Tuesday 4 Food and Health and More!

 

Food and Health


Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4....

How we eat, drink and exercise are important to our health. Let's talk about it.

1. Do you believe you eat a healthy diet and what makes it healthy?

I try to eat a healthy well balanced diet.  I believe in the old fashioned food pyramid of a balance of fresh fruits, vegetables, protein/meats, whole grains, and some dairy in three different meals a day. I try to stay away from sugars and fats as much as possible, but I do prefer real butter to margarine if I am going to eat butter.   The only area I probably don't eat enough of is fruits and leafy green vegetables, although I try to eat fresh spinach in a salad every day for lunch, and I also try to eat an apple every day. I don't do well with citrus fruits as they are too acidic for my system, but I do love berries and melons in season. For supper tonight (actually a late lunch/early supper) we went out to eat with our Pastor and his wife to the new Longhorn's Steakhouse in the city near us.  I had the 6 oz. "Renegade Sirloin Steak", with a side salad and a baked sweet potato. It was very good and I feel like it was a healthy meal.

2. What sort of drinks do you have with meals or between meals. Does it include enough water?

I drink a cup of hot tea in the morning and then a cup of water with breakfast. I usually have a glass of unsweet iced tea for lunch and drink water for supper. I try to drink several glasses of water throughout the day in between meals. In the winter months I may have a cup of hot tea in the afternoon, and sometimes, like tonight, if it is chilly, I may drink a cup of hot Ovaltine in the evening before bedtime. *Ovaltine is not like real chocolate, which I can't drink, and it has more vitamins and minerals in it and less caffeine and sugar than hot chocolate.*  I do NOT drink Sodas at all, except maybe a root beer float in the summertime. I don't do well with high caffeine or sugared drinks at all. I do not drink any form of alcohol.  It does not agree with me and therefore I do not agree with it! LOL.  I also do not drink coffee...same reason! LOL.

I fill up this 24 oz.Tervis Tumbler several times a day with ice water and take it with me everywhere I go. The key is to remember to always bring it back home with me! It's been left in some funny places, but thankfully I always manage to find it.

3. Do you enjoy snacks throughout the day and what kind do you enjoy?

I do not eat many snacks throughout a normal day. I will only eat a dessert when there is a special occasion and there is a good pie or cake that needs to be eaten. LOL. Sometimes I bake cookies and I will eat a couple while baking them when they are still warm. I bake them for hubby, who loves them with a cup of milk for his snack. I do not tolerate sweets well at all, and cannot eat chocolate (except maybe a small piece of dark chocolate, but only one!) Sometimes I eat some crackers with cheese or peanut butter. Oftentimes my "bedtime snack" is one piece of bread with peanut butter on it, or a bowl of yogurt with granola and fresh fruit when I have it.

4. How do you make sure you get enough vitamins and minerals in your diet?

Our Doctor has put us on a special vitamin called "Two Per Day Multivitamin" from Life Extension Co.  Our Doctor's office actually gives to them to us free so we will not have any excuse for not taking them. Although I will admit I usually only take one per day, as I think that is enough based on the percentages. So far my labs are always good so I'm not worried about it.   But again, I try to eat right and eat a well balanced diet so that I will get what I need from my food.  

Thank you, Annie, for these interesting questions today!  You can join in Here if you want to play along with the rest of us each Tuesday!

Now, earlier I was reading one of my favorite blogging friends, Aritha, who lives in the Netherlands. I have to use the language translator to read her blog as it is written in Dutch. But I enjoy her posts so much and find that we have a lot in common even  though we live across the ocean from each other.

  

This was on her post today (Monday, when I am writing my post), and I found it an interesting little exercise and thought I'd share it with you along with my answers to the questions:

From my friend Aritha at "Moments, Frozen in Time, on her post Happy Cold Monday"

"Yes, a mindful exercise against worry. This 54321 exercise can be done in many different ways. This one is nice:

See five things : Name five things in your environment that you can see. Pay attention to the details of these objects.
Feeling four things : Name four things you can feel right now, such as the texture of your clothes, the air on your skin or the ground under your feet.
Hearing three things : Identify three sounds around you. Maybe it's sounds from the environment, such as birdsong or traffic.
Smell two things : Name two smells you notice, whether they are subtle or strong.
Tasting one thing : Consider what you are tasting at that moment or, if you don't taste anything, think about your last meal and try to remember that taste."

