I love turkey

*222* <---have not weighed over a week so I don't really know


  *sipping second mug of coffee...smell of bathroom cleaner wafting past my nose*

I couldn't take it anymore with the swamp bathroom downstairs. It is disgusting. Literally and figuratively. The children were never gonna clean it so I had to just go in there. I sprayed the shit out of the tub surround and letting it soak. I have so many things that have to get done but I will take a sliver out of my daily banked energy to clean their designated bathroom. Yup.

  Today is pie day. I am going to make a couple sweet potato pies. I do Patti LaBelle`s recipe. I did it last year and it was really good. The girls requested it again specifically. I do not make my own crust. I could and I have but why bother. Pillsbury makes a fine rolled out crust that I have been using since they first came out. I think I was like 16-17 yrs old. Yes, I have been baking forever. I have a Youtube recipe for a Keto Pumpkin Cheesecake for Hubs and I.

They post the recipe on their blog. I really like Keto Connect. They have some really good ideas for recipes and I can see them doing well on YouTube. I have started to have a like for cauliflower. I hated it before but the more I cook it different ways, the more I like it. I am going to make a mashed cauliflower au gratin minus the breadcrumbs. Usually we do a mash with a little bacon but this is a bit different and I like it. I will do a carrot dish that Kid #2 wants. Kid #1 wants potato salad. I will do my favorite cheesy cabbage bake. The turkey (yummm) and the chicken are all defrosted in the fridge. I just have to face the grocery store TOMORROW! We don't paid till then so I have to pick up a few things we are missing.

  I don't do Black Friday as some of you know. But I will be out doing stuff so I figured I MAY go to the Goodwill. They are having 50% off your entire order. That might be too hard to pass up. We are planning on a small live tree this year. I just want it. We may stay like that forever or we will go back to fake next year. I have a couple pressies to buy and I will be done. I am really not into Christmas because I always get after thought gifts that make me feel even less appreciated. Part of me wants to just do one small gift each and that is it. Then I wont have hurt feelings into January.

   I gotta do leaves, cover windows, water all the plants, make pies, clean the kitchen, take Kid #2 to work, and listen to Kid #1 cough cause she is sick..keep that shit away from meh.
As for my gut, it sucks and will talk about that another post. It will be all about the colitis, MCAS, gluten sensitivity, and how I cannot eat hardly anything. Fast track to a saggy bikini body for this old girl.

Okay...gotta go. Much to do! Happy Turkey Day! Happy UnThanksgiving! Much love to the protesters and Water Protectors at Standing Rock!

End of October

*219*


   I had the plan to post yesterday but the day got away from me. I had Halloweeny tasks to take care of. These are our pumpkins this year. I did not get around to carving the small ones. That is okay, they will look good on the porch stairs till Thanksgiving. I have this link for pumpkin seeds if you have not cooked yours up yet. I am going to roast today. I think I will do the cheesy one.

   Halloween was a absolute BUST. We were greeted by one trick or treater. One 5 year old treater. One! I am done. I am not decorating anymore. I am not spending hard earned money on shit nobody is going to see or enjoy. I have said it before but I am truly done this time. And if someone mentions that the 5 yr old got to see it, I will virtually smack you. I have a cauldron full of chocolate. I told the kid that we were getting rid of it. I have cheated so much on my way of eating this past week. It has to stop and the candy has to go! Maybe I will just go out next year. Make some friends at the bar while I drink my pumpkinhead ale.

   I am glad I have this outlet to talk about stuff. It seems I have lost another friend to me being sickly and no fun. I have worked really hard about not talking about my health at all because people don't want to hear it. I either have to pay a therapist to hear me or I can throw it on here. I am not gonna talk about her today. I have already been upset about it and if I really dwell, I will get depressed about it. She has moved on. She hasn't actually unfriended me (IRL or online) but you kinda know when you have been dumped. I am a Class A loser and I have to come to terms with that fact. Period. End of story.

  At least I have some good news to report. This Thursday I am having my very first Fecal Microbiata Transplant for the C-diff. Tomorrow will be a prep day. Yuck! It is being done in Rhode Island cause it was very hard to find anyone to do it here. I found out yesterday it will be done by sigmoidoscopy and I get to be awake for the whole thing! That is not exciting for me. I am told to just relax and it will be okay. Yeah no. I wont be able to relax. I have issues that I will not discuss but being awake for that is not gonna be a picnic. Hopefully, this will cure me of this garbage. I am so sick of being sick to my stomach every single day.

