@MusicCandy @SadMe70 A place to communicate
@MusicCandy Hello! I have to get ready for work but will post more later!
Hello! I was 3 pounds down, but they are all right back on again after last weekend. Back to the drawing board! I had a great weekend at mom's. We went to the Downton Abbey movie. She has been watching the series and wanted to go, which is rare for her since most movies are not that great nowadays. I only watched 2 seasons of it, but I enjoyed the movie. Dinner was fun, and we went to my aunt's for cake. Mom's big news was she adopted a 7 year old golden retriever this past week. That is her favorite breed but she thought they were too big for her now. This dog was taken from a home with 50 other dogs that was partially a puppy mill. She's been bred over and over, has no personality, so is actually very gentle. I think it will be a good match for mom, and the dog can have a good end to her life.
I've had a rough week healthwise. I think it's the ragweed pollen. I've been feeling tired and full of phlegm all week. Yesterday I could hardly talk because there was so much gunk in my throat. I feel a little better today. I didn't even drink on Friday night because I felt so bad! I did go to Sky Meadows State Park yesterday anyway, because I'd planned a trip meeting up with other people. I'm really glad I went. It was very pretty and good hiking weather. I drank some whiskey with honey yesterday to cut the gunk and soothe my throat - so I got my alcohol fix and actually did some good for my throat! Win win!
I am glad you got in another kayak trip! One of the people I was with yesterday told me about a public launch on the Rappahannock that is not far from us. I hope to try it next summer.
I am glad you like your new boss! That makes such a difference. I like my current boss sooo much more than my last one. I heard she may retire soon and I am bummed about that. I figured she'd be there a lot longer. She can't be more than mid-50s. I hope things at work were not too hectic this week!
Have a good week!
@SadMe70
So - your Mom got a rescue dog - that is great. I am a cat person myself, but i have had dogs sometimes. Rachael and i walk the neighborhood and when we go by a dog yard, they bark and she" woofs" back at them and that goes back and forth and she thinks it is so funny. Fiance's cat follows him everywhere in the yard but she is a sweet older kitty now and she sleeps on the bed with him on my nights off. I think it is sweet when a man loves up on a kitty like that.
I'm sorry you are suffering with the pollen. My younger daughter does too, ans she has had a rough week also. The rain and changing weather seems to get her the most. she has tried remedies like you did but says she is better now. I'm glad you got your hike anyway. It will start to get pretty now if the leaves change before it S.N O W;s - that dirty word to me.
I've had a pretty good week with food and work not too bad. Good exercise at the gym and some outdoor walks too. No change with the wine, but i still want to. I'm working the extra night a week through November and I have my church activities as usual. Not really a break yet but maybe after mid December. I left my boss a piece of key lime pie for Boss ' Day last week and he said it was a favorite of his. mine too, i said,
and my birthday is September. It is soo nice to work under someone like him for a change. I haver one more double shift this week, then /sunday. i hope you have a nice relaxing, healing weekend. I'll look for your note soon - it is always fun to catch up.
Hello!
I had a much better week pollen-wise. I kept coughing but even that has tapered now. My eating was only so-so this week, alcohol not bad, and pretty good exercise. I had a busy culinary weekend. On Saturday, after eating buffet lunch at our Indian place, I came home and made cheddar cheese and yogurt. Yesterday I made four dishes, one for last night, one for tonight. The other two are big pots of stuff (a lentil dish and veggie chili) that my husband won't eat since he's doing low carb, so tonight I'll put it into smaller containers in the freezer and leave out enough for this week. I do really enjoy a nice long day of cooking sometimes.
Someone I know who had borrowed a small horse trailer to move goats around took my big female to my friend's house so I could leave her there to be bred. She did not get bred this past year, and I thought she was so I dried off her milk, so I've lost months of milk from her. I am hoping it works this time! Next up, I have to arrange a smaller buck for my 2 small girls. I'll bring him here. The joys of matchmaking!
