Reminder

Yesterday, I went to Target and stocked up on a few things and bought some new hangers because I was out. Then this morning, I got the urge to clean out my closet and then I had all the hangers I needed. I will use everything I bought yesterday (tissue, qtips, toothpaste etc.) but now I have a lot of extra hangers. LOL this always happens to me. So this is my reminder to be more careful about what I’m buying and how I’m spending my money. To check my pantry for ingredients before I buy more, that sort of thing. I just got to the point where my checking account has a little extra in it and I want to keep it that way. 

I don’t need more stuff! If I come across things I think I want, I can put them on my Christmas list. I don’t need to impulse buy anything! I have lots of things already at home that I can do: blankets to make, crafts to finish, embroidery, puzzles, books to read, playing the piano, etc. Then there’s cleaning and exercise. My house is already filled with plenty of things to keep me occupied for many months. 

Waiting, Waiting

Yesterday's rain storm has me craving fall. I yearn for the cool days and fallings leaves. It was cool this morning so I got to open some windows for much needed fresh air. I know fall will come and I'm so looking forward to it. So I guess this is my annual post about what I want to do when it comes. 

First, I will say that I'm going to the famer's market one more time and I am trying to enjoy the end of summer. I haven't had fresh corn on the cob yet so that's a must do. I think I'm going to make corn salsa this weekend. My flip flop wreath gets to hang on the door for another 2 weeks. There's also the library book sale coming up, so I'm not quite done with August. 

But I'm already getting down with fall vibes. I mean, if people have started decorating for Halloween, I can surely get out my candles. I'm switching out my bedding for a change as well. It's not for warmth, because I still don't need that, but its a nice change anyway. I'll wait for September before I get the fall decor out. It's like 3 things. LOL

Besides the candles, I have started putting on the fall vibes when I put on ambient sounds in the background. I've made a list of books that would be fun to read in the coming months. I'm thinking about soup. There's a summer corn chowder recipe I want to make for the first soup of the season and then I've got a list of my favorites. I love soup and all the different flavors you can make. It's both tasty and comforting and can be very healthy. Since I'm not eating butter right now, I don't know that I'm going to be making much bread, but maybe I can find a substitute that I like. 

It will come and I'll be ready when it does.

Back to Life

It’s been a busy week. My first major item was an expensive one. Earlier this year when I tried to have my tankless water heater flushed, they discovered some major issues with corrosion or something because of the hard water. The guy helped me call the company, but to make a long story short, the lack of water softener made the warranty null. Which the first company never told me. They only said I needed to have it flushed every year. Anyway, it’s fixed. I have a new tank and a new water softener on my hot water only. So I don’t have to drink it and I won’t water my plants with it. Maybe it will make my tub easier to clean? What I do know is that my hot water is getting hot much faster than it did before so I’ll take it. I don’t feel like I’m wasting so much water any more as I wait for it to get hot. 

I also had my first colonoscopy today. Blah. I know what people say: it’s the prep that sucks and then its a nice nap. But that didn’t calm my anxiety. The liquid diet was probably the worst. I did eat jello too but I had a headache all day long. The laxative tasted bad, but not as bad as I was expecting. I drank it through a straw and while my stomach was rolling a bit, I didn’t get the urge to throw up. Truly, from everything I had heard, I had built it up in my head and that’s probably where most of the anxiety came from. But it truly was a great nap! LOL My sister picked me up and got me an Einstein's bagel on the way home. And the extra wonderful thing is that it’s finally raining and I get to lay on the couch and just listen to it. I have other comfort food ready to go, including a Dr. Pepper. I’ll continue to have today as a self care day and get back to work/life tomorrow. Now, after the 2+ weeks of travel, I’m happy to be at home for a while and back in my routines. 

Home! Home! Home!

Man, it's been a busy few weeks. I knew it would be when I planned my vacation, but now I'm back and I'm so happy to be home for a while. I slept in my own bed last night again and finally slept through the night. 

I've been in North Carolina for work. I had a weekend home to do laundry and repack between my vacation and work trip. 

It was nice to see my team in person. We were celebrating the retirement for one of my team and that was bittersweet. I will miss her but am also excited for her. Part of the celebration included a pottery class. It was so fun! I really enjoyed it and would love to do it again.

