What I'm Reading This Week #16

Happy Friday y'all!  I hope the week hasn't beat you up too much and you're ready to get out and enjoy the weekend!   It was a busy week full of appointments.  My usual twice a week chiro appointments which is nice (though I wish I had faster results with pain relief) and I also got a 'bonus' appointment of having my leg veins evaluated by the Mr's doctor.  My dad's side has notoriously crappy veins and the past few years I've been noticing some disturbing changes in the ankle/foot area so it was time to do the deed.  Essentially I knew it was just going to be ultrasounds and the results of it but I also knew from the Mr's initial session that it wouldn't be easy as he almost fainted during his.  (But he also didn't eat breakfast sooo.)   Well, I got it done and it wasn't bad as far as the scans are concerned.  I did receive a mentally devastating diagnosis in addition to having to have the vein stuff done so I need to do a little processing and I'm sure I'll do a post on it soon after I stop randomly crying.

Now let's get to:

How Much Caffeine Is in My Tea?  (Good stuff to know!)

How to Decompress Your Spine to Reduce Back Ache and Pain  (If you have access to your joists in your basement or something, you can use those to do the dead hangs.  Hurts so good!)

10 Nutrient-Packed Foods High in Fiber and Protein  (Gotta love a one two punch!)

3 Steps to Workout Motivation  (It can be hard to come by sometimes)

5 Foods To Help You Sleep (I'll take all the friggin help I can get but if these don't work, the tryptophan supps I take on occasion actually work over melatonin and even antihistamines for me.)

Are eggs bad for cholesterol? New study reveals how many you can eat  (Get crackin!)

What Happens to Your Body When You Drink Decaf Coffee Every Day  (Hmm, might have to switch out my tea with decaf at dinner.)

How to Clean a Faucet Head to Get Rid of Buildup, According to the Pros  (Mr- we need to do this!)

15 Gorgeous Deck and Patio Ideas You Can DIY  (In case your outdoor space needs a little zhuzh.)

'Ozempic Babies': How Weight Loss Drugs Can Interfere with Birth Control and Boost Fertility  (Oh HELL NO!!!!)

We've got a crapload of stuff to get done this weekend that has gotten to the back burner when it absolutely should not have.  So I guess we activate whirling dervish mode and hope for the best!  Why do I do this to myself?? 😑

What are you whirling into this weekend?

(I challenge just one other person in addition to my hubs and bestie to answer!  

Y'all keep telling me this isn't an audience of two but...)

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Delivery Driver laughs and Weekend Recap

Howdy do, all!  We're back to Monday.  I hope you guys had an awesome weekend and are rarin' to go for the new week.  (I can't remember the last time I was rarin' to do anything but I digress.)  I hope all of you late tax folk remember today is the day to get everything submitted!  (We're the people getting it over with at the beginning of February.)

I had to share this 'warning' from the Amazon delivery person that made us crack up:

TOO funny and I encourage more tomfoolery from this person because who couldn't use a random smile when opening your Mrs Dash Lemon Pepper seasoning?

Saturday we had mediocre eats which always sets the tone.  We tried to go to the historic district for our walk but it was way too crowded and there was construction going on so that was a bust.  I told the Mr to drive to my grandpa's cemetery not too far away and we could make a loop of it.  (It's been a LONG time since I've done that.)  We showed grandpa (a car guy) the new ride then got on our way.  The sun was hot even though the wind was blowing.  When we made it back to his stepdaughters grave, I noticed it, along with her dad's headstones, were being swallowed whole by grass.  I was ticked.  "Perpetual care" my ass.  I got the clippers we keep in the car and got to work.  Both graves looked like the top pic below:

The bottom is what her grave looked like when I was done.  I didn't have enough full charge to get his but might in the future.  Those clippers are awesome and really went above and beyond.  I did order some grave stone cleaner since I saw my great grandma's stone has that black crap creeping in on it and I don't want it to get out of hand.  When we were done, I'd burned 700 calories so that's good.  I'd pay for it later but I'm used to it.  Didn't really do much after but I did get to do a fun, grief soaked panic attack with ugly crying for two hours.  I guess I should've started the workout button!

