Country Living

I've really been busy the past couple of weeks. So much so that I've not had much time to blog. But as I was resting for a little while this afternoon, Country Living kept coming to mind. So, I started jotting down the words that came to me describing what I saw in my minds eye. 

Apron   

Clothesline

Clothespins

Quilt

Vegetable garden

Zinnias

Sunflowers

Daisies

Watering can

Horses in a pasture

Bales of hay
Dirt roads
Watermelon
Peaches

Lake

Pond

Dock

Fishing

Barns

Tree swings

Oak trees

Naps

Biscuits

Sweet tea

Family

Friends

Kittens

Sunrise 

Dragonflies

What do you think! Do you have any words that describes COUNTRY to you?

Laurie

Mason Jar Cake

Does this look delicious or what? I saw a recipe for a mug cake on Pinterest and tweaked it to make it my own. After you gather your ingredients, it takes all of 5 minutes to make and that includes the 1-1/2 minutes it takes to cook in the microwave.  Quick and easy for those cravings for something, but you just don't know for what.

Mason Jar Peanut Butter and Nutella Cake 

4 tbsp self-rising flour

4 tbsp sugar

1 beaten egg

2 tbsp peanut butter

1 tbsp Nutella

3 tbsp milk

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp nuts (optional)

Instructions:

Mix flour and sugar in a pint sized mason jar. Add egg, then peanut butter, Nutella, milk and oil. Stir. Sprinkle nuts on top. Microwave on high for 1-1/2 minutes.

Go on...go make yourself one. You know you want to. 

Laurie

Days Like That

Gdansk, Poland

Polish Woods...compliments of my baby child. 

She inherited her mama's adventurous spirit, but her daddy's fearlessness.

Are you feeling fall in your days? 

Well, I'm not. 

It's still hot and humid here. If we are lucky, we will start to feel some cool crisp days around Halloween. Now, we will have some coolish nights before then, but I'm longing for those cool crisp days. The days that make you want to go on a hike or visit an apple orchard. The days that make you want to sit on a dock with a warm lap quilt across your legs and a good book in your hands, while sipping a nice hot cup of Chai tea. My gosh, even days that make you want to go out and rake! HaHa! Yes, I do like to rake, but I hate to pick up the leaves afterwards. 

And then, I start craving the days that are cold enough that it drives the snakes into hibernation. Although, I don't think the little demons ever do that. But, I do feel a little safer knowing that maybe they are hiding under a rock or a log somewhere....because it's too cold for them to move. Those are the days that I like to get out and explore. Hikes into the woods (on a clear path, mind you..like those in Whitney's Polish woods), adventures with Lidia, Sawyer and Cliff into their worlds of exploration and wonderment. On days like that, I am free from fear. 

Lord, I can't wait for days like that. 

Wishing you cool crisp days,

Laurie

The Tummy Soother

I was craving something alkalizing this evening.....something to soothe my tummy. When I get like this, it's cucumbers that I want. So, I whipped up The Veggie Sandwich with plenty of cucumbers and another tummy soother, for me anyway, avocado.

 

**I hate it when I don't take my time when taking pictures. I was hungry, so I took the short cut and used my cell phone. Oh well, at least you get the idea.

So to start, I gathered my food.....

Arugula, chives, tomato, lime, cucumber, avocado and not pictured here celery and mayo.

I sliced and chopped......

I mixed the avocado, chives and celery with a little lime juice.....

I toasted my bread......

.....and spread it with avocado and mayo. By the way, Dukes mayo is the only way to go.

I assembled my vegetables.....

And, here we go. A delicious veggie sandwich.

Avocado and cucumber sandwich with arugula and tomatoes can only be eaten with a side of watermelon. 

La sucette de ventre!

It does a body good.

Pass it on.

Laurie

  

Fleur de Waccamaw

 

Cliff and I were walking down a long boardwalk leading to a dock on Lake Waccamaw, last weekend. Before breaking through to this gorgeousness, though, the area surrounding the boardwalk was nothing but swampland. And right there in the middle of it...up popped these sweet flowers.

 There’s always something blooming.  Can I get an Amen?

 They look so much like a Magnolia. And, since I can't 100% confirm that they are a species of the Magnolia family, in particular the Sweetbay Magnolia.....I'm calling it Fleur de Waccamaw.

De ~ LaLa

Bones

I was looking through my photos for a good one for a public service announcement....

