Oh My Gosh.....Blogspot Changed It's Format

 Hi there everyone. Been awhile since I have been here.....and would you know it....Blogspot changed!!! A whole new learning curve. Come on now....why change something that was not even broken????? I would like to know that answer.

Not much has been going on around here. The street is still being worked on. The original letter from the city said August 24th, the streets, sidewalks, driveway and curbs would be done. (lies). The streets started getting torn up July 6th. At one point we could not get out of our driveway for 20 days!!! Not kidding! Was a good thing I had enough food and such. Towards the end though, toilet paper, paper towels, butter, and a few other things were gone!! And again, the original letter said we would get a notice when to move our cars to the side street. I NEVER saw such notice. I am about to scream at Appleton!!! In this time with the pandemic and everything else going on....don't need this aggravation also!!!

So today.....the street was being leveled out and I thought....maybe I better move the car. So now the car is parked on the side street....and guess what, the workers are gone, maybe I could have left the car in my driveway????? I don't know, just do not want to take that chance again. I have a Doctor's appointment Friday and if I cannot get out of the driveway because of road work, I will miss my appointment.

My Doctor of 33 years retired in July (sigh). So Friday I will be going to a NEW Doctor. JP's prostrate Doctor is retiring in December. His next appointment is not till next June. But JP will have one of the other Doctors in that office to take care of him. 

Another dilemma we face is, I have to find a new accountant, the one we had for 33 years...he was very good, but for the last 10 years or so, we were having to pay $200 to have our taxes done. But then it was affordable, we had the income. But now that is out of our budget, as finances have changed quite a bit.

JP retired from work June 3rd. He is now 73 yrs old. So no income from Jack's. Plus no extra cleaning on the side anymore. Taxes were not taken out and we ended up having to pay the Government $383+$200 for the accountant. Nope, not in the budget anymore. I have been told we can get our taxes done for FREE. Have to find out where that is pretty soon.

In the midst of all this stuff, JP deals with a lot of health issues, one being his prostrate, but now the appointments are 1 year apart....which is good. 

JP went to the foot Doctor last month and this month. He has a big, ugly, painful callous on his right foot. The Doctor scraped it and put some acid on it. But JP still takes baby steps and shuffles around like and old man. Doctor said we need to get some new inserts for his shoes. OR go to a Pedorthist and get fitted with molded inserts which is not covered by our insurance and would have to come out of our pocket $350. One half for the first visit and the rest on the second visit. Guess that is out of the question for now. 

Doctor felt sorry for us because we went to "Good Feet" for their inserts, for both JP and I the cost was $1800.00, He also got a new pair of shoes for $200+. I am still paying on that money making scam....the inserts never worked for JP. and the shoes are worn out and the heel worn down.

JP has a few other ailments, a hernia, needs some dental work and gets arm pains (10 to 20 a day). People think he is having a heart attack and are ready to call 911. But he just walks it off, praying and chanting words over and over.

And yes, we pray constantly, God sees the need....maybe one day these trials, tribulations and frustrations will all end, in His time.

Well I better close here, cause I am probably wearing you out with my tales of woe. One person asked me recently, "How are you doing today" I said, "oh fine. Actually I am not fine. But we have been taught to say, "oh everything is fine, whether it is or not". 

No one wants to hear problems, cause they have their own problems to deal with. I have heard it said, if we throw all our problems in a circle and are told to pick out a new problem, we would again go and pick up our old problems, because we know how to deal with them. Maybe new problems of someone else's would throw us for a loop and we would not know how to deal with them. Do you suppose???

So you all take care and keep looking up, better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Are You Wondering?.......Valentine Tree and Cards

Hi there everyone. Well, you are probably wondering why my post title says "are you wondering?" Yes, I would like to say I am sorry....for I am sure you are wondering why I am not commenting on your blog....I really want to, but blogspot is not allowing me to, and I am very upset about this. I love commenting, just as I love receiving a comment, even if it is just to say hello. I have tried going anonymous, that does not work, (my comment vanishes) then I try the URL and that does not work. (again, my comment vanishes.) I don't know how or what to do. One day I tried emailing one of my blogger friends and that did not work....I clicked and clicked to no avail. Finally I gave up.