Sunday I made brunch for the first time in forever.  Then we went in the basement and tried to tackle some of that.  Again...there's progress but it just doesn't feel like enough which probably had a lot more to do with the heap that is the craft table that never got used for it's intended purpose but any progress is good progress.  The Mr hung up some baskets that I didn't need from the previous shelf configuration but I didn't want to get rid of so now they are installed under our laundry center we built back in 2019 holding random stuff in one and laundry supplies in the other.  We got the curtains that go over the shelves washed and re-hung.  I found a box that I thought was living room stuff but turns out to be nightstand stuff from July 2022!  It has stuff I have no idea where it goes but don't want to throw out either so I condensed stuff as much as I could and got three smaller boxes unloaded and a lot of the stuff under the right side of the table gone through so at least ONE stool could go back where it belonged.  The Mr donated our old Bissel since we don't have carpeted floors anymore which made me sad but it needed to be done.  We got a portable one that will hopefully clean the couch in between wrestling the slipcovers off and he did the stairs going up.   The friggin' battery died again in my car and I have a chiro appointment today so the Mr got a free battery since it was on it's last month under warranty.  I came up to take a break and my friend called and we gabbed for 90 minutes which was nice.  But then it was 6:30pm and I didn't have it in me for a workout given how crappy my legs felt so I didn't have a choice.  Then it was chill time and that was that.  I miss exciting weekends.

How was your weekend?

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What I'm Reading This Week #15

The weekend is finally upon us!  I don't know about y'all but this week was L-O-N-G around here.  The Mr ordered eclipse glasses like 6 months ago but I had a chiro appointment close to the same time.  So he drove me over and we watched it out with the staff not far behind us too.  Not like it got dark or anything but it was still neat to experience together since it's the last one of our lifetimes.  I managed to get into the basement here and there and get a couple of things organized which felt good.  I had other things that took my attention away from it but it'd be nice to see a little more progress on that.

Now let's progress into:

5 "Bad" Things You Should Actually Be Doing for Better Heart Health, According to Experts  (It's good to be bad!)

What's the Healthiest Salad Dressing? How to Make (or Buy) Better Dressing for Your Greens  (In case you want to shake up the usual flavors)

6 Tricks to Make Fish Taste Less Fishy That Aren’t Frying  (The Mr will appreciate these.)

Learn to take risks, engage, and build meaning in the face of anxiety  (Word up)

Are You an Over-Apologizer? 5 Steps to Curb the Habit  (I probably say sorry more than most words.)

7 Lessons from Everyday Heroes  (Great stories!)

Pollen-proof your home this allergy season with these 8 simple steps  (Tis the season 🙄)

The Right Way to Use Lubes for Sex  (If menopause is now or in your near future, pay attention.)

The Business of … Death  (Definitely isn't your grandma's funeral)

The Best Botanical Gardens in the US  (We can vouch for a few but looks like a trip back to Chicago is in order.)

I'd like to make maybe a little more of a dent in the basement but that will be a Sunday job because there's a few little things to get hung and test out.  I would like to get out of the house a bit too because we sat on our bootays all last weekend except for our walk.  

What's YOUR boo-tay doing this weekend?

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Bittersweet Milestone Weekend Recap

Hello there!  Back to Monday.  Is it Groundhog Day?

Last week I was able to get some more stuff somewhat organized in the basement.  The goal since Mom passed was to get her stuff up off the floor even though they were in bins in case Lord forbid we ever had a water issue.  It's awfully hard to give up two full shelves of space you already didn't have to stuff you will never use.  Two of the totes are full of fabric totes!  When I say the woman had a lot of totes, I mean there were over 75 of them in her closet because she sold for Thirty One.  She saw, she bought, she sold, she bought more at a discount.  I know at some point I'm going to have to thin them down but that's a future me project if space becomes a bigger issue.  It really sucks to feel like you made so much progress but visually it looks like none because of how much crap we STILL have from last years reno still in piles.  I truly can't take it and am overwhelmed as to where to start.  There is a HUGE construction bag of towels, shirts or something down there that I have to go through.  The craft table is stacked to the hilt and I can't even right now.  Very frustrating.  On top of that I'm dealing with a delightful rash and I find myself looking skyward saying "can You not, please?" and He responds with letting the cut brioche bun from my turkey burger bounce into water in a pan soaking which was my only attempt at happiness that Friday.

