Category: Uncategorized

Thirtydays

Bullet journal

December is done and what I thought would bean easy thirtydays, was not. Unless something out of the ordinary happened it’s hard to write something every day. I have come to realize my life is pretty boring. During the week I go to work, work, come home and go to bed. Oh, I eat and play with the animals in between all that but it’s not that note worthy lol. The weekends are a little more interesting. I hang out with my partner. Maybe we go do something or maybe we just sit around the house and vegetate.

I do like the concept of bullet journaling. It kind of reminds me of a calendar. Small bits of information for the month. It also allows for a little time to reflect on the day. I do wish I had kept all of my calendars from the past. There was so much of my life written down in one small square. I think I will continue with a scaled back version and write bullets of things to remember just not every day.

Stay tuned for my recap. 😁

Thirtydays

Anti-inflammatory diet

Welp, I have to say that this thirtydays was mostly a bust. My list of foods not to eat was pretty much my entire diet. Why did I choose to do this one? I have had stomach issues because of gluten and some minor joint pain from overuse and abuse probably the last ten plus years and I felt like it was worth a try.

The list of foods to avoid was long and intimidating so I picked a few and went with it.

I cut out gluten and wheat. I’m no stranger to that diet so it was a noticeable improvement in my stomach health. I abstained from fast foods and cookies brought in to work by coworkers. I also quit eating processed meats. That was a tough one. Lunchmeat, meat sticks and Spam. I like to eat things that are easy lol. I added tuna, tilapia and salmon for dinners. For lunch I ate avocados, nuts and hard boiled eggs. I continued drinking a green drink in the morning. That’s probably the only way I get my veggies lol. This got old real fast. I am not a super chef so cooking for just myself is a chore. If someone could just invent a breakfast, lunch and dinner pill I would be fine with that.

Will I continue with this diet? Gluten and wheat free, yes. I will try and throw in some of the, “yes foods” intermittently but probably not everyday.

Now, onto my last thirtydays of the year. Seems crazy that it’s already December. I read an article about bullet journaling. Basically you just write a few words for each day. No big commitment to writing paragraphs but it could turn into one. It also helps focus on what happened with your day. Instead of always moving forward it gives you a chance to reflect. My plan is to write something every day in December.

Wish me luck🤞🏽

Thirtydays

Anti inflammatory diet

No social media- done. I woke up this morning and contemplated what apps to re-load.

1. Instagram yes. No politics.

2. Facebook yes. There are a couple of my friends not on Instagram and I like to see what they are up to plus I am an admin for my Lions Club page.

3. Reddit yes. I feel like that is more about discussion threads. You can choose to talk politics or not.

4. YouTube yes. The how to videos are needed lol.

5. Tiktok no. It was too easy to scroll through video after video and have two hours disappear.

6. Pinterest yes. More about getting ideas and info on things I am interested in.

It only took about 45 minutes to download the apps and catch up on what everybody was up to. I think I will limit myself to checking them once a day and max of an hour or maybe just weekends. I just don’t want to fall back into any old habits.

On to my anti inflammatory diet. For those of you who don’t know me and what I typically eat during the day. Here is the short list.

Breakfast :

Green drink. Power greens, orange juice, flax, chia, hemp hearts and blueberries.

That’s good but it’s all downhill from there.

Lunch:

I am the queen of easy. If I just have to open a package of anything, I’m good. So, pepperoni, cheese, lunch meat, hard salami, crackers, peanut butter and bananas. Those are all my fast foods lol. The peanut butter and bananas are the only healthy items.

Dinner:

Precooked hamburgers and a can of green beans. A bowl of cereal/granola. A cup of instant mashed potatoes. Mac n cheese. Chips and cheese.

Baby steps. There is no way I can change everything. The list is way too long. I will start with a few things at a time.

Stay tuned for the list and me luck 🤞🏽

Thirtydays

No social media

This has definitely been one of the longest and most difficult thirtydays of 2021. You don’t realize how much you look at social media until you can’t. I did replace some of that time wasted with the television lol but not a lot.

In addition to no social media I also quit my smart watch. It may have been all in my head but every time I wore it my wrist hurt. The last straw was when I got back from a week of camping and not wearing it. I put it on for work Monday and by ten o’clock my wrist was throbbing and it had worn off three small round dots of my suntan where the watch sensors were sitting. When you think about it, is it really good to have the equivalent of a cell phone sitting on your arm? I did miss the voice to text feature and the find cell phone beeper but I’m sure there is a work around for that lol.