I thought this one might do. HaHa!!

 ~~~~~~

In 2013, my doctor wanted to do a baseline bone density scan.

Ugh! Yes, I'm of age.

When the results came back, she said that I had some thinning....not Osteoporosis, but just a little thinning. Yet, she wanted to start me on Fosamax. She wrote out the prescription and I took it to the pharmacy to be filled. I had already done some research on the drug, so I knew what the side effects were. The more I thought about it, the more I felt like this was not what I should do. The side effect that worried me the most was the chance of a femur fracture. So, I called the pharmacy and cancelled the prescription.

One year passed and it was time for my next doctor's appt. She asked how I was doing on the Fosamax and I sheepishly told her that I had not been taking it...that the side effects worried me. I was afraid that she would be a little angry, but she wasn't. She said that if the side effect was a worry for me, then let's take a different approach. She sent me to an endocrinologist to check Vitamin D levels and anything else he felt necessary to get answers.

The endocrinologist talked to me about the different medicines he prescribes for Osteoporosis and how each worked. I told him I was against taking medication and asked if there wasn't something else I could do. He was willing to help me and I was thankful for that. He wanted to get a blood test to see where my Vitamin D level was and we would go from there. So, I had blood drawn and sure enough, I was extremely low in Vitamin D. He gave me a prescription for a mega-dose of the vitamin. After I had finished the prescribed amount, he retested and I was in the normal range. I was supposed to take over the counter Vitamin D and he would recheck in three months. I tried my best to remember to take the vitamin, but I would forget to take it, all the time. Never the less, three months passed and I had to retest. And, once again I was very low. So he repeated the mega-dose. At the end of that prescribed dose, I retested and I was again back in the normal range. So he urged me to try to remember to take an over the counter Vitamin D. I had already told him that I had began eating vegetarian and I was exercising a lot. He told me to add weights and he would give me one year to try this and then we would retest.

June of this year was the one year mark. I went back to my endocrinologist for a re-check. He made mention something about my tan. I told him that I got it from my bike training and when I told him how I was training, he was very impressed. He said, "I wouldn't doubt that your bones have improved, if you're exercising that much." I sure was glad to hear that and I was very hopeful that it was true. So, he ordered another blood test and another bone density scan. The blood test came back and I was in the low end of the normal range, but in the normal range none-the-less. I had been trying really hard to remember to take my vitamins this year. I wasn't perfect, but better than before. Then I had the bone density scan done and got the results back last week. His note on the bottom of the results.....'Spine and hip/femur scans shows improvement! Good!'

YAY!

I was ecstatic! I knew in my heart that I could improve my health with diet and exercise and I had just proved it. So, I will continue to take Vitamin D and Calcium and I will continue to eat healthy and to exercise. I can only get better. I am really passionate about finding the root of problems, not just treating symptoms. I hope my little success story inspires someone out there to take their health in their hands and be proactive about their diet and exercise.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Laurie

P.S. If you would like to read a post I wrote on the subject, click here. 

Take The Lake

Instead of walking, the competitors ran. Run 15, Bike 15, Paddle 14, Swim 4

Oh Lord, where do I begin? If y'all know anything about me and my race days, then you know that I get a terrible case of The Nerves. Well, something you may not know is that I get The Nerves whether it's my race or Cliff's.

Saturday, Cliff had a race at Lake Waccamaw, NC called Take The Lake Extreme. He was slated to swim 4 miles, bike 15 miles, kayak 14 miles and then run 15 miles. And I was his kayak support on the swim. Our day started at 3 a.m., Saturday morning. I knew as soon as my feet hit the floor that The Nerves would be causing some trouble. And sure enough, The Nerves showed up big time. 'Ain't nobody got time for that!' I managed to get dressed just in time to leave. Thirty minutes down the road, I had to stop. It was The Nerves. And then, once more, when we arrived to Lake Waccamaw. Cliff asked if I did this every morning. LOL!! I told him, "No, just when there's a race.....yours or mine, it doesn't matter". I mean, I was so sick, that he was seriously considering backing out of the race. But I assured him that I would be fine and I knew I would be as soon as I started kayaking. It's the way I roll.

As usual, when Cliff has a race...I don't do his race report. That's his story to tell. So, I give you my experiences of the day. I like my version better anyway. HaHa!

