I have so enjoyed having hubby home!

This week has definitely passed way too quickly! Hubby took some vacation time from last Tuesday, and we have been busily working on redoing our living room, and looking at the new furnishings we are planning on getting for it. The cleaning and dusting of the shelves was taking me way too long, because of my health issues, so yesterday I "stole" my friend, Dimple's, 2 children, Sam and Sara, to come and help.Hubby, and their dad, Scot, took the old couch and dumped it, and the kids and I wiped down, dusted and cleaned shelves, books and ornaments off of them. We accomplished a lot. still have a lot to do, but we made headway yesterday.

We have come a cropper with some of my original ideas. The screens that I had planned on getting, originally. I found reviews online that other buyers had posted, and it seems they are not as nice "in person" as the illustrations would have you believe. People have said they are flimsier and that the colours are not as expected, and they are unable to be cleaned as the print "runs". So, back to the drawing board on that one!

Tuesday's overstuffed recliner hunting proved that a recliner is not a good choice for me. getting into, and getting comfy, was good. Trying to set the seat back from the recline position ... nope, wasn't happening. Legs flailed everywhere and still the chair stayed reclined, and the side handle was no help whatsoever. So plans there changed too. First to an oversized armchair, and now looking at a loveseat or even a sofa for me to lounge on, and the recliner for hubby.

In other words, we now have no fixed ideas on the screens or the seating, LOL!

The "definites" so far are a live tree in a pot, for Christmas, an ivy that I can trail around the room like I had in Florida and in Germany, spider plants hanging, and some feng shui in the form of a water feature, and a bamboo stalk sprouting in a vase. Yes, making it a human-only zone means I can have some of my flora back in the house!

I am just so excited, and looking forward to this!

Today is going to be awesome too. We have friends coming down to visit from North Carolina ... our "adopted family" who were our next door neighbours in Port St John,Florida. The little lass that I babysat, who is now married and has a baby of her now, l'il miss Josie Jane. I will get to hold the little one today, and catch up with nattering with her mum and dad, and my friends Ronnie and Patty, her grandparents.

I am sooo looking forward to it!

Have a wonderful day, my friends :)

Oh boy! I am so weak!

They do say that "the best laid plans go awry" and I guess none such as the mind imagines ... and the body cannot fulfil.

I was motivated to start spring cleaning the living room ready for redoing it for Christmas. Hubby and I have decided on a few things, just 2 new reclining armchairs, a tv and 2 screens to divide if off from the front door (and keep the animals out so that, this year - for the first time in many - I can have a Christmas tree and decorate it). The rug we already have is fine. We will swap out bookshelf units. It sounded all so easy. LOL

So, the 2 packed bookshelves that are currently in there needed dusting, along with all the books that line their shelves. I figured I could work on a couple of shelves and books today, some more tomorrow, just take my time and get them all done.

For starters, I forgot that I've lost a couple of inches in height over the past few years. Of course, you have to start at the top or you'll just be dropping dust on stuff you've already done. I have a soft Norwex thingy on a handle and thought that'd be perfect for em to get the dust off the top of the bookcase ... except I couldn't reach far enough with it. I could barely hold myself up long enough to get it over the top. I needed something with a longer handle.

Over the weekend, hubby and I had bought 2 new toilet brushes at the Dollar Tree ... so I went and grabbed one of those, hooked some wipes around the end, and (holding on to the shelf with my left hand) proceeded to wipe back and forth with this paraphernalia, in my right.

Totally exhausting!

One shelf! That was all I accomplished, my arms are still throbbing, my back hurt from trying to stand straight and my BP soared. Ugh! I sat to wipe off the leatherette cassette tape case, but my energy was depleted. 

I am so mad at my body right now. I just had such high hopes of being able to do this. I shouldn't be, I am able to do so much more than I was before, and I am very thankful for that, but I just had wanted to be able to do this and not let it all lay on hubby.

I am thinking that when I try again either later, or tomorrow, it will be 1 shelf lower and should be a little easier. That is my hope anyway.

Enjoy your day, my friends!

I love Lidl, a productive day and ideas for the living room

Today has been a very satisfying day. Quite productive. It started with a lie-in, as it was hubby's off Friday, and then a slow wake up. I fed the doggies and let them out, then in, then out again ... my usual doggie do-see-do.

Then we went to Hu Hot for an early lunch. It's my favourite splurge at the moment. It fits in well with my weight loss journey as I pick the leanest meats, my onions, carrots, mushrooms and celery (all low-cal and good for me) a couple of ladles of teriyaki and 2 each of garlic and ginger broth. Even with my rice, I usually end up around 700 tasty calories or less and it sets me up for the day.  Plus I get some walking in, going from the car into the restaurant, going around the ingredients bars, and then out again afterwards. So thankful for my walker, as without it, I wouldn't be able to go!

