My absence from the blog has been one of uncertainty.  In the past year so many different ideas have flooded my mind but I am hoping that this new year will bring me back again to share what I have learned and am still learning from everyday life.  To be healthier.

My last few years have been physically challenging for me as I have had so many surgeries and  had to adjust to the consequences of them.  The afterlife of learning to live without normal body functions, etc.  It's an adjustment.

My main focus has been my eating habits after coming off  colonoscopy.  So many changes in the way my body handles food and which ones I can eat and which ones I have to skip.  I find that eating out is a terrible experience for me for the most part.  The menus are filled with unhealthy food and so I try to find the least damaging to my system and how it works now.

And so to keep this somewhat short, I would like to share some of the healthy food choices I've discovered and find so delicious.

When it comes to smoothies, I love them, but it seems I never have what it takes to make them.  If I buy fresh fruit it sometimes sits and spoils before I use it and the same with vegetables.  For the most part I buy all frozen now as I can just heat them up or throw them in my Vita Mix.

Here is one I made the other morning.  I had not gotten up till 10:30 am and was like "Wow!"  There was so much I wanted to do this day and half of it was already gone.  I wanted to deep clean my bathroom. wiping down everything in site and I knew by the time I got showered, dressed and made my bed, dishes etc. it was going to be a job.  I needed to eat before I started so I made my usual morning breakfast which I literally need to do.  I normally make oatmeal by using 1/4 cup oatmeal and then I add dried cherries, dried cranberries, walnuts or almonds, flax seeds (tbls) and cinnamon.  But as I was making it I was thinking about the time I was eating up and would have to sit and eat it, and then I decided to throw it in my Vita Mix with a cup or  more of Almond Milk. ( I no longer drink regular milk, unless it's lactose free).  It was a warm drink but very tasty.  I think it would be a better drink if it was ice cold.  It would be a great breakfast drink to have on the way to work and be healthy and hold you till lunch.  I don't add sugar because the cranberries and cherries add sweetness to it, but one could add honey if they needed that extra sweetness.

Hope you will give it a try.  I should have taken a picture of it, but I will do that next time.

This is my idea for 2017.  Leave the old behind, find new ways to solve food problems that are healthy for anyone, not just me and share them with you.

Here is my list of ingredients for  my smoothie.

1/4 cup oatmeal, reg or instant, no matter
handful of cranberries or cherries or both.  ( any fruit you like would work)
handful of almonds or walnuts chopped
1 tsp of flax seed (optional)
cinnamon
Almond milk

Hope if you are looking for things like this you will give it a try and let me know what you think.

Here's to a healthy, happy New Year for everyone.

Here it is, March and I have not posted.  It is very obvious to me that  blogging is not my thing.  I wish it were, but if it were I would be posting and I'm not.

I think I have a lot to offer to people when it comes to life's troubles as I've experienced just about all of them in my 68 years of life.  I believe I should share only if someone is in need and not push my opinions and beliefs on others.  I have learned many lessons.

In the last few years I have had so much to deal with that I have taken the time to mentally meditate and sort through the "stuff" that weighed me down.  Why am I not sociable?  Where has my sense of humor gone?  Why can't I find it?, Will I ever find an avenue of making some extra money to get me through the rest of my life?.  So many questions.  I have learned through meditation that the only thing I need to do at any given moment is address the current "now" situation I find myself in.  And I find that at just about every given moment I am happy.  I have shed the worry and of all my questions and given them up to faith.  Faith that some higher power will protect me, will provide what I need and see me through the ever changing world around me.  And it has worked.

I am finding myself coming out of my shell that I put myself in as members of my family and friends have passed on to another realm.  The hurts, the pains, the grieving was all too much and I silently and unconsciously or consciously tucked myself away.  The only people I was in touch with were my family and a few and I mean just a few close friends.  And they were scarce.  I seemed to ignore a lot of people because I could see turmoil in their lives and I had had enough of my own to want to be near or around or in theirs.  But, at the same time, I was an observer.

