Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

The trees in the park are dying.

We’ve been here almost 5 years, and I’ve been photographing the park since we moved in, and I’m telling you, something is wrong with the trees in the park.

Everywhere I look there’s a dead palm tree, or a dead evergreen, or a cypress tree. It’s disturbing for sure. Let me show you.

It’s sad. There are so many more that I didn’t photograph. I don’t know what to do about it, if there’s anything I can do about it. The government structure here is quite different than in the States. I’m sure there is someone I could talk to if I could speak well enough to do that, but finding that person is quite difficult.

It seems to be mostly the palms that are dying. Most of the other indigenous trees are all doing well. I doubt I’ll ever know what has happened here, but it makes me sad.

Until next time, please, be happy, and have faith in the Lord.

As one of the dinners Max sent me for the 1200 calorie ADA meal plan, this was one of them.

It had, however, no spices, and very few vegetables. So, the seat of my pants to work.

I have sent Max the tweaks I made to his recipe, and he sent it back to me with all of the revisions I gave him. It was absolutely one of the best stews I’ve ever made, and I want to share it with you. Now, let’s see if I can do it.

There it is. I used the veg that I had in the fridge, so use what you have on hand. Use what’s going to spoil soon so you waste nothing. I forgot to add S&P to taste to the recipe because they’re both already in the recipe. I didn’t need much salt because of the Knorr chicken bullion powder, though, now that I think about it, I remember I had to add another 1/2 T. As you can see by the nutritional information, it’s low in calories, as well as carbs, but has a good amount of protein.

Nothing else to tell you right now. I will have lots to show you next time though. I’ve been working hard on getting this place a living space, not a storage unit.

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

Post script: it’s been pouring down rain for about 30 minutes, so the breeze coming in through he windows is heavenly.

Today I made gelatina mosaico.

This is what it looks like. I can’t tell you how good it tastes as you need to make it for yourselves.

It tastes as good as it looks. I never saw this in the US when we lived there, but it’s everywhere down here.

It’s easy to make, and is eaten at a plethora of different occasions; birthday parties, weddings, weekend get togethers, etc. We make it maybe once a year. It’s not too sweet, which goes well with us as we don’t like cloyingly sweet things. The sweetness level here in Mexico is much better for us, sweet but letting you want another bite, not so sweet that one bite is enough.

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

This past week has been an absolute blast.

I’m down a solid 3 1/2 kg. I’m walking everyday, at least 7,500 steps. And, I had my AI friend Max send me a 1200 calorie ADA meal plan, for 1 week, that is Mexican cuisine based.

WOW. He sent me an amazing meal plan, along with the recipes, for 7 entire days- breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, along with snacks that, each day, equals, roughly, 1200 calories. The plan is fantastic. Ivan wants in on it too.

Today we had tilapia tacos with cabbage slaw, and salsa verde for a late lunch, celery sticks with peanut butter as a snack, and our alcohol for tonight. (The alcohol has a huge amount of empty calories that really irritates me, but it’s only Friday, and Saturday nights, so I’ll walk a bit more on Saturday, and Sunday). We didn’t have dinner because we ate the fish tacos around 4:00pm, as I said, a late lunch.

When we get going with the meals next week, I’ll let you know how it went, what the recipe results were, any changes that need making, and if something is really good, I’ll post the recipe.

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

Post script: my second loaf of potato bread, (you really need to make this), turned out beautifully, as did the first loaf. Amazing flavor, with a light density, and aroma that is out of this world. Let me know if you want me to post the recipe.

Delicious!

As you can see, this is the recipe for rolls. I used the same recipe, but in step #5, instead of rolling the dough into balls, I flattened it into a rectangle, and rolled it into a loaf, put it in a 9”x5” bread pan, and went from there. I’ve made it twice now, and will be using this as our weekly bread for some time to come.

I have to tell you how excited, jazzed, I am today.

I overslept, (up at 8:32am instead of 7:30am), so there’s that. I got up, weighed myself, (down a solid 3k, yeah), sat, and had my morning RedBull while saying my morning Rosary, then listening to the BIAY. Great start.

Whilst I was listening to BIAY, I put together another loaf of potato bread. It’s now about 11:45am, and it’s in its final 3o minutes of the second rise. Then, into the oven for about 30 minutes.

If you have never had potato bread, better yet homemade potato bread, you really are missing out on something special. It’s so easy to make, especially if you have dehydrated potatoes on hand. It’s the only way we eat mashed potatoes as the dehydrated form from Idahoan is only dehydrated potatoes. Lovely.

If you’re interested in an amazing bread recipe, let me know, and I’ll publish it in another post. It takes about 10 minutes to measure the ingredients, then another 10 minutes to knead, if kneading by hand, 5 minutes if using a stand mixer. I enjoy the feel of the dough so I knead by hand.

So, after all of that, I took the 2 lightweight blankets off the tension rod in our bedroom, and have them in the washing machine. It’ll be interesting to see how they look going back up. It’s been almost 5 years they’ve been there. Time flies, does it not?!

I’ve got to go now, and send the information our car insurance company needs to help us replace the windshield on the Mercedes. It has a 12” crack in it that we have no idea how it got there. But, that’s a whole other story.

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

Post script: I forgot to tell you that on my walk this morning, about 10am, I have added 2 more blocks to the length of the walk, and I did it, for the first time, without my faja, (FAH-hah), the compression body suit, my body armor. Did well without it, too. Yeah!!!

I haven’t started, or finished one for that matter, in ages.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed putting puzzles together. Mind you, these are online puzzles, and I have all of the pieces upright, not in a jumble. I’m not going to even think about how much time it would take me to put one together, like those we used to put on the kitchen table, or the living room floor. Yikes.

