Author: Kay Krause

My guest checked out around 8:45 this morning.  Her ride showed up earlier than she had expected.  I was glad it did as Kathy was going into Cottonwood and I needed to go into Emporia.  My other guests was up and outside before sunrise.  She left shortly after sunrise to go find a place to paint.  She hasn’t returned back to the house yet.

We had a very pleasant evening sitting around the fire pit watching the sunset.  Both guests joined us and enjoyed a glass of wine.  It cooled off nicely and Mother Nature put on a colorful display last night.

Went into Emporia this morning and met with my friend so he could help me choose my Medicare Supplement.  I forgot to take my Medicare card with me so I will have to go back tomorrow to finish the process.  I was very pleased with the rate.  I will pay more per month than I have been paying but when I factor in the much lower deductible I will come out way ahead of what I have been paying for medical insurance and out-of-pocket expenses.  Still need to find a prescription plan but he gave me an estimate and I think it is affordable too.  What a weight off my mind this has turned out to be!

Stopped and got chicken feed, oats and sunflower seeds at Bluestem before I came home.  Made a quick stop at Walmart to pick up some more half and half and sugar packets.  I have been doing laundry and cleaning since I have been home.

A dear friend is delivering the stained glass pieces this afternoon.  Trusting I will find the perfect place to put them.  I can’t remember how big they are.  It will be so good to see them again.  I trust they are as beautiful as I remember them being.  They are sunflowers which I had stopped decorating with but I still love sunflowers.

Almost have the seventh tea towel of the last set done.  The tea towels I ordered are supposed to arrive later today – just in the nick of time.  I get dangerous when I don’t have something productive to do!

I have to go back to town tomorrow to finish up my enrollment since I forgot my card.  Nothing else on my calendar for tomorrow though.  I am ready for a “being” type of day.  It has felt like a whirlwind around here since I got home from Italy.  Much busier than normal for me.  I am still adjusting to my new job of hosting people.  Only had six completely empty days in June.

Attempted to add a second site to the Airbnb site so I could double book.  Only problem is I can’t figure out which site is which since I duplicated the site.  Sometimes the calendar shows one site and sometimes the other and I can’t figure out how to switch between them.  Since I have bookings it won’t let me cancel one of them.  May need to send Airbnb a note and ask for help.  I’ll get on my laptop after a bit and see if that makes a difference.

I decided to go with Nicole to Australia and New Zealand – no surprise – right?  I had it on my list of things to do before I turn 70 and don’t expect to get another chance to go.  Next year might be a year for no travel – I had thought this year would be but that isn’t the way it is turning out.  We have decided to go in November and will get the trip booked soon.

I blocked the days off my Airbnb calendar so no one can slip a booking in.  I put the days I had taken off in July back on as I will need all the business I can get to help pay for the trip.  I trust I will have some days off during July like I did in June.  It really doesn’t take much of my time to host.  Even though I have more guests on more days than I did when I did the retreats it doesn’t feel like I am working near as hard as I did hosting retreats.

Rain is in the forecast for overnight and tomorrow.  I would welcome every drop.  You could break an ankle falling into the cracks in my yard.  I drug hose around to the front of the yard yesterday so I could give the glads a drink.  They just started blooming and deserved a cool drink.

This has been a good week.  Great news from the Endocrinologist yesterday, getting the stain glass pieces back today and finding out my healthcare costs will decrease for next year!  I am one lucky lady.

Grateful to the people who were so very kind to offer me the stained glass pieces back, grateful to my friend that helped me get enrolled in Medicare Supplement today, and grateful I get to go on another adventure later this year.

My guest finally found me last night – or maybe I found her.  She called and confirmed directions so not sure how she got lost but she did.  I couldn’t figure out where they were so had them go back to Strong City.  I drove in and they followed me to my house.  First guests that couldn’t find me!   Her 86 year-old grandfather was driving her out here so maybe that explains part of it.

She called the Chase County Transportation van and it came and picked her up and took her to town so she could get some lunch and dinner.  She doesn’t have her own car.  I didn’t know the Chase County van would come out here to pick someone up.  Nice to know in case a future guest needs it.

Went to Topeka to see the Endocrinologist this morning.  She said I am her patient of the month.  She is very pleased with my blood levels, a clear ultrasound and my weight loss.  I will repeat the ultrasound and blood tests in October and then go see her again next February when we will repeat everything again then.

Had an interesting conversation with her regarding me going off processed foods, flour and sugar.  She ask what prompted me to go off sugar and flour.  I told her it was my belief that sugar feeds cancer and I needed to do my part to make sure the cancer didn’t come back.  She told me there was a study done with breast cancer patients and it found the patients that were able to go off processed foods, flour and sugar had a much lower reoccurrence of their breast cancer.  It doesn’t 100% prevent it but it does lower the risk.  The same study has not been done with thyroid cancer patients but she said in her own practice she sees the same type of results as the patients that give up sugar, flour and processed foods have a much lower reoccurrence rate.  Wonder why she didn’t suggest that road to me last time I saw her?  Glad I figured it out on my own though and she validated I am taking a solid preventive step to help prevent a reoccurrence of the cancer.

She ask if I wanted her theory on my atrial flutter.  Of course I said yes.  She said when I was in the thyroid storm it probably did some damage to my heart’s electrical system.  Statistically over 60% of people who have a thyroid storm develop atrial fib.  Most of those (80%) don’t have any future problems once their thyroid levels are managed. Some continue to have issues.  That would be me!  She said to keep following the Cardiologist and she will keep checking my thyroid levels often.  Her hope would be as my body continues to heal and stabilize the number of atrial flutter episodes I have will continue to decrease.  Ablation, which is the only permanent fix,  is usually only done if atrial fib is a daily occurrence.

The Cardiologist office finally called me back today.  He had been out of the office last week.  I had ask to have my blood thinner medication dose reduced as I am bruising so easily.  The nurse said the Cardiologist doesn’t want to do that yet.  I have an appointment with him in August and I could ask again then.  I was hoping with the stress test results back that he would take me off of it completely.  Guess I will see what he has to say in August.  Not sure I agreed to stay on this medication long-term.  I haven’t had any atrial flutter since early in my trip in Italy so it has been almost a month now without an episode.  Atrial flutter increases the odds of having a stroke so the blood thinner is a precaution, however, taking the blood thinner has its own risks too.

Got a surprise phone call today.  When I lived at the house on 15th Ave I had two stain glass windows custom-made and put in the entry way.  The lady that lives there now has completely remodeled the house and they don’t fit with her decor.  She offered to give them back to me!  Not sure where I will put them as I don’t remember for sure what size they are.  A friend offered to help me get them out here for me.  I bet I can find a place for them.  I remember how much I loved them and I can’t believe I am going to get them back.  What a nice gift!

Have another guest coming in later tonight and staying until Thursday.  The guest that is here now will be leaving tomorrow morning.  At least I don’t have to flip a room quickly tomorrow as the next set of guests don’t arrive until Thursday.  I will only have to flip one room on Thursday.

Tomorrow I am going to visit with a friend and he will help me make my Medicare insurance supplement decision.  I will be glad to get that taken care of.  I am anxious to know how much it will cost!  Not sure I want to know but knowing is always better than guessing.

Nicole ask me to go with her to Australia and New Zealand later this year.  Hadn’t planned on taking another big trip this year but hard to say no.  I’ll need to think about it for a bit and decide.  Going to Australia and New Zealand is on my 70 things to do before I turn 70 list.  The offer is very tempting.  Guess it doesn’t matter if I spend the money this year or next year!  Maybe if the Airbnb stays as busy as it has been I will make enough to cover the cost.

Last night I had blocked off two weeks in July from my Airbnb calendar.  I accepted a 13 day stay in August and already had a five-day stay in August on the calendar.  July has two weeks booked already too  I realized I needed to block off some time to get a break so I didn’t burn out.  If I decide to go to Australia and New Zealand I may open those days back up.  I had thought about taking a road trip in July but will need to decide if I want to do that or the bigger trip later.

Overall this has been a great day.  Good news from the Endocrinologist and I am so happy about getting the two stain glass pieces back.  I never dreamed that might happen.  An invite to go to Australia and New Zealand doesn’t happen every day either.

Grateful for my intuition that lead me to go off flour and sugar and for finding a program to help me do so, grateful for getting the stain glass pieces back, and grateful for being ask to go to Australia and New Zealand – oh the possibilities!

My guests left this morning around 9:45.  As soon as they left I stripped the beds and started the sheets in the washer.  Then I quickly went into Emporia to pick up the prescription I needed for this afternoon.  Stopped and got a few groceries and came home.  Put the sheets in the dryer and the towels in the washer.

A lady called yesterday and wanted to come last night and stay for two nights.  She didn’t show up when she said she would be here.  She finally called sometime after 9:00 and said her brother-in-law had a heart attack and she had to rush to Topeka to be with him.  She ask if she could come today and stay until Tuesday.  I’ll see if she shows up.  Not sure what her story is and why she is needing a place to stay.

I have a guest checking in tomorrow afternoon and staying until Thursday.  She is an artist and will be out painting most of the time.

The guests that checked out today were a mom and her two sons.  The boys sure liked gathering eggs.  I warned them about the rooster the first time I took them down to the coop.  I showed them the stick I always carry while I am in the coop as a precaution.  I think they were kinda hoping he would come after them so they could wack-a-doodle him.  I’m glad he didn’t as he can do real serious damage to someone quickly.  The boys fixed scrambled eggs for themselves and their mother last night for their dinner.  They did a great job cooking and cleaned up after themselves nicely.  They said the eggs tasted better than normal.

When Kathy and I were getting the dog crate out of the barn Friday night the door to the barn blew shut and caught me in the ass.  During the night I rolled over and I woke up from the pain in my ass.  I have a small bruise so far with a knot down deep.  Since I am on a blood thinner I will need to pay attention to it and make sure it isn’t bleeding inside.  So far it isn’t swollen – just sore to the touch.

Worked on tea towels again yesterday.  Have three of seven complete and a fourth one almost done.  I ordered some more tea towels.  I decided it is a fun hobby and gives me a cool project to work on during the summer when it is too hot to knit.  I’ll eventually find a home for them or get them sold.  I have lots of embroidery floss I need to get used up.

Art Day is at Prairie Past Times this afternoon.  Think I will text the guest that is supposed to be checking in and ask her to call or text me when she is close to my house.  That way I won’t have to stay home and wait for her like I did yesterday.  I am slowly learning how to continue to do the things I want to do while having guests in the house.  It feels like a balancing act to me right now and I have been tipping the scales in favor of the guests.  I need to get it more in balance or I will burn out from having guests in the house.

Tomorrow morning I have to be in Topeka by 10:45 to see the Endocrinologist.  Since all the tests came back good I am thinking it will be a very short visit.  I think she will  order a repeat of the same tests to be done in three months and then I can go to an every six month schedule for one year and then an annual schedule after that.  Can’t believe it has been nine months since they found the cancer when I had my thyroid removed October 4.

Another hot day for Kansas today.  Going to cool down to the 80’s this week with a chance for rain on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The clouds rolled in yesterday but didn’t bring any rain with them.  My yard is pretty much burned up with only the parts closest to the house still green.  Cuts down on the amount of mowing I have to do but it isn’t very comfortable to walk in.

Grateful for the delight my dogs and chickens bring to my guests, grateful my cancer is gone, and grateful for my washer and dryer that helps make flipping rooms easy.

The first set of guests have checked out although I am babysitting their dog for a couple of hours.  They were going to the Tallgrass Preserve for the bus tour and couldn’t take the dog on the bus.  Kathy helped me bring up a crate from the barn for the dog last night.  The dog whines off and on but since he peed on my floor once already he is not getting out.

Have the second load of laundry going so I can get the beds made up for the group of guests that are checking in this afternoon.  May not have the towels put away before the next guests arrive but should be able to have the beds made up.  Have the rooms all cleaned up and trash emptied so it won’t take long to finish up once the laundry is done.

Tomorrow I will get to repeat the bed making process as the guests coming this afternoon are only staying for one night.  I have a single guest checking in late Monday afternoon.  She is staying until Thursday and I have four guests checking in Thursday who are staying until Sunday.  Another busy week on the prairie coming up!

Pressed the two finished sets of tea towels last night and stamped another set.  This will be my last set unless I order some more tea towels.  I almost ordered a bunch more tea towels today but am going to sit with it a bit longer and then decide if I really want to make a bunch more.  Not sure what I would do with them.  The tea towels are getting so expensive to buy I now have to charge $50 a set just to recover my costs plus just a little for my time.  I am probably making $0.50 an hour for my time!  Not sure people will pay that much for a set although I did sell one set at that price to a guest.  She is from the West Coast and I am sure prices are a bit higher out there then they are here.  They are a very high quality tea towel but not sure I would pay $50 for a completed set.  I can only give away so many sets.  I do enjoy making them though.

Sent a note to the neighbors I buy straw from to see if they would be interested in mowing and baling my front and side yard.  I told them they could have the hay if they would burn the pasture come spring time and give me 10 bales of straw which I use for the chickens.  She is going to discuss it with her husband and then get back in touch with me.  My next door neighbor used to burn it and arrange for someone to mow and bale it.  He didn’t burn it this spring so am exploring options  If anyone knows of someone who might be interested in doing it let me know.  It is about 20 acres so not sure it is big enough to drive equipment here from very far away.

Another very hot and humid day out today.  Thinking I will stay inside until evening today.  I need to go into Emporia and pick up a prescription but may wait until tomorrow to do that.  Not sure what time my guests are arriving this afternoon but I know they are checking out early tomorrow as they want to be in Council Grove by 8:30.  I’ll have lots of time tomorrow to go into Emporia to pick it up.

Got the name and phone number of a handyman from Cottonwood Falls from a friend.  I need to call him this afternoon to see if he would be interested in replacing a deck board and a base board for me.  Both of those projects have been on my list of things to take care of quite a while and I just haven’t been able to find someone to take care of them for me.  Seems like there is always little projects like that I need to find someone take care of.  I don’t have the tools or the know how to do them myself.

Sitting in my peaceful valley today.  My mind is quiet and the monkey chatter has quieted down  Love when that happens.  Wish I could learn how to make it happen but am always grateful when it does.  I appreciate these moments of quiet in the house more now too since they don’t happen as often as they did before.

Grateful for easy guests – even when they bring a dog that pees on my floor, grateful for a house that cleans up easily, and grateful for the oasis of peace I have found within again.

 

 

 

The house is clean and ready for the first set of three guests to arrive this weekend.  They are only staying one night and they told me they didn’t think they would be here before 5:30 or 6:00 this evening.  Three more will arrive tomorrow afternoon but are only staying one night.  One guest comes in on Monday late afternoon and is staying until Thursday.  Three come in on Thursday and stay until Sunday!  I will be doing lots of laundry and cleaning this week.

Ran into Cottonwood Falls to cash a check.  Picked up my updated business cards.  I changed Spiritual Retreat Center to Airbnb on them and removed my website address as I don’t use that any more.  Stopped and got a bunch of bananas for the guest fruit bowl.  Have some children coming this weekend and most kids like bananas.  If I have time I will need to run into Emporia and pick up a prescription.  Not sure when it will be ready so may need to do that Sunday instead.

I am tired today for some reason.  I slept OK last night in two parts again.  I was up early today.  The sunrise was beautiful!  The sun is way to the North – Solstice is next Thursday so it has almost reached its northern most peak and will slowly start the journey back south.