The after effects of no social media. Call me crazy but I feel like my mind is a little sharper. I am always misplacing something and last night I lost my phone somewhere in the house and I actually remembered where I set it down! That never happens lol.

So, the next thirtydays? I will be following an anti-inflammatory diet. That entails more vegetables and less processed foods. I. May. Die. Lol. Wish me luck 🤞🏽

Thirtydays

no social media

I seem to be finding a lot to do without social media. Cleaning, organizing, getting hooked on “Survivor” again, driving 75 miles to drop off my dog for a sleepover with my grandson lol.

Coincidently, Facebook was down. One of my coworker was silently going insane not knowing if she forgot her password or something was wrong with her phone. She later found out about the outage.

I’m finding there are times that social media is useful. YouTube. I was looking up how to reseat a toilet on the internet and most of the videos direct you to YouTube. I finally found one that was just on a website.

I watched my grandson get his next belt in karate. I took pictures but since this thirtydays is still going on I couldn’t post anything. Same with the Aftershock trip. I think that’s what social media is for me. A timeline of what has gone on in my life. Before, there was film cameras or my memory. Both of those lacking lol. Film, you took a picture and then when you remembered you take it in to get developed. Fingers crossed that the photos came out in focus and it wasn’t a roll from two years ago. My memory, lol, most things are written down on calendars but unless I keep them forever they are gone.

Only seven more days lol. At this point I don’t know what I will re-install. 🤞🏽

Aftershock

Discovery Park Sacramento CA

Aftershock. It’s a huge four day music festival. I’ve been there in 2016, 2017 and 2018. I had planned for 2020 but we all know what happened to that year. Rescheduled.

We started the drive at 10am. We just made it to Grants Pass but had to turn around. My friend, Tracey, neglected to tell me I needed a vaccination card or a negative covid test to enter the concert. I had a photo of it on my phone but we couldn’t find any information that said they would accept it. So, an hour later and we are on the road again lol.

Passing by Lake Shasta was depressing. The water was so low going over the first bridge it was down to a small stream. The second bridge was worse. No water at all. Since I was driving I had to rely on my navigator to take photos. Not good lol not good.

Staying at the Arden Star hotel. Not far from the Arden Fair mall. Yes! Shopping 😁

Driving around Sacramento had its challenges. I used the Maps app on my phone which sometimes it spoke to me and sometimes it gave me the silent treatment. I had to rely on Tracey as navigator but she didn’t do so hot either. I either missed the turn and then was directed to do a U-turn at the next light or had to drive in a large circle lol. Most of the U-turns involved a lot of curbing. I was in the PU and I’m sure the other drivers were saying, “redneck Oregonians!” lol.

One of the mornings we picked Bacon and Butter restaurant for breakfast. It was only around 15 minutes from the hotel. Well, it was like driving into downtown Portland. Tiny parking lot and parallel parking on the street. Nope. Not happening. We picked another restaurant. The Morning Fork. Drove there. Same situation. Finally picked 18 Grams Coffee Roasters and ended up two blocks from the hotel😲🙄🤣. Oh well. It was delicious.

We went to Jimboys Tacos for lunch. Luckily it wasn’t far from the hotel and on the way to the park and ride shuttle. I love that place. The tacos are sooo good. Softly fried corn shells with parmesan cheese stuck to the outside. 😋 yum!

We ended up going to the venue late afternoon on all three days. The weather was perfect. Not too hot. I did freeze a little the first night lol.

Day one: Avatar, Skillet, Butcher Babies, Volbeat and Metallica

Day two: The Offspring

Day three: In this Moment and Metallica

It. Was. Epic.

We did get some pictures of Lake Shasta on the way home. We stopped at Packers Bay where Kris and I put the boat in Memorial Day weekend 2018. It’s hard to even imagine it could ever get that low. Craziness.

All in all it was an awesome trip. I hope to do it again next year 😁

Thirtydays

No social media

Day one. I woke up and reached for my phone. Usually I lay in bed, thumbing through social media pages, watching videos and seeing everyone’s updates. I will admit an hour will go by after the alarm goes off but not this morning. I go through my phone and my tablet and delete all the social apps. Hmm. Well I might as well get out of bed lol. So right off the bat I am way more productive than yesterday 😁

It’s interesting how many times I reached for my phone today only to put it back down. Social media is like a drug. I’m not really feeling any withdrawal symptoms at this point. I just have noticed how much I am connected to it.

