Welcome to Life Through Bifocals

Life is not always clear and easy to figure out. So grab a cup of coffee and your bifocals and let's see what we can see.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Weekend Review: and the 2400 Mile Challenge

I don't know about where you live but up here it really is feeling like fall!  I've been wearing sweaters and socks :(  We had a few days where it was down into the 50's and 60's at night and a few days when it went up to the 80's by noon but this coming week, it's suppose to stay in the 60's and low 70's!  Time for another blanket on the bed!! I can't believe that is the last full week of Summer!  Where did the time and the summer go?
We got to celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary of some friends of ours and it was a great party! They renewed their vows and before that, he proposed to his wife (apparently he didn't do it the first time) and   we were all happy to hear her say yes.  It is always great to see marriages that work and last and so it was a great celebration.
Sunday of course was another anniversary but this one was not a joy filled event but rather a sad one. We spent the morning as so many others did; asking where were you when you heard about the towers and praying for families, friends, 1st responders and our country. The afternoon we spent playing with the grandchildren. That is always fun! We took turns playing with the oldest one and holding the youngest one. It is so much easier when there are two of them and two of us.

On my personal challenge, I managed to log on 68 miles, bringing me up to 2113 miles. I am under 300 miles to go! I'm looking for ideas as to how to celebrate the completion of this challenge.  Any ideas?

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Wednesday Hodgepodge: Your Answers are Ready!

Thank you Joyce - loved the questions this week!

1. What is one piece of advice you would give a 'just turning' 21- year old adult?
Learn to stop! Stop, and listen to the quiet. Stop, and enjoy your life. Stop, and listen to your body. Get use to doing nothing, read a book because you have the time, look at what you have, not what you want, when you are tired, sleep; when you are hungry, eat; when you are sick, rest. Just STOP!

2. Besides cooler weather (or warmer weather, depending on your hemisphere) what is one thing you are looking forward to this fall?

I really like the colors of fall. The deep reds, oranges, burnt yellows and browns.  I like the smell of the wood-burning stoves/fireplaces that are in our neighborhood (Pellet stoves do not give off that smell). I like pumpkin soup and curling up with a blanket (without people laughing at me). 



3. What sound lulls you to sleep?

I have on my ipod Touch a great  app called Ambiance Sounds. It has over 300 sounds on it, but my current one that lulls me to sleep is Fire-Wood Stove. Every so often new sounds come out and I can download the ones I like for free and use them whenever.  Great APP people. You also get a nice looking screen saver on the ipod.



4. September is National Preparedness Month...does your family have an emergency 'kit' and/or disaster plan in place?

You bet we do! And if you have an emergency kit for you, you need one for each pet in your family. Have it ready to walk out of the house with because if you ever have to evacuate, so does your pet(s). At one time I have a kit for 2 big dogs and a small turtle all stacked up ready to add whatever meds they were on and go.
This is Becke's Evacuation kit, the thing on top is her portable crate! Packed with food for 5 days!


5. How has your blog changed since you started blogging? Or has it?

Hubby says my spelling is getting better. He used to be my personal spell check and he will still look at it from time to time, but he tells me I am getting better. I found that I can come up with something to talk about and it's been great as an accountability tool for my personal challenge. It's also a place to give voice to my thoughts and feelings.  I sure do think a lot about the blog, "I should take a photo because I can put it on my blog".

6. What's something you've recently learned to do on the computer?

Have you visited or ever heard of The 5 Minute Bulletin Board? If not you should, it is packed with tips and helpful information about how to use your time and computer. Best part is you can read the newsletter (ezine) in 5 minutes or less and so I have learned how to find shorthcuts even on my Mac.


7. Is a picture worth a thousand words? Elaborate.

Well I guess it depends on whose words. See, woman use more words than men anyway. Watch two children playing who are the same age. The girl will talk to the dolls or even the army men while the boy will make sounds. So if a woman is describing something she may use thousands of words. Men, not so much. Case in point - I showed this photo to my Hubby and asked him to describe it -


His reply was 7 words long. "Maple leaf. It's a red maple leaf."

