Hello, Dearies!!!
Sandy, I second your choice for "May"-hem for the title, it's been crazy here already this month! The kittens have just finished their breakfast and synchronized face-washing (after eating fish paste... yeah, that's hygienic...) and are now running around like idiots while the chicks watch impatiently from their cage, waiting for me to put the cats up and let them down... one child (barely) gotten off on the bus so far, the other is just starting to thump around upstairs.
So here are the babies in their "as kitten-proof as I can reasonably/temporarily make it" room... They came with kind of stupid names, all starting with T (because that's how they name the litters...alphabetically), so I gave them my own names... after the Avengers, of course!!! Barely visible in the upper right corner is the only girl, who came with the name Tasha, so she, of course, is Natasha Romanov/Black Widow, obviously recognizable with her trademark black catsuit and auburn hair.
Front and center is the god of mischief, Loki, who came with the name Taz, which also suits him because he's a playful and mischievous fellow, with a serious love/hate relationship with sandals...
Upper left, against the wall, that is Tony (Stark, officially named Tuck,) we called him that because he is the smallest of the boys, and while you can't tell in most of the movies due to clever scene layouts, Robert Downey Jr, who plays Tony Stark/Iron Man, is shorter than most of the other actors in the Marvel movies (but still average-ish height for the real, non-Hollywood world...) He is not much like his movie namesake except that he likes to have a good time... but his other name, Tuck, fits well, because he's the first to tuck in at mealtime and the first to tucker out and fall asleep after playing...
Lastly, the blur in the upper left, that's Thor... he's big and protective and the leader... and kind of dumb, but charming in his own way...
Time out... just caught Tony pooping in the corner because it was too much trouble to walk five feet to his litter box... yelled at him, put him in the litter box, and now less than five minutes later, he's back to playing and having a good time... so maybe he's more like Ironman than I realized...
ANYWAY...
I'm Joan (with a Z), 43 years old (for the moment,) retired military, mother of 2, very part-time student for now, but going for 16 credits of nursing school in the fall... and all of those things shape my goals for this month:
Even if I didn't have a bum leg and rotten lungs, just being retired from the military is enough reason for me to never run again! But I do like to walk, bum leg/life/weather permitting, so I will try again for 30 miles this month (last month, I barely cleared 10 miles of actual, intentional, non-grocery-shopping walking...)
I will also try (again, but better this time) to get back on track with meal planning/meal tracking/staying on my plan... so far this is going... ok... we made a menu for the month and I did most of the grocery shopping yesterday... which led to some less-than-healthy snacking while I tried each of the new generics I bought before pitching them to my picky eaters... which leads me to:
Woohoos:
Bees, kittens, weight back to early March levels, still hovering around the plateau and not the lowest it's been this year, but at least back in the right direction, which is amazing considered the level of "don't care" I had on some days...
Oh, and last weekend we FINALLY went out and bought a new couch, which will arrive sometime in the next few weeks... first they have to get it in the warehouse, then they will call to schedule delivery... So that's a woohoo because the old one was sooooooooo broken down, but I'm dealing with heartburn because I don't love the new one, which was very expensive, but I got outvoted... I'm old-fashioned, I think couches should not have to be plugged in...
Thankful for:
DD15's safety... since she is getting older and has been doing better lately, but also been having a lot hyper-energy in the afternoons (due to them reducing her medications, due to the hospitalization in March...) I have been letting her go out walking even when I can't go with her. Well, it's been going well, until yesterday she went to the park, and when I heard thunder and she didn't come straight home, I went to get her... looked around, no kiddo... rain starts pouring... no kiddo... phone rings, it's EMS... she's fine, BUT... she sleeps like the dead, and she had decided to take a nap on the playground pirate-ship climby-thing, which is why I didn't see her... and when the rain started, she decided to just lay there and keep sleeping, which scared some passersby, who kindly called the cops (because apparently they've been watching too many crime shows and assumed the worst...) So bottom line, she was fine, but we are revisiting the idea of a medic-alert bracelet and maybe a dumb-phone with tracking. (She has deliberately ditched the bracelets in the past, and the phone is usually unnecessary because she is rarely unsupervised, but maybe it's time, just for the tracker-- she would not have woken and answered it even if she'd had it yesterday... she's THAT heavy of a sleeper...) So I'm thankful that she did not come to harm while sleeping in the public park (ie-no creeper attacked her), nor was the rain very cold, so no worries about exposure injury/illness...
FOODIE FRIDAY:
I actually have some this week! So yesterday, as I mentioned, I went and did my "big grocery shop" for the month... being retired, I get my check on/around the 1st, and that's it for the month, so I plan a menu, make a list, and drive out the a big base near here to go to their commissary, where things are cheaper than the local stores (meat, milk, cheese, mostly.) Then for the rest of the month I replenish, as needed, from local civilian stores (pricey unless you catch the sales right) as well as a small commissary on a small base not far from here... ok prices, but very limited selection. After so many overruns last month, I think I was feeling insecure/stingy yesterday, because I really bought a whole lot less than usual at the big store, but planned a trip to Aldi, which is not close to either that base or my house... just to see what things I could find there... DD12, DD15, and H47 are all just insane snack-beasts lately, so if they're going to eat 3 times as much, I'm going to try to find cheaper alternatives..
So while granola bars are not technically unhealthy, they aren't "healthy" either unless built into a well-planned day, which mine weren't... but I can tell you that Millville brand peanut-butter granola bars from Aldi are very good, and the chewy chocolate salty/nut ones are AMAZING... (which they should be given their nutritional pathetic-ness...)
On the healthier side, their store-brand hummus comes in at 50 calories per 2 tablespoons, and is reasonably good (a bit too smooth for my taste, I like it to have a bit more texture, but DD15 liked it.) The store-brand triscuits are good at less than half the (commissary) price, so that's a huge win, since DD12 gobbles those like crazy, but I like them on occasion, too, and if I want some, I generally have to buy a new box, because they will be gone when I go back...
And a GOOD find... Aldi had some little snack-bar things near the registers, the brand name is light-and-fit, and they were about $.59 if I remember right... 100/110 calories, 6g of fiber, I bought one each of all 4 flavors, and have had 2 so far... tasted/felt a lot like Fig Newtons/Fruit Newtons, which aren't my favorite, but a good thing to have in my bag if I'm out and about and just STARVING...
(Side note... I *MISS* my car!!! Driving a rental for another few days, and I miss my van that has all my "stuff" in it... It's a mini van with lots of cubbies, and I have one that I fill with snacks for the kids, and another that I fill with snacks for me... to help keep us out of drive-thru... I miss that right now!!! -- BUT I'm thankful for insurance paying for most of the bodywork and all of the rental car...)
Ok, and now DD12 is leaving, because it took me an hour and 45 minutes to type all that with the distractions... and now, as always, it's time for statistics... 14 more days...
SPECIAL ENCODED MESSAGE FROM THE AVENGERS:
cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx0000000oooooooooooooooo]]]]]]0000000-
cccccccccccccccccdcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
(I don't know what it means, but it must be important, because they typed it in when I was upstairs making breakfast for DD12, and when I came back down, Loki was sitting in front of the computer, staring at it intently...)
)
But now that I’m growing in my cooking skills, I still usually bring the veggie tray because then I know there is at least one healthy option.
I'm breaking the rules and switching them to kitten-safe scoopable litter, because wow... just wow!!!
