Week Twelve - Day Six: An Impromptu Get-Together!

Got a text message yesterday morning from my daughter-in-law. "There's an Easter egg hunt and rummage sale at POW-MIA Park tomorrow. Come join us if you want. We will be there from 10-12; and then 12-3:30ish at my house!"

Why yes, I would love to! So I grabbed Mom and we went grocery shopping. The list was not extensive. She was going to bring chips and dip. I was going to make potato salad and bring a veggie platter.

I made the potato salad last night so it would be ready for today. It allows it to chill really well and the flavors to meld.

Yes, it is just as good as it looks!

Obviously I was not going to stick too closely to my plan today, but I did watch what I ate. I had fruit salad, potato salad, bbq chicken, noshed on the veggie platter, and had a few more chips and dip then I had anticipated. But in retrospect it was the major meal of the day eaten in early afternoon. I didn't eat anything after 3 pm, so I am not going to bed tonight on a full stomach.

There was also homemade vegan chili, vegan cookies and a vegan chocolate cake that I did not partake of.

Nor did I have a bowl of ice cream. I did eat one bite, but I really can't eat ice cream for the most part.

It is one of the few things that will give me insulin dumping. If you have never experienced it, it is a very uncomfortable feeling. I feel lightheaded, get shaky, sweaty, my heart races, and I can't wait for it to pass. It is an awful feeling!

So although it was a fairly uneventful day, I did have fun with the neighbor's baby, my grandkids, and the dogs got to play together, all while visiting family!

And of course the day would not be complete without at least one goofy picture.

This is Madison, Maddie for short. All four pounds of the cutest chihuahua around! We could not help putting her in the empty box and getting a picture of that cute little face. She is very patient with our antics. Why, I don't know.

Have patience!

So that is my otherwise unexciting day. Tomorrow will be another day and I will continue my journey. I take it one day at a time. It's all I can do.

Thanks for hanging out with me.

…Lin…

Week Twelve - Day Five: Heading into the Weekend!

Today my day started off really early. I got up at 6:30 to meet my dad at 7:15 for breakfast. We went to the Waffle Barn.

Yes, their waffles are probably the best I've ever had anywhere. This is a small family run business with only 3 locations. I'm lucky to have one close to me! I also love supporting local businesses.

Now, I bet you are asking,  "So, did you have a waffle?" No, I did not. You see that ham and eggs special? That is what I ordered. I ate the ham and the eggs and left the potatoes and toast behind.

It was so good! I love dipping breakfast meat of any kind into runny yolks. Then again, breakfasts are my favorite meal any time of the day!

What was I doing up so early anyhow, other than having breakfast with dad? Well, he had to take Smokey in to be bathed.

This is Smokey. She is a 20 lb Chihuahua. Well, not a pure bred, but she has a lot of Chihuahua in her; a LOT... of something... in her, let me tell you! But she is the sweetest dog you could ever have. She is now home and all clean and fluffy - in more ways than one! Hahaha!!!

ANYHOO…

I got home and decided to relax, play on my computer, watch senseless TV, clear off recordings from my DVR, have a little time all to myself; because heaven knows I haven't had all that much time to myself for a few weeks now.

Yeah, how did that work out for me? Not so good. Mom called and wanted me to come over and look at her yarn, take her shopping at JoAnn for more yarn, and then grocery shopping. No, not Wal-Mart this time, thankfully. We went to FoodMaxx, the local (unionized) warehouse grocery store. Whew!

I need to fill in the blanks!

I am hoping this does not turn out to be a daily expectation. I may go to the grocery store twice a week if I really, really need to. Otherwise I just make do with what I had.

Thanks for letting me whine! 

I finally got home, sat down and relaxed with my lunch. MMMmmm... Chopped Asian Salad. Taylor Farms makes a really good salad kit.

All I had to do was add chicken. I did pick out the wonton crisps, but everything else was great! I ate the whole bowl. It was just half a bag left from the other day, so it wasn't the entire package pictured here. That would be way too much! I was stuffed and happy. :)  I keeps me from eating the box of See's Easter candy that Captain bought me.

Because he is an evil boyfriend... Very evil... Very... But I love him, anyhow. He told me I could save it and share it with him after Lent. :)

He makes me giggle...

I have a confession. I was in the kitchen tonight making potato salad, and without even thinking I grabbed the bag of potato chips, opened it up, and ate a couple of them. Then I thought, "What the heck am I doing?" I grabbed my chip clip, closed them up and put them away. It's crazy how we eat without even thinking about it at times.

