Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

They may be adhesive but they sure do brighten my day.

Talavera tile is a, primarily Mexican, tin-glazed ceramic tradition that originated in 16th-century Spain, blending Islamic, Spanish, and Italian pottery methods. Brought to Puebla, Mexico, in the 1530s, it combined European techniques with indigenous craftsmanship, flourishing into a distinct art form using natural pigments and a unique white, glazed base. Right out of Wikipedia. Just for you.

As the apartment has tile on most walls, I am unable to remove them just to add the beauty, and color of Talavera tiles. The only thing I can do is buy adhesive tile squares that simulate real tiles. Most real Talavera is about $1 US per tile, however, the adhesive costs about $12 US for a pack of 24, so about half the price. Plus, I can remove them, change the patterns, and have new designs as often as I want. Win-win. Let me show you.

I got so tired of the lack of color, and fun in the kitchen, which is where I spend an inordinate amount of time, that I decided I’d start there using the adhesive tiles.

Here are 9 of the 12 designs with which I started. I had a perfectly boring, dull, blah tiled area of black splash behind the glass cover of my stovetop, so I decided I’d start there.

So, I went from this blah nothingness,

to this ok-but-not-what-I’m-looking-for-just-yet, to

This. This is how it looks now, full of color, joy, culture, smiles. I absolutely love it. I break into a wide grin/smile every time I go into the kitchen.

That was phase 1 of my adhesive Talavera tile adventure. Stay turned for what comes in future posts. I think you might like it as well.

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

I have a love/hate relationship with them.

Love: portable, lightweight, snug fit, great sound.

Hate: pressure in my eustachian tubes, obnoxious earwax overproduction.

It must be my body’s defense against their intrusion, this overabundance of dried earwax every morning. Fortunately, it all goes away in the shower. Thank the Lord.

I find, however, that if I wear them too long on a day they build pressure in my poor head, and I feel like my head is going to burst.

Fortunately for me, I also own 2 different types of Apple EarPods, one with, and one without a tether. I use the untethered pods when I’m walking during my morning routine, and the tethered as often as I’m able the rest of my day. When I am at my time of devotions, on the Hallow app on my computer, I use my JBL untethered earbuds, though I use them with the noise reduction off, even when the plethora of dogs in the area are howling. 🙃

The only thing I don’t like about the Apple pods untethered, is that they don’t allow me to increase, or decrease the volume to which I am listening at the moment. That I have to do physically on my phone. Not a hardship, just an inconvenience. And, as I store my phone in my bra when I walk, (sports bra, great pouch), it looks a bit odd, I’m sure, when I reach up, and adjust said volume. Who cares?! It works, and I’m not encumbered by another “thing” to take with me on my walks.

That said, I pray you are all safe, happy, and healthy in the Lord. Rest assured, I’ll be back again with more nonsense soon. BFN.

I have to tell you that not much scares, or frightens me these days.

At my age, I’ve seen so much stuff, so many “scary” things, that it’s hard to do that anymore.

Until the other day.

I opened the cabinet door under the kitchen sink, and something that looked large enough to be a rat, fell/jumped/sprang, (you choose), onto the floor. I jumped several inches off the ground, (no mean feat), and gave quite the shout. (Really not much more than an “oh”, but with a bit of feeling.) 🫢

Now, as I live on the third floor of a luxury condominium, it hardly seems likely that a spider, ant, cockroach, much less a mouse, or a rat would ever get loose in the apartment. It just doesn’t happen. Let me show you, however, what I saw.

It was a very scary bag of steel wool that had been in a basket on the inside of my cabinet door for about 2 years. Why it decided to jump out of the basket, trying for an escape is completely beyond me.

I’m alive to tell you the silliness of my behavior, never defeated by a silly bag of cleaning fluff.

Until next week meet, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Post script: happy 13th birthday to my third granddaughter, Harlow Jean. I pray you have a wonderful day, and many more wonderful birthdays. 🎂

I’ve been enjoying overnight oats for a couple of weeks now, and find them quite to my liking.

