Geminidream’s Posts
Half days are wonderful, enjoy the heck out yours!
QOTD: Pumpkin pie is #1 in my book but I normally make a cheesecake too (alternating sometimes with an apple pie) and I top it with a cranberry sauce, not like the super thick kind but more thin and clear with whole berries. No wonder I needed two gastric surgeries and prescriptions to get weight off, haha! Tried sweet potato pie once, not a fan but I did make it back when my sister came to Thanksgiving.
B & L: A freezing cold mocha protein shake. Ulcer has been bothering so I've got to be nicer to it.
D: 6 shrimp and some homemade veg soup w/no potatoes.
S: a black bean, sf cupcake from the freezer made in May.
Have a happy Thanksgiving!
Yeah, coleslaw? Is she planning on bringing KFC too? Actually, their gravy is really good. Probably 90% chemicals, but tasty chemicals.
Sorry your shoulder is so bad today, don't overdo it around the house.
Beautiful jewelry creations! The earrings look like they'd be heavy but I bet they're not.
Hi, sorry to be MIA so long. Stupid Nutritionix is still down on the web, it has really thrown me off. Joined myfitnesspal .com it is as clunky as when it was new and overreaching now too with apparently no way to turn that feature off. I gave it two days and quit. The app version of Nutritionix is acting all buggy now, sigh. I may go back to paper and pen. Been doing batch cooking and portioning to help myself.
We aren't doing Thanksgiving this year, the MIL has claimed it. Hubby dislikes turkey anyway. We're having a tree trimming party on the weekend. It will be a very scaled-back meal. I think there is a turkey breast in the freezer plus many hams (why I bought so many I don't know...fun with food addiction!). Yesterday I found the frozen cranberries and a eye of round roast so hopefully we'll have two meat choices. (Hubby has vetoed the ham. Going to see if my church's food bank would take a few.)
What I used to cook when I got to host was turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cornstarch gravy, sweet potatoes, asparagus, green salad, relish tray, homemade rolls, Russian Cream with fresh fruit, homemade cranberry sauce, corn casserole, mulled cranberry and cider, pumpkin pie, apple pie or cranberry cheesecake and a batch of cheater's fudge as a Christmas pre-show. Pretty much a heart attack in the making. And any dish containing gluten has to be made in a gluten free version too. Luckily we don't have super sensitive Celiacs so I can cook everything carefully in my kitchen. It was my joy to cook so much and send home generous containers of leftovers with everybody.
This week is all prep and putting up the tree with lights today. We have to clean massively before having my SIL over, he is allergic to cats, poor guy. Hope you all stay bundled up, I understand you are due some nasty cold weather. Brrr! Our high is 40 this week and chances of snow. Cold enough for me!
Holy Moly...that was a huge stretch of landscape work to do! It looks great and by next spring it will be very pretty.
You are so right about postop eating. So many benefits to having our nice little pouches and being able to take a long time to eat what we used to gobble.
You deserve a relaxing day, enjoy it!
Melody, I'm sorry so much is dumped on your shoulders while you are handling health challenges too. Congrats on getting a surgery date finally! Hopefully you'll recuperate quickly and get a lot of relief from it.
Glad you are getting a new sump pump. Sewer backups are the worst! Disgusting cleanup and worries over drywall damage. One of our neighbors had a tree whose roots got into our ancient sewer pipes and at least once a year we had to deal with that in our basement too. We finally just got smart and paid extra for extended rootering that went out past our sidewalk where the roots were the worst. They got rid of the tree eventually and after a few years the roots finally died but we still get rootered every year just to be safe. We can't afford new pipe or even those liners because the break is technically in the street and when you get the city involved all prices triple.
Sorry you had to cry. Whoever said crying is therapeutic was mental. It just makes you feel horrible physically and does nothing to resolve the problems that caused the crying in the first place. Hope you are feeling better by the end of the day.
Is that a pic of your dad or granddad? Handsome dude! Also the dog sculpture is beautiful and so playful.
Happy Hump Day! Hope you get to see the Northern Lights tonight. Too much light pollution to see them here. When Hubby was stationed in Alaska he saw them a lot and said they are really beautiful.
Wish your post came with Smell-O-Vision! Your garlic powder looks great. I can't dehydrate garlic because Someone here had a hissy over the smell in the garage when my dehydrator was in the freezer room off the garage and the smell travelled. I couldn't choose on the QOTD you posted earlier, food would be so bland without either one. If I had enough garden space I'd grow onions too but settle for my Music garlic which is delicious.
