Yes, I brought out the paints again and here I am, nerding it up big time at home! I do work a full time job but do my art on the side, hoping and praying that my craft will one day support me!
Here is the eBay link to my newest piece! Please, feel free to make me an offer (everything that sells via my eBay also benefits a charity as well as helping to support my adventures!)
The time has Come: Papa needed helping moving to his new residence, and not having quite started my new job yet-I drove the 70 minutes to help Papa for the day to help him finish up packing up his old residence and move him to the new place about 2 miles away.
Papa and I stopped for Lunch at Grace’s Restaurant in Honea Path, mid-day, to enjoy some food. Papa really liked that they served breakfast all day and ordered a side of sausage patties with his biscuit and gravy.
I chose the Club sandwhich and fries, which I hadn’t enjoyed a a club sandwhich in ages. Both of our meals were really good and both Papa and I drank coffee (moving takes a lot of energy, and a bit of extra pep was of course needed.)
It’s a blessing that I still have a living grandparent and one that lives so closely to me. What a blessing! It was also nice that Papa had already pre-packed some of his house and it make it all so much easier. We got everything else packed up, moved and unpacked into the new house in a bit over 8 hours, total.
The only thing left is to move the heavy furniture, which family and friends are coming over tomorrow with pickups and muscle to help move the last of it!
Spring is rolling in with the thunder and rain, as you can see the bushes in front of my building are already budding out and super green; it’s all the abundant rain we receive here in the upstate area!
Okay, there are some days that life just needs to be made easy; yes, there are times even when i don’t want to cook for myself because I am just not feeling groovy or adventerous in making different food. When one lives alone, one gets to do all the cooking and cleaning and sometimes, a little easyness is needed!
My meal today for lunch was made easy by using sliced strawberries, bananas, chopped walnuts and a bit of feta to create a quick and easy meal for myself. Who else needs quick meals sometimes?
This morning, about 90 minutes ago, I struggled big time. My co-worker, in efforts to be super sweet and nice, offered me a McDonald’s breakfast sandwhich when she came into work. The sandwhich smelled wonderful; I really wanted to say yes and gobble it down with delight.
I politely declined, despite my tummy rumbling, my mouthing salvating with the warm aromas wafting from the paper wrapped food.. She asked if I didn’t care for McDonalds, I told her, no, I absolutely love McDonald’s breakfast sandwhichs but I am giving up fast food for Lent.Her face turned quizical in expression and I gave the brief description that Lent is the 40 days before Easter and many Catholics and Protestants give up something during this period as part of their faith and journey. I wasn’t expecting this struggle this morning at all.
While on my way to my job, I do pass several fast food chains to and from work. In the past, even recently, especially on the days I go to the Rec center to swim, I often imbibed and picked up a breakfast at one of the fast food chains;it makes things easier and tasty for me before I hit the lanes for laps. I can eat in my car (likely not a good habit to have anyway) and then realizse, as I evaluate my bank account weekly, just how much I am/was spending on fast food-especially lately as I have become passive, lazy about making breakfast for myself. But when does easy and convienent become a lifestyle? Why is this passively okay for when it’s not really okay as a norm? These are the questions I ask myself-and many more.
One lingering question, just a few days into Lent, is how do I make/cook more interesting food for myself? There are times, when I do need a quick meal, and I am learning that I need, at times, to practice better time management since I am eating solely homecooked meals at this point-with the exception of when I get invited to a family or friends house for dinner (or the like.) I didn’t anticipate that the struggle would also be with getting tired of my usual routine meals and recipes, especially so quickly.
While I did make myself breakfast (seen below), and while it settles down, I wonder, what easy meals can I make myself on short notice or with some prep work that are tasty and contian easily found ingredients? Please, do comment and share if you have ideas!
Spread the cream cheese on the flat bread, load veggies and avacado on top,add chicken, sprinkle parmesan and drizzle thousand island dress, roll up like a buritto. I also drank cold drip coffee with it. It was a B- meal.
I gave up Dr. Pepper and fast food for lent, not a secret, but the lack of fizzy caffeine and sweetness is already greatly “missed” by my body.The fast food craving and hankerings haven’t kicked in, which I am thankful. A full glass of water and a little nap have helped to curb the headache but the craving remains.
