Franklin's 'Poor Richard's Almanac'.  

Then I thought about a person I knew as a teen who made up a honey/vinegar combination - basically tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a tablespoon of raw honey plus water, a freshing drink that is supposed to cure about anything that ails you.

Well you know what? It does not take a lot of vinegar to spoil the sweet taste of honey (unless you like vinegar) and it takes a bunch of honey to overpower vinegar. (I do like the mix but just thinking of the pure taste of honey vs vinegar here.) So what if I applied all of the above to my words?

When speaking to others do you serve them vinegar or honey? A mix of the two might be fine yet I suspect that then, you need to have more honey than vinegar for the vinegar-y words to be well accepted. If you mainly hand out vinegar, can you really expect people to keep coming back for more? I'll go along with the thought that a bit of vinegar might make the honey seem even better but will leave with this thought..

Remember in your relationships, whether it is friends or children: 
                         You'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar!


Happy trails!

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August vacation

Took a trip to California again, this time went up to Zion National Park. We even stopped by the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Spectacular country! Enjoyed the walk up the river even while struggling with the many slippery rocks under that water. At one point a doe came running down through the river and then up on a bank, trying to hide from all the people. We wondered if she'd fallen in further up where the banks are quite steep.

Grand Canyon

Zion

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Here comes Suzaaaaaa

out to the park to watch John in a run..

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Su had a good time..  and there she is all worn out in one shot, after a walk. She was too tired to object to being piled high with packing materials. Okay, she probably just did not care, wondering what the kids were up to now! LOL

April trip to California

Included a visit to Anza-Barrego State Park where we saw some neat metal sculptures at Galleta Meadows …

 

then there was Torrey Pines State National Reserve where we had a lovely walk on the beach..

of course  we went to the beach itself at Oceanside and ate lunch at Islands.. and visited Forrest Lawn Memorial Park to see the stained glass and much more.. along with a night out in San Diego to see Kooza !!

Cooking, for a change of pace

Cooking is something which I have not done a lot of lately so after watching the ladies from the county extension office prepare a healthy meal at the Christian Women’s Job Corps, I was inspired. Unfortunately not incredibly inspired, just a little bit inspired, to cook.  So instead of hunting a lower priced store I hit the one on my way home.  There I picked up almost everything that was called for:

• chicken breasts, skinless, .43/lb @ $10/lb, $4.25
• 12 oz of cottage cheese, $2.39
• 32 oz plain yogurt, $2.19
• 8 oz light sour cream, $1.49
• 20 ct santa fe tortillas, $.99
• roma tomatoes  .79lbs at .88 lb,  $ .70
• colby cheese, $2.50
• enchilada sauce, $1.79
• bell pepper, red,  $.99
• bell pepper, green, $1.69
• cucumber, $.50

Ouch. Almost twenty dollars worth of food.  I should see what that would have cost somewhere else but perhaps I do not want to know. So.. on to the meal…

There’s only two of us and the meal serves 8 so my plans were to prepare about half of the recipe. The package size available at the store meant there would be a good bit of leftovers with some of those items. ISo sizing down, for the chicken enchilada dish I used portions of some things:  most of the yogurt is left, half the cottage cheese and the sour cream had nothing to do with the recipes so there’s all of that. Nearly all the tomatoes, half the bell peppers (half each that is) and only a portion of the cheese.

The recipe called for a different cheese, two types actually, I took the easy way out with just one. From twenty bucks our meal is now down to under ten and if I enforce portion size the chicken dish should serve us twice, while the salad will go a good bit more.

The fiesta salad is a mix of canned corn (already had that), tomatoes, cucumber and bell peppers with some seasoning and vinegar. It called for canned tomatoes but I prefer fresh. So there we go. All cut up and ready to eat – when the chicken dish is done in a few minutes! Almost a real meal instead of my usual, there’s some salmon patties, that’s it.

