Wordless Wednesday: My All-Time Favorite Girls Have a Magazine

Tuesday Ramble

Good morning.  Another hot and humid one here in Brooklyn.  I am counting the days until autumn.  I'm so sick of this summer.  Can't even get to the park because it's either too hot and humid to out and about or showers are predicted.  Been staying in quite a bit this year.  Came down with a cold.  My nose started running, throat is sore.  Darn.  Maybe if it has to be,  this is the time since I am on August break from my classes.  But I have made plans.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to attend an extra WW meeting.  It not only gets me out of the house, but I also REALLY need one.  Having difficulty reining my eating habits in.  Sitting around the house too much with constant access to food doesn't do me well.  It's so easy to get up and go to the refrigerator for something to snack on.  I do keep healthy snacks on hand, but healthy does not mean all you can eat.

Felt like having some pasta last night so I made up this little dish.  Turned out pretty good.  Ingredients include small elbows, chop meat, mixed veggies, tomato sauce, garlic, onion, green pepper, bay leaf, red pepper flakes, beef bullion, and a wee bit of harissa spice.

You meet all kinds of nuts on FB.  I knew that, but I love the fact that I can keep in contact with family and old childhood friends.  I also love some of the groups on there and belong to a few.  I had joined a spirituality group not too long ago and had participated in many of the conversations.  We were from all walks of life; some were Christian, some Jewish, and some pagan.  I found it heartening that all types could get together and share without one criticizing the other.  So when one of the male administrators of a group sent me a friend request, I saw no harm in it... and there was no harm unless you like opening yourself up to put it politely, someone with a fanatical idea.

He wasn't any danger physically as he lived an entire ocean away from me, and he didn't come onto me in any sexual sort of way.  No, this guy had the idea that I had either been a parent or a guardian in his past life and wouldn't let up on it. It was like an obsession with him.  Fortunately, he never posted any of this nonsense on my timeline, but every morning and several times a day he would PM me.  "Do you have the same feelings?"  I told him 'no'.  "I had a dream abut you last night.  You were my guardian, and you taught me all the good that I know."  Well, at least I didn't teach him evil ways.  This kind of stuff went on and on for over a week before I got tired of telling him over and over again that I didn't feel the same.  Finally, I just stopped responding.  And you know what?  He immediately unfriended me and booted me from the group.  Guess I didn't really mean that much to him, did ? 

Signed up yesterday for a new summit.  Here is the info if anyone is interested.  It's free and will be broadcast on August 20-24.

https://thrivinginyourthirdact.com/

Monday Morning This and That

Good morning.  I had a great weekend.  Did you?  Hubby is feeling better and was finally able to go back to work.  He drives a cab at night.  I wasn't for it, thought it was dangerous, but it makes him happy, and he feels productive.  Unlike me, he wasn't ready to retire, but with funding cuts his job closed, and then with his emphysema, he just didn't have it in him to start over elsewhere, so he retired.  But, where I was always looking for classes to take and things to day, he sat around becoming depressed.  So finally I found a free class that really interested him, getting his CDL license, and he enjoyed it.  After completion, though, they told him with his health condition it would be difficult for him to find work driving a big rig.  So then he went for his TLC and has been driving ever since.  And him being back to work meant that I FINALLY managed to get a decent night's rest.

Hubby and I went out to dinner at Applebees and then onto a movie.  Although I like their steaks and grilled chicken, I LOVE their Chicken Wonton Stir Fry, but after checking on the amount of sodium in it, I decided to go for something different.  Almost 3,000 mg is a bit much so I settled for this delicious Southwestern Steak Salad.

Chimichurri smothered steak, mixed greens *lots of different ones), black bean corn salsa, a blend of Cheddar cheeses, tortilla strips with cilantro ranch dressing. Oh my!!! It was super delicious. I can't say enough about it.

Afterwards we saw Mission Impossible.  Fantastic, action filled movie.   I missed that familiar music.

The other day I looked out my window, and what did I see?  One lone sunflower in the lot next door where the houses were torn down.  Have no idea where how that seed got there. Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers,  and they have such beautiful meaning--healing, warmth, loyalty, and constancy.  A Greek myth relates the tale of  a beautiful water nymph who fell in love with the sun god, Apollo.  In her love of Apollo, she would sit on the earth and gaze at the sun day after day. While Apollo took no notice of the nymph, the other gods felt compassion for her and turned her into a sunflower. This explains sunflower buds always follow the sun.

