by Tish MacWebber | Aug 6, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
If you have ever wondered why I picked the “Angry Tomato” pic for this series, there are a few reasons. One is that it made me laugh, out loud. I reacted to it, so I decided it would work. Another is because I am fighting my way to living a healthier lifestyle, and I wanted a kitchen themed picture for this series. I try to do the cooking and cleaning on the weekends, I find it had to work at during the work week. I have had some success this year in my spring cleaning challenge, but as of yet, I have not finished. I choose not to dwell on what I have not done and try to move forward because of what I have done.
I am planning my day out, dreading the return to work tomorrow. I am a firm believer that there should be less week and more weekend. I do not have the power or the budget to sustain a lifestyle that does not include a day job, so the reality is, I have to keep the day job, even if I would rather devote all of my time to being creative and writing.
Which brings me to my books. I have started them, yes. I have had an idea (finally) this morning about where to continue as I plan to write some more today. I don’t know if I will succeed in writing enough to complete the weekend challenge I joined, but I am going to see what I could do. That is how I entered. This doesn’t count, as it is not progressing on my book. I will add it to the word count as a side project, because it is writing, nonetheless. I do have deadlines with my blog, too, though and I have to do my best to keep up with it here for myself, and for my followers. Thank you to those who are taking the time to read my Blog, and welcome to any people who are new here. I write at least twice a week, and this is one of my regular categories. Me vs the weekend. 🙂
Yesterday I got up early, bought and delivered a birthday present to a friend. Her birthday had been the day before, and I wanted to make sure I got to see her. We had a good talk, but as she was working it wasn’t the same as a real visit. I am going to try and pop over again today, as I think it would be nice.
I then tackled some indoor gardening projects. I have read online that spiders and other bugs do not like mint plants. A few weeks ago, I had bought six different mint plants, and my husband replanted them into new pots for me. I have noticed that they were drying up. I am still trying to figure out a watering schedule for them. I watered them from the top yesterday when I was finished, and just before I started writing I watered them from the bottom. I will have to do some online research. While I was working yesterday I found a green “leaf eater” bug, which my husband buried in the dirt saying that it is a leaf eater, that should be the end of it. I have my doubts. I also found an inchworm in another one, and that was successfully relocated outside on a leaf from that plant. Late last night I got him to move a ladybug back outside for me. The ants and spiders are not found as frequently inside, so that is a bonus. I am hoping it works and more bugs stay outside.
Something else was a little confusing. There is a spearmint plant amongst the varieties I bought, and around the base of the pot on the shelf that I have it on are a lot of hard, black dots. It is either droppings from a critter or the plant went to seed because it was so dry. I am not sure, the black bits are no bigger than granulated sugar pieces. They may indeed be little seeds. I may gather them up and plant them, to see what comes up!
My husband worked a few extra hours yesterday. He has been doing that on one of his days off to help with our budget. I am not going to write about my work here, at least not this week, I had a frustrating week. I am going to leave it at that, and it is also the reason I did not do any over time at my work this week. Sometimes I do. This week it just wasn’t going to happen.
After he was done, we picked up a few groceries. He made us subs for lunch and he barbequed some wieners for supper. We then headed out to spend time with some friends. He had a guys gaming night, and I watched a movie with another friend and called it a ladies night. Sometimes it is important to plan activities apart. Other times, like today, we will spend more time together. It is OK to not spend every single minute with your significant other when you have free time. It is healthy to have different friends, hobbies and activities. There is still a common ground for the things you enjoy doing together, but a little break here and there is something we all need.
For prep cooking today I am making Bangin’ Ranch Drums. It is a Trim Healthy Mama recipe. I love it, and my husband is OK with it in the rotation, but like with all of the THM recipes, he doesn’t want it all the time. We also got buns for barbequed cheeseburgers and sloppy joes. I have some THM sloppy joe mix already made in my freezer. He likes Manwich. On this, I am OK with him making his own supper. If I am to be on plan when I eat it, I will have it with salad, not on a bun. I may make some green bean fries this week too, as I do enjoy them as a side with the chicken. I am still working on everything all at once but trying to be realistic at the same time.
