Catch up from the prior week...

This past week went by super fast in my opinion.  In fact most weeks just scoot on by.

Monday I do a clean through, plus I had grocery shopping to do.  Not a fan of grocery shopping.

Tuesday got everything taken to the charity shop, but as it was raining so didn't get any other errands ran.

Tuesday night hubby got called out for a breakdown at work, so he took Wednesday off.  As it was dry we were out and about on Wednesday.  Got a few things done, including picking up my auction wins.  Got a Sail for the back patio, like this one for $55 (incl taxes), and four books this week.  Spent around $85 total.  

We used a $25 gift card we had for Panara Bread.  Hubby got a toasted baguette, bag of chips/crisps and coffee.  I got a bowl of soup, piece of baguette and a coffee; it came to $32, which in my humble opinion was very over priced.  Also I find their menu very confusing.

A member of our family had another health related incident on Wednesday.  Unfortunately this is a regular thing, which due to various reasons I won't go into.  Suffice to say it drains us all.

Thursday went by in a flash and honestly don't think I got much done.

Same for Friday, didn't seem to accomplish much.  Did take grandson to swimming lessons and he made super progress this week, by jumping into the pool twice by himself.  Believe me that is HUGE for someone who doesn't like getting his face wet.  It flipping well snowed again, though no where near as bad as the week before!

Saturday I was sick and felt terrible.  Did finish off some projects though so that was positive.

Sunday got up and felt like death warmed over again.  So once again never left the house.

As I said a super fast week, and not a lot accomplished as far as I was concerned.

Did you have a good week, last week?

Welcome 2023....

Happy New Year to you all.

(image credit)

I have to admit I am glad to see the back of 2022.  It's been a year of a lot of health issues for various members of the family.

Is it me or was there a lot of celebrity deaths this past week or two?  It seemed to be one person after another who died.  I will admit I am one of those people who does read the obituaries.  I also enjoy reading the article in the newspaper about which famous person died in which month every year.

The day we flew out to the UK was the died the Queen passed away.  That was interesting watching the funeral.  Although we didn't watch it all as we had booked afternoon tea at a hotel in the Lake District.

Not sure how this post turned out to be a post about death?  

I am hopeful 2023 will be a positive year.  I will be copying birthdays and anniversaries from my 2022 calendar to my 2023 one today.  I also generally make a list of things to do around the house for the year.  I try and preplan as much as possible.  We did get ahead of the game with our jobs/things to do in 2022, as we ended up replacing my car and redoing the roof in 2022.  Both of those things were supposed to happen in 2023.

However dh found a hole in the roof, so that HAD to be fixed.  I had a funny noise happening with my car that no one could fix, so we decided to cut our losses and replace the car. 

Here's hoping you all have a productive, healthy and loving 2023! 

Name five things you are grateful for......

1. That our family is still healthy...…..well other than snotty noses in the little ones......but that's a normal thing!!

2. Not having to choose between paying bills or putting food on the table.  That is a hard choice a lot of people are having to make.

3. Having Dougie and the gang for our government in Ontario.  Didn't like when Dougie and the gang were voted in, but have to say, he has certainly earned his stripes during this pandemic.  He gets my vote now!  Which is more than I can say for the other guy in Ottawa!!!

4. All the family are still working; when so many are laid off.

5. Being able to stay home and stay safe...…...I am so lucky.  Dh has to go out to work everyday and work in a factory environment.  Not an ideal situation, but the factory is making steel pipe that is used to make hospital beds.

Finished my puzzle...…….still waiting for Chapters to ship out the second one?

Your turn now...…..

We're living in crazy times that's for sure.........

It's been a few months since I last did a blog post.  Between now and then all sorts of things has happened, but none as dramatic as the Covid-19 crisis that is exploding world wide.

I have been in two minds about jumping back into the blogging bandwagon but I feel I may have useful information to help us through these trying times, that could help out in a small way?  Some things people already know what to do, others may not.  Also each country has set up different systems to deal with this crisis.  Also each person/family is dealing with this crisis in their own different way.