QOTD: Used to but after my parent's and inlaws died most of my aunts and uncles did too so there were very few left to mail.
So far, so good with this week. Shocking visit to the dentist: no cavities despite basically no tooth brushing for two months after that sinus surgery. Successful visits to thrift stores and found another pair of jeans and a few choice garments to harvest fabric. Did a bunch of bulk cutting for garment sewing and started another pile for donation. Today I have to suit up and get more ripping, trimming and raking done outside since today seems to be the last dry day then rain moves in. Only two more weeks of green bin collection, I've got to hustle.
Food: still fighting the nighttime sweets cravings. Need to make another batch of protein pumpkin pie bites or something else safe to fight that. The replacement for my Vitamix container came so breakfast is either a big frappe shake that lasts morning till dinner or the stale Click protein and fake coffee hot protein drink. Sliced off those chicken breasts I poached plus a Costco rotiss chicken picked very clean and frozen portions. 3- or 4 oz servings of that for dinner plus making myself eat a veggie. One weird dinner that was good was 3 oz chicken, 1/2 c ff cottage cheese, 1/2 c marinara and 1/2 c home canned carrots for the veg.
What I've been trying for the evening cravings is a cup of sf hot cocoa with a Pure Protein bar or sometimes a mug of ho****er with two sf chocolate candies. Costco got in a Chocxo dark chocolate low sugar type and I love that they are individually wrapped. Helps with self control.
My online tracking site (Nutritionix) has been down since the weekend but their app still works, it isn't easy to use. If they don't bring back the website I'll have to switch to something else. I never remember to use my phone so a lot of tracking isn't being done properly.
Hope the rest of your week is great and enjoy your lovely new furnace!
All this hell you are going through is going to make the victory of finally having your own apartment so much sweeter!
Prayers said, fingers crossed and good vibes sent for a good meeting tomorrow!
You don't have to be sorry for expressing your feelings here. Isn't a part of how we all landed up related to eating our feelings at one point or other? We'll all be fighting it the rest of our life and when parts of life suck it makes it harder. I do hope you get to retire sooner. Big hug for you!
Hope your errands were all successful today and that your salt levels were decreased. Don't forget about the full moon...I personally believe in the power of it to make things more erratic and difficult.
Have you noticed a trend in no-sugar sodas in the last year? All the 'limited edition' ones seem to have a vanilla base. I tried the new 7-Up diet one for the holidays and vanilla is all I tasted. Hubby won't help drink them and I don't drink that much of sodas either.
Ms. Opal is so photogenic and you're a great photographer. The pendant looks like a snowflake to me, beautiful!
Have a great weekend.
Hope the stretching helped your back and that you didn't have to do anything at work that would aggravate it.
This weekend I really, really should get some yardwork done since we only have 3 more collections of the green bin for the year. Made the decision to only grow enough garlic for seed next year. Past time to get it planted in my area. The freezer still has pucks of chopped garlic grown in '23 and processed in '24. Then add in this year's (even with supplying my family w/garlic) and it will be fine to take next year off except for growing the seed for '27.
QOTD: Hoping the Dr. will let me stay on the Bupropion/Naltrexone combo. Hoping to find someplace close to exercise that isn't crazy expensive. I can't be trusted to do it on my own. That plus the meds and I'm hoping to be at goal by May 17th. (When I started this.) Also need to make more ready meals for the freezer.
B: The new normal which is one scoop of Pero in ho****er, 1/2 scoop of the Click espresso protein.
L: Topping off the breakfast hot shake with the other half of the Click.
D: 3 oz home canned meatballs mashed into 1/2 cup marinara and 1 T real parmesan.
S: 5 grapes mid-day. A protein shake, rib of celery w/1 T peanut butter for late snack (something in tummy for pill taking).
Going to try to finish up two more garments tonight. One has taken me all week, sheesh I used to churn out projects like that in 2 days. But then, Hubby wasn't retired either. ;)
Good evening! Hope your day ended up being nice. I snuck out under the guise of picking up drycleaning and a prescription (which I actually did) but also ended up visiting Hobby Lobby's fabric department and Goodwill. Got a pair of jeans in my fav brand in size 14. They look too small but the 16's I'm wearing now are too big. Maybe the lycra or elastane is going bad on them. I'll find out when the new ones are out of the wash.
Thank you for the tip on the protein shakes, does it only work for the almond milk type? I'm going to be bold and try it with the regular type this evening for my late snack.