Today I will be continuing the cat sitting job. I also did some plant care there yesterday, they have one houseplant and it needed TLC. I don’t know about the plant boxes on the deck, though. They look like they have had a rough summer, and I am not sure if they can be rescued. I may try, just to surprise my friends when they come home. I will see how the day goes. It is very dry, there is a no fire ban here province wide. If I do work on the outdoor plants, I will have to remember to water them. If they don’t read this, it will be a nice surprise. If they do, I make no promises. It may be beyond saving.
I am a member of the Fredericton Science Fiction Society. The FSFS gets together a little less frequently than it used to, but today we are going to meet up at a local ice cream shop. My husband is a member too, and the group usually has potluck events year round. With a ban on fires, we decided it would be better to go have ice cream instead of an outdoor BBQ at a local park today. Air conditioning may or may not have been a deciding factor in this plan.
We have to do some cleaning. While I was working on my indoor gardening yesterday, my husband was trimming the lawn. He didn’t mow it yet. It is still very dry so there may not be a rush for that. He is amused that I think we should water it with the garden hose. It is turning brown. I just want it to be healthy, and not be so dry it is at risk for burning. There was a thunderstorm last night, but we need more rain to remove the risk of fires, sooner rather than later.
All in all a busy weekend, but thankfully, it has been going at a slower pace this week. It is a holiday tomorrow, and I look forward to the holiday pay that I *may have* already spent yesterday. It is OK. I will forfeit it to the budget since I went ahead and bought some extras. It’s all about compromise and doing what you can to make life enjoyable with what you have to work with. Weekends are supposed to be fun and relaxing. I think I snuck a little of each in this weekend, so it is a win for me! What did you do this weekend?
by Tish MacWebber | Aug 4, 2017 | Trust Your Gut
The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name. If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story. The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors. I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.
This week I am pleased to share another of my own stories.
Here is Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 24
Life is funny. Today when I got up I expected good news here on my blog, as I had published an introduction and my second guest blog post on another blogger’s site. I was not wrong. The day turned dark on me this afternoon, and I came home and posted on social media that I was having a hard time. Friends asked if they could help. One person sent a friend request. That person I had never chatted with before helped me turn my night around. I am not saying that I am not still having the feelings I had earlier, but just having a cry wasn’t enough, either. I had to do something different.
I have been using this blog to help myself and to try to help others. Whether it is to share a laugh, or tips, or explore my inner thoughts and demons, I have a purpose here. It has grown since its beginnings under a different name until I was challenged to rethink things and make it better. I like to write, that is obvious, and I have rediscovered my passion for writing since I started this adventure last November. I am working hard at it, to set and keep deadlines, and practice my writing skills. I am proud of what I have done so far.
I am working on myself too. On a day like today, there were too many emotions to keep under the cork. The cork popped, and my tears flowed. I was sitting here unashamedly crying my beautiful blue eyes out, trying to understand why I wasn’t good enough for something else I wanted to do. I am working on a lot of me and there is a lot of me to work on. I am trying to find my gumption every day, not every other week. I am trying to maintain the cleaning I have done thus far in my home, and improve on it. I am doing well with the Blog writing, but not so well in the book writing. I am busy socially, both online and in real life. I am going to Zumba when I can. I do some prep cooking, but admittedly not enough. As I am often told, sometimes I am too hard on myself. The truth is, and I think I have shared this before, I don’t know how to be any other way.
I have issues with self-esteem. I often feel like I am good, but not good enough. This is part of what happened to me today. When I am rejected, it is like I am taking a kick in the teeth. I try not to let things show all the time, but there are days like today that I am frustrated, and my only way to get it out is through my tears. I try really hard to not speak out impulsively in anger. I lost that one today, on both fronts. I really feel like I am being treated unfairly, with a few different things that are happening in my life. All of these things added up, and in time, they have to be let out. Some people yell. Some people become quiet. Some people hide. People like me, well we cry and eat. Trying to fill the hole caused by whatever triggered the feelings. I am trying to change that.
