Tag: distractions

Slippers season

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Staying power

This week we spent the evenings in the recliner loveseat with our slippers on. The temperatures have reached their January postition. So why shouldn’t we take up ours. While the sitting is not winter worthy, we decided to watch “The Outsider.” It is a series created by a Canadian hand crafted log builder. I find the time relaxing. My husband choses to saw logs right with the constant buzzing that comes from the ipad.

So much for winter being a time to reconnect and feel closer together. Hubby missed all four series hours that we “watched.” Maybe it’s too much like bird watching or something. We did see a perfectly camouflaged quail though. Why a log cabin build series? Maybe knowing how one goes up the old fashioned hand-hewn way will help us in our dream cabin. Maybe.

The days though cold are predictably unfeeling. The wind does not care that the branches are bare. Fingers turn blue under the faucet. The dog does not know the meaning of below zero and my training sessions with her are limited to fifteen minutes before meal time. That makes it hard to be patient with her the rest of the hours in the day.

Staying power with my puppy has no purpose. Stay to her means two inches away. Stay when I am trying to comb her means nothing. She wants to rise up and take flight after an invisible frisbee even while I am trying to get her to relax and enjoy the combing session. I have learned much from constant attention to distraction. Sticking with some project or another involves some sort of magnetism that is stronger than the force of warmth that wants to keep me in the bed on these cold mornings. Duty calls. Honey has no sense of duty in all of the amazing sixth senses that she has. Maybe she’ll get staying power when she is old. Haha.

We are getting down to the last drops of hand soap. Ouch these poor blue digits. I hope the lack of suds and warm water to wash hands does not end up in another sinus infection. Standing at the sink to wait for the hot water to arrive certainly requires slippers or fortitude. You decide.

Along with the frigid air came the empty propane tank at the greenhouse. That makes me a bit discouraged. The last two crops have been a bit lacking and I am still looking forward to the February planting time. We may let the dome freeze off after all. Finding a home for all the geraniums might be difficult. wish I had a basement to haul them all into for a few weeks. There are eight, no maybe nine, and also six or seven other hanging planters that keep growing in spite of the lack of sunshine.

The split pea soup filled the house with it’s vegetable aroma yesterday. That makes the house smell emptier today. Except for the lotion on my fingers and the coffee in my cup, the lack of some warm vapors tantalizing my nostrils makes me wonder why the dog has to go searching for such awful smells sometimes. But a dog does not cook up some delightful stew when they feel like it. Proof that evolution is a sham once again.

Crocheting through the recent book reads passes the time for me. January is a great time to get caught up on the book list. And pick up and unfinished project. December had no time for such pleasure reading. From the Baker’s Secret to Doctor Zivago, my reading material has been so widely different that sometimes my head spins. The favorite so far was Being a Dog: Smell. It opened my eyes to what little we actually pay attention to in regard to our senses.

I feel the frigid water at the sink far to frequently.

I smell the coffee in my cup getting weaker with it’s decaffeinated grounds.

I feel the messy fur of my dog hunting for outdoors she brings in with her.

I taste the parsley from the greenhouse in my bowl of split pea soup.

I hear the cat howl after I tread on her softly once again.

I see that time has past once more into another weekend.

Just like that my mug of goodness is now cold. I ran outside with this finished shawl to get the sky in the background. There is nothing like a warm shawl to fight of the bite of cold. Maybe I should make a mug warmer. Back to the microwave with my coffee cup. Will this deep freeze never open its doors to sunshine again. Maybe in February. For now the cold wind and the distant sun will have to wear a shawl to warm up!

Day One

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My low carb, good fat, something green live-it!

Day one

So my dear has decided to go on a diet. I hate that word. I prefer Liveo-it! Doesn’t that sound happier? He decided that it was time to get to a goal physique…

Well, that means I have to help. Or perhaps that I get to help.

First of all thaere is the 68 pages meal plan and recipe guide to read. Bother the reading, I’ll just make stuff up as I go. It can’t be that hard to modify my cooking knowledge, can it? Really, I’, the one that made all of our “favorites” through the years. If I could learn how to stretch the budget to feed a family on all those cheap carbs, then certainly I can teach us to eat those herbs and greens from the greenhouse and get rid of the bread fat in my mid-body region.

