Blogging For 30 Days Has Been FUN

 September 30, 2021

I almost blogged for 30 days but I skipped Sunday and it's ok.  September flew by! Tomorrow will be October 1.  The leaves are changing a little and the weather is a bit cooler.  

Thank you Effy  for hosting this blog-a-thon.  It was fun and I hope I continue blogging. Time will tell.  I've so enjoyed reading the blogs others in the group wrote.  Everyone was so creative in their own way.  I looked forward to not only write but to read the other blogs.  The rule was if we posted a blog we were to read and comment on three other blogs.  I never could just read 3, everyone's blog was interesting.

I hope we all continue blogging without obligation but if it speaks to us.  However, I couldn't resist this song/video.







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HEALING IN THE SUNRISE

September 29, 2021

I found this video and I felt soothed, relaxed, and at peace. So I offer this gift to you. 





If you can, open the video to full screen and imagine walking onto the beach.  

Imagine the ocean washing away any worries, unforgiveness, sadness, stress or whatever is bothering you. 

As you stand in the sun light feel the healing rays  coursing  through your body uplifting you, inspiring you, loving you. You are blessed! The universe loves you and this is a gift from the Universe just for you 💖💓

 


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Free Books and other Free stuff

 September 28, 2021

My county library subscribes to Hoopladigital.com an app where members can borrow and download e-books.  We can borrow 3 books a month.  So today I scrolled through a bunch of available books to see what I wanted to borrow before the end of the month. Since Covid hit I haven't been to the library and I miss it. But being able to download and borrow e-books is fun.  Oh yes, we can borrow movies and also audio books.

Our library subscribes to Libby too - another app.  I can borrow lots of books there if they are available. If not I can put a hold on them.  They also have a lot of magazines.  There are so many I can borrow that I am thinking of unsubscribing to a magazine app I have.

One of the books I borrowed from Hoopla is Come and Get it written by Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman.





I love watching her TV shows.  I was just browsing through the book and found a sheet pan recipe I want to try.  It's called 12 chicken legs and 40 Garlic cloves.  Now I like roasted garlic a lot but not sure I'd roast that many.  She turns on the oven to 400, lays the chicken legs and garlic cloves on the sheet pan, salt and peppers them and drizzles them with olive oil. She roasts them until they are done, about 40 to 45 minutes.  They are served with French bread to spread the garlic cloves on.  Doesn't that sound delicious?

Ree uses frozen bread dough to make pizza with. I want to try that too.

The other free stuff I got was from our health insurance.  We each get $40 to spend every 3 months for stuff like eye drops, tooth paste, and a lot of other health products.  The new quarter starts on October 1 so I needed to catch up here too.  

Then I created a food shopping list to be delivered on Thursday. That isn't free but it's cheaper than walking around the store making impulse buys. 

Ree said in her book that the only communication the cowboys had on the ranch was by Citizens Band Radio until everyone got cell phones.  I remember CB Radio.  My "handle" (name) was The Confessor because I used to write confession stories.


CB radio

Confession magazines my stories were published in



  Confession magazines aren't being published anymore though.  I wish they'd bring them back.  I am so happy with the internet, borrowing and reading e-books, watch movies and tv and get lost in You Tube Videos.  Oh yes, going to online classes on Zoom.  This is all fun. 

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A Woman Built her own Tiny House

 September 27, 2021

I didn't write my blog yesterday so I'll catch up at the end and that's ok.  I started to force myself to blog yesterday and started to feel guilty. Then I laughed and told myself it's all good.  And it is! 

I'm fascinated by Tiny Houses and watch them on TV and on You Tube.  The one I'm posting about today would not be my style but the fact that this woman built it herself with help, of course, is intriguing.  She knew she had no retirement saved and she needed a place to live economically when she retired. Her journey is fascinating to me.  

I think I could live in a Tiny House if I was alone.  But renting the lot to put it on might deter the savings.  The other deterrent would be bad storms.  A house on a trailer with wheels is not going to be safe in a bad wind storm or a tornado.  But what is safe in tornados? I think that would be my biggest worry, especially with the weather changes we're all experiencing now.

If this video speaks to you I hope you enjoy it.  If not, that's good too.




