April | One Line a Day

May 1, 2024 by GmasPhoto 2 Comments

April One Line a Day

Hi, we are gearing up on getting the yard in shape for our summer activities. April already here and the mowing and dandelion season has already begun!

1. April Fools. Seeing many posts of people showing pretty flowers blooming. And when I walk out of my door, this is what I see blooming.

2. Work computer was down yesterday. Made today very busy. My head hurt at the end of my shift.

3. I sure enjoy my ‘ice cream’ aka frozen strawberries and banana smoothie!

4. Movie night with Adam. For dinner, Casey’s pizza, best pizza! Movie, Deepwater Horizon with Mark Walburg and Kurt Russell. Much better than last Thursday’s choice.

5. Finally Friday, virtual walk with Linda.

6. Saturday, Weight Watcher meeting, Adam errands and grocery shopping.

7. My grand daughter had gotten a phone on her birthday this year. I got a text today with this picture!

my grand daughters selfie — My grand daughter’s selfie!

8. Monday, always busy. Call volume the highest in the week. Virtual walk with Linda (on our treadmills).

9. Rough day taking calls. Virtual walk with Linda (on our treadmills).

10. Spent the evening with Adam, our movie and dinner night. The movie tonight, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Could be a bit frightening for little children but not like the other movies Adam has selected!

11. Kevin fried a few mushrooms he found just a couple days ago. Every spring I look forward to having these!

12. It’s Friday! I look forward to the weekends. Tomorrow, going to the Tulip Festival!

13. Wamego, KS Tulip Festival! Very fun day spent with a friend, Linda. The weather was perfect!

14. Happy 36th birthday to my daughter! Kevin and I met her at the Waffle House for breakfast.

15. Last week, I was drinking hot chocolate. Our inside house temperature was at 62. This weekend the outside weather reached 80 degrees and then some. Kevin turned on the AC. We removed the pool cover. It’s time to start cleaning the pool and patio!

16. Enjoy the virtual walks with Linda.

17. Movie and Dinner night with Adam. Goulash for dinner. Real simple and plain recipe, hamburger (2lbs), I can tomato juice and 2 cups of elbow macaroni. Browned the hamburger then in a pot added all ingredients. Heated the goulash until the noodles were cooked. Done. Very good on a cold, rainy evening! The movie was the third in line, War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

18. Cold continues. Much needed rain. Lots of calls at work.

19. It’s Friday. My favorite part of the weekend is Friday at 5:30pm. My work shift has ended and the weekend has officially started!

20. Slept in. Horrible night sleeping. Did not go to my weekly Weight Watchers meeting. Stayed home. Ordered my groceries thru the Walmart app to pick up tomorrow.

21. Met Erika and the girls at my folks house. Had Casey’s breakfast pizza. Adam came by too!

22. Kevin always finds things to do on the farm. He will go to the back forty or across the road. I had a question for him and tried calling him. His phone was in the house on the charger. So I reverted to calling his name really loud, Ke-vin, here Kevin, come, along with a whistle. Not just one time, but several times repeatedly! 🙂 I thought it was funny. After several minutes, I heard him come into the house. His words, “So, you think you’re funny”. Looking into his eyes, “I thought it was darn funny!”

23. Experienced FaceTime issues. Not sure what caused the disruption. Ended up having to uninstall the app. Re-installed FaceTime and all was good. However, all this occurred during the time I was to virtual walk with Linda.

24. Good day. had hot chocolate. Was able to virtual walk with Linda, FaceTime now working.

25. Felt like Friday. Long day.

26. Dinner and movie night with Adam and a bonus. We went to Erika’s home for movie. Dinner was Golden Corral. The movie, Murder Mystery 2.

27. Spent the night with the kids. Saturday Shaune and Adam worked on taking out the bathtub from the grand girls bathroom. They got it out and even set in the new. Still need to work on the sheet rock. The hardest part is done.

28. When I left Erika and Shaune’s house, Shaune had the tub in place. He said the back part for the shower should be easier. The difficult part will be cutting the piece where the shower pipe will need to go thru the backing. I will be excited to see the remodel next weekend. And then after Erika has done her redecorating!

29. I had an exciting day. Adam called me this morning after he got off work. He had been in a bike wreck. Adam drives a Honda Grom. It’s bigger than a moped but not as big as a motorcycle. My heart sank. I live about 25 miles north of where Adam lives. I made it to town and Adam is okay. There was minimal damage, repairable. All is good.