So since we have those greeh things growing in the greenhouse, maybe we should eat them everyday. How about every meal? So let’s gave my Live-w! A name…

“Low carbohydrates, good fats, something gree daily live-its!”

And that is way too long, so it is m ‘low carb good fat something green’ live-it!’ Diet. Doesn’t that sound tasty, long, confusing, and wonderful. Eating that something green daily will be the easy part. Finding the good fats rather than the bad ones, might be more challenging, but the hardest will be the low carbohydrates. My favorite breakfast is cereal. It’s fast, you know, break-fast. I take the word quite literal.

Day Two

Well, I blew it big time!

Breakfast at my daughter’s was oatmeal. There isn’t a single grain in the entire grocery list that my dear paid for. So I blew it. Lunch was a little better. I drank my swiss chard and carrot smoothie and ate a cup of gumbo, which was mostly meat and tomato sauce with some hot spices. But then it all fell apart again when she made oatmeal chocolate chips cookies that just jumped right into my mouth. It was so tempting. I entered right into the sinful thing, twice. Supper was best.

We learned how to trade out the potato for more greens. Broccoli, asparagus, and steak made it very good. At least I feel like we won on the diet for that meal. Day two has some success.

I wonder how day three will go?

Quite badly as a matter of fact. We haven’t gotten any of the groceries on the 68 page kito diet.

And then there is the grocery list for the plan. Thank goodness I do not have to go get the groceries.

Breakfast was cereal, lunch was a sugar flavor added yogurt. Afternoon snack was a bagel with cream cheese, and supper is beef stew with bread pudding, cheese and crackers. The only thing on the kito grocery list is cheese, beef and eggs. All those carbs. Well, no wonder that extra weight is hugging my middle so much that it won’t let go!

Here goes for day four!

I’ll probably live it whether I keep the die it or not!

More than eyes

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The looking glass II

There are two types of people in our family. The partially deaf and the partially blind. Some struggle with the “What?’ And the others struggle with the where… Let me explain.

Recently my husband saw a mink or ferret cross the road while on his way to work. It so fascinated him that he told everyone about it. Before long like the “whisper in the ear” game, word got back to him that he had seen a parrot on his way to work. Much story telling and laughter insured as the family explained who said what and where had the story gotten mixed up. It turns out that the news had carried a story of someone’s pet parrot getting loose that winter day and sure enough Gavin had seen it on his way to work. For those of us that don’t watch a lot of television and get most of our information from the fake media of internet, there was no fake news about Gavin’s ferret. Bother what a mix up that was! Hilarious none-the-same.

While the telling of the story should include who has lost their hearing and no longer hears the right words, putting a news story with Gavin’s winters drive to work was the true mixup. Only a ferret would cross the road in the country in February in our neck of the woods. The Parrot would freeze to death around here!

Partially deaf can make for hilarious stories but can also leave one missing half the story.

And the partially blind. Some people still have driver’s licenses and see less that I do at times. That makes for scary passenger riding. I just choose not to ride with those people again. Being the one without a license has made my decision to not have to tell people about traffic, construction workers, which route to take, or follow a google-map. Driver’s that scares blind person should not be driving.

But there are other things that tell me much of the world has challenged eyesight. One is the lack of cleanliness that others might exhibit. Like failure to return glasses to the kitchen sink. Or Kleenex, napkins, or paper towels to the garbage can. Maybe I’m getting old. But that stuff bugs me. We had a puppy once that ate and choked and threw up that kind of thing. Soon I will have a grandchild crawling around. Cleanliness is a new “fighting the lack of foresight” thing for me.

The fridge and the cupboards of a blind person are all completely organized. Everything has a place. So important if you don’t want barbecue sauce on your salad. Marinade for meat just doesn’t go on salads. Funny how when the eyes don’t look so good, meat sauces and salad dressings have the same size containers. In my fridge anything for meat comes in a glass jar. Salad dressings all have to have the pop-up lid so they come out slowly.

We are more than eyes and more than ears.

