Category: Initial post

My office, that is.

I had moved my office area to the living room not very long before Ivan died just to get out of our dark bedroom. I need open windows, and light.

As you know, if you’ve been reading any of these silly posts, I’ve been decluttering like crazy around here recently. I am so much calmer, and have so much more room that it’s amazing. Having said that, I’ve moved tons of “stuff” out of the smallest bedroom, and have set up my office in there. I’ll explain as I go.

As I told my sisters in a WhatsApp group text, I wanted to just clean off the shelf which is the top ledge of the Murphy bed in the spare bedroom. I couldn’t do that until I cleaned out all of the stuff in front of the M bed. I’ll show you.

I divided the wire cart in half, moving the top half to the corner, and putting my office supplies on it. I have since added a few of the plants that I like on it as well.

I moved the love seat that was under the window, to face the window, and form the living room area. I also put the bottom half of the 5-tiered wire rack in front of the window as my potting area. All of the herbs are growing in the window box as they are getting plenty of light, and close enough for me to use when cooking.

So, having done all of that, the guest bedroom is completely unusable at the moment as it is full of all of the things I want to get rid of. Most of it will go to Los Altos for Jesús, and Liz to use in the new addition to their home.

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

To what, you ask?

My wooden cutting board has come back onto the kitchen counter. I bought, and have been using a stainless steel cutting board/sheet that was supposed to be titanium, but isn’t. What it is however, is a knife-edge killer.

I’ve also brought back my Japanese knife set. In my decluttering, I put the whole knife set away, in the pantry, (not to be given away), but to have less knives on the wall, less brain clutter. I found that I then ordered new knives, only 2, from Victorinox, but still….. With the SS cutting sheet, I found I needed to hone my knives quite frequently in order to keep them sharp, to my standards.

FYI, if you find that you dread cooking, more importantly prepping food for your meals, check that your knives are as sharp as possible. It truly makes a big difference in the ease of accomplishing the prep work in order to make a delicious meal. Don’t be afraid of cutting yourself. Most cutting accidents occur when your knife isn’t sharp enough.

Back to the cutting board business. I watched an episode with one of my favorite cooks of all time, Alton Brown, on YouTube recently. He gave all of us the “best cutting-board-for-use-and-safety” talk, and why each type is good, or not so good to use, and whether it’s safe, or not. The SS/titanium sheet was touted as the most safe one to use as it can be cleaned so easily, blah, blah, blah. Having fallen for it in the normal hook, line, and sinker way that I do, I bought one, and have used it for several months. As I said, it’s definitely easy to clean, but a knife edge killer.

Now that I have my Boos Block wooden cutting board back, and my Shun Japanese knives, they’re sharp, the board is clean, stable on the countertop, and I’m enjoying the prep again. The knives are balanced, and comfortable in my hand so, off I go.

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

My magnetic knife racks, and my lovely cutting board. Happy, happy, happy.

I’ve started going to bed about 10:30 each night.

It has made such a difference. A good one at that. Until recently, I was staying up until 12:30am, sometimes even as late as 2am. Then, to try and get up at any decent time to start the day, is almost impossible.

Now, I have a routine I’m following almost daily. I’m up between 7, and 8am, shower, begin my hour of religious celebration drinking 2 cups of French press coffee, about 15 minutes of floor exercises, then my resistance band workout that takes about 20 minutes, a 45 minute 3-4 km walk while listening to 128 BPM music, (Google it), then brunch.

The only day I’m not doing all of that is Sunday. I’ve decided that for a while at least, I’m going to allow myself Sunday’s to relax, and recharge my muscles, and my soul. So far, so good.

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

I have never, in all of my adult life, slept as well as I have been lately.

Whether it’s due to the complete cessation of an overindulgence of alcohol ingestion, or the amazing GroundingWell™ mat on the bed, I’m sleeping at least 8 hours, every night, all night. I admit to 1, or 2 brief, and I do mean brief episodes of waking, but only long enough to roll over, or uncover my feet. I only get up to go pee if I’ve had a cuppa tea before bed, which, I’m proud to say, is closer to 10:30pm, rather than 12:30am, or later.

I’m also exercising again, and eating better. I’m no longer eating all of the chicken pieces when I make them, or all of the milanesas when I make them, or all of the potatoes when I make them, but I’m eating a medium sized salad, 1 protein, 1/2 c. to 1 c. frozen mixed veg, and 1/4-1/2 baked potato, sweet, or white. I haven’t been to Costco for almost a year so I don’t have any baking potatoes. That’s in the near future.

I’m going to have to Uber it to Home Depot, Costco, and Liverpool, Mexico’s larger semi luxury store, not far from us. I don’t want to put J & L out, making them walk all around the mall with me; I want to get out and gawk at all of the things I’m not interested in buying. Besides, Liz is due with baby 4 in a few weeks.

In closing, if you want better sleep, stop drinking alcohol. If you just want better sleep regardless, get the GroundingWell pad for your bed, and convince me you don’t sleep like a kid again. It took me about 2 weeks to really get the whole effect, but now that I’m sleeping so well, I just thank the Lord for whomever figured out this grounding business.

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

I thought I was done with my shawl.

Then I thought I wasn’t. So I unknitted it back to the last row, started another set of 32 rows of 100 stitches/row, and “finished” it. Put fringe on it, and then it was done.

But it wasn’t. Not really. It still didn’t look like I wanted it to, plus I found another skein of the yarn I’m using, so what was I to do?