I’m branching out, however, with some old grains that are new to me, having never eaten some of them.

Of course, I had to buy a dispenser carousel in which to put said grains as I now have 6 from which to choose. Alforfón, (buckwheat), Avena, (oats), Cebada Perla, (pearled barley), Mijo, (millet, I bought red millet), Lenteja, (lentils), and Quinoa. The dispenser I bought just happens to have 6 half kilo containers that, when you push, and hold the button, grain is dispensed into a drawer which can then be removed, and taken to wherever to be used.

I have no idea, yet, how to cook with any of these, except the oats, but am excited to start trying them for breakfast and dinner.

If you should find yourself in need of a grain dispenser, similar to the one I bought, be aware that oats do not work in this device. The hole is large enough, they just don’t flow through it. So, I’m having to scoop them out, (not an easy task as they want to jump over into the surrounding compartments), and will put them back into the Ball jar from which they came, putting some sort of rice in its place.

Until next we meet, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

You know I enjoy fermenting things, and have for over 20 years.

Now is no different. I ferment water kefir into kefir sodas, (addicted), milk kefir into kefir cheese, and cream, and grains into bread.

I find it difficult to think of a time, and place, when I didn’t ferment things, moving 2000 miles notwithstanding. I have been making sourdough bread for well over 10 years, closer to 15. I now have been fermenting both types of kefir for almost 2 years. I sprout, ferment, then dehydrate Einkorn berries to preserve them for long term storage, then bread baking.

In the fridge, as I’m typing this, I have half of a half gallon Ball jar with fermented sauerkraut, and apple, just waiting for lunch time. Or dinner. Or a snack even. My secret to eating sauerkraut most day? Stevia. I add a few drops of it to the kraut in a ramekin, and it tastes like coleslaw. Repented food easily eaten, producing a healthier microbiome, and a healthier me.

These are 2 half gallon Ball jars of water kefir, fermenting until I can make them into flavored kefir soda.

These small bottles are the flavored water kefir soda, fermenting until they give up a good belch when burped, showing they are ready to go into the fridge to stop the rapid fermentation having taken place. The quart jar is milk kefir, fermenting until it separates into kefir, and kefir whey, at which point I will put it in the fridge as well, processing it into cheese, or a sour cream substitute, in the following days.

Then the process starts all over again. I haven’t bought sour cream until recently. As I was plagued with a few injuries in my quest for better health, I didn’t get around to making the aforementioned kefir items. No big deal. It lasts in the fridge for months.

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

I have to be honest here- I really dislike junk drawers.

Their only purpose is to collect junk, hence the name. As I really dislike junk, and clutter, you can see my dilemma.

I have had one such drawer, in the kitchen, since we moved in 6 years ago as I didn’t have anyplace else to put the items neglectfully taking up space in said drawer. That has changed, for the most part.

I have since taken the drawer in hand, and dealt with it. Those things that I have never used, probably will never used, were discarded, or given away. The items that I will definitely need in the future such as twist-and-ties, matches, light bulbs for the 2 ovens, those kinds of things, have been rearranged, and, in fact, had the drawers changed position. The junk was always closest to the heart of the kitchen, nearest the counter most used, the sink, and the stove. What???

I decided that the cutlery drawer, always closest to the living room door, needed to be closer to the sink, making putting said cutlery away more convenient.

I’ve also decreased the number of each piece of cutlery to 4 as I’m by myself, and can easily wash used utensils.

I think that’s enough genius for one post. Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

I’m getting quite a bit of relief from my plantar fasciitis.

Thank the Lord.

I have found a new guru on YouTube, and I’m going to share him with you. Do with this information what you want.

His channel is Dr. Waterling, and watching his videos is like a quick trip back to nursing school, or seminars with physicians speaking about how different things one does affects how the body responds. I have relearned so much I can’t explain it here.

I have changed a bit of my morning routine to now include drinking a quart of hot tea though his recommendation is 400-500ml very warm water. Very warm water does nothing to excite me at 0730, so I have added 3 sachets of English breakfast tea to my quart bottle, and drink that as soon as I’m physically able. After that, I have included drinking another, at least, 1 more quart of water throughout the day. I have to tell you, right here, that the fasciitis is so manageable it makes me doubt myself.