The challenge, though, will come this evening when I return to work after a couple of routine days off. Why a challenge? There is a soda fountain and each employee gets unlimited free sodas from the fountain as a perk of the job, Dr. Pepper included. I really like Dr. Pepper. While there isn’t anything wrong with Dr. Pepper, it’s a fabulous product, I gave it up for Lent as I feel like I had become “dependent” on the product, drinking more of it than I would anything else, despite having lots of other options at home and other places, including healthier choices like herbal hot or iced tea, water, milk, or something different.
I have often packed my lunch for work before and now will continue to pack a lunch for myself each shift I work, using a cute Jurrassic World tin square lunch box I received as a Christmas gift. A bit of preperation and effort, meals at work will be delicious and as easy as fast food, but better for the mind and body, giving the proper nutrition for myself and time to focus on better things and spiritual growth.
A friend of mine is in support of giving up Dr. Pepper but inquired as to why do it for Lent;
Here’s a basic description of why we do it;
Fasting, or giving something up, is a very common practice during Lent. The idea is that giving up something that’s a regular part of life, like eating dessert or scrolling through Facebook, can be a reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice. That time can also be replaced with more time connecting with God.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=why+give+up+something+for+lent&cvid=2e812f426dac45039e29a85a92e36e7c&aqs=edge.0.0j69i57j0l4.4471j0j1&pglt=43&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=NMTS
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As you can hear and see in the short video I snapped/shot, the wind is really howling! It’s so cold, too and the icy winds bite at the skin. Yes, it’s blizzarding! Welcome to the cold and snowy Colorado plains! I also got my wish for Christmas, I witnessed a good snow fall and all was merry and white!
Thankfully, the blizzard did stop and I own plenty of warm wear to go out and play in the snow, a favorite past time of mine, while also getting to enjoy the warmt of the indoors, with hot cholate and games with family and friends.
We are playing Scattergories, Clobber, and card games, always a delight, no matter the weather!
Located just on the outskirts of Central, South Carolina on Madden Bridge Road (about a half a mile down the road from the Jitter Brew House–which has amazing coffee of all sorts).
A low country boil, as I have been told, is very similar to a crab cracking party–either way, it’s a whole lot of good food and fun to be had with family and friends. I was put in charge of finding clean newspapers and a steaming pot (with the fire ring kit, etc) for the party. The fire ring kit and steaming pot was the easy part, I borrowed one from my neighbor (and invited him to come along!)
I obtained the clean stack of newspapers with a stroke of luck; I happened to catch a newspaper delivery man and asked if he had any unsold newspapers from previous days that I could purchase off of him–he gave me a stack of folded, untouched papers for free, which was a blessing as we needed a lot of newspaper to line the tables.
The low country boil was held outside in a friends backyard. Everyone brought something along for the shin-dig and oh, boy, what a party!! Music, dancing and of course great food!!!
The large steam pots were put over fire rings, using propane tanks. The guys steamed up potatoes, chunks of corn on the cob, sausage chunks of an assorted variety, and of course, shrimp, lots and lots of shrimp–people even brought homemade cocktail sauce, drawn butter, paper towels, and more!!
Even the pups got to enjoy some scraps (and no, they weren’t eating from the tables!)
Culture is in the eye of the beholder and the artists of old captured the essence of all things great in the centuries before us….and viewing them is free at the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square in downtown London.
A fabulous aspect of the National Gallery is the general entrance is free, which is great for those traveling on a budget like myself. I attended/viewed the Gallery a total of 3 times to get through all the exhibitions (not fully shown here). The exhibits are large, spacious, and overly awesome to boot. Why? The National Gallery offers era’s from classical to Renaissance to Modern, DaVinci to Rubens to Van Gogh to Monet to Post Modern Art. It is all very wonderful.
The Gallery also sets on Trafalgar Square, which in its own ways is always awesome, a full day or two of free adventures all in one wonderful location, well worth checking out and very friendly on the wallet (post cards of must of the art work is also available for those without a photographic eye or wanting to play “Where’s Waldo” postcard style).
My Travels 