In our family we are fortunate that so far everyone is still managing to work; either from home or still at their place of work.  Daycare's and school's are closed but the grandkids are lucky to be able to be at home with one or both parents.  I must admit I am missing them like crazy, but thanks to modern technology I can see and talk to them frequently.  However it's not the same as being able to give them a hug, but that will happen soon enough.

One thing I think that has affected probably everyone is the panic buying of food and supplies.  It has happened all over the world and I think some have suffered more than other's.  Personally I think things are beginning to settle down; at least in my area, as the shelves in the stores are a little more fuller.  I know I have had to alter the way I do things and for the first time in my adult life I was concerned about whether or not we would be able to get fresh fruit and veggies...……...and no I wasn't one of the crazies that bought all the toilet paper...……….never did understand why people were bulk buying toilet paper? 

As I said so far everyone is still working in the family, but no job is 100% secure and if we were to rely on the government to support us we would be unable to cover all our bills and still be able to eat!!  So over the next few days I will do various posts about various topics to help us through these trying times.  If there is anything you want me to cover please ask.

I already make 90% of our meals from scratch and now it's up to 100% so will share some cheap and easy meal ideas.  I will go over how to budget and save money doing various things.  Also I am hoping between us all we will be able to come up with various ideas that will help us all not just now, but in the weeks and months after this crisis is over with.

Finally:

And please stay safe and listen to what your government is saying about social distancing!

In with 2020.......

Guess that says it all, and onwards we march into the 2020's.  Not sure about you, but I remember all the hype about going from 1999 into 2000.  Everything was going to crash and nothing would work.......but 2000 arrived and everything was fine.  I hope going into the 2020's it will be the same.

We will all be a little older, but with age I hope comes wisdom, so hopefully we're all a little wiser.

Our plans for this year are all still a little sketchy, but do have a couple of things we want to achieve.

House: finish renovating the downstairs bathroom.................that was only supposed to be a titivate the downstairs bathroom job, that has spiraled out of control...........more on that when it is all finished.

Titivate the upstairs bathroom.............HOWEVER...........after our experience with the downstairs bathroom I am truly afraid it will turn out to be a bigger job than we initially thought.  Also unlike the downstairs bathroom, I can't won't have it in an uproar for weeks on end........so hubby may have to take a week off to get the job done faster.

We will probably do other things around the house, but nothing planned yet.

Health: I must exercise more and lose weight to try and get me off these diabetes pills.  They are killing my stomach and I am not happy with them AT ALL!!  So it's all up to me to get off them......if I don't do the work it's my own fault.

Appleby Lane: I need to promote it more.  Make it's presence known on social media.  I also like the idea of podcasts, so may take a course in February at our local library.  I need to come up with new ideas and focus on what I like to do more, rather than what other people want me to do.  Which I guess is say no more often....LOL

Hubby is now working until he is 65, so four more years, so need to keep saving for his retirement.  I still use my savings pots for Christmas, Birthday's and my other pot.  Just used money out of the other pot towards buying a new vanity for the downstairs bathroom.  

Grocery shopping and menu planning..............grocery prices have just shot up I need to keep more of an eye on that and will do a blog post on that soon.  Menu planning has always been a weak point for me, but will will try and work on that this year as well.

Vacation..........not sure where or when we will be going away this year.  It will probably be in September (like always) but not sure where.......if anyone has any suggestions, we like to rent a cabin/cottage so we have kitchen facilities and have somewhere comfy to sit at night if that helps, we are open to suggestions?

One other thing I MUST MAKE AN EFFORT TO LEAVE COMMENTS ON OTHER PEOPLE'S BLOGS!!  I read blogs but hardly comment, I must remedy that this year!!

Happy New Year everyone!

Out with 2019...........

Can't believe it's already December 31st 2019.  This year has just flown by.  Not sure if it's due to the fact we are getting older.....I find time seems to fly by, or we have been busy?

I was trying to think back on the year and I guess at the beginning of the year we were busy sorting out bits and bobs for jobs we needed to get done this year on the house.  We made a list and I am pleased to say we completed the list, albeit in a roundabout way with some of the jobs.  What we did discover was that the easier jobs turned out to be more time consuming than the harder jobs.

