Tuesday 4 "Time To Pamper You" and Wednesday Treasures

 I am running a day behind since yesterday I had an eye appointment and had my eyes dilated all day, so couldn't spend much time on the computer.  It was an interesting appointment at a new eye doctor (to me).  He said I do have some cataracts forming, but not bad enough yet for surgery...probably next year he says.  However I am getting some new glasses as the old ones are obsolete for my current vision.  He also had a new piece of equipment that they were just figuring out and I was the first patient to get to see the inside of my eyeballs from pictures taken with this amazing new kind of "camera".  They said I could take a picture of the picture, so here you go:

Left eyeball

Right eyeball!

You can say you saw all the way inside my eyeballs right here! Pretty amazing stuff, huh? He said except for the small cataracts and a very small non-consequential amount of macular degeneration, my eyes are very healthy and normal for my age. He said not to worry about the macular degeneration. It's within the normal range, but they will "keep an eye on it" in the future. Praise God! I am very thankful, indeed.  Tomorrow we will make a trip to St. Augustine to an eye surgeon for my husband to have his cataracts checked to see if they are ready for surgery yet. Most likely he will need to have them removed soon, but we will find out for sure tomorrow.  

So, that's the medical news for now.  Now to the Tuesday 4 meme for this week:

Time To Pamper You...

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.

Let's talk about you personally.

1. Do you pamper yourself at all? If yes, how do you do that?

I'm really not too sure that I do too much pampering of myself. Aside from getting my haircut about every 6 weeks, I pretty much do everything else for myself that needs to be done. I have never had a professional manicure or pedicure, although I know I need the latter and have been thinking about having that done. It is getting increasingly difficult for me to cut my own toenails and they are in dire need of some attention. Our doctor's office will cut them for me if I ask them to, but I think I'd rather treat myself to a pedicure one of these days. 

2.What kinds of foods/dishes do you consider to be a real treat? Do you often pamper yourself by having them?

Now, a special way to pamper myself would be to have a little tea party. Although I'd prefer to have it with a friend, that isn't always as easy to do as one would think, so once in a while I will make myself a special little pot of tea and have a tea party and maybe a cookie or piece of pie or cake or whatever special treat is available.  Maybe I should do that right now...I have this piece of lemon-blueberry cake waiting to be eaten:

There's a story there.  Monday was our Ladies' Bible Study, and it was also one of our ladies' birthday. She is our church secretary/administrative assistant and does so much for our church in addition to her actual duties.  We don't always have desserts at our Bible Study, but once in a while someone will bring in something special, especially if we know it's someone's birthday. So, I had those fresh blueberries and thought that would be a good opportunity to use some. 

My sweet DIL Rose has made this recipe before and it is so good, so I thought I would try it. However, she usually makes it in a 9x13" pan. I thought I would try it in my Bundt pan. You use a lemon cake mix, and mix it up according to the directions on the box.  Then you fold in a cup of fresh blueberries. Well, the blueberries sank to the bottom of the pan, and with a bundt pan, when you dump out the cake, the blueberries should be nicely baked on top. However, in this case, they stuck to the bottom of the bundt pan, and I had to literally scoop them out and piece them all together again on top of the cake! What a mess!!!  Thankfully, the recipe also calls for a lemon juice/confectioners sugar glaze, so I made that and poured it over the top of the berries and the cake, and it actually ended up not looking so bad. And the best part was that it tasted really moist and good, and everyone enjoyed having a piece at our Bible Study! So that story has a happy ending. 

We can pretend this is my little tea party for today...this picture is on my Teapot Calendar for the month of May, which begins today!

And here is the quote from the calendar to go along with it:

yes, sometimes a pot of tea is a good way to just "pamper yourself" and put all your other "matters" out of mind for a while.

3. What luxury item/items do you consider would be very hard to do without? (like buying books, having your hair done.. just about anything you really could do without but prefer not to.)

Hmm, well getting my hair cut every 6 weeks...I'm not very good at cutting it myself. Getting books at the library...which reminds me, I need to go to the library today when I finish this post!  I don't "buy" books anymore, unless they are a bargain used book at a yard sale that I can't refuse. Then I give them away once I am done. I don't want to collect anymore books. I have too many already.

4. What kind of holiday or vacation would be a total luxury with which you might pamper yourself?

Oh my! This is just pretend, right?  I would love to take a trip somewhere like Prince Edward Island and go see the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery, who wrote the "Anne of Green Gables" stories.  Then I would love to take a trip somewhere where we can stay in a really nice old Bed and Breakfast and be treated like a really special guest...someplace really beautiful, with lovely gardens and  places for tea parties, etc.  That would be delightful! It would be really fun to do that with some blogging girlfriends  or some of my other girlfriends or my sister and maybe her daughter and my daughter in love and even my nieces...a real "girls only" kind of trip. 

This picture is on the Thomas Kincade calendar for May, and it looks like the kind of place I would enjoy visiting.  

That verse is perfect too!

While we are sharing May calendars, here is the picture for the John Sloane Country Seasons May calendar:

That would be a fun place to visit too! Maybe spend a week on a really sweet farm...maybe an Amish farm/bed and breakfast! (not when it is really hot, however, since they don't have air conditioning!)

Oh, here is the Susan Branch calendar for May...it's perfect for this little dream pampering too:

Speaking of birds...This Brown Thrasher was playing peek a boo with me yesterday morning as I went for my little walkabout on the lot next door:

You can just see his eyeball peeking at us...

And here's our Canada Goose couple, still patiently waiting for the babies to be born:

This is Mother Goose sitting on her nest.

Above is Father Goose standing watch and Mother Goose having a little break, standing up on the nest.

Close up of Father Goose...ever watching and guarding his mate...

And this is Mother Goose.  I'm not sure what was happening this morning. She actually went out for a little swim and then came back to the nest and it appears she is eating something.

I think the babies should be getting closer to making their appearance, but I really don't know for sure.

I will be sure to let you know when the big event happens!

I may not have an "English Country Garden", but here's the water lily garden on Still Waters Pond early this morning. Thought you might enjoy these water lilies and other little water flowers...

Okay, that's it for today and yesterday!  

Hope you are all doing well! 

Have a blessed and beautiful day!

It's 86 degrees here and very humid. Summer is upon us way too soon.

But still I am thankful for what God has given us to enjoy!

Let's go see how others are "pampering themselves" on the Tuesday 4 page HERE