A LITTLE LIGHT REMODEL

I'd been wanting to do away with the brass light fixture in our dining room for quite some time.  It was not only looking a little out dated, but it had one arm that never had the bright shiny finish that the other arms had.  Granted, when the light was on it was so bright that you'd never see it.  But of course, I knew that from cleaning it when the lights were off. 

I finally found the fixture I wanted at a price I was willing to pay, so I ordered it.  I knew it would come to us in pieces so we were prepared to assemble it, including hanging over 100 crystals.

Guess you'll have to turn your head sideways since I can't figure out how to turn it, sorry.

                           Here is a picture of the dining room with the original light fixture.

                                       After my handyman worked on it, here's how it looks.

After having a blanket hung over the door in our breakfast nook for several weeks this winter when it was so cold, I decided that I wanted a thermal drapery panel to pull shut when it was very cold or during the hottest days of summer when the afternoon sun bakes us as we eat dinner.  Handyman bought a metal conduit, some finials for the ends, and brackets.  Then he painted them with a special bronze paint.  It made for a very nice looking, inexpensive drapery rod.  I found the drapes on Overstock.com and then bought the rings to hang it from Lowes.  Here is the breakfast nook with the "new" light fixture and drapery panel.

                                                       I love it!  Thanks, Handyman!!

FINALLY - FLORIDA

It's taken me a while to get this posted, but I was fortunate to get to spend New Year's at the beach.  I've been wanting to get back there for quite a few years, but we just never made the time or took the effort to make it happen.  Fortunately, this year my brother invited us to come and visit them in Destin where they're spending the coldest winter months away from Ohio.  The weather wasn't the best I could hope for, but we did get to walk on the beach while we were there.

I'd love to own this house so close to the beach!

 

 The day was cloudy, but it was still a day at the beach!

Windy day at the beach!

Harborwalk

Harborwalk

I'm looking forward to getting back there in just a couple of weeks and am hoping for some nice spring weather to enjoy walks on the beach. 

STILL LOW-CARBING

This has been a different weight loss journey for me.  It's very slow going.  I'm down about 10 pounds from when I posted in August.  I am amazed that I'm not really tempted to go off of this diet.  I never crave anything anymore.  Actually I don't think about food much other than to figure out what I'm going to have for meals.  I'm not perfect.  I still occasionally splurge and have something that is full of carbs.  For me this has been the easiest diet I've ever tried and I never would have believed that I could go no sugar/no bread/no starchy veggies for this long.  Well, not exactly none of those, but very limited amounts.  But it has been my goal each day to eat the least amount of those things that I can without depriving myself of something that I truly want to eat.
I've had to  break down and buy some new clothes.  The only clothes that are still in my "skinny" closet are summer clothes so I won't be wearing those this winter even if I lose a little more weight.  I have even given away some clothes that were in that closet.  Not because they were too large.  I could still wear them, but I've aged since I bought them and just didn't think I'd ever wear them.
My goal is to not ever stop eating this way.  Hopefully that will keep the weight off and I won't have to try to lose again.  Maybe I'll set one day a week to have those splurges but keep my carbs low the rest of the days. 
I'm still lifting hand weights but have stayed at the 12 lb weights since that it actually over the suggested limit for my age range.  I haven't been on my treadmill lately either.  I know I should, but I've just not been motivated to do it.

CHANGES AT THE CABIN

From the beginning, we've talked about enclosing our screened in porch so that we could use it year round.  Randy has made several trips over to the cabin the past few weeks to finally make this a reality.  Here are a few pictures of the work he's done.

Took out the back wall.

Replaced the back wall with windows!

 

Back from outside.

 

Side wall with framing in for one of the four windows.

 Knocking out more of the side wall.

From the front.  I can't believe I forgot to take a picture with the siding on it.  Oh well, will get that this weekend!!

