How to spend a day . . .

I woke up with a headache yesterday morning (and this morning for that matter).  Its been like that all too often lately, disturbed night's sleep from a headache that just doesn't want to go off.  I'm sure it is my blood pressure. Time to go back to the Doctor, methinks, for another adjustment. 

 

This little lady greets me with enthusiasm every morning. We have a routine.  I put her out for her morning constitution, she comes in and cleans her teeth with her dentastix.  I only give her half of a medium one these days.  She is happy with that and one pack lasts twice as long.  Its win/win.  Plus it is only half the calories and as she is a dog who likes her treats, I make sure that no one of them is too much, when spread out over the day.  As soon as she finishes that she is mithering me for her breakfast, so I usually get that ready wile she is eating her dentasix.  Who's the boss around here?  Well, it clearly is not me! 

After that it is prayers and scripture reading for me, which I usually do with her tucked in beside me. Some days it takes me longer than others, it all depends.  On what I don't know . . . 

By the time I finish them, she is usually wanting her treat ball.  (See what I mean)  It is a ball that looks like this. 

 

She finds it quite exciting, no matter what I put into it.  Sometimes it is just a few dry cheerios, sometimes it is an inch of cheese stick, cut up into bits, or a piece of hotdog cut into bits, but mostly it is just a few dry cheerios.  She loves it.  She noses it all around downstairs waiting for the treat to fall out of the hold so she can eat it. It is exercise for her mind and a bit for her body.  In any case she now asks me for it.  It can be a bit hard to find it sometimes because I never know where it ends up, but she has gotten remarkably good at leading me directly to it.  Its that popular with her.  

As you can see the first bits of my morning are

mostly about her.

  

Now that she is occupied with her ball, I can get a drink for myself and check my e-mails.  Two years ago I decided that I was going to try to keep them below a 100 saved in my inbox each day and I have done really well at that.  I get tons of bunkum every day.  Seriously.  I have to cull my box several times a day.  Mostly people wanting something for nothing.  I don't mind serious inquiries however . . .  someone wanting the answer to a question about one of my recipes or the like.  I am happy to help out, but I am not interested in helping you get your millions that are trapped in an account in Africa thank you very much, no matter how many millions you offer me in exchange, nor do I have anything to fill your chinese merchandise ships with.  (How stupid do they think people are?)  Or sorting out accounts in banks I don't even use, credit cards I don't have, fixing my full e-mail account because e-mails have been stopped (well, yours got through buster!) etc.  It an take a few minutes to click delete, delete, delete.  I'll bet 90% of my e-mails are actually garbage and/or unsolicited.

 

Then it is time for this.  I check my facebook to see if anything has happened during the night I need to be aware of.  I check all of the kids accounts and my family, then I switch it off.  Then I do my daily tweet and instagram post for the food blog, an they get switched off and then . . .  its time to talk to you!  Pretty much my favourite part of my morning, and it's not even 7 am yet.  On Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays I don't actually know what I am going to write about.  It will hit me as I sit down and that's what I go with.  Always go with your first instincts.  They are usually correct.  So today you are getting how I spend my days. Lucky you!  😉   I will do that until Todd wakes up, and if I finish up on the computer earlier than normal I will do a bit of journaling.   That didn't happen yesterday because Todd had to get up early because . . . 

 

You know who had the dog groomers.

I usually get washed and dressed, etc. after Todd gets up.  I don't want to make too much noise in the bathroom until I know he is awake.  I am such a considerate gal. 

  

After they left I decided I was going to bake Todd an apple pie.  He loves apple pies and is always dreaming about his mother's apple pies.  I only ever rarely bake a pie, let alone an apple pie, so yesterday I thought I would bake him a treat and I did.  He also loves apple crumble, so I did a Dutch Apple Pie which gives you both.  Once you have everything ready to go, it goes together quickly and always turns out a treat.  This is a photo of it before I put it in the oven.   While it was baking I did a quick tidy up around here.  I keep on top of it so that usually doesn't take too long and I didn't have any laundry to do so, once the pie came out and was cooling I decided to go upstairs and stare at my paints . . . 

 

I got a set of new half pans for Christmas. WInsor & Newton, professional watercolours, so the hues are really lovely.  I had been going up and looking at them every day for a few weeks now. 

  

I did do this one day from a photograph I had taken of my little bird egg cups with an egg in it . . .  I was not completely happy with it. Not happy at all  . . .  but that is life . . . 

 

I got some new brushes also, but they are very, very long.

Look at how long they are next to the one I use most of the time.

It looks like a dwarf.  I have not used the new ones

yet, at all . . . 

  

So this is what I worked on yesteray.  Its going to be a book mark. Its just on a scrap of paper.  I kind of life how it has turned out.  I want to put some words on that bottom area, but am looking for just the right quote.  I guess I totally haven't lost my mojo after all.   While I was painting, I was also chatting with my sister on the iPad.  I think its called multi-tasking. There was a time I could chat with two or three people at a time, but I can't handle that anymore.  Just one at a time is all I can manage.   

 

It was my Dad's birthday earlier this week.  He turned 84, and is still going strong.  My sister did a special supper for him, and my mom got him a cake.   They are the poster children for good divorce, my parents.  They are very good friends.  That makes it so much easier for us, their children.  It was hard at first, but once things settled, things worked out well.  Its too bad most divorces did not work in that way. We never felt that we had to choose between one or the other.  We simply had two parents who loved us and we loved them.  That is as it should be. 