Walking with Honey. She is more than eyes to me. She is my soon settled guide dog. Today she crossed the line into helper for me. I thought the puppy would never go away. Having a leash in hand tells her she is to help me. Of course she still tries to tug on the leash and play for a few minutes. Firm consistent commands are hard to give when a puppy is in tow and we need to flip the switch to helper.

Listening and feeling the oncoming traffic during our two mile roadway walk was such a blessing to me. My praise for her was ecstatic! While the first car came at us, and she did her thing well, the second vehicle came from behind. Harder to hear for me. But my trustee Honey heard, felt and saw it in plenty of time to react and nudge my knee, then pull me towards the ditch.

Today it is very windy. Flag day in our country. And the wind makes it a not so smart day to do the roadway walk. So instead we did some simple heel then help training right in the yard. First off, she followed my walking. Then I followed her. Trust.

Recently, my mother and I have renewed our interest in Psalm 119. Her study and mine were completely different, yet we had so much to teach each other about what we were learning. Verse 37 came to mind when I though of Honey and I leaning each other’s ways. “Turn my eyes away from all the worldly, meaningless that’s that distract me and let your priorities be mine, And restore me with renewed energy in Your ways.” This is a paraphrase of the amplified version.

Having a friend that is “more than eyes” is pretty amazing. Trusting her to take me places and to shut my eyes and let her guide me is not easy. What if she decided to play at the last second and I should fall? Well, it can’t be as bad as the broken rib, broken nose or a sprained ligament, so here we go.

Ripple in the pond

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Nine lives, ninety-nine petitions

Psalm 27:14 “Wait on the Lord. Be courageous and wait on the Lord.”

There are days our hearts wake up heavy. Those days thoughts are not about self or the duties of the day. The mind wanders constantly. Distraction almost keeps us from doing our chores and forgetfulness of the present often leads to slicing a finger during the meal preparation. Today is one of those days for me.

I woke up thinking of the petitions that I needed to bring before my Lord. The supply that others are lacking. The need for God to intervene and lend us His supernatural aid.

1 The first person on my mind is my sister. Her recent bout with the influenza virus though undetectable by tests has led to complications. The weakness and fatigue that she feels has everyone who knows her concerned for her health and well-being. Times like these bring families together. Even if it is in distant messaging and phone calling. We are all pulling for her and desperate for God’s intervention on her behalf. Knowing what illness discouragement is like, makes me ache to shower her with love.

2 And because of her, I am drawn to the relationship of sisters. So my heart aches for my sister-in-law and her sister. Her sister has been battling cancer for four years now. Yet she courageously battles on. She lives each day viciously enjoying every detail in it.

3 The thoughts pull me towards relatives who have had to say goodbye recently. My cousin’s son has lost a half-brother in an unfortunate gun accident. The little guy was only three. Tears come quite readily when I think of this little one and his fifth-grade brother. My cousin’s son had his own brush with death just a year ago. Pinned to a fence by a fallen horse, he lost his spleen. Because of the rupture, his life will never be the rough and tumble boy-hood that a typical child lives.

4 Typical life, makes me think of my husband’s physical struggle right now. Dealing with neck pain and numbness that travels down his right arm, has nearly debilitated his work pattern. Working a typical ten to twelve hour day has not been easy. The pain has kept him from good night’s rest and from comforts of all sort. Living with pain on a twenty-four house basis led him to seek medical attention. He really hates doctoring and such.

5 There are those whose lives are constant pain yet they manage to reach out to others anyway. My mother’s neighbor is one of those. Ex-military man, Mr. Red, (mom can’t remember his actual name, this is his nick-name) fought in Iraq and has had complications ever since. Deafness, and other illnesses have followed him ever since. Tomorrow they remove one of his kidneys because of cancer. He has no close family so a distant cousin will be his stand-by. She is a retired nurse. So many requests.

6 Distant relatives turns me to my calendar prayer list. Every day I pray for the people that have birthdays that land on the number day it happens to be. Today my sister-in-law is alone on the list. Yet as a young mother of three and married to my brother adds four more names to my pettioning. She is such a sweetheart. Planning for her sister’s first baby shower moves me on to more “first” moment prayer concerns.