I have searched through BlogSpot to see if I could find a setting that needs to be changed and I have not yet found the problem....it sure is frustrating to me. So I just wanted you to know, I do read your blogs....most everyone you see along side my post...I visit most every day. Please don't give up on me, just cause you don't see my comment....I am here, reading your blog....but sometimes I just can't comment.

I do have another blog, on Word Press....but no one knows I am there....Word Press is so complicated to me.....I don't know.........guess it is time for a change of some sort, or just go back to Word Press and scrabble my mind some more. In the mean time, here are some more pictures.

Below is my Valentine Tree....hard to tell the lights are a glowing. I think I will leave the tree up most of February and take it down March 1st. Sounds like a plan.

So here are a few cards I made for my Etsy store. The shoe pictures are actually napkins, using the first layer and gluing it on some card stock then letting it dry. These two cards will be $3 a piece, so $6.00 + shipping ($9.50). I am looking around for St. Patrick napkins, as soon as I find them....they will become cards also.


Blue Apron meal....here is their site. "Chicken & Udon Noodle Soup with Napa Cabbage & Dried Lime" This was a really good soup and easy to put together. The use of the dried lime was unique....but I did not see a difference. I would give this soup 4 stars.

So yesterday (Sunday), I was in a cooking mood. Pretty cold outside, so I think I was making comfort food inside. Baked potatoes, 500degree beef roast and carrots. I also made a baked sweet potato and mashed it with butter, milk, salt and pepper. YUM, I have not been much of a fan of the lowly sweet potato...but that is slowly changing for me. Sweet potatoes make a good pie too.

So, now....we get to have roast beef sandwiches for the week. I have put some sliced meat in the freezer for another meal or two or for Italian beef sandwiches for a later date.

In this picture is Banana Crazy/Wacky Cake and then there is Chocolate, Vanilla, Spice, Lemon and Coffee Wacky cake.....all very simple and on my agenda to make often. There is no butter, milk or eggs used in this cake. I guess in the old, depression days, when it was hard to get butter, milk or eggs, this cake was used and truly, it is very good. Would be wonderful with it warmed out of the oven with ice cream on top. I am sure you could make this gluten free by using rice flour.

Okay....in this next picture is Doggie treats for Kylie....see, I was in a cooking mood. These were very simple. 2 bananas mashed, 2/3 cups peanut butter and 1 1/2 cup oat meal (powdered) So I ran the oat meal in my blender to powder it as much as I could. Then mix the 3 ingredients together...if it is too sticky, put more oat meal in it, too dry, more peanut butter. Then, roll out the mixture and cut into squares or us a cooking cutter. Bake at 350 degrees on parchment paper for 15 minutes, cool and put in a container...Kylie, by the way...loved her new treats and wagged her tail faster then she does for her other treats. Maybe she knew I made them for her?????? They were pretty good too....I tried one or two of them. Maybe they should be "people treats" too.

In this last picture is my Valentine tree in the dark and the setting on the camera was for "fireworks" a setting I did not realize I had....geez, I have had this camera for over 3 years and just now found this setting?? Where have I been living?????

Well, bummers the Green Bay Packers lost their game Saturday. Now they are out for the season. At least I still have the Chicago Blackhawks to root for, and there is still 2 1/2 months yet to play and then the playoffs for the Stanley Cup.....yep, I have high hopes for them.

Not too much going this week except for card making at Betty's on Wednesday. JP has another appointment on Thursday and my Blue Apron meals are coming on Thursday also. OH....another thing going on, I am finally working on my income tax...uge, but I got a good start so that is good, maybe I will be finished before the due date this time.

As for card making I have been making a few new cards lately and also working to put some cards together for the Hospice meeting on the 29th. That always keeps me busy.