The new friend I made today said to write a gratitude list. Write down five things that I have gratitude about in my life. In a private message, she also invited me to write down 3 things that are causing me to have my issues I posted about. I did. I shared what was going on with a few close friends. My new friend agreed with me that I had a reason to be upset. I didn’t need the validation, but there it was. Without telling this person everything that was setting me off today, they still saw that there is a lot going on for one person to deal with. Keeping those three things inside was a part of what made it so hard for me to cope today.
I need to make some changes. I can’t fix every problem that I am facing right now, but I am trying to work on the ones I can. Tomorrow is a new day. I will try to face it with my best foot forward, but right now, I am feeling a little nervous about that. People that know me know that I am not good at hiding how I feel. It’s going to be a bad day tomorrow because what happened today was bad news for me, and it will be good news for some other people tomorrow. That is going to be hard to swallow. Considering I would rather avoid it all and just make poor choices for what to eat and drink avoid real life tomorrow. I am going to end with my gratitude list. It didn’t fix my problems, but at least it got me thinking about something else. For a little while.
1. Discovering my passion for writing and realizing it is what I am meant to do.
2.My husband is my rock and my hero.
3. The joy I get from working on my blog and watching it grow.
4.My stubbornness.
5. Friends and family.
6. My blue eyes.
7. My sense of humour.
After I calmed down a bit, my final entry to the list for the day was:
8. I still have my teeth. Nobody actually managed to kick any out yet.
My new friend was right. It’s all about perspective.
#TrustYourGut.
by Tish MacWebber | Jul 30, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Oh my goodness! I am busy, busy, busy this weekend! It is great to have things to do, but again there are too many choices to do EVERYTHING I want to do. As a result, I have been able to do some things, and I will write about that.
Friday night right after work I had to get groceries for the house and a party I was invited to on Saturday. There was a potluck, and I like cooking. My friend was having a party at her house, and so the first thing on my to do list Saturday morning was to get the chocolate macaroons aka frogs aka mud pies aka haystacks made and in the fridge to set. I have finally mastered making them with cashew milk. At least I hope it wasn’t a fluke. I also used butter, white and brown sugar, vanilla, cocoa, oats and unsweetened coconut. Other times I have made double batches, and they never set properly. They stayed gooey and had to be licked off the wax paper as they wouldn’t come off cleanly. Still delicious, but messy. Sometimes I goof up on the timing and end up making chocolate granola. But the ones I made yesterday had that perfect consistency, they were slightly granular, just past the gooey stage, but not dry or crumbly. I am quite proud that they turned out so well.
As soon as I had them in the fridge I took the chicken I was marinating in Kraft Greek Feta and Oregano dressing. Yes, I was going to be at a BBQ, but I wanted MY prep work to be as close to finished as possible. I then popped to the store for a last minute beverage run. I had bought myself some rum and key limes but needed the mix. I got some Zevia Cola to mix, and some Gatorade G2. (That is my anti-hangover trick these days, and it seems to work really well!) I needed more coffee, so I decided to grab two of my favourites, Folgers Black Silk and Kahlua flavoured coffee. I tried the Folgers Intensely Dark, as it comes in the larger boxes, but it doesn’t compare to the Black Silk. So I had to buy 2 smaller boxes, at least they were on sale.
Rushed home to keep cooking. I made the biggest batch of Greek Pasta salad I have ever made, as the hubby was wanting some for home too. That was to go with the chicken that was in the oven. While I was boiling the pasta, I picked up small pasta shells on Friday night, I started cooking the ground beef to prep for the hot nacho sauce. It is hot off the stove hot, not spicy hot, and goes so well with nacho chips. This recipe can be made with soy ground meat replacement for vegetarians. I packed the rest of the ingredients, and the pot to cook it in. At this point, my host was starting to get ready to pick me and another friend up to go to the party. That was AMAZING! I had enough time to get everything done and packed before he was here.