Now, every woman looking at the same photo will add the season, the location (a tree in my back yard is already turning.... you know) We are going to add a lot of words. So again I say it depends on who is doing the talking.

8. Insert your own random here.
15 days! Did you see the upper left side of my blog and the ticker counting down to the official start of Fall. It's coming so fast and up here it feels more and more like it. The sun comes up later every morning and goes down earlier every night. We still have windows open and at times we do put the AC on at night because it's been humid up here and sleeping is tough, but when we wake up, it's chilly at 56 degrees!  15 days - I'm a bit sad about that you know.


"Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. " ~Russel Baker

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Day After

I hope you had a great Labor Day! Over here, we got together with our church family for one HUGE cookout and had time to relax and catch up with their lives. That is always fun!! The food was great, the laughter was loud and the company was the best! I love our church family!

I did get to finish those projects before we left so here are the before and after.
The well cover Before
And After

The small garden Before
And After

I also painted the front door - I used the same colors but a fresh coat made the door so much nicer to look at.
And finally, I liked the red so much, I painted Becke's food station.
Before

And after - I had to change out her decoration but she didn't mind (or even notice for that matter)

Then, was the day was done, and all the hot dogs, hamburgers, and steak tips were eaten. When  we got in a short nap (You know from all the eating we did) we went out to Dairy Queen for a Mini Blizzard!  
Back to the real world today.  How was your Labor Day?

Monday, September 5, 2011

Happy Labor Day: A Day to Rest from Labor

I hope you are enjoying your Labor Day. For many who work outside of the home, it is a day off that we relish. There are so few days that many of us get to stay home, rest, enjoy our families and friends and not feel guilty. For those of you in the path of Topical Storm Lee, I pray that you are all safe and dry. I see on the weather channel that it is pretty bad in some states. Be safe, get to where you can be safe and take your pets with you.
This weekend was a weekend of  starting's - By that I mean, starting projects that I hope to finish by next weekend.

Such as this garden as it looks now - 
Really needs these weeds and such to be cleaned up.

And this well cover-
Is screaming for a fresh coat of paint.

I did start both, but they are not done yet so I will show you as soon as I can.

I did work on my personal challenge and I am up to 2044! I have only 356 miles to go!

Enjoy your day everyone - hug someone and say a prayer for our country - she really needs it.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Living in a Oxymoron World

I know that some down in South are still having tempts in the 100's. I know that some have had no rain and the plans and gardens are all dried out.  Up here however, we have had rain - lots of rain (Remember Irene?) and now that it is officially September, well it time to talk fall!
Over the last few days, I work up to temps in the low 50's. Today I woke up to this:

And before you get all excited that it will become warm and wonderful, I looked forwarded and this is what we are expecting today:

Yeah - It's going to reach 77. Now that may seem wonderful for you but I really like the heat so here is why I feel like I'm living in a Oxymoron World.  It's still summer for a full 3 weeks more. Summer - where temps should be in the high 80's or even (dare I say it high 90's!) but instead, I wake up to put on a bath robe, and slippers and wrap my hands around the hot coffee to warm them up!  I should be thinking of grilled chicken over a cold summer salad for dinner instead I'm looking at my crock pot and thinking "STEW".  I should be painting my toe nails and looking forwarded to wearing my flip flops, instead I'm putting them away in the back of the closet and looking for where I packed the boots!  I should still be seeing lots of flowers:

Instead I'm seeing this

Leaves falling on our deck chairs
Plants storing up there food for winter and laying down

So now, I am looking forwarded to what we call  here as "Indian Summer" where summer return with its warm  temps and feel for one last time before the cold rain falls.  It's a reminder to my heart: "Take heart LynnMarie, Summer will return, it will go away for a season, but it will return and you will appreciate it all over again."

Are you feeling the change in the air where you are?