As we came back through Mauldin, hubby restocked my #AVONbrochures at Ingles, and then we filled up on gas and got a car wash. The lady in front of us spent 15 minutes trying to swipe her card, finally telling us the machine wasn't working, so I suggested she go in the store and pay, and just get a code. She had a beautiful old Golden Retriever in her car who started barking as she ran over to the store. That worked though, and she came back, got her car done and then we drove ours in.

Since I'd ran out of my lavender oil, we then went to the neighbourhood market Walmart to grab a bottle, and came out after getting all our furbabies foods.

We came home and unloaded, let the dogs out again, and then went to Lidl! I LOVE Lidl! The first time, I was disappointed and annoyed that they were not disabled friendly, and had no electric carts. However, my trusty walker is my best friend now. Lidl has become my exercise trip. I stop and sit frequently BUT I walk up and down all the aisles ... and that makes me really proud of myself. I couldn't do it without my walker, and without resting so often, and I ache afterwards but hey! I'm DOING IT!

Today's Lidl trip was awesome, they have so much Christmassy stuff in, I got some gifts for my granddaughters here and my 2 local great-grandkids, Daniel and Sami. We also got some of our favourite German Christmas snacks, and the ground beef and macaroni cheese for the doggies cook-ups.

Hubby was hungry on the way home so we ran by Mickey D's drive-thru to get him something, and grabbed fries for Sadie and a plain cheeseburger each for Angel, Bo, Mystery and Max. 

Once we got home, after giving our four-leggeds their treats I divvied the ground beef and froze separate portions.

Since then, we've been vegging out, just lazing around and watching the tv.

We've been talking about re-doing our living room, and have decided on screens to divide it from the walkway from the front door, and just a recliner each, and a tv. So, that all is going to be our Christmas gifts to ourself this year.

I found a beautiful screen, of Mucha prints. Years ago I had framed prints of Mucha's 4 Seasons. I love his artwork, so glamorous. We'll need 3 to divide it off fully.

I think it'll be lovely. I have a lot to do. We are going to have to "spring clean" the living room and take a lot of things out of it beforehand. But I'm excited. It'll be nice to use a living room again, instead of having been on my bed, or in it, for the past few years, most of every day.

I've been looking at overstuffed recliners too. I was thinking cosy, comfy fabric, but hubby said leather's more functional and easier to clean (very true!). So, we'll be getting 2 overstuffed leather ones.

I can hardly wait to see it all come together.

Plus, with screens to "close it off" we will be making it a four-legged free zone, that way I can again have some houseplants and possibly a diffuser (not sure about the latter but have wanted one for so long).

So, that's my day today, and where our thoughts are at right now.

Thanks for stopping by

Memories of Wereham

We first moved to Wereham when I was 12. It was totally different from London. Very rural, a small village, a couple  of buses into Downham in the morning and a couple back in the evening. We'd walk from our house on Flegg Green down to the George and Dragon pub opposite the village pond, to catch one to go to school. Sometimes Mrs Yallop, the pub landlady, would come out and nag at us for our noisy chatter as we waited.

My dad stayed in London with his job, and travelled up on the weekends, turning part of the yard  into a veggie garden. We had chickens in a pen at one side of the house, and an old boiler house that I used to boil up vegetable peelings in to make chicken mash for them.

There was an old shop at the front, cobweb covered, and next to it, a car port. Behind that were 2 attached buildings that became stables for Jack, the donkey, and 2 New Forest foals, a grey with a  start on his forehead named Star, and my Golden Dawn, a palomino, beautiful golden chestnut with a  blond mane and tail. I don't remember exactly where we got Jack, I think he may have come from a pub in Wretton or Stoke Ferry, but I'm not sure. Dawn and Star we got from Watlingon. Dawn was a filly, and she cost forty pounds. 20 weeks of half my paycheck back then.

My mum fostered, and we had a house full of kids. I worked for her, and she hire another lass, Diane Jarman, as well, and the landlady from the Chequers pub a few doors down, used to come in and clean a couple of times a week. Her name was Lorna.

Sometimes my mum would send me to the pub to get a bottle of Tizer or a couple of packs of crisps for a treat, and I met some of the regulars - Jimmy Allen from West Dereham and his brother Steve, Chippy Burgess, Gabby Matthews and his brother Donnie, Chode (real name Michael) and his brothers Paul and Cedric (real name Peter) - during those times. I wonder where they all are now and what they are doing. I was 15 and most were in their 20s and 30s then. I'm 62, so - if alive - most are old men now.