On Thursday, June 28 I am having a moon rising party.  I am providing hot dogs along with the fixings for s’mores.  I will also have iced tea and water.  Please bring a covered dish to share if you can – a bag of chips works too!   All are invited to come around 6:00.  The moon rises around 9:25.  We will drum the sun down starting around 8:00 and then move to the east yard around 9:00 to watch for the moon to come up.  I have a few more beds available that night for only $28 a person (plus sales tax) if you want to come and stay over.  I would appreciate a head count so I know how many hot dogs to get.  Bring some friends and come enjoy an evening on the prairie.  You are welcome to bring some adult beverages with you if you would like to stay cool that way.

Not a fan of this hot, humid Kansas summer this year.  We never received our good spring rains – wonder if they will come in July this year.  Not sure I want to know what my electric bill is going to be this month.  The A/C has been working overtime.  I don’t do well in this heat although I am tolerating it much better this year than last year when my thyroid was in overdrive and I was sweating buckets.

Monday I get to drive to Topeka in the morning to go see the Endocrinologist.  I haven’t heard the results of the Ultrasound but all the blood work came back really good and I am expecting the same from the Ultrasound.  My appointment is at 11:00.  I just heard from the guest that is coming in that day and she told me she won’t be here until after 5:00.  That gives me more time to get home without racing back to beat her here.

My Airbnb rate keeps slowly creeping upwards.  I do their automated rate and the more bookings I get the higher the rate goes up for future bookings.  It started really low so I am happy to see it go up a bit.  I will continue to monitor how the automated rate works and I always have the option to set the rate if I don’t think they are raising it enough.  I certainly don’t want to cheat my guests but compared to the other Airbnb rates in Chase County I am way too low right now.   I almost have enough reviews to get the Super Host Label.  Not sure others pay attention to that but I bet some do.  Most of the guests I have had don’t have reviews on them yet.  Guess we are checking each other out!

Went on-line and ordered my car tags this morning.  No matter how you pay they charge an extra fee for it.  They even charge a fee if you purchase your tags in person.  That feels wrong to me somehow.  Not sure why they can’t factor their credit card and banking fees into the fixed rate and call it good.  Oh wait – it is the government.  Guess they don’t have to make sense.

Sitting with a quiet mind today.  May go lay down for an hour and rest.  My kidneys are still a bit tender and I feel tired today.  Going to be a week of busy days around here and I may take advantage of a quiet, empty house this afternoon and take a nap.

Grateful for lots of guests booking and coming to share my house with us, grateful for the views I have on the prairie where I can see the moon rises and beautiful sunsets, and grateful for my A/C that works hard to keep me cool during this hot, humid heat wave Kansas is in right now.

 

This has felt like a long day.  Was awake between 1:00 and 4:00 again this morning.  Finally got a bit more sleep after 4:00 but not good sleep.

Cleaned the guest bedrooms this morning and got them ready for the guests that are arriving tomorrow.  Kathy cleaned the downstairs living room and kitchen.  Tomorrow morning I will clean the upstairs living room and kitchen.  The guests aren’t coming until after 5:30 so have lots of time to get ready for them.  They check out Saturday morning and then three other guests check in Saturday afternoon.

Went to a board meeting at Pioneer Bluffs this afternoon.  We sat in the barn for our meeting today for some reason.  It wasn’t too hot but it was plenty warm.  I had promised myself I would keep my mouth shut but wasn’t able to do so.  I know, no surprise to those of you that know me well!  Trusting I didn’t offend too many but felt what I said needed to be said.  I don’t think serving on a board is something I do very well.  I am not a strategic planner – I am more of a take action and ask forgiveness type of gal.

Didn’t get home from the board meeting until a little before 5:00.  Fixed my dinner and then headed into Emporia to pick up a prescription and go to an informational meeting on Medicare.  I need to get enrolled soon with a prescription plan and a supplement plan.  The meeting tonight was very helpful and I now understand the options better.  I did not know that Plan A deductible can be charged every sixty days and there is no maximum deductible.  Now the premiums for the supplements make more sense to me.  I made an appointment to finalize my choices for next week so I can get this done.  A friend of mine put on the seminar this evening and is going to help me get enrolled next week.  Grateful to know the right person at the right time to help me through this maze.

Have had some pain in my kidney area off and on today.  Thinking my kidneys are protesting about the medication that was put into my system yesterday during the Nuclear Heart Stress Test.  Have been doing my best to drink extra today to help wash that crap through.

Have two bookings for 2019 already!  Made another booking for June today too.  I really need to look at the calendar and plan ahead so I can have time off for me.  My mentor is coming in September and I found out when today so I blocked those dates on the Airbnb calendar so I can get free to go to KC to see him while he is in town.  I am also going to KC on June 23 for a Core Star Reunion so I can see a friend coming in from Florida.  I remembered to block that day too.  Need to decide if I want to get away for a couple of weeks this summer and if so I need to get those days blocked so I can get away.  Had an inquiry about a stay for five nights in August today.  He hasn’t confirmed yet so I still have the option to block some days if I decide soon to do so.  I am thinking of a road trip to see a friend in Chicago and then going on to Maine to see some friends that spend the summer at their lake house in Maine.  Haven’t gotten the urge to take another trip yet but if I don’t decide soon I might not be able to get away.

Didn’t hear back from the Cardiologist about lowering the blood thinner medication dose so guess I will call the prescription in tomorrow and get it refilled at the higher dose.  At least the insurance company gets to pay for this refill.  Got a notification from my Doctor’s office that I had a ghost appointment with the Cardiologist today.  Not sure what that was about and didn’t have time to call them today.  Thinking it might be the time a Cardiologist spent to read the results of the stress test I had done yesterday.  Didn’t hear any results yet but my Cardiologist is out of the office this week.

Only have two more tea towels to go to finish the set I am working on.  I will need to get some more stamped if I want to make another set.  Not sure how many blank tea towels I have left.  Maybe I have enough sets made for a bit anyhow.  They keep my hands busy and I feel like I accomplish something at the end of the day when I finish one or two a day.

Thinking about the different ways people think and go about life.  Reminding myself we all operate on ranges and just because someone has a different range than me doesn’t make either one of us wrong and the other right.  Helps me remove my judgement when I remember that.

Grateful for friends that help me out navigating the maze called Medicare, grateful for lots of bookings coming in for my Airbnb, and grateful for the friends I have made while serving on the board for Pioneer Bluffs.

Finally got a good night’s sleep last night.  Slept in two parts but it was good sleep both times.  Woke up before the alarm went off feeling rested.

I was at the Emporia hospital by 8:45 this morning to check in for my nuclear heart stress test.  They took me back right on time at 9:00.  Put an IV in me and gave me some contrast medication.  I had to wait 30 minutes and then they took a 15 minute series of scans of my heart.  Back to the waiting room to wait my turn on the treadmill.  After an hour they called me back, got me all wired up and then we sat and waited for the person to come to the room so I could do the tread mill part.  Waited an hour for her to come in the room.  The tread mill part only took 10 – 15 minutes.  Partway through they put in more contrast medication.  Back to the waiting room for another 30 – 45 minute wait then the final set of scans and I was done.  I didn’t leave until well after 12:30.  Lots of hurry up and wait going on today.

Never felt any chest pressure or pain during the day.  Thinking it will all come back clear with no significant findings.  Trusting I can go off my blood thinner medication and not even have to get them refilled.  Still haven’t heard back from the Cardiologist if he will lower the dose if I do need to stay on them.

Stopped at the grocery store to pick up a birthday cake for a dear friend to take to a meeting we will be at together tomorrow.  Came home and my nephew came over.  He is going to clear out my lagoon area.  I let trees grow in it and it needs mowed.  I didn’t know how important it is to keep that area cleaned out.  Now I do so Dean is going to get it cleaned up for me and then I will mow it weekly.  One more thing I can cross off my to-do list.

Got another booking this morning – this one is for the first weekend in July and only one person.  That will be easy!

Tomorrow I have two meetings to go to – one in the afternoon  and one in the evening.  Friday I have to clean in the morning as guests are coming in the early evening.  Another couple of busy days in front of me.  Should have a quieter week next week but I can’t count on that as guests can book anytime.

Nothing I have to do the rest of the day.  May sit and do some more tea towels.  Have two done of the set I am working on and a third one over half way done.  It is so relaxing to do embroidery work for me.  The only time I cuss is when I have trouble threading the needle.

Glad the heart stress test is done.  Thinking I am on the back side of all of these medical issues.  Time for me to be healthy for a bit and enjoy life.  Getting closer and closer to my goal weight and getting on with my life happy, thin and free!

Grateful the heart test is done, grateful my nephew is here taking care of a project for me, and grateful I have nothing that needs done for the rest of the day.

What a long night.  For some reason I could not fall asleep last night.  Not sure if it was the storm or what was going on.  I finally fell asleep lightly around 5:00.  Even then I saw every hour on the clock until I finally gave up around 8:45.

Ate breakfast and then decided to get the mowing done before I took my shower.  There was a pair of athletic shorts in my closet.  I thought they were the ones I had bought to wear when I was training for the Camino.  I knew they would be too big and thought I had thrown them out but decided it didn’t matter what I wore mowing so I put them on.  They fit perfectly which puzzled me until I looked at the tag.  They were Tagen’s shorts – size 16 in boys.  Thanks buddy for being my size now.

It was dusty and dirty mowing today.  I didn’t think the outer part of the yard would need mowing but it did.  It was dry enough I left tracks in the grass so I could tell where I had just mowed.  Ate my greens today while mowing.  May take me several days to get all the grass and dirt out of hidden body crevices.

Came in around noon and had lunch.  It is another not too hungry type of day but I managed to get my salad down.  Walmart didn’t have any good cucumbers yesterday so got a cauliflower crumble mix that was really good and made my salad taste a bit different for a change.  I try not to make my food taste extra good as that seems to trigger me to want to eat more.  I want it to taste OK and not yucky but not especially sexy and exciting either.

Didn’t go do Kathy’s walk with her this morning.  Wanted to get the mowing done before it got too hot today.  There is a nice breeze this morning and I kept comfortable mowing.  It is to warm up again this afternoon.  We got lots of lightning last night, a bit of thunder but little if any rain.  It all went around us.  Maybe next system will be kinder to us and give the prairie a drink of water.

Got another booking for this week.  The lady that was here with her dad last week is coming back for one night and bringing her two boys this time.  They are going to the dig site together on Sunday.  Since I have three other guests Friday night I will have to flip the two bedrooms quickly on Saturday once the first guests leave.  June has turned into a very busy month for the Airbnb.

Nothing else I have to do today except make up the two beds.  It is too early to clean house for the guests that are arriving Friday.  I might have to take a nap if sleep decides to find me.  Sure wish I could solve my sleeping issue.  It has gotten a bit better but when I have nights like last night I remember how hard it is when I can’t sleep at all.  Luckily it happens lots less than it used to.

Kathy had gone to a media advertising seminar a couple of months ago so she could learn how to better promote Pioneer Bluffs weddings.  One thing she learned was doing a give away gets you more hits than paying for a Facebook boost.  I decided to try it yesterday and I am blown away by how many people have clicked on the post I created with a give away.  I am almost up to 2,000 people.  I never reached that many when I tried the Facebook boost and paid for them to send it out.  It will be well worth the one-night stay for two people to help get the word out about my Airbnb.  If you liked, shared and commented on the post THANK YOU!

Most of the baby birds in the nests by the back deck have flown away.  I will miss hearing their little peeps but won’t miss getting dive bombed by their parents as they tried to protect their babies.  There are two hummingbirds down by the feeder off the lower deck.  They come to the feeder twice a day.  They are so fun to watch flutter around.

Got notice that insurance finally paid the ER hospital bill.  I ended up only having to pay $181 of it.  Much better than the $2,400 I was billed originally.  Glad to have met my deductible for the year.  Too bad I have to switch off this plan August 1 and start the deductible over with Medicare.  Not a good year for me regarding doctor bills.  Not sure with the change in tax law if they are deductible this year or not.

Sitting with a quiet but tired mind today.  I love to mow as it bounces away any thoughts I have in my head and helps to quiet my brain.  It was especially bumpy mowing today with all the cracks in the yard.

Grateful the yard is done, grateful for a successful Facebook post that is helping spread the word about my Airbnb, and grateful for my health insurance deductible being met and their help in paying the hospital bill.

My guests checked out around 10:30 this morning.  No one else is booked to come until Friday so should have a couple of days of no guests.  It was a long stretch of over two weeks with guests every night.  It went fast though and was very manageable but I will enjoy the empty house for a couple of days.

Have one bedroom put back together and need to finish up the second one.  The sheets weren’t dry before I had to go to Topeka for my ultrasound.  It was a quick trip up and back to Topeka.  The test only takes 15 minutes at most.  Didn’t stop anywhere before or after except at Walmart in Emporia to get a few groceries before I came back home.

Nothing on my calendar for tomorrow!  Empty space at last.  May go walk with Kathy’s group in the morning unless I decide to get the mowing done while it is still cool out.  We may get some rain tonight so may not be able to mow if it is too wet – at least I can dream it will be.

Finished another set of tea towels this morning and have one of seven done on another set.  The only problem with doing tea towels is that I sit too much.  My back has been sore and thinking it is from sitting too much.  I forget to take a break and move my body.

Last week I was really hungry most days and could have eaten another plate full at each meal.  This week I am not hungry at all and have to make myself eat all my food.  Sure wish I knew what caused that to happen.  I eat pretty much the same thing every day do not thinking I triggered myself to be hungry.

Sent a note to my primary physician this morning to see if he would lower the dose of the blood thinner I am on as my legs look like I am a battered woman.  He referred me to the Cardiologist to have him handle it even though my primary doctor is the one that started me on the blood thinner medication in the first place.  The Cardiologist is out of the office this week.  His nurse was going to forward my message to him but she wasn’t sure he would respond.  My medication runs out Saturday.  They aren’t the type of pills that can be cut in half and I didn’t want to get a refill at the higher dosage in case he will cut the dose for me.  Guess I will wait till Friday to see if I hear back from him and will have to get them refilled if I don’t.  They are so expensive I hate to potentially waste them if he cuts the dose next week. Good thing insurance will pay for them this time though.

Wednesday morning I have my stress test.  Thinking I probably should have cancelled it.  I had the Atrial Flutter episode on April 13.  Two months after the fact seems unnecessary at this point.  Surely something would have happened by now if it was going to.

Thursday I am going to a board meeting at Pioneer Bluffs in the afternoon and an educational seminar about Medicare in the evening.  Friday three guests arrive for one night.  Best take advantage of empty space tomorrow as I won’t have any more until next week.  I will need to clean house sometime this week too so it is ready for the guests that arrive Friday.

Next week I go back to Topeka on Monday for an appointment with the Endocrinologist and then a guest arrives that afternoon and is staying for three nights.  No rest for the weary around here!

Another hot summer day today.  Almost 100 out today.  Crossing all my fingers and toes the storm that is forecasted will happen and we will get some rain on the prairie tonight.  It is really dry and dusty out.

Grateful for a quick and safe trip to and from Topeka today, grateful for empty space all day tomorrow, and grateful for the promise of rain tonight.

Three guests have checked out and the other three are at a birthday party picnic for the day.  Have three beds made up and the last load of towels is in the washer.  The other three guests leave tomorrow morning.

