We have green grass!

 

It's beginning to look like spring, though the trees are just budding.

A little while ago on a frosty day I captured this pair at the feeder.

I've been doing too much YouTubing and reading lately, so today I'm hoping to do some decluttering. Going through books, clothes, cleaning products and storage boxes. I'm looking ahead to September when I'll be moving and I don't want to have any more to move than I need to. Only God knows what will actually happen in the future, but I like to over think and plan way ahead. I know I have lots of stuff I don't need and will not use. Most of my books are on my Kindle, but I still have these to go through...

(Not that many, actually! The stuff in the box is going to the dump.)

It's supposed to be in the '70's today. That's crazy for us! :)

I'll probably have to go for a walk on the trail.

Feeling a little old lately, but I look forward to that new body the Lord promised us. The one that lasts forever! Meanwhile, trying to take care of this one. I pray you're all doing well and trusting in the Lord for everything. My fingers are a little contrary on the keyboard, so I'll keep this brief. Just wanted to touch base and check in. I'm off to read blogs!

Love all you family and friends out there!

Shalom!

Quick update...

Son Josh just returned from a trip to London with his work team. I'm so happy he got to go! 

 I forgot to answer Dori's question in my last post. Nope, I'm not back living by my kids. That may take a year or two. I'm still in the boat shaped house/apartment. Just trying to be content where I am, and hopefully I'll get back out to the country in the  not too distant future. :) 

Oh, and I FINISHED The Count of Monte Cristo. It really picked up after the halfway point, and the end was spectacular! I repent for bad-mouthing it! Ha ha. 

I've got an appointment with a new lady doctor this afternoon. My old doctor is retiring and I thought I'd try a female doctor this time around. I haven't been to the doctor for about 3 years. I think this will be a general physical and just getting to know each other. Wonder what she'll think about the carnivore diet. Hmmm.

Donna and Gretchen, the diet is going well, but I've had to cut out so many things to clear up the acid reflux problems that I'm now down to pork chops, hamburger, bacon, eggs, shrimp and fish. I may try going toward something more paleo. Just a thought. I'll stick with this for now. I know  I can't do it forever. 

Y'all have a great day!

Shalom.

Helloooo...

...to my small, but faithful, band of readers. We just keep keepin' on, don't we?

The days are getting warmer, by Minnesota standards. In the 20's and 30's during the day and not too bad at night.

It's hard to tell from this photo, but we've had a ton o' snow in the last week. Thirteen inches one day and then...some more.

Still going carnivore. Here's my typical breakfast. I've given up dairy completely. It seems to aggravate my vocal cords and throat.

Typical lunch...I just keep a selection of meats and seafood around and cook various combos. Feeling pretty good. Lost some weight. Micah got Adam to join us. He warned her he'd be grouchy, and I guess he is going through that phase. It's hard to watch others eating goodies when you can't have them. :) Welcome, Donna! I hope to stick to this for a while. I'm so brainwashed at this point that I'll feel like I'm eating poison if I go back to my old habits. I'm trapped! Ha ha.

The view from my front door window.

The suet feeder is empty. I'd better be a good host and refill it. GM, in answer to your comment, we have lots of Flickers in the summer, but I never see them in winter. They must go to visit their friends in western Canada, eh? :)

I just had to chuckle at verse seventeen...Sixteen's pretty good, too. That Sol is pretty wise!

Listening to a lot of Joshua Aaron and Miqedem on YouTube. I should be tired of it by now, but I'm not. I'll try to link one below. Who knows? It might work.

Joshua Aaron

I've had a quiet few days of reading and not going out much because of snow and such. The next couple of days will be full of babysitting and helping Micah to get kids to a dress rehearsal for the homeschool co-op play (Frozen), and Audrey having a dental appointment at the same time. She'll miss the first hour of rehearsal while I sit in the van with the two smallest guys and the other three are at rehearsal. After that I'll do errands and then go to my Bible study at 1:00. Should be exhilarating! That's Thursday. Tomorrow (Wed.) I babysit for about six hours while Micah and Sloan go to Bemidji for his speech therapy and her chiropracter appointment. Then Friday I'll go to the play and Saturday maybe a volleyball game. Then I'll need a rest, ha ha.

I've been slogging my way through The Count of Monte Cristo. Why? I guess just so I can say I did! I was under the impression that it was good, but I find it a little (or a lot) draggy. But now that I'm at the 43% mark (Kindle version) there's no turning back. I'm trying not to let it interfere with my other reading in case it takes me months to finish it. Maybe it was The Man in the Iron Mask I was thinking of? Any opinions out there?

Well, those are the high points of my little peasant life here in the frozen tundra of Minnesota. I'll be visiting y'all!

I hope you're all having some nice weather and are well. God bless and shalom to you all!

 

Here I be! Lisa the lazy blogger.

 Wow, it's been two months! Am I going for a record?

I think I'm just having fun entertaining myself and I'm taking the lazy way out by watching others' creative output instead of creating a post. :)

Before I go on here are some woodpecker visitors. Forgive the dirty window. 

