Thoughts On A Cloudy Sunday

On Friday I went and had my medical appointments at the VA. The news was not great, but I’m not dead, so there is always room for improvement.

After I finished that, I popped off to my daughter’s home, and played Words With Friends, while she finished up her work from home day!

I also played with her sweet puppy, Freya as we waited to go and pick up Savannah, and afterward drop her back at the house with her Daddy, so we could leave for dinner and a show.

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After dropping Savi off, we drove to Nashua and went to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. We ordered two appetizers and one meal that we split, Mandy had a fruity cocktail and I had my new drink of choice, a nice Scotch!

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Then we headed to the John Edward Event, which was just down the street. Surprisingly, it wasn’t mobbed yet, and Mandy dropped me at the door and parked.

We entered the event, and Mandy eyed some seats, but just as we reached them, some people swooped in and took them. So we scanned the room, walked to the other side of the room and sat down.

The event started on time, and almost immediately John was talking to two women who sat just across the aisle from us.

Now here’s the thing, although many of the things he said resonated with the women, there were a few things that did not, and I believe the reading was seeping out, over to us. The items listed below he was so adamant about and when the ladies kept declining, I suspected they were for us.

Here are the things that he said that did not fit them, but fit us so perfectly.

  • K name
  • Died in a car accident
  • Was organ donor
  • June was an important month.
  • Mentioned Roz, Rosa, Rosamond
  • Parents passed. One from heart failure
  • Dad was easier to get along with
  • Mother was difficult
  • Mentioned numbers 11, that repeat

During his reading, I felt a very overwhelming hotness inside. Not like a hot flash at all, but almost like I had a furnace radiating through my body starting from my stomach.

I tried to raise my hand to alert him about the organ donor aspect of the reading, especially when the women said no so many times. But he kind of waved me off.

But I am convinced that those words were for us.

  • K name…My daughter Katie
  • Died in a car accident…  She did.
  • Was an organ donor…Katie was
  • June was important month….it is when the accident happened
  • Mentioned Roz, Rosa, Rosamond…My mother’s name
  • Parents passed. One from heart failure…true, Dad
  • Dad was easier to get along with…yes
  • Mother was difficult……yes
  • Mentioned numbers 11, that repeat…Katie’s birthday month was November

Once he turned to read away from us, the hot feeling disappeared as quickly as it had come on me.

My daughter is more skeptical than I am. She mentioned that a lot of the reading did resonate with the other two women. And that is true, but I wrote down the things that felt important for us. So in that first 20 minutes, there were more things that made no sense to us, but to the other women.

But thinking back to when we arrived and how we had lost those first seats and moved closer to the woman who was selected for the first reading. made me feel that we were right where we were supposed to be.

At the very end of the event, I was chosen to ask a question of John. I asked him a question about the horrific ways people die. When they come through to him, do they talk or reveal much about that?

He said that Spirit does not want to be remembered for how they died but rather, how they lived.

So, people, I guess the biggest thing I got out of that one question, was I needed to move away from how Katie and my friend Candy have died, and focus on how beautifully, happily, they had lived their lives!

 

 

A Very Busy Day!

Saturday found me awake at 6:15 AM. I put the coffee on, walked the dogs in the rain, and then came in, stripped the bed, and started washing sheets, blankets, towels, etc. All in all, I did 9 loads of laundry. Washed, dried and put away. Not to mention remaking the beds.

I made a nice breakfast for us, which included my new favorite. A flaxseed (meal) muffin. It’s made in the microwave in a coffee mug and it really is good! The added bonus here is that the freshly ground flaxseed is good for lowering your cholesterol naturally.

I am posting the Flaxseed Muffin recipe on Saturday, so just scroll down for the recipe.

Lunch was interesting too. I made a cauliflower pizza crust and topped it with onions, peppers, mushrooms, and roasted eggplant. Topped off with a quarter of a cup of fat-free mozzarella cheese and baked for 20 minutes! Delish!

After that I cleaned the freezer in the kitchen out and organized it, as the last time I opened the freezer door, a pound of ground beef fell out, just missing my toes!

My new shoes arrived and they fit perfectly and I love them! The burgundy ones are for wearing with dressy slacks when I want to walk on the wild side, and the other pair is for me to use as slippers around the house. I have terrible feet and need arch supports all the time. What do you think of them?

