The blog

BUSY WEEK AND MEMORIAL DAY

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

This has been a busy week for me and so I am taking off some days until after the Memorial Day weekend

Monday morning I took Winky back home to Cary and the grandchildren.

I loved having her company, but she was a little too protective of me and tried to protect me from all of the other dogs and people who live here.

Monday night I had to take Katy to the ER and it was 3:30 in the morning when I finally arrived back home.

Today I am getting my first Reclast infusion and will probably have some flulike symptoms for a few days.

So looks like some R&R is called for.

Memorial Day is always a time for me to honor my dad, who was a POW in Germany in WWII, and all of the service members past and present who have served this country.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend and I will see you back here next week.

MEDITATION FOR WORRY

Friday, May 20, 2022

Simple Pleasures #40

I remember my mom calling me a worrywart when I was growing up and my grandmother saying that worry never adds a day to your life.

We all worry from time to time, and although not all worry is 100% bad if it leads us to figure out a solution, it can become a real problem when we let it take over our lives.

One of the things in my worry toolbox is meditation.

Many people have the misconception that meditation is shutting down the mind. Meditation is a calming of the mind while remaining alert, and it is through this calming that we find peace of mind.

Meditation works very well for worry because it allows you to focus on the present moment rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.

There are different techniques for meditating, and I think finding the one that works best for you is what is most important.

Sometimes I find that I like a guided meditation, while other times I just like to sit quietly with nothing to distract me.

I use certain mantras when I meditate.

The basic Om mantra is an easy and effective mantra.

I used it a lot when I first began to meditate because to be honest, I would forget a more complicated mantra and then I would worry that I wasn't doing it right.

See how easy it is to worry?

The point is, is meditation is supposed to take worry away. So in my opinion, if it is calming you, then how can you be doing it wrong.

Simple Inspiration

Lovely Reads From Around The Web

Ten reasons to grow chamomile

source

The best charcuterie board cheeses and meats

source

20 Quotes and Notes We Need to Read 20 Times a Day Until They Sink In

source

When life becomes all about the music again

source

Growing Medicinal Herbs in Pots: 10 Healing Plants for Your Container Garden

source

Gluten-Free Cooking
In my mind there are five seasons, winter,spring,summer, fall, and strawberry seasons.

Nothing says strawberry season more than strawberry shortcake.

Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake Icebox Cake is the ultimate summer dessert recipe. Sweet, creamy, plus all you need is 5 ingredients!

No frills, no fuss, just pure deliciousness.

Catching Up
Some past posts you may enjoy reading.

Action Not Worry

How To Love Your Small Home

Cozy Traditional Home Decor

What I'm Reading
I am currently reading my second Mother's Day Book.

You may remember my first book was The Girls In The Stilt House, which I loved.

This week's book is All The Forgivenesses by Elizabeth Hardinger.

Amazon

Set in Appalachia and the Midwest at the turn of the twentieth century, this exquisite debut novel paints an intimately rendered portrait of one resilient farm family’s challenges and hard-won triumphs—helmed by an unforgettable heroine.

Shopping Links For Your Convenience

Amazon

Etsy (on sale)

For The Beach
Belk

Belk

Amazon

Amazon (on sale)

Summer Tableware

Wayfair

Amazon

Wayfair

Amazon

Pottery Barn (on sale)

Amazon

Amazon

Meditations For Worry.

Amazon

Visit my Etsy shop for vintage and antique collectibles and printable art. (all on sale this weekend)

More Simple Pleasures.

This post contains affiliate links

PET SITTING

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Winky the Chorky.

Winky belongs to my grandchildren and while they are off and away to a week's vacation in Florida she has been left in my care.

It took her a couple of days to settle in.

Her 24-hour hunger strike did not get her returned home so she gave in and started eating.

As you can see her dishes have taken over my front hall.

That middle dish is for her night food which she immediately scarfs down, probably in fear that Nana will steal it.

I know that look.

It's the it wasn't me look. I would never bark at a little old lady using her walker.

After four walks a day, where Winky drags me around to every corner of the property, at least twice, we are both sleeping well at night.

Shhh. There might also be a nap or two thrown in

AGING IS NOT FOR SISSIES

Friday, May 13, 2022

Simple Pleasures #39

I remember when I was a much younger woman hearing my father say that aging is not for sissies.

Now that I am that aging woman I wish I could tell my dad that he was right.

Unfortunately, he has been gone for almost 26 years, so I whisper it to him and hope that he knows I now understand.

Aging feels like a vase full of pretty flowers where the petals are slowly falling off.

Each day there seems to be a new ache or pain.

A new diagnosis.

I remember when my calendar was filled with fun activities.

Now it seems to fill up with medical appointments.

~~This morning I go for an MRI~~ (Appointment changed by radiology at last minute until June when I will also get an MRA) on my brain for my Trigeminal Neuralgia.

Then I go for bloodwork for an infusion of Reclast in a couple of weeks for osteoporosis.

Aging is not for sissies, but it is inevitable.

I do not want to be one of those people who sits around and complains nonstop.

Here are seven tips for aging gracefully that I am trying to practice.

1) Live in the Moment. Like everyone else, you cannot predict life's every turn, so make the most of each moment. ...

2) Forgive Yourself and Others

3) Find Humor and Laugh at Yourself

4) Stay Curious

5) Be Flexible in Body and Mind

6) Meditate

7) Be Grateful

Simple Inspiration

Lovely Reads

Keeping what "sparks joy" in retirement

source

Seventeen ways to make life more interesting and fun

source

Vegetable gardening as therapy

source

30+ exciting tea party ideas for adults

source

Gluten-Free Cooking

Summer is coming (it is literally here in Georgia), which means that blueberry season is heading our way.

I have to be honest when I say that I am not one of those people who eats handfuls of blueberries by themselves, but I do love them in baked goods and fruit salads.

I also love lemon, so I can't wait to try out this gluten-free lemon blueberry loaf.

I think the picture speaks for itself. YUM!!!

Catching Up

Some past posts you may enjoy reading.

Grocery Store Rant

Grandmothers Are Important

Stop Pretending

What I'm Reading

Katy gave me two books for Mother's Day.

I started on this one on Monday and had it finished up by Tuesday at noon.

Amazon

"Set in 1920s Mississippi, this debut Southern novel weaves a beautiful and harrowing story of two teenage girls cast in an unlikely partnership through murder—perfect for readers of Where the Crawdads Sing and If the Creek Don't Rise.

Ada promised herself she would never go back to the Trace, to her hard life on the swamp and her harsh father. But now, after running away to Baton Rouge and briefly knowing a different kind of life, she finds herself with nowhere to go but back home. And she knows there will be a price to pay with her father.

Matilda, daughter of a sharecropper, is from the other side of the Trace. Doing what she can to protect her family from the whims and demands of some particularly callous locals is an ongoing struggle. She forms a plan to go north, to pack up the secrets she's holding about her life in the South and hang them on the line for all to see in Ohio.

As the two girls are drawn deeper into a dangerous world of bootleggers and moral corruption, they must come to terms with the complexities of their tenuous bond and a hidden past that links them in ways that could cost them their lives."

Needless to say I loved it.