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Saturday we didn't do a whole lot.  The Mr was still coming down from his stress of the week so we got lunch and attempted to watch the Johnny Depp trial on Court TV.  His slow manner of speaking was driving me up a damn wall as I've heard plenty of recordings of him able to speak in a normal cadence but chooses not to when in public for some reason.  For as much as I wanted to hear the dirt, I was also going insane so we both agreed it was nap time.  We then packed up flowers and headed to Mom's grave.  Her sib told me a few days earlier her headstone was in (and I'd already given them the heads up the outlines for it had been spray painted so I knew it was going in soon.)  I couldn't tell if they liked it or not as they said they needed to stand further away.  (There are four pictures of her on it in bronze.)  The stone has a texture but they also kind of make indentations and stuff as well so if the sun hits it a certain way, it can look a little odd.  I'm on it with her and a bird had freshly shat on my face.  I hope that doesn't mean Mom disapproves.  Luckily the Mr had some napkins and wipes so we got that taken care of and I put flowers in her new vase and removed her temporary marker from Grandma's vase and put grandma's new pansies in there with a small plaque with her picture.  (The assholes decided all decor had to be in a vase and threw away the flag we had there for 5 years that I had just replaced only two months earlier.  I was not a happy girl.)  This has a stake that goes into the vase and hangs so it should be good.  (I also sealed it with spray mod podge to make it waterproof.)   All of you who have had the agonizing weight of waiting for the permanent stone to go in, know this is a bittersweet milestone.  I guess I got my crying out when her sib sent me a pic of it because seeing it in person I was more focused on trying to decide if I was going to have to go around with the cemetery again or not but the Mr said he thought it was good.  They should've made it more clear that there would be some 'texturing' but of course they sell you with a stone inside that has had the most perfect of conditions, retouched, airbrushed, etc and don't offer those options to you.  I'm not saying it looks bad, just that some areas are a little darker than I would've liked and know that isn't how they looked on the proof I went round and round with the manager on.  In the end, the Mr said that Mom always mentioned how much she loved that she had the flag with Grandma's picture on it that I provided since she passed.  She said it made her feel like she was better able to talk to her having the picture.  He said he thinks she'd want that for us too.  To have pictures of her with the people she loved with a big smile on her face and doing things she loved.  I agree but if another bird shits directly on my face, I'm going to take it that she's not happy.  We came home and pretty much chilled the rest of the night while the Mr got laundry going.  

Sunday we watched a little tube then got down into the basement to try to get things straightened up a little more.  I got some winter and paddling clothes into space bags and put them into bins that would replace the spot Mom's stuff originally was under the stairs.  I put them on the wheeled furniture movers I got and put some anti-vibration pads I already had on them so the bins wouldn't move around.  I used my label maker to get stuff clearly marked and while we did have a lot of things where they needed to be, all I could see was how much is still to go through.  We're trying to get a PT bar up and have to wait until today to get it drilled in since the lack of a stud there was being a poop head.  Then before we knew it, it was time for our strength session.  It had to be legs because the Mr has what we hope will be his final vein appointment this week and he'll be unable to do those workouts for 2 weeks following.  I know that'll mean today shall be a fun one for me but I'm hoping the chiro can help me out with that at my appointment later today.   Then it was time for dinner and chillin' later.

How was your weekend?