I feel like I made two new friends over the weekend.  One of the three guests that checked-out today I knew.  She has house sat for me before.  She told two of her friends about this place and they joined her for the weekend.  What nice woman they are!  We had a delightful conversation over breakfast this morning.

Sounds like the Symphony was a hit last night.  Kathy had a grand time as did the volunteers.  Heard it will be in Chase County next year.  The guests that stayed are going to book all six beds for next year when they get home so they can come back and stay again and bring other family members with them.

I sold a set of tea towels to the guests that are leaving tomorrow.  They reminded her of her grandmother!  Wonder if that makes me old?  One reason I do them is because my grandmother taught me how to make them and I think of her when I make them.

I am fixing dinner for a family that had a parent die.  Have part of it fixed and will finish making the other things I am taking later this afternoon.  Have already done two loads of dishes today and will have at least one more load to do, if not two.  Have spent the weekend doing laundry and dishes!

Have to be in Topeka by 2:45 tomorrow afternoon for my thyroid ultrasound.  Trying to think if there is anything I need while I am in a big city.  Not sure when my guests are leaving so don’t know if I can get away early and do some shopping if I think of something I need.

Today is 120 days of eating on the Bright Line Plan.  I have lost 28 pounds so far.  Have another 13 – 20 to go.  Not sure where I want to end up yet.  1 am 13 pounds from the first goal I set but may go down another 7 after that.  I’ll see what my body wants to do and how I feel.  Still struggle to see myself lighter than I was.  When I look in the mirror I don’t see much difference.

Going to be another hot day out today.  Forecast calls for it to reach 96 today with 20 plus MPH winds.  The guests from Washington state are sure struggling with our heat and humidity.  It doesn’t usually get this hot back where they live.

I slept really hard last night from about 9:30 – 1:00 and then didn’t sleep much after that.  I have been doing some embroidery work this afternoon and my eyes are tired.  May need to find something else to do for a bit so I don’t fall asleep sewing.

Have three more guests arriving Friday this week but only for one night.  I will need to clean again on Thursday so I will be ready for them.  Next week I have one guest coming Tuesday and staying until Friday.  After that I have some down time as of right now.  That seems to change quickly though.

May run into Cottonwood Falls in a bit.  They have some old-fashioned demonstrations going on by the courthouse this afternoon.  Might be fun to see what is going on.  All my recyclable containers are full and need dumped so I need to run into Cottonwood and do that anyways.

Never did get my mowing done so will need to get that on my list of things to do some early morning this week. Sure too hot to mow in the afternoons.

Grateful for the release of 28 pounds, grateful for the guests that came to stay and became friends, and grateful a set of tea towels moved out quickly.

All six guests have checked-in and are out and about this afternoon.  The group from Washington State only had three instead of the four they had told me were coming.  The youngster didn’t come.

Have towels washing now so I can finish getting their rooms reset.  Made breakfast for two of the guests.  They wanted eggs, bacon, toast and fruit.  Easy!  Tomorrow I am making Crock Pot Steel Cut Oats as the three that will be eating are all leaving at different times.  That way it can be ready by 7:00 and they can eat when they want to.

Stamped two more sets of tea towels this morning so I have something to do when I feel like sitting.  Pressed two other sets so have three sets now ready to give away or sell.  I found a set I had done several months ago when I was digging out more tea towels to stamp.  I had forgotten about them.

Ran into Emporia around noon to get some groceries.  One of my friends lost her mother-in-law yesterday and I offered to take dinner to them Sunday evening.  Only going to feed five so not much food is needed.  Have eggs and potatoes cooking now.  I’ll get part of it put together this afternoon while my guests are out and about and finish the rest tomorrow afternoon after three of the guests check-out.  The other three have a birthday party to go to tomorrow afternoon.

I decided not to go to the Symphony tonight.  Just not in the mood to people today.  I’m sure it is beautiful but not today for me.  Kathy is using one of my tickets and is going with some friends of ours.  I know she will enjoy it.  The heat doesn’t bother her like it does me.

I screwed up and ate some bacon for breakfast and lunch today.  I didn’t even think to check the ingredient list on the bacon package to see if it had sugar in it.  Thinking from the way my tummy is reacting to it and the headache I have the bacon has sugar in it as well as some artificial flavoring of some sort.  I hadn’t had much processed food lately and the bacon is really bothering me.  Good reminder not to eat junk food and I now have to include bacon as junk food for me.  My body has gotten used to one ingredient foods and doesn’t tolerate processed food any more.

Looking forward to Monday – Thursday when we don’t have any guests in the house. It has been over two weeks since we have had a break.   It has gone well and fast but I will enjoy an empty house for a couple of days.

I’m tired this afternoon as I didn’t sleep much again last night.  I might take a short nap this afternoon while the house is quiet.  I stayed up until 11:00 last night as the guests from the west coast didn’t get here until almost 10:00.  The other guests were up by 7:00 this morning.  Hard to balance both ends!

Grateful for learning new things my body no longer likes me to eat, grateful one breakfast is done and only one to go, and grateful I have an empty house this afternoon so I can recharge my soul.

 

My guests left at 7:30 this morning.  What nice guests they were!  I hope they come back again.

Got the beds stripped and the sheets washed and put back on the beds.  The towels are in the dryer.  Bathrooms had been cleaned and floors dusted.  Almost ready for the six guests to arrive this afternoon and evening.  Need to do a few more final touches to the bedrooms and clean the kitchen floor.

Finished the fifth tea towel in the set of seven I am doing embroidery work on.  Two more to go and the second set will be completed.  Bought some more patterns to iron on for two more sets.  I like having sets on hand to use for gifts.  Don’t think I will make 35 sets like I did one year though!

Saw a post on Facebook this morning that showed a recipe for removing stains.  I saved it in case I needed it some day.  When I was putting the sheets back on the beds this morning I noticed some dip stains on a sheet and pillow case.  Tried the recipe and it worked like a charm!   The recipe is Dawn dishwashing soap mixed with hydrogen peroxide.  I used my vegetable brush to scrub with.  The stain came out easily even after the sheets had been washed.  That was easy!

May go out and do some mowing.  The whole yard doesn’t need it but up close where it is still green needs mowed.  Most of my yard is already burned up.  No rain in the forecast.  We only got sprinkles yesterday from the big system that went around us.

Need to get some invoices typed up for the non Airbnb guests I have coming this weekend.  I sure like that Airbnb handles the payment for most of my guests.  Saves me credit card fees.  They also collect sales tax so I don’t have to worry about reporting that.

Going to be another hot summer day today.  The high 90’s are forecast for the Symphony tomorrow.  Not sure I want to be out in that heat and crowd.  We sure are getting our summer early this year.  Maybe it will turn cool and rainy in July.

So far I am really enjoying being an Airbnb host.  I am surprised how easy it is to allow my guests to share my kitchen.  I have learned to ask them to leave the dishes in the sink when they are done.  That way I can load the dishwasher myself and put things back where I can find them again.

Not making lots of extra money but the little bit that is coming in is helpful.  Of course buying a new bed and bedding cut into my profits this month!  At least I had the income to cover that expense though.  When I decide to sell the two twin beds I will recover a bit of that cost.  I haven’t heard if the twin bed foundation is repairable or not yet.  One of the metal hooks in it had ripped out and the board it was attached to broke.  The set I have is not made any more so not sure how they can fix it.

Grateful for easy guests that become friends in the course of their stay, grateful for how easy this house cleans up and goes back together again, and grateful for solutions to small problems that appear before I knew I even needed them.

 

Volunteered at Pioneer Bluffs for a while last night.  I left when the music started as I wanted to get home before my guests came back to the house.  It was fun interacting with the guests that came to hear the 312th Army Band but I was peopled out.

Went to KC this morning to have lunch with two dear friends.  Always a good day when I get to spend time with them.  We ate at Ya Ya’s in Overland Park.  They have a side dish of sautéed vegetables. When I told the waitress I needed 10 oz of them she said she would check with the chef.  When she brought them out she said the Chef had weighted them for me to make sure I had enough.  Love that type of service!  I also had a piece of grilled salmon on top of the veggies.

I stopped at Costco after lunch and picked up a few things and then headed home.  Stopped in Emporia to get groceries so I can make breakfast Saturday and Sunday for two of the guests that are coming over the weekend.

Dropped a jar of mayonnaise in the garage when I was unloading the car.  The dogs were going to help me clean it up but they kept having to spit out glass.  I think I got it cleaned up before they actually ingested any glass.  I was sorry I broke it and didn’t get to try it.  It didn’t have sugar in it and mayonnaise without sugar is hard to find.  Maybe next time!

I buy chicken tenders at Costco and then repackage them into the right-size serving for me and then freeze them.  I spilled chicken juice all over when I picked up the empty container.  Yuck!

Didn’t sleep very good again last night.  Sure was hoping going off caffeine and sugar would help me sleep better.  Some days I manage to get a good night’s sleep but not for the last couple of nights.  I’m a bit cranky and tired this afternoon.  Making two big messes didn’t help my mood much.

My two guests will be leaving in the morning and I have six more coming in tomorrow.  Four won’t be here until after 9:00 as their flight is scheduled to land in Wichita at 7:00.  The other two are coming mid-afternoon.

Still haven’t decided if I am going to the Symphony Saturday.  It will depend on how needy the group of four guests are and what their plans are.  If they plan on being gone all day and evening Saturday I will probably go for at least part of the evening. It will also depend on if I think I can be around people and handle a crowd.  Some days I can and other days I can’t.

Have four tea towels completed on the second set I am working on.  I didn’t do much yesterday but embroidery.  Felt good to have a day where I could sit most of the day.

Monday afternoon I have to drive to Topeka for a thyroid ultrasound.  It will take over an hour to drive there and the test only takes 15 minutes.  Glad my medical insurance deductible is finally met – this ultrasound will be 100% paid for by my medical insurance.

So far when my guests check out on Monday I don’t have any other guests scheduled until Friday.  It will be a nice break to have no guests for a couple of nights.  That can always change though.

Grateful for a safe trip to and from KC today, grateful to get to spend time with my dear friends, and grateful for restaurants that make staying on plan easy!

Empty space at last!  Nothing to do until 5:00 this evening!  The house is empty and I am so enjoying the peace and quiet.  My soul is being refilled!

Went down to the chicken coop this morning to put up the mesh tarp I bought earlier this week.  It will give them some more shade from the hot, summer sun.  All three water containers were empty so had to make two trips down with a five-gallon bucket of water to fill them up.  Picked up four eggs while I was down there.

Got the guest room reset this morning and their towels washed up and replaced.  They are neat people so not a lot to do to reset their room.  They are only working at the dig site until noon today then will come back to the house for the afternoon.  They are returning to the dig site tonight for a lecture of some sort.

I took a short nap yesterday and had trouble sleeping last night as a result.  I thought I was tired when I went to bed but had trouble falling asleep and then kept waking up off and on all night.  Makes for a long night when that happens.  Now today I am sleepy again. Will do my best not to take a nap so I don’t repeat this cycle.

Have two tea towels of the next set completed and the third one almost half done.  Sure makes my eyes tired to do embroidery work these days.  Never used to have that problem.  Must be a sign of my old age!

Got a note from my Endocrinologist yesterday regarding the results of the three blood tests I had done last week.  She said there was no sign of cancer in any of them!  I appreciate the fact that she always takes the time to send me a note regarding the tests she orders.  Some Doctors don’t do that.  I have my Ultrasound Monday and then see her the following Monday.  Two trips to Topeka coming up for me as well as a trip to KC tomorrow.

I am surprised I don’t need to mow this week.  It has been almost a week since I mowed but the grass isn’t growing much right now.   We really need some good rain.  It is turning brown already in lots of spots.  Way early in the summer for it to be doing that.  We never have received a good long day of rain this spring.

It is going to be a hot one today.  I wanted to get out and take another long walk but I waited too long and it is too hot to do so now.  My heart was racing a bit after doing the chicken chores this morning.  It hasn’t done that since I was in Rome.  Sure wish I knew what caused it to do that.  Maybe the Nuclear Heart Stress Test I am having next week will tell me something.

Sitting with a quiet mind today.  Drawing energy from the peace and quiet around me.  Basking in “being” and not “doing” today.  I forget how important it is to my soul to allow myself to take the time to “be”.

Grateful for an empty house this morning, grateful for a note from my Doctor, and grateful my soul is being refilled and recharged!

Joined Kathy’s walking club this morning.  I walked over 3 1/2 miles with a group.  Sure is easier to walk when you have someone to talk to and no hills to climb.  Easier walking in town than on gravel.  I worked up a sweat today walking as it is warming up today.

I was going to wear my Fitbit on my walk this morning but it was dead.  I had forgotten about it and haven’t charged it since I got home from Italy.

Last night I took a walk down the gravel road a bit and my knee started hurting.  I iced it overnight and it felt better this morning.  I did OK on my walk this morning although it started hurting on the back half of the walk.  I’m glad I was able to finish the walk without it yelling at me too bad.  Not sure what I did to it but am trusting it will get over itself and allow me to continue to move my body.

Came home from walking, changed clothes and headed into Emporia to meet a friend for lunch.  We had a nice lunch at Radius and got caught up.  Hadn’t seen her for a bit so it was nice to spend time with her.

Stopped and got some things from Hobby Lobby on my way home.  I had gotten some new pillow covers in Italy and needed some pillow inserts.  Also needed some more embroidery floss.  Some colors I use frequently and seem to have trouble keeping enough of those colors on hand.

Started embroidery on another set of tea towels this morning.  It is nice to have a little project to do inside when it gets too hot to be outside.  Makes me feel like I have accomplished something when I get a set made.

Have the rest of the day and most of the day tomorrow completely free.  I am so ready for some empty space!  Not much on my to-do list so I can fill this time “being” instead of doing.  Seems like it has been a while since I had a full 24 hours of empty space.  My soul has missed it.

Left a message for my trash guy to let him know they had missed picking up my trash last week.  He left a message for me today telling me he has two trucks and runs two routes.  One of his trucks had broken down so they had to run a double route last week and were rushing so fast they drove right by my place.  Trusting it won’t happen again!  The trash is extra smelly this week since it is two weeks old.  Need to wheel the second cart down to the curb yet today.

I sure could take a nap this afternoon.  I was really tired when I went to bed last night but didn’t sleep very well.  Not sure I want to take a nap though as I won’t sleep tonight if I do but am really struggling to keep my eyes open.  When I don’t have anything I have to do it is hard to stay awake.  My needle work makes my eyes really tired.  May have to get creative and find something else to do this afternoon so I can stay awake.

Tomorrow night the 312th Army Band is putting on a concert at Pioneer Bluffs.  It is free and all are welcome to come.  Smokestack is selling a BBQ dinner at 6:00 and the concert begins at 7:00.  Thinking there will be a crowd there.  I am going to go help host before the concert begins but may not stay for the concert.  I’ll see how things go.  They are going to set up chairs in the shade but you might want to take your own chair in case they run out of chairs.

It has been so long since I had empty space I am not sure what to do with myself.  So many options and none of them appeal to me right now.  Sitting and “being” feels like a luxury to me.  Refilling my soul in the silence and beauty of the green prairie!

Grateful for being able to move my body this morning, grateful for a friend to have lunch with, and grateful for empty space and having the luxury of “being” and not doing this afternoon.

The guests that arrived last night are very nice.  It is a daughter and her father.  They are volunteering on a dig site in Council Grove.  This is the 12th year they have done this hobby together.  Grandma stays home with the daughter’s husband and two kids as neither the grandma or husband enjoy their hobby.  We sat out in the swings last night and enjoyed the sunset and visited.

