Monday This and That

Good morning.  Another week begins.  Are we ready for it?  Not sure if I am, but, I'll give it a try. Definitely not ready for dancing or the stretching of qigong yet, but I am going to attend meditation and arts and crafts today.  I love being involved in creative activities, and this class was just what I needed to get back into it.

Cloudy skies on Friday, but at least the rain held off until long after I was home from the monthly chapter meeting.  So glad I went.  It was very interesting.  A speaker from the Department of Finance was there offering information on a program that freezes your rent.  Then, we had a speaker who educated us on the balance issues that effect many of us senior citizens.  It was a very timely presentation as I have been experiencing some balance issues lately.  Afterwards, an awesomely healthy lunch of salad and flatbread was served.

Received this email on Friday: 

Hello:

We doubled charged you for your last order due to AVS mismatch error on our system. A refund process was initiated but could not be completed due to a n error in your billing information.We strongly advise you should resolve the problem to complete the refund process. Your credit card company or card-issuing bank will return the funds to your account, typically within 2-3 business days. If you have questions regarding when the funds will be released back into your account please follow up with your bank or credit card company. 

They then provided me with a response key which I immediately forwarded to Amazon.  Wasn't going to fall for this.  Amazon's response was:

Hi Mary,

This is Tim with Amazon's Customer Protection Review Team. Thank you for forwarding the email to us.

The e-mail message you received wasn't from Amazon.com. For your protection, do not respond to it, and do not open any attachments or click any links it contains.

Any time that you receive a suspicious email, you can contact us at stop-spoofing@amazon.com and attach a copy of the message in question.

I swear, these scammers will try anything.  And the sad part is, there are many out there who would fall for this and give them the info the requested.   

Saturday was a rainy day.  Stayed in and didn't do anything.  Just didn't have any motivation, but I did cook us a delicious meal.  

Chicken Cacciatore served with linguini and salad.  Pigged out maybe a bit too much, but I expected to, and I am not beating myself up about it.  I enjoy Italian food.  Heck, I enjoy food period, but Italian?  There is just something so special about it.

Sunday I went to the early mass and then headed to the fruit stand to stock up on salad stuff and fruit for the week. 

Took this picture at church yesterday.  These guys were awesome, but the shame of the matter is that they have to be there to protect us in the first place.  Church used to be a safe place.  

Purchased at the fruit stand.  Could not resists buying a small gelato.   They are so darned good.

Have a great day.

Sunday Selections

Welcome to fairyland.  I love angels, mermaids, and fairies, and have been collecting each for a few years now.  Thought today I would share some of my fairyland stuff with you. 

A little fantasy fairy garden purchased through Etsy.  It sits on a leather round with a bed of tiny leaves.  It has a bead and flower table, a pod shell serving as a bench, a sunflower in the blue vase, a blue gazing ball, and a little blue bird.  So precious.

Fairies garden pond. 

Forgot where and when I got this little toadstool fairy house.

My little sleeping gnome.

Tinkerbell

Fixed up a little fairy garden surrounding some herbs I planted.  Needless to say, the herbs did not do well.  I've had a real problem growing herbs.

Three house mini fairy village purchased through Etsy. 

One of my little fairylands that I set up with some of my larger items.

Little fairy and a goose.

 A little fairy garden I put together.

 Little welcome bears.

My little lighthouse.  I usually use this with my mermaid/ocean scenes.

Isn't this cute?  Mushroom cottage and people and friendly snail friend in a white ceramic pedestal dish.

Saturday Thought of the Day

 (One of my old paintings.  Clouds really give me a problem)


Please be gentle with your body.

It loves you more than anything or anybody in this world.

It fixes every cut, every wound, every broken bone, and fights off so many illnesses, sometimes without you even knowing about it.

Even when you punish it, it is still there for you, struggling to keep you alive, keep you breathing.

Your body is an ocean full of love, so please be kind to it.

It’s doing the very best it can.

Nikita Gill 
'Your Body is an Ocean'

Friday Roundup

Morning all.  We come to the end of another week.  It's been quite an up and down week for me.  On Monday I had twinges in my back, but I went to classes anyway.  Well, actually I went for meditation and arts and crafts, but got there in time for dance so I gave it a try.  Woke up the next morning in pain.  Tuesday was an 'in' day for me and decided not to go to class on Wednesday.  It's best, at this point, to rest my back and allow it to heal before I go bouncing all around.  And I know I would have had I gone.  Hadn't danced in 50 years, and it sure  does feel good.  I love it.

On Wednesday I spent time in the kitchen.  Made two of my favorite soups which I froze in containers for an easy weeknight dinner.  I made the Chicken with Fennel and Orzo soup from Weight Watchers.  

Very simple to make:  Carrots, Celery, 6 cups low sodium chicken broth, ground fennel, 1 cup orzo, black pepper, and the Purdue already cooked chicken strips (chopped)  Tastes just like Lipton's soup.