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What I'm Reading This Week #14

Happy first Friday of April everyone!  I don't know about you but Mother Nature is PO'd in our parts.  We've had everything from tornadoes to hail to rain to sun to rainbows.  I'm not going to say that stupid cliche about "if you don't like (ANY state's) weather, just wait 10 minutes."   I wish we were in Vermont right now because Stowe just got a helluva dump over there!  Le sigh.  The one good thing about preparing for doomsday is I needed to clean a spot under the stairs for us to ride out a twister so I actually got the stuff off of the shelf in front of the stairs into the pantries that were assembled, you know, at Christmas?  To be fair, I was hoping the funky smell that comes free with pandemic era IKEA would dissipate but nay...not even 6 boxes of baking soda each could tame it.  The next day I moved stuff from the back shelves to the newly cleared one so we wouldn't have to go as far for crock pots, bakeware, casserole stuff, etc.  That was a big win.  I'm hoping to be able to get some more arranged down there but we're waiting on some wheeled furniture movers for some bins under the stairs today.  I figure if we need to get under the stairs again, we're going to wheel some bins out and both sit down to be safe.  

I'm sure the Mr is glad to see this week end.  He was mandated to work in office every single day and the peopley peopleness of a bunch of mooks who all like to hear themselves talk along with Benny Hill level incompetence was more than he could bear on the daily.

Now let's bear:

5 Common Pieces Of Sleep Advice You Should Actually Ignore  (Interesting especially since I hear most of these in everything I look up to get some zzz's.)

This $0 Little Luxury Instantly Transforms Meal Prep  (Cute idea if you loathe meal prep the way I do.)

Feeling Biceps Pain After a Workout? Can't Straighten Your Arm? Here's Why  (This is me every single time I do LIIFT4 after a break.  A month or so ago it was an entire week!)

Why Some People Have More 'Food Noise' and How to Quiet It  (Most days I'm fine then sometimes I'm thinking about the next meal as I finish the current one.)

8-hour time-restricted eating linked to a 91% higher risk of cardiovascular death  (Wow, anyone doing intermittent fasting should give this a read!)

Here's Why You Won't Find a Green Pepper in a Bell Pepper Multi-Pack  (Huh...never really thought about that but yep, ain't no green in there!)

6 Signs That You're Stuck in a Negative Narrative  (I think when you order this book for yourself like I did, you kind of already know.)

5 Signs You're Dealing With A Toxic Parent As An Adult and How To Cope  (There's nothing more hurtful coming from someone who is supposed to accept you as-is seeing as they helped create you and all.)

How to Retrain Your Frazzled Brain and Find Your Focus Again  (Focus?  What's that?)

How to Realistically Save for Retirement  (We need all of the help we can get.)

No idea on stuff for the weekend.  I'd like to go through and rearrange some stuff in the basement to get a jump on things but that isn't what I want my whole weekend to look like so we'll see.  Some grocery pickups are also on tap and trying to stretch out the gams consistently.

Anything cookin' on your end this weekend?

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Another "Holiday of Firsts" in the Books Weekend Recap

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I know, I didn't do a weekend update again but it was just a somewhat crappy one and I didn't have it in me to do one Sunday night.  I think I've mentioned it before that when I get overwhelmed, I have dreams about tornados.  Well, I had two and since I wasn't taking action to acknowledge them, on Thursday my body said "fine...maybe you'll pay attention to a room spinning panic attack!"  It sucked bad and I had to hold onto the shower before my chiro appointment and I had to have the Mr drive me.  I made a list of the things swirling in my head at any random time and I was able to name 24 off the top of my head.  Some small, some large, some unfinished projects from last year that feel like they'll never get done.    It did help to write those things down and acknowledge the things weighing on me.