  Today I have to take down all the Halloween. The kitchen is a disaster, again. The dog needs to be groomed. I have to put stuff up on ebay. And I really need to start working on cleaning up the yard. The leaves are being difficult. They are still in the trees. If they dont fall soon, they will be left cause of the snows to come. I am still painting the living room but I have got all the trim done. Yay! I wanted to get that done so I could cover the windows. It will be warm this week so I will hold off, but soon they will have to be done.

That is about all I have to talk about. I don't want to dwell on shit today. Then I will lose the handful of you that actually read this and I will be left with Bots. Bots could totally be my friends though. They would love me for who I have become!

Have a great first day of November.
 

October Monday

Mums in the yard

*223*

   I am in the midst of my typical Monday. I wanted to do this but I also have all my shit to do. So today is the day to get it done. My Mondays are pretty consistent for me. Sometimes I wish I could just ignore Mondays but that would screw up the chi for the rest of the week.

7am wake up. 
Let dogs outside. Wait outside because there have been coyote in the area.
Make coffee
Feed cats and dogs.
Give Lu meds
Take out 4 recycle buckets to the street. Take out any trash to the bin. Garbage day
Start first load of laundry.
Usually the kitchen is a disaster from the weekend, so stack all the dishes and such. Hot soapy water in dishpan.
Defrost dinner stuff.
Make hard boiled eggs, cucumber salad, and cheddar slices for the week.
Water plants
All the while I take the dogs out, do more laundry, fold said laundry, sweep, etc etc etc. I had stuff to mail out for ebay and I had to go to the pharmacy.

You add in all the other little things like appointments and seasonal shit, yard work, and I am beat. I still have to make dinner. I always crash at around 8am.

  Oh, I tried a cool recipe this weekend. It is a keto mug cake. Put in a mug: 1 scoop of whey protein powder, 1 egg, and 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder. Mix. If it is too thick, add a little bit of almond milk or water. Give it the consistency of brownie mix. Microwave on high for 60 seconds. That is it! I put whipping cream and stevia in the kitchen-aid to make keto whipped cream for the topper. Hubs and I both liked it. That will be nice to have or once in awhile.

 This past week I had the junker aka Nissan fixed. It needed four rotors, four brake pads, two calipers, battery, muffler, all fluids done, oil, and spark plugs. She sat for too long but she is back on the road and I don't have to chauffeur everyone around like before.  I am broke as all get out because of it. It is a major lean week. I am sitting here wishing for lunch but I have dinner foods only. But the car is fixed! That page on my to-do list is done! I gotta set up a new list. That one sat there for a couple months while I scratched each thing off. 

  Guess how much two 2mg Valium cost me? Just take a wild guess! I will wait........(switching out laundry)

80 cents!!
I was actually happy to see that. Like I said before, we are poor as hell this week. I had to have those pills so I can withstand the MRI. (Yes folks, sometimes you can be so broke that $1-2 makes a major difference in your life.)
This was the MRI I was supposed to have in September but I was a stupid ass and got a tattoo. My hips have been bothering me a whole lot. The ortho said it was not my hips per say. The PT therapist said she thought it was my spine like another herniation. My neuro is appeasing me and letting me have the MRI to just make sure there is nothing bad going on. I am not looking for another surgery right now. Just some answers. I probably wont hear anything till this week or so. Hubby sees him at the end of the month too for his foot issues. Wish me luck that I do okay in the big loud machine.

Tonight we are having taco salad with cheddar cheese crisps that I will make in the oven. I just saw that one of them ate the last avocado. Grrrr! I have to put post it notes on every fucking thing. Guess that will be missing from the salad. 

That is about it. We are in the middle of decorating for Halloween and I will post about that next time.

Have a great week! 

 
 

Frosty October Mornings are Good

*222* <---that was last week

  Today is Columbus Day. I am not in a debating mood about this holiday, but I want to say something. I am very PRO Indigenous Peoples Day and a day should be designated as a national holiday. Period. My husband, my children, my MIL, and all of her offspring are Indian.  My grandfather came from Italy in the end of the 1800s. He came through Ellis Island. I saw the copies of the paperwork. Italians were treated like shit in this country for many many many years. That is not saying that what happened to them and what happened to America`s native people are equal. Far far from it. You will not get an argument from me about that topic. I live in the area where the Pequot nation was at war with the English. The majority of Italians, my small 1/4 piece included, look at Columbo day as our holiday. A celebration of being Italian and the struggles and the triumphs. It was never about Columbus. It was a day off. It was a big dinner.  I just think that both sides should be recognized as being equally important. *off soapbox*

   I am on my 2nd of coffee. I learned something recently. Drinking bullet proof coffee in place of breakfast will not help with weight loss. You have to either drink it with a meal to offset your fat intake, drink it as a mid day fat add if you are hungry, or dont drink it at all. It will stall me. So I drink plain coffee in the morning and I save the BPC for later in the afternoon as a pick me up both caffeine and fat wise. I dont like *cheat days* because this is a way of life for me. 