Lots of woodpeckers around. Besides the pileateds and the red-bellied above, I also get a lot of hairy and downy woodpeckers. Also lots of nuthatches and blue jays. I'm enjoying them. 

A big change in my dietary life is that Micah and I are doing the carnivore diet. Just meat, water and salt. Oh, and eggs. It's a thing. Her motivation is mainly weight loss (I think), but after watching lots of videos on the subject I decided to try it to deal with the anxiety/depression I was having  a lot of trouble with. It's also purported to help fight dementia and diabetes. I know it sounds faddish, but it can't be any worse than my regular diet. The people making the videos are doctors and hopefully their info is reliable. I've only been doing this for 2-1/2 weeks and since I'm still in the beginning stages I won't judge it yet. They say to try it for 1-3 months before judging the results. I am feeling much less anxiety and depression. Coincidence? We'll see. Dr. Ken D. Berry is the one I watch the most. (KenDBerry on YouTube)

Reading lots. I just finished A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers. It was a hefty book, but I found out when I reached the end that it's a three book series. Oh, man! Well, I found the last two books from a used bookseller on Amazon, so I can find out what happened to everyone. It takes place circa 70 A.D. after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and follows the lives of a young Jewish Christian girl who is captured and sold into slavery in Rome. It also follows the life of a warrior from Germania who was captured and forced to train as a gladiator, who also ends up in Rome. At the end of the book the young girl is thrown to the lions and supposedly killed, but...she didn't die. Oooooh. Now I have to wait for the next book to arrive. :) (But prepare yourself for some paganism and immoral Roman behavior.)

Well, in the last 15 minutes I've gone from my couch at home to Micah's to babysit while she goes into town to get new tires on her van. It was a last minute thing. So, this may be the end of this post for now. Hazel's talking at me. Better go!

I've visited your blogs and enjoyed them immensely!

Shalom!

Snow day(s)

Greetings, friends and family! 

I recorded my exercise for the day: shoveling snow. We got dumped on yesterday. Then the plow truck came and pushed the snow around, but he left a pile in front of my garage door. It was dark out when he did the plowing last night, so I figured I'd shovel that pile away this morning. Over night a few more inches were added, but I did go out and shovel the pile to one side. I hope the plow will come back later this evening because we're getting 4-8 inches more today. This overhang of snow came crashing down a few minutes after I took the photo. Each time it does that I shovel my front step so it doesn't build up until I can't get the door open, lol.

This was taken a week or two ago. These are the first deer I've seen since moving in on October 1st! 

Some snowy day activities to keep me busy. I bought a couple of these for the grands and decided to get one for myself. 

Making slow progress on the puzzle. There's a close-up shot of the puzzle below. It actually shows my area if you look closely. I love the retro look of it. I hope all the pieces are there so I can frame it when I'm finished. It was from a thrift store, so there are no guarantees. :)

My little Christmas corner and the digital photo frame I got for my birthday. I love that!

My latest read. I haven't read any Max lately, but really loved this one.

Here's that close-up of the puzzle.

I checked in with Micah and she and the kids are staying close to home while it snows. Adam and his crew went to work despite the weather. They work under tarps draped over scaffolding when they have to. (Stone masonry for those who don't know.) In news from their farm Micah said the ducks are loving the snow. They're rolling around in it and having a great time. Meatloaf the turkey layed her first egg. Most white commercial turkeys don't live long enough to lay eggs, but she's still enjoying life, ha ha. 

Well, those are the high points for the moment. Staying cozy, shoveling when needed and making some lunch. I hope you're all well. I'll be making the blog rounds and checking up on you. :)

Love and shalom to all of you!

 

Up periscope!

 I feel like I've been hiding under the sea for a while! On October 1st I moved to an apartment in Nevis. (Well, across the highway from Nevis.) That's the change I alluded to in my last post (7 weeks ago)! I miss the old trailer on the farm and the grands popping in and out, but this should hopefully be a temporary move. The kids are selling their house and building a larger one, for their growing family, on another part of their property. My trailer needed to be removed in order to do some septic work and prepare the place for sale next spring. They also intend to build me a tiny house/small house to move back into. Anyway, I'm still in the same area within 3 miles of them, so I'm helping to drive kids to sports and close enough to babysit easily, so I'm not out of touch. That helps.

The apartment I'm living in is called The Boathouse Apartments, because it's kind of shaped like a boat. I'm in the bow of the boat. Can you see it? 

My apartment goes just past the two skinny windows on the right. Now I'll work my way around to the left to show you the weird shape of the house. (There are four more apartments to my right, but they're smaller and just standard little apartments.) The two skinny windows are in my bedroom.

Flat wall to the left of the "bow" is the kitchen wall.

The apartment ends just past the two windows on the other side of the wood deck.

This is the backyard as seen through the kitchen sliding doors. The landlord said his insurance doesn't cover kids using the swingset (or the treehouse!) so Adam will remove that and take it to their house. The family who lived here before had three kids and apparently flaunted the rules a bit, ha ha. 

Here are some interior pictures and maybe I'll post a picture of my really bad map of the house. It only gives a basic idea of where the rooms are. The apartment is huge by my standards and I don't even use all the rooms. 

