Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

WOW!!!

Who knew that I could/can walk over 10,000 steps in a day?

Not me, for sure.

I was convinced that I could only walk once, maybe twice, around the park, for a kilometer total. Not so.

I started walking, with a lot of pain, sometime towards the end of March. On the 20th of March, it took me 47 minutes to walk 1.5km with an average pace of 31 min/km. I used my bastón as a crutch, stopped every 20 ft to stretch my lower back, and had my earbuds at a fairly high volume, listening to a book.

Fast forward to this week; one day I walked 3km at an average pace of 20 min/km, and an average heart rate of 115 bpm. I’ve walked over 6,000 steps everyday for the past 2 weeks. Let me show you.

Why I walked 12,172 steps last Tuesday, I don’t remember. I only know that there had to have been a breeze each time I went out, and the sun must have been “just so” in the sky, because when there’s no, or little breeze, the heat makes it too difficult for me to walk.

I listen to books, spiritual as well as fluff, while I walk, but with whichever earbuds I’m wearing, I have them so I can hear the sounds around me. (It makes hearing the cars coming along beside me easier to hear, and avoid being hit.) I carry my bastón with me every time I walk so I can use it to clean the dog poop off the sidewalk, (though I almost never walk inside the park as it smells of dog urine, yuck), or as a crutch. Now that I’m walking faster, and farther, I use it to keep me balanced.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I’m working diligently towards getting rid of the excess weight I’ve gained over the last year, sitting sedately in my “nest”, and getting my mobility back. I’m tired of being tired.

Until next time, and I again, thank the Lord for a next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

We have 3 bathrooms in the apartment, 1 of which we have never used, or had any plans to use.

So, we converted it into a storage room. It has been the best thing we’ve done in a while.

The photos were a bit difficult to obtain as the doorway is small, as is the actual BR. Nevertheless, you can see that I’ve been able to get the shelving units in, and up, and have started putting the essentials on said shelves. It’s definitely a work in progress, but it has transformed the pantry. Let me show you the other things new to the pantry.

I used 2 plastic drawer dividers to hold up the outer ends of the pine planks, but had a leftover short white “shelf” from the kitchen to use in the middle. You can see the board isn’t he photo above.

Well, I think I’m back in business with the blog site, thanks to my sister, and her wonderful suggestion. That, and a lot of prayers.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Mine, in particular.

At the beginning of this year, I decided I wanted to do a few things routinely. Things such as drinking less alcohol, (or maybe quit drinking it altogether), pray the Rosary everyday, exercise, and read the Bible in a year. I thought to, maybe, start some sort of yoga program, or a Pilates-type exercise program, to start walking every day, or at least a few times a week.

One thing led to another, and I only started 2 of those things, my daily Rosary prayers, and listening to the Bible in a Year, both on the Hallow app.

Unfortunately for me I didn’t get to the exercising bits until recently, having gained about 10 pounds in the past year, hovering at 90kg on my 155cm frame. My hips became painful, my lower legs swelled to an incredible size as I sat most of the day, every day, and my back, well, let’s not even go there.

Now, thank the Lord, I have begun a daily routine that starts each morning with saying the Rosary, then listening to the BIAY, then doing my selected set of back, and core strengthening exercises. All of that takes about 45 minutes, and gets me ready for my day, whatever it brings. I try to get outside for my walk around the park between 11am, and 1pm.; that is when the sun it high enough in the sky to give me a gentle tan, and still cool enough to enjoy the walk.

I started out walking just one time around the park, a 1k walk to be sure. I had to stop about every 10 ft, or so to stretch my back, and hips, then continue on. I always have my walking stick, a 4ft high 2” in diameter, branch that I found in the park several months ago, to aid me in my walks. I started out leaning quite heavily on it, but now I carry it at my side, mostly to clean the dog poop off the sidewalks in the park.

Actually, I’ve taken, recently, to walking in the streets around the outside of the park; no dog poop. Plus, it gives me the most amount of unshaded road. I can absorb as much vitamin D as I can without too much shadow.

Yesterday, for the first time ever, I walked 3 times around the park for a 3k total walk. It has taken me about 2 months to get to this distance, and it’s getting so much easier to walk farther with less pain, thank you Jesus, that I actually look forward to my walks. The 3 times around takes me about an hour at the moment, but as I build up my musculature again, and decrease my overall volume, I should be will be able to walk faster, and with less discomfort than when I started walking.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

I leave you with a photo of my trusty, rustic walking stick, my ever faithful companion. Mi bastón. (Me bas-TONE)

We’ve been talking about removing the sliding doors from the third bathroom shower for more months than I can remember.

Today, we did it. It took us a bit of this, and a bit of that, but with main strength and awkwardness, we managed to achieve our goal.

A few weeks ago I bought 2 black 5 tier shelving units that will/should help organize our pantry area. Someone’s tools, and someone else’s cook books, and printed recipes take up quite a bit space, and make quite a bit of mess. Now, I just have to get in there, and put up the units.

Easier said than done, however. My frequent lack of enthusiasm is painful. Plus, I’m soooo busy these days doing “things” that the day is over, and the shelves are still in their boxes.

