Weekend Activities AKA I need a nap

Friday night, I went to Maddy's town to attend one of their free summer concerts with her!  They try to go every week but Matthew was out of town and Maddy didn't want to go alone.  She got more knitting in and we got a lot of chit chatting in.

The Death Stranding birthday party for Ryan and Jen, on Saturday night was a lot of fun!  

SO much pizza and goodies!  Leon had even made a cake.  I made the buttercream frosting for it.  Thank goodness Maddy brought a veggie platter.  I made a salad using lettuce and the toppings of a couple slices of pizza & said vegetables.  

mmm  and snuck a few boneless bbq chicken wings.  I need to knock THAT off!

Meri and Josh were there too and even Aggie joined in on the living room fun as Ryan forged his way into the sequel for the game.  Even though Matthew was several states away at a conference, he was able to connect via Twitch and watch the action too.  He texted several times about events going on in the game.

Sunday, after church, some church friends stopped by and helped me work on my rider mower to fix the bent wheel.  They ended up using the two parts I'd purchased after all and identified another crutial piece that got bent also. The front axle.  I asked a neighbor for a tool I didn't have and he came over and fussed over the mower along with Seth.  So much grease!  I felt so bad for getting them into the nitty gritty of it all.  I thought it was going to be a quick fix.

Seth will be back later this week with a pipe wrench to see if he can bend the axle back into place.  

In the meanwhile, I mowed the front yard afterwards and it handled SO much better than it had been doing!  Instead of a ten point turn at every corner, it was only 3!  PROGRESS!!!

Oh, plus they tightened the steering wheel!  So it's not so jiggly! Whew.

While Aggie and Jen played in the kiddie pool, I pulled thistle weeds out of my hostas and cement hill and finally planted my hydrangea plant that Meri gave me for Mother's Day.  It actually broke apart into two plants! So winner winner!

I opened a bag of mulch that had been sitting there all last winter to spread around it and low and behold there was a mass colony of ants living inside and they spilled out all over my tennis shoes and gloves!  Yikes!  and they were biters! 

That was about when I decided I'd had enough for one day.  Besides sweat was dripping off my face like a faucet was on.  I left my shoes on the porch so the ants could go find another home.  yuck.  

OH and I sprayed the air conditioner with the hose a lot!  I'm guessing that's why it's not keeping up very well with the heat.  It was pretty dirty.  So now we wait again to see if it made a difference.

Got a lot of weeding in this morning before work.  If I can get 30 minutes of weeding in a day, I think the yard will be good by Christmas.  You know.  Under a foot of snow.

above: dressing up with Mom
below: reading to herself.

I cried at church yesterday. Widows being given back their sons.  I'm not jealous but well, maybe.  It's a widow thing.  Always rehashing the actual day, wondering if I missed something or didn't pray at the right time or not do the right things.  And wouldn't you just know it?  The first service I hadn't brought tissues to the pew with me.  Even though I didn't get Robb back, God has been taking good care of us and Robb is having a beautiful time while he waits for me to catch up.

Well...

Back to work Mr Zook!  Thanks Dave!  * Robb always rolled his eyes at me for quoting that old Sioux City car dealership commercial!! * :)

Death Stranding, concerts and birthdays

 I'm looking forward to a great weekend!

I'm heading to Maddy's tonight to attend a concert in a park.

Then hanging with Aggie over lunch tomorrow so Ryan and Jen can go on a birthday date.

Probably mow my house that afternoon.

THEN the sequel to the Death Stranding video game came out on Ryan's birthday and we watched/played it as a family 3 years ago.  Love me some Norman Reedus!!  AND Mads Mikkelson although I know he won't be in it much this time.  Ryan usually runs the controller and the rest of us watch.  Restarting that tradition tomorrow night!  We'll probably play once a week until we're through it. * 6 months later *

Sounds boring huh?!  Not really!  It's exciting to see where Norman's character goes and where the story line goes.  And I KNOW who that child is and am anxious to see what becomes of her!

And we'll have food to celebrate both Ryan and Jen's birthdays this past week.

Did you know that the official Leon's Day was on Wednesday?  It's halfway between here and Christmas so it's NOEL backwards!  But who actually gets their own day and it's not their birthday? 

My grandson!

I'm starting Christmas shopping now!

And will start lobbying for a Valerie's Day.

Have a beautiful weekend!

She GETS me!