We had a wonderful time. We had food, snacks, drinks, music blasting, we played Backyard Yahtzee and had a BBQ. I am a little sore from the 2.5 games of Backyard Yahtzee.
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Action shot!
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I got Yahtzee!
We did have to call interference a few times. My friends have dogs, and one of them would steal a wooden die every so often. We’d get it back, and allow re-rolls if needed.
When it was time for cake, we surprised the birthday girl with a minions ice cream cake. She didn’t even know we snuck it in earlier at the start of the party. She got some presents, and cards, and it was a nice time. For those of us that stayed after dark, our host made a nice fire in the back yard fire pit. We gathered around it and just enjoyed the quiet, watching the flames and the fireflies.
Today started off with a little slower pace. I went to an afternoon matinee with a friend. I am now finishing this story, in the company of another blogger, we are visiting and writing at the same time. I am going to be visiting another friend after supper. In the meantime, there are dishes and laundry to be caught up on. This has been another busy weekend, and from where I sit now, I think I won this round! What did you do this weekend?
by Tish MacWebber | Jul 27, 2017 | Trust Your Gut
The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name. If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story. The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors. I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.
This week I am pleased to share another of my own stories.
Here is Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 23
I really didn’t know if I was going to be able to write this on time this week. I am fighting another migraine. It started yesterday and hung on for the day today. I am really hoping I can shake it off before the weekend. ( I love that song!) The last time I had a migraine the diagnosis was a sinus infection. I am really hoping that it is not the same this time because I just want to feel healthy and well, not to have to take more antibiotics.
As I write I have done what I can and have taken what I can take. I will be taking another migraine pill before bed, which will likely be shortly after I publish this story tonight.
I left work a little early, which I signed up to do since I am not feeling so good. I try to work my regular shifts and even do a little overtime when it is offered, so if I am looking to leave early, it is usually because I don’t feel well or there is something going on that I need to leave early for. If I have company, for example. That happened a few times this month. I think today was the 5th time of the year that I left early. Some people sign the paper to go home every day. I can’t afford to go home early all of the time, but if it is necessary, then I make a decision to do it.
I have tried to stay on plan for the early part of the week, but when I am not feeling good, the lazy way wins. I did not eat well for some of the meals I had this week. Today was one of those days that I went off plan for supper.
If you haven’t heard of the phenomenon that is called “Chase The Ace” then you are missing out on something fun. It is a lottery, so if you don’t gamble, it is not for you. It does usually get run by a charity though, so if you wanted to donate the winnings back to the charity, that would be an option that you could still play if you don’t accept the prize for yourself.
There are a few of these events going on in the city, and all over the Maritimes. You purchase tickets, and there is a growing jackpot. There is a weekly prize amount, based on the number of tickets sold. A certain percentage goes to the charity, and a certain amount is the jackpot. The weekly prize is what you win if you don’t pick the Ace of Spades out of the remaining cards in the deck every week.
So if your ticket is drawn, you get to pick a card from the table. If you pick the Ace of Spades, you win the jackpot. If you pick any other card, you win the weekly prize. This week someone else picked another card, so next week we get to try again to “Chase the Ace.” The charity that is running the event that I go to is three local SPCA shelters and another animal rescue. I am a person who loves animals, so I like going when I get the chance.
I took my migraine medicine and had a nap when I got home today. I woke up in time to go to the Chase The Ace at Houlie’s Hometown Pub. The food there is excellent. I wasn’t feeling great, but I said to my husband, “Even zombies have to eat, ” and we decided to go. He only has every third Thursday off, and we have gone a few other times.
I REALLY enjoy the Mozza sticks there. In fact, I don’t even want to share them, they are that good. I have had the nachos and a pulled pork wrap with sweet potato fries there before. I have heard that the seafood chowder is amazing, and I wanted to try it tonight, but I will have to wait for another time, as it was sold out. I opted to try the fish and chips and had sweet potato fries instead of traditional fries. Sweet potato fries are on plan, so I sort of did OK. (I tried. I don’t feel good. Eating with a migraine is a gamble in itself).