My Answers:  

5 See: 

1)Although it is dark outside, I can see the lights across Still Waters Pond through the darkness.

2) Pictures/photographs on my wall, some of which I have photographed myself. 

3)My computer screen as I type 

4)Pamela's Victorian Cottage to my left (dollhouse) 

5) my little bookshelf with special books and pictures that are meaningful to me.

Here is the unretouched real picture of what I just described above. Yes, I probably should have cleaned up a few messes before taking this picture. Now you see the REAL "uncensored" "Room with a View"  LOL. This is where I work and read and write and dream and scheme...

4 Feel: 

1)The keys on the keyboard as I type this, 

2) my feet resting on the iron bar under my desk, which is an old "White" sewing machine table  that I repurposed. (see photo on right)

 3)my soft, warm flannel shirt around my neck and shoulders 

4)the comfy cushion in the seat of my desk chair as I sit here typing. 

3)Hear 

1) The TV in the other room where my husband is watching it 

2) ringing in my ears like little crickets (tinnitus?) 

3) The keys clicking on my keyboard as I type. 

2 Smell: 

1)Warm Ovaltine in my cup that I just drank 

2)The fresh lemony citrusy fragrance of Tea Tree Verbena hand soap on my hands from recent washing. 

1: Taste: 1)I can still taste the Ovaltine and warm milk in my mouth. It was good and comforting on a damp, chilly evening..

*Ovaltine is 99.9% Caffeine Free! 

I enjoyed doing this little "54321" exercise, and thought maybe you would too. Thank you, Aritha, for sharing it with us. I hope you don't mind that I have borrowed it to share with everyone here in my blogworld.

Here's a good Scripture verse to sum up all of the above questions and answers:

1 Corinthians 10:31

"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

And my "Strength" verse for today:

Psalm 73:26

"My flesh and my heart fail;

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

Amen!

Tuesday 4: Candy!

Candy!


Another Tuesday has arrived bringing you another Tuesday 4 kept in memory of Toni Taddeo. Let's discuss sweets.. candy, cakes, pies, pastries, all manner of confections.

1. What are your favorite candies?

To be honest, I don't eat much candy. About the only candy bar I will eat is a Payday, (the original kind), and a small amount of dark chocolate assorted candies...very occasionally, like at Christmas or Valentine's  Day. (or maybe Easter). Chocolate tends to make me feel nauseated, especially milk chocolate, so I try to avoid it.

2. What kind of pie, cake and pastry tempts you the most?

Click this LINK for a previous post about my Mother's Pies   I do love a good apple pie probably the most of all, because my mother always baked one for me for my birthday, which is in September, right when the apples are fresh!  I like some cakes, if they are moist and not overly sweet with too much frosting.  Someone baked a white cake with whipped cream topping and fresh strawberries on top and strawberry jello drizzled down through the cake (poke cake?) for our last Bible Study gathering....and it was really really good.  I also love strawberry shortcake with whipped cream when the berries are fresh.

I tend to prefer desserts with fruit, like blueberries, cherries, peaches...and of course apples. A good blackberry cobbler is a treat too when they are in season! 

3. How often do you have dessert? Or how often do you bake goodies?

Nowadays we only have dessert usually when we have company or a big gathering of some kind. My husband used to say the only way he'd ever get a good dessert is if we had company for dinner. That's pretty much the truth.  I do bake cookies every few weeks, especially when the kids are around to help eat them. I'm finding with just the two of us we don't eat them up fast enough and they get stale.

4. Your choice for dessert today:

New York Cheesecake
Tiramisu
Cannolis
Chocolate Mud Pie
Creme Brulee
Hot Apple Pie with Ice Cream
Churros con Chocolate
Big Brownie with hot fudge sauce, ice cream and whipped cream.

Which one are you picking from this menu?

I do love a good cheesecake, especially if it has cherries or strawberries on top...but I also love that Hot Apple Pie with Ice Cream, and once in a while a brownie with ice cream and whipped cream, but you can keep the extra hot fudge sauce. Since I haven't had any cheesecake in a while, I think I will have that today! Thank you very much!