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I love the burgundy ones. The shape, the style and yes, I adore the color! It certainly perked me up to get the mail today!

I also stopped in at Walmart and found a DVD of the movie “Sully” for $5.00! Call me a very happy girl!

 

It’s A Wrap!

Since I had worked pretty hard on Saturday, I decided I wanted to relax a bit on Sunday. Somehow, it did not turn out that way.

I seemed to be consumed with shelf clearing and organizing, but sometimes I feel like I am losing the battle.

Jack had seen a show about a woman who comes in and whips your home into shape. Her website is called Horderly.com and he said I should look it over.

I did, and I would love to be able to purge the entire house, but I live with Mr. Hoarder! So this would be quite difficult.

However, 2018 saw me finally finish clearing my office out and fixing it all up, so why not start with another room. I think the formal living room that we never use may be the next place on my list.

I think Spring is here, finally. We have had two pretty nice days and I am hopeful that this is it, but you never know.

One year we had a massive blizzard on May 9-10 we got 13 inches of snow! So, yeah, one never rules out snow until well after that! At least I don’t.

Jack got up early on Sunday so he could watch the Masters Golf. It was a wonderful round of golf to watch and we both were pleased to see Tiger Woods win after so much adversity in his life. Both emotionally and physically.

So, my friends, that’s a wrap of my weekend!

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I Feel Sick!

On Tuesday life was going pretty well. I got up, made coffee, drank several cups and proceeded to start a project of catching up on my filing.

All was going well until about 11:45 AM when I started to feel ill. At first, it was nothing much, but within an hour I was in terrible pain. I thought it was a UTI and all I needed was antibiotics. In fact, I have some leftovers and I almost self-medicated, but I held off.

Good thing. As the day wore on I felt worse and worse. E-gads! I wondered if I had a kidney stone. Honestly, I felt like I was giving birth to a Rhinoceros!

We got a test to see if I had a UTI, and yes I did. So, I decided I would go to the Walk-in Clinic on Wednesday morning before WW. And it’s a good thing I did.

I was up bright and early on Wednesday, went to the walk-in and was their first patient of the day.

It turned out I have a UTI that had backed up to the kidneys. Talk about pain.

So, they started me with a very strong antibiotic and sent me home with orders to drink, rest and drink some more! And not adult beverages either.

I’m resting, drinking, and taking my medication and I hope I will get well quickly. I really hate being sick!

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Weekend Wrap

Well, this weekend sped by and I was busy cleaning and cooking. The usual 60-year-old housewife stuff. But I’m glad the laundry is done, the beef stew is made and the Greek Salad dressing is done.

I watched Savannah in her play, “Jungle Book Kids” and got to have lunch with my family. All fun!

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Savi in the play.
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Savannah and her two grandmothers!
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Me and my girl!

Savannah was great in her play and we all enjoyed watching her.

Our weather was splendid. Lots of sunshine and warmer temperatures! Yay! Finally a little taste of Spring!

Happy Monday!

The Weekend Wrap

Our weekend was a busy one. I finally got the laundry caught up with, and on Sunday, of course, it was time to cook the annual Corned Beef and Cabbage, St. Patrick’s Day Dinner!

My attempts at following in my Mom’s footsteps had never really succeeded. In fact, I got out her cooking notes and could find nothing relating to Corned Beef. Drat!

So after reading The Pioneer Woman’s comments on fixing a tender Brisket, I found a recipe by Tyler Florence, and then I sort of took from both and threw caution to the wind and cooked that sucker!

I used a slow oven, my cast iron Dutch Oven, and time. Six long hours of cooking the Corned Beef.

All I can say if OMG!

Since I was cooking a lot of Corned Beef, I decided to cook the veggies separately. Pearl Onions, Cabbage, Carrot Chunks, and Boiled Potatoes!

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Not my meal, (photo from the Internet) but this is what mine looked like. I just forgot to take a picture!

We’d invited friends for the meal, and everyone ate so well. I was so happy that the meal turned out to be one I took pride in. I hate it when I have cooking failures.

Lili enjoyed being the center of attention for her birthday, and she has now settled in to being a full-fledged five years old.

And that my friends, is the weekend, wrap!

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Weekend Wrap

After getting about 2-3 inches of snow yesterday, the dratted rain arrived in the late afternoon. Jack had already been out with the snowblower, but when the rain hit the drive it turned to ice. This morning, when I let the pups out, our back patio was all crunchy ice.