 I totally stepped away for like 2 hours cause I had to do some stuffs. Today is a busy Monday. I am eating my lunch now (three halves of deviled eggs, 4 (maybe 5) slices of bacon and three cherry peppers). After that, we have to go to the garden, harvest the rest of the peppers, and cut everything down.  I have potato leek soup cooking in the crockpot. I will freeze it later so that Kid #1 can eat it. I am going to steadily work on finishing the trim in the livingroom. Tonight`s dinner is taco salad and keto jalapeno poppers. I am also going to cook some crispy chicken skin. Yes, I said skin. It is a keto thing and you wouldnt understand.

  The eye doctor told me that I am not blind enough to have surgery. The insurance company wouldnt pay for it. He told me to buy a pair of field glasses. They are just straight yellow and it will help with the glare of the lights at night, I hope. Phew. Let`s hope!


Let me go. My bacon is getting cold. I will make sure to come back again. My phone reminds me.

Putting the garden to bed...slowly

This is a sassy Fall outfit. Yes?

*222*

  I took a break from the yard work cause I have to save my energy for other things. I can really go overboard and lose my head with time when I do a yard project. Today was no different. My hips started to tell me off, so I decided it was time for some computer time instead. See how that works? My old lady parts like to tell me how it is gonna be and I sometimes listen.

 I went to the community garden this morning. I harvested a butt load of tomatoes, peppers, and strawberry transplants. I saved the day cause there was a huge water leak in the main line so I was able to get a garden person to come and take care of it. I came home with the idea that I was just going to plant the strawberries in their new pot and thin out my existing strawberry pot. It got kinda blurry after that.
  I emptied all the pots from the container garden. They did not do well. I have to learn how to do that better. I still do not have beds in the yard yet! I decided to clean out the small bed by the fronts steps (yeah), dig up a wayward hosta that was too big for the space, clean out all the weeds, go over there to dig up one of my Salvia plants, separate it, trim it, dig holes, and plant in that same little bed. I also pulled down all the perennial Sweet Pea vines (they are pretty but a menace) and bag it all. That is when the hips said STOP IT!
So here I sit. Waiting a bit cause I really got to go to the grocery store and I have to take the kid to work. 
 Mondays are always always busy. 

Autumnal Equinox 2016

*220*


  I know I said Monday but the days got away from me. Here I am. First day of my favorite season. It is in the 80s today and I have the ac on low. It is a bit humid and juicy air is not good for Lu. I went to the dentist this morning. I had a filling on one side and a cracked filling repaired on the other. I am still numb. I cautiously ate some egg salad with a fork with some iced coffee. There will be no chewing for awhile.

  Fall means it is time for Fall Cleaning. There is so much to do. Hubs is trying to catch up with our furnace guy at work so he can come clean the furnace. I have to order oil this week. So much to do!
We are going to finally paint the livingroom. Today I washed down all the trim and dusted the walls. We have to take the ac out of the window so we can paint the trim on it but that can wait for just now. But the ball is rolling.

  I have no plans for canning either. If I stumble on a deal on a peck of apples, sure. But hubs and I cannot eat it so I just aint feeling it. I had been saving strawberries all summer but somebody kept making smoothies with them when I wasnt around. Did I mention that my nest is still not empty? Maybe I will get some done next year. 

 Kid #2 has to go off to work here soon. She is loving the work at the vet. We are so happy for her. She really never thought she would be able to get a job. This was her chance, she took it, and all are happy with the decisions. She gets her first paycheck this week. That will be a sweet time for her. There is nothing more exciting then seeing your name on that piece of paper.


Health wise, today I am feeling okay. I am medicated to the hilt for the gut but that has to be the way it has to be for now. I will be positive for those few days that I feel good.


Okay...gotta go. Kid has to go and I have to take her. I will try to do it on Sunday so that I have more time to make the posts more meaty.

Happy Thursday!