Wednesday Wildlife!

 The window bird feeder is attracting birds!  Today we had another kind of bird feeding there.  In fact, one bird plus two friends of the same brand. So nice!  Still, the main visitors are red-winged blackbirds.

You can see that there is a bird on the feeder but not the type.  This is the red-winged blackbird.  It is actually a bit better of a photo than previous ones which I took with the blind down...

This picture makes me happy because...the squirrel has not yet figured out how to get into the feeder itself.  The squirrel is there on the top of the settle on the porch eating any seeds that drop from the feeder.  I am perfectly happy for him eat those seeds, just not the ones in the feeder.  I hope that does not make me a mean person...!

"Make Your Bed" by Admiral William H. McRaven

 Dear One received a package in the mail last week.  It was a small book called "Make Your Bed".  Our mission president had given some advice to the missionaries at a zone conference one time where he told us all that it was important to make our beds first thing in the morning.  For some of us missionaries it was very important to hear that.  It helped us in multiple ways.

Shortly after this little book arrived I could not sleep so I sat up and read it through.  Yes, it is that short of a book. It is an expansion of a graduation speech Admiral McRaven gave in 2014.

If you do not want to buy the book, at least listen to the speech.  The principles he brings up can make our lives better.  The speech is less than twenty minutes long.  The book is an expansion upon the speech and well worth the effort.

We make our bed every day when we get up.  Just as the Admiral says, even if the day goes to pieces, we can at least know that we have accomplished one good thing.  And really, it is so nice to get into a made bed instead of crawling into a crumpled-up-sheets-and-blankets mess.  Somehow it makes sleep an easier thing.

Family Photo Friday!

 Here is a picture I finally photographed from a very old and decrepit velvet-covered album.

This is one set of my great-grandparents:  Julia Emily Burbank McIntosh and Lisle Dwight McIntosh with their son Roland Burbank McIntosh.

Old photos make me happy.

Unknown Plant

On another walk I saw these new-to-me berries. 

Can you tell me what they are?  I was reluctant even to touch them but think they are very interesting.

Wednesday Wildlife

 Last night we were on a drive.  When I looked over to the side of the road I saw these birds pretty close by.

The picture is not marvelous but at least you can tell they are white birds.  The lady in the car with me told me they are cowbirds. I could totally believe that because I have seen them walking around at the feet of a herd of black cows.  Sadly, they are always so far away that I cannot get pictures of them.

Fun Memories!

 When we were in Portland, Oregon, we often walked by fancy unusual mushrooms on our way to the office.   Earlier this week I walked by another mushroom!

This is not a mushroom that I recognized.  At this point I have even forgotten where I found it, but I thought it was nifty.  It brought back memories of OPM (the Oregon Portland Mission) where we spent two wonderful happy busy years serving the Lord and our fellow beings.  Now we are serving in different ways, but it is still service to the Lord and our fellows.  So nice.  Sometimes so tiring...!

Munchie Monday: Healthy Easy Breakfast

 Lately I have been making VERY EASY simple somewhat boring breakfasts.  However, they taste pretty good and they are within acceptable carbohydrate limits.  The only thing with this breakfast is that I did not bump up the protein.

This bowl holds dry old fashioned oatmeal, a little Great Grains cereal, blueberries, and unsweetened almond milk.  Tasted really fine!

Beautiful Flowers

 We were at a friend's house recently and found this:

These flowers really made me smile. In fact, they made me want to do pressed flowers to make into greeting cards.  Instead, I took a picture which makes me smile every time I see it.  Someone will know what these flowers are.  Probably something very recognizable but my brain is fuzzy tonight as I write so I will let someone else tell me...!  Thanks!

Sweet Breezes Play Continually

One interesting thing about our home is that there is always a breeze blowing.  In fact, Dear One has told numerous people that we live in a wind tunnel. I LOVE a nice breeze.  Especially in summer when the heat and humidity can be almost oppressive.

A first home improvement Dear One did when we arrived was to install a beautiful American flag on the front porch.  The wind does blow so the flag is always unfurling.  It looked great.  Sadly, the post to which it was affixed was not up to the task and the flag moorings had to be renovated multiple times.  He even got a second flag to try again with.  Still not the thing.

This week one day I was out much of the day on sister visits. When I came home he was out on his afternoon walk. When I come home I look out on the back porch/deck to see if he is there, to see if there are any birds happily ensconced in the backline trees and bushes, and to see if the alligator has come out of the pond into our garden.

This is what I saw:

What a nice surprise!  

For some reason ever since then my head has been singing verse three of My Country, 'Tis of Thee.  Music swells the breeze in my heart and the breeze floats the flag always.  Ever since he installed the flags here (and also put solar-powered spotlights in the ground so the flags are lit day and night) they have never hung limp.

1. My country, ' tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountainside let freedom ring!

2. My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free, thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills, like that above.

3. Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

4. Our fathers' God, to thee,
Author of liberty, to thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light;
Protect us by thy might, great God, our King.

May the leaders of our country follow the lead of all the good people who cherish this land and get back on track...

Wednesday Wonders!

 Here is a miraculous thing!

When I cut open one of the "over-ripe" tomatoes that I purchased at Bradleys (mainly because they really taste like tomatoes!!), I found something remarkable.

Inside the tomato a seed had sprouted and started growing a tomato plant!  I have never seen such a thing.

Here you can see one seed has a plant started that already has some green in it.  There is a second and even a third plant started.  Amazing!!

A Wonderful Surprise...