I am glad you have a good boss now! It makes such a difference. I'm sure he appreciated the pie!! Good luck with the extra nights and double shifts! Keep up with the good exercise! I hope we can both get more outdoor walks in!
@SadMe70
It sounds like you are quite the animal husbandry expert ; is that the right word? How did you learn? I always think they are so cute just to watch, but you have made a mini-business out of mating and cheese making and yogurt and so on. I'm glad you got to spend some time cooking and preparing ahead of your busy week. I keep frozen vegetables in the freezer, and the YES soups and beans and I mostly just dump some in a pot with tomatoe sauce and maybe sauteed oniln and garlic and that is a pretty good soup/stew. Last week I added a ham bone and it was very hearty. Adding some quinoa/rice mix and that's my make ahead dinner. Fiance will pretty much eat anything I put in front of him.
My week was OK too, nothing exciting. Same exercise, same wine and good meals with fiber and water. Staying the same weight but I feel pretty good so I'm just trying to hold steady. I am enjoyng some neighborhood walks with the changing leaves , but haven't been able to go anywhere else with working the extra shift. As long as I spend some time outside I feel better in general. I went to the Downton movie with fiance and Rachael. It is his obsession but the movie was pretty good - better than all the episodes I managed to sit through -- so slow-- with the plot in the series. I've never been one to watch much TV or movies ; only documentaries, history ect.I mostly like to read and get outside. But this one was not bad.
I am working tonight and it is the Halloween week-end party night so we will see how it goes. We have 2 guerneys in the hall near the nurses station for the resident homeless/ drunk guys who are in and out all the time. i joked that we better have them ready for their after Haloween Saturday night party --- which is the same as their every Saturday night party, and most any other night too. It is sad, but they are off the street when they are here. I hope you have a relaxing week-end . I have Prayer ministry tomorrow evening andI look forward to the quiet atmosphere and beautiful candles and music. Take care and happy lovemaking in the pen!
Hello! Tonight I lined up a buck to bring here to mate with my 2 smaller girls on Nov. 5, so they should all be set! My big one is still off visiting her suitor. I time the breeding so they will kid roughly 2 months before school is out, so I can sell the babies and have peak milk amounts during the summer when I have time to make cheese. I learned it all mostly by doing. I read a few books when I first got them, and found a website with a good description of signs of labor. My friend that I got my first 2 from taught me how to milk, and I learned to make cheese by following recipes and making lots of mistakes!
The only cooking I did this weekend was chicken for a caesar salad, but I did make the dressing from yogurt I made. Today we went to a big buffet at our Indian restaurant. It is Diwali, one of their major holidays, so they had some extra dishes and had lots of cool candles everywhere, and a lady doing henna tattoos.
Your soup sounds delicious! Right now I am eating butternut squash soup that a friend gave me and it is also delicious!
My week was pretty uneventful. Pretty good eating and exercise, and did not go overboard on alcohol. On Halloween night I am going to see my son's band play at a new bar in Fredericksburg. It is outdoors which is good because they are very loud!
I am glad you liked the Downton movie. I feel the same as you about the series. I watched 1-2 seasons and that was enough for me, but I found the movie entertaining. I do watch a good bit of TV. My husband and I watch every night when we eat, about an hour per night. We have worked our way through various series. Right now we are watching one from the 80s based on Agatha Christie's detective Miss Marple. I loved the books but it has been so long since I read them that I forget most of the endings so I am enjoying the series! The actress portraying Miss Marple is spot on.
I am glad you are getting out for some nice walks! I plan to go next Saturday with my son and DIL, hopefully to the mountains.
Good luck to you this weekend and on Halloween night itself! I hope it is not too hectic. Your repeat drunk guys reminds me of Otis from Andy Griffith!
Have a good week!
Hi, I am having a very busy night at work; so I'll just drop a quick note.
I think an hour of TV is a lot less than most people watch. I like most of the PBS series too and mysteries are fun. My mother was a huge agatha christie fan and read all of her books. for all her flaws, she had all of us girls reading at an early age. The only building that had AC when I was young was the library and we spent many Saturday mornings in sumer there checking out books and reading. I can still see that little kids reading room in my minds eye.