30. Been in the process of opening the pool. Well, it’s official. Our pool will need attention. This summer we will need to limp it along. We have a drain that has a crack. It’s on the return side back to the pump. Kevin was concerned. He got one of those camera scopes to view the pipes. But the positive, Kevin said when he fixes the drain, we can replace the liner. Something I was excited to hear! 🙂

limp pool thru summer — Pool in need of loving care.

It will be necessary to drain all the water out before repairs can be made. This is the reason for trying to make the pool last thru the summer.

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra

March | One Line a Day

April 1, 2024 by GmasPhoto 6 Comments

March One Line a Day

Hi, I am so ready for spring. During the cold months, I fall victim to the blues. Working from home has presented a new level to the blues. The thought of requesting a higher dose of meds does not sound appealing to me. After giving this some thought, I want to work on habits.

Working at home, I have created some bad habits. The biggest bad habit I have gotten into, staying in my pajamas all day, every day through the week. Weekends I do leave the house, regular clothes and makeup are a must. To start my new positive habits, I will use a journal. My Weight Watchers teacher inspired me with hers. Planning to incorporate her style with a monthly post of one line a day. And, this will knock off my #58 on my 101 in 1001 list!

March got off to a late start. Beginning with Saturday, March 9, 2024.

09. My WW instructor’s suggestion of a journal style book already has brightened my day. The journal supplies I purchased are shown in the post feature image above.

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10. Amazing animals that touched my heart.

11. Monday, a typical day of working remote. After work watching Wheel of Fortune with Kevin, I keep telling him he should try out. He always figures out the puzzle.

12. This was a fun day. I took personal time from work and had to run an errand for my son. Which took me to Topeka, our state capitol. The grand girls were on spring break and they went with me.

13. Thankful for indoor plumbing, especially at nighttime.

14. Each day my feet touch the floor is a good day. I choose to be positive.

15. Had a fun movie night with Adam. We had Mac and Cheese with little smokies and watched the movie, Damsel on Netflix.

16. First went to my WW meeting. After, went to Best Buy. I had purchased the Zagg screen protector and paid the fee for Geek Squad to apply the protector. Both are a bit pricey when you think of it as a one time purchase. However, I had dropped my phone and the protector cracked. Well, Best Buy will exchange the broken protector with new and even apply again at no charge. This is the second time I needed to have a replacement.

17. Happy St. Patrick’s Day. The shamrock green is not a color in my wardrobe. However, I love to accessorize!

18. My new favorite Weight Watchers friendly dessert is frozen bananas.

19. Spent a fun evening with Adam. Our weekly movie and dinner night. This week the movie pick was Unthinkable. Definitely not family friendly. Rather a dark movie. If you have seen it, would be interested in knowing what you thought of it.

20. Not too much to say, regular work day and did a virtual walk with my friend, Linda. We meet in the evenings at 7:30 pm and FaceTime while we walk on our treadmills.

21. Cut up several bunches of bananas to freeze.

cutting bananas to freeze — From bunches to freezer!

22. It’s Friday, the best part of the weekend. The beginning!

23. The local grocery store has a wonderful deli. The food is good and very reasonably priced. Kevin and I each got a chicken dinner. Kevin got the white and dark meal and I ordered the 2 piece tender meal. Our total was 15 and some change.

24. Had breakfast with Kevin, Erika, Shaune and the grand girls. The grand girls wanted to come back to the house and see the calves!

25. Linda was not able to walk this evening, so I ate some cookies instead!

26. Drank 3 cups of hot chocolate. It’s still cold in Kansas. Walked with Linda tonight. Needed to walk off the hot chocolate and cookies!

27. A rollercoaster ride with my website disaster. Oh my, I was working on my website (this one) just Monday evening. All was fine when I went to sleep for the night. The next day I went to update a post and my site was gone. Vanished. I panicked. Today all seems to be back and working. Thank goodness! If you were wondering- I did pay the bill……. This was not the issue. I had to call the tech department and they were able to fix.

28. Had movie night with Adam. We had ham and cheese quesadillas. He chose the movie, Blood & Gold. This is not a family friendly movie. I think Adam will not be selecting next week’s movie night movie!

29. Sometimes I just like drinking my water from a glass jar instead of my insulated cup.

strawberry infused water — Absolutely the best way to drink water!

30. Kevin wanted to go shopping. This is a rare experience! Actually, our dear neighbor is not in the best health. Kevin wanted to shop for a jacket.

thrift store shopping — Kevin’s shopping spree!