Day two. Same morning as yesterday. I got out of bed. Ate breakfast while reading…..wait for it…a magazine lol. Consumer reports has an article about how to quit plastic. It makes me cringe even more thinking how much plastic I have thrown out in the past. Oh well got to start somewhere.

Day three. I got several emails from Facebook. Telling me that one of my friends posted a picture or a video. Weird coincidence, big brother or? And this didn’t happen just one time either. Four so far. I had deleted all of the apps so I don’t know how or why I am being tracked but it just started doing it this month. Creepy.

So, don’t judge me but I calculated out how much time I spent on social media and it came out to around four hours a day. That’s a low number. That is 120 hours per month. Five days worth. All wasted doing nothing. I am totally disgusted with myself. I think about how quickly time passes and I wasted hours when I could be doing something productive? I don’t want to wake up, old, and say, “where did the time go”. That scares me.

I feel like this can of worms is not getting closed up at the end of the month.

Wish me luck🤞🏽

Thirtydays

Trash less cont…

Well, that’s a wrap on thirtydays trash less. I’ m confident I can stick to this one. How do I know? When shopping I take into consideration the packaging, I cringe with every piece of trash I put into the garbage can, I am excited to fill up my compost bin and I have learned different ways to reuse items I thought were useless.

Now on to October.

So. Social media. Love to hate. Hate to love. Love to see pics and updates on friends. Hate to see all the political b.s. I don’t care who you voted for, whether you did or didn’t get the vaccine, how many people were wearing a mask at the grocery store or what news channel you subscribe to. Honestly it stresses me out. Plus I seem to waste a ton of time watching videos. I’ll admit some of them are educational and funny but I could be doing more productive things.

This month’s thirtydays is going to be no social media. None. Zero. Zip. No laying on the couch, in bed or sitting in my car mindlessly scrolling through content. Maybe I will actually get stuff done lol.

Definition of social media: internet based communication that facilitates the sharing of thoughts and interests to others.

This include: Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Tiktok, Pinterest and YouTube. Technically WordPress but I will need that for the blog.

I may die lol.

Wish me luck🤞🏽

Thirtydays

Trash less continued

It’s already the 23rd of September and I havent blogged my next thirtydays 😲 oh well, better late than never lol.

This thirtydays ended up being a continuation of last month. We went camping at Loon Lake the 6th thru the 12th and I really dedicated myself to reducing waste on that trip. No paper plates, paper towels or plastic silverware. I brought my un-paper towels. I had already purchased dishes and silverware for the camper. I pre-cooked dinners and put them into reusable containers. I used my orange juice containers and filled them with filtered water for us and the dogs. We ended up with only one small garbage can of trash at the end of the week so I think it was a success.

Twice I went to the grocery store and forgot my bags in the car. I did not allow myself the luxury of purchasing a store bag. The first one I asked the clerk to set the items at the end of her counter and I would come right back in and bag them up. Luckily there was no one in line after me. She did give me a look though 😂 the second store I didn’t purchase that many items so I did a balancing act on the way out of the store lol. It was quite a sight.

I am confident I can stick to this one.

Thirtydays

Trash less

This thirtydays is coming to an end but I wanted to share a few things I have done so far.

Shred trash. I put some around the base of my bushes, added rock on top and around the edges. I’m excited to see how this goes next spring. I’m hopeful it will keep some of the grass from poking through.

Coffee grounds and egg shells. I read on the internet that if you dry them out and then grind them up in the blender you can use it for plant food. It came out perfectly. Now to sprinkle some on my plants.

I bought some reusable produce bags. Five for $3.00. I think they are going to be much easier to open up in the store. Lol, no more licking my fingers. Just kidding. I just need to remember to bring them with me.

Orange juice. Well, I usually put this in my green drink in the morning. My daughter, Krystal, convinced me to just use oranges. There is no way I can squeeze enough oranges to equal what I normally use so I will supplement with water. I couldn’t find any regular ones at the grocery store so I settled on tangelos. They were easy to peel and the peelings went into compost. I also got lemons and I’ll put a couple of slices in with it. Those were NOT easy to peel. Lol.

Overall I think this thirtydays was a win. I was able to reduce what was going into my garbage can and I found new ways to reuse and recycle some of it too. I think it made me more conscious of what I was buying and how it was packaged.

Stay tuned for September’s thirtydays 😁