OI', glad you got to have a nice meal to celebrate the Indian holiday. fiance cleaned out a house for friends who are moving. Actually- several cottages on the property too. It was a historic home and farm in in Doswell- right behind Kinds dominion. I helped a little and the arcitecture on the home was so beautiful with a big curved front window,( and original fireplace )overlooking what was a horse farm. A doctor lived there, had his office separate and a cottage for his nurse. His friends , a few generations later than that -ran an adult home in the cottages, but they are elderly now. But he brought a lot more stuff to my house to sort and I told him no before. The only helpful thing was he brought all their food from frig and freezer so we had food. to eat all week.They are vegetarians so it was all good. I'm taking home more boxes to load up that stuff and take it to goodwill. Plus I'm using my limited free time to do that. He better be glad he is so sweet and entertaining and I do love him.
Daylight savings time- sorking an extra hour but then I'm off. Sunday evening prayer minister duty and I will enjoy being quiet and calm then. I prayed like crazy for the Louisa girl and thank God she got back safe, Miracles still happen.
sorry for all the typos, I'm pretty tired.
Hello,
I am having a rough few days - sick again. My cough never went completely away from when I was sick a month ago but it ramped back up this week. I had already taken the day off Friday so I could go out Thursday night to see my son's band play their annual Halloween concert. It turned out to be good because I needed to rest. I spent all of yesterday sitting and reading, watching TV, or resting in bed. I plan to do the same today and hopefully will be able to make it through work tomorrow because I don't want to take another day off.
My physical therapist suggested that I try doing some diet eliminations of foods that people tend to be allergic to, to see if the pain in my hands might go away - she thinks it could be inflammation due to a new food sensitivity. I had my hands xrayed this summer and there is no arthritis. I decided to try dairy first, to hopefully rule that out as my problem, because I do not want to give up dairy! So, starting this past Wed I have not had any milk, cheese, yogurt, or CHOCOLATE. She suggested about 3 weeks is a good amount of time to see some improvement. I hope I can hang in there that long. Later I will also try soy, gluten, maybe eggs. It might not be a food allergy at all, but it's something I can test on my own, and for free.
I took a firearms class for women several years ago that was part classroom and part on a range. For the range part we went to a farm that was behind King's Dominion. They had a small range set up there and let the instructor use it. I wonder if it was the same farm your fiance is helping to clean out! I understand what you mean about bringing more stuff back to your house. My husband is constantly buying stuff. Our house and property is full of stuff. I view this as a huge pile of junk that I will have to pay someone to get rid of when he's gone, like my mother had to do when my dad died. Meanwhile, I can't use my living room at all because it is his office / junk storage room.
My head is really hurting so I'm going to cut this short. I hope to be more cheerful next week!
Oh my Good Lord.. if I couldn't have cheese or chocolate, my head would hurt too.I'd probably be overdoing it on the wine even more, is that allowed? My sister with menieres and severe hearing loss went on the antiinflamatory diet which is very severe. She ate vegetables and fruit and a lot of them weren't allowed either. She said she got some relief, but she isn't on it anymore and her hearing and "bad" days are worse- so I don't know if the diet was the reason or not. But it was so restrictive. She is very isolated anyway and I feel very bad for her. She lives in Florida and we aren't together much. I hope the virus or whatever it is gets better soon. It is getting so cold and I tried to protect my plants outside as much as I can.I hate cold weather. I may not be cheerful myself till Spring!
I don't know if this farm is the same one you described. I don't remember seeing any type of firing range. It is a big area though and I would love to live there just for the architecture of the home and rent the cottages - but that would be a lot of work. There were sheds and barns and the cottages that were the adult home- all filled with stuff. Fiance gets this stuff free and some of it he can sell, some take to auction, some scrapmetal and a lot gets trashed. But so much time sorting and that isn;t worth it to me. I still have to do something with some of my Mom's stuff and it piles up in my living room, and dining room. I am laying down the law first of the year. I'm stgill woring the OT shift till January so I can barely keep up with work,sleep,housework,Rachael and church and piano lessons. But it will be over and I can spend more time organizing and taking stuff away, Get some rest and I'll say a prayer.