The wonky shape of the living room required a creative arrangement of the furniture. Micah suggested this way of doing it and I like it. The little propane stove in the corner heats the place with the help of the fans from the electric furnace. I was told that was the most economical way to do it. I spend most of  my time in this area. :)

The previous owners squeezed in some little Ikea type cabinets to the left of the fridge and I'm using them just where they are. Many cabinets will not be used. I'm not unpacking anything I don't use daily. This is temporary and maybe I'll get rid of some of the stuff I don't use. Hopefully my next move will be a big downsize! (By temporary I mean a year or so.)

A little room between the kitchen and living room. Notice the windowsill. Probably not going to use this room.

Laundry room off the kitchen.

A little spare room next to the laundry room that you walk through to get to the bathroom. Interior,  no windows. (Weird and wonky, people.) On the map below I call this the kids' art room though it probably won't get used for that.

The last tenants used this for a dining room. I'm using it for storage. The door leads through a little hallway to the bathroom. 

My bedroom at the front of the apartment.

And my wildly inaccurate floor plan.

So, I'm sure that's more info than you wanted, but I thought I'd put it out there anyway! :) It's not feeling like home yet, but I don't want to get too attached anyway. It's older and has more of a lake cabin feel. Heaven is my only real home. Thinking of that helps with the feeling of ennui that hits me sometimes. (Did I spell that correctly? lol) 

I've been fighting some anxiety and depression through all of this upheaval, but it's serving to remind me that God is my only real source of dependence. Keeping my eyes on Him more and more!

In other news, I'm reading a lot and thankful for internet which cheers me and fills the house with human voices. That's important when you live alone. I'm taking a hiatus from the ATC making, so no images of those this time. 

It's about time I checked up on you guys out there. Hope you're all well. 

Shalom and love to all!

Has it been five weeks, already?!?

Looking back over my last two posts it seems like so much has happened this summer! You may not see it, but it strikes me as kind of mind boggling. There are also changes going on behind the scenes that I won't go into in case plans change. Nothing negative, but things tend to go back and forth around here, and I'll wait 'til things firm up before mouthing off about them. Ha ha.

Everyone's still enjoying the pool and that turkey keeps on growing!

You may recall that Micah was raising 100 meat chickens. A few days ago something small (a weasel perhaps?) got into their pen and killed several of them. They were only a week away from going to the butcher so Micah called and the processing place said they could take them the next day, so we loaded them up and off they went. Out of 100 chicks she had 94 left, which isn't a bad outcome. Raising that many chickens is a big undertaking. She headed to Brainerd (about an hour and  a half away) to pick them up today. Success! :)

I made another batch of goat cheese today. This is my third batch and each one has turned out a little different. It seems that using apple cider vinegar produces a harder cheese/larger curds, while lemon juice produces a softer cheese/smaller curds. I didn't add enough salt last time. I think I did okay this time around. 

I'm hoping for a harder batch this time. I like to be able to grate it into my eggs. But it's good either way! Still got some pressing left to do on this batch.

I also made a rhubarb cream cake. I came across rhubarb at the grocery store earlier in the summer and bought a big bunch, which I chopped up and froze. It turned out pretty well. I have enough rhubarb left to make a rhubarb crunch, so that will be next. I shared most of the cream cake with Micah's family, but I saved plenty for myself. I don't need to be eating entire cakes, right? 

Audrey is currently in volleyball and goes 3 hours every weekday! What is this; the Olympics?!? She's the only one in a sport at the moment. Oh, and she won enough ribbons at the county fair with her dog that she's now going to the state competition in Minneapolis next month.

Micah starts online classes tomorrow. She's finishing up her bookkeeping degree (or whatever it's called) that she started years ago. She has two semesters of work to do, and she hopes to do some part-time bookkeeping at some point. So many things! 

I'm still reading D-Day by Stephen Ambrose. It's long, but very interesting and I'm taking breaks. No hurry. I'm also reading a little self-published book called Facing Jerusalem written by a Christian ministry in Israel. My last novel was The Visitation by Frank Peretti. Kind of hair raising in places. I think I'll go back to Christian Regency romances, lol. More relaxing.

Thatcher aka Chuck, has joined the crowd when it's time to go to Grandma's house. See him in the middle? (Della, Hazel, Thatcher, Sully and Audrey) He usually stays home with Mom when they come over, but we're seeing if he can stay out of trouble, ha ha. 

Do you see him? I found this fellow swimming around in the wading pool a while back. He kind of startled me! Cute, eh?

This is a nice basswood tree that grows next to the neighbor's house. Adam pointed out that it hums! We all had to walk under it and see for ourselves. It was so full of honeybees that it really does sound like it's humming. (That was earlier in the summer.)

No ATCs this time! What's the world coming to? I'm scaling back for the present and just waiting for cards to come back in the mail. 

It's a nice day today and I'll probably take a walk a little later when it cools down. I enjoy walking in the evening when the road is shaded by the woods. 

I'm off to read your blogs! Thanks for checking up on me.

Shalom and love!