31. Happy Easter.

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra

Bible Study | #50 of 101 in 1001

January 1, 2024 by GmasPhoto 2 Comments

Bible Study | #50 of 101 in 1001

Hi, Happy New Year to you!! My New Year’s resolution is not the typical ‘need to loose some weight’, which I have done in previous years. This year I have chosen to strengthen my Faith. Number 50 on my 101 in 1001 is to go to church once a week.

I had created this 101 in 1001 list back in February 2023. Since doing so, I have decided to tweak my going to church once a week to going to Bible study once a week. Have you heard of Joel Osteen? Some people like him and other’s not so much. My father is one who is with the not so much group. That can be a different story! 🙂 Today is about how I decided to strengthen my Faith.

#50 goal of going to church every Sunday was really on my mind for the whole month of December. It was on one Sunday that Joel Osteen’s program came onto the TV I had been watching. Joel, in my opinion, is an excellent presenter. I enjoy his uplifting words. At the end of his program he says to get into a good Bible based church. What I heard, Bible study. That is when I decided to change the going to church to bible study (Sunday School).

As I was preparing for my ‘Bible study’ group, I realized the only Bible I had was this beautiful, huge Bible my husband’s brother and his wife gave to me and Kevin as a wedding gift. I was on a mission :), find a Bible!!

I just didn’t realize how many different Bibles there are. One recommendation I would like to share, go to a Christian book store when you are searching for your Bible. At the store, you can actually compare the verses in one book to another. Genesis 9:4,5 was the one I used for comparisons. I bought two of mine from Amazon. It took 5 purchases before I found the one for me. Consider the print size and the age group. One suggestion for the retail marketers, change the age 6-12 to beginner. One of my preferred Bible that I have, is the kids’ version and it would be nice if it said beginner. And, I had to literally go to the kids’ section to find it.

This Bible needed to be more of a personal size book. I had gone to the Christian store, Mardel. There, the sales lady, assisted me with selecting the version I was more comfortable reading and understanding. I had selected the NKJV, New King James. It was my second visit to the Christian store that I had gone over to the kids’ section for the right Bible for me 🙂

Later, I was in Wal-Mart and happened to check their book section. And guess what, they sell Bible’s too! They had a super sized Bible, the font was much bigger. All the better for me to see! So I bought it. Well, later I was speaking with a friend and she was telling me she had gotten her (now grown) boys a children Bible and that is what she takes to her Bible study group. As you may have already thought, yes- I bought a kids’ Bible too 🙂

For anyone who is just beginning to read the Bible, I recommend the kids’ version. In the below image it shows what resources the kids’ book provides. The super size Bible is good too. As I began reading the Bible, there have been so many words I need help with. Webster wasn’t cutting it for me. This is when I ordered the Student Bible Dictionary.

I must say, I am eager to begin my studies! 🙂

In summary, the Christian book store is a one stop shop. Plan on spending a long time in the store. Look at more than one Bible version. There are large print, comfort print, and the age level options to consider. A reference book should be included for studying. Bible book tabs are good too.

WW Update:
Since Start Date; -28.6 lbs

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra

Back to the Norm

November 6, 2023 by GmasPhoto 8 Comments

Back to the Norm

Day Out with my Children

Hi, October was my thankful, grateful month. I am back to my usual series of postings that will be available these particular days: Monday, weekly post; Thursday, Tongue-Tied LinkUp Party and Friday, Gma’sPhoto | ge•ner•ic LinkUp Party.

Had a super fun Saturday with just me and my kids. This does not happen too often. I had asked them for a picture of the three of us. Then I wanted to have one of just my two children. It will go well with the past image series.

Picnic in the Park

This weekend Kevin asked that I go with him to the ‘Picnic in the Park’ for the homeless on Sunday. One of my 101 in 1001 goals is to go with Kevin more, and Sunday was a nice day for November. This week there was not as many people who went thru the line.

WW Update:
Since Start Date; -26.4lbs

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra

My Journey Update

August 28, 2023 by GmasPhoto 15 Comments

My Journey Update

Hi, I have been visiting other blogs and see many recipes. Many of those recipes look and sound very delicious, however- I do not cook. My husband and I have different eating schedules. For me this will be a post on what works for me while on the Weight Watchers program.

During the week, I have 30 minutes for lunch break. Now my husband is retired and he is on his own schedule. I require quick and simple. The Healthy Choice dinners are very Weight Watcher (WW) friendly, either 5 or 6 points. Plus, the ones I have tried (see the above collage) are pretty tasty!