We thought for sure we would have a heck of a job getting someone to re-caulk all the outside windows, but no that job seemed to go by without a hitch.  We couldn't do that job ourselves.  The biggest pain in the butt job was getting the air conditioning unit installed.  That should have been a simple job that turned into a real pain.  All the jobs that we did do this year were mainly general maintenance jobs that should be done every now and then with an aging house.  Although our home is only 13 years old.

Vacation this year was back to Britain.  We went for various reasons, and overall had an enjoyable time with good weather😲 I will say Britain and good weather don't generally go in the same sentence😋  It's still a very expensive country as far as we are concerned and will say we have no plans to go this year.  We find it very tiring so want a vacation this year doing our own thing.

Appleby Lane..............my new "baby" was started this year and for a new business it went well I think.  I learned a lot of new things regarding it and overall it was a very positive experience.  I have taken a couple of weeks off and now I need to figure out where to go with this; as you can only sell so many sets of produce bags...LOL  I want to stay true to what I like to make, so will go from there I guess?

Health wise, it's been a mixed bag for me and hubby and I guess we have to try and make 2020 a year when we concentrate on a healthier lifestyle as we are getting older.

Overall though 2019 hasn't been too bad of a year.  Tomorrow I'll post what our plans are for 2020.

Have a good New Year's Eve everyone...............

Update on health...........

Had another check up last week at the doctors; it had been three months.  I had blood work done the week before and as I can check the results online I knew it wasn't as positive as it should/could have been, so knew in advance that was not good news.

So I was not at all surprised when I went in that she "strongly suggested" that I take the diabetes medication; Metformin.  I am starting on a low dosage 1/2 a 500mg pill twice a day for a week then a full 500 mg pill there after.  I go back to the  doctors in three months time and hopefully by then things will have settled down.

Today's Christmas Song:

Catch up...........

It's been a while sorry.  Things have taken off with the Appleby Lane store, and honestly it has caught me by surprise.  So something had to give and it was my blog, which is a crying shame as I enjoy doing it.  Also reading has taken a back seat as well, which is another thing I love to do, but again, I can't do it all.

So here is an abbreviated version of what I have been up too.  I was back at the doctors at the beginning of September.  13 lbs lighter and I had brought one set of numbers down from 10.3 to 7, and the other set of numbers (the important one) down from 7.1 to 7.  Straight after that we went to the UK for a 10 day trip and I came home 3 lbs heavier and full of cold...........

Dh then had his blood work done and went to the doctors and was told his numbers are too high.  He got a blood glucose machine as well and we both started to monitor our numbers, which resulted in me nearly having a meltdown because my numbers are all over the place.  Called the nurse and she says everything is good.  Which in turn made me even more confused and has resulted in me now not using the blasted machine and I will have blood work done at the beginning of December as planned and we will see where I stand then...................and before I get lectures from everyone, yes I am in denial and no I haven't fallen off the wagon, but this taking the blood is making me more stressed and I can't/won't deal with it.

Good news, 3 lbs lighter again, so back to where I was at the beginning of September.  Bad news though, had the grands over the weekend, so good eating went down the tube!!  Good news, good eating back on again!! Also still not on any meds for the diabetes.

Went to the UK for a 10 day trip and it only rained once............who knew that the words UK and good weather could be said in the same sentence!!  Especially when you are staying in the North of England and Southern Scotland!!

Did my first craft show with Appleby Lane and it was good, sold a few things and have got three shows more booked between now and the end of November.  I have lost my mojo since I have been away, so need a kick in the butt to get my creative juices flowing again.

Meanwhile I feel like this at the moment:

I will try and make an effort to do a blog post every other day to see how that goes and go from there.  Too everyone who follows me thank you for your patience, I do appreciate you, one and all!  Now off too pee😁

How I have benefited from walking.

Yesterday I seemed to focus on the negative aspects of walking, today I will focus on the positive things that have happened since I have taken up walking.

1. My overall health has improved.
2. I have lost weight.
3. I am sleeping better.
4. I am meeting people; generally the same ones every day.  We always say a quick hello or a few words as we pass one another.
5. I am seeing more wildlife which is always a plus.  We have so many rabbits around here.
6. My leg muscles seem so much stronger with walking up and down the hills.
7. Although I still puff and pant I don't feel as though I am going to die after doing a three mile walk😎
8. With losing the weight and walking I have stopped taking one of my prescription pill's.  I am hoping to cut another one out in the next few months.

