Weight Loss Before and After!!!

Last year I decided to change how I approach my eating habits. I did not go on a fad diet. No way. They do not work. What works is to decrease your calories and move your body. Every time. There is no magic to weight loss. I have lost forty-eight pounds thus far. It has been slow by design. I chose Weight Watchers for the first six months. That program is an excellent one. I still follow the principles of the program. I exercise by gardening, cutting grass, painting, taking the stairs, generally taking the longest way to where I am going. I cook all the time using only the freshest seasonal fruits and vegetables. I shop at vegetable road stands and farmer’s markets. I still have a long way to go but have given away every garment in my closet and started over. That is an awesome feeling.

These images illustrate the before and after.

 

 

I am linking with Debbiedoos Before and After Party. Thanks

bunches Debbie!

 

grace surrounds us

Olive

What’s Blooming Next?

One of the many fun aspects of the yellow house is discovering what is about to bloom next. We knew these were some sort of a lily. We just did not know what variety. They are very tall as Joe has had to stake them twice.

Tigers

grace surrounds us

Olive

Painting at the Old House is Not For Wimps

When one of the infrequent tropical storm systems that make it to central Georgia came through several years ago it brought rain and lots of it. Joe and I were painting the central hallway. I can look back on our years together and mark them in paint! Painting in the old house is not for chumps or lazy folk. The plaster is covered with forty or fifty year old wallpaper and must be ever so gently removed.  The bead board makes me crazy. Frankly, I just paint over small spiders. All those little grooves are mind numbing.

On the day of the storm, the outside of the house was wet from blowing rains. We were rinsing brushes on the front porch. I stepped onto the porch to rinse a brush and went STRAIGHT DOWN  through the porch. I was stunned. I broke the fall with my right wrist. My right shoulder was already injured and needed surgery but I was waiting for oh I don’t know maybe a porch.

 

Joe immediately wanted to pull me out. The nurse in me said hold on a second. I checked myself for something like an avulsion injury. It seemed everything was intact. Joe pulled me out. The boards were wet and had original hand forged nails. I had not one scratch, nail or piece of wood in me. My good friend and doctor said I was fortunate in this regard. I did have a twelve inch bruise on my right hip for a long time. Man, was I sore. The warden at the prison where I was a nurse administrator asked who I had been boxing with. I replied “a house.” He never got me. You know?

The next week I fell again in front of the washing machine. I suspect this time it was because I was sore from the first fall. Joe was about ready to request a CT of my head! However,  not one surface of our old house is level. I can trip on a flat surface. Just saying.

Joe replaced the porch floor.

grace surround us

Olive

The Star Spangled Banner in Triumph Shall Wave

The fourth stanza of the Star Spangled Banner:

 

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand.

Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land,

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved  us as a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

 

Our flag at the old house

♦Happy July Fourth♦

Be Safe

 

grace surrounds us

Olive