QOTD: Once again the MIL has taken over the holiday. A normal holiday would be nice but due to in-law things and the fact that my son is a chef, those things just don't happen. We'll be alone and I'll cook the turkey and reheat it the next day. The grands have no cousins on this side of their family so we are completely boring, I get it. I'm sweetening the deal having them decorate the tree while we just have our leftovers buffet. Might even say they can all wear their Christmas jammies too. That's pretty big talk for it only being 3 weeks away and me being on a sewing bender. Before my SIL comes over we have to do a massive deep-clean to remove as much cat hair and dander as possible. He takes an antihistamine but it only holds him a couple of hours, poor guy.
See you all tomorrow!
Glad you got some new sweatshirts. I dug up one from newlywed days in Germany. It's still tight but nice to have another warm layer.
How do cats innately know that we need to be able to see something so it is time for them to come block it?
My condolences on your new taxes. :(
Glad you called in that car and thankful there was no dead body. We have so much vehicle theft around here and most of it is for joyriding, trashing the car then hiding it in out of the way places--good thing it wasn't that either.
No huge statewide races and the local ones mostly all went toward judges, candidates who support higher taxes and the higher tax issues themselves. It feels like the wealthy here who have plenty of ways of dodging taxes are more than happy to have us regular folks footing their share of the bills. It's like they're trying to drive the lower middle class out of the city.
Last night's 'Adventures in Babysitting: Grandma Edition' was a wild ride. They were amped-up when I got there and held that right up until bedtime. The littlest one has gotten into the 'no' phase and would have made a great 60's Sit-In protester. Having to grab her from hiding positions for diaper changes or getting ready for bed caused me to aggravate my bicep repair and give me a lower back ache this morning. Still it was so much fun being with them to enjoy all that youthful energy. I got in plenty of sneaky hugs and kisses on their heads. It did my heart so much good!
Full moon fun: I dropped my Vitamix container and the blade assembly sheared right out of it. Got on line and used Uncle Amazon to get a replacement, the real thing. Got that dude when I was a postop sometime between '06 and '09 (?) and this will be my third container. Making protein shakes with loads of ice has put a lot of miles on the old girl and I want to keep her running fine. Shakes will supposedly resume on Friday.
More full moon fun: Someone in the house decided it would be a good idea to rename our home network. What a nightmare...everything that gets internet support went offline and we hope by now we've got all the connected devices going again. ::crossing fingers::
B: The fake herbal coffee and half a serving of Click espresso protein.
L: Adding in the other half of the protein.
D: Another 3 oz of the nice chicken breast. Might add some G. Hughes sf bbq sauce if it reheats to dry.
S: A Premiere Protein shake. I'd add in half a banana or a small apple but that shoots my carbs way beyond Dr.'s orders.
Cold, rainy and windy today. Good day to sew!
Hope your day is fine.
We've got mail in ballots here too, I miss the days of going to the polling place to vote in person. Anymore the only taxes I vote for are the fire departments and the police. With a son-in-law as a fireman I have to, they need all the support and life saving equipment they can get.
You have a great talent for getting good photos of your babies. They are so beautiful. Glad you are getting x-rays done and hoping that your upcoming appointment will finally get your doctor moving in the right direction to help you.
It's awesome you 'know a guy' to get a new furnace so promptly. The rabbits sound snug as a bug.
QOTD: We bought this house because it came with natural gas furnace and water heater and have just replaced the units as they aged out and we got more energy-efficient units. Later we added a/c since we already have the ducts and lastly put in a gas fireplace. I tried and tried but could not get hubby to agree to a log burner for the basement so we could have free conductive heat.
Babysitting the grands tonight so I only have enough time for one project and it has to be re-canning plum juice for Hubby. Hoping that if I do two cases today it will last him till the end of December. This has saved us so much money over buying the little shelf stable packs of orange juice for when his sugars are low. And surprisingly even though I add sugar to the concentrate it doesn't just spike his readings either. He gets a nice steady rise and then it holds for an hour or so. Plenty of time for me to goad him to eat a real meal.
Have my outfit ready for tonight: a sleeveless shell topped with a sweater topped with a denim shirt and wool socks. I need to figure out how to sew a little nose sweater, since the surgery it is always cold. DD's house is normally cold but now it feels like a refrigerator to me, haha.
What a fascinating place to visit, thank you for bringing us along via the pics.
QOTD: I'm another history fan. It was right in my top three favorite classes in high school. The three years we lived in Germany as newlyweds, Hubby and I got to see so many historical places. Couldn't choose a favorite era in history, they're all fascinating.