However with saying all that on Tuesday morning, my legs felt like a hundred pounds each.  I was having an off day, but did still manage to walk.  

My stats for Tuesday:

• Steps walked: 10,800
• Floors climbed: 19
• Minutes exercised: 57
• Miles walked: 4.58

We are half way through the month of August and I am "hoping" to lose another 6 lbs before the end of the month.  I seem to have reached a "plateau" at the moment and can't move over a certain weight; so I need every bit of encouragement I can get.

I'm back and you'll never guess what I am doing?

Just looked it was the end of March when I last posted???  Crazy, crazy, crazy.  So I'm hoping to be back to posting daily because I am doing something that the long term readers will say, "No way is she doing that!!"

I am exercising.........I know what the heck, for someone who is allergic to exercise (honestly I am!) even I can't believe I am doing it.

First a bit of a back story.  You may or may not remember back at the end of September/beginning of October of 2016, I ended up in hospital with blood clots on both lungs and I was lucky I didn't die.  Now no one in the medical field blamed it on my weight or lack of exercise, but other people said that.  I was a sick bunny until the beginning of this year and have felt better and better with time.  I did the occasional walk, but nothing exciting.

As I live in Canada, we spend half the year bundled up in layers but eventually by May/June those layers come off and up pops our Summer body.  I saw my neighbour back at the end of June for the first time without those winter bundles on, and what a change, she had lost 27 lbs doing the Weight Watchers programme and looked great.  So that is what inspired me to get off my backside and start exercising.

My method of torture exercise: walking.  I put on my dh's Fitbit Flex and off I went.  I then decided to watch what I eat, as the word DIET for me has the following meanings:

• starving
• failure
• not a happy bunny

I was going to join Weight Watchers, but I was not into the whole "lets talk as a group and see who is doing well or not."  Plus I couldn't be bothered trying to work out all those points etc.  I have no issue with people doing that, but it just isn't for me.  So I am doing my own thing and as I said I am not dieting (bad word), I am watching what I eat.

Back to the FitBit, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.  Did I mention I LOVE it?  Who knew walking so you could reach those 10,000 steps could be so addictive.  Add friends/family to your FitBit account and then you add a whole new level of competitiveness to the mix.

As I said I borrowed dh's FitBit flex to start with, then our son gave me a FitBit Alta, which I loved, but as I walk a lot of hills (I know hills!) and I wasn't getting credit or badges (YES you get badges 😄) I decided to upgrade to a FitBit Charge 2.

I should be paid by FitBit for all this praise shouldn't I 😏

So how well is all this working for me you ask?  Well here are some figures for you; since June 24th, 2016, I have:

1. walked around 250 miles total
2. averaged over 10,000 steps per day
3. averaged 70 minutes of exercise per day
4. lost 18 1/2 lbs

I have a long way to go and what I am doing works for me and may not be the way for other people to do it.  I am into my eighth week of doing this.  Over the next few weeks I will share with you what works for me and what doesn't.

Personally, as someone who hates exercising I am amazed at how much I love doing all this walking.

Sometimes you don't have to know everything.....

"too much information can be as bad as not knowing everything."

That's my thought anyway.  I had blood work done a couple of weeks after I took ill and the results came back with me having low iron.  I have never had a high iron count and have always been on the lower side with my numbers.  With the side effects of the blood thinners things went from bad to worse.  So I started taking iron pills.

Fast forward to the end of January and I was in our doctors office with dh and asked him while I was there if I could have a blood work requisition to see if I had managed to get my iron count up.  Where we go to have our blood work done they offer an online site where you can view your results.  Normally I never bother with it, but as I was the one that requested to have the blood work done, I figured I would take advantage of it.

Pretty easy to access the site and set up an account and easy to see your results.  Especially where they highlight what numbers are either high or low!!  Now I would love to say it was all gobbly gook, but no they even give you links to what everything means.

In my case I am close to where I should be with the iron; but I am popping another iron pill to help it go up even more.  It's what was highlighted HIGH that I know I am going to get a lecture about next time I am in the doctors office!!!