7 My daughter is expecting her first this spring and the excitement has all the auntie-Bee’s a buzzing! Getting busy on that afghan I planned to crochet gets me to thinking this blog better get done and my fingers ought to get busy with that.

8 Bunny trail thinking takes me back to the cute pictures that my sister-in-law has sent of her littlest one. Considering nephew thoughts leads me to two other nephews of mine who need the Lord’s direction and guidance. The first nephew that was born in our family has a birthday the eighth month of the year, so that would be my sister’s boy. She is the one with the flu complications. He is so worried about his mother. And plans to fly back for her docto appointments. Though he is far away his desire to take care of his mother is very honorable.

9 The oldest nephew on the other side of the family has decided that his dear little ones need more family near them. So he has decided to take a job back in the area. The challenges of house hunting from a distance has them recalculating all the costs of their decision. Moving is not as easy a process when one has a family and responsibilities.

These nine people have a ripple effect of petitions that could keep me on my knees all day. But there are chores to do. One of my favorite Bible characters is Esther. Study of her life in the book of her name in the Old Testament is one of my favorite things to do. She had a passion to save her people. So rather than hiding in a closet for three days before she went to the King with her plea, she fasted and prepared a meal of epic proportions. Her prayers, plans, and petitions worked. The King accepted her request to attend the meal she was preparing and her plea to save her people was heard. Being active while we pray is perfectly okay. So while I go out to cool down my geo-dome greenhouse on this warm sunny day, may God hear my prayers for theses dear people.

This project I did last fall after my rib was broken, is the start of a favorite pattern study. It is called “Ripple In the Pond.” Every person that ever exists has a ripple in the pond effect on all the people who know them, and on some who don’t. Yesterday my daughter’s boss was sharing with us the book that he recently read about Hugh Glass. His life had a huge ripple-in-the-pond because of his life as a sea captain, military service, and exploration of the Old West (early 1800’s). It brought this crochet pattern back into my mind as I considered these nine people.

Every one has their own list of family, friends, and acquaintances. May you have such a ripple blessing on the pond of their lives.

Rainy day projects

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Not just for children

When the drip-drops woke me up this morning I knew getting out the door would be something like pulling a stubborn donkey to his feet.  Honey sits down and digs in her haunches at the first sign of raindrops. I thought I was allergic to rain.  She is worse!


So today her food went into a mini-pop bottle. That kept her busy -oh, about five minutes!  Then I was quite tempted to give her a sleeping pill so that I could go back to bed.  Not really, just tempting, that’s all. 

The dishes are all finally washed from our family gathering on Sunday. I know okay, I know I am am really lazy if it takes me two days. But the meat dish had juice in it to take to the cats in the barn. And I kept forgetting. I only feed them once a day, it wouldn’t be fair to take it down at a different time. 

So the dishes are done and the cookies are made. Bother, now I have more dishes to do!  What’s next?  Rainy day project lists are always for little kids. What about me? Can’t I have a rainy day list?

Most people go clean a closet or do some baking or paint the dining room.  Perhaps the best option for me is to just clean the counters off!  Cleaning isn’t very fun though. And anything that I do on a rainy day HAS to be fun.  I use to curl up with a talking book and crochet. For hours…  since the chiropractor told me I have to take more breaks, I really haven’t gotten any crochet projects done. It takes hours-hello.

The cookies are made and I didn’t even snitch one. Yet. So now it’s back to the cleaning list. I did get the floor in the bedroom swept, with a little honey-help. She ate the lid to some container. I threw it away after coaxing her to give it up for a treat. That wasn’t easy. I mean sweeping the floor. This crazy RP gets me dizzy often as I loose my place in the room. Luckily after t sweeps the  dust pan   was clean on the third swipe. 

Rainy days are meant for inside activities. Playing hall-fetch didn’t last very long either, so now that the sun came out it is time to go get our feet wet again. I really don’t like wet feet. So forgive me for this rubber boos  and shorts fashion statement. 

Now that I have spent the morning writing perhaps I should actually make that list. Let’s see…

To all those with a real diagnosis o ADHD  my apologies for this distracted by a four month old puppy writing. And good luck on that list!