I am not limited to eating the frozen dinners. That is what I like most about the WW program. Nothing is off limits. The question is, ‘How do I want to eat my points?’.

What I discovered, is the individual portion sizes. This is perfect and very simple. The portion size has already been measured and points assigned. I have a healthy choice meal with a snack. Several snacks I found are pictured in the collage above. No need to measure or weigh. Fruits and vegetables are free, no point value.

The weekends are the challenge. This is the time my husband and I will eat our meals together. Those times are generally at a restaurant. Which is not easy to calculate point values. The WW app does have a list of the more popular restaurant menus and point values. However, Kevin’s favorite places to eat are the mom and pop locations. I stick with the vegetables, limiting bread. For protein, either egg, chicken, turkey or beans, my go-to’s.

Weight Watchers will acknowledge and reward my milestones. I am working on my 20lb charm! 🙂

I enjoy stopping by my folks house for a visit after my Saturday WW meetings. Being a photographer, taking pictures with my family is important. Especially now that my parents are in their upper 70’s. Side note, I recommend getting family pictures, at minimum, every 5 years. Families with young children, every other year.

Weight Watchers does not pay me to write about their program. Simply, it is working for me. Anyone who has a question about the program, I will gladly share my opinion and what works for me. It is in my opinion, loosing weight in a healthy manner will most definitely make you feel better. And as a person who takes her ‘happy pills’, feeling better is important!

The following links are prequels to My Journey Update.
My Journey
Follow Up

WW Update:
Since Start Date; -16lbs

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra

Follow Up Post

August 2, 2023 by GmasPhoto 6 Comments

Follow Up Post

Hi, generally I schedule my posts for Monday’s. However, this week I wanted to have a post with a follow up to a few of my ongoing goals. And in doing so, I will be able to provide a photography tip I discovered just this weekend and would love sharing with you! Let’s begin with the photography tip.

It was while working with the picture to the left. It could be the image at the top if you are reading this on your phone. It is my selfie taken in the grocery store! 🙂

The following screen shots were taken on my iPhone 14 ProMax. The Portrait Mode is available on the iPhone 11 and up. I am not sure about models before the 11. I recommend the Portrait Mode in your camera for selfies or when your subject is two to eight feet in front of you. The Portrait Mode is available in the built-in camera app. Once you have the camera open and the Portrait Mode selected, frame the subject to take the shot. When the camera screen displays Natural Light, you can then take the picture.

Notice the background on both pictures. In Portrait Mode, the background is blurred. Looks pretty nice doesn’t it! The Portrait Mode is one way to emphasize the subject. This is especially handy when your background is busy or unattractive. There is more to the photography tip I wanted to share.

Let’s say after you take the picture, you decide you do want to see more details of the background. You can change the background to see more detail. Yes, you heard me correctly. The background can be edited after the image was taken. Let me show you how.

Open the picture you want to see more details in the background. Click the Edit button.

At the top center you will see the word Portrait that is highlighted yellow. Click it. When it is no longer highlighted, the background will not be blurred. Click the word Portrait again, and the background goes back to blurred. Pretty nifty!

Remember the rule of thirds as well. Both of these tips will make your images look better!

Ok, now for the follow up 🙂 This picture is the whole reason for the post today! I have now been an active Weight Watchers member for seven weeks. And yes, I am loosing weight, yippee! However no one seems to have noticed. I notice small changes like today getting in and out of my husband’s truck is easier. My rings seem to be spinning more on my fingers and it is hot outside!

After getting home from the grocery store, I was looking thru some of my past selfies. And lo and behold, I ran across a picture taken just this past May. It was the day I went to the KC Zoo with my daughter and her family. Visit the KC Zoo here!

My very first week, I had signed up for Weight Watchers (WW) in the phone app. The service I selected was the online option. Any classes I wanted to take would require me to upgrade services. And eventually I did just that. The meetings have been very instrumental for me. After seeing the two pictures above side by side, I wonder how much weight I lost that very first week. I never weigh myself at home. My weight was only checked when I went to the doctor and now at my weekly WW meeting. In the post, Looking my Best tells the story of my WW discovery.

And with my WW journey I am successfully implementing #69 of my 101 in 1001 goals, avoid or eat less junk food. That’s a win, win for me!

Loosing weight is not easy. Never has been for me. However, the WW point system and the ability to scan bar codes while at the grocery store makes this process for me easy. I will continue with Weight Watchers and post my progress, good or not good here. I need accountability!

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra