Month: July 2025

Day #28 – Progress

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I slept so good and woke up to just a sore hip not the gripping pain of the last couple of days. Y’all, I’m swearing by my avocado seed rub. That’s all I’ve used.

But today I’ve felt like I’ve made actual progress compared to the last two days where I’ve done little but watch movies. I was feeling bad because the cookie jar had been empty since Saturday night so I made Milk Cookies.

Another task that I have been meaning to do is oil my cutting boards. We use the heck out of our boards and I noticed that they were beginning to dry out. They are much less thirsty now.

I went outside to water the plants and I have little pumpkin seedlings.

I counted 8 in all so far. Fingers crossed they make it.

Now it’s time to turn in and finish watching the 1983 campy horror movie Sleepaway Camp. I can’t believe I have never seen it considering horror has always been one of my favorite genres. Last night I watched Lake Eden. It’s a British horror flick that has the woman who played Beth on Yellowstone. I have never watched Yellowstone, but who would have thought she was actually British. It was way too gory for me. I don’t like gory movies. I finished The Following so I’m looking for new things to watch. I was seeing videos recommending movies but was so bummed that I didn’t have a Tubi subscription because that service seemed to have such good movies. I googled it to see how much it was and IT’S FREE!!!!! If you haven’t watched The Following I 100% recommend it. It’s only 3 seasons but each season has 15 episodes and the acting is amazing.

Day #27 – Ouch

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I missed day 26 because I was in so much pain. My whole lower back especially my left hip was hurting so bad that I spent the day with an ice pack, tens unit and trying not to move. Today it was a wee bit better. It is now mainly concentrated on my left side which is weird because I never have problems with the left only the right.

Sitting too long hurts. Bending over hurts. Lifting my left leg hurts. Donny has been so helpful. He’s been cooking and cleaning the kitchen. Ibuprofen, Tylenol or aspirin hasn’t touched it. Today when I was looking in the medicine cabinet I found the liniment that I made months ago.

It’s avocado seeds that are chopped up with 91% rubbing alcohol poured over. It has been the only thing that makes the pain bearable. I’m so happy that I found it . I don’t know why or how it works, but it does. I think it’s going to take a bit of time to fully heal my hip, but at least I don’t feel incapacitated like I did on Saturday. Only time will tell I guess.

Day #25 – The Shed

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It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I have been wanted to clean the shed out for months. Well, today Donny and I finally got to it. It has been a catchall for a while where we were just throwing things in it and not really caring where they landed. Here are some before pictures.

We couldn’t even really step into it without having to move so much stuff around. Trying to find anything was a nightmare.

I can’t believe it, but we finished in under 2 hours. We have a pretty big bulk trash pickup which the city can’t pick up until August 1st. We ended up taking 4 bags and several boxes to donate.

I feel so much better knowing this chore is done. Unfortunately, I hurt my lower back. I don’t know how I did it. Probably picking something heavy up or just turning wrong, but it really hurts. The TENS unit has been such a help. And Donny because he’s been massaging it. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll feel better.

P.S.

Wrigley update: Another citation was left on their door, but so far the neighbors have done nothing to comply.

Day #24 – Do What You Want

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There are some days when I just need rest from normal tasks. I did mow the yard, but that’s about it. One thing that I’ve realized in the 3 weeks of this 100 days is that sometimes doing nothing at all is okay. I’m tired of cooking dinner. So tonight I didn’t. And it felt okay. I have 3 adults living in our home and I’m pretty sure they can figure out how to make something to eat. And I was right, they can.

I’m grateful for Mr. Lawrence who edges the side and front of my house when he mows the neighbor’s yard. I think a weed eater that I can handle without tearing everything up will be a purchase I’ll make in the near future.

I actually got dressed and put on makeup even though the only place we were going was to Drug Emporium.

I found some yummy snacks.

Now I think I’ll find a book to read because I hardly ever take the time to read anymore.

I think everyone deserves a day to just do what they want and not feel guilty for doing it.