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Loving Autumn

 September 25, 2021

After living in Florida for 47 years I was so hungry to see fall and the beautiful colored leaves.  We took a trip up to Asheville and as we drove through the beautiful mountains tears rolled down my face and I knew I had to live where there was four seasons again.  I grew up in the north but all I could think of when I saw fall was how much I dreaded going back to school.   I hated school so bad that I'm not sure I even noticed the beauty of autumn.  I sure do now.  







I helped rake leaves with the people we were staying with and I wanted so much to jump in the big pile.  Bob dared me and I did.  Right into a pile of leaves with yellow jackets.  Thankfully I didn't get stung.  

Stella knows how to enjoy piles of leaves!  I love watching this video and I hope you do too.





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OOPS

 September 24, 2021

Friday night 9:30 pm.  

 I really messed up today making soup.  I put my Instant Pot on sauté while chopping vegetables.  Added some butter and olive oil, then dumped the veggies in.  I opened a new bag of baby spinach and dumped half of it in the pot.  Something told me to taste the spinach so I did.  Yuck.  It had a musty taste and luckily I'd only put it on top. So I scooped it out and put it back in the bag.  I poured the chicken broth in and added my spices.  But I forgot to push the steam valve toward the back. I pushed pressure for 9 minutes and left the room. 


Next thing I heard all this hissing.  Being in the middle of something on my iPad I decided to wait a bit. Bernie came in and said, "Is the Instant Pot supposed to be hissing like this?"  I hurried into the kitchen and steam and liquid was coming out like it was natural releasing. The silver button was up but the pot wasn't counting down.  Hmm, I thought, what do I do next?  I turned it off, pushed the hissing valve back and turned on the pot again.  But it still didn't count down.  So I carefully pushed the valve forward again and let it release all the steam.  Liquid was still coming out making a mess on the lid. Finally I was able to open the pot and the soup looked ok.  I'd sautéed the stuff a while before and the pressure did build.  Nothing was raw and one can drink the broth right out of the carton. 
 So I decided I'd serve the soup anyhow.  Some of the vegetables were a tad more crunchy than usual but on the whole the soup was good.  This was the first time in 3 years that I forgot to push the steam valve back so I didn't beat myself up.

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Time is Flying

 September 23, 2021,

One week to go for this September blog-a-thon.  One week until the last day of September.  The days are flying.  My life is flying by in some what of a blur.  I'm slowly learning to be in the moment   but that doesn't mean that I don't think about the future.  Sometimes I wonder how I'm going to die.  I'm not obsessed about it but at 85 - well I don't think that's abnormal or strange.  My father died at 32 and my mother passed at 72 so I've outlived them both. I hope my death is quick and peaceful.  


I've seen so many changes! When I was a child we had no tv. Instead we listened to programs on the radio and our imaginations created the character's looks. 

Women dressed up to go shopping.  The 1960s changed that.  Now we can wear whatever we please like Jeans.  




We had party lines on our phones.  We'd pick up the receiver to make a call and we'd hear conversations going on so we had to wait our turn.  Or if there was no one talking we'd hear the operator say, "Number Please."  

I remember working a switchboard in a newspaper office in Palm Beach in the 50s. I liked the job plugging in the phone plugs to connect the parties. Once I accidently disconnected an important call. They were upset but forgave me.




People talk about the "Good Old Days" but personally I don't think of them that way.  I mostly like today better because of cell phones, computers, and the myriad ways of communicating. Do you remember being stuck beside the telephone waiting for an important call?  Now we can get our important messages in many other ways.

 I like to read real books but reading the print on many of the pages has become a struggle.  I'm so thankful for being able to read books and magazines online. I can enlarge the print and read comfortably.  I subscribe to several magazine apps and I download e books from our county library.  I'll never run out of things to read and it all fuels my innate curiosity. 


Yes back in the day we could play outside all summer without worrying about what the kids have to worry about now.  But really for me it wasn't that peaceful.  I hated school, had many surgeries, was sick a lot.  So yes I do like today better.  I wish there wasn't the violence but there have always been wars.  

Getting old is an adventure for sure.  And, as they say it isn't for sissies.  I am thankful for my curiosity, my health and my active mind.  I'm actually looking forward to the next adventure when my time on this planet is over.  So when you hear of my passing don't mourn, just wish me a good trip ask I fly with my angels to see what's ahead. 





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Full moon, Clouds and Crickets

September 22, 2021

Happy Autumn everyone.  It sure did get cool after the front moved in.  So refreshing!