I did. I took all of the fringe off, unknit it again, that makes the second, or third time, I’ve lost count, and am working another set of 32 rows, 100 stitches/row, then adding the fringe, blocking it, and calling it done. Or I’ll keep knitting until I’ve used up all of the yarn.

This time, however, when I went back to where I thought I ended with the pattern, it wasn’t where I really ended with the pattern. I discovered, after about 6 rows, (and here I want you to understand that I don’t care in the slightest) that I was off on the row count. So, I have a cute little curly cue in the pattern that no one will ever notice except the 3 of you that read this. And me, of course.

And all of the extended family I’ll show when they see the finished work next time we go to Los Altos. 😂 Let me show you now what I did.

All I can say is so what. I enjoy the challenge of the different cable patterns, but I don’t enjoy the thought of going back to rectify my mistake. I have other things I’d rather be doing, and that ain’t it. I just want to finish the damned thing so I can move on.

I’m moving on. Regardless.

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

I have discovered 2 ladies on YouTube that experts in the very thing.

It is something I’ve wanted to do for decades, but alas, I had a husband that enjoyed “things”. He didn’t have them growing up so when we were old enough to buy them, he did. WE did.

Now, though, he’s gone, and I’m left to deal with all of the “things” we bought, no longer use, never used, had to have, don’t want to deal with anymore.

So, I’m not going to. I’ve given tons of stuff away, clothes mostly at this moment. I’m working on my clothes now, stuff I’ve never worn because I gained weight immediately after retiring. (Before I retired, truth be told.) Things in a size L, or 12, 14, all gotta go. I’ll probably never be that size again, and as I type this I can say I’m 50/50 on whether I care or not.

I’m walking 2-3 km almost daily, I’m eating so much better now than I ever have, so any angst I’ve felt about being to heavy is going out the door with the excess “stuff”. I’m not going to spend whatever time I have left on this lovely plain to be upset, and self deprecating when what I should be doing is enjoying my time left to me.

So I am. My kitchen is my escape room at present. I’ll show you a few photos and you can decide for yourself which you prefer.

The “normal” view, so it’s “before”.

This is how it looks now, every time I walk into the kitchen, peace, calm vibes wash over me. No more this, or that on the countertops. Just the barest minimum. Wait, there’s more.

From this island of chaos to

to this. Even this spot has less in it now than when I took this photo. I’m just too tired to go out and take another photo.

That’s just the beginning. I’ve made a rather large dent in the living room, the guest bedroom, the bathrooms, and the spare bedroom. I have converted the spare bedroom, the smallest bedroom, into my office as I’m tired of sitting in the living room with all of the “stuff” at my back, nagging me to get it gone.

I’m working on it. You know about the building of Rome, and such.

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

I was able, after a bit of trepidation, to finally get the viewer in the front door.

Evidently, it is, somehow, in the same place as the original door that was there before we had the new door made. Don’t ask me how that happened, I can’t even begin to understand. When I went to drill the hole for the whatever it’s called to go in, there was a small plastic disc the same size that I had to pry out before being able to drill all the way through.

After using this drill bit, then a bigger bit, then a, well, you get the idea, the whole thing went together like a hot knife through butter.

Now I can see who’s at the door before opening it. The condo administrator came to the door last night. Did I look through it before opening the door?

Of course not. I knew she was coming, and I was in the process of getting ready for bed, cleaning off my makeup. Bummer. My big chance, and I blew it.

Next time.

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

I’m going to take a few weeks off.

Again.

I need a bit of time to recharge my soul. I’m tired, becoming a bit melancholic, and am not interested in feeling like this.

In 2 days, Ivan will have been gone from me for 6 full months. I’m not going to spend much time crying; I’m beyond that, for the most part. But I need to find a few more things to fill the huge whole in me.

I’ll spend the time continuing my daily walks, exercising, decluttering. I’ll continue to take whatever photos I like, and will show you some of them when I’m back.

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

I’ve put away the flannel duvet, and heavy comforter insert for this season.

I’m into the Spring season now, and my bedding has to reflect the current season.

I have also changed up the flannel bottom sheet for a nice slippery cotton, pillowcases as well.

You don’t have to change yours up yet, if you don’t want. It’s starting to warm up during the days here, so some of the residual heat remains into the middle of the night, and even into the early morning. My feet, especially, get so warm it wakes me up. It helps, too, if I remember to put lotion on my feet, and legs before going to bed.

When do you change your winter bedding to Spring time, lighter weight bedding?

I almost forgot- I’ve also changed all of the wallpapers on my Apple products from snow, (I love my winter wallpapers), to flowers blooming along my walk around the park. In the living room, the monitor I use with my Mac mini, I’ve switched that to a Sequoia sunrise. So peaceful, but renewing as well.

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

I’ve decided that I’m not done yet with the Laura shawl I’ve been knitting since time immemorial.

I decided that it needs more length to the shawl overall, so I undid the finishing stitches, and am going to add at least one more skeins worth of yarn. It’s nice and warm, for sure, just not quite long enough, IMHO. Let me show you.

This is a photo of the “unknitting” process, taking down the cast off stitches, and adding the body of the piece back onto the cable, and needles to finish the project.

Here, all of the stitches have been placed back onto the cable, with the stitch markers in place, designating the 9 different patterns I’m using to knit this. In theory, it shouldn’t take me more than a month to really finish this, and then to add the fringe, something I’ve never done before. I’m also knitting a pair of leg warmers from the same yarn, to wear around the apartment. I wear leggings, and me knees get so cold in here. Remember leg warmers, any of you “older” readers? I’m bringing them back.

So, that should do for now. If I finish the shawl, for real this time, I’ll post a photo of it.

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