Faith , Family, Friends & Fun

Hello Friends, 

It’s been a while since I’ve said hello and I apologize for that. Strike it up to the business of life and well, just flat out laziness when it comes to my blog but, I’m hoping to change that. Actually, I’m hoping to change a few things. I’ll tell you about that in a different post. In the past I have done YouTube videos sharing my weekends on a Sunday morning video but I’ve decided I like putting it on my blog So, I thought I would share this past weekend with you and what we did.. 

For once it was actually a nice quiet weekend which, for those of you who know me is a real rarity in our lives. But this weekend I truly enjoyed myself. The only thing that was missing was being able to attend Mass but my body seems to predict most of what I do and don’t do whether my mind agrees or not. 

Being I wasn’t feeling up to par to go out anywhere, on Saturday night we had our best friends Linda and Bill over for some coffee and fun. We played this card game called “bulls*it”. Yes you read that right. It was so much fun! We had a lot of laughs and played quite a few hands. 

On Sunday, it was just Lou and I and the four legged kiddos. We didn’t do much at all . I did my usual morning stuff like, feed the dogs, clean the kitchen, make the bed but other than that I pretty much lazed around the house for most of the day doing what I wanted.  We actually sat in quiet for a long time watching the kiddos play then Lou and I played some Gin Rummy. He always wins! but that’s okay, we haven’t done that together in a long, long time. It’s the little things people. 

I spent a lot of time in the morning catching up on my reading. I’ve started a five year spiritual reading journey and I needed to get caught up and I surely did! 

No, we didn’t watch the Super Bowl. My team wasn’t in it and I just well, couldn’t ‘get into it ‘ this year so instead, Sunday night I spent working on my crochet and catching up on the few TV shows I had on my DVR. It was a nice quiet weekend with no real cooking to do because I had so many left overs. Score!

Thank you for reading my post and please stay tuned to my blog as I will be adding more posts this week. 

I hope you all had an enjoyable peaceful weekend. 

 

 

 

Faith , Family, Friends & Fun

Hello Friends, 

It’s been a while since I’ve said hello and I apologize for that. Strike it up to the business of life and well, just flat out laziness when it comes to my blog but, I’m hoping to change that. Actually, I’m hoping to change a few things. I’ll tell you about that in a different post. In the past I have done YouTube videos sharing my weekends on a Sunday morning video but I’ve decided I like putting it on my blog So, I thought I would share this past weekend with you and what we did.. 

For once it was actually a nice quiet weekend which, for those of you who know me is a real rarity in our lives. But this weekend I truly enjoyed myself. The only thing that was missing was being able to attend Mass but my body seems to predict most of what I do and don’t do whether my mind agrees or not. 

Being I wasn’t feeling up to par to go out anywhere, on Saturday night we had our best friends Linda and Bill over for some coffee and fun. We played this card game called “bulls*it”. Yes you read that right. It was so much fun! We had a lot of laughs and played quite a few hands. 

On Sunday, it was just Lou and I and the four legged kiddos. We didn’t do much at all . I did my usual morning stuff like, feed the dogs, clean the kitchen, make the bed but other than that I pretty much lazed around the house for most of the day doing what I wanted.  We actually sat in quiet for a long time watching the kiddos play then Lou and I played some Gin Rummy. He always wins! but that’s okay, we haven’t done that together in a long, long time. It’s the little things people. 

I spent a lot of time in the morning catching up on my reading. I’ve started a five year spiritual reading journey and I needed to get caught up and I surely did! 

No, we didn’t watch the Super Bowl. My team wasn’t in it and I just well, couldn’t ‘get into it ‘ this year so instead, Sunday night I spent working on my crochet and catching up on the few TV shows I had on my DVR. It was a nice quiet weekend with no real cooking to do because I had so many left overs. Score!

Thank you for reading my post and please stay tuned to my blog as I will be adding more posts this week. 

I hope you all had an enjoyable peaceful weekend. 

 

 

 

Fifty – Nine Years

Today we celebrated my husbands fifty-ninth birthday. We had a nice day together that we also shared with our best friends Bill & Linda. 

The temperature outside was a balmy thirty some odd degrees but the love shared on this day made for a nice warm and cozy day together celebrating my husband. I had so many thoughts and feelings when I woke up this morning, mostly, thankfulness. We decided that we would stay home, I would make a nice dinner and we’d have some birthday cake and that’s exactly what we did and I thought I would share some photos of the day with you. 

Enjoy! 

This is my handsome birthday boy..

A kiss to start the day!