Dh got his blood work done also this past week and we looked at his results, and he has the same issues as me; I guess when you eat the same you suffer the same.........so I guess I should tell the doctor to just lecture us both at the same time!!!!

The sad thing is I know what the problems are, and of course it is what we eat.  I am reading a book called "Your Cholesterol Matters," by Richard Furman at the moment, and do intend on implementing what he recommends in the hopes of improving our diet, but I am only half way through the book, so can't do it yet............well that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!!!  (I will be reviewing the book shortly.)

Looking back and looking forward........

Must say I am glad to see the back of 2012, it wasn't all bad but we did have our fair share of lows.

My car died in April and where we live I need a car, so along came Betsy.  She is a great small car for me, but it now means we have a car loan.  Now granted it a 0% loan but it's still a debt.  We also had to fork out for snow tires for her at a cost of $1,100, but did manage to sell my old ones for $400 (I think?).

My step-father had his heart operation but during or just after the operation he had a stroke.  It was a very worrying time for us all.  Pleased to say he is a lot better, but he will never be "the same," and does have a few lasting side effects from the stroke.  It was the luck of the draw I guess as another older more fragile lady who had the same operation to same day, walked out of hospital as fit as a fiddle.

Dh has had a number of health issues over this year and some are still not resolved, mainly his knees.  So a second opinion I think is in order in the next few months, as his left knee is starting to spasm now, which is what happened with his right knee. 

We lost our dear Molly in October which was just plain bloody awful.  I still miss her and I am so NOT ready to get another dog.  Not sure if we will ever get as good a dog as what Molly was, temperament wise.

My hands are still not right, I see the surgeon again on Thursday for my bone scan results.

On a more positive note dd and son-in-law bought their first house in August and it's a joy to see their happiness in their house.  They are working hard to get it how they want it.

Ds is back with his girlfriend and moving into an apartment tomorrow; and seems a lot happier.

We love living where we live and are very lucky in that respect.

2013 is going to bring its own challenges I am sure, but we'll embrace them head on and take the good with the bad, as we always do,

It's a big year for us personally, as we celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in June.  Not 100% sure what we are doing regarding that.......stay tuned though.

We pay off our mortgage this year, we are now down to 35 weeks, so that's exciting.

On a negative note dh's job may be experiencing some changes by the end of February.  We don't know for sure what will be happening, but as dh does not like change he is worrying himself silly about it all.  He should/will have a job, it just won't be exactly what he is doing at the moment, and he could be working less hours, which as he is hourly paid means a lot less money.

We will be welcoming a new baby in the family in the next couple of weeks, as "R's" baby is due by the middle of the month, so we're all excited about that.  Dd good friend is also expecting so I will be going to a baby shower in the next couple of months.  Dd and I are holding the cookie swap party at our house in December, already making plans for that.

We are going to make more of the garden this year, if dh will help me.  My back can't handle all the gardening on my own.

Overall I am looking forward to 2013 and what it will bring.  I hope you will follow along with me as I blog about it?

I want to wish you all the best of luck and love for 2013.  I appreciate you all for taking the time out of your busy days to pop by and see what I'm up too.

Gill

I am obsessed, I need a favour, my hair AGAIN!!! And see how the world would vote in the US Election.......

As you will have noticed I have been playing around with the look of my blog. Wish I'd left it alone, but never mind. While I was playing around with it, I lost my counter at the bottom, so I put a new one on called "Sitemeter." Now I have to say that is one of the neatest things ever. I have become obsessed with it, well with a section of it anyway. There is a world map, where there are dots which indicate where people are checking in from. I mean its great I just love it. I know little things amuse little minds, but this keeps me out of mischief.

Of course the most dots I have are in Canada and the United States, followed by Britain and Australia. There are the odd dot from other places, but I seem to have big gaps in Eastern Europe, Asia and South America.

So this is where the favour comes in. Do any of you know any other bloggers in the far flung corners of the world? I am sure you do. Would you mind asking them to pop over to my blog. They don't have to comment or anything. I just want to see some dots popping up in out of way places.......am I strange or what?

When I checked my world map on Thursday morning I got all excited as there was a dot in the pacific ocean, it turned out someone in Hawaii had popped in. I also had some one in Lithuania pop in, got all excited about that as well.