MY WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY CONTINUES

I'd love to say that I've lost a lot of weight, but that's not the case.  I have lost some.  But more importantly I've had more energy and felt better than I have in years.  Losing weight for me this time is not a race to see how quickly I can get there.  Actually I haven't decided on where I want to get to.  I'm just taking it a day at a time and hoping it will be a life style change that I can stay on forever.  I've dropped a size.  Actually it's closer to 2 because my jeans had gotten pretty tight.  Every week or so I go back into my "skinny" closet and take out some smaller clothes and try them on.  It's been great to have some of those clothes that I haven't worn in 9 years to fit again!  I've also had a couple of dresses that still had the tags on them that I can wear now.  My sister-in-law said that it's fun to go shopping in your own closet and I agree!! 

I'm still lifting my hand weights 3 times a week.  I've gone from the 3lb weights to 5 lb to 8 lb to 10 lb to 12 lbs.  I feel pretty good about that.  I'm still only walking a mile most days.  I know I could walk more but I just don't want to invest the time knowing that I'd have to keep it up for years and know that I won't, because I didn't when I lost weight before and was walking 4 miles.  

I went this week and had my blood drawn at the doctors office for my yearly checkup.  When the doctor looked at the results he was amazed!  My numbers have always been within the normal range but they were even better this time.  I can't remember the numbers (I should have gotten a copy of the labs and maybe I'll go back later to get them).  His printout showed my results in the left hand column, the good range in the right hand column and notes in the middle where you veer off from where they want you to be.  I only had a notation and it was on cholesterol and it was LOW, and he said that was VERY good!  I'm below where they want a person who has already had a heart attack to get down to.  At the bottom it gave an indicator of your chances of having a cardiac event.  My number was only 1.6 .  I think the doctor was very surprised with the results but after all that I've read about the low carb diet I was hopeful that would be the result.

READY FOR GUESTS

Back in 1997 we purchased a double bed for the bedroom that our exchange student had been occupying for 9 months.  We replaced a twin bed with the double because her parents were coming for a visit from Denmark.  The room is rather small so we never thought about getting a larger bed.  The bed has served us well for 17 years.  After sleeping in a double bed at my parent's house when we visited, I know that it's not the most comfortable after having a queen at home.  We always managed with that so we didn't worry about it when the kids came to visit.  Recently we've had some other guests come to stay with us and we just felt like the bed wasn't very comfortable for others of our generation.  You know when you're younger, you can adapt a little better to inconvenient circumstances.  We had to give up a little floor space but decided it would be better to have more space in the bed rather than space next to the bed.  It is a little tight if you get in on the side next to the wall, but really, how much time will that be?  Hopefully, we'll have lots of guests come and stay in our guest room over the coming years!  And it will be a nice change for our kids when they come to visit.

TODAY ISN'T SATURDAY?

Today started out like any normal Thursday.  We got up, showered, had breakfast and were ready for the day.  What normally happens is my "handyman" takes off to work somewhere else.  The past few weeks it's been for Habitat for Humanity.  But today....he didn't leave!!  He actually stayed home and worked on a few projects around here!  We bought a queen size mattress to replace the double in the guest room and he had to adapt the frame to fit the larger mattress since I wanted to keep the headboard/footboard.  He had been working on it for a while, but got it finished today.  My garage floor has been emptied of all the leftover junk from projects.  Now this will be short lived as tomorrow a friend is returning a table and 4 chairs they had borrowed while their furniture is in storage in Illinois while they build a new house here.  Handyman has also ordered windows for the porch at the cabin that will be in next week and those will be stored in my garage.  Some door facings on the workshop and storage building and a birdhouse had been in dire need of paint, so they each got one coat.  My fountain had been running low again so he fixed that.  Not sure if that's all he accomplished but he worked around here most of the day. 
I normally don't get much out of him during the week, so it really did mess with my mind.  All day I've thought it was Saturday since he was here working and not out working for  someone else.
I guess this is what retirement could look like if he stayed home all the time.....not!!  I couldn't keep him this busy all of the time so I guess it's good that he has his projects away from home.
Now, when is Saturday?