I volunteered at the local stables and loved my time there. Linda Dalliday taught me how to ride, and I loved the horses, especially a beautiful black boy with a star on his forehead named Slipknot. He belonged to the owner, and was his older daughter's horse. She was an accomplished rider and won many awards at gymkhanas, yet she was afraid of him. He was very spirited but he was so good with me, I'd have ridden him in a heartbeat had I been given the chance.

His family also operated the local milk route, and the lady who delivered lived in a cottage by the stables entrance. Her name was Alice and she was a cheerful lady with a big smile.

The stable owner's house was opposite the pond, as the road curved, and if we ran out of milk or eggs, I'd be sent up to knock at the back door, to get some.

There were only 2 shops in the village at that point, one at "the top" and one on the road we crossed, just before the pond. Both were small but served the village well.

The Post Office was at the back of the pond, just up from the village school and before the entrance to the village playing field. The school has been closed for many years now, and is a private home. My friend, Jeannette Roberts', mum was the postwoman when we were kids and rode all over the village, in all weathers, on her bicycle to deliver the mail.

Just down the road from us, on the opposite side of the road, was a small Christadelphian chapel where Michael Carter's mum taught Sunday School, and where I went for a while. I remember studying Paul's journeys there, and Paul is still somebody who fascinates me, in the Bible.  Later on I went to Sunday School at St Margaret's Church near the pond, but the boys used to mess about and drive poor Victor, the man teaching it, crazy with their antics.

I always felt sorry for Victor, he was a solemn man. Always seemed lonely.

One year though, our dustbin disappeared, and where did we find it but at the church! It had our name on it underneath but that didn't matter. Village politics came into play and we were "foreigners" It had previously been explained to us by another "foreigner" that they'd been in the village 10 years and were still an outsider. So, my dad had picked up our dustbin and brought it home, and we were quite vocal about how the church had stolen out dustbin. Lo and behold the village policeman came to our house to talk to my dad about HIM stealing the church's dustbin! It didn't matter that it was ours and my dad had just taken back our property. Village politics said we had to give it back. I stopped going to Sunday School there after that. It just felt wrong that a church would steal and then have the audacity to send the police after my dad claiming he'd stolen THEIR property, which was what they had stolen from us.

I admit my mind is wierd!

My mind takes me on some delicious little jaunts sometimes, into dreams that are a mismatch of people and activities, some very odd, and some waking moments when - overtired - it pops a question or two that really make me go "hmmm".

Overnight and this morning's nap proved quite interesting.

The dream, seems a mismatch of characters I've never met before, and yet know well, in it. The places that it took place in were a house that you just entered, as the door was never locked and anyone could go in. As you went in there was a tired looking girl with a headset on playing music "for the house". The house was it's own entity. Just seemed normal from the outside but inside was seemingly of department store directions, including 2 large rest rooms much like you'd find in a store somewhere and after another long walk to get to it, an animal shelter area, outside and in, where there was an alligator, 2 mid size piglets, a tiny baby piglet with no water just lying in what looked like a shoebox. They were all on the outside area where there were cobblestones.

Out the back of the house, there was another cobbled area that overlooked the ocean or maybe it was just an endless lake, and people sat in foldable chairs along the edge of this cobbled area, watching the water for a boat coming in that was going to take some out on the water. It was choppy though and so there was conversation going on that certain people had decided they weren't going to bother taking the trip.

Indoors, upstairs, I was watching a televised performance of the Les Miz show that I saw last night at the Peace Center, with a lady of either German or Eastern European origin, as she spoke with a very distinct accent. We were discussing some of the bawdy parts and whether the children should have seen them.

There were lots of children in the house, most around 8 or 9. No idea whose they were or where they came from, they were just there.

When I was outside with the people watching the ocean, I was me, like now, unable to walk properly and using my ridearound but inside the house, I was walking normally. Whoever was supposed to be caring for the animals had left them, and the piglet in a  box was in a poor way and I was trying to get it revived with fluids, and get all the animals in out of the sun, by myself.

However the alligator was loose and I had to try to find someone to help.

I went into the rest room and the toilets were full, so I flushed them, but they overflowed, so I had to ask the lady watching television where the stuff was to clean it up, she told me just to get puppy pads from the shelter to soak it up.

Then I woke up so I have do idea what would have happened next. But what a jumble!

Now, in the night, I awoke as I usually do, but my brain was having one of its "let's give her something to think about moments" to keep me awake as I fought to go back to sleep.

Question: A fertilized ovum contains all the DNA from the parents of the future baby BUT, if that ovum is then inserted into a surrogate, and it is HER blood that then surges through that foetus as it grows, how does that NOT affect the DNA in any way? How can it pulse through that tiny body providing nourishment and removing waste, via the placenta, and yet not change anything to do with the baby's genetic make up. Leave no trace of itself.