Time to close....gosh, it stayed lighter tonight, Daylight saving starts Sunday, March 13th....yay, then, we are back to normal, whatever that may be.

Have a good evening and keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

500 Posts and Hibiscus Tea

Hi there everyone. How is your day going? I am loving this weather...mid 7o's is just perfect and not high humidity....perfect, perfect. I am not a hot weather person and especially as I get older, hot does not agree with me or my ankles. So I have been praying....God keep it cool....and He has. But there is still August and September....then comes October, November and December and we know how cold those months can be. But for now, this has been a very comfortable Summer in my books.

So today is my 500 post on BlogSpot. I guess there should be a celebration of sorts....it's been fun blogging, don't know if I have a lot of followers that are actually following every word I type....it would be nice....but that is okay if you are not. It has been good therapy for me and maybe hopefully helped someone along the line.

Through the course of blogging here, I have ended up with a 2nd blog at: cards4ubylouise.wordpress.com  I was forced to go there because I could not up-load my pictures on blogspot. To say the least I became very frustrated, and started a 2nd blog. Wordpress is still a bit confusing to me, but it seems to attract more followers and reach more people for some reason. So, I will keep it going for the time being.

I have made some hibiscus tea. In all the years I have had this plant, never realized I could make tea with the flowers. Now I am hooked and can have fresh hibiscus tea during the winter too!!! I looked up on Youtube how to make the tea and it has lots of good properties like Vitamin C and also keeps the blood pressure down. Which I need.

So you take a tea pot with filtered water and boil. Take your hibiscus flowers and pull the petals off. and place in the water and let them steep.

In this picture you can see the petals starting to lose their color. I take the flower petals out when they go completely white and have lost all their color. The water will have turned pink as you can see in the two pictures below.

I also added a half package of stevia to sweeten the tea a bit. Such a pretty color and very tasty also. I think I am addicted to this luscious and refreshing tea.

Here's another picture of the tea.  I have also been making Hyssop tea with the leaves, which has a bit of a licorice taste to it, and Bee Balm tea, which you can use the petals of the red flowers (and you can eat the bee balm petals also, good for bad breath). I suspect you can use the leaves of the bee balm also...have not done that as yet. I think I have enough teas to keep me busy drying for a couple of weeks. I do have some lemon mint leaves to dry also.

Well as you can see....been busy making my own teas. JP likes the Hyssop tea the best. It's mentioned in the Bible and was used for Passover in Exodus 12:22. So yeah, he likes that Hyssop is in the Bible. So it must be good for our bodies in some way.

Time to close and get going on some of these teas. I told the Pastor's wife I would bring some mint tea for her to try tomorrow. Maybe I should google "how to make lemon mint tea" and see what it says.

You have a great day and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

PS I blogged about this wonderful tea on Saturday. Not exactly sure why it did not post....I guess I need to contact Blog Support...have nothing but frustrations with this blog. Sorry for my rant!!!

Part 2 ~ Hi-lites of July 4th

Hi everyone, so as promised I have blogged about Part 2 of our July weekend. We washed and stained the front porch....oh it sure does look nice. Why did I take so long to do it???

OH MY GOSH!!!!!! I thought just for the heck of it, I would try up-loading a picture to see if BlogSpot would let me and would you look at this, a picture....WOW OH WOW!!! It's a bit too large for this blog...but hey...not complaining, lest I FINALLY can up load a picture!!!!! HOORAY!!!!



I am SHOCKED BEYOND EXCITEMENT!!!! Well, I believe I have two blogs now, if you would like to go to my wordpress blog for the whole story about washing and staining the front porch. In the picture above you can see the "after" the wash and staining of the floor. Oh my goodness I just can't get over it. Okay now that I am up and off the floor....lol here is my link to cards4ubylouise.wordpress.com so you can see "the rest of the story"
Have a great day and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

Happy and Not Happy

Hi everyone....how is your day going? I suppose you are wondering why I am "happy and not happy" all in the same sentence??? Well, I am happy that I am blogging in Wordpress and can at least download my pictures with more ease. But I am "not happy" cause I had to make the switch. I was comfortable with this blog site, but....I will continue to blog here, you just won't see pictures downloaded anymore.