So now, what's your choices for dessert?  Why not go over to Tuesday 4 and play along with us!! It would be such a "sweet" thing to do!!  

Now, on another note, I wanted to share a few pictures...of course...it wouldn't be me if I didn't!  As I was sitting here typing this tonight, I looked out my window here in my "Room With a View"

And I noticed these little birds on the tree near the Bluebird house, and the Daddy Bluebird was flying around them and then sitting with them...

And I realized that these are the two baby bluebirds from their previous nest earlier this spring!

Here's a complete family portrait below, Mama and Daddy and the two youngsters!

That poor Mama has to divide her time between sitting on the new nest in the birdhouse, where apparently she has laid some new little eggs, and yet, they still have these two youngsters to take care of! This is the first time I've ever seen the babies come back with the parents to be near the birdhouse when there's a new batch of eggs already coming along!  Amazing!!!!! These babies can't be more than a couple of months old!  And I thought my first two babies were close at 18 months apart! LOL.

Another interesting nature shot was this green "katydid" on my car window! We drove over to our walking place to take a walk tonight, and this katydid came along for the ride!!

So now if you ever wonder what "Katy did", you now know! 

She hitchhiked a ride across town and then flew away when we were ready to head back home. I guess she decided she liked the sights over on the other side of town better than here at home! LOL.

Now if you ever wonder what Pamela did...once in a blue moon I get a rare spurt of energy and decide to do some extra cleaning beyond the normal routine.  I'm not sure what hit me...maybe trying to work out some anxieties and frustrations...do you ever do that? Tackle a big project when you have  a lot of "stuff" going on in your head or life and want to just stay busy??? Yep, that's what I did. 

I looked up at the tops of my kitchen cabinets and realized that it had been a LONG time (I won't say HOW long) since I had cleaned the dust off of all the stuff that is up there...

And before some of our more "minimalist" readers get too worked up about how much stuff I have, etc., etc., etc., let me just say that I like it that way. It makes me happy to see these things up there. Otherwise it would be bare and boring...and I really don't like bare and boring houses.  So that being said, to each his own, right?  Anyway...No matter how clean a housekeeper you are, and no matter how little you think there is grease in the air in your kitchen, (unless you never really cook anything good), grease will accumulate in the air and on things above the stove especially, and then of course dust will also accumulate on top of the grease.   It's just a fact of life, again, unless you never cook or you are a clean freak and clean these places every week.  Which I don't. (clean every week), but I do cook.

So I decided it was time to get up there and do some cleaning. The only problem is that I had to use a step stool and had to climb up and down for every piece, wash/and dry the pieces, and then climb back up the stool again for each piece.  

By the time I got to this end where the top of the refrigerator is, I was getting pretty tired of climbing up and down. I finally called in reinforcements and hubby came to the rescue on the last few items and handed them up to me so I didn't have to keep getting up and down. Thank you, hubby. I just wish I'd enlisted him a bit earlier, because I truly felt it later that night, but the job was done and I was very happy and satisfied.

However,  what I didn't get done was the other side of the kitchen. This section will have to wait for my next spurt of energy...

So don't look too closely or you might see a few specks of dust...

I should have enlisted the help of Lily Grace and her friends...they just sat there and had their tea party and cheered me on! LOL.  Everyone say hi!!

Psalm 73:26  NLT

 "My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,

but God remains the strength of my heart;

He is mine forever."

Amen.

Okay, one more picture, I promise that's all!

You may remember I showed you this picture on Mother's Day:

This sweet little planter that my DIL Rose made for me. 

Well, she took it back home to paint it and plant the succulents in it, and brought it back the other day:

It's so sweet, isn't it?  This is my reminder to pray for Rose and Benton as they are traveling to Minnesota to visit with her father and family for several weeks. Rose's step-mother passed away earlier this year, and Rose was not able to go then. So they have been planning this trip to go and spend time with her dad as he is not in great health and she wants to be with him while she can. I am so happy for them to be able to do this, but we will miss them here while they are gone.

Okay, that's all folks! 

Thank you for visiting!

Have a great week!!