I forgot to take a photo of the dinner we had. I made a nice ham along with some green beans, a salad and some biscuits. I did however take a video of us singing Happy Birthday to my handsome man. Yeah, don’t turn your sound up too loud because we sound like a few suffering cows. What can I tell ya, singing is not our strong suit. 

from on Vimeo.

Then it was time to cut the cake ! 

After cake, we, meaning Me, Lou, Bill & Linda decided to take some photos but Bill, our resident comedian decided to goof around. He always makes us laugh.. 

This is myself and my bestie Linda 

And of course even though with time boys turn into men they are still always little boys at heart. They look like two little boys playing in the backyard. Bill is messing around and Lou has this intent look on his face while he’s watching Bill play with my salt and pepper shakers as if they are nine years old again and Lou can’t wait to see what Bill will do next.. LOL

Best Buds 

And then it was time to say G’night.

I’m Feeling It Lately

There are many days, okay, most days that I try very hard not to complain, not to show how I am feeling and or I blow it off as no big deal but lately, sheeweee, I am having a really hard time with this. 

I am beginning to wonder if the last Twenty Two or Twenty Six years are finally catching up with me. I say take your pick between years because I was originally diagnosed with Lyme Disease in 1990 but it didn’t completely disabled me until 1994 so, take your pick. To me, twenty two, twenty six, it really doesn’t matter. Bottom line is, it’s been a long time. 

The last eight months or so I now suffer daily, excruciating pain like I never had in all my years of chronic illness. Which tells me, either something ‘new’ is going on or the old stuff is getting worse. I haven’t figured it out yet, don’t know if I ever will. 

One of the hardest parts is living in the South none of the doctors here and trust me, I’ve seen plenty of them understand , are not educated in nor do they care to be educated in Lyme disease and it’s associated tick born illnesses. It kind of leaves me hanging on a cliff daily just wondering when I’ll fall over. Not the easiest way to live but, I have faith that God knows what’s in store for me be it good or bad I know He will be with me.

Each day I literally drag myself out of bed and force myself to begin the day with whatever that entails. Usually it’s feeding the five mouths with four paws and then it’s off to the races taking care to see my husband has what he needs and then what my house needs. In typical female fashion I put my own needs last but as of late, I’m not even sure what those needs are anymore. See what I’m saying? My brain fog is so thick that if I were a boat lost at sea in the fog I’d capsize and drown. Not so sure I’m not drowning now but I will continue to do as I try too. Each day I will give my life and my day to the Lord, ask for guidance, ask for the intelligence to recognize his guidance and then follow it and Him. 

 

I'm Feeling It Lately

There are many days, okay, most days that I try very hard not to complain, not to show how I am feeling and or I blow it off as no big deal but lately, sheeweee, I am having a really hard time with this. 

I am beginning to wonder if the last Twenty Two or Twenty Six years are finally catching up with me. I say take your pick between years because I was originally diagnosed with Lyme Disease in 1990 but it didn’t completely disabled me until 1994 so, take your pick. To me, twenty two, twenty six, it really doesn’t matter. Bottom line is, it’s been a long time. 

The last eight months or so I now suffer daily, excruciating pain like I never had in all my years of chronic illness. Which tells me, either something ‘new’ is going on or the old stuff is getting worse. I haven’t figured it out yet, don’t know if I ever will. 

One of the hardest parts is living in the South none of the doctors here and trust me, I’ve seen plenty of them understand , are not educated in nor do they care to be educated in Lyme disease and it’s associated tick born illnesses. It kind of leaves me hanging on a cliff daily just wondering when I’ll fall over. Not the easiest way to live but, I have faith that God knows what’s in store for me be it good or bad I know He will be with me.

Each day I literally drag myself out of bed and force myself to begin the day with whatever that entails. Usually it’s feeding the five mouths with four paws and then it’s off to the races taking care to see my husband has what he needs and then what my house needs. In typical female fashion I put my own needs last but as of late, I’m not even sure what those needs are anymore. See what I’m saying? My brain fog is so thick that if I were a boat lost at sea in the fog I’d capsize and drown. Not so sure I’m not drowning now but I will continue to do as I try too. Each day I will give my life and my day to the Lord, ask for guidance, ask for the intelligence to recognize his guidance and then follow it and Him. 

 

Social Media Pitfalls

There are many social media platforms but the most popular is Facebook. Four years ago I was still against joining the connected millions but as fate would have it I eventually caved to the request of friends and family and joined. Looking back I think it may have been a huge mistake. No, I know it was.. Now, sadly, I can count myself among the facebook surfing addicted. An addiction by the way I am trying to break.