Just puzzling, eh?

And ye pounds are tumbling down!

Yesterday was a good day for me. I hopped on a scale and found I have now lost a total of SEVENTY pounds and I walked quite a bit AND made it up and down a flight of stairs! I did pay for it later, my whole body throbbed with aching, but the sense of achievement was well worth it.

This weight loss journey is a challenge, obviously, but - funnily enough - I am aghast at the "cost" of some things in terms of fat, sodium and (since I have to limit mine) potassium. And once known, my brain seems to file it away and immediately say "no way" when I see those items again.  That's a good thing, yes?

I'm gradually building up my activity level, although it is still minimal by other people's standards. It does make me laugh how, years ago, my goal when doing aerobics was to raise my heart rate by 40% and work "in the zone" where now because of my A-Fib issues that seem to start when my heart rate goes above about 65 or so, I am now trying to NOT raise my heart rate by more than 5bpm or so. Whole new concept, to me.

Having said that, on the seated elliptical, now I just pedal slowly as though I were taking a leisurely ride out in the countryside on a pleasant Summer's day. I no longer use the handles to work my arms at the same time. I read a book while I pedal, and have found 4-5 minutes is good for not raising my heart rate too much. I forgot the book, the other night, and without realising was doing the arms as well, and within 2 minutes I was experiencing the beginnings of an A-Fib episode.

I have to listen to my body and let it decree how I can do this stuff.

I am very pleased with myself, I started this journey at 317lbs and am now down to 246.6lbs, I still have a long way to go to get to my goal of 140lbs, but slow and steady wins the race, as they say. I definitely think that will be true in my case. Sure, I'd love to lose 10lbs a month but realistically, for me and all the issues I am dealing with, that's not viable now unless I "go on a diet" and severely restrict my eating. Right now, my main emphases are on CHANGING my eating habits, and BECOMING more mobile. Both of these should lead to the end result that I am hoping for.

Despite being on more meds now than I was a year ago, my other goal (to eradicate as many as possible and deal with the issues they are treating, naturally) is still on the books. My doctor fully supports me on this, so as time goes on, I am hoping to be able to report progress on that too.  I am seeing a kind of improvement in that 3 of my meds (that I call my "emergency stash" as they are a "take as necessary, when needed") I have taken far less in the last few weeks. 2 are for when my blood pressure spikes above 150 systolic, and 1 is for anxiety and panic associated with the A-Fib attacks. By warding off the A-Fib by being careful not to overdo (for me) the few minutes and intensity of exercise, I've have needed  the last maybe once in the past month, and the BP ones have gone from 4-5 days a week to maybe one or two doses in a week. It's all a work in process!

I am satisfied with how I am doing though, and will just continue plodding, one foot in front of the other.

Have a wonderful weekend!

It feels more like Winter!

Gosh, it was almost bitter this morning, and the frost lay on the ground like glitter on a Christmas card. Last week, so hot and I was begging for Fall, and seems I had maybe a day or 2 and then this! LOL. No! This is not what I want. I want Autumn for a couple of months.

My dogs do not approve either! At 5.30 this morning, when I called them to go out for their first potty run of the day, I got barely wriggled ears and a raised eyebrow. All 4 looked at me with something akin to scorn, as if to say "Mama, are you THAT stupid? It's cold out there!" They waited until the sun was up and the frost in the front yard was gone, before wanting to go out.

They are happily awaiting their food and I must admit, it did smell good. It's cooling now. Macaroni, beef, cheese, carrots, peas and stock. Now that they are all older, I find myself having to cook for them more often, as they have all got picky in their dotage. They all love macaroni, and a pound or so in the pan, cooks up plenty for the 4 of them. Some days I add a pound of sausage meat and 1/4 slab of the meltable cheese sauce with a couple of stock cubes, others the cheese along with canned cream of chicken soup and some canned dog food in gravy (so that they think it's human food) LOL. Having to get sneaky now as they don't want it straight from the can any more, nor do they like any of the dry that they used to pig out on. They do like the New Balance chubs, so I get a few of those each week, to ring the changes.

Have just prepped a double chicken breast with stuffing, coated with bacon, wrapped in foil,and put in the oven on a low 250 to slow cook for when hubby comes in later, when I'll just unwrap the foil and turn the oven to 425 to crisp up the bacon. I've been fancying it for a couple of days but it was in the fridge and took 3 days to defrost, and even then I had to leave it out about an hour, to make sure it was all the way through.

After dinner tonight, I'll be slicing the leftover chicken to use in sandwiches, and in soups and salads. Since there's only me and hubby, these double breasts (they weigh about 2lbs each) give us meat for quite a few dishes, not just one meal.