The Dackel Princess

The Friday Five

We’re nearly halfway through July of 2019 and I wish I understood the whole cosmic speed of time. I’m still wondering how that little girl I was way back when, who lay in the sunshine watching the clouds, feeling like time just stood still, is living her life at 60, where the days, weeks and months fly by!

In any case, I won’t bore you all with those ponderings, but I will present this week’s Friday Five!

We’ve been so lucky as this week we have had amazingly good weather. Hot, dry days with bright sun. Shorts and tank top weather. Right up until Thursday when the air was so thick and humid you could have cut it with a knife! Then the clouds moved in and the rains poured down!
Lili, of course, had her day at the spa and was all shampooed and groomed. SO, I brought both dackels into the shower with me and they were washed, dried and groomed. Now all three of my doggy kids are fresh as daisies!
I’ve been doing well with my healthy eating plan. At WW this week I was two and a half pounds lighter. I have been eating very healthfully and happily. They have 200 Zero point foods and I use those to fill up my diet and I have really been feeling good about it all. I just hope I can keep up the positive feelings and keep going.
I’m on my way to see my daughter and grandchildren! I’m going to babysit so she had Matt can have a date night. Fun will be had!
Wimbledon has been amazing this year! Today’s match between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will probably be the most exciting match of the entire series!

TBT: Grammie Alice

This week I am focusing on my girl’s grandmother, Grammie Alice. She was the mother of my first husband, and she was such a dear, sweet woman. She loved her family with her whole heart and was such a loving Grammie to all of her grandchildren.

In a few days, it would have been her birthday and so I have been thinking of her. I went in some old photo albums and found this cute picture of her and my girls taken one Christmas at our apartment in Milford, NH.

Mandy, Grammie Alice, and Katie!

I have always loved this picture as everyone has such sweet and happy smiles on their faces!

Throw Back Thursdays are such a great time to pull out those old pictures of our much-loved family.

Strength

I want you to close your eyes and think back to a time when you were in your prime. Back when you felt you could do anything and always your body would be strong.

Well, that was quick, wasn’t it? I remember a time when I would move my furniture around weekly, because…I could! I could bend, stretch and lift, and all my muscles worked the way they were supposed to.

Me in my mid-teens.

I took gymnastics in school until I grew to be 5 feet 6 inches. But even then, I was strong enough to perform the movements I learned.

That was…yesterday, right? Ha!

I’m not really sure how it is possible to still see yourself being young and carefree when things don’t work quite the way they used to.

The fact is, in my mind, in my soul, I am still that 15-year-old girl, who thinks young thoughts and dreams of a life on the beach. The only problem is, I’m sixty and due to circumstances beyond my control, things don’t work exactly as they once did.

All that being said the good news is that I am finally getting my strength back! My muscles are coming back and I no longer feel like I might drop the frying pan when I am cooking breakfast.

Now you may think this is rather pathetic, but after being so ill in 2017 where I was pretty much convinced I was going to croak, feeling this good is really fantastic!

Best of all, the pain in my neck and shoulders is finally diminishing and I am once again enjoying life!

I am so grateful!

After The Long Winter

One of the things that happen here in New Hampshire after a long, cold, snowy, muddy, slushy, winter is the annual clean out of the car. In our case, our Toyota Highlander is our year-round car. Or most importantly, the car we use in the winter, with all that bad weather!

The other day I noticed that the car was a mess. There was more sand and dirt on the carpets than at the beach near my home! And the seats in the car were simply filthy!

So first thing this morning out I went with the vacuum, Windex and paper towel. I washed everything down on the dash and instrument panel and then began vacuuming.

I felt the sun on my skin and immediately put on sunscreen, and then when I wasn’t sure that was working put on my rash-guard SPF-50 shirt to protect me.

I have a wonderful rug cleaner with all the upholstery attachments, so I got that out next and shampooed the seats and carpets. By the time I was done, I looked back and everything looked beautiful!

I came upstairs and drank down two huge bottles of water, and I noticed that I felt really sore too. I guess I got a workout.

However, the Highlander now looks fresh and clean and I feel pretty good about all that I accomplished.

Wrap-Up

Wonderful things have been happening in my little corner of the world. Lili had her day at the doggy spa and came home looking like this!

She looks like a new dog! She was soft and shiny and minus about 15 pounds worth of fur! Yay!

We’ve had several beautiful sunsets this week too. I managed to catch the best one the other night! And considering I used my cell phone, the picture came out very well.

I’ve been enjoying watching Wimbledon Tennis too! I get up very early to catch the early matches, and so I have seen many of them. I am so taken with Coco Gauff! At 15 years old she has the determination, concentration, poise, and talent, and is a joy to watch!

We went to a small gathering, as my neighbor dedicated his beautiful garden to his late wife, Gail. It was such a beautiful thing to see all the work he has done and how much thought he put into the gathering. His wife was such a sweet and amazing woman and we all miss her and her beautiful smile.

I tried a new medication for Lili. The poor girl freaks out with fireworks and I thought she would have a heart attack. I called the Vet who prescribed Sileo Gel. You draw it up in the applicator and shoot it into her cheek.

I was not sure it would work, but for the first time ever, Lili went through fireworks without a problem. Best of all, it does not make her groggy. It is great stuff!

