Colorful Florida

Love, love the colors!

Purty little hog

Crafting with Paper

I've had a long time relationship with paper.  Before we moved into our rig I was making cards.  I belonged to many websites and even sold supplies to feed my own addiction.  After all this time, I still love the paper from Club Scrap

Here are some cards I've made this past week.

We're still plodding along with coolers.  Even bought an Igloo!  The cooler that Sonsearae lent us leaked and we got tired of wet towels.  Chris had a huge chest of ice delivered Tuesday and another Friday.  Immediate use items are inside and long term stuff is outside. Daily we empty water and refill the inside cooler with ice.  Gets old after awhile.  I'm not cooking much because we want to keep leftovers at a minimum.  Today I fixed portobello mushrooms, mashed potatoes and gravy along with some peas for our dinner.  The leftovers will be my breakfast tomorrow!

Jim had his last visit with the foot doctor this past Friday but he's been in pain most of the weekend.  Not sure what he'll do about it.  Needless to say we're not walking much.

Sonsearae and Chris left yesterday for some Disney time.  Just us old folks on the homestead...  

What are you reading?

I've been reading the Marshall Series by Elizabeth Chadwick.  Currently,  For the Kings Favor.  King Richard has just been ransomed and he's at Nottingham engaged in taking the castle.  Prince John has gone to France.

If this sounds familiar it is the era of Robin Hood!  I like reading historical novels and the kings and queens of England are favorites of mine.  In the past I've read some of Philappa Gregory (thought not all!).  Court life is filled with intrigue along with love and politics!

I'm still wading through magazines, apparently a 6 month backlog as the one I just read was dated November 2014.  Check out my Library Page by clicking here to see a list of what I've read so far this year.

So, what are you reading?  What books entertain you?

We are plodding through medical appointments, all three of us!  Boo is doing well except he has a knee that's beginning to go bad, just something to keep an eye on but he is taking glucosomine now.  I guess it's official, he's getting old too!

Jim and I have appointments coming up in the next couple of weeks, so we won't be heading out for awhile.  We also have to wait on the refrigerator repair.

How was your Weekend?

On Saturday I noticed a funky smell...even though it's spring time I thought for sure some critter had died somewhere in the rig.  At first Jim didn't smell anything.  To his credit he did look in a compartment, just in case.

I kept sniffing and looking but didn't find anything.  Later when I went to get ice....we knew what the smell was and where it was coming from.  The Freezer was defrosting!  I went next door and got a big hard sided cooler from Sonsearae and Chris and loaded it up with the freezer contents and then schlepped them over and put the goodies in their chest freezer.  I left all the bottled stuff in the refrigerator knowing we'd be getting ice on Sunday.   I did put some freezer packs in there to keep everything cool.  Just like camping!  I put our coffee creamers, milk and eggs in the beer cooler.  It's full of beer and that filled it right up.

Why do 'disasters' of this nature happen on the weekend?  And it's a holiday weekend too!  A friend, who shall remain nameless,  said we could use the contents of the fridge for our Easter dinner!

Sunday morning I emptied their freezer of all their cubed ice and packed two coolers with the items from the refrigerator.  We have way to much stuff!  Pickles, olives and condiments galore!  Using the ice and freezer packs everything it good for now.  While out Sunday we brought home two bags of ice.

Speaking of Sunday, how was your Easter?  I hope your day was everything you wanted it to be.  We went into Stuart and walked the boardwalk.  Jim surprised me with a wonderful dinner at the Sailor's Return.  We walk by it every time we visit the marina.  Of course it being Easter they had a special menu and we both indulged.  Jim had chicken cordon bleu Kiev with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus and green beans.  I ordered crab cakes with the same potatoes and veggies.  Amazing!  We both had a draft beer with our meal.  After we stuffed ourselves we decided to take some home with us.  Jim ordered another beer, a dessert called Chocolate Indulgence and I imbibed with a Grand Marnier.

Once home Jim napped and I snoozed on the lounger.  To much good food and alcohol.  We had stuffed celery for our dinner, peanut butter for Jim and vegan cream cheese for me.

The owls continue to entertain me.  Daily I see the owlet with an adult.  Sometimes I see another adult over in another tree.  The grackles have nests in the yard and harass the owls.  I can tell by their noise that the owls are nearby!