 Ah Aggie girl!

We were relaxing yesterday afternoon, her in her chair and me in mine.  I believe we were watching Aggie Videos that I have on a private Youtube playlist.  She's finally relaxed on the Beauty & the Beast kick a little!  Her video watching reperatoire is increasing.

She adores watching movies/slideshows about herself.

I used to love home movies too when I was a kid.  My dad would pull out the old 16 mm movie projector and a sheet would be hung on one wall, every weekend.  Usually Friday or Saturday night. 

I LOVED it!  

I'm sure my youngest sister didn't as she was only in a couple but with 7 kids, it was a riot to see our antics throughout the years.  Eventually someone had to go to work on that night or had a date and the movie watching became even rarer.  I remember being the ONLY one to set up the projector one lonely weekend and watch the movies by myself, crying that our family was disintegrating.

It wasn't!  Just people were getting too busy with their lives. Bummer. 

I started showing Aggie some other videos I have on Youtube, like Leon pounding on some metal plates with wooden spoons. 

She was inspired!  And since we don't have those plates anymore, I found some pots and spoons for her to be a star herself.

She had to watch the video when I had it done and I'll have to add it to her private playlist.

I SO get her!

Keto Recipe for Wendy's Frosty

 I found a recipe on a Pre-Diabetic site and thought I'd give it a whirl.  For a Wendy's Frosty of sorts.

I halved the recipe because it's for 2 servings and Leon isn't up yet to try out his half of it. But here it is for 2.

Wendy's Frosty - Lo Carb knockoff - 2 servings

1 cup unsweetened Almond Milk

2 tablespoons Sugar free Pudding mix

2 packets of Stevia, I used Splenda packets

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon unsweetened Cocoa powder

10-12 ice cubes

2 tablespoons lite Whipped Topping (optional) (I didn't have any on hand today)

Blend up for at least 1 minute to get all the ice chunks smoothed out.

Pour and enjoy!

It really wasn't bad at all and I'll make it again.  I might spring for the entire recipe as one serving though.  It only filled up my glass halfway.

And I'll pick up some lite whipped topping.

The original recipe is HERE

The nutritional facts say that it has 28 carbs in each servings, um WHA??!!!

That's not lo-carb in my book.

So I have the free version of My Fitness Pal app on my phone and I created the recipe there with all the ingredients except the lite whipped topping.  According to My Fitness Pal, a single serving has 2.9 carbs.

Yep - I'm going to drink the whole thing next time!

Bohemian Cool

Streaming:  Mash season 1, episode 1.

The weather lately has been ridiculously hot.  95+ temps.

My air conditioner wasn't able to keep up two days in a row and I KNOW it's not a low freon issue, although I'm sure that will happen eventually, and I should get a guy to look at it.  It got up to 77 degrees when I had it set to 72.

The upper windows in my living room are the culprits.  The morning sun heats up the room and the air conditioning has to work overtime to try and keep the temps down, unsuccessfully.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I was inspired by this photo I'd seen a while back.

I'm not interested in crocheting that many blankets and don't have the right tools to hang it up properly.

SO...

I got a ton of this fabric off the ASG free table several months ago. I sewed them together into a huge rectangle and strung them up with twine to the wall speakers and then upstairs banisters and through my office window, tied to the leg of a heavy dresser. done.

I basically made a huge awning for my living room.

It looks like we live in a circus tent.

Cue Big Top Pee Wee theme song...

I'm not entirely sure I like this and this fabric could easily also become curtains in my office before fall.

And of COURSE, the weather turned around by the next day so it'll be rainy and chill all week.  The proof is in the next 95+ degree day.  Maybe Saturday, maybe August.

And I just hope the cats don't get the idea of a giant hammock in their heads and jump onto it from my office window, which is currently closed.

The rest of the family doesn't mind it and thinks it looks rather bohemian, which is their style anyway.

Crossing my fingers for success!

I also found THIS recipe on FB.  Yum, huh?!

And Aggie girl is finally interested in dolls!  I knew she would be.  She's into "baby wearing" these days.

OK, back to work!!!

It's in the Jeans and Rust

 I have a chair that was Robb's dad's favorite chair, probably from when he was in seminary.  It's old.  And when I say old, I mean, OOO.L.DDD!  It was in our bedroom for years and Robb loved it.  After that, it had been given to various kids for their rooms, the last one was Maddy, I think.  But it was left at home when she moved away.  So I guess it's mine again.  The matching ottoman is in our garage storage room and that'll be a project for another day/month/year.