Thankful Thursday and Friday Foto Friends

I seem to be combining these two days more often these days! I haven't been taking many pictures this week as it has been rather busy, but a few things have gotten my attention and so I thought I would share them with you.  BTW, I've been enjoying reading everyone else's posts this week about your Christmas and also your thoughts and plans for the New Year. I can't believe it's already here...when we were kids did you ever imagine that we would be living to see the year 2023? Wow! Time sure flies when you are  having so much "fun"!  

Speaking of time, this year seems to be a year for calendars! Everyone in the family seems to be getting them...and maybe not just one or two!  I believe this year we may have enough calendars for every room of the house!  But I am not complaining! I LOVE calendars, especially pretty and interesting ones. I want to share one sweet little one I received as a gift from a dear friend:

The 2023 "Heart of the Home" Calendar by Susan Branch.  I love her artistry throughout the pages, with lots of cute quotes and ideas interspersed throughout the months. I can't wait to see what each month will bring.

For January there are some thoughts about "How to write a Diary".  Now, most of us probably don't keep a "diary" of sorts anymore like we did as young girls, where we wrote our innermost secrets and thoughts about cute boys and stuff like that...but for us grown up girls we are kind of writing our diaries right here in our blogs!  Definitely no secrets here...these are open to the whole world, so we need to use discretion about what and how we say things, but I enjoy the fact that we are actually sharing our thoughts with other sympathetic and caring and encouraging friends.  We have a bond that seems to grow day by day as we get to know each other on a more personal level through our writing. 

Many of us may still keep a written journal that is private and personal...I used to before I started blogging so much, but my handwriting is so bad these days that it is difficult for me to do a lot of "real writing", so my computer aided blog posts are really the only journaling I am doing anymore.

The little quote at the bottom of the page above says,  

"Reserve your memories, keep them well, what you forget you can never retell." 

Louisa May Alcott

Good advice!  I am thankful for this way of reserving our memories. I just need to print them off now and then so they won't be lost when this computer technology is gone (or I am no longer around to share them).

That same dear friend who sent me the little calendar also sent me a bag of whole pecans, straight from her very own pecan trees!  What a delight and blessing that is!

She even included a nutcracker set to crack them with!

My cup overflows with joy and love and thankfulness!

And speaking of pecans, another dear friend from church gave us this lovely jar of "Cranberry Pecan Muffin Mix"!

What a wonderful idea and sweet gift!  I haven't tried them yet, but may do so this weekend. 

So thankful for thoughtful people who are also so creative!!

What a neat gift idea!!

Now here is something I love:   This little picture ornament was created by one of our vendors at Dixie Cottage. I had my eye on it for the past several weeks, wanting to buy it, but also wanting to give other people a chance to buy it first. I have to be careful or I will be bringing home something from there every day!  Anyway, I was surprised that no one purchased this before Christmas, and knowing that this particular vendor would be coming to take home her Christmas items that had not sold soon, I decided to give myself a little gift. It wasn't expensive, and something about this picture just really spoke to me.

When our boys were young and we lived up north, we often went to tree farms and cut our own Christmas trees. It was often quite a long, cold experience, as I had to check out every tree available before making a decision of which one to cut.  The boys would run around and say, "how about this one, Mommy?"  And I would inspect it and look at all sides and so many had bare spots here and there and I would say, "Let's keep looking!".  Hubby was somewhat patient, but after a while his feet were getting numb and the kids were getting tired, and everyone would say, "Just pick a tree so we can go home!" LOL.  By then we usually had looked at every one, and I had to narrow it down to the final choice, and hubby would cut it and we'd happily drag it up to the man to help tie it on our car and away we'd go! And of course the trees were always perfect when we got them home to decorate! (well, maybe not really perfect, but good enough to be beautiful and make us all happy).

Precious memories.