Ok so I woke up around 4am after about 5 hours of sleep. I stepped outside hoping to see the full moon.  The skies had been so cloudy that I was doubtful.  But there she was, with a halo around her.  The sky in the south was glowing orange.  There is a plant place in that area where they have lights in the gardens and I guess that's what makes the sky glow.  

I shot a video that came out pretty well.  I posted it on my Facebook page but I'll be darned if I could get it to work here on blogger.  I could upload it but it wouldn't process or whatever that's called.  I tried a number of times and got a square that said Video unavailable.  I googled it, followed some directions that led me nowhere, so I finally gave up.   I could hear the crickets chirping in the video and I so wanted to post it here.  Here is my video if you're interested.  Just the full moon like you see here and the orangish sky with crickets chirping.
  

 





Orange/yellow sky
Halo and clouds around the full moon. 


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Sleepless in my house

 September 21, 2021

Yes that's what happened to me Sunday night.  After falling asleep around 11:45pm I woke up somewhere around 1:30am and "that's all she wrote." 

My mind was spinning and even with some rounds of EFT tapping, trying to meditate, telling myself that this moment was the only one to think about, getting up and walking around, a few swear words, I was still awake. I was also thinking how how spacey I would feel the next day.  At least I didn't have any appointments, just an early afternoon food delivery.


I'm so glad I don't have insomnia like this often.  I remember back in the 90s when I could only sleep a couple hours a night for three months.  It was brutal and was caused from PTSD after a surgery outcome that was different from what I'd expected.  All this triggered childhood surgeries that hadn't been healed.

What do people do when they can't sleep? Some get up and read, but I was just too tired to concentrate. I need to get a blue tooth headset so I can listen to some guided meditations or an app for sleep on my phone. I love my iPhone but don't like that they eliminated the headphone jack. I don't like earbuds or anything sticking in my ear.

I've read about people cleaning houses or baking when they couldn't sleep.

Who has insomnia and what do you do when you can't sleep? 

I fell asleep after breakfast on Monday for about an hour and surprisingly felt better than I thought I would.  I also got some answers about something that was worrying me, so I breathed a sigh of relief.  Another nap after lunch helped too but around 7pm I felt myself starting to fade.  It was too early to go to sleep for the night and too late for a nap. 

I'm happy to report that I slept 7 house last night and feel thankful and refreshed.



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Image by Piyapong Saydaung from Pixabay

Have you ever felt free enough to dance and shine?



September 20, 2021



I saw this somewhere and it spoke to me.  As a child I might have wanted to dance like this but, my mother would have said, "don't make a spectacle of yourself." of course as I got older I wouldn't let myself feel this vulnerable and free.  Why do we lose our sense of spontaneity as we age?  It's all about should's and don'ts and what will people think? 

This is a brave child



She feels it




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Sunday

 September 19, 2021 - Nineteenth day of Blogging for 30 days in September with http://effywild.com

Fall is almost here - in three days, September 22.  I hope we have a vibrant, colorful display this year. 




A colorful tree I drew

 
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She Sang While Scared!

September 18, 2021

I'm recycling an older blog today.

Anna Clendening, who has been suffering from panic disorder had the courage to walk on stage on America's Got Talent, admit how afraid she was, tell the world about her anxiety disorder and sing. Howie Mandel also talked about his anxiety and OCD problems. Howie encouraged Anna and said sing as if you are home in your room and no one was listening. Anna sang and moved me to tears. Afterwards Howie stood, walked over to her and gave her a hug. Even Howard Stern told her how she moved him.

The reason this moved me so much is because I also have suffered from anxiety and panic and like Anna, I spent a lot of time at home afraid to go places.  I am  better and I hope Anna is able to work through her fears and live a happier life.  




I got curious about how Anna is doing today and found a link to this interview


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Silence

September 17, 2021,


A friend posted this on Facebook this morning and it spoke to me.   Jean Arp was on to something and we don't even know when He wrote this. (I googled Arp and he died in 1966.   He was a German and French sculptor, artist and poet)  


A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. -Jean Arp, artist and poet ( Sep 1887-1948)

I wonder what Jean Arp would think about the noise in today's world.  People didn't watch TV back then with the screaming commercials.  Computers and Social Media was unheard of.  You Tube and streaming videos were in the future.   