Had two more inquires about stays this morning.  One stay is for April, 2019.  Thinking it is for the Glass Blown Open dates which haven’t been announced yet.  One is for next weekend.  Haven’t got a confirmation from either yet.  The one for next weekend have a dog they want to bring.  They said it would sleep in their truck.  Not sure that will work if it is as hot as it is supposed to get.  Will see how this one turns out.

Going into town this afternoon to do my errands and get a haircut.  Tomorrow I will need to go back into Emporia as I am meeting a friend for lunch.  Wednesday evening I am going to Pioneer Bluffs to help with an event there.  Thursday I am going to KC to have lunch with two dear friends.  Friday six new guests check-in.  What happened to the empty space I was going to have this week?

Next week is busy too as I have to go to Topeka Monday for my thyroid ultrasound, I have my nuclear heart stress test Wednesday, and a meeting at Pioneer Bluffs on Thursday afternoon as well as a meeting about Medicare Thursday evening.  Maybe July will be less busy!

I went into Emporia yesterday to get groceries.  My guests ended up leaving around 11:00 so had three free hours and got that chore over with.  Didn’t know if I could leave the guests checking-in yesterday or not and decided to take advantage of the free time.  Luckily they are easy people and it will be no problem leaving them in the house alone this week.  They will be coming and going to their dig site all week.

Finished making a set of tea towels.  Just need to get them pressed and tied.  Have several more sets stamped it the urge hits for me to work on them.  I enjoy making them but am having some trouble with my eyes.  If I forget to take a break I have trouble seeing far away for a bit when I do stop.  Threading the needle is a challenge too!  It is hell to get old sometimes.

Need to make a Costco list for Thursday.  If I don’t write out a list I have little chance of remembering what I wanted to get.  Even with a list I still forget things sometimes.  My memory sure isn’t what it used to be.

I dropped my iPad case and broke off a little piece of it.  Now my iPad keeps slipping out of the case that contains my keyboard.  Going to have to figure out how to tape it on or something.  Good news is my iPad didn’t crack when I dropped it.  The problem is the corner that broke is the corner that has the buttons on my iPad I need access to.

Still negotiating with my neighbor about adding rock to the driveway.  He wanted me to pay half but he gets his whole driveway done and I only get the bottom half of the driveway we share done.  I ask him today if they could do my half too and if so I would pay half.  He still owes me money for trash and hay.  He seems to forget about that!

Nice to have my house clean and nothing that needs done today.  I reset the guests bedroom this morning so that task is done.  Maybe I will take the next couple of hours and “be”.  I am forgetting how important that is to my soul.

Grateful for another set of wonderful guests, grateful for time to “be”, and grateful my grandmother taught me how to embroidery.  I think of her often when I am making the tea towels.

Kathy and I went to the Rodeo Parade yesterday afternoon.  Always a good time!  I had taken two plastic bags in case the grandkids came so they would have something to put candy in.  Gave one to some friends that walked by and the other to a family standing near us to watch the parade.  Their girls got lots of candy and were thankful they had a bag to put it in.

Came home and took a long nap.  I was surprised I was able to sleep last night.  Making up for a couple of nights with little sleep.

I didn’t hear my guests come in last night.  I was up until 11:30 and they weren’t back yet when I went to bed.  Not sure what time they came but they were up before I was and I got up at 7:30.  I fixed them eggs and fruit for breakfast.  Not sure if they expected breakfast to be included but he asked if I could fix something for them.  Eggs and fruit are available for my guests to eat but usually I don’t cook the eggs.  They seemed to appreciate them.

He was able to complete his second DK 200.  He had cut four minutes off his time from last year so he was pleased with how he did.  He said the head wind was brutal at times though.

Their flight doesn’t leave until late afternoon so I told them they could extend their check-out time if they wanted to hang around here instead of at the airport.  They are sitting outside on the swings enjoying another cup of coffee.  It is a beautiful day on the prairie and hasn’t gotten too hot yet.  It got down to the 50’s last night!

Haven’t heard what time the guests that are arriving this afternoon will be here.  They are coming from Lawrence so don’t have a very long drive.  I need to get some groceries but that may have to wait until tomorrow as I may not have time between guests to run to town.  I have enough food to get me through until tomorrow so no worries.

Kathy and Sophia went for a long walk this morning at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.  I may get out this afternoon and take a walk after my guests leave.

Kathy helped me give the girls some fresh linens yesterday.  It was so cool yesterday morning after the rain we decided it was the perfect day to get the coop cleaned out. When I do that job monthly it is a fairly easy job to do.  The first clean out after the winter deep straw is a tough one.  Kathy even cleaned out the water containers so they are nice and clean.  Her grandkids named the two new chickens Macaroni and Cheese.  The baby chickens still like to come up and get petted when I go down to the coop.  They seemed to be doing well.  So far the rooster has left them alone.

This first week with guests here all week has gone very fast.  One more week to go!  The guests coming today stay until Friday and then six more check-in Friday night with four of them staying until Monday.  Then I have over a week of no guests before a guest comes the next week for three nights.  When the guests are out and about during the day it makes it easy for me.  A bit more of a challenge when they hang around all day.  Still learning when I can leave and when I need to stay around.  Really depends on the guests and what they are doing.

Haven’t decided if I am going to the Symphony on Saturday.  I have tickets but not sure what I want to do.  Part of it will depend on the four guests that are coming Friday and what their plans are for Saturday.  The other two guests are volunteers at the Symphony so they will be gone all day and evening.  I did agree to fix breakfast for two guests both Saturday and Sunday morning.  Need to remember to get groceries so I can do that.

Quiet day on the prairie today.  Bright blue skies and not as hot as it has been.  After I get all the laundry done and the bedroom flipped I will have some empty space between guests.  May just stay home and “be” for a bit.  Nothing pressing on my to-do list.  I have been working on doing some embroidery work and only have one and one-half tea towels left to do to finish the set.  May finish that this afternoon.

Back to my peaceful valley where my mind is quiet, solutions to problems appear quickly, and life seems simple for me again.  I can never figure out how I get here or how I leave it but certainly welcome it when it comes back to me.  It feels like a moment of grace in this busy, chaotic world I live in.

Grateful for the wonderful guests I hosted this weekend, grateful for a clean chicken coop, and grateful for the grace and peace that has found me yet again.

Four of my guests are check-out and on to new adventures today.  The other two are participating in the DK200 and won’t be back until much later tonight.  I have the beds stripped and laundry running.  Two more guests check-in tomorrow afternoon.

Got lucky again and had very nice guests.  Kathy and I sat outside and watched the stars come out with two of them.  The other four went to bed early as they had to leave the house before 5:00.

We had quite a storm blow through a little after 4:00 this morning.  It woke me up.  We had strong wind, hard rain and hail again.  I checked radar in case I needed to get my guests to the safe room.  There was a huge system northeast of me but we just caught a little tail end of it.  Didn’t end up with much rain.  The start of the DK was delayed a bit to let the storm pass through.  It is nice and cool out this morning but I bet it heats up later.  Trusting those out on the road already doing the 350 were able to find some shelter during the peak of the storm.

Two of my guests were riding the DK50 and one was doing the 200.  I will have to check the leaderboard and see if I can find their names.  The other two guests were a delightful mother and daughter spending time together.

I have some errands to do so may run into Emporia today.  I have been up since 4:00 when the storm woke me up so may need to take a nap.  Want to go to the Rodeo Parade this afternoon at 2:00.  The errands may have to wait until Monday if I decide to take a nap.

Need to give my girls some fresh linens.  This might be a good morning to do that as it is so cool right now.  When I went down to gather eggs last night I found a dead chicken in the pen.  I had noticed when I got home from Italy one was acting weird.  Never know for sure what causes them to die.  Hate when it happens.  Trusting it is an isolated incident and others won’t follow suit.

Grateful for the guests I had last night, grateful for a cool start to the day, and grateful for the little bit of rain we received – every drop helps break the drought.

The grandkids came out around noon yesterday and spent the night.  Didn’t get my cleaning done like I had planned but had way more fun!  I hadn’t seen them for a bit so it was nice to have them come for the night.  They got in Kathy’s hot tub with her and spent an hour or so in it.  We didn’t do anything special, just hung around.

After they both fell asleep in my bed I went into the new guest queen bed to sleep.  Wasn’t long before Ellexia joined me.  The bed is very comfortable.  I trust my guests will like it.  It is taller than I anticipated it would be though.

Tagen helped me set up the twin bed in a guest room to replace the one that had broken.  He is getting big enough to be a good helper.  Ellexia helped me make beds.  She likes to be my helper.  She surprised me this morning and made my bed for me.

Took the grandkids to town this morning around noon.  I mowed for a bit this morning while Kathy was still here.  Rushed home from dropping the kiddos off and finished the mowing and cleaning.  Ellexia had helped me clean a little bit this morning.  I didn’t get the house as detailed clean as I would have like to but it is clean enough.

Came in from my second mowing and took a shower and cleaned up.  It is hot out there today.  I am surprised how dry it really is.  When I cut the grass I uncovered lots of brown spots.  If we don’t get a good couple inches of rain soon my yard is going to dry up and it will all turn brown.

Started my second load of dishes.  Always forget when I cook for the grandkids I dirty lots more dishes!  Have extra laundry to do from the extra towels they used too.  Small price to pay for having them come visit.

One set of guests are arriving around 4:00, another around 7:00 and I haven’t heard from the third set.  Check-in time is 2:00 and I like to be ready in case they come early.  I barely made my 2:00 time today.  Once I get done writing I will do some little detail cleaning jobs I skimmed over this morning.  May not get to all of them though if someone shows up.

Debating about setting up a second Airbnb site.  I can’t double-book the two rooms using the Airbnb site I have now.  The only way I can do so is to set up one room on one site and the other room on another site.  Sometimes guests want both rooms but usually they only want one.  Seems like if I have to clean the house for one room I might as well have both rooms full.

Am going to try to get to the rodeo parade tomorrow afternoon.  Last year my friends from California were here and we went to the parade.  It was fun to watch!  I’ll have to see if the grandkids want to go with me.  They would get lots of candy if they go.

Need to remember to call my trash man and find out why he didn’t pick up my trash this week.  He has never missed it before.

Should have more empty space next week.  I have guests all week but they will be gone during the day.  Have another full house next weekend to get ready for but since I cleaned today I will only have to spot clean.  I feel like I haven’t had much empty space since I have been home from Italy.  I am ready for several days of nothing on my calendar.

Grateful the house is clean and ready for my guests, grateful the grandkids came to spend the night, and grateful the mowing is done for another week or so.

Anyone catch the moon last night?  I stayed up to watch it rise and it was so worth it.  Big, orange and breathtakingly beautiful.

My guest went to work this morning and returned to the house about two hours later.  For some reason the new job isn’t going to work for him.   Not sure if he decided that or if his new boss did.  Poor kid still has to pay rent until the apartment can be rented to someone else and  he lost his security deposit on the apartment that he never moved into.  He packed and left for Iowa around 10:30.  Sometimes things just don’t work out like we want them to.

I now have plenty of time to get his room flipped for the guests arriving tomorrow.  I will need to set up another twin bed to replace the one I took out of the room that had broken.

The mattress cover, sheets, bedspread and blankets for the new queen bed have all arrived so am getting them washed up so I can get that bed made up.  Cleaning the rest of the house today too.  It is a manual labor cleaning day around here.

I do need to go into Cottonwood Falls and go to the Post Office, get gas for my mower, and stop at Kansas Graphics so I can get new business cards ordered.  My old ones have my old website address on them and call this place A Spiritual Retreat Center.  I need the new ones to say Airbnb instead and remove the website address.  I will clean for a bit and when I need my next rest I will go into town and get those errands taken care of.

We got a little rain overnight so am going to wait to mow until tomorrow morning so it can dry out just a bit.  Sure is hot and muggy outside today.  I don’t like this type of weather.

Got another booking for three nights the middle of June.  This guest is a single woman who is coming to do some painting of the landscape.

Got the results of my thyroid antibody blood tests results.  The level has dropped to below 1.  It was 4.6 when I first had it checked.  Good news!  It can take up to three years for it to get down to zero but it is headed in the right direction.  My TSH level was 1.242.  When I was in the ER it was over 2.1.  Not sure what causes it to vary so much.  My ultrasound is June 11 and then I see the Endocrinologist on June 18.  Should be a short visit as everything is looking good.

Feels good to be moving my body and cleaning today.  I can tell I got in better shape on my trip to Italy with all the walking I did.  My heart seems to have settled down and isn’t complaining about me moving like it did for a bit. Sure have more energy finally.  I am recovering from the trip faster than I normally do.  Thinking my body is appreciating my efforts to lighten it’s load.

Today is Day 110 on the Bright Line Eating Plan.  I have lost 26 pounds so far.  My first goal is 15 pounds away.  Still not sure that will be my final goal.  I will decide that when I get there and see how I feel.  Once I get to goal weight I continue eating what I have been but gradually add more food to my day, one additional food a week, until I find the right amount that will allow me to maintain my goal weight.

Grateful for Amazon and my delivery arriving as promised, grateful for the rain we received last night – every drop helps break the drought we are in, and grateful for the good news from my blood tests.  Starting to feel like the cancer diagnosis is in my rear view mirror.

Happy birthday to my daughter Nicole.  What a joy it is to be her mother.  I am grateful she choose me 35 years ago.

Had a strong storm come through last night.  Lost power for about two hours.  My guest came up and watched the lightning show with us.  He is a very pleasant young man.  Glad he felt comfortable coming up.  He is from Iowa and is used to storms like we had last night.  He had been watching a movie downstairs when the power went out.  Didn’t get much rain but it hailed and we had strong winds and rain for a bit.

The chicken fence bent over during the storm but not enough to be of concern.  Sometime Kathy and I will go out and attempt to push it back up.  I tried to do it alone this morning and needed more muscle.  I need to get a wind proof tarp to replace the solid one Kathy had put up on the fence.  When the wind blows the solid ones make the fence heavy and it bends.  The tarps with the holes in them are much lighter and don’t effect the fence so much.

The dogs electronic monitor boxes beeped to remind me the power was off last night.  We found Sophia and Starr and got them in the garage.  Couldn’t find Roxy.  She was around this morning.  Not sure they would run away anyways but didn’t want to take a chance.

Have a lunch date today.  We are driving out to the Chase County Fishing Lake and having a picnic.  Beautiful day to do so.  I had opened the house last night after we lost power. It was nice to have fresh air in the house.  Closed the house back up this morning so the A/C won’t have to work so hard to keep it cool when it warms up this afternoon.

Have a request for a 13 week stay from a traveling Physical Therapist.  They are waiting to see if they get the contract before they commit.  I hadn’t anticipated getting long stays like that but am willing to try it once.  If they are like my guest this week it will be no issue at all.

I will need to mow Friday morning.  Not sure when the six guests I have coming in Friday are arriving.  If I get out and get mowing early I can have it done before check-in time at 2:00.  I also need to do some cleaning inside before they come.  Would prefer mowing to cleaning inside.  Need to remember to get gas for the mower today while I am out and about.  Also need to get the backyard fire pit propane bottle replaced.  I had to put a new one on for my guests last weekend.

Got the second bedroom beds made up.  Took the sheets off the two twin beds in the room that I am putting the queen bed in. When the delivery guys come they are going to move the two twin beds downstairs for me and take the broken frame back with them to fix.  I am doing the bed shuffle this week!