Today we started the task of organizing the coolers and cleaning the fridge.  As long as it's empty a good cleaning is called for.  Sonsearae donated a shelf in her refrigerator and those items we don't need on a daily basis are over there.  We've kept their hard sided cooler for our everyday items.

Needless to say I didn't cook much today!  We had our leftovers and again they were tasty

Mostly a lazy day at home

Upon arising this morning I was pleased to see a couple of owls in one of the pine trees.  As I looked closer I could see one was an owlet!  It looked like mom or dad was grooming the fluffy younger owl.

I watched for a long time and took several pictures.  Thank goodness the sun was lighting them or I'd never have gotten a shot.

Although we've all watched for them, the owls have been off nesting somewhere.  We rarely saw them and never heard them close by.  I hope this is the first of many sightings!

They've hung around most of the day but I haven't seen the adult in the last hour or so.

I did some laundry and Jim cleaned the coffee pot with vinegar.  How exciting is this?  Ate our minestrone soup for lunch and dinner will be leftovers.

Calming Foot Powder

Today has been a work day.  Jim did some chores outside while I stripped the bed and did laundry.  Made a Chickpea Avocado Salad for lunch that turned out well.  I  tweaked it by adding tomatoes and yellow peppers.

Also made a minestrone soup for our dinner.  After all the eating out we've done lately it was nice fixing these simple meals for us to eat.

We both spent some time reading this afternoon and after dinner I went for a walk.


Calming Foot Powder

Ingredients
1/4 cup arrowroot powder 
1/4 cup cornstarch 
10 drops lavender essential oil 
5 drops sandalwood essential oil 
5 drops clary sage essential oil 

Directions

Combine cornstarch and arrowroot in a bowl and add essential oils by evenly dropping the oils around the dry mix. Shake, mix or stir with a fork and add finished powder to a shaker to use for feet. 

Special Tip: If you have a flour sifter, use to further distribute the essential oils into the powder and to prevent any clumping.


Benefits
Relaxing

Off On An Adventure Today

Sonsearae, our 'social director' has declared today the day we venture south to Delray Beach.  The birthday lady, Sierra, is visiting and we're the entertainment!  Not really and who needs an excuse to explore?  Certainly not Jim and I!

It should be a good day for traipsing around funky shops and seeing the ocean.  I'm taking my camera and hope to get some pictures to share with you.  So check back to see what kind of mischief we get into...

We stopped in the Cabana Restaurant for lunch, a little Cuban, Spanish, Caribbean menu.  Sierra, Sonsearae and Jim decided to eat from the buffet so they could sample several tasty tidbits.  I opted for a salad that included black beans, hearts of palm, bell peppers and a yummy dressing.  We also had a pitcher of Sangria Cava, perfect for dining outside.

After lunch we strolled down one side and up the other side of the street.  It's a pretty colorful area and we'll have to go back and explore some more

Then it was time to head to the beach...except we couldn't find any place to park in Delray Beach.  We decided to drive up A1A and found a county park at Boynton Beach.

The weather was perfect and a lot of folks were enjoying the surf and sand

I think Jim loved posing with two lovelies!

Peppermint Lip Balm

We've been staying busy with doctor visits and walking.  It's interesting to note that while I've always enjoyed walking (still do) we didn't walk together because Jim had issues with his feet.  As it was painful for him to walk, we didn't actually 'walk' or 'hike' often.

One of the things he needs to do (since his procedure) is walk everyday and since he got his new Fitbit he's been upping his mileage and getting his heartbeat up, almost every day.  On the days his feet hurt, not so much walking is being done.  He's doing great!

Last month we both did a 100,000 step challenge and we both made that goal.  But some days it was difficult for us to keep up the pace.  Hopefully we can continue 'upping' our stats!

Apparently now it's my turn to have problems.  My right hip is starting to bother me and while at the VA yesterday they took a couple xrays to get an idea of what's going on.  I can walk but not as fast as I'd like.  So Jim and I are still not walking together much as I tend to slow him down!

I have a couple appointments this month for tests at the VA and Jim has another visit with the foot doctor and he needs to visit his cardiologist again before we can even think about traveling

Today I made some Lip Balm!  I can't believe how easy it is.  Making my own products has been on my wish list for a long time.  It's just a matter of gathering the supplies and doing it.  I'll bet it didn't take 15 minutes start to finish to make these.  The ingredients are few, Sunflower oil, cocoa butter, beeswax, essential oil and a few drops of vitamin E oil.

I think the hard part will be making labels for them!