For a similar salad without the simple vinegar dressing visit Big Oven and for a similar enchilada dish check out Cooks.com. I rarely follow recipes precisely and changing things to make them lower fat is easy to do if you wish.

March Madness continues…

What can I say? We wanted to take a trip to California so I had to buy a car. Any excuse right? well the old one was a bit of a beater though I love it so now I’m the proud owner of a 2010 Mazda. zoom zoom…

The trip to CA was so nice! John and I left late on Friday so had a hard two days to get there by Saturday afternoon but we did it. Then the fun began. We made a visit to Anza-Barrego State Park and saw some neat metal sculptures at Galleta Meadows . The next day we went to Forrest Lawn Memorial Park to see the stained glass and much more. There was a sunset visit to Oceanside beach but also a visit to Torrey Pines State National Reserve. We were delighted to include an evening watching Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza in our plans as well.

And then there was the shopping. We enjoyed the discount stores and the second hand shops, picking up things as we went until my little car was stuffed! John picked up some nice clothes and so did I.. two reversible skirts from Coldwater Creek for four bucks each. I found a cloche for baking bread to mention a few things.

Of course we took plenty of photos.. John put up a few on his blog and also on his flickr account. While mine are not as good (much cheaper camera, MUCH cheaper, LOL) I do have a few up over on my picasa web albums that I hope are open to the public (that was the plan anyway, let me know if they are not).

We had a great time and I at least came back to Texas all worn out! Pleasantly so I will add.

March madness

Saw Alice in Wonderland last night. What fun!  And it is a good thing to take time out for some fun once in a while when in other areas of life problems pile up. Not all of them my problems but still they affect me.

My ulcerative colitis is flaring up again. It has been over a year since the last one. I had so hoped the meds were going to do the job and my worries were over.  The last time I had a bad flare up the doctor discussed the condition of my intestinal tract and surgery. Complete removal of the large intestine. I just want this flare up to go away!

Then there’s the lungs. That’s how I refer to it now, the lung issue. Coughing for ages (months) and finally figuring out that things like stumbling around were due to lack or oxygen, ha ha. It has been going on for four years now, off and on but mostly on.  We’ve tried different things, I think I’m fine and don’t go in til it bothers me enough to affect daily life.  An appointment with a pulmonologist is scheduled. Hope to find out what is the problem and what to do long term. And here I always thought of myself as healthy, in spite of the colitis. Sigh.

My youngest is off at work in Miami. The work vehicle is a rental supplied by his company. It was stolen yesterday. He had all of his tools in it.

The oldest lives in CA. Middle son and I have long planned on a trip out to see her. We have saved up for that but not enough to fly or rent a car. My car is back in the shop after just getting out last week. It is old now with a lot of miles on it. The mechanic advised against taking it on a cross country trip. Well, that pretty much rules out the trip. Not a thing to cry about yet it is frustrating at times. No money to buy another vehicle so there goes that. Yet I probably need to think of some day having to purchase a car to replace my 14 yo car with 247,000+ miles on it. That made me look at money, income and outgo.

It is so much nicer to not look at money things! Oh dear. Well if I included all the outgo, averaged it out right, my $1300 a month covers it all and leaves me about $200 a month leftover. That is the “discretionary” spending part. Personal items, clothing, car repairs, house repairs, maintenance etc. Not terribly discretionary but much of that can be put off a bit unlike the electric bill or food. Usually I depend on subbing to help but with the u.c. and the lungs that is not working out well this school year.

Well this is a downer of a post. Maybe no one will read it anyway. Off to find some fun on facebook with all my friends.

March 2, Texas Independence Day!

Image via Wikipedia

Here's to Texas Independence Day! *


To Willie and Waylon, the Alamo, the Palo Duro and the Big Bend, but most of all the wonderful people who call themselves Texans - to all that makes this a great state, we raise a toast today.

.. We're so happy to live in the great state of Texas!




*the historic event 174 years ago on March 2, 1836, the day Texas gained its independence from Mexico