I’m not going to walk very far today, probably once around the park now, it’s 10:30, and then again, later in the afternoon. I need the sunshine as my mental health needs the vitamin D. I’m going to take 200mg. Ibuprofen an hour before I go out as a proactive measure. I’m not stupid. Plus, I’m hoping that with the large increase in water consumption, the extra movement moving my lymphatic system along, I can alleviate this debilitating pain altogether.

That said, I’ve just taken my aforementioned Ibuprofen, and am going to go wash up my breakfast dishes, and start making both my asparagus, and zucchini soups. Those I will freeze to have for lunch or dinner in the upcoming weeks. As soups, frozen, they take up less room in the freezer than when they are whole. Just a thought.

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

Writers note: Yes, I did indeed write several posts on the 9th. With a rotator cuff injury, and plantar fasciitis hovering over me, there has been little I can do besides type.

Now, as I was saying before I interrupted myself.

I have rechargeable lights tacked up underneath sheaves all over the apartment. They are in the kitchen under the cabinets, in the bedroom, under 2 cabinets, and now, inside my bedroom closet.

I got so tired of opening the closet at any given time of the day, or night, only to be met with a huge interstellar black hole. I know where everything is as I put everything in its place. That’s not the point. The point is that I want to be able to see said items in the places in which they were put. I want to be able to reach in my closet with confidence that what I retrieve it exactly what was expected.

Voilá. Rechargeable lights.

This photo is quite dark because I don’t want to reveal the secret depths of my wardrobe. I have a style unlike most 70+ year old women here in Mexico, and I need to keep it that way. I wouldn’t want anyone trying to copy me. 🤣

Really, I just took the photo late one evening, and am too lazy to retake it.

Until next time, consider replacing some, or all, of your electric lights for rechargeable lights. I have lights all over the apartment when our electricity has gone napping.

Stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

I label everything that goes into the fridge, freezer, or cupboard.

Why? Are you kidding me? I walk into a room and can’t remember why I’m there. You expect me to remember what that frozen blob of something is in the freezer in 4 months? Or that something in the back of the fridge that is not a normal color?

Since I do label so often, I decided I’d be kind to myself, and get a tape dispenser with Sharpie, and put it on the side of the microwave, right next to where I do all of my meal prep.

Of course, I had to buy other colored tapes so I don’t get bored of using them. Plus, the blue is really difficult to see the item stenciled on it. Bummer. I’ll change it out soon. I have red, orange, and some other color I can’t remember.

If I were to take a photo of my cupboards, fridge, or freezer, beige, and blue labels everywhere is what you’d see.

I hope this inspires someone to do the same thing. It has made such a positive difference in how I use the food stuffs God has given me.

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

Let me start by saying that tomorrow is Ivan’s, and my 50th wedding anniversary. I wish he was still here to see, and share the changes I’ve been making. He would have liked them. I miss you so much mi amor. I will miss you forever.

I have a desk, finally.

I haven’t had a real desk for 40+ years. I had a roll-top desk years ago that we left with my parents, and haven’t had one since.

Since Ivan has passed, I have converted our “spare bedroom” into an office of sorts, where I can have a bit of seclusion to write posts for this blog site, pay bills, (ugh!), and watch whatever I’m in the mood for on my computer.

I’ve been using our good-sized folding table from Costco as my desk since I cleaned out all of the accumulated stuff from the room, and gave quite a bit away, thank the Lord, but put the rest across the hall in the “guest” bedroom. Lord knows it’ll never be used as such as I have definite plans for it in the future.

This is the table that has served me well for a few months. I found that it was too large, and I kept adding stuff which made me crazy. I really dislike clutter. So,

I bought, and assembled, (in only 3 hours 🤣🤣), this little beauty. Just right for Mama Bear.

I added the adhesive tiles, and smiled.

There’s more to come, as you should have anticipated, in the adventures of Diana’s Desk.

Until then, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.