Have you noticed that almost every documentary has to have some kind of background sound running? Sometimes the background noise covers up what the message is about or what they are trying to teach us.  Why? It's one of my hubby and my pet peeves and when we can't hear the dialogue we'll leave the channel.

We need silence in our life. 

 Here is an article on the 7 benefits of silence with a Ted talk included.



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Jean Arp's paintings  (Sorry for the ad noise in the beginning)

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Images by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay

Angels Surrounding Our World

 September 16, 2021,

I don't have much to say tonight. It's been a strange day with notice of a water leak somewhere in the house.  A plumber suspects it's in either our sinks or toilets and will be fixing it tomorrow.  Hopefully it's not a big deal.    

Here is a picture I like to focus on in my mind when things get too stressful.  Instead of getting all caught up in the negative I pause, focus on this picture and imagine angels surrounding our world and everyone in it. That's including YOU 💖





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Saturn, The Devil and Mercury retrograde had a party in my room last night



 September 15, 2021

Last night I went to plug my iPad into a strip to charge and everything went dark in my room.  The Universal Power Supply that I plug my desktop computer into along with the monitor and printer started blinking green.  When I pushed it, the computer shut down without being shut down properly.  My light and clock were off too.  I grabbed the flashlight, took the clock and plugged into another outlet. Nothing.  So Bernie started to move this bookcase so we could test another socket and the bookcase fell apart!




That socket didn't work either and we were sure that something baaad had happened.  He tried flipping some breakers while I googled green blinking light on my UPS.  Ah, Google told me the power supply was running strictly on battery so with no outlets working it was just a matter of time before the battery ran down.

I had a box of colored pencils, crayons, stickers and other creative things in a box and it opened up all over the floor.  Colored pencils everywhere! It's still a mess and I have books and angels on my bed and more angels and pencils on the counter in my bathroom.


Luckily he discovered there was a breaker just for this room and the UPS stopped blinking and turned a solid green.  Since it was so late we decided to leave everything alone and fix it in the morning. I grabbed my pillow, blanket, things to charge and headed to the living room.  It was a warm and comfy place to sleep.  

I'm back writing this on my desktop. My electronics are working but the room is still a mess.  I'm not in a hurry to get it all back together, just thankful nothing major had to be replaced. 



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Feeling like a Slug



 September 14, 2021

I didn't feel like getting up this morning. Felt heavy, logy and blah. I did some silent tapping, didn't have the energy to use my fingers.  Yeah, one of those mornings.  After breakfast I tried to go through some boxes of music that were on a table in the carport but the mosquitoes about took me home with them.  I started sweeping the front porch and another batch of mosquitoes made themselves known all over my legs.  So I hurried inside.

Feeling unmotivated I found this and had to laugh.


Yes, that's how I've been feeling after hearing about so many Covid breakthrough's after getting fully vaccinated. 

Since there's nothing I can do about it, I certainly didn't feel like getting myself more blah and down, so I turned on Leave it to Beaver.  Yes there was dressed up June Cleaver cleaning her house in high heels and wearing pearls.  Ward comes home,  goes right to his newspaper and doesn't hear a word June says to him.  But she's pretty feisty and pulls the same thing on him. They both laugh.  

Of course little Beaver Cleaver is in some kind of trouble and his big brother Wally tries to help him but it doesn't always work.  Ward starts in on the Beav and good old June tries to smooth things over.  

For some reason I love watching these old shows. I always wanted to be like June except for the high heels and I kinda thought Ward was cute.  Don't hate me, ok?  LOL  After all that was the era when I was first married and trying to be the best wife ever.😩😩



We had homemade vegetable soup, I cleaned out the fridge and washed all the bowls and stuff. So here it is almost 4pm and I don't know if I feel better or not.  I know I have much to be grateful for including writing this blog and reading the others that have been posted. 
We have smoke from the wild fires out west in our area so maybe I'll get to take some pretty sunset pictures if it doesn't get cloudy.

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Sunrises make me smile



September 13, 2021

This is what I get to see out my bathroom window when the weather's clear.  Some mornings the sun will fill up the whole room.  Other times just the sky turns pink or orange, then the clouds roll in and I don't get to see the actual sunrise.

Other mornings we're fogged in and don't get to see the sun until the fog burns off.  

These pictures were taken this morning and it reminds me of Cat Stevens song, Morning has Broken.  











 




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Angel Hugs

September 12, 2021


This is my blog post today.  

 


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