So, we started promptly at 6:30 a.m. And I say we because all the swimmers had to have their own kayak support. The race coordinators just didn't have enough people or boats to watch all the participants swimming 4 miles across the lake. Cliff was the first one to start, but was passed by one person. A very fast woman swimmer....that chick could swim. She left him like he was sitting still. Anyway, we watched the sun come up over the lake. I hardly had to paddle at all. The wind was to my back and pushed me along. The most paddling I did was back paddling to keep me along side Cliff. It's a lake so there was no tide, just wind. He did great swimming. He finished in a little over 2 hours and was second to come out of the water. We loaded up my kayak and headed back to the transition area where he would take off on his bike.

Sunrise on Lake Waccamaw

Checking out the competition behind us. No one was close.

Cliff had a good lead, except for the lady ahead of him.

 

  

 

 

This is the dam and the swim finish. At this point, I was on gator watch.

 

Back at transition, Cliff was leaving on the bike portion. I had little to do at this point. I took a few pictures and then met Cliff at the halfway point with some water. The way this worked was that they would have to ride the bike halfway around the lake and go through the state park and exit at the dam. Now, they couldn't ride the bike through the state park portion. They had to get off and walk or run the bike through that portion. Once they got to the dam, they would have to pick up their bikes and walk them across the dam. And then continue on.

Once again, the dam. The bikers would clear the trees at the end of the dam.

And here comes Cliff. He's in the lead, now.

The concrete was slick, so he walked very carefully across.

The little guy to the right had just fallen on the slick concrete. Cliff stopped to make sure he was ok before coming to the end. He has another competitor on his heels.

He had to lift the bike up and over....

...and carry it across this section.

After a quick rinse and adding water to the bike's hydration tank, he was off again on the bike. This was only half way.

So, I left him there at the dam and drove back to transition to get his hydration vest/life jacket ready for his kayak portion. I had the Garmin turned on and opened his shot blocks and left them in a cup in the kayak. All he had to do was put on the life jacket and start paddling. Since the kayak portion was 14 miles, it meant I had a couple of hours with nothing to do.

Leaving on the 14-mile kayak portion.

So, again, I took a couple of pictures and then sat down at the transition area for a little bit. I started calculating what time he would get back in the kayak and what I would need to do next to help him get ready for the run portion.

This cypress tree had some knarly knees. I fully expected a troll to emerge at any time.

 

Dale's Restaurant

 I decided that if I was going to get lunch that now was the time. It just so happened that there was a restaurant right across the street. Dale's Seafood Restaurant. Their food is delicious...so if you are ever in the area, you have to eat there. You just have to! I had lunch and got ready to pay and couldn't find my wallet. Oh dear Lord! That has never happened to me before. I could have panicked so easily, but I controlled myself. I told the lady at the register that I had a problem. I had left my wallet in my car, but that I could leave my bag with her and run go get it. She trusted me and told me that wasn't necessary. So I ran to the car, found my wallet and headed back to pay for my food. I sure hope that never happens again. It was embarrassing to say the least. I could just see myself having to wash dishes before they would let me out or worse....they could have made me gut fish.

Transition and napping area.

I was totally exhausted after that. I went back to transition and tried to read, but I was so sleepy by that time that I couldn't hold my eyes open. I was in the shade and there was a nice breeze blowing. It was ideal napping weather.....so, I did. I snoozed for about an hour. Ha!

Cliff arriving from the kayak portion.

Look at those cute, epic muscles.

 

Cliff finished the kayak portion in 2nd place and had one more leg of the race to go.....the 15-mile run. Now, he needed me to flank him to keep passing him his drinks and nutrition. So, I drove slowly for a couple of hours.....handing him some tea or Gatorade, gels, watermelon and peaches, water....just a whole passel of stuff to keep him going. And then just like that, it was over.

Cliff wrapping up a 15-mile run.

Taking the opportunity to cheese for me.

And finally, he's hitting the buzzer to indicate his arrival and the end of his race.

Resting for a minute and taking it all in. He has just finished an 11 hour race.

Heading out for a quick dip to cool off.

  

But,  he said that the water was so warm that it was hardly refreshing.

He did great, y'all! He finished in 2nd place. It took 11 hours and 18 minutes. As you can imagine, we were both pretty dog tired. He took a quick dip in the lake to cool off before collecting his award, his kayak and other race stuff and before heading home.

Laurie