We only made them on the wheel and they will be dried and glazed for us and then I will pick mine up when I go back to Charlotte later this year. It was definitely harder than it looks, but I'd love the chance to do it again when I'm not so focused on making something. Just to learn more of the techniques. It takes way more muscle than I thought to force the clay to move up. 

Next week will also be a bit busy, but I'm looking forward to being back in my routine for a while. 

Canada 2026

I had a really great time on my vacation to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and P.E.I. The people were great and the views were amazing. I'm not really in the mood to put down anything in depth so this will suffice for now. 

Back home and it's hot! We are almost to the "BER" months and I'm hanging in there. I am so looking forward to shorter days and cool temps. 

Anne of Green Gables musical

As the sign says, the house LMM was born in.

Confederation Bridge, PEI

Field of flowers

Somewhere on the Bay of Fundy

Caves on the Bay of Fundy

Ferry in the fog

Lunenburg

Peggy's Cove

 

Food

I’m heading into my 3rd week of low fat and low sugar eating since I started on July 7. So far the food I’ve eaten from my freezer stash hasn’t triggered any pain. It hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be, although I know I’m still barely starting.  The weekends and especially the off Sunday where I’m home by myself is what I need to be careful with. It’s not that I’ve eaten terribly healthy, but I haven’t had any junk food, and I’ve consciously been eating more fruit and vegetables. And every day, I’ve had a little bit of chocolate. 

Right now my biggest issue is that I feel like I’m going to get bored with my food really fast. Looking at some of my Pinterest recipes, even just the ones that sound good and I haven’t tried, they have a lot of cheese in them. 😭  So trying to figure out ways around that because soon I’m not going to know what to eat. And I think I’m going to have to learn to substitute butter and creams in some of my recipes. 

I made a veggie and pasta dish tonight (that I have made a few times) and used gluten free pasta made from red lentils and left off the cheese completely. It is fine, but would be better with the cheese. And since I’m not eating butter, I haven’t had any toast or anything like that either. On the plus side, I did realize today that I don’t eat butter on my favorite rolls. So when it’s cold enough to bake, I can freeze a batch and still get some enjoyment out of them. Hopefully, anyway. I’m still not exactly sure what triggered the pain. 

Do I feel better? In some ways yes. I think my digestive system is having to get used to eating a little less “white”. But I haven’t had the overly full feeling that I get when I binge eat junk food, that makes it hard to lay down to sleep. I’m motivated to keep going if only to keep the painful stomach aches away. Hopefully, it will eventually feel more normal. 

One More Down

I took my sister and the twins shopping today. The twins birthday is next week and they wanted to pick their own presents. We decided to hit up a mall and an indie bookstore, so we chose to go down to Sandy. Rosie got clothes and Ollie got a dress up and they both got a couple cheap things from Ulta. 

Then we went over to The Printed Garden, which is an indie/used bookstore on my list. Turns out they have a record store in the basement and they were having a big sale and the records had taken over the store and there were a lot of people in there. It was actually pretty fun to browse through everything. I got a couple books and my sister got a few records. So that’s one more checked off the list and July is complete. 

And I think I finally figured out what gallbladder pain feels like. A few months ago, I had a bad stomach ache (I thought) and figured I had eaten something bad. And then I felt a little weird last Sunday and then on Monday by the time I left work, I had the stomach ache back again. But it’s not really in my stomach (although that doesn’t feel good) and it’s a weird pain almost across my ribs. Anyway, I know I have gallstones from a scan that I got last year and the pain lines up pretty well with what I’ve been reading. 

Since I don’t want pain, or surgery right now, I started doing some digging on what I should try to avoid so I’m making some changes to my diet. It’s only been a few days and I know it’s going to be an uphill battle to figure out what to eat for the long term. High fat and high sugar are out so there goes a lot of the stuff I like to binge on. I’m hoping I can get through the leftovers I have frozen and none of those things trigger me. I’d hate to throw out that food. And then I’ve decided to try and eat by the 80/20 rule so that I’m eating better most of the time, and if I figure out what triggers the pain, I will avoid those foods. I’m thinking last Monday, it might have been cheese. Cheese and butter are out right now. And if I’m not eating butter, I won’t make bread or rolls either. (Although its hot and I’m not baking anything!)

Hopefully, I can do this. I’m not trying to be perfect at eating better, but I really don’t want a lot of gallbladder pain and if this is what I have to do to avoid it, then so be it.