Did you see the pictures of Prince Harry and Meghan Markels baby boy’s Christening? Absolutely adorable! The baby is so cute and I think he looks a lot like his Daddy but has his Mama’s eyes. I’m so happy they released a picture of Archie where you could see his cute face.

Well, that’s the latest from here! Have a good Sunday everyone!

The Friday Five

Well, here we are at the end of the first week in July. I’ve been busy, busy, busy, but blessedly, the 4th of July arrived and everything calmed down. As we enter the weekend, here are the five things on my mind.

In 1989 when Jack and I lived in West Berlin, we made several trips into East Berlin. There was a wonderful department store in East Berlin that sold some things we needed for the apartment. Our apartment on Lietzenburger Strasse was nice, but we needed some blankets. I found the most perfect summer weight Decke (comforter type blanket, Twin size) and I bought two. I have used them almost every day since then.

(Jack sitting on the bed with the dogs. The two Decke’s can be seen under him and the dogs. But now they are in tatters, having been well used and well loved over 30 years! I am now on the hunt for just the right duvet and duvet cover for my bed. My daughter directed me the right way for the duvet, but now I need to select the duvet cover.
Thursday was very hot. nearly 100 in the shade and over 100 degrees in the sun. It’s a tad humid too. I turned the air conditioning on early, and then watched Wimbledon Tennis!
I have managed to stay up to date with my housework, bills, etc. Despite my PT being painful at first, I have turned it around and feel so much better now.
I was able to get New England Sea Scallops, and last night I made Seared Scallops for dinner. Wow! Was that fabulous!
Lili is going to the Groomers today for a wash and blow dry! She is a handful and it is so much easier to get our pleasant young Groomer to take care of it for us.

Have a great weekend everyone!

New Feeders On The 4th!

After a couple of weeks of watching the larger, somewhat meaner birds eat all the suet feed in my feeders, I bought two, small bird feeders, for small birds.

These have a little roof on them which overhangs the feeder and feed, with no place for the larger birds to sit on top of the feeder and empty it!

The smaller songbirds can feed and the larger ones will go elsewhere. At least eventually they will.

This morning they are out there trying to figure out a way of getting to the feeder and they are having no luck!

Meanwhile, the Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Baltimore Orioles, Cardinals, and some other birds, that I have yet to identify, are out there having a good old time.

It’s not that I am a mean bird feeder, it’s just that when you have grackles and crows coming and emptying a feeder in 20 minutes, something has to change!

So I am very happy on this 4th of July to watch my little friends enjoying the feed.

Oh yes, the window reflectors are on the way! Safety above all else!

Physical Therapy & Agony!

I wish I was one of those strong people who could go to Physical Therapy and be very brave. However, my therapy is rather different from most, as I am having Dry Needle Therapy to get my muscles to contract and release.

This therapy is painful and I found that Tuesday’s therapy knocked me on my…bottom! Wow! It really hurt.

I called Jack on my way home and told him I would arrive at 2:20 and he should have a stiff drink ready for me. Which he did.

Every time I stopped to relate my experience and pain, he stopped me and told me to drink more.

After that, I took an hour-long nap. And when I woke I was feeling okay. Just okay.

Dinner is frozen lasagna for Jack and Cauliflower Pizza for me. All easy peasy.

I’m working hard with the Physical Therapist because I want to be well. I want my pain level down below 4. I want my life back.

I hope that by tomorrow morning (Wednesday) I will be feeling worlds better.

Fingers crossed!

In Memorium of Starling

After several weeks of feeding the birds, and enjoying them more than I can tell you, there was a death on our yard.

Some of the larger birds at the feeder.

Yes, a cute little Starling flew into the sliding glass doors, more than likely to get away from a larger bird. But the end result was a thud on our sliding glass door.

I jumped to my feet and raced to the door and I could see the little birdie still alive. I grabbed my gloves and went out to see if I could save him the way I had to save Woody Woodpecker a few weeks before.

Unfortunately, Starling had broken her neck. As I carefully picked her up, she was struggling for breath. I carefully stroked her and spoke to her until she breathed her last.

Then I came inside and cried. I asked Jack to bury her little body. Which he did. While I went on the computer and ordered Bird Stickers for the windows.

Meanwhile, I have put stuff in the windows to prevent further deaths in my yard. But I am so sad to have lost little Starling.

Clogs

I tend to over keep things. That being said, Sunday, while doing some cleaning, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my toe like I had stepped on a shard of glass!

I immediately stopped what I was doing, took off my 10-year-old clog, that I use as a slipper, and checked the sock and then the clog. Yep, inside the clog, coming up through the sole of the shoe, was a thin nail! Now, this wasn’t anything I had stepped on, it was actually from the construction of the clog! I attempted to get it out, but while trying to do this, I noted the holes and tears of the inside and I finally admitted to myself…”This clog must go!”

That is actually two pairs of clogs I have ditched today. A record for me, because I keep shoes forever! Really. I hate to break in shoes and my Merrell shoes and clogs last me for years.

The new clogs.

Fortunately, last winter, there had been a sale on Merrell Clogs on Amazon and I selected a pair that I would use as slippers. So it is not like I am shoeless.

Still, I’m sad to say goodbye to those shoes. I say this as I am putting a band-aid on my toe to stop the bleeding! Darn clog!