I was feeling better midweek but then got worse again. I actually left work a half day early on Friday, and I really hate taking sick days. I am planning to take tomorrow off as well (I have today off as a holiday). I dragged myself through the ship tour and dinner out, then spent the evening on the couch before going to bed. We had planned to do sightseeing in Philly on Sunday, but came home instead and I took a nap, watched TV, and went to bed.
I have been eating so much candy to take care of my sweet tooth with the lack of chocolate. We actually found some dairy-free choc chips that are good, but I am almost out of them and we have to order them online. I am eating a ridiculous amount of other candy, like gummy bears and candy corn. The lack of cheese has been hard for sure. I have not felt much like alcohol, but a few nights had some bourbon with honey. I will ldo the dairy free trial for 3 weeks, and then add it back to see if I notice a change, then try eliminating a different food.
You sound so very busy! I am always in awe of everything you do! This week I can hardly get out of bed!
Hello! I am finally starting to feel better! I am still dripping and coughing, but much less and I don't feel exhausted or have a headache. The only exercise I have done in 2 weeks is that I swam one of the days I felt well before my relapse. I plan to start back to the Y on Monday. I am feeling very bloblike!
I am still doing my dairy-free diet. Wednesday will be 3 weeks and I think I will do a full month, then add it back and see what happens. My hands are still very stiff but I think they are less sore most days. That could be coincidence of course. Hopefully the pain does not get worse again as I add dairy back. If so, I will just have sore hands because I am not giving up dairy permanently! After Thanksgiving I will try dropping out soy, and after Christmas I will try dropping out gluten (I am for sure not missing out on Christmas cookies!). We found dairy-free chocolate chips online that taste great, and I have been eating those in place of my Hershey kisses, and making a gluten free "cookie pie" that I had made for a friend years ago - chick peas, oats, applesauce, oil, baking soda and powder, choc chips - and it is really tasty! So although I am pining for cheese, my sweet tooth is happy!
My son's mother-in-law is coming from Korea for a couple of weeks. I think she arrives on Friday. I am hoping to get to see her next weekend though I know she will be tired with jet lag. I will see her on Thanksgiving, and my son is making plans for the Sunday after Thanksgiving to maybe visit wineries. I hope to see her more than those 2 days though. We can't speak to each other directly because of the language barrier, but she seemed a very nice person for the few days I saw her when they came for the wedding. A bit stiff though, and since I'm completely socially awkward we didn't get comfortable wtih each other, so I'd like to get a little farther this time.
How are things with you? How is your eating, drinking, and exercise? I hope you are getting some rest and fun time between working OT plus all your other commitments! I look forward to hearing from you!
@SadMe70
Nice to hear from you too. I am glad you are able to stick to your elimination diet and hope that will help resolve what may be an irritant, I think I could survive awhile without dairy but I don't know about the chocolate. Your pie sounds yummy though; all ingredients that I like anyway. I brought food to work and nuked a power bowl of carrots, greens and quinoa/barley and added some blue cheese( sorry) plus a bowl of lentils. It kept me full . The other staff took home with them some cupcakes we got as an award. i think they thoight i wouldn't notice they were suddenly gone- but that is fine. I look at them and their lifestyle and overweight and say - no wonder! I still ate some peppermint patties but those cupcakes were not appetizing to me at all.
I did get in my exercise despite a chaotic week. We had a family wedding in Norfolk last weekend, then Rachael skinned her knee which required an Dr. visit, antibiotic - her grafted skin is paper thin and a flu shot so she was unhappy. Other daughter had a reaction from her antianxiety meds plus wine. She drank right before the wedding and it was close to an OD- scared me like crazy. She is going to a women;s mental wellness clinic next week to address the meds , her regular psychiatrist didn't warn her about that and he seems like a pill guy anyway, so it should be a good avenue for her.