I experienced the same “honeymoon phase” most did when they first got a friend request from someone they hadn’t spoken to in years. Then another came and another and another…It was mind blowing for the first year or so. All these people I grew up with that I haven’t seen in decades, kids I spent hours with in Summertime as a child. Relatives I haven’t connected with in years and on and on…and then…………as with any relationship real life sets in and things don’t look so rosy. And lately they look downright bleak. 

I find Facebook these days as depressing and dividing as the nightly news which I also stopped watching about two years ago. Each time you log in your bombarded with the days most upsetting, angering and sometimes gruesome news out there. And yes, you can adjust your newsfeed settings to see only certain things but when ‘friends’ are posting what you don’t want to see it’s no longer hidden. 

I’ve also found that as a society in the quest to be more connected, social media has made us even more disconnected. For many, the days of the Saturday drop in on a friend for coffee are gone. The spontaneous “lets call so and so and have them over for dinner and a game or something” are gone. The porch sitting at the end of the day with neighbors are gone. Why? Because we’re all so virtually connected that we are physically disconnected. 

For myself, this addiction has taken away from things I used to like to do. Simple things in life such as , all of the above, reading, watching a good movie, crafting etc. Why? Because I’m addicted to social media and always have my eyes on the laptop screen or my phone. I have vowed to break this addiction. In reflecting on my time on social media I have come to some conclusions. 

• I don’t always need to be connected
• Being connected all the time makes the mind unable to relax
• I’ve wasted  a lot of time that could have been spent in better ways
• I’ve become lazy in my physical connections
• The majority of the people I haven’t spoken to in decades with the exception of a few hold no more importance in my life than before I knew “where they are now”
• Sometimes, the kids you were inseparable with as a child and this includes family as well, grew up to be people you couldn’t stand to sit in a room with for ten minutes. 
• The select few you have reconnected with surprised you because they turned out to be some of the nicest people you’ll ever know
• Those who you truly connect with and not in just a superficial virtual way will stick with you through email and phone calls even if you leave facebook.

The good things I’ve learned from being on social media?

• I’ve made a few old/new friendships that will last the rest of my life no matter where I am online or off
• Just how important being physically connected to those I care for is.

Having learned all this I will be trying very hard to get to the point of deleting my facebook account all together. Until then I will be choosing to spend my time more wisely.. How about you?

 

Weekend In Review!

Hey friends! Been a busy weekend. We didn’t do anything too social but just kind of busy and lazy all at the same time.. Where I live they shot off the fireworks last week (still don’t understand why) so I missed out on the fireworks this year. I could have gone down to Broadway At The Beach in Myrtle Beach but no thanks.. The place is crawling with tourists, the traffic is hell and the heat and humidity are probably just as hot as hell is so we stayed home. 

Saturday was a bit of a lazy day for all of us. It kind of looked like this. 

Yes, Alvin has taken over the big orthopedic bed I bought for Toby because Toby would rather sleep on the crappy bed we have. Yeah, I don’t get it either.. 

And Sarah, well she couldn’t figure out if she wanted to be on the other bed or off so she did an in betweener.. Thats what we call it anyway.

On Sunday I finally got around to making the pizza with the cauliflower crust thats been floating around Facebook for like, forever. 

A word about this cauliflower crust pizza. One, if you’re going to make it don’t make the crust as thick as mine because the outside cooks but the inside stays a bit mushy and two, add some more spices than are in the recipe. While Lou said he liked it, it could have used more spices.. I forgot to add oregano and when it comes to pizza, oregano is a must have. All in all though, he said it was good and would eat it again. It was also pretty easy to make albeit a tad messy. 

Sunday night we had our good friends Bill and Linda over for dinner. I had made a pan of stuffed shells in April that I froze so I just defrosted those and Linda brought the garlic bread. Was a good meal with good friends and good conversation. 

And finally, I got around to taking a new selfie for my profile photos on all my social media. The one I’d been using is about six months old and my hair is finally getting longer. Yay! So I though it was time for a new one..

Lastly, we have had Alvin a little over a week now and we are all still trying to find our way around here as far as alphas, and space etc but, Alvin has chosen his favorite buddy and that would be…………Toby…… an Toby is loving every minute of it. Alvin is 5 pounds and Toby is 72 pounds but Toby is SO incredibly gentle with him and he lets Alvin just climb all over him and chew all over him and he just loves it. They have also taken to sleeping and cuddling together from time to time..

I hope you all had an enjoyable 4th Of July weekend that was safe and full of family, friends and blessings.. 

Until next time!