 On Saturday the doorbell rang, then almost immediately there was a loud knocking on our door.  This never happens so I shut off my audio book and went to the door.

This is what I found:  a gentleman with both hands full!

Here is a wonderful "dish garden" of six different plants that we can enjoy for at least a year, then transplant to their own individual pots.  So great!

The second arrangement is here:

Look at these gorgeous flowers in a red Ford Mustang!  Dear One's second car (after a Ford Fairlane) was a red Ford Mustang!  He was SO pleased to see these flowers in this car.

So nice to be remembered on our 48th anniversary by my sister and her husband.  THANKS!!!

Thursday Thoughts

 This is an advice message.  If you are not interested, now is the time to delete!

Some things that I think are important (the backstory will come further down):

1. Drink plenty of clean, pure water.  Maybe a little unsweetened herbal tea from time to time.  EVERYTHING else is not a blessing to you.  Too sugary, too chemically. Even fruit juices are mostly sugar with a few vitamins...better to eat whole fruits.

2. Eat mostly vegetables and fruits prepared without oils or butter.  Steaming is good.  Roasting is good.  Sautéeing in vegetable broth or water is the way to go. Raw the way Heavenly Father gave us the foods might be best of all.

3. Eat beans, lentils, legumes every day.  Not too much.

4. Eat whole grains as grains, not so much as flours. Not too much.

5. Walk as many minutes a day as you can.  Add other exercises as you can like biking, swimming, hiking, even calisthenics and yoga.

6. Get up at a regular time every day.  Go to bed early.  

7. At the very least, at the end of the day, spend time in remembering gratitude for the good and also the hard things of the day.  As in: pray always.  Spend time meditating and pondering on the good things and bad things each day.  It will make life sweeter.

8. Reach out to loved ones as often as possible.  In all the ways you can.

9.  Listen to the promptings in your thoughts and in your heart, then act on them immediately.

Today being the first day of the rest of my life, I hope to follow these rules for myself.  I think they will make a lasting difference in my overall health and well-being.

So the reason for all this thinking is that recently I have had multiple doctor appointments: endocrinologist, skin surgeon, eye doctor, primary care practitioner.  Coming in such close proximity to one another (all within about three weeks) made me think about the fact that those appointments would not likely have been necessary if I had followed the above rules all my life. 

Rats, I say!  I should have been smarter sooner.  Well, now maybe I am going to be smarter.  I hope anyone reading this who sees room for improvement in the actions of life will benefit. I hope to myself.  Now to get rolling on the day...

Perhaps the Slump is Over...! Maybe.

 As you can tell, I have been in a slump for weeks.  Today something took place that may have helped me get over that miserable feeling/situation.

Last year, maybe just after we arrived here, I don't quite remember, we/I put together a six hole cube to put on my desk to make the desk more useful. I just could not have stacks of books, projects, paper, and other stuff on the desktop.  It worked beautifully but got filled up really fast.

Earlier this week, or maybe last week, I decided to spend some money and time and make another one because the desk was totally unusable again without a good deal of effort hoeing it out, which was not so fun.  This time I only found 9-hole cubes. I thought that providential!

Off to Big Lots to get one.  Rats!  They no longer carried them.  So on to Lowes where, after a good amount of searching, asking for help, then trying again myself, I found a few in stock.  With a GREAT deal of effort I lifted the box into the cart and went to check out.  I tried the checkout myself but both bar codes gave me zapping sounds.  The nice young man at the service area came over after four zaps!  In about one instant he found the correct bar code and I was out of there, less than $50 poorer!

This was almost 6:00 PM by the time I got home and I had no energy to get the box into the house so I let it ride around in the car for two days.  Dear One kindly brought it out today and then even put it on our fancy dumbwaiter/stair climber to bring it upstairs.

After less than an hour even though the very first effort on my part was wrong--I put the long dowels where the short dowels were supposed to go and the ripped through the bottom.  Well, it is the bottom. No one will see the holes and even if they did, I do not mind.  Helps me to be a bit more humble.  Maybe.  Hopefully.  Making big blunders right out of the gate is wretched.  Oh well.

As you can see, we have now fifteen slots for stuff. AND they are not all full currently...though that will change.  Dear One asked me how long it will take me to make the desk unusable again.  Mean-spirited!  Not really as he said it with a smile in both his eyes and his voice.  He just knows me too well.  Our daughter reminded me that now that the desktop is  empty I will have to train myself to keep it that way.

May I say the I have already used the lovely empty desktop to use the Big Shot with a die-cutting project I have been needing to do but did not have a space for it.  Next on the list is a big glut of cards I need to put together.  Double-sized tape will arrive on Saturday so in the meantime I will cut paper for the envelopes!  So exciting.

Now I am worn out enough from today's business that I will go on with my binge-watching of Heartland. I love that show.

May all be well with you dear ones.

Flowers are ALWAYS So Welcome!

Dear friends came by today for a visit. It had been a long and hectic day.  They walked in with the most glorious bouquet of flowers from their garden. Also some mementos of a trip they took.   They did not know what a blessing that was going to be for me.  I love the lift of the flowers and the magnificent joy of their presence in our home.  We love them.

How can you beat these glorious blooms?  You cannot.  This close up does not do justice to the flowers, but the larger view would be appalling.  Did you hear me say it was a long and hectic day?  Well, the house is pretty much a disaster area.  I can make messes more quickly that Dear One can clean them up. Sadly.  In any case, my heart sings each time I glance at the flowers.  So lovely.