Lost another pound!  I have lost six pounds since I came home a week ago.  Fastest six pounds yet.  I had thought hard about going to Italy as I didn’t want to disrupt my eating plan.  So glad I went.  Maybe next time my weight loss stalls out I will go out-of-town for a couple of days and see if that jump starts it like it did this time.  15 pounds to go!  26 pounds released!

Still don’t see the weight loss on myself.  I did notice my legs looked thinner last night in the bath tub but I don’t really feel different yet.  I have read that it can take several months to adjust to being in a right size body and for my mind to accept my new body shape.

Sent a note to my guests that are coming in ten days.  I didn’t know if they needed four twin beds or a queen and two twin beds.  She just answered and said they would use the queen and two twins.  Perfect!  I have two other guests here for two nights during her stay that needed two twin beds.  It all worked out just right.

Running an Airbnb has certainly been a learning experience.  It is so different from a retreat center.  Much easier for the most part.  I am not used to working though and it is a challenge doing what I want to do and having guests.  Some guests I feel very comfortable not being here and others I feel I need to hang around.  I never know until they come which camp they will be in.  Luckily most fall in the I can leave them camp.  Just hard to make plans and commitments not knowing which camp they are in.

Having to buy a new bed kinda cut into the profits I was going to make during this long stretch with guests.  If I get the 13 week guest maybe I can get ahead then.

Grateful for the rain we received on the prairie last night, grateful the wind didn’t do any damage, and grateful for another pound released.

My guest arrived right on time last night at 5:00.  He is a very quiet, polite young man.  Haven’t heard or seen him much.  I was up when he left this morning for his first day at his new job at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.  He wasn’t sure when he would get back this evening.

I joined Kathy’s walking group this morning and walked about 2 1/2 miles from Cottonwood Falls into Strong City and back to Cottonwood Falls.  Felt good to get out and walk.  My heart behaved itself this morning and didn’t get too fast while I was walking.  It wasn’t too hot out this morning but if I keep walking I need to get some shorts to walk in.  I wore my jeans today and they are too hot.  The shorts I have from the training I did to walk the Camino are way too big for me.

I went into Emporia after the walk and ordered a queen bed.  I got a frame for it instead of a head-board and foot-board.  If I don’t like it without the head board I can order that at a later time.  They are going to deliver it tomorrow afternoon and take the broken twin bed frame back with them to fix.

Decided to put the queen bed in the bedroom upstairs.  I have several guests coming that are staying for several days or up to a week and both sets of guests that are coming wanted twin beds.  If I put the queen upstairs I can have the booked guests stay downstairs.  May end up playing bed shuffle later but that is what I will start with.  I ordered a mattress cover, sheets, blankets and bedspread on-line this morning.  They should arrive by Thursday so I can get them washed up and the bed made up before my guests arrive Friday afternoon.

I decided to hold on to the twin beds for a bit and see how the queen works out.  I think there is room to set up a twin in the same room with the queen if that would be needed.  I have the space to store them so might as well hold on to them and make sure I won’t need them.

Went to the Doctor’s office and had my blood drawn for my thyroid blood tests.  The lab was busy so had to wait for about 20 minutes for them to call me back.

Found the printer cartridge I needed at Staples.  Glad I wrote down the model number in Notes on my phone as I couldn’t remember what I needed.

Picked up groceries and then headed home.  Glad to get home before it gets too hot out.  I am sleepy this afternoon so may go take a nap.  I woke up at 5:00 this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep.  If I don’t take a nap I will want to go to bed before 7:00 tonight.  I want to stay up until at least 9:00 so I can watch the full moon rise.

I have been doing some embroidery work.  If I do it too long at a time without taking a break it takes my eyes a long time to be able to see in the distance clearly.  May need to set a timer so I remember to take a break while I am sewing.  Making another set of tea towels.  I am out of sets of them finally and like to have them on hand for wedding presents.

Need to finish making up the second bedroom downstairs.  The guest had slept on top of the bed instead of on the sheets so had to wash the bedspread.  It is clean and ready to be made up.  Have until Friday to do it so no rush.

Feels so good to be able to sit and “be” this afternoon.  Haven’t done enough of that lately!  Still feeling a bit drained from my trip.  Wasn’t good planning on my part to allow guests to come over the weekend before I had time to fully recover.  I keep forgetting to book off time for myself on my Airbnb calendar.  So far after June 11 I don’t have any more guests coming until July 8.

Grateful for how easy it was to get a new bed delivered, grateful for Amazon and how easy it is to order what I need without having to go shopping, and grateful for quiet guests who don’t have any requests or needs.

 

First set of guests checked out a little before 11:00 this morning.  Kathy helped me clean the basement and strip beds as soon as they left so we could get ready for my next guest to arrive.  He is to be here around 5:00 tonight and stays until Friday morning.  I have his room made up and ready for him.  I’ll get the other bedroom that was used this weekend done later when I get the laundry finished.

One of the twin beds broke last night during the night.  Thankfully the guest didn’t get hurt.  I think it can be repaired although I had plans to buy a queen bed to put in one of the guest rooms instead of two twins.  I’ll see what can be done tomorrow.  I have to act fast as I have all six beds full this weekend.

I have a mix of guests – some want twin beds and some prefer a queen.  One problem is the beds I have aren’t made any more so if I have to replace a twin I will have to replace both and the night stands so they would match.  If I am going to do that I might as well get a queen as I think it would be cheaper although I have the twin-sized mattress and box springs.  If I get a queen I will also have to get sheets, blankets and a bed spread.

I keep going back and forth in my head and can’t decide which way to go.  I only have till tomorrow morning to make a decision as I need enough beds to sleep six by Friday night.  If beds were easier to move I would get a queen and get the twin fixed and change them out as needed.  That sounds like a lot of work though.

If I decide to get a queen I’ll have to decide if I want it upstairs or down.  For the guests I have booked it would work better to have the queen bed be upstairs as the guests that are staying several days need twin beds.  Not sure that will always be the case though.  I prefer to have guests use the downstairs bedroom with the private bath as my first option, I use the upstairs bedroom with the bathroom across the hall as the second option, and use the second bedroom downstairs that shares a bathroom with Kathy as the third option.

Good news is beds are not permanent fixtures and can be moved if needed.  I may have room in one of the rooms to put a queen and a twin if needed too.  Options!  Plenty on the table for sure.

Went to a family reunion in Cottonwood Falls for lunch today.  Saw lots of cousins and my last two remaining aunts.  I treasure the time when we get together.  Man – some are sure looking old! My beloved aunts are going to be 82 and 85 this year.  Both are still going strong although they are finally starting to look a bit older.  They have both aged well.

Left the reunion early so I could get home and get the bedroom made up and get more laundry washing.  Sucks to work sometimes!  Grateful I got to slip away and have time to make an appearance at the reunion.

I ended up taking my normal salad to eat for lunch.  Felt safer that way.  I’m glad I did as there weren’t many Bright Line friendly foods to eat.  Several people commented on my salad but I explained I wasn’t eating flour and sugar any more and no one said anything else to me.  Got rid of the deviled eggs and meatloaf I had taken.  Brought some potato salad home.  Saved a bit for Kathy and have a second container I will take to Craig tomorrow.  Threw the rest of it away.

Since I have to go to town in the morning to get the bed situation sorted out I will go have my blood draw done tomorrow and save me a trip to town again on Wednesday.  I need to stop and get a few groceries while I am in town too.  Need to remember to pick up the ink cartridge I need while I am in town.  Thankfully the guest that is coming in tonight has to work this week and will be gone most of the time during the day.  That gives me a lot more freedom to do what I need to do during the day.

It has been an interesting weekend.  Glad it is over!  Keep forgetting I haven’t been home a week yet from Italy.  That trip already feels like it happened a month ago as I have been so busy since I have been home.  Trusting I can slow down a bit this week and get back to “being” instead of “doing”.

Grateful for the family members that came to the reunion today, grateful the house is ready for the guest arriving soon, and grateful for the empty space on my calendar for this week.

My three guests arrived around 2:00 yesterday.  They hung around the house all afternoon and evening.  We all sat outside in the swings to watch the sun go down  and see the stars pop out.  It cooled down nicely and was a beautiful night to sit out and enjoy Mother Nature and listen to the symphony of insects singing and coyotes howling in the background.

This morning Kathy and I went to Florence, Hillsboro, and Cottonwood Falls Cemeteries to decorate graves.  I took the long way from Florence to Hillsboro but it was a beautiful drive as everything is so green right now.  Won’t be long though with the heat that is coming that things will dull unless we get more rain.

Stopped at the grocery store in Marion to get stuff for the family reunion we are going to in Cottonwood Falls tomorrow.  I am going to make a meat loaf in the morning and just finished making a potato salad and deviled eggs to take.  Decided not to make a dessert as I don’t know what I would do with the leftovers.  I’ll need to give the leftovers of the other stuff I am taking away too as I can’t eat any of it.  I am going to take a salad for myself to eat.

When we got home I did a load of laundry to wash up the towels the guests used and did a load of dishes.  Started a second load of dishes a few minutes ago from my cooking mess.  I tend to dirty lots of dishes when I cook.  My guests have been cooking their meals in my kitchen too.

My guests went to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve for a bird watching class for the 9-year-old this morning and came back to the house just a little after we got back from our cemetery tour.   They are resting downstairs now.  They decided it was too hot to go out and do anything else.

My guest tomorrow told me he didn’t think he would be here before 5:00 tomorrow so that will give me plenty of time to flip the bedroom and get it ready for him.  The reunion I am going to starts at noon but will probably be over by 2:30.  Glad it worked out so I can go.

I didn’t go to the alumni dinner last night.  Felt I needed to stay around and be present for my guests.  The 9-year-old has enjoyed exploring the house and has liked being able to gather eggs and feed the chickens.  Glad I had some old toys laying around as he has been playing with them.  They forgot the sack of games they were going to bring for him to play with.

The dad of the family graduated from Hillsboro High School and knew our cousin Jack.  What a small world it is!  His mother is buried in the same cemetery as our grandparents are in Hillsboro.  He used to be a reporter for the Emporia Gazette and thinks he remembers interviewing me for a story he did years ago.  I don’t recognize him though.

Slept until 5:00 this morning so making progress.  By tomorrow I should be over jet lag.

This week is shaping up to be a busy week.  My guest arrives Monday and stays until Friday.  Six more guests come on Friday.  Have to go to town Tuesday or Wednesday for a blood draw, having lunch with a friend on Wednesday, and have something to go to Tuesday morning.  Thursday I will need to clean again for the guests arriving Friday.  No rest for the weary around here.

The forecast is calling for temperatures to reach over 100 this week.  Not sure I am ready for that.  I am tolerating the heat better this year than I did last year though.  What ever happened to spring? Seems like we went straight to summer heat.

Grateful the grocery store in Marion was open today – it is a nice little grocery store, grateful for the beauty of Mother Nature and the opportunity to sit outside and enjoy her last night, and grateful for all my loved ones that no longer live on this side of the veil.  I still feel their energy and love though!

I took a nap yesterday morning and woke up feeling much better.  The day definitely ended better than it started.  Woke up at 3:00 this morning instead of 1:00 like yesterday so making progress!  May be another long day though as I couldn’t go back to sleep.  I was able to stay awake until 9:00 last night so making progress there too.  Trusting by the end of next week my jet lag will be gone.

Guests are arriving around 2:00 this afternoon.  Not sure what their plans are so don’t know if they will be hanging at the house all evening or not.  I have a dinner I might go to tonight if my guests aren’t going to be around.  I’ll play it by ear this afternoon and see what I decide to do.  Not really sure I want to go to the dinner anyways so I may decide to stay home.  The dinner is the annual Hartford High School Alumni Banquet.  I rarely go as sitting around and making small talk is agony  for me.  Kathy went last year and had a good time.

Still need to figure out a time to sneak away this weekend and decorate graves at Florence, Hillsboro and Cottonwood Falls.  If my guests are going to be out and about tomorrow I’ll run over and do it then.  Kathy ran into town this morning and was going to pick up some flowers for us to take.  Have about a dozen graves we visit and put flowers on.  Sure wonder who will be doing that 20 years from now.  Times have changed and that tradition seems to be  changing as well.  I want to be cremated and scattered on the prairie so no one will need to decorate my grave.

I have a family reunion I want to go to Monday but I have to flip a room and not sure yet when the second guest is arriving and the first ones are leaving.  It sucks to have to work!  I had forgotten how inconvenient that is sometimes!  Ha!

I have lost 3 pounds since I have been home.  Thinking it was water weight from the two days of travel.  That put me down two pounds from where I was when I went on vacation.  Not bad!  23 pounds released and 18 to go.

Sent a note to my thyroid doctor to see if she will let me have my blood drawn so the results are back when I see her June 18.  I also need to have another ultrasound done.  Her nurse sent a note back saying they had ordered the tests.  I’ll have to go to Emporia either Tuesday or Wednesday morning and have my blood draw.  The ultrasound place will be calling me next week to get that scheduled.  Doesn’t it make more sense to see the Doctor when the results are in rather than hearing the results via email later?

Have my nuclear heart stress test scheduled for June 13.  They finally called to get it scheduled.  Somehow Newman Hospital had lost the original order from the Doctor and hadn’t called me to schedule it.  I had sent a note to my Cardiologist asking why I hadn’t heard anything.  I think the communication at Newman Hospital could use some fine tuning.  They screwed up my insurance claim too.  Think I got that issue resolved yesterday.  Good thing the stress test wasn’t urgent as it was originally ordered May 3.

Got my drain running again.  The guy said if it happens again within a couple of months he would recommend having someone who has a plumber’s camera come out and have them see what is wrong.  He is thinking the joint was plumbed incorrectly and may need to be replaced and fixed.  Wouldn’t surprise me at all if that was the case.  Grateful I got it unplugged before my guests arrive.  Don’t think they wanted to go wading in the basement.

Need to find someone to replace two boards on my back deck and to replace a section of baseboard in the basement.  Anyone know of someone who does that type of work?  I don’t think they are big jobs but I don’t have the tools or knowledge to do it myself.

Have my house all cleaned and ready.  I like to have it done early so I can be ready and relaxed well before the guests arrive.  Kathy did most of the cleaning for me this time so all I had to do this morning was touch up the floors and dust.  That was easy!

I was up early enough this morning to watch the sunrise.  I had turned my shower on and then came out to the kitchen to take my thyroid pill.  I happened to see the sun rising and stopped and watched it for a minute or so.  Oh how I missed seeing the sun rises and sun sets while I was gone.

The two baby chickens really grew while I was gone.  One of them is almost full size now and the other smaller one is still a bit small but catching up.  They seem to have integrated into the flock well and are no longer hanging back and staying together all the time.  Still can’t tell for sure if one or both are roosters.  Guess I need to go to chicken sexing school to learn how to tell the difference.  I can’t tell for sure until they are about four or five months old.

Glad I am out of the muck pond so quickly.  I realized what had happened yesterday and was able to rezoom and not get stuck for long.  Funny how what you think upsets you is not really what is going on sometimes.  Glad I was able to figure it out quickly this time!

Grateful for the beautiful sunrise I witnessed this morning, grateful I am out of the muck pond today and in a much better mood, and grateful my house is all cleaned and ready for my guests to arrive.