Here’s a photo of the screws we encountered when trying to remove the metal side panels from the bathroom. Which type of screwdriver would you suggest we use?

We got the horrible sliding doors off the walls, and were left with a blank, albeit yellow canvas.

I was able to put up the shelving units, and clean out the pantry, but that is in a post for next week as I hadn’t been able to get on my webpage to edit this post until 5/18. Thanks to my sister Martha.

So, until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Post script: today Ivan and I have been married 49 years. And they said it wouldn’t last. We’re laughing.

And my sister Martha.

I have had several weeks of trepidation with regards to this website.

I believe I posted that I opened the app called Jetpack, which is an adjunct to the primary site from WordPress.com, and everything disappeared in front of my eyes. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Then, I didn’t know, or understand what I needed to do to bring it all back.

I have since discovered that what I needed to do, and what I did do, was to trust in the Lord, and do what He, and my sister Martha said I should do.

Take the problem to YouTube, and ask it/them what I should do to regain control of the website.

So, I did, it worked, and I’m back in the ballgame.

Trust in the Lord, listen to your siblings, and all will be made clear.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy in the Lord.

I was going to start by saying how grateful I am for so many things but then

I hit the return tab, and everything went away. And I mean everything that I have on this website. I have no idea what happened, and I have no idea how to reverse it. I am going to wait a while, and see what happens.

If I have a website with which to post this, I will. Then, I will continue to tell you all of the amazing things that happened this week, Holy Week.

Until that happens, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Follow up: I’m still able to access my site but it’s the way it looked at the beginning of my journey; very technical, not very welcoming. Better than the nothing I thought I had.

That it pours.

You know the saying, as above, it never rains that it pours. It’s pouring here, and I don’t mean rain.

The day before yesterday, we were reminded that our car registration was past due, and that we needed to take care of this right away. No doubt.

So, our friend Jesús contacted the mechanic in our area who always validates the cars in the condo. He sent me the form for what’s called the “multa”, which is the fine for paying late. Yesterday I walked to the bank to pay it, which was $2,263.00 MXN, or $113 USD. Ugh.

So, today the mechanic sent me a form that we pay yearly for owning the vehicle, which, this year is $2,756 MXN, or $136 USD. Unfortunately, when I got to the bank with this second bill, the date of expiration of that form, and probably the amount, no doubt, expired yesterday.

Back home I walked, a bit faster than my walk to the bank, found Jesús, told him what happened. He called the mechanic, while I was standing with him.

The mechanic proceeded to tell us that he would send me a current form, but did I realize that our license plate sticker also has expired? Really? What’s next?

I probably shouldn’t ask. I’m grateful to have a car to which requires all that I had put aside this month for “savings”. Ha!

There’s always next month.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Follow up: I received the updated form today as well, and I m happy to tell you I have until the 30th of April to pay the same amount as before. Thank you Jesus. And Jesús. Another walk to the bank tomorrow, and more sunshine. It gives me a bit of color, and vitamins. Win, win.

I got so much done this past week, it’s hard to believe.

I made English muffins, not great, like store bought muffins, but sufficient for the day. (They are now croutons.) I also made a small loaf of bread to be made into garlic toast tomorrow, to go along with a spaghetti supper. Yum.

I cleaned the stovetop with a cleaner you’ve probably seen advertised, (I bought it so you don’t have to), the purple tablet that you drop into the spray bottle, mix it with water, and spray your dirty surfaces which will magically drip off the grease, and dirt, leaving behind a sparkling clean surface.

Not so much. It’s supposedly made of “natural ingredients” which I’m always for, no chemical smell, no eating away at your hands. It cleans, yes. However, it took about 30 minutes to dissolve, and did not do as advertised, which I didn’t really believe it would, but there is no life without hope.

It’s also been kind of fun to open the refrigerator doors, and not have to move everything around, or take things out to see what’s in there. I have become quite enamored of the masking/freezer tape I bought a few weeks ago. Take a look.

It brings a smile to my face every time I open the doors.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Pineapple.

I love to use pineapple for the second fermentation of our kombucha, but it’s a bit difficult to remove from the shell. So, I went ahead, and bought a pineapple remover thing. Here it is. I’m sure you’ve seen it on commercials.

There is also a round plastic thing in the box that will cut all of the slices into pieces. I may, or may not use it to cut all of these slices into pieces to go into the kombucha bottles. But it was so much easier to remove the pineapple from the shell I had to say it again. What a time saver, for sure.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

I have, once again, immersed myself in one of my favorite YT series.

MasterChef Mexico Celebrity 2024.

Obviously it’s entirely in Spanish, however, I am able to listen, and read, via subtitles, everything in Spanish.

As my lover isn’t interested in speaking Spanish to/with me, I have to find any other way to learn this beautiful language.

So, total immersion via MCMC 2024 is my way of doing just that. When I hear/read Spanish for any length of time, I feel so much closer to being able to speak it to whomever I meet; deliver people, neighbors in the condo, people on the paths in the park, the people at the registers in the stores.

I have signed up, bought, or trialed a plethora of language learning apps, but have not learned much from any of them.

This seems the easiest way to learn, not only Spanish, but how to cook amazing Mexican food. Win-win.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.