Day #23 – Tie Dye

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We all agreed that the white curtains I hung up on the patio were just too white. Everything else is colorful so they stood out and not in a good way. I had two tie dye kits that we had gotten a couple of years ago and never used. I only had turquoise and blue so that’s what we were going to use. Because the curtains are polyester I had to boil them after I had rubber banded them.

After they boil for a few minutes I applied the dye.

I put them in trash bags and waited 8 hours. I honestly didn’t know if the dye would take because polyester is notoriously hard to dye. After I rinsed them off I was pleasantly surprised. The turquoise came out very close to the color of the dye. The blue turned a light lavender. It’s hard to tell in the picture though.

I think they look pretty good.

The turquoise color matches our front door.

And our little busted up skunk friend showed up to have his dinner. I know I’m not supposed to feed it, but he’s so crippled that the only way he could even eat a bug was if it jumped into its mouth.

Now I’m going to go watch The Following. If you haven’t seen it, it’s so good. We watched it when it first came on in 2013, It seems impossible that it’s been that long ago.

Day #22 – Crafty Day

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Since I’m basically stuck at home until my car’s appointment at the dealership I’ve been trying to keep myself busy doing some fun things around the house. It was extremely satisfying to scrape all of the seeds out of the giant sunflower.

This will be the second generation if these grow next year.

I’ve been wanting to bake some more clay. I played around with the molds and I think everything turned out pretty good. I just spray painted them all gold because I was using the turquoise and gray clay that we already had. I have a project in mind for them.

We bought solar lights months ago. I was going to use them in the backyard where we had our other lights before the neighbor’s yard people accidentally cut them. We really only use the backyard for the fire pit so if I hung them out there we’d really never see them. I decided to string two sets (they are so long) across the patio. I love the vibe they give. Boy, was it hot going up and down off the chair I was using. Thank goodness the mornings and evenings are tolerable.

I hung up the white curtains I found at an estate sale. Tomorrow we are going to tie dye them, or at least attempt to. They are too plain just white especially with all the color we have going on.

After we had dinner Hannah and I went on a walk. We always go by one of our favorite yards. It’s like a fairy garden.

I wish I had a green thumb like that.

Day #21 – Nightmare Closet + Yoga Cats

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Our bedroom closet has been on my to-do list for a while. As with most 1961 ranch homes the closets are small. It doesn’t help that Donny and I share it. Lately though it’s become more of a catchall and I just close the door on the mess. Today I decided was the day to tackle the beast.

Yes, that is embarrassing. I normally keep my clothes color coordinated, but that wasn’t happening.

Because my kids have a tendency to break hangers I’ve now got the extra ones stored in the Ikea bag.

It honestly did not take me as long as I thought it would to get it straightened up.

I organized Donny’s side also and our spare comforter and duvet cover were stored in the vacuumed sealed bags out of the way. An organized closet just makes all the difference.

With that out of the way I decided to work on a little art project that I’d had in mind for a while. Jackson had a yoga cat calendar a few years ago. I cut out the cats last year for another project that didn’t happen. I didn’t want to throw them away because they took forever to cut out.

This was a dry erase board that no one ever really used. Yes, it’s a bit quirky, but when you live in a plain rectangular house you need to give it some personality. It’s on our patio by the way. I hope it makes people smile.

I had to snap this picture of one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. I don’t know it it was because of the rain or what, but it’s just gorgeous.

Day #20 – Filed and Planted

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We finally found some pumpkin seeds at Home Depot on Friday. I’m actually late planting them this year.

I went ahead and picked up some marigold seeds since they are so good for keeping pests away. I read up how how to prep the pumpkin seeds for planting. I guess you are supposed to file the edges first with sandpaper or a nail file.

I was filing and watching Your Worst Nightmare because, why not. Plus I love true crime series. If you haven’t watched it, and like true crime, it’s on Hulu. Now back to seed prep. After filing the sides you soak them in hot water for 2-3 hours. This is supposed to soften the casing so the seed is able to sprout easier.