I hope you have a nice family visit and especially with the Korean MIL. I guess it is cultural , not being typical American friendly and the language barrier too. At least it sounds like everyone is getting along. That helps with holiday gatherings. I will be working Thanksgiving which is OK. Both daughters will spend the day with their Dad who loves to cooka big dinner. I used to cook for my Dad when he was living, but not really interested in the time consuming task anymore. You spend a day or more preparing, cleaning up and the eating takes 45 minutes. I'd rather spend the time walking in nature and fix something simple. It is cold and rainy today but, i'm at work so it doesn't matter to me. Fiance is getting major dental work done over several week., Next week I'm having the septic tank pumped and cleaned out and car repairs bill so those 2 run $1600.00. Grateful for the job and OT so I dont have to worry. Healing Prayer tomorrow. i'm looking forward to that quiet time. HappyT hanksgiving to you and your family- hope you can rest some too and enjoy the time.
Hello! I'm sorry to hear about both your daughters! I understand about the skin tears - my mom spent 2 months this fall with 3 bad tears in a row, two of which required antibiotics, and she couldn't get in the pool that whole time. I hope Rachael is healing well. I'm sorry about your other daughter as well. I've tried pills for depression and anxiety and always had problems so never could stay on them. I am not having depression problems now, but my anxiety is terrible and I just have to live with it. I tried so many other more natural things and they don't help. I am a bit afraid that my hand pain stems from me tearing up my cuticles. Most of my fingers are bloody and scabby up to the first knuckle most of the time, for the last 40 years. That can't be good for the tissue. I really hope your daughter gets good help and can find strategies to help her. I can't imagine how scary the near-OD must have been. I will say some prayers for her.
I am finishing up the no-dairy this week. I'm not sure how good a trial it was because when I was sick for 2 weeks I had sinus headaches and took tylenol almost every day, so decreased the hand pain (and my shoulder pain!) for half of my trial. After Thanksgiving I think I will try soy, and then maybe gluten after Christmas.
The dish you took to work is right up my alley. I love stuff like that. Good for you not eating the cupcakes. A lot of people where I work are just like yours. They eat so badly and don't exercise, and are overweight. One of my friends even says if God didn't want her to be fat, he wouldn't have made her that way. I don't buy into that. I am struggling so hard to stay as healthy as I can because I have enough problems as it is. Why would I want to eat so crappy and get fat, and just invite more health problems?
Good job getting in your exercise despite traveling and the health crises! I got back to exercising this past week and it felt good.
We stopped going up to my parents' house for Thanksgiving about 15 or so years ago, and when it was just the 4 of us, I did not want to cook a big dinner either. It was not worth the effort. We went out to dinner for years, which I also did not like. I grew up with big family Thanksgivings and nobody went to a restaurant, but it was better than cooking it all for 4 people. I am looking forward to this one because it will be a lot more like what I grew up with. It will be a little awkward with 3 people I don't know well, but still "family" of sorts.
I hope to get out and walk on Wed. morning and maybe Friday as well. The state parks are having their annual Opt Outside photo contest and I always like to enter. I hope you get some time to take a nice walk as well!
Good luck with your big bills! My husband started getting social security a few years ago, and also a VA disability payment, so for about 5 years we have not struggled financially as we did in the past. He hopes to retire in June due to his age and poor health, so we'll be back down to a much lower income again. I have been enjoying the freedom to go out to dinner or on a vacation, or even to deal with medical or car repair bills without them being devastating. We are not rich by any stretch, but comfortable, which I never was before. I am trying to mentally prepare myself for a change next year. Once we start getting medical insurance through me instead of him, I will have hardly any money in my paycheck, especially while I am making car payments. I am planning a big 50th birthday trip with my mom and sisters next summer, that I can pay off before then while I still can. We just booked the house, on Prince Edward Island, this past week! It will be my second trip out of the US in my life - the other one being my honeymoon to Jamaica in 1992.
Have a good week, enjoy the quiet time praying and being outdoors!