  

By then Todd was home and I got busy making us a late lunch/early supper.  Nothing fancy and not even as fancy as this.  Just chicken burgers and oven chips.  Except I burnt the buns under the grill and had to scrape away half of the bun. Not a problem because we shouldn't be eating too much bread, right?  No cheese, but plenty of lettuce and tomato and only half as many oven chips.  Todd always eats his burgers no matter what with a knife and fork.  I am a bohemian and I like to use my hands.  Isn't that a part of the pleasure of eating a burger?   

After I cleared up we had Mitzie cuddles for a while and then it was time for her afternoon walk.  Todd had noticed when he got her home that she had the wrong lead, but when he went to take her for her walk he realised she also had the wrong collar.  The collar here belonged to Lola and she is no Lola.  Both were red with white polka dots, so easily mixed up with hers.  So we had to make a quick call to the groomer because we didn't want Lola being too distressed, and to be honest we wanted Mitzie's back.  The groomer said he would drop them off after work last night and do an exchange.

I did my English Kitchen post, which meant sorting through the photos, editing them, writing it up, setting it up to post this morning etc.  Todd read while I was doing this and enjoyed his apple pie as he was doing so. 

Mitzie went for her walk and I gave her her supper when she got back and we decided we were going to watch some telly.  We have just started watching Brittania on Now TV.  (Its a way of having sky without paying the enormous sky fees.  You can pay for it monthly, for a small fee and only pay for the months that you actually have something on it you want to watch.)  Its quite a good show.  There is some swearing in it (of course) and some violence, but otherwise it is quite fascinating. Britannia is a drama set in 43AD as the Roman Imperial Army - determined and terrified in equal measure - returns to crush the Celtic heart of Britannia - a mysterious land ruled by warrior women and powerful druids who can channel the powerful forces of the underworld. Or so they say.  So far so good and we are enjoying it.  We have watched two episodes.  The first one was a bit harder to follow because they were setting up all of the characters and scenes, this second one we watched yesterday was a lot easier to follow now we know what's what!

 

After that Peter Lee stopped by.  He wanted me to show him how he could send private messages on Facebook, so I did and we had a nice little visit  afterwards.  He seems to be coping well since Audrey's passing.  I know he misses her dreadfully, the whole last two years of her life he was her constant caregiver, first at home and then in the hospital and care home.  He was faultless in all that he did for her.  We all talked about the new Presidency in the church, and shared our thoughts on this.   All of us had been a bit shocked and somewhat disappointed that Dieter F Uchtdorf had been let go and put back into the Apostles and replaced in the Presidency, but at the same time we could see the need for someone who is strong in the law of the land being in the Presidency.  We live in perilous and socially challenging times.  President Oaks was a Supreme Court Judge.  He certainly knows his eggs from his onions.  He is a good man and we know he has been called of God to do what he is doing now.  It is nice to have friends we can talk to about things like this.   

 

We have set a date to go to a film.  On Monday the three of us are going to see Darkest Hour.  I am looking forward to that.   

The dog groomer called and said he was running really late so was it okay if he brought Mitzie's collar/lead over after work today.  We said yes, of course.

After that I decided to have my shower and put on my jimjams, so did Todd. We, then, settled in for an evening of relaxation.  We listened to some music, watched a bit of telly and I made us some toast.  Todd had his with marmite.  👀  I had mine, one slice with cheese spread and one slice with peanut butter, nectar of the Gods. Whole wheat. No butter on mine, just those.  I made us each a Horlicks before bed and then we had family prayer and went to bed.  It always takes me a bit longer to fall asleep than Todd and so I watched an episode of Friends on my iPad and then half of the first episode in the latest series of Grace & Frankie.

I had this headache off and on all night and crazy dreams.  It was like I was dreaming all night, the same dream.   I would wake up and then go back to sleep and continue dreaming it.  Some nights are just like that.  Last night before we went to sleep we made a date to go out to breakfast this morning.  If you are going to go out and splurge on a meal, breakfast is just the ticket.  It's cheaper than dinner and once in a blue moon the full English is just what you need, and so much tastier when someone else cooks it.   

And that's how you spend a day. 

A thought to carry with you  . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *.˛.  Be patient with yourself,

nothing in nature blooms all year.

~Unknown   •。★★ 。* 。

Spiritual Enlightenment 

  

BOOK OF MORMON CORNER - Today's Reading - Jacob 5:19-34 

Question - What is the fruit? Why do you think it is so important to the Lord?

My Thoughts - Verses 21-22. I always love reading these verses. They became two of my favourites in the book of Mormon after hearing a sacrament talk on them a few years ago. When it talks about being placed in poor ground, it made me think of the different situations people find themselves in, maybe poverty, or as refugees, in abusive homes and families, experiencing the death of loved ones, etc. Even in our ordinary daily experiences we can all feel like 'poor ground'  . . . hurt, upset, loneliness, depression, stress, financial worries, too much to do and carry etc. I could go on. I love how the lord of the vineyard answers the servant when he questions 'why did you put the tree here when you knew it was poor ground?' and the lord's answer . . .  'counsel me not. I knew it was a poor spot of ground . . . wherefore I have nourished it this long time . . .  it have brought forth much fruit.' We can trust Him. Completely. Trust that He knows us. Trust that He knows where we are and what He is doing with us. He is working to bring about His purposes. Even if we don't see or feel this ourselves. No matter what our circumstance or experience is, we can receive His nourishment and we can bring forth good fruit. Which means our lives and our works will be good and right . . .  and patterned after His.

Tomorrow's reading (Day 82) (Monday) -  Jacob 5:35-48 
Question - What went wrong in the vineyard? How does the Lord react? 

 

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Dutch Apple Pie.  Scrumptiously tasty!

Have a wonderful Saturday.  Don't forget! 

 
═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════ ⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿
═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════ 

And I do too!