The ones in the white bowl were not filed. I just wanted to see if it actually makes a difference.

We didn’t really know where to plant them. We did pumpkins one year in the front and they took over the yard. I decided to go ahead and start some of them in empty strawberry and blueberry containers.

This table has come in so handy for use as a potting table.

The seeds I had leftover went into the pools where the cantaloupe vines are. The unfilled seeds are in the protected pool. The filed ones leftover are in the unprotected one.

Of course it started storming while I was trying to get the seeds planted. Thank goodness for chicken boots. They always save the day.

I’m so hoping we’ll have pumpkins that are ready by Halloween.

Day #19 – It’s My Monday

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Because Donny is off on Thursdays and Fridays we consider that our weekend. So naturally, that makes Saturday my Monday. Today I feel very accomplished. I got the kitchen cleaned from top to bottom. Made cookies. We don’t buy store bought cookies so that one thing I always have to a make sure we have on hand and we’d been out for a couple of days.

I managed to get all of the laundry done. I will have to say that our laundry room still smells a bit skunky, but at least the poor thing isn’t sleeping in there anymore. I didn’t realize that Donny got off at 5 instead of 7 so I was scrubbing the tub when I heard a male voice yell hello. I almost had a heart attack. And yes, 4 people use this tiny bathroom and we make it work.

We got a weather alert on our phones and then the storm hit. It cooled things off so much and there is nothing better than a rain shower in the evenings.

Donny even stepped up and cooked the steaks while I did the sides. That’s such a huge help for me because I really am not fond of cooking meat.

The steaks were cooked perfectly and so tender.

It’s so nice to have a day where everything gets done and no one is rushing around all stressed out.

And just because. The older male cats love to play with Ruth. We think O’Malley may be her dad. He’s neutered now, but wasn’t at the time she would have been conceived. They both have the same strangled sounding meow. Anyway, she was tuckered out after a full morning of rough housing.

I hope everyone has a good Monday no matter what day it actually is.

Day #18 – Skunky

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Last night when we got home the little gimpy skunk was on the patio and crawled into the laundry room. I didn’t think much about it because I figured that he was just scared and trying to get away from us. This morning when I went to check to see if he was still in there I found him laying behind the dryer. He looked dead so we called Animal Control. Animal Control came out and checked on him and he was just sleeping. The officer didn’t want to remove him because it would startle the poor thing and he would spray. He told us to just let the poor creature wake up naturally and he would eventually come out.

A little after 9 I found him eating the cat food that is not supposed to be there, but I can’t not feed the strays. This little guy, from what I can tell, was probably hit by a car or in some type of accident. He has such a hard time walking. He kind of drags his legs. It’s heartbreaking to watch him try to make his way around. I would totally let him stay in the laundry room during the day if I didn’t have to do laundry.

Now about Wrigley the neighbor’s horribly neglected dog. When we left to go to the movies last night I noticed another citation on their door. While the Animal Control Officer was here I talked to him about the situation. He was the one who came out to speak to them. Apparently they are out of town, but Animal Control has been in touch with them. They are making them provide Wrigley more shade, going to the vet to get him in better health and he must be neutered. If they don’t they will be fined. I don’t think they will do it. Luckily I’m in touch with Animal Control and they are keeping me up to date. Today when I was mowing I couldn’t see him. He had dug a trench under their shed and was just laying in it. He will normally run to get pets when I’m mowing and likes to chase the mower when I mow by the fence. Nothing today. I’m just glad that he will, hopefully, get the help he needs.

I don’t know if mowing during a heat advisory was the smartest thing to do but it’s supposed to be raining all weekend. When I finished, clouds blew in and the wind picked up. It felt amazing.

One thing I have noticed about mowing and bagging the clippings instead of using the chute is that my grass has gotten so much better. Last year I had so many weeds and dead spots from me pulling up the weeds, that was a never ending task. It takes more time and energy to bag, but it’s well worth it.