I’d hoped that we would have warmer temperatures today to help melt some of this, but a cold front is moving in as I write and there will be no melting. Ugh!

While Jack was working on the drive yesterday I was trying to figure out a problem on his laptop. A friend told me once if you have a problem, type in the exact problem in your search engine and read how to solve it.

So, I did this, and after three attempts, the problem was solved. I felt good about this, and I thank Brad for his advice many years ago.

Arnie is still trying to figure out this new seat. Yesterday he kept trying to balance on the arm and it was pretty funny to watch him.

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Cute as a button this one!

20190223_140814Anneliese also came up and tried the new seat. As soon as I put up my feet electronically, she hopped down. Neither Arnie or Anneliese know what to think about the mechanism! Makes me giggle!

I tried a new recipe last night for shrimp. I had a bag of frozen uncooked shrimp in the deep freeze and I pulled it out and after cleaning them, I cooked them with butter, garlic and at the last minute fresh lemon squeezed over it all! Yum! I served it with Onion, Mushroom, and Pepper Risotto.  Not bad at all.

Have a wonderful Monday!

Maribeth

Sunday Happenings

Sunday morning I fixed an amazing breakfast. Klosterbrot (German Bread), Leberkäse (A fine German Meatloaf is often eaten at breakfast or lunch), Eggs, Onions sauteed until they were soft, and a wonderful Florida grapefruit that was a gift from my late friend, Candy.

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The meal was wonderful, and we enjoyed the grapefruit knowing that even though Candy was very sick at Christmas, she had somehow managed to order this box of fruit for us. Three more and we are done. I know I will cry when we eat the last one.

After breakfast, I showered and Jack said we should go and do our grocery shopping. So I dressed and off we went.

We hadn’t done a big shopping since I came home, so it was a three-store marathon, and we got some great deals on meats and vegetables!

Then we stopped at our favorite Chinese Buffet and filled up before heading home. I always know how good or bad I am looking by how the waitress charges me. A Good Day means she doesn’t think I am a senior and I get charged the usual fee. A Bad Day means I look every bit of my 60 years and then some and she charges me at the senior rate. Today was a Good Day!

We’re due for more snow tonight and into tomorrow. 3+ inches of the wet white stuff! Ugh!

Anneliese is doing well. We both think the divot (ulcer) in her eye is better. She goes back to the Specialist at the end of the month. Until then, meds 4 times a day and I am watching her like a hawk!

Happy Monday Everyone!

 

Being Back

I seem to be settling into life back here in New Hampshire. It’s warmed up a bit and was actually as warm as it was during the Florida cold snap that I lived through when I was down. Funny isn’t it? 59 degrees in Florida is COLD! Yet, here in New Hampshire, I wore a Spring jacket and actually saw several people out in shorts. Really! Shorts!

The mountains of snow in my yard have started to melt some, and Jack worked hard to break up the three inches of ice in our driveway so that we could get some serious melting done there. We also had an incredible run off of water under the ice in the driveway. Yes, New England weather is just crazy.

Anneliese’s eye is so much better today! I’ve been holding my breath, terrified she would need surgery, but the four drops and salves are working and she is no longer in pain at all. Call me a happy girl! Anneliese too.

I made a totally awesome lunch today of tomato soup with basil and a love Greek Salad, with chicken in it. I’d made my own Greek Salad Dressing the other day and it came out really well. I want to try a few other salad things this coming week.

It’s nice to be home, nice to be getting into a routine once again.

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Winter

A few days ago I was in Florida, with Palm Trees and green grass. Oh yes, and one heck of a tropical rainstorm! It was a welcome back sort of weather time for me, as I lived just over the bridge from Candy’s sister, Mary.

Now I am home. There is nearly four feet of snow in my back yard, paths for the dachshunds and Lili to use, and temperatures that start below zero almost every day.

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Welcome home indeed!

But it is good to be home. After driving that crazy Chevy rental car, (a terrible piece of trash) I am driving my nice sturdy Highlander.  The roads are not congested, (although snow covered in spots) and my life has returned to the same quiet pace that I  thrive in.

I cooked my first meal at home last night. A lovely rotisserie chicken, roasted potatoes, and a Greek salad. Quite good and I know Jack was thrilled.

Super Bowl Sunday finds me making Chicken Stew and salads for dinner. Nice warm food for yet another cold day.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!