Friday, I started doing a bit of cleaning.  I am someone already overwhelmed on a good day.  Throw grief, other things on top of it and random crap and I just want to pull the covers over my head.  I feel like I'm failing every day.  One project seems to have a ripple effect to others.  "These things need a home...well, their new home would be here but these things need cleaned out/rearranged before those can go there and these things require me to be on my feet for a long time which then blow out my legs and I need them to do workouts."  On top of that is about 3-4 bins of Mom's stuff that I have to find permanent homes for in a space that had NO ROOM for someone else's extra stuff.  I'm not trying to be an ass but anyone who has been through a parent's death knows what I mean.  It all feels like problems that will never be solved.  I wanted to at least have a table to eat on when we had our pithy little Easter lunch/dinner so I got to work on that and in the kitchen.  Nowhere near where I would've liked it to be but good enough for us.  I worked until my legs waved the white flag.  The Mr helped in the kitchen.  When I say it's been months, I mean the Sleigh Rides sign was still over our fireplace and neither of us cared enough to say "maybe that should come down?"  The most I made was my cheeseball because everything else was just mac and cheese or open something and heat.  

We did our Easter on Saturday so we'd have an extra day to work it off.  I had zero weight loss but I also wasn't surprised about it because I did the shockwave the night before and my legs were swollen the next day from it.  Note to self, no shockwave the day before weigh in.  Sigh. I did share my brain swirl list with the Mr and he thanked me for sharing it with him and it was helpful to know it was more than the blanket assumption of grief.  Oh no sir, I have room for multiple modalities of self torture!   We ate way more sweets than we should have as we do every year to the point of wanting to yarf.  We went on a walk at the old park with inclines and stuff.  I wanted to take my new OrthoFeet shoes for a spin.  I really think Brooks did something to their base sole that totally screwed up my feet.  When I put on old Echelon 8's from Saucony's, the heel drop was MUCH less and initially felt better so I went to get some.  Of course they don't have my size in the old version so I went to get the new version and saw they turned the Echelon 9's into a ROCKER shoe which is what initially screwed up my feet to begin with!  (Many shoes are going this route which SUCKS!)  The OrthoFeet are the closest looking to flat soled shoes I can find.  It pulls on my calves but I need to elongate them and I can't be over padding my feet like so many people do.  They got a little more comfy the more I walked but still had the usual pain the rest of the night.  So hopefully with more walks, the gams will get used to them.  I also got a slant board.  I used to use one when I did PT back in 2016 so I made a crude one for home that I use after workouts.  But I thought if I could use one that had adjustable notches, I could work up to the maximum dorsiflexion on my ankles to stretch out the calves.  Definitely something I need to keep up with for life.  Then we got sucked into the Peacock series Apples Never Fall.

Sunday we didn't even utter 'happy Easter' to each other that I can recall.  The neighbors were in rare form on both sides of us and I yelled I needed to GTF out of the house.   We drove to my old elementary school (while it still stands) and talked about a lot of heavy, not fun stuff for a while.  Then when we came home we did LIIFT 4 Legs which really took its toll on me the next day.  Yeesh!  Then we had dinner and later went up to head bob to some Autopsy shows because that's how we roll.  

Yesterday was no picnic either.  Some family stuff that just makes me feel sad and like life blows off another limb and tells me to swim yet again.  (One of those things you don't realize how it affects you until it does and suddenly the nails you worked so hard to grow back out are gone.)  Then I ended up getting my time wrong for my chiro appointment and they called me 15 minutes after the time and I had to haul ass down the street.  He didn't even notice but he seems glad I got the slant board and he got a good pop out of my ankle.  He said he can feel the muscle a bit better too so I just need the pain to back off and get everything all evened out...some year.  I can tell you the day after leg day that yesterday wasn't it!

How was your weekend?  Did you do anything for the holiday?

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What I'm Reading This Week #13

Haaaa-deeeeeeeeeeee (Minnie Pearl style and if you don't remember who that is, you're probably at the wrong blog.)

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Welcome to the last Friday of March and Easter weekend.  I hope you had a great week and are ready for a nice holiday weekend.  The Mr seems to be finally turning a bit of a corner with his sickness.  He went to the pharmacy to get an official Covid/Flu test that are more accurate than the home tests so if he needed meds he could get them and thankfully just a cold.  Because he knows that colds for me are a multi week ordeal, he's been kind enough to take extra precautions and I've cleaned handles more than I did in 2020.  (I think the incentive is more that he wants his Easter bunny on time 😉)  

Now let's hop to: