Melt my Heart

    On my list of favorite things, is the evenings when Kenneth, Paige, and their little guy come over.
    It's a little different since LV got hurt, and is confined to the couch, but that doesn't mean that quality grandpa/grandson time is on hold.
    Being on the couch with grandpa is apparently just as fun as all the other activities they used to enjoy before the accident.

    The quality of this photo isn't the greatest since it's actually a screenshot of a video that I wish I could have uploaded so you could hear him laugh, Best sound ever!

    I'm looking forward to another evening of more fun memories being made with them later this week. 

Wednesday Hodgepodge

 1. July 6th is National Fried Chicken Day...are you a fan? Do you make your own or have a favorite place to buy from? Do you own chickens? If not chicken what's your favorite fried food?

I don't make it often, but my recipe for fried chicken is one of my favorites. I don't buy fried chicken though. I've had KFC a few times in my life, the last time was over 15 years ago though. If memory serves correctly I enjoyed it, but I know I'd still rather eat homemade.

We don't own any chickens, but with a chicken house in our backyard it's a subject I've brought up a time or two since we live here.  Would I love to have chickens? Yes and no. I've never sat down and actually weighed out the pros vs. cons of having our own chickens, but at this point I'm quite alright without any.

2.  What's something you're too chicken to try?

Administering shots. Shudder! Thankfully Sharon, with her dream of being a nurse one day, is quite happy to take care of that task.

3. When did you last find yourself running around like a 'chicken with its head cut off'?

Running to and from the hospital while trying to balance everything else going on was enough to make my head spin.

4. Something you've done recently that makes you think 'I'm no spring chicken'? 

Hoisting 44 lb cat food bags reinforced the idea that I'm not as young and strong as I used to be. It's something that LV had taken care of for years already and I never gave it a second thought until I had to take care of it while he is laid up.

5. 'Winner winner chicken dinner'...tell us about something good that's happened in your life lately. 

There have been so many little good things that have happened lately.
~ Some interesting mail arrived.
~ The girls brought some cake scraps home from work.
~ Some dear friends went above and beyond to be here for us during this time (This was pretty big)
~ A variety of birds are hanging out outside the living room window which LV enjoys immensely.
~ I found my missing cast iron skillet, it's in horrible condition, but I was happy to find it.
~ We got some much needed rain.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Steven had given me some pansies for Mother's Day. They were so pretty, and I happily planted them in the flowerbed. 

Not sure what came visiting. A deer, a groundhog, or some other flower loving creature, but what ever it was it ate it down to only a quarter of an inch of stem left. I was so disappointed!

Happenings

     Things have been somewhat of a comedy of errors around here since LV got hurt. There's over a dozen things I could write about, but I'm only choosing three, of varying degrees of oh-no!

    1. I opened the door to one of our lazy susans and spotted fresh evidence of a furry trespasser. 
    It's summer! Mice should be fat and happy outdoors, but apparently the treats I have on hand were more tempting than seeds and what ever else mice feast on outside. 
    I cleaned up the mess, and then Steven rose to the occasion and by the next morning our house was once again furry trespasser free.

    2, I got up to find a text on my phone from Rosie Mae. She had left for work early that morning, but on her way she hit a deer.
    Her poor car received quite a bit of damage, but thankfully she wasn't hurt. The car is now sitting at the auto shop. Meanwhile she has a loaner. It got dinged in a parking garage the first day she used it.           Four years of uneventful driving under her belt and then two incidents in two days had us all shaking our heads in disbelief and sympathy.

    3. We were all doing our chosen evening activities, reading writing, etc when Steven announces frantically. "Look at the ceiling!"
    I went to see, and here the ceiling in our hallway was sagging badly. A few minutes later, it came down.
    The girls and I cleaned the mess up, but the gaping hole in the ceiling will remain until LV is back up and able to make the repairs.
    We have no idea what caused it to come down. So strange!

    It's four weeks already since the accident where LV got hurt, and surgery is finally scheduled. We're all really looking forward to getting to the other side of that and have healing be able to truly begin. As of now he is hoping to be able to walk again by Thanksgiving. 

This ~n~ That

    It's been a week now since I picked up the phone to LV telling me he's been hurt and is on the way to the hospital. 
    He has a shattered heel as well as multiple fractures in his ankle bones. 
    He's at home with orders to keep his leg elevated while we wait for swelling to go down enough that they can do surgery to try and piece everything back together. 
    Having him laid up has shown us how much we take for granted when everything is going well, and also how our house is not handicap friendly - not even a little bit. It has added layers of challenges as I try to care for him to the best of my ability.

~~~~~

    LV has been studying Spanish on Duolingo while he's laid up. I thought I tune most of it out, but then I woke in the middle of the night with the words yo bebo, tú bebes, él bebe running through my mind, which leads me to believe my tuning it all out has not been all that successful.
    Maybe I should take up studying Spanish as well

~~~~~

    Usually when ever I buy avocados I carefully select the ones that seem to be ripe enough to eat, but not mushy. Sometimes my only options are firmer than I would like. I bring them home and wait semi patiently for them to ripen, in hopes that at least one of them will be ready to eat before next weeks shopping trip.
    About a month ago I got half a dozen that were still much too hard to eat. I brought them home, but with no room in the produce drawer in the refrigerator I put them in the fruit bowl on the counter top along with the apples that were already there.
    Much to my surprise, the next morning they were the perfect ripeness to eat.
    I would have to experiment with this!
    The next time I bought hard avocados. Some I placed in with apples. The others I simply placed on the counter top. The ones with the apples again ripened overnight.
    I was thrilled! Finally I had found something to perfectly ripen an avocado in a relatively short amount of time. Once they reached the desired ripeness I put them in the fridge to keep them from over ripening, and enjoyed lovely avocados all week long.
    I felt like something of a scientist inventor until I did a quick internet search and saw that storing them with apples has been a ripening method for ages already and I had simply been behind times. Sigh ... there went my feeling like a genius.

~~~~~

    It's that time of year again when walking up and down the front porch stairs is like walking through a tunnel of beauty. 

    The bush doesn't bloom very long, but I fully enjoy it as long as it lasts. 

~~~~~

    Sharon tried her hand at making miniature three layer lunch box cakes. I thought they turned out delightful. 

    The flavors she chose were delicious as well.
    I love seeing their creativity in the kitchen. Being able to taste it is a fun added bonus.

~~~~~

    On top of next week's shopping list is the word - clock.
    The other evening as I was cooking supper the kitchen clock randomly popped off the wall and came crashing down startling all of us.
    I feel there's a whole assortment of puns available to describe this happening, but I'm too tired to think of anything beyond "time flies when you're having fun."

My Journey with Weight

     "Skinny mini fishy tail. Skinny mini fishy tail," the gleeful chant of the schoolboys sounded in the air as I cowered in the corner of the schoolroom. I looked desperately for an escape route but my last bit of fleeing had led me to this corner where I was now trapped.
    "Skinny mini fishy tail, Skinny mini fishy tail" the chant continued.
    "Boys! Leave her alone!" the blessed voice of my teacher commanded. 
    They dispersed and I went to the book shelves to find a book to read the rest of the recess. The chant still echoing in my head.
    I hated being skinny. Not just skinny, but painfully skinny. As a nine year old, I started praying that God would make me fat. That prayer continued for several years.
    Skinny was replaced by slender in my teenage years, but over the years that changed. I'm not blaming God for answering the silly little prayer of a young girl and making me fat, but with more years came more and more weight.
    For the past fifteen years I tried a lot of different diets and things to try to change that. I would lose a few pounds, but then they'd come roaring back bringing some friends with them.
    I tried the grapefruit diet, the cabbage soup diet, you name it I tried it. All with similar results. And the numbers on the scales kept creeping upward.
    I tried intermittent fasting. I gave myself a month where I ate only one meal a day, and that meal I only ate the same amount I would have eaten for that meal had I been eating three meals a day. At the end of the month I stepped on the scale and was horrified to see not only had I not lost anything, but I had actually gained over ten pounds. In what universe is that fair?
    No longer was anyone chanting skinny mini fishy tail at me, but now I would get the occasional message on Facebook from someone selling Plexus, ItWorks, and some other things that  they thought I should take to try to lose weight. It made me feel the same way I did all those years ago being bullied for the way I looked in school.
    I tried Trim Healthy Mama, I actually did lose some weight on it, but it messed up some other areas of my health so I had to quit.
    But then last year I happened to discover a book at the library.
    

    I read it, looked at the recipes, and decided to give it a go. It has changed my life! It's finally something that actually works for my body.
    The plan was to restart my metabolism by following her food recommendations for four weeks, and then every three months after that do a tune up for a week or two.
    I faithfully followed her recommendations on what foods to eat, and when. It was the most undiet-like diet I have ever tried. I never felt deprived or as if I was missing out on good food. The recipes I tried were delicious, and I made my own as well by simply using the accepted ingredient list for the day.
    Even during the time I'm not on this food plan my reset metabolism keeps the weight steadily trending downward, while I eat absolutely anything and everything.
    I'm doing a tune up again this week. 
    My breakfast this morning consisted of spicy rice patties and an apple. To make the rice patties I cooked one cup of brown rice in four cups of chicken broth yesterday and tucked it in the fridge. This morning I used one cup of the precooked rice, added two egg whites, several tablespoons of minced onion and almost a teaspoon of red pepper flakes and then fried them (without butter or oil) until golden brown. I happen to really like these. Tomorrow morning I'll have them again. Wednesday and Thursday I have a different breakfast that includes smoked salmon which is always a treat for me, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings I'll have a sandwich with toasted bread, four strips of turkey bacon, a fried egg, an avocado, and if I'm in the mood some sliced tomato. All three breakfast menus are completely delicious! They don't even feel like a diet.
    I have lost over fifty pounds so far, and am feeling great! I'm not at my goal weight yet, but it no longer looks impossible. I'm so happy I finally found something that works for me, and plan to continue doing the tune up weeks until I reach my goal. and very likely even beyond. I enjoy living with a metabolism that actually works.

    Edit to add: A friend on Facebook shared that those with ulcerative colitis or a gastro type condition may not want to follow the plan in this book.