One last photo...the Christmas Cactus that just keeps on reviving every year and putting on its beautiful dress for us to enjoy!  (Click on this link for a little story about this cactus)

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and comments on my last post.  I had mentioned about having some back spasms, etc., and I wanted to tell you that I had an already scheduled Dr. appointment on Tuesday as a follow up to last week's labs.  I told him about my back and shoulder/arm issues, and he prescribed an x-ray for me, which I had on Wednesday. I won't get the results for a little while, unless he calls me when he gets them. He suspects that I have a pinched nerve. Not sure an x-ray will show much, but insurance requires the least expensive kind of tests first before going for the big ones like an MRI or CT Scan, so we will see what develops,  I have a history of slipped discs and spinal issues and surgeries, so we shall see what happens.   Stress causes these things to flare up, and then it just kind of goes downhill from there. Praying it will be an easy fix and no more surgery. It hurts the most during the night, so I'm not sleeping well, but during the day it isn't quite as bad. I told my hubby if I could just learn to sleep standing up I might be okay. LOL.  It's better to stay active and keep moving and not give in to this thing. (sometimes easier said than done).  But I am thankful it isn't something worse. 

Oh, I am still waiting for the Lord to show me what my "One Word" for 2023 is going to be. Time is running out, but I know He will show me on time. I just have to "listen" for His voice.  (I don't want to use the word listen, because I saw someone else had that word already...but then again, it does keep showing up in my thoughts...we'll see what happens...stay tuned).

"My flesh and my heart fail;

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." 

Psalm 73:26

Thursday Night Thankfulness

"One of these things is not like the other"....Can you see what is the main difference?

# 1.

These two pictures were taken just a couple of days apart. 

#2.

What do you see that is very different between the two?

Give up?

Well, if you said I see a big tree laying down on the ground with something green on top of it in picture #2 that I don't see in #1, then you would be correct.

That is the sight I saw this morning when I stepped out on our back porch. I knew right away that one of our very big tall (dead) pine trees must have fallen in the night. My first concern was to be sure it hadn't fallen on our neighbor's house or anything else of importance, and I was very very thankful to see that it had simply fallen over onto the ground, aiming directly toward the pond and away from all other structures. Praise God!

When we first moved to this house almost two years ago, we knew that eventually we would have to deal with these two very tall dead pine trees in our wooded lot between our house and closer to our neighbor's house.  We just prayed they would not fall on their house before we could do anything.

Little by little the dead branches from the top have fallen off, a few more with every storm.

But it remained a good perch for woodpeckers,

Swallowtail Kites,

And our favorite hawks...This might be Harriet!

So, anyway,  I ventured over for a closer look, making sure to look up and check to be sure no more branches were ready to fall on top of me:

Oh! How the mighty have fallen!

Kind a left its bits and pieces everywhere!

This would be the upper part of the tree...

Wait? What's that I see laying on the ground next to the upper section of the tree?

Look closely, and you will see the "suet cake cage" that was stolen by squirrels from our back yard a couple of months ago. I had looked everywhere  for that cage...it had totally disappeared (with the suet cake intact, I might add, at the time)...but here it is on the ground next to the tree...

This is it..one of the large sized cages for suet cakes. How on earth did a squirrel carry that all the way up to the top of that tree??? I think they had a nest up there somewhere...and I guess this must have become a part of their furniture?  Interesting that the fasteners were still closed. 

So that mystery is solved! Don't ever think squirrels are innocent little critters!!

Anyway, here is why the tree fell:

It was rotten to the core!

Also it had these large philodendron vines growing on it, which I understand can kill a tree over time...

They might be pretty, but I guess they need to go.

Well, I'm sure you are bored by now with all of this tree talk. I just wanted to thank the Lord, however, for protecting our home and especially our neighbor's home, as the tree was closer to them than to us. This tree had a twin tree...they were growing up side by side, and now we probably need to figure out what to do about the remaining tree.  But in the meantime...

Millipede, anyone?  This fella was just curled up and cozy out there in the woods, not a care in the world while he could have been squashed by a giant tree...

I think this is a Rusty Millipede

And not too far away was this beautiful Rose of Sharon blooming in the Secret Memorial Garden. Look at all those buds on that stalk!  I love that there are these examples of life even in the midst of death...

Just to close out this Thursday evening thankfulness time, here's a few pictures from last night's sunset over Still Waters Pond. My Facebook friends have already seen these, but I thought they would be a nice way to end this post:

Do you see the photo bomber here?

Mr. Spider was making his way across his web in front of me...quite the little ham:

Here's some food for thought at the end of the day:

Psalm 73:26

My flesh and my heart fail;

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Amen!

Thank you again for your prayers. I continue to improve and am very thankful.