I use the app called Jigsaw HD, and have for a number of years. I even take interesting screenshots that I can make into puzzles. I really enjoy it. I also get to listen to a book while putting the puzzle together. What’s not to enjoy?

Most of the puzzles I’ve done have taken about 1 1/2-2 hours to finish, and worth every minute. The relaxation is amazing.

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

It’s raining.

Finally.

It’s been raining, with some thunder, and lightening, for about 30 minutes. The temperature has dropped by about 10º.

The plants in the park have been needing rain for quite a while. The leaves have begun shriveling up, and they look so sad.

I can’t wait to go for my walk in the morning. Everything smells so fresh at the moment, though I have to smell that freshness through the bedroom window as it’s almost 10:30pm. I love the smell of wet dirt.

Until next time, stay happy and love the Lord.

Post script: the walk in the park, well, around the park was marvelous, though the smell of dog urine was exagerrated, not washed away by the rain. Yuck.

I have to say that one of the many great things about living here, in Mexico, is the availability of fresh farm to table food.

Is there a way to know the trail of said food? Not that I can see. We used to buy all of our produce from a market about 2 km from us. Now I buy it from Soriana, and have it delivered. Is everything pesticide free, E-coli free, carcinogenic free?

I have no idea. And, I have no idea how to find the answer to that question.

I feel very comfortable buying our fruit, and veg from the Mercado Paseos, the one about 50 ft. from the bank we use. Where they’re grown, I don’t know. I don’t have enough command of the language to ask the people behind the counter.

All I know, for sure, is that they’re not processed foods, and they don’t have petroleum based colorings in them. Check out how many foods you eat that have dyes called Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6. These are in thousands of foods you eat every day.

They are, however, only in processed foods. Try to get away from the foods that come prepackaged in any way, brightly colored cereals, even canned fruits may contain some of the dyes.

As I said, we are fortunate that we have the fresh food available to us 365 days of the year. We can buy from any of the supermarkets, or from a small local market; only the food imported from the US has petroleum based colorings.

Choose the good stuff. Shop at the farmers markets in your area. Get back to eating food the way God intended you to eat it.

Until next time, stay happy, and love the Lord.

Just after the beginning of this year, I started the dominoes falling.

They were slow to fall at the start, but as the days, weeks, and now months have gone by, they are falling quite routinely. Thank you Lord.

As I have said, I started by doing 2 things simultaneously- first was reducing the amount of alcohol I consumed, and the second was praying the Rosary daily. Both have had a profound effect on my way of living.

After I managed those 2 changes I started walking again, around the park. At first it was sheer torture, but as I’ve gotten more accustomed to it, things are easing up a bit.

Next came my ability to stay focused throughout the day, getting more done than any other time since we’ve been here. I’ve been able to rearrange the kitchen cabinets, get them all cleaned out. I’ve started labeling everything going into the fridge, as well as the cabinets with masking tape, and a marking pen.

I’m back to making kombucha again, as well as baking bread weekly.

Then I bought 2 5-tier storage units that remained in their boxes, on the living room floor for 2 months. We got the sliding doors out of the 3rd bathroom, I got the storage units up, and rearranged the pantry. I was able to put shelves in the lower cabinets, made of the leftover pine boards we’ve had for about a year, (we were going to make who knows what with them but never did so I reallocated them to my project), and was able to completely redo the pantry.

I have since moved this over there, and those things over here, making room in the living room to actually move around. Our storage unit, up on the roof, we let Jesús, and Liz use while they were here, but Jesús has gone on to another job, though Liz still works upstairs for a neighbor. Anyway, they will be moving their stuff out of our unit and over to their new living space so we’ll be able to gut the living room, and live as normal, older, rich retirees that we are.

You needed a laugh, and you know it.

I have all kinds of before photos, and will take plenty of during, and after photos to show you the progress. I’m anxious to make it happen. We bought a robot vacuum before we moved down here, but have never been able to use it because we still have so many of those blasted yellow, and black totes all over the apartment there’s not enough open floor to use it.

Until next time, thank you, any of you, that prayed for the resurrection of my blog site. As I have said before, with the help of my sister Martha, the Lord, and all of my prayers, I am, once again continuing to produce nonsense. Stay happy, and loving the Lord.

and failed.

Fortunately.

Once again I almost drowned the Saki electric kettle, my favorite, (though you’d never know it by the way I treat it), appliance in the kitchen. I give it a vinegar bath every so often, when the water starts to taste of something. Water shouldn’t have a taste of anything, so when it does, I boil a cup of vinegar in with the water, discard, wipe out the kettle, and refill with water.

Lovely. I forgot to put a yellow microfiber cloth under the spout, however. You see, when it boils, it has a tendency to spit water out of the spout, especially when it’s been over filled, as it may have been this time. So, when I came back to it, an hour, or so later, as I had been creating the amazing coat rack, (see prior post), the readout on the kettle was looking rather wonky. When I tried to change the setting, it didn’t respond.

That’s when I noticed it sitting in a small pond of vinegar water, which had also run under the cutting board, and was pooling there also. Needless to say, I quickly found the cloth, tried to blot everything dry, ran and got my hairdryer, and started to dry the control coil on the base.

Nope. That didn’t help. I messed around with trying to make sure everything was dry, wiping around what I believe is called a thermocoil, you know, the heating element on the base of the kettle. That didn’t work either.

I gave up. Of course I said multiple prayers, and promise the Lord all kinds of nonsense, but He listened anyway.

I left it on the counter, overnight, unplugged, and now, the kettle is full of water as I type this, and is coming to the boil. Thank you Lord. Again.

Until next time, stay happy, and loving the Lord.