Got my looms for the knitting class I plan on starting in September.  I know how to crochet, but have never been able to learn how to knit.  They use these looms in the class so maybe I can learn to make some nice hats.  No overspending for Christmas this year.  I learned my lesson last year.  Still playing catch up...and gifts still sit unwrapped. 

Sunday Selections

I've been asked for the link to last week's box.  For some reason I couldn't get the link to post properly but the name of shop is SpiritHand and can be found on Etsy.  It's really fun getting these boxes and exploring all the goodies inside.  And what I can't use, I am putting aside for Christmas presents so nothing goes to waste.

This week I received my first Therabox, a monthly self-care box, and the advertising was true to its word.  I did bring me happiness.   Definitely a keeper.

Everything in the box.  Lots of goodies.

Lavender and oats bath milk. I put this one away as a Christmas present.  Much as I'd love to lounge in some wonderfully scented bath water, I have one of those big old fashioned tubs with feet and can only take showers.  It's too hard to get up once I sink down in the tub.

Choose for Joy bracelet. It is a constant reminder that joy is a decision about how we are going to respond to life.

Three pocket journals.

Wood cat photo holder.

Revive wake up call 5 piece mask set-- 1 each of rose, coffee, cucumber, coconut, and green tea. Still up in the air about keeping or giving away.  Am I really going to do a mask?

Detox Himalayan salt foot pads.  Cleanse the body of toxins while you sleep Supposedly they aid in relieving chronic pain in joints and muscles.  If they work, I will be sure to order more.

Fire spiced Neroli body buffer with built in body wash.  Can't wait to use this one.  I love taking these scented body washes.

And this month's box also included a Mindful Journaling ECourse valued at $49 for free.  It's a month long course filled with meditation and self-exploration.  Going to put my new journals to work.  The course includes:

11 emails during the month with writing prompts, inspirational quotes, journaling and meditation techniques and a guided introduction to mindfulness.

10 original guided sound bowl meditations + 1 self-guided meditation

An e-book of the entire course

Saturday Thought

A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give. 

Author Unknown

Friday Roundup

Friday greetings to all.  Another week bites the dust.  Hasn't been the best of weeks for me, though.  It's been very stressful. Hubby has been pretty sick, and for awhile there I had a fear that he would end up back in the hospital.  Fortunately, this time he didn't try to push himself like last time, and his chest cold didn't go into COPD exasperation like it did last time.   Yesterday I did Reiki on him (I'm a level one), and this morning he is pretty normal.  Wondering if it was what I did or a combination of the ginger tea and the flu just working it's 
way out.

I was so lucky at my WW weigh in yesterday.  I'll admit, I've been  playing with fire this month--cake, ice cream, pasta--and all that knowing I only had .6 pounds to gain, and anything more would bring me over goal.  Well, as I was standing in line I looked down and realized I had not taken my watch off, so before I stepped on the scale I took it off.  Gained exactly .6.  That watch would have brought me over.  Lesson learned last month. Can't pig out for 2 1/2 weeks and then think I can lose it all in a 1 1/2 weeks.  That's stinkin' thinkin' for sure.

With everything that was going on, I just was not into a big Lammas feast this year, but we did partake in some Lammas foods--Vegetable Bean Soup with spinach and corn, leafy greens salad, whole wheat bread, and an apple for dessert.  Afterwards I lit some special candles I purchased for the day and sat quietly in contemplation of the upcoming season.

The above spices came in the mail the other day.  It's a monthly box.  You get spices and two recipes each month, and it's only $5.90.  This month's menu included Latin Carne Asada and Laotian Larb, an Asian summer salad with cooked meat and herbs,  Yummy.

Starting to get ready for fall.  It's never too early.  My new shoulder bags arrived yesterday.  Personally, it can't get here quick enough for me.  I'm tired of this hot humid weather with showers every day.  Can't even go to the park because I never know when it is going to rain.  But, on a positive note, I am getting a lot of inside things accomplished.  Does me good not to be on the run all the time.

Wordless Wednesday