I have been watching MasterChef again. I tapped the batter with my fork, and it sounded like it did when Gordon Ramsay did it on TV. I cut into the first piece of fish, and just like on MasterChef, the fish was flaky and glistening. It was really tasty, too. I was eating my supper, and a thought occurred to me. Pepere, my grandfather on my mother’s side, always said something when we were having a meal with fish. He would always say, “Fish for brains!” My hope is that the fish will help my brains feel better and lose the migraine. It also can be loosely thought to reflect the zombie comment I had earlier said about going out for supper.
We didn’t have a jackpot winner this week so the chasing will continue at least for one more week. The jackpot was around $4,800.00 tonight and will be higher next week. I did get to see some friends and support a charity tonight. I also had a delicious meal, and now I have a full belly to fuel me to start feeling better and work harder tomorrow. Something was telling me to eat fish at supper tonight. So even if it was off plan, it was a choice I made and I think it was the right one.
#TrustYourGut.
by Tish MacWebber | Jul 25, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Please accept my apologies for posting this on a Monday. (Which is now Tuesday). I was literally too tired to finish it before I went to bed last night. The weekend was THAT busy and took ALL of my energy by the end of it. I started writing it yesterday morning and will leave it in its original format.
I am in the middle of a busy weekend again! I find that it happens a lot in the summer. The sun is out, and people want to do more things together. Family and friends gather around, yard sale season happens, and there is always something going on somewhere. Usually too much to be able to participate in all that you want to do.
Back in April, we took a road trip to visit Nanny Webber in Nova Scotia. Yesterday was her 109th birthday, and we went back on a day trip to visit and have some birthday cake. We got there and she was very happy that we made it. We didn’t commit because sometimes things happen, and just in case we couldn’t go, we didn’t want to make a promise that we couldn’t keep. I am happy to say that she was surprised to see us step through the crowd of people. In fact, I would say she was delighted.
She and Roy’s father were happy to see us, but a little sad that it was just a day trip, and that we would be making the drive home the same day. She told me that she kept asking her son, Roy’s dad if we were going to make it. He didn’t know. She said she kept asking him because she knew that if Roy made the trip, that I would go with him. What a nice thing to say. Nanny Webber really is a special lady, and I like spending time with her.
I had made her a bracelet, for her birthday. I made it too big for her wrist, but because I made it, I packed what I needed to fix it if I had to. I asked her what colour to take out, and with a few minutes and 2 tries, I got it to fit better.
On the way back from the party to her place, we had a car full of party food, gifts, cards, and balloons. I took a few selfies of me in the car with the balloons. I mean, when I looked into the back seat, all I saw was balloons! It was just screaming selfie!
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109 Birthday Balloons
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109 Birthday Balloon Selfie
We went back to her place and made a visit. We had a plate of sandwiches and sweets. Then we got her to open her gift. What do you give someone for their 109th birthday? Well, along with the custom made bracelet, we found a little crystal flower and vase decorative suncatcher in pink and green. We also got her a piece of decorative art, themed with things grandma says. She read some of it, as the words went in different directions within the frame.
Then it was time to go. She said she had a good day, and I think she was a little tired but didn’t want to tell us. So we said our goodbyes and went to our next stop.
We had a 4 to 5 hour drive in each direction. We planned to have supper with a friend on the way home, to break up the drive. We had a nice visit and then got back on the road. It was 1 am on Sunday by the time we got home.
We set the alarm and went to bed. By 1 pm, we had divided to get some groceries and to start laundry, got a chicken in the slow cooker, put away the groceries, and started the dishwasher. We were off and running to go see Spiderman Homecoming with friends. I enjoyed the movie, it was fun.
After the movie, we rushed home to get the house ready for company. We were expecting guests and they were staying overnight. We finished up after they arrived, and had a filling chicken supper. We had strawberry shortcake for dessert and a visit before making up the bed for the guests. I did not stay up much later than my company last night. It was a full and busy weekend.
What did you do this weekend? Were you a Warrior like me, running here there and everywhere?