And my Spicy Harissa Bean and Collard Green soup.  Another easy one, but lots of ingredients.  Posted recipe on 4/17. I used Roman beans this time since I had them on hand.  Actually, any bean will do.  (It's still steamy.  Hence, the blurry picture)

The following photo is from 4/17. 

Made this necklace on Monday with the wooden beads my daughter sent me.

Two of my kids are hotel bound for a few weeks...in different states.  My son is still in a hotel as a result of the fire in the apartment next to his.  Will probably be there for a couple more weeks at least.  And my daughter lost her electricity in that storm yesterday, and they are telling her it could be at least a couple weeks before power is back on.  

Today we have our monthly chapter meeting.  There is zumba afterwards, but if I wasn't ready for qigong, I definitely am not ready for that.  The meeting is fun.  Usually there is a guest speaker to talk about things related to our health and then a delicious healthy lunch is served.  This is where I was turned onto my new favorite salad dressing.  A bit more expensive than the others, but it's so worth it.  I'm treating myself to something not only tasty, but healthy.  Not the junk food I used to say was a treat.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Throwback Thursday

Just a few of the memorable moments in my life.

Ralph and I on our first anniversary.  We went to a famous lobster place on Sheepshead Bay. We bought new outfits and dressed up. You can't see in this picture, but this was the last year I had a beautiful tan.  Even had our pictures done professionally.  When we walked into the restaurant all eyes were on us.  We looked like movie stars.  He ordered a gigantic lobster, and silly me ordered chicken.  I never liked seafood, but I could have had a steak.  Chicken was dry and not worth it.  Dinner was about $180.  Never splurged like that again.

Ralph and I at the Irish Fair about 20 years ago.  They have since built a minor league ballpark in it's spot.

From my retirement party.  Oh, how chubby I was.

 Meeting my grandchildren, great grandchildren, and cousin for the first time.  Tears of joy.  How blessed I am for second chances.

Meeting Donnie Wahlberg

Meeting Mark Wahlbert

My daughter's 50th birthday.

Wordless Wednesday

Words really aren't needed for a friendship.  The above proves it.  We couldn't communicate with each other because of our language barrier, but we were friends, and she always came out to be with me while I waited for my bus.   My little friend is gone now, it's been a little over a year her apartment has been empty, but I shall remember her forever.  RIP my friend.

Pet Peeves

So I got to my classes early yesterday.  Never know how these buses are going to run.  I was just in time for dance, and I debated...should I or shouldn't I.  Should I won out, and I participated, but not until I explained to the facilitator that I would be taking it slow.  And I sat when I needed to.  Pain this morning upon rising, but not like Saturday. 

I was making some egg salad for Ralph's lunch before I left for class yesterday and got to thinking how much I dislike making egg salad.  I love cooking, but something as simple as making egg salad really turn me off.   Got me to do some thinking.

There are certain things I really don't mind  doing around the house such as cooking, decorating, window gardening, all things that I love,  but there are other things that just get my goat.  Of course there are the biggies like oven cleaning, ironing, and scrubbing pots, but in this post I am talking about the little things I hate doing, simple things that take only a minimal amount of effort and a small amount of time such as:

Dusting.  I don't why, I just don't like to dust. Takes only a few minutes of my time, but I have to force myself to do it.  I love the scent of the lemon pledge and the shiny look of my furniture when I am done, but it's not amongst my favorite chores.

Cleaning the mirrors.  Keeping up with it makes it an easy chore, but hubby has a thing for mirrors.  Drives me nuts.  We have a small three-room apartment, but in it we have two large mirrors in the bedroom, each on opposite sides of the room, 3 full length mirrors on doors, a medicine cabinet mirror, and my moon and stars mirror.  Hmmm!  Just realized no living room mirror.  Not going to bring it up.

Displaying my crystals.  I have so many beautiful ones and want so much to showcase them, but I just can't figure out how.  I don't really have the space which is why I have been doing a lot of de-cluttering, but that hasn't opened up much room because I have a hard time getting rid of anything.  So they are scattered throughout the room...making it look even more cluttered.

And I have so many more packed away.  I really do have to stop.  Anyone collect crystals here?  If you do, how do you showcase yours?  Need suggestions.

Putting cookware and storage containers away.  It's just so hard to keep them neat.  Sometimes I just don't have the time and once something is put in haphazardly everything starts to spiral downhill.  I would really love to get that stacking cookware I see on television, but I have a feeling that even that will eventually fall into disarray.

Changing the toilet paper or paper towel roll.  I cannot stand changing these.  I'll deliberately use napkins instead of paper towels so I can put off changing it as long as I can.

Making the bed.  Maybe it's because I'm now living in chronic pain.  I don't know, but I hate making the bed.  And changing the sheets even moreso.  But, it does get done because now I include hubby in it so he does one side and I the other.

So, there you have it.  The little things that irk me.  How about you?  What are some of the things you really don't like to do?