May 19th Weekly Post

 Hello again!

It has been a while since I've posted. In my defense, I guess I needed the break and I didn't realize it's been almost 4 weeks! They say it takes 21 days to create a new habit, which I may have done. I will confess I forced myself to create this post, lol. 

I hope everyone who celebrated had a good Mother's Day. I used the Artist Postcard I made for Sunday Postcard Art a few weeks back to make this card for my 96 y.o. mother-in-law. We took it to her, along with a pretty flowery plant and some chocolates. Had a great visit and she loved her pressies.

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I received another orchid for my Mother's Day. This is the third one Dear Daughter has given me. I'd told her last year I wanted multiple plants, so now I have 3 and I'm good for now. Love my sweet girl!

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Since I last posted, I've been deep into trying to eat 90 grams or more of protein every day. I'm now old enough that I need to eat more of it because old farts can lose half their muscle mass and this is the only way to keep or regain some. If you have ever tried to do this, you know that it's pretty hard to do without ingesting 4,000 calories a day or spending a fortune on protein drinks or powders. It's taken a lot of my spare time to research and source items when we aren't working on the new house. But for 6 weeks now I've been drinking an Ensure Max Protein drink (Cafe' Mocha flavor) within the first 30 minutes after waking up. And I definitely feel a positive difference in multiple ways. Some days I can go for 3 hours before remembering to fix a cup of coffee!

So here are a few protein bowl meals I made and eaten that I remembered to snap.

This one adds onto a regular meal. I think this was 23 grams. I had to also eat a string cheese to get up to 30 grams.

Next up, this one gave me 36 grams protein.

This meal is about 35 grams of protein.

And this salad with egg, ham and grated cheese hits at exactly 30 grams.

As you can see, I sometimes have to combine foods I might not think go together, lol.

My weirdest yet was a snack of cottage cheese as a dip for buffalo protein chips, but it tasted pretty good!

I also plan to experiment adding protein-inclusive powders to my bread maker recipes. This one is a faux sourdough loaf I made using my last yeast packet right before packing the machine up to move it. (I'd already cut off the rounded top and sliced a few slices, then thought oh I better take a photo lol.) It was delicious, I ate every slice myself (ok, Honey was able to grab a few haha). But making more will have to wait a few months until we get completely moved.

Anyway, I'm also doing weight-bearing exercises so that the added protein doesn't go to waste in my body. Combined with climbing up and down stairs every day, I'm getting a good workout. At first I was exhausted, but with the protein and extra workout, it has very much helped my stamina and as a bonus I am continuing to lose weight. Right now, we are retrofitting the kitchen pantry and a few other closets. The wire racks that are in the pantry are not nearly enough storage space, so we are adding wood shelving. We are also making some adjustments to our master bedroom closet. This is all in addition to moving boxes and large items from old house to new. It seems like an endless task right now. And this will be the same thing I will be doing in a month or two, so I thought I'd update so far, but the scenery won't be changing really until the Fall.

I know some of you are thinking, what is the hold up? Why aren't you moved yet? And please let me say this with love: you have no idea how much stuff we have to move or what it feels like to live in our bodies, so please don't be worried about it, we aren't. We'll get there. I did warn you it would be several months and trust me, no need to keep asking if we are done yet, I will for sure announce it!

I apologize in advance if I sound rude. I do not mean it to be, it's just that I'm getting a bit tired of folks in real life and online thinking I need to be done with moving.

That's all.

✌💗💪

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I'll end this post by sharing a card I made a girlfriend who is a fellow coffee lover.

The coffee pot and cup, as well as the Java sentiment die are Stamplorations. The patterned paper is Echo Park. The Happy Birthday die is HunkyDory. The balloon dies are various brands. I colored the pot and cup with Promarkers.

And the sketch I used.

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Hopefully, I'll be successful in posting more often from now on.

I will definitely be posting on May 31st, as that's my next time to guest host at Sunday Postcard Art.

Until next time,

XXXO