Somehow the top back had gotten broken and the poor thing sat in the garage for several years with my honest intention of someday fixing it up and making it part of our lives again.  I plan to use Robb's old jeans to re-cover it.  What else can I make of them?

Yesterday was the day I chose to start in!

No one was home so over my lunch hour, I moved it, by myself, up the stairs to my bedroom so I could watch Sherlock as I worked on it.  This is me on the stairs trying to not knock over canned goods I have stored there.  I did take a break after this brutal feat of strength.

Darn my hobbies!

In stripping off the old worn vinyl, I found several boards broken on just the bottom of the chair without even bringing the top board into play.  Yikes!  Who's been throwing this thing around?!  

And I kid you not.  There were about 1235 little tiny nails per side in various areas holding it all together.  And cardboard.  Not sure when staple guns were invented but not when THIS baby was put together!  Bunches of change fell out along with candy wrappers.  I've been picking up all the tiny nails every time I go in the room now.  I THOUGHT I was being careful, but here we are.

In the process of stripping it to it's bare bones, I got scraped a couple times on the little nails, breaking the skin. whoops!

And when attempting to place a screw and fix a board, the drill slipped a few times and punctured the fleshy part of my hand between the thumb and first finger. EEW!!!  

hydrogen peroxide
band aides

It was like Robb was telling me to give up and pitch the thing!  But I'm pretending I'm not getting the message.  It's a sentimental journey.  And I've literally got skin in the game.

Long about 4pm, I started wondering when I'd had my last tetanus shot. Hmm..  Seems like the last one I could remember was 1989 when Robb and I were helping my dad tear down a barn and I stepped on a nail.  It went through my shoe into my foot.  So yesterday, I called our family doctor. They looked it up on the national registry and the last time THEY found recorded was 1973.  Probably just in time for kindergarten or first grade.

Because we ALL know how rusty the 1970s playground equipment could get.

It was time to get another tetanus shot. shoot.  In addition to that, I brought up my glucose charting I've been doing.  I got confirmation that my suspicion of pre-diabetes was correct.  My doctor had my A1C checked (5.9) and then gave me info and resources for recipes and of course the tetanus shot.

As Calvin in the old cartoon strip would say, "I'm just a little pink pin cushion to you guys!" 
poke poke poke.

So yeah.  no sugar, breads, potatoes, etc for THIS gal!  Not anymore sunshine!

sigh.

My A1C is not terrible but the switch has been flipped.  I need to be lo-carb and watching my carb intake from this point on.

But at least now I won't get lockjaw from Robb's chair!  HA to YOU Robb!  I WILL get this chair put back together!  It just looks pretty sad so far.

To Sugar or NOT To Sugar?

 I haven't tried the mower trick yet.  We're down a car and I don't want to walk over.  I guess I could ride Leon's bike...  eh.  Got enough stuff to do at home.

But I'm confident that the new tool I bought will help.  Maybe when someone gets home I'll run over.

Leon and I attempted to make homemade chocolate chips this morning!  I don't think the sugar was completely dissolved so the first little chips in the molds were just coconut oil and chocolate.  But the pan with the final bits with sugary sludge in it were a hit!  I'll drink more water today so my blood sugar won't be so high. :) the sacrifices we make!

He fell asleep shortly after we finished the first batch and I'd discovered the problem.

So I did a 2nd batch for ME using Monkfruit sweetener instead.  I feel like I should have used Splenda as that has less carbs and might taste a little better.  Oh well.  NEXT time.

Not sure I like the taste of these either.  Pretty "coconut oil" flavored.  I might just use butter next time too as it's cheaper.  We'll see.

ALSO, I think I might remelt the first batch with sugar and get it fudgy before pouring into the molds.  I think Leon will appreciate them more.

He can make some cookies when he wakes up.  He said he was up until 2am and woke up ready to take on the world at 6am.  He crashed.  Even before the chocolate chips got done so it wasn't a sugar crash!

Anyone have a recipe for milk chocolate chips?  Those are his favorite chips and I'd like to attempt it.

I really do like Lily's chocolate chips but they're so pricey.  I was hoping to cut the costs a little. hmm.

Here's the original recipe I used.

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

Has anyone here tried making them before?  and/or a no-sugar type?