The time change has stupidly been hard on me this time and isn't this supposed to be the one that's easiest? It has made me so tired and off-kilter. Taking some extra vitamins to try to get over it quickly.
B: One scoop Pero in 8-12 oz water, one serving of Click Double-Shot Espresso protein in 2 cups of water. It was delicious and kept me going till lunch.
L: Total amnesia on that. It was probably 2 cheese sticks or half a cup of nf cottage cheese. Or nothing? I know I meant to eat.
D: 4 oz tender and delicious chicken breast. Looked up a good recipe for boneless-skinless involving brining and roasting at 450 which actually worked! Cooked 6 Franken-breasts for meal prep. Future Molly will thank me.
Need to bump that up so I'll try half a cup of Egg Beaters with an American cheese slice melted into it and maybe a protein shake.
What a great drawing, you should get a custom frame for it. Sorry October was rough for you, this month has to be better.
Proud of from the weekend...made good progress on healing my ulcer and tested my good old Click espresso protein and it didn't hurt!
That sounds like a great apartment. Looking forward to hearing how it goes with getting all the details finalized and you can finally be at home.
Thank you for the recommendation, I've already bookmarked his site. I know I can't afford the local surgeon who did my sinus surgery even though he was awesome. Thankfully it met the insurance criteria and they paid for it. This might be a great alternative to local prices.
We didn't get many little kids on Friday, but they were cute and Hubby is happy that there is now beaucoup leftover candy. Sunday it is going into lockup and I'll just dole it out when he asks. He doesn't need to have a diabetic stroke.
Saturday was a pretty good day even though I didn't sleep again till 4. I puttered around at a zippy pace and got a lot of organizing and sewing prepping done. Also brought the canning stuff back upstairs, it is time again already to can more plum juice for Hubs. (Not the same thing as prune juice, this is light and delicious and helps when his sugars are low.) He's gone through 2 1/2 cases of it since early September.
The food noise was better today, I think that extra Bupropion helped. Monday I should schedule a phone appt. w/dr and see if I can convince her to bump up my dosage.
Your Saturday food sounded good, yum! Hope starting the financial talk w/Dad is going to be fruitful for you. Has he always just had a mean streak toward you or is it some kind of Dementia issue? Wish your dad is as sweet as my dad was before the end. He was pretty much a teddy bear, I sure miss him.
It is stinkin' cold here but the forecast for Sunday seems like it will be the last sunny day for awhile. I dragged up the Christmas lights and the hooks today, hoping I can get Hubs to help me on Sunday after I get back from church.
Got most of the important clocks set correctly. Hope you did too so you don't miss any apartment appointments tomorrow.
Happy Weekend Eve to you then. Hope you get all your projects finished. Hope your clambake went well and no rain until after. Before I quit working our store had an event like that but we just got hot dogs and catered sides.
QOTD: Not a city wide event, no. But at the agri-tourism area nearby (Greenbluff) many farms offer their own harvest celebration events every weekend during October. I try to get out there with family every year to get a quart of local honey. It normally ends on Halloween but maybe they'll extend it to this weekend this year. Then they gear up for the Christmas events. Fun for families that like to cut a fresh Christmas tree.
Couldn't fall asleep till 5 this morning so my menu is off kilter.
B: a cup of Pero w/1 T of Cremora and a packet of sweetener.
L: Another homemade egg bite, only one left after this. With meds for dessert.
D: 3 oz chicken breast, 1/2 cup FF cottage cheese, a zero net carb tortilla, salsa.
S: Protein shake
Today's plan is to try an experiment with my "Contrave". Missed the Naltrexone last night so I took it plus half of this morning's Bupropion to see if it works better. There has to be a way to get back to the relief from head hunger it gave me in the beginning. Luckily it is gray and gloomy today so I can make up that protein shake and sip all day while sewing and staying out of the kitchen. I may steal your chili idea for Hubby, it is so nice to get the house filled the aroma of that in the crockpot bubbling away.
Hope everybody's Thursday is great!
In case you have your notifications turned on, forgive me for not seeing your post before today. Congratulations on 19 years and still in the fight!! So sorry you've had heart issues. I'll turn 19 in December and I hear ya about finding so little online bypass communities back then. OH, Sparkpeople and Sparkrecipes kept me going too.
If you start Wegovy, best of luck to you! I'm on the poor man's Contrave since May and have lost nearly 60# of regain. Sorry you didn't get any replies before but please come back and give us an update on how you are doing.