I am happy to say that the Asian chicken salad I had for lunch was enough for me for the evening, as I had it late in the afternoon. Tomorrow we are going to the park for a Easter egg hunt with the grandkids, then back to Jon & Cheryl's for lunch. It will be a fun afternoon. Like I said, I am making potato salad, but I will try to be cautious with what and how much I eat.

Fortunately I do - when I'm not having cravings!

In the meantime I wish you a beautiful night and send you much love.

…Lin…

Week Twelve - Day Four: Making it All About Me!

Today was one of those days that I made all about me!

Maddie and I shared hot dogs and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Of course I also had 2 cups of coffee. We were both feeling full and happy!

I cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed, and then went grocery shopping so I could make this delicious #recipe I found on the web site The Sunny Skillet. I got everything to make Easy Cheesy Baked Ranch Chicken. How yummy does this look? Because it's a pound of chicken, it will last me about 3 days. :)

And although the recipe calls for 1-2 tbps of regular flour, I will swap it out for almond flour. Yum-O!

Hashtags? Seriously? Did I really just use a hashtag?

Sorry, I just had to throw in a little humor here!

Yes, I used a hashtag. I decided that when I use a recipe link I will hashtag it because it will make recipes on my blog easier to find. You can just use the search option. That's the cute little box on your right that says, "What are you looking for?" Brilliant, isn't it?

We were going to Concannon Vineyards for dinner at The Underdog Bar. Unfortunately they messed up our reservations, even though we made them in person, so we decided to cancel. Instead we went to the movies and dinner.

#WORSTMOVIEEVER!!!

Yep, we saw Noah. I thought it was the worst thing I have ever seen. Really, there are no words to describe how bad it is. What you see in the trailers is nothing like what you see in the movie. I am one who doesn't mind when a movie director uses a little bit of "theatrical license" to embellish a biblical story, but when you turn it into a Tolkien fantasy, well that is way beyond theatrical license.

I had a Groupon for Pete's, so that is where we went. Well, we were going to, but when we left the movie neither one of us were very hungry. So we ended up around the corner at IHOP.

I had a (as in "one") breakfast crepe and salad. He had the bacon & cheddar crepes with hash browns. And coffee. Lots of coffee. I was tired and still had a 40 mile drive home.

All in all it was a good day. I'm slowly getting back in the groove. Tomorrow I will be making that chicken recipe. Can't wait! I hope you all had a lovely day!

…Lin…

Week Twelve - Day Three: Welcome to my Wednesday!

Wednesday was probably a lot easier than previous days have been.

Food this day included eggs, hot dogs, and a salad.  It was more like a snack day than a meal day. I am working on getting back to some semblance of a schedule. I still need to gather a couple of recipes, go to the grocery store and restock my pantry. Too many restaurant meals, for sure.

Now, my son-in-law Ryan will laugh at that one because, yes, Captain and I do eat a lot of restaurant meals. But it seems to be different when it's a part of my life and my schedule, as opposed to living in the middle of chaos when everything is out of control.

Today I actually did something that is almost unthinkable for me. I shopped at Wal-Mart.

Well, I didn't, but I took my mom there. She LOVES Wal-Mart. I hate it. So I traipsed along with her throughout the store. It reminded me once again of why I hate it so much. It's too big; people are rude; and I disapprove of employers who won't even pay their employees a living wage.

OK, rant over.

I also took mom to the doctor for a recheck. Yes, she definitely had pneumonia, but between the antibiotics and steroids she is doing great. Recheck in a month!

Thursday ought to be fun. Captain and I are going to a special dinner at Concannon Vineyards. Yes, we go there a lot. But it's so beautiful there, and the food is always great.

And that is pretty much my boring day.  I look forward to sharing more with you tomorrow! Hope you had a great night!

…Lin…

Week Twelve - Day Two: Struggling to Get Back in the Saddle!

Yep, trying to get back in the saddle again is no easy task.

Tuesday's meals were rather sporadic. I was awakened at 7:15 a.m. by a frantic phone call from dad saying mom was really sick and she couldn't wait to see the doctor. I got up, got dressed, ate a quick bite of something (I really don't know what, I just knew that I needed to eat something so I could take my meds), and then made an appointment for her. Diagnosis? Pneumonia in her right lung. The doctor ordered a chest x-ray.

It was almost lunch time so we picked up dad and headed into town. As we were all hungry, and mom had to take her new meds with food, we went to Jimboy's Tacos. It was Taco Tuesday!