Pictures make a post I think, cause people like to see pictures and, I like to take pictures!!! So Wordpress it is, until I can finally download pictures onto BlogSpot.com. So, I shall have two blogs to play with...I am still on much of a learning curve in Wordpress...so much to learn and look at. But I will eventually learn the ropes. Wordpress has a few extra things that BlogSpot doesn't have and visa versa.


Well, today was kind of a quiet day...did some shopping and picked up meds for JP and I. Bought some more dirt and a few lights for my pond area. I am going to try my hand at propagating my Hibiscus plant. Watched a few Youtube videos, so I think I might be able to handle it. I will let you know how things go.


Well time to close here for now and OH here is the link to my other blog WITH pictures. cards4ubylouise.wordpress.com  This link will take you directly to my newest blog post. So you all have a great day and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

Refurbishing 40 Year Old Furniture



Hi Everyone....well, as usual I am having troubles with blogspot on IE. So off I went to Google Chrome. Honestly, why does there always have to be kinks in everything I try to accomplish.....to work patience in my life??? Geez, enough already!!!!!!

I had a nice week end...finally decided to paint some old chairs I have had for over 40 years....was not thinking when I took them apart....should have taken a picture...before and after. Well, here is a partial before picture. Not sure when I reupholstered the chairs....maybe 30 years ago, I am thinking this is the original paint job. So I decided to spray paint them mat black. Spray painting the pink rose came after I had sprayed them both black. Sweet inspiration.

Here I have both seats taken off and in the midst of spray painting one chair and starting the next one.

Added the pink to the chair....I really like the look....so classy....what do you think??? I ran out of paint. So we jumped in the car and took a ride to Walmart. Bought 3 more cans at 97 cents a can....Hey big spender!!!! But at least I had enough to finish the chairs and do touch up. AND maybe possibly another item if need be....whatever that may be.

Here are the two chairs.......finished. Ah....it feels good to accomplish something. I have all these ideas swimming in the head that I want to do.......but sometimes money and time do not coordinate with each other.

Here are the chairs on the front porch....finished and ready to go. Thought today we would eat on the front porch.....hamburgers and french fries....but we did not make it. Well, there still is maybe another month or so of dinning on the front porch. I want to get a new table cloth....maybe just a plain pink one....this one looks a  little busy with the chairs and all. Time for a change.

One of my other projects was to stain the porch floor, but I did not get to that project......aw...maybe next year. That is what I have been saying for the last couple of years. 

Well, time to close for today. Nothing much going this week. JP and I are going to celebrate our 40th anniversary. We might take a week end trip to Algoma...we'll see.
Cheers to you all and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.
Louise

A Sometimes Sweet Saturday ♥ ♥ ♥

Making this a short blog for today (I think). Depends on what pops into my mind and if I don't get frustrated with Blogspot by the time I am finished with my typing. Seems I have to type and not see what I am typing cause blogspot does not acknowledge immediately what I am typing.....get what I am saying? There seems to be a pause in the communication between my typing and the typing getting on this blog..oh well, so what else is new....nothing works and I mean NOTHING works!!!! My pet peeve for the day!!!!

My doggie is sick today, he's throwing up alot. Seems this happened once before and we came very close to having him put down. Then he snapped out of it. Kylie has been sick too. But she is younger and seems to be able to handle what ever it is. We found out the Pastor's dogs are throwing up also....is there something in the water? Sad to watch the dogs, they can't tell you what is wrong, you can only guess and hope you are right in doing what you are doing. Well, we will see how Hyko is on Monday, he did take his pills and have a little to eat, so that was a good sign, but then 3 hours later he threw it all up. (sigh)

Well, talking about health and all......I did get the results back on my blood test for hepatitis abc and d, everything was negative. In the ultra sound, the liver is normal but the gall bladder had a stone. Will have to google gall stones and see what is recommended.........maybe it will dissolve on it's own. God could do that in a flash!!!!