This may be a long day.  I woke up again at 1:00 and only slept for one more hour.  My body thinks it is still in Paris!  May take a nap this afternoon.

Went into Emporia this morning to restock dog food and get fruit for my guest’s fruit bowl.  I wanted to get a replacement ink cartridge for my printer but Staple’s didn’t open until 9:00 and I decided not to wait 20 minutes for them to open.   I meant to buy kidney beans and bought beets instead.  I hate when I do that as now I will have to go back to town in a day or two to get kidney beans.  They are both red – right?

Have a situation I am sitting with trying to decide what to do.  Feels like a test to me to see if I have found my voice.  I will continue to sit with it and see if I can come up with a good solution.  Sometimes if I wait things work out just perfectly.  Other times I feel like I get taken advantage of.  Hard to find the line between using my voice and using patience sometimes.

We got more rain overnight.  I was glad I was awake as the south deck door hadn’t gotten closed tight and it blew open during the storm.  I almost turned the air off and opened the windows but that just makes the air conditioner run more when I turn it back on.

Grateful the floor drain cleaner guy is coming today.  Every time I use the dish washer or run water down the kitchen sink it backs up on to the floor in the furnace room and has to be sucked up with the wet vac.  The drain cleaner guy is to come this afternoon.

Need to figure out my Medicare supplement.  I have a friend that sells insurance.  I sent him an email to ask if he could help me.  My timing was good as his company is putting on two educational seminars in June to help others like me understand our options and choices.  If you want to go with me let me know.  My friend said he would meet with me later in June and finalize my choices.  Leave it to the government to make this process seem complicated!  Grateful I have friends that know this stuff and are willing to help a girl out.

I am getting information in the mail almost daily now from companies trying to “help” me get enrolled.  Not sure I trust any of them though.  They feel like snake oil salesmen to me.

Feel a bit on edge today.  Not sure if it is because I have jet lag and still recovering from my travels, the situation I am sitting with, or if I am just a cranky bitch.  May be a bit of all three!  Thinking I will go back to bed and see if a nap helps.  One of those days when I allow the little things to bug me.  I know on one level they aren’t really important but my head struggles to let go of the thoughts and is attempting to pull me down into the muck pond.  My mantra for the day is “Just let go”.

Have the house almost ready for the guests that are arriving tomorrow.  I will need to dust and touch up the floors in the morning.  I got the bedrooms and bathrooms done yesterday.

Just got a glimpse of the dogs who are on the deck.  I almost didn’t recognize them as they are so dirty and muddy.  It is a muck boot type of day on the prairie today.  Maybe that is why I slipped into the muck pond!

Going to bed and trying this day again!  It will get better!  It will get better!

Grateful for the rain we received on the prairie overnight, grateful for a free day so I have the time to go back to bed, and grateful for a friend that will help me out and unwind the Medicare supplement maze with me.

 

Went to bed before 8:30 last night.  Woke up at 1:30 and I was confused as to why it was still dark outside.  Guess I was still on Paris time and thought it was time to get up and get going.  I was surprised when I was gone that I didn’t really struggle with jet lag this trip.  Maybe I saved it all for the return side.  I was able to go back to sleep around 3:30 and slept until 6:30.

Kathy cleaned house for me before I got home so all I have to do is touch ups. Bless her heart!  I have one bedroom and one bathroom done.  Taking a break and then I will do the other two downstairs bedrooms and bathrooms.

Several weeks ago I got a night stand I was going to use as a table in the library.  It didn’t work for the library so it had sat in the garage.  Kathy helped me get it downstairs today and I set it by the couch in the coffee-room downstairs.  I had gotten a lamp for it.  It looks good in there and makes the room look a bit more cozy.

The floor drain in the basement backed up yet again.  I called the drain cleaner guy and he is going to come out tomorrow afternoon.  I just had the plumber clean it out less than a month ago.  Wish I could figure out a fix instead of having to repair it all the time.

Got a bill for over $2,200 from the hospital for my ER visit in April.  They said the insurance company denied payment.  I called the insurance company this morning and they found out the hospital submitted it with the wrong code.  The insurance company will reprocess it under the correct code.  I have all but met my deductible so they should pay most of it.

Went through the bills that came in and wrote checks to pay them today.  It is time to do my annual propane pre-payment.  That one always hurts as it is almost $1,500.  I forgot it was due this early.  One of the rental property’s insurance was due too.  Money seems to flow out quickly these days.  Going to have to tucker in and not spend any extra for a bit.  I spent more on vacation than I thought I would.  Food is expensive in Europe.  Most meals were 50 euros which is almost $70 US.  Eating healthy is not cheap!

Got my yard mowed this morning while it was still cool.  I had a rough start mowing as the barn door had gotten locked, had trouble getting the gas cap off, and ran out of gas.  I got it done though!  The mower is still not running as good as it should.   Sure felt good to be outside on the mower.

Got my suitcase unpacked and my laundry washed up.  Always feels good to get that done when I get home.

Felt so good to eat my own eggs this morning.  They are so much better than any eggs I got on the trip.  Had my regular lettuce, cucumber, tomato, hummus and kidney bean salad for lunch.  My tummy is happy!  I gained one pound while I was gone.  Thinking when the swelling in my ankles so down the pound will go away quickly and I will be back on track.  I didn’t eat any flour or sugar to my knowledge but I did eat snacks occasionally and I have no idea if I stayed in the portion size I normally eat.

The living room feels weird as we lowered the blinds in the dining and living rooms to help keep it a bit cooler.  I don’t like them down as it makes the room feel claustrophobic to me.  The blinds are such a pain to raise and lower I usually keep them down all summer.  Maybe since I have guests coming I will raise them for my guests.

Have guests arriving Saturday and will have people here from then until June 11.  I have several days where I have to get rooms cleaned up for different guests checking in later on the same day.  Trusting it will all go smoothly.  At least I don’t have to cook except for breakfast on two days for two people.  That should be easy enough.

Still processing the trip.  I really learned I am not a good sight seeer.  I am not too interested in history stuff and felt rather ignorant at the art museums.  I much prefer trips that have a specific purpose to them like the trips I took to Peru and Japan.

Going away always makes me fall in love with my prairie home.  Still haven’t found anyplace I would rather be.

Grateful the mowing is done, grateful for a quiet day at home, and grateful to be back on plan and able to access the right food for my body.

Got home around 7:00 tonight.  Our flights were both smooth and easy.  We even got into KC 30 minutes early.  Nicole called an Uber and he picked us up one minute later.  Perfect timing!

I stopped and had a quick dinner at Chipotle and then stopped in Emporia for groceries on my way home.  I didn’t want to go to town tomorrow and knew I needed food.  I am so ready to go back on plan and eat the right food for my body.

I ate way too much protein foods the last two days and not near enough veggies.  Had to eat what I could find at the airport today and didn’t have good choices yesterday either.  We skipped dinner last night as we were so tired.

I have been up over 24 hours at this point so am ready to take a nice soak in my tub and then am going to bed.  My ankles are swollen from sitting so much today.  Don’t think I even got 2,000 steps in today.

We lucked out in the airport in Paris this morning.  Our driver picked us up on time.  We had to go pick up another couple and then he took us to the airport.  There were no lines getting through immigration or security.  We did have to wait at the airport for several hours for our flight but would rather do that then stand in line.

Our bags passed security leaving Paris but we both had a bag pulled for hand search going through Newark’s security.  Immigrations and customs were both rather easy and rather short lines for both.  It sure helps not to check a bag as you get to the front of the line that way since you don’t have to wait for your bags to arrive.

So happy to be home.  The best part of traveling is coming home!

What a long day this has turned into.  There was a strong thunderstorm here this afternoon and traffic became a parking lot.  Took us four hours to get to our hotel from the last castle we stopped at.  Only took two hours to get to the first one.  The driver used the gas peddle and the brake at the same time it felt like.  Both us of are a bit shaky from the ride.  One of the other women in the car got car sick.

We went to three different castles in the Loire Valley Area today.  It was so nice to get out and see the real countryside of France.  Gave me a new appreciation for France.  The second castle had a labyrinth that was really cool.  I think I enjoyed the outside of the castles more than the insides.  I had been craving green space and breathing room.

We had lunch after the second castle at a little restaurant.  The food was OK but not near as good as the organic farm in Italy.  I had veggie soup and chicken.  Didn’t get all my veggies in for the day but ate what I could find.  I had taken some cheese and cashews with me and I think I ate too much protein today.  Not sure if we are going out for dinner.  Both of us feel a bit uneasy after a four-hour ride.

We are to get picked up in the morning at 5:30 to get taken to the airport for our 9:45 flight to Newark.  The same company that took over an hour to pick us up when we arrived in Paris is the company that is taking us back to the airport. Trusting they will be a bit more prompt tomorrow.  I don’t like running through the airport.  Haven’t heard if the strike will effect our flight out or not.  Fingers crossed it won’t as we are both ready to go home.

Only have 8,000 steps in so far today.  I’ll add another 2,000 if we go out to dinner later.  It is after 8:15 and I don’t like to eat that late.  Still need to get packed and organized for the morning so we can sleep as long as possible in the morning.  Gotta figure out the best way to get my crystal piece home safely.

Our car mates today were a grandma, a mom and her two daughters.  They are from the Boston area. We enjoyed visiting with them today.  Grandma is the one that got car sick.  They had gotten to Paris yesterday and were all a bit jet lagged which probably added to the car sickness.

Our guide was our driver too.  He sure wasn’t as good as the guy from Italy.  The one today didn’t have a sense of humor and was almost rude when we didn’t finish lunch fast enough.  We were waiting for the restaurant to serve us dessert and coffee.

Still glad we did the tour today.  I loved seeing the countryside and getting out of the big city energy for a day.  We got sprinkled on at the second castle but it didn’t downpour until we were on our way home.  We lucked out this trip with the weather.

Grateful we arrived back to our hotel in one shaky piece,  grateful for green grass and blooming wild poppies that we saw today, and grateful I get to head for home tomorrow.

Ended up with over 12,000 steps yesterday.  After we took a nap we took the Metro to Notre Dame.  The line to go inside was long but moving quickly so we went in.  They were having a mass so could only walk the outside isle.  I remembered the inside differently from the last time I was here in 2015.

We ended up walking back to the hotel as it was a beautiful night out.  Needed to stretch our legs after the two flights and nap.

This morning we got up early and were downstairs a little after 7:00 for breakfast.  They had hard-boiled eggs but no fruit.  I had 2 eggs and some walnuts.

We took the Metro to the Louvre stop and got our tickets from the Big Bus Company.  We went to the Louvre to stand in line as it didn’t open until 9:00 am and it was only 8:15.  Sure glad we got in line when we did as it was a long line by 9:00.

When we got in we headed directly to see the Mona Lisa so we could beat the crowd. We were able to stand directly in front of it and take pictures.  After we left that room we walked for several hours looking at things.  Both of us hit overwhelm at some point and decided we needed fresh air.  We went down a level too low and ended up in a shopping mall.  Finally had to ask somehow how the hell we got out of there.  When we left the lines were really long of people waiting to get in.

The idea of a very modern shopping mall sharing space with with the Louvre gave me a chuckle this morning.  Somehow I had trouble wrapping my head around the two of those things hanging out together.

We got on the double-decker bus outside the Louvre and rode it around town for a bit.  Got really close to the Eiffel Tower and other cool sights.  Finally got off when we were close to a restaurant as both of us were hungry. I ordered vegetable soup.  It was delicious but it was purée veggies.  Had to order some mozzarella cheese over tomatoes with pesto as I was still hungry and needed some protein.

We walked after lunch for a bit and then hopped on a Metro to go about halfway to the hotel then walked the rest of the way to our hotel.  So far I have over 12,500 steps in and we still have the evening to go.  Not sure what our plans are other than Nicole wanted to do some shopping.

Stopped at a little market close to the hotel and picked up some bananas, cashews and cheese to take with me tomorrow so I will have something for breakfast.  We leave for our Loirie Valley Castle tour at 6:00 tomorrow morning so the hotel won’t be serving breakfast yet.  Somewhere along the day we will have a lunch but never know if what they are serving is something I can eat.

Had a bit of a fast heart rate today and didn’t feel good for a while.  That hadn’t happened since the first few days here.  Not sure why it happened again today.

Not sure big cities are for me.  I am craving my prairie today!  Too many people, too much noise and too much stimulation in the city for this country girl.  Glad we are going to the countryside tomorrow and headed home Wednesday.   I am ready to come home.

Grateful for a soft bed in a hotel after a long day of walking, grateful for the Paris Metro to help save walking, and grateful the rain didn’t happen as was forecast for the afternoon.  It was another beautiful, sunny day in Paris.

Left our hotel on a water taxi around 3:50 this morning. It took about 30 minutes in the water taxi to get to the Venice Airport. We had to wait until after 4:30 to get checked in. Found our gate with no problem. Venice has a small airport.

I had a bowl of fruit for breakfast and the last bit of pecans I had brought with me.

Flight took off and landed on time in Frankfort. Had a long walk in Frankfurt to get to our next gate. I was glad we had an hour and one-half layover. Got a mozzarella cheese and tomato sandwich and left the bread. The sandwich only had three bits of cheese and tomato on it. Also had a bag of potato chips. Not thinking the chips are on plan but i counted them as a grain. Didn’t have many choices and they were better than bread for me.

The flight from Frankfurt to Paris was a bit late but not much. We had checked our bags so went to claim them and then called for our pick-up service. We walked a long ways to where they said to meet them. We waited over 30 minutes and called them again as they had said it would not be longer than 20. This time they said it would be five more minutes before the driver arrived which turned into another 30 minutes.

The guy finally came and we headed to our hotel. We had to drop another passenger off first and about an hour after we got in the van we got to our hotel.

Our room wasn’t ready so we dropped off our luggage and walked two blocks to find food. I had a chicken Caesar salad. It had green beans, potatoes, and other veggies in it. I was hungry and ate most of it.

Came back to the hotel after lunch and got to our room. We both took a much needed nap.

We are a 15 minute walk from Notre Dame so plan on walking there this afternoon. The Louvre is another 15 minute walk on down from there. We will take a bus to go to the Louvre in the morning.

Paris feels busy and loud there is a lot of traffic. I enjoyed the no car scene in Venice.

Only have a little over 5,000 steps in so far today. Nice to slow down our pace a bit this afternoon and rest.

Grateful for our safe arrival to the hotel, grateful for a nap today, and grateful to find food that is mostly on plan.

Much slower pace day today.  We didn’t go down for breakfast until almost 9:00.  They had the best breakfast buffet of our trip.  Fresh strawberries, a slice of cheese and hard-boiled eggs made me smile this morning.

At 10:00 we went in a water taxi to the Murano glass blowing factory.  It was a great trip.  We watched a guy give a short glass blowing demonstration.  Then we toured their sales floor.  OMG!  Such beautiful pieces every direction you looked.  I indulged myself and got a piece.  It is heavy and they added lots of packaging to it.  Trusting I can get it home safely and in one piece.

They dropped us off fairly close to our hotel so we could bring it back up to our room and not have to carry it all day. Nicole carried it for me on our ten minute walk to the hotel.  We dropped the piece off and rested for a few minutes then headed out for the day.  We took a slow walk down to the main square area although we didn’t end up going that far.  We stopped along the way and had lunch.  I had a Chicken Caesar salad and a plate of grilled veggies.  After lunch we did more walking and looking at the shops.  Sat for a long time in a Plaza area and I drank a bottle of water while Nicole had a glass of wine.