I had two tacos. Nothing wrong with the filling, but I did eat the tortillas, also. That was 22 net carbs that I should not have eaten. Unfortunately meals at that point were not really in my control.

We got the chest x-ray and then I took them home. Back at my house I did a few chores and waited for Captain. If it's Tuesday it must be Pint Night at The Happy Viking!

Our friends, Tom and Susan, joined us, which was a surprise because I thought they were still out of town. As this meal was within my control I ordered my Bloody Mary...

...some calimari...

 ...and bbq wings. That was the extent of it.

The rest of my night was rather quiet. No snacking, just silly TV. Now on to tomorrow. My life is slowly getting back to normal - well, as normal as it will be for the time being - and I am getting back on track. I feel good about it!

I hope your day was delightful. Thanks for hanging with me!

…Lin…

Week Twelve - Day One: I'm back!

Friday, March 28th, was supposed to be the start of the move-in for the parents. It did not happen. They tried to get the pet smell out of the carpet and they couldn't do it. Because of the weekend we didn't think there was anything we could do about it. But I was wrong!

My daughter-in-law got on the phone, made a few phone calls, and by Sunday they had a carpet company in there stripping out the old and laying new carpet and pad.

Because my son, Jon, works full time and then goes to school at night Monday thru Thursday, we knew the soonest we could move them in was Sunday. Sunday, you ask? Yes, my parents are Seventh-Day Adventists and they do not do physical labor on Sabbath, which is Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown.

But we had other plans, because sometimes life just can't wait!

Jon got off work at 4:30 and we all (minus the parents) met at the house and started unloading. My job was to unload the kitchen and get it organized. In the meantime everyone else was busy moving furniture and boxes into all the other rooms. We ate pizza and worked until late into the night. The game plan for Saturday was to meet again at 10 o'clock because they would be at church and I could get out of the house without 20 questions being asked! We worked almost 12 hours, at which time everything was unpacked and just a few things left to put away. They were the chachkies that we didn't really know what to do with. Beds were made, pictures hung, kitchen organized, play room and office all set up. We were finished! Now, how would we handle the reveal?

We decided Cheryl would call me in the morning to discuss "what was happening with the unloading," we would get donuts because "the guys would be hungry," and I would get them to the house about 10 a.m. All morning dad was antsy to get to the unloading; worrying about returning the rental truck (Jon had returned it the day before), how was everything going to get done... On and on and on... I kept telling him to calm down and all would be okay! Finally Cheryl called me and said, "Ask grampy if he has a box cutter so we can get these boxes open!" No, he didn't. "Well, no one has had breakfast so please go pick up donuts before you come over!" Dad's reaction was, "Donuts? Really? We don't have time!" Then he wanted us to take two cars; he was going to drive he and mom over to the house while I picked up donuts in my car. Um... no, we will take one car and go together because we don't need more vehicles over there in the way.

Finally we made it to the house. When we pulled up dad asked, "Where is the truck???!!!" I said, "Oh, Jon probably took it to put gas in before returning it today." He was unhappy. Jon and Cheryl walked out of the house with Erin and Evan. Dad said, "Jon, where's the truck?" "Oh, Elliott took it to get gas in it." "But he's not on the contract to drive!" "It's ok, grampy, it's just around the corner. Come on in, we can get started with some of the boxes!"

What was their reaction when they walked in?

They were stunned and speechless. All they could say was, "Wow! I can't believe it! It looks like we've always lived here!" They were both almost in tears as they walked around the house looking in all the rooms. There were things that I had never seen; and there were things that I knew about and shared stories as we unpacked and put the away. The only thing was, they were not very happy that we had done most of this on Sabbath.  I had to remind them what the bible said.

Mark 2:23-27

"One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, 'Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?' Jesus said to them, 'Haven't you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.' Then Jesus said to them, 'The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.'"

Mom and dad got their needs met, in spite of their beliefs. It was necessary because their health is such that they never could have done it by themselves, nor were they capable of helping very much.

They now admit that it was a blessing in disguise and are truly grateful for everything that has been done for them.

It has been a very long, stressful two and a half weeks, but now I feel good that they are settled close to me and I can help when necessary. 

I am very blessed to still have my parents, as both are 89 years old this year. Helping them is the least I can do. 

And now, time to get back on track. Today was day one... Actually it is day 78. Even though I have not been eating like I should, I have not gained any weight back. I want to lose 15 lbs by the end of the month. Think good thoughts for me!

Until then, I am wishing you peace!

…Lin…