I watched how other people dealt with their issues, I watched as love seemed to carry them through, I watched as others were struggling with human stress or not.  I offered opinions when I thought I could help, realizing that they have to decide for themselves if the opinion is helpful, and not up to me.  I shed myself of everyone else's life and concentrated on my own.  It is good.  I am blessed by what I have and the family I have helped to raise.  They are all good people and contributing to make the world just a little better and a lot nicer.  I consider this my biggest accomplishment in life.

One area of my life that has made the biggest change is my line dancing.  Even though I have been line dancing nearly 4 or 5 years, (not counting) I barely know anyone there.  Sure I know their faces and a lot of names and see them every week, but have made little to no effort to really befriend them. This is now changing.  It is changing because I have spent the years watching their interaction, and their dancing, but mostly how they treat one another.  They are probably the nicest group of people I have ever encountered.  I see them hug each other each week as they greet one another.  I have never in the years heard an argument or seen a negative reaction to anything in the environment around them.  They are not just kind, but generous of spirit, always willing to help one another learn.  I am proud to be a part of this group.  I will stay with them as long as my legs will hold me up.

So this is my  current state of affairs.  I am happy, I am loved, I am full of hope that my life will continue to grow and provide me with what I need.

Tomorrow is Easter.  A new beginning for all of us.  I am wishing you all a Happy Easter spent with the ones you love.  Rejoice.  The world is anew.

2016 is a new year and so I hope to come back to blogging.  So many things in life seem to get in the way and it takes so much time to work them out in my mind that I put off things that are always plaguing me to do.  Like art, and figuring out how to get my pictures from my Samsung into my Mac computer.  They do not sync automatically, and I need to figure things like this out so I can continue this blog.  It is a priority on my list of things to do this year.

Also, I hope to open and sell some items on EBay.  I have an account but have no clue how to upload and put items for sale.

Hopefully, this year is going to bring me a business in selling the furniture I have been refreshing.  I have several pieces here at the house to do and am running out of room.  I can't post pictures yet as like I said I have been unable to figure out how to get them here but soon.  Hopefully this week and maybe even tomorrow.

Since I was up all last night except for one hour,  and it is late right now, I will cut this short and get some much needed sleep so I can "get things done" in the morning.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to actually read this.  I've been away a long time but I feel I have a lot to offer coming up.

Here it is a year plus ago and I have been trying to find my niche in this world.  Here I was given this coffee table by a friend.  She knew I was looking for one and her Mom passed away.  I really didn't like the dated look of it so I transformed it by using paint.  It really is just white paint put on and then rubbed off to expose the wood underneath.  I did sand off all the old finish first.    

There are several more projects that I have done but cannot seem to get the pictures from my phone into this computer.  I will try to update as I learn how to do this.

Well Spring has finally sprung here and my birdhouses are done although I have no place currently to hang one of them.  So, the renovated house I mounted on a copper pipe I had in my garage and stuck it in the ground.  I will have to cement it in soon before the birdies decide whether to live in it.  Was testing to see.

In trying to figure out how to mount the birdhouse I decided to go to the hardware store and purchase a flange to screw into the bottom and would fit my pipe.  I couldn't get over the price of the flange being galvanized at $9. 69. plus an adapter for depth.  It was too expensive so I decided to brainstorm something else that would work and be free.  I took two blocks of wood (scraps), cut them square and drilled a hole through the center to be the same size as my pipe to have a very tight fit and not wiggle.  Then I attached each one to the bottom of the birdhouse and voila, it was about an inch or more deep and worked just find.  Here are some pictures.  The flanges I'm taking back to the store.

Now, as for the other birdhouse, I am trying to figure out where to hang it as I have no trees in my yard.  Probably will go on my garage off a hanger but haven't decided yet.  Here are a couple of pictures of it.  I did put in a real glass picture window in the back of it.  Hope they will nest in it regardless and enjoy their upscale home.

Another project I decided to do on Mother's day was to make these cute hummingbird perches.  I saw them in a Birds and Blooms Magazine a while back and remembered them.  So easy.  I only see a couple of them a year here but am hoping I can attract more.  This gives them a place to rest near a feeder if it should ever become crowded.  Ha.  I can only hope.

Wishing all your creative endeavors turn out the way you like.  Thanks for stopping by.