Another recommendation was that I am to lose some weight...........now that could be a challenge for me, although at this point, after being taken off all medication may have been a blessing in disguise, I don't have to fight the meds and what they are doing to this body. To date, I have tried to eliminate all sugar and sodium the best I can. BUT you know how much sugar and sodium is in the foods we eat....geez it is a losing battle there alone!!! Two lbs have come off since last week, my goal.....two pounds next week and every week till the end of June. WI (weigh in) will be June 30th....hows that????

So maybe my red bow will look good on me in a month.....hahahahaha!!!!

Next Tuesday the 5th is voting day for the re-call......I am hoping Scott Walker wins......He was rightfully voted in the 1st time and should stay in till the next election. At least give him a chance to do what he was elected to do. So far as I am concerned, he is doing just that.

Have not been doing much with my Etsy store lately, really need to get some cards in there. My lack of inspiration and motivation can be a problem at times, guess there is so much going on lately that I can't seem to focus. I will work on that this month and like losing a few pounds, will get a few new cards in my store. Hopefully!!!

Have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draweth nigh.
Cheers ~ Louise

A New Camera and Many Problems

I thought this was a cute picture, although I don't have a cat, but 2 dogs both of which keep me quite busy. I do like the saying..... "one day things will get better until then".......These last couple of days have been tough, there's been alot of struggles, twists and turns to deal with. The biggest one is that we found out we owe $1500 for JP's stress test, now if this does not cause stress, I don't know what will. We were told this test would be covered 100%....I think the insurance only covered 50%. JP has to go for a "heart cauterization" next weekend. Not sure if he will go for it yet. As of May 1st his medicare kicks in, so not sure how that will pan out. Work insurance will be cancelled May 1st also.

A few other problems rose up -
1) PC Registry wanted to charge $49 to my charge account and the bank called to see if this was a fraudulent charge, I said no, but I did not want it, so go ahead and block the charge.
  2) My liver levels were high so the Dr. took me off the cholesterol medication, seems my liver is mad and irritated, (well, so am I). Had to make another appointment to draw more blood. 
3) I was told I could not sell my cards at someones house. Was just a "show and tell" which I have done many times before, one of the ladies liked a few of my cards and wanted to buy them. I really had no intentions of selling my cards, there was no ulterior motive on my part....needless to say I will NOT bring my cards for "show and tell" again!
4) Bought a new camera, which was badly needed and I can't seem to download the pictures from the camera to the computer. Which means no pictures for Etsy and this here blog. (sigh)

Can't say I am enjoying doing these blogs anymore.....just hate, hate, hate this new blogspot format....it is so jerky and the screen goes blank, just too many times. Trying to figure my way around is a real chore. Life has not gotten any easier, seems at every turn there is a new challenge. So truely, I am waiting for "that better day", in the mean time keep looking up for your redemption drawth nigh. Sorry for all my complaints....I was always told that growing old were the "Golden Years" seems retirement is more like the "Tarnished Years" instead!!!! Well, cheers anyways ~ Louise

A Bor-ing Blog

Yep........that is what this blog is.....a Bore (not even sure if bore is spelt right) who cares, no one reads this blog anyways!!! This may be a very short one.....have no pics and no ideas to write, guess I am leading a boring life right now.

We're trying to get some money scrounged up to pay for part of the roof that leaks into the kitchen....looks like we may have to sell some stuff, like gold and silver laying around the house, which is not much. Oh well. I am tired of this leaky ceiling, 8 years of aggrevation, thanks to Steven Carey, because he cut corners to have more money in his pocket we have been living with a leaky roof!!!! Hopefully it gets fixed by this winter.

Lets, see what else.................guess I will close this blog for now...................who will read this, I wonder, be sure to leave a comment. Well, it is 12noon, the sirens are sounding ~ cherrio!!!!