Got back to our hotel around 3:45.  Walked almost 10,000 steps so far today and almost 4 miles.  We will rest up for a bit and then go out for dinner later.  It is a beautiful day here today but warmer than it has been.  Parts of the sidewalks were really crowded although where our hotel is seems to be less so.

Tomorrow morning we have to be downstairs by 3:30 so we can take a water taxi to the airport to fly to Paris via Frankfurt.  We can’t check into our hotel in Paris until 3:00 so may be a long day tomorrow.  Trusting the flights will be on time and we will be able to drop our luggage off at the hotel and then get out and see a bit of Paris tomorrow afternoon.

We booked Skip the Line tickets for the Louvre for Monday morning at 9:00 am.  They come with 48 hour tickets for the hop on and hop off double-decker bus.  We couldn’t get Catacomb tickets as they are sold out until sometime in June.

Tuesday we have our tour and then Wednesday have an early flight out of Paris to Newark with only a two-hour layover until we head for KC.

I really like Venice.  Especially like that there are no cars you have to watch for.  People sure get distracted walking by looking at maps, their cell phones and eating pizza and gelato.  It became a sport to see who could break through the crowd and not get run into.   I would come back to Venice and Florence anytime although I would probably stay in one of the smaller towns and do day trips into the cities.

Lots of people kayaking on the canals.  They must have group kayaking tours that come here.

It seems almost sinful that I have come to Italy and not tasted the gelato or pizza.  It just doesn’t look good to me thank heavens so I haven’t been tempted.   Thankful most restaurants have grilled veggies and salads.

May take a nap this afternoon as we won’t get much sleep tonight.  Sure like traveling by train better than flying.  My bag will be too heavy so I will have to check it tomorrow.  Say a little prayer that my piece won’t get broken before I even get it home.

Grateful for the beautiful sunny day, grateful for a slower pace day today, and grateful walking gets easier for me each and everyday.

 

 

 

We are now in Venice, Italy.  We took the train from Florence this morning.  The train was crowded but we had reserved seats.  Never did get our tickets checked.  They kinda look at them when you get on the station track but they didn’t check them after that.

We were met after we got off the train and the person that met us walked us to a pre-reserved water taxi.  We were delivered to the front door of the hotel.  Our room wasn’t ready yet so we found a restaurant close by and had lunch.  I had baked fish, a salad and grilled vegetables.  The fish was the whole fish.  It had a delicious tomato sauce over it.  I ate as much as I could figure out how to eat without getting into the bones.

Our hotel is the best one we have had on this trip.  Nice service and nice rooms.  After we got checked in we rested in our room for about 30 minutes and then decided to walk the 1.2 miles to go to our 5:00 gondola ride.  The map helped but we got lost several times.  The roads seem to change names without warning and the directional signs are a bit challenging to figure out.  We would run into dead ends.  You have to figure out which bridge to cross and which road had a bridge to cross.  The good news is there are no cars on the roads.  Some of the roads were full of people but still not as crowded as Rome was.

We got to the starting point of the gondola ride with lots of time to spare.  We walked around the square and enjoyed the beauty of it all.  At 5:00 we went to the starting point and had to wait about 15 minutes for our turn.  We had an accordion player and a guy that sang to us during our ride.  We got our picture taken lots during the trip by the people standing on the bridges we went under.  It was incredibly cheesy but hard to come to Venice and not do a gondola ride.

Our original plan was to take a water taxi back to the hotel after the gondola ride but it was so nice out we decided to walk back.  We stopped for dinner on the way back.  The food was good but the service was poor.  I had a chicken Caesar salad and grilled veggies.

Finally made it back to our hotel.  It started to sprinkle just as we were finishing dinner but it never did rain.  I walked 13,000 steps today and over 5 miles.

Venice is a beautiful city.  Hard to navigate but I bet we figure it out better tomorrow.  We are going on a free tour of the glass blowing factory at 10:00 in the morning.  We will have to pay the water taxi fee to get back.  The glass products are absolutely beautiful.  It will be hard to resist getting some but am not sure how I would get them home safely.

Not sure what we are going to do in the afternoon tomorrow other than probably go back to the city center square and maybe go to a museum or two.  We have to be downstairs Sunday morning by 3:30 am to get to the airport in time for our 6:30 am flight to Frankfurt and then Paris.  Trusting the air traffic control strike will not interfere with our travel plans Sunday.

We need to decide what we want to do with our one whole day in Paris.  Don’t want to book anything for Sunday afternoon in case the flight is delayed.  Tuesday we have a Loire Valley Castle tour all day.  We learned in Rome we need to pre-book Skip the Line tickets if we want to do more than one thing that day.  I think Nicole decided she wants to go to the Catacombs and the Louvre on Monday.  If we get in with time to spare on Sunday we will do something that afternoon too.   I hope we have time to take the boat ride around Paris either Sunday or Monday evening so Nicole can see the Eiffel Tower at night.

Italy has been different than I expected it to be.  I sure enjoyed the countryside part of Italy more than the bigger cities.  Haven’t found much eye candy as far as cute Italian men yet.  It is amazing how different the energy is in the three different cities we have stayed at.  I haven’t decided if I like Venice or Florence best yet.

Grateful for another safe travel day, grateful for the cheesy gondola ride, and grateful for a very nice hotel to stay in.

Best day of the trip so far.  We boarded a bus at 8:30 this morning and did a Tuscany Tour.  Our first stop was about an hour out at a village of 55,000 people called Siena.  We were met by a local tour guide who shared some of the history of the town with us.  Most notably they hold two horse races a year around the city square. Thousands of people come for them.  They bring sand and dirt in to make a track just for these two races.  The first horse race in Siena was held in 1555 and they have held them ever since.

The ten horses that race on those days are taken into the big church for a blessing from the Cardinal before the race.  It is considered extra lucky if the horse poops while in the church!  They showed us a video of the horse race.  The horses are rode bare back and due to the sharp turns it is common for the jockey to fall off.  They make three circles around the town square.  The horse can still win even if the jockey isn’t on it at the finish line.

We toured the main church which was amazing.  The floor tile was impressive as was the tall dome ceiling.  This town has the world’s oldest bank in it which is still operating today.  It had a hospital that opened in the 9th century that just closed in 1995.

The local guide told us the phase God Bless You after someone sneezes originated here.  There was a plague in the 1500’s and sneezing was often the first symptom people had.  When someone sneezed people would say God Bless meaning they hoped God will receive them when they die from the plague next week.  They lost 80% of the population to the plague.

Our next stop was at a local organic winery where we had lunch.  We toured where the wine is stored before it is bottled.  As it was raining they cut our tour short and we went in for lunch.  They served four different types of wine for lunch.  Nicole got double servings of each as she drank mine for me.  Since I don’t eat bread or pasta they fixed a plate of roasted veggies for me.  The main course was salad, cold cuts of meat and sheep’s cheese.  It was a delightful lunch.  We enjoyed talking to our table mates as they served the lunch family style.

Next up was a little town called San Gimignano.  What a beautiful little village it was.  The countryside views were incredible in spite of the rainy, foggy skies.  We mainly did some shopping in this village.  The shops were really cute.

The last stop of the day was Pisa.  What a tiny town it is.  We had gotten tickets to walk to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and didn’t have time to do much else.  I made it halfway up before I turned around and went back down.  Nicole made it to the top.  I felt drunk walking the stairs especially on the side that leans.  Felt like we were on a boat.

Our tour guide was one of the best ones I have ever had.  He gave us enough information but didn’t talk all the time.  He had a good sense of humor and made it a fun day.

We had sprinkles off and on today but it never rained hard.  The rainbows before, during and after Pisa were some of the prettiest ones I have ever seen.  They had all the colors of the rainbow in them and were intensely bright and close.

Saw lots of olive trees and grape vines.  Reminded me of the countryside in Spain when I was walking through their grape vine countryside.  It was so nice to get out of the city energy and see the country side.  We didn’t get back to Florence until after 8:30 so it was a long day.

We walked from the bus station to the main area of Florence when we got back and had dinner.  Didn’t get back to our room until almost 10:00.  Walked over 18,300 steps today and registered 7.61 miles.

Tomorrow morning we catch the train to Venice and will be there for two nights.  We have a Gondola ride tomorrow evening booked so will only have tomorrow afternoon and all day Friday to explore Venice.

Can’t believe this trip is getting close to being over.  It has gone by very quickly.  Just about the time we get comfortable finding our way around a town it is time to move to the next one.

We are booked on a countryside tour in Paris too.  Trusting it will be as fun as today was.

Grateful for all the rainbows we saw today, grateful to see more of this beautiful country, and grateful for a tour guide that made the day so fun.

After taking a nap yesterday afternoon I got my energy back and we walked back down to the main city area for dinner.  Found a great place to eat with fun service.  I had vegetable soup and chicken.  They served the chicken in slices and leaned up a pile of arugula with fresh shaved Parmesan cheese with a drizzle of reduced Balsamic Vinegar.  It was amazing!   Ended the day with over 21,000 steps!

Got up and at it early this morning.  We were out of our room and at breakfast before 8:00 this morning.  I sent a bag of clothes to be laundered.  They just returned my laundry.  I am good to go for the rest of the trip now without having to wash out clothes in the sink.

After a breakfast of cheese, eggs and an orange we headed out.  We didn’t use any buses today so spent the day walking again.  We first went to Duomo:  the religious center of the city and it’s museum.  It was hard to find the ticket line but we walked all around the church which is almost a full city block big and finally got tickets and went to the bell tower.  It has 414 steps.  I walked up a few of them and decided if I wanted to be able to do lots of walking today I wasn’t going to the top.  Nicole made it though.  She said her knees felt like gelato by the time she was done.  Glad I turned around.  We went into the museum and toured it.  The church was closed for some reason.  The grounds around it were relaxing and it wasn’t crowded inside.

Next we attempted to go to the Uffizi Gallery but the line was way too long and it was sprinkling and we decided not to wait.  Instead we went into the Galileo Museum which was right next door.  It was cool!  Impressive instruments in it and to think they were mostly from the 16th and 17th century.

We had lunch afterwards to wait out the rain.  I had vegetable soup and a grilled chicken breast.  It was OK and on plan.

We found the Ponte Vecchio bridge and walked halfway across it.  It had a beautiful view of the river Fiume and lots of shops to see.  I had forgotten about Italian leather.  There are leather shops everywhere full of beautiful coats and purses.

We waited almost an hour in line to get into the Academia to see Michelangelo’s David.  Well worth the wait!  It was magnificent.

Our last museum was the DaVinci museum.  That man was a genius!  He wrote in a mirror reverse script.  There were several things in it I would have loved to brought home with me.

Saw lots of little plazas full of beautiful flowers and old statues.  It sprinkled on us for quite a bit this morning but the sun came out this afternoon.  Started sprinkling again on our walk back to the hotel.

I took a nap again and then we went out for dinner.  We ate where we had lunch yesterday.   I had a salad and grilled veggies with a warm hunk of cheese.  Satisfying!

Tomorrow we booked tickets to go on The Best of Tuscany Tour.  We meet up with the group at 8:15 in the morning by the train station which is three minutes from our hotel.  We will visit Siena, have a Tuscan lunch at a Chianti vineyard that includes a wine tasting lesson, go to San Gimignano and Pisa in the afternoon.  We got tickets to climb the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  We should get back to our hotel around 8:30 tomorrow night.  At each city we will be given free time to walk around and enjoy the sights.  It will be fun to get out and see some of the countryside.

I really like Florence.  It has a more intimate feel to it than Rome did.  Easy to walk to all of the places we wanted to see.  Not near as many people although in some places it felt crowded.  We were able to take side streets and avoid the crowds most of the time.  The sites we visited were not near as crowded as the sites in Rome.  Here you can take your time and enjoy the sites without being pushed and run into.  I would come back here anytime.

Friday we go to Venice via train, Sunday we fly to Paris and then Wednesday we fly home.  This trip is going by very quickly.

Felt much better most of the day today.  I only had to sit down once and that was when we were waiting in line.  All of a sudden my heart rate jumped up and I felt light-headed again.  I sat down on a door step across the street from the line.  By the time Nicole got close to the entrance I was feeling better.  I didn’t even get tired walking today.  Only got over 12,000 steps today though.  My Fitbit tells me I walked over 5 miles today.

Grateful the rain was only sprinkles when it happened today, grateful the sun came out this afternoon, and grateful for all the beautiful things I saw today.  Hard to wrap my head around how old most of the things are.

 

It is 1:30 in the afternoon in Florence, Italy.  We just got checked into our hotel room.  It has two bedrooms which is a nice change.  The shower is tiny though!

Last night we walked up the street from our hotel for dinner.  The menu was not in English so I took a chance with what I ordered.  I got two big scoops of cheese and some sort of cold meat.  No veggies!  I was so tired I didn’t care.  I ate one scoop of the cheese and two slices of the meat.  Nicole had a Calzone which smelled wonderful.  I sure was tempted to taste the bread it was made from but I didn’t!

On the walk back to the hotel there was a little fruit market so I stopped and bought a basket of strawberries and ate some of those.  Sometimes you have to roll with what you have available.  Just grateful I have been able to resist the bread and pasta as it looks fabulous.

This morning I skipped breakfast at the hotel and ate some more berries.  Our prearranged transportation picked us up a little before 9:00 this morning and took us to the train station.  They don’t post your boarding gate until 15 minutes before the train leaves so we had 45 minutes to wait.  We stopped at a McDonald’s and had breakfast.  I had scrambled eggs and bacon.  It was OK but not great.  I was just grateful to find eggs to eat.  Finding the correct train and car was much easier than it was in Paris when I rode the train from Paris to St. Jean Pied de Port.

The train ride was pleasant.  We are in the Tuscany Valley so we saw lots of grape vines in the hillside on the way here.  It was nice to be out of the city and see the countryside.  They must have gotten lots of rain lately as the rivers are full and everything is very green.  Saw lots of old castles and buildings on the hillside.  Beautiful county – reminded me of part of the Camino walk.  Glad I was riding the train and not walking this time!

Our hotel was a three-minute walk from the train station.  Nicole found it easily for us.  We dropped our luggage off and we went back up the street for lunch.  Found a great little restaurant the hotel guy recommended and gave us a 15% coupon off for.  I had grilled vegetables (mushrooms and zucchini) and a warmed hunk of cheese.  Yummy!  I have been eating more cheese than normal as that seems to be readily available.  Nicole had ordered a salad with her spaghetti and couldn’t eat all of it so I ate some of it too.  I don’t think what I ordered had 10 oz of veggies.

At least today I didn’t have a bathroom emergency like the last two days.  Maybe the salami I had eaten those other two days didn’t agree with me.

We are resting for a bit in our room and will probably go out in an hour or so and see what we can find.  We have the rest of the afternoon and two full days to explore Florence.   So far I like it better than Rome -the energy is very different and the people seem more relaxed and friendly to me.  We aren’t too close to the main part of town but it is within walking distance I think.  I see lots of buses so maybe we will figure out how they work and catch one of those.  Might be another 20,000 step day tomorrow!  I will come home in good shape.

It has been raining off and on today and is rather chilly out.  I only brought sandals and no socks and my feet are cold.  It is nice being in a room with a heavy wool blanket on me.

I have decided I like trips with a purpose better than trips like this where I am only sightseeing and having to decide where to go.  The trip to Japan and Peru were much better as we had a designated reason for going.  This trip has been fun but very different from the other two.

Looking forward to seeing more of this city.  I didn’t sleep very much last night so might take a nap and then go out and see what we can find to do.

Almost halfway through this trip.  It is going by quickly.  Not sure if the strike in Paris will delay us after Venice but we will worry about that if it happens.  We take a train to Venice on Friday but then are to fly to Paris on Sunday.  Wish us luck!

Grateful for another safe travel day, grateful for a nice hotel room, and grateful for this experience!

Lots of steps walked today – over 20,000!  We did our best to walk all over Rome today.  We started the day taking a Uber to the Sistine Chapel.  We had hoped to beat the lines and crowd but that strategic move didn’t work.  The line to get in was over two city blocks long when we got there before 10:00 this morning.

We walked around St. Peter’s square in front of the Vatican for a bit trying to decide what to do.  I felt I couldn’t pass up a chance to see the Sistine Chapel so we joined the long line.

While we were waiting in line a lady came up to talk us into a Skip the Line Ticket.  I had a bathroom emergency about that time and ask if she knew where a bathroom was.  She walked me to a restaurant which was across a busy street.  As my thank you to her I bought two Skip the Line tickets.  She went back and got Nicole for me.  After a second emergency bathroom stop we joined the group to head into the Chapel at 10:45.

It took over an hour to get in and get started even using the Skip the Line advantage. There were thousands of people there.  I had no idea it would take so long of a walk inside to finally reach the Sistine Chapel.  We went through chapel after chapel after art gallery and on and on.  It took a good hour or more to get through it all.  Nicole took lots of pictures again.  I tried hard not to have a panic attack from being so close to so many people for so long.

Not sure it was worth going to after we finally got there.  Sightseeing and history are not my thing I am discovering.  It felt really good to finally get outside again after being trapped with all those people and feeling a bit like a rat in a maze.  There are people from all over the world here.  Wonder if there is a slow time of the year?

After we left the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican area we walked to another site.  I lost track of all the places we went to today.  We walked and walked and walked some more.  Stopped at a little cafe outside the Vatican for lunch – I had a chicken salad which was OK but not great.  We did make it to the Pantheon which is where we had tried to go our first day here.

At some point this afternoon we got on the double-decker bus and rode it to the last stop.  When we got off I was hungry so we decided we would walk until we found some place to eat.  The restaurants weren’t open yet and all that was available was ice cream and pizza.  We kept walking and I finally found a cheese and tomato sandwich.  I took the bread off and ate the rest.  It gave me enough energy to get the rest of the way to the hotel.

We will need to go out and get dinner later.  I think the restaurants open around 7:00.  I’m so tired I could almost skip dinner tonight.

Not sure I am in love with Rome.  It would not be at the top of my list to come back to at this point.  Lots of stuff to look at but after a while I got overwhelmed and didn’t appreciate it.   It is expensive to go into all the different sites.  We only paid to go into the Sistine Chapel today.  We did go inside a little church that was open and free but didn’t stay long.

Got lucky with the weather as the original forecast had called for rain most of the day.  We got sprinkled on after our bus ride but it never did rain on us.  Forecast calls for rain tonight and all day tomorrow.  We are taking a train tomorrow to Florence so the rain shouldn’t interfere with that.  I’m glad we have a travel day tomorrow so I can rest.

Wish I knew what causes me to not feel good each morning for several hours.  Afternoons I do much better.  Not yet in Camino fitness mode but working my way there.  It amazes me that I was able to walk 12 miles a day when I did the Camino.  Over 8 miles wore me out today.

Grateful for the rain holding off for us today, grateful I was able to walk over 8 miles today, and grateful I can put my feet up for a bit and rest!

 

We finally made it to our hotel room around 1:30 this morning.  Our hotel room was awful.  It smelled like cigarette smoke and was dirty.  The hotel guy had to unlock the outside door to let us into the hotel.  I was afraid to let the guy that transported us from the airport leave for a minute.  As it was so late we didn’t say anything to the desk clerk about our room.  We had requested two twin beds and only had one double bed.  We decided if they couldn’t move us in the morning we would call the tour company and tell them we needed to change hotels.

This morning we talked to the desk clerk and he agreed to move us to a different room for tonight.  We packed up our stuff after we had a bite of breakfast as they said they would move our stuff for us.

Breakfast was a challenge as they mainly had breads.  I ate some cheese and salami type meat.  They didn’t have any fruit. Nicole chose not to eat anything.

We got directions from the hotel clerk and headed out. Our plan was to ride the bus and then the subway and then another bus and we headed out to see the Pantheon.  We struggled to find the first bus stop and had to stop and ask directions.  We found the bus stop and waited a bit for the bus to show up.  We had to change buses to get to where we wanted to go.  After waiting 30 minutes for the second bus we decided to try the subway.  About that time my stomach acted up and I needed an emergency bathroom stop.  Luckily I found a restaurant close and found one to use.  Barely made it in time.

We rode the subway to get as close as we could to the Pantheon.  We had to catch another bus to get us closer to where we wanted to go.  The bus came just after I finished a second emergency bathroom stop. We were excited to see the bus and got on it only to discover it was going the wrong direction.  We gave up at that point as we had to be back to the hotel for our afternoon adventure and still needed to eat lunch.  We came back frustrated that we were unable to navigate the subway and bus system.

To our defense, their subway and bus system is not near as efficient as the one in Japan and Barcelona.

After we got to the hotel we found out our new room wasn’t ready but they let us rest for a bit in the dirty, old room.  We then went to a restaurant about eight blocks away and had a brunch.  It was 20 euro’s each but not worth it as it should have been called a seafood brunch and neither one of us likes seafood.  I had a few bites of veggies but my tummy was still a bit unsettled and I decided I better not eat much.

We got picked up for our afternoon adventure at our hotel.  He drove us to the Colosseum for a guided tour.  We saw Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.  Nicole took lots of pictures.  I struggled a bit with a very rapid heart beat at times and felt a bit light-headed.  Thankfully the guide stopped a lot to talk and I was able to rest between climbs.

I opted out of the final part of the Colosseum tour and sat and enjoyed the shade and sights while the rest of the tour finished up.  Nicole decided to stay with me.  By the time the group got back I was finally feeling much better.

We had to find our own way back to the hotel as return transportation was not included in the tour package.  We saw one of the double-decker buses that are hop on and hop off and decided to get a 24 hour pass for one of them.  We hopped on and it took us back around to where we had gotten on the subway this morning.  It took over one and one half hours to get there though as traffic was so heavy.

We found a nice little restaurant after we got off the bus and had a lovely dinner.  We needed a good way to end this day.  The waiter was fun and good and the food was good.  I had chicken and veggies so was able to stay on plan.

We then went to the bus stop to ride the bus home but it was going to be at least a 30 minute wait for the bus.  We were tired and it was getting dark.  We are in a shady neighborhood and decided it wasn’t safe to walk the half mile from the final bus stop to the hotel.  Nicole got a Uber for us who picked us up three minutes later and got us to the hotel quickly, safe and sound.

When we got back to the hotel they had our stuff in a different room.  We now have two twin beds and a much nicer bathroom.  This room doesn’t have a broken window and it doesn’t smell like a beer hall.  We were relieved they fixed the issue for us.  The A/C even works in this room.

Tomorrow we have a list of places we want to go see.  The Vatican and the Sistine Chapel is at the top of my list.  We saw a glimpse of them from the bus this afternoon.  May call a Uber in the morning to pick us up and take us to the double-decker bus stop.  It would give us more time to be on the bus as the city buses and subways tend to run behind schedule here.  Forecast is calling for rain tomorrow so will see how many places we get to.  Nicole has several places on her list too.

Lots of people in the city!  Sure wouldn’t want to come here in the hot summer months.  It was warm enough for me today.  Got kissed by the sun while on our tour this afternoon.  Walked over 14,500 steps today.

Tuesday we head to Florence via train so tomorrow is our last chance to see Rome.

Grateful we were able to salvage this day and enjoy the second part of it, grateful we have a much nicer room tonight (although it isn’t great – it is much better), and grateful I am feeling better tonight and was able to find bathrooms in the nick of time earlier today.

Stuck at the Frankfurt Germany airport for a six-hour layover. Our flight out of Barcelona was delayed for over an hour due to a traffic control strike in Paris so we missed our connecting flight. We won’t get to Rome now until almost midnight. Good thing we don’t have an early tour tomorrow.

Ate dinner last night in one of the little restaurants close to our hotel. I had grilled chicken and roasted veggies. Best meal ever!

Tonight we ate at a German restaurant in the airport. I had grilled chicken, salad and potatoes. It was OK but I wished I hadn’t eaten some of the potatoes. They didn’t have any other veggies available. This is my first break from my bright lines on this trip. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do! At least I didn’t have apple strudel. Still haven’t had any flour or sugar.

Still have almost four hours to wait. Sure makes a day long when delays happen. We each got a $10 voucher for dinner. Our bed in Rome will be much appreciated when we get there.

We got stuck in a huge people jam leaving the airport security area. I came close to having a panic attack. We got shoved, pushed, and stepped on. No personal space at all and no consideration shown to anyone. Glad we made it out intact.

Some days travel is easy and other days you get delayed. Guess it was our turn to get delayed.

Grateful for this experience, grateful we may get to Rome yet today and grateful for a quiet spot to sit and wait for our flight.

Another beautiful day in Barcelona.  We were lazy again this morning and didn’t go up to breakfast until after 9:00.  Today I found hard-boiled eggs and I felt better eating those.

We went to the Batilo Gaudi house.  It was amazing!  No straight lines in the house – all curves and every detail tended to.  Lots of stained glass too.  It was very crowded and hot and after only the second floor I had to go outside.  Nicole made it to the seventh floor which was the top floor.  She took lots of pictures.

I found a bench outside and talked to a woman about my age from Northern CA.  She is doing a two-week tour of Spain and had come in two days early to adjust to the time change.  We had a delightful conversation while I was waiting for Nicole to finish her tour.  It was so beautiful and nice outside I enjoyed sitting on the bench visiting.

Afterwards we walked around some more, took the subway to a different part of town, walked around there then headed back to the Gothic District where we had been last night.  Only walked over 11,000 steps so far today so not as much as yesterday although we will go back out later this afternoon after we rest for a bit.

Found a lovely cafe and had lunch.  I had a chicken Caesar salad.  It was good although it had croutons in it.  I tried to pick as many of them as I could out.  Nicole enjoyed what she ordered too.

Walked around some more after lunch and finally decided to come back to our room.  We will stretch out and rest and then go out for dinner later.  We will need to get organized and packed up as we leave for the airport in the morning at 9:30.  We won’t get to Rome until around 5:30 so will have a rest day of sorts traveling.  Trusting both flights will be on time and we will have a smooth travel day.

I’m been surprised I haven’t been tempted to go off my eating plan.  The stuff I would have eaten before doesn’t even look good to me.  Trusting Italy won’t tempt me beyond my will power either.

There were lots more people out and about today in Barcelona.  I bet the weekends are really crowded.  Glad we came early in the season as there are more than enough people here for me.

The weather has been perfect.  We had a few sprinkles the end of our first day here but none since.  Bright blue skies and lower 70’s has made for perfect walking weather.  The spring flowers are blooming and the trees are all full.

We want to walk down to the beach after we rest.  Gotta stick my feet into the sea!  Will find some place close for dinner later and then come back to the room to get packed up.  Barcelona is a beautiful as I heard it was.  I would come back if I got the chance.  Have to admit though I still prefer being on the prairie without so many people around.

Grateful for the beautiful weather we have had here, grateful for finding food on my plan, and grateful for being able to move my body.

 

Oh what a day.  I walked over 16,000 steps and over 7 miles walked today.  I am getting in shape!  I walked over 25 flights of stairs according to my Fitbit.

We went to bed early last night – we both beat the sun to bed last night.  We both slept fairly good and didn’t get going until after 9:00 this morning.  We ate breakfast at our hotel as it is included in our room charge. I had scrambled eggs, a slice of cheese and some mini-oranges.  The eggs had a funny taste to them and made my tummy rumble later in the morning.

After breakfast we headed out to go to Guell Park.  We took two trains to get there and then hike up a huge hill.  Thankfully there were several sets of escalators to help us get up the hill.  We still had to walk lots of sets of steps too.

The park was beautiful but what Nicole wanted to see was under construction and we didn’t get to see it.  There were lots of people there.  I had to stop and rest several times this morning as I felt off all morning.  We found a different way to come back to the hotel and didn’t have to walk down all those steps.

We ate a late lunch at a little restaurant near the hotel.  Took over an hour to get waited on and get our food.  It was worth waiting for though.  I had a beautiful Parmesan salad.

Came back to the room and rested for a bit after lunch.  We changed clothes and then headed out for the evening.  Close to where our dinner reservation was is the Picasso Museum which is on most of the top ten lists of things to do while you are in Barcelona.  Unfortunately the workers were on strike when we got there and it was closed.

This part of Barcelona is the Gothic District and reminded me of the bigger cities in Spain I saw while walking the Camino.  Cute shops, narrow streets, flower boxes in the apartment windows and lots of cafes with sidewalk seating areas.  We walked around for several hours.  There is a place in this neighborhood that you can find one of the Camino trails but we didn’t find it today.  I had found following the trail through big cities was the hardest part of the trail.  Too many distractions to always be able to see the trail symbols.

For dinner we went to a Flamenco show and dinner place.   It was interesting to say the least.  Dinner was a buffet style and was OK but not impressive.  They had a platter of roasted veggies but I scraped the bottom of it getting what they had.  I had to add some other stuff to get enough to eat.  I’m not sure if I stayed completely on plan but came as close as I could.  At least I avoided flour and sugar.

The Flamenco dancers were good but am thinking they are not the best out there.  I enjoyed the guitar players the most.  We got all the free drinks we wanted with dinner and several in the audience must have indulged as they were rather loud during the performance.  I must need some quiet space as they really irritated me!

We managed to get back to our hotel with no issues.  Nicole is so good with figuring out the subway system and getting us on and off the right trains.

Walking this evening was much easier for me and I felt good tonight.

We are going out again tomorrow morning to a different district and may try to spend at least part of the afternoon down on the beach.  It is only two blocks from our hotel and we have been enjoying looking at the water from our room.  Our subway 48 hour pass expires tomorrow afternoon so we will have to buy individual tickets if we go out after that.  We had made good use of our 48 hour pass.

Saturday is a travel day as we fly to Rome via Germany and then Rome. At least we won’t have an early morning as our arranged car doesn’t pick us up until 9:45.

Grateful for getting in some good exercise, grateful I felt much better this afternoon, and grateful for all the beautiful sights we saw today and the memories we are making.

We arrived in Barcelona around 9:45 this morning.  After we went through immigrations and customs we looked for our driver.  He wasn’t there so we called his company and the driver showed up about 10 minutes later.  He safety took us to our hotel.

The flight was long but uneventful.  I sat by the cutest three women.  They were dear friends and travel a lot together.  One said she was over 80 and the others were close if not older.  They spilled coffee, water and juice.  They needed an adapter for a plug in and extra blankets.  It was fun sitting by them and helping them out.  They were going on a two-week cruise which will end up in New York City May 22.

While we were in the airport in Newark we talked to a couple from OK.  They were going on that same cruise.  The wife in particular was interested in our past travels.  They have walking the Camino on their bucket list.

I slept a bit on the plane – probably two or three hours total.  Nicole slept less than I did.  We are both