So pretty, pretty please ask your blogging friends to pop on by.



Now my hair..don't groan. This is so unusual, well for me anyway, that I thought it may interest you all.

About a month ago I started to experience an itchy scalp. So of course the first thing that popped into my mind was head lice......aaarrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhh!! However I also had a burning sensation on my scalp. I knew I hadn't been near anyone with head lice, but I checked myself and couldn't see anything.

It sort of went away, but every now and then, it would flare up. Anyhow this past week, I have been past myself with the itchiness and the burning sensation. I will say I had changed shampoo from Herbal Essenes to Pantene, so I figured maybe the Pantene was irritating my scalp, so switched to Dove, which is very mild. However things got no better.

So on Tuesday I got dh to check my scalp and he couldn't see anything. I decided to put itchy, burning scalp into Google to see what popped up and you won't believe what it said..........STRESS This was caused by stress??? Dh had a doctors appointment on Wednesday so I went along and got the doctor to look at my head, just to make sure there wasn't anything there. He confirmed my scalp looks perfectly normal, no dandruff, no head lice, no redness.

Isn't that the strangest thing you have ever heard? Now I will say I have had a couple of things going on this past couple of weeks that have made me feel a bit stressed, but nothing overly exciting. This has never ever happened to me before.

Now I need my hair cut and dyed, but honestly the thought of putting dye on my hair is not at all appealing as my head feel as though its on fire. I did however go and get my hair cut today, at "N's" house and she did a great job. I will be going back to her, as I can afford to have it done there and she is a really nice person. She also said she had another customer who has the same problem.

We agreed to keep off the dying of my hair at the moment, until my scalp settles down, so I am going to be very multi-coloured for a while.

Finally my friend "P" sent me this link and it is really interesting. Click on the link and see what you think.............it tells you what would happen in the US election if the world voted.

Health woes and general whining.......

I love to garden I really do, but it kills my back. I had a herniated disc a few years ago and had it operated on, since then I have had a bad back. With all the gardening I have done recently my back has started playing up again, and once again I am in agony.

I'm sorry what did you say Dr.A? You think I should lose weight and exercise? But you know Dr A I am allergic to exercise and Linda (co-worker) does enough for both of us. (side-note, must email her to see if she has been doing to much exercising on her back as maybe that is why mine is killing me - you know like sympathy pains?) What you don't think so Dr. A? Listen Dr. A. if I came in with a boil on my butt you would tell me to lose weight and exercise!!!

Sorry about that, now to get back to what I was talking about. Then to add to all my woes I have a heel spur. That started when we were in Britain in February. Figured I had just done too much walking about the shops, but it doesn't seem to want to go away and boy does it hurt. Asked Dr. A. about that and he said it would go away eventually. By the way does anyone know how long eventually is?

So now I am doping myself up on Solpadeine, which is a delightful medication from Britain. Can't get it here in Canada, as it contains the big bad Paracetamol in it and the daft Canadian Government doesn't allow it??? Dr. A. reckons a couple of Tylenol and a cup of coffee will work the same, I disagree.

So meanwhile I am walking around like an old women.......Alan I heard that, no more old women jokes please!!! One good thing about having a bad back is that I get out of using what my mother calls "The Anaconda," which translates to being the central vac. We have one of those hoover's where the hose plugs into the wall. Pretty neat, don't think they have them in Britain, but its a major strain on my back.

Then on top of this the humidity is killing my head. I get migraines and rotten headaches when the barometric pressure changes. I get migraines once a month, when my hormone levels change, and last of all I get migraines when I eat too much chocolate. Okay I have admitted it, I get migraines when I eat too much chocolate, however do you think that stops me from eating chocolate, heck no. I remember one Christmas I was given two boxes of White After Eight chocolates. There are two things I love, white chocolate and mint, so of course I ate the two boxes of chocolates, as I am a pig. Needless to say I was ill, very, very ill with the mother of all migraines. Now while I had the migraine I wasn't happy and sort of regretted eating all that chocolate, but put those boxes in front of me, and I'd probably do it again.

Now I know I have other issues, too many to mention but at the moment, these are the ones that are aggravating me the most, and I figured why not share with everyone else :0) Aren't you glad you popped in today!!!