Author: julesfarm@yahoo.com

Firewood + Beer = Happy Girl Last May we received our first half cord of wood to burn while enjoying the deck fireplace. When it was delivered, Mike was in shock of how much wood it was and made a comment somewhere along the lines of….”That’s gonna last four years!” I giggled. He knows how much I love a fire, but because we’ve never had a wood burning fireplace, I guess he didn’t realize just how often I might enjoy it. He soon realized he really enjoyed it too. We made it almost a year with that first load! I did use the wood pile for a few camping trips as well. When he called the company recently to set up a delivery, the guy said they were so busy he couldn’t deliver, but we could come pick it up, so yesterday we did just that! Half cord fit perfectly […]

Hi Friends! I hope you all are well! Spring has sprung here in KC and it’s making for some gorgeous walks these last few days. Every spring I’m fascinated by this tree trunk! We were able to have a family gathering outside at Mike’s parents for Palm Sunday. My mother in law was so happy to have her children, grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren over for an egg hunt! We really missed having Tess and Manuel there but look forward to a huge family gathering later in the year. Miss Kate down over 100 lbs!! Our Easter was unusual but wonderful. While I drove my dad to Bella Vista, Arkansas to visit his sister and her husband and some friends for the weekend, Mike drove his parents to Winchester, Kansas on Easter morning to visit his moms sister and a few extended family members. Typically Mike and I spend Easter in […]

Before sharing the Funny, I have to share this with you! I Love My WW Members! Such a great Workshop yesterday. During the first half of the Workshop we discuss what is working, what isn’t and how we can continue to do the things that work and how we can make changes to the things that are not working. One member shared how this week she had some recent feelings of frustration with having to track her food and the many other things she was doing in her life that were all in the name of good health. This week she decided to look at the work she was doing and the time she was putting into taking care of herself as an opportunity to, in her words “manage my health”. She turned her thinking around and decided that it was not something she HAD to do, but something she […]

I have way more blog post in the last three years titled…..”Post-Op” than I care to admit. Yet, here I find myself again. 15 stitches. Limited motion. Limited activity. Cover when showering. Daily cleaning of the area and wrapping. Physical Therapy suggested hourly to help prevent scar tissue build up and help with mobility. PT appointments. At the end of the day I still work on finding the silver lining in all of it, but this girl is tired. Thursdays surgery removed the permanent sutures put in to repair the ruptured tendon in my thumb on December 1st. My surgeon, along with a second opinion from a colleague, was concerned the sutures could be hanging onto some bacteria, preventing my staph infection from clearing up. While in there, he also removed a significant amount of scar tissue from the December 1st surgery, which is good because it was attached to […]

Hi friends! I hope you all are doing well. I’m hearing of more and more people getting the vaccine and I’m so excited to hear this and to see some signs of us all being able to move forward and get back to doing the things we love and miss doing. I miss restaurants and concerts and a houseful of family and friends the most. We are getting closer, so be patient and keep hope! We’ve moved past those really cold days and are experiencing some beautiful sunny weather here in KC the last few days. Expected sunny and 70 today, my absolute favorite temperature! We spent Saturday night on the deck watching TV with a fire in the fireplace for the first time in several weeks and it was perfect. If you’ve not watched the series Ted Lasso on Apple TV, I could not recommend it more. Sweet, endearing, […]

Congratulations to the three winners! Regina, Diane and Nancy! Winner One! I love nf greek yogurt mixed with cheesecake sf pudding mix. A dab of Cool Whip. Add a few berries or cooked apple or peaches or pumpkin and cinnamon – Regina Winner Two I guess my favorite go-to is an Ole Wellness tortilla, spread with 1 serving of PBFit (2T powder to 1T water), and a chilled banana. I sprinkle a little cinnamon and a dash of granulated Stevia, then roll that baby up and BAM! There you go! On the purple plan it’s only 2 SPs and packs a whoppin’ 13 grams of protein, so it stays with me. For a midafternoon snack to keep me on track, it’s perfect. And yes, I always prefer a chilled banana. Don’t let the brown peeling fool you – those lovelies keep in the fridge for 2-3 days and oh so […]

Who could use a little fun today? You?? I see you. Although these frigid temps are crazy right now, we have power, cozy socks, a lotta coffee and snacks. Snacks are important! Kansas City is doing the rotation of forced power outages. We were only without power for about 30 minutes today. Fingers crossed that’s our only outage. How are you all doing? Hanging in there? Stay strong. Stay safe. If you do have power and groceries, I thought I’d share a few favorites for a cold cold seriously cold day. Julie’s Steak Soup This is hearty and taste even better the next day! Betsy’s Zucchini Soup This could be a vegetarian dish, but I do like to add chicken. Turkey Sweet Potato Chili – How cold are you? You should make this one. White Chicken Chili from What Great Grandma. Found while searching Paleo soups. SOOO Good. Vegetarian Butternut […]

Life feels so messy right now and I don’t like it when life gets messy. I mean, who does? I sat down to write a blog a couple of times over the last two weeks and the words just wouldn’t come. It just seems to be one of those times in life where a lot of things seem to be happening all at once and there are days that it feels like it’s too much and I just wanna walk away, or go to bed, or eat. Instead, I decided to crank up the tunes, dance a lot and paint some rooms! Update on Mom Did you know that we all have crystals in our inner ear? I’m sure many of you did. I did not. They help us sense gravity. I’ve never heard of this before so learning something new! Did you also know that when they become loose […]

Two days after my last post, my phone was ringing at 6:00 am on a Sunday morning. It was my mom. I’ve been waiting for this call. My mom is 78 years old. She’s 4’6″ and weighs 66 pounds. She small but she’s also tough, determined, stubborn and very independent. She is her mother. She’s worked at Target for just over 15 years and she now works two days a week. I’m not sure what life would look like for her without that job as it’s really the only socializing she has. So while she has just this year agreed to working only two days a week, I worry about her getting out and about as her balance isn’t so great and she is frail. The last snow I insisted on going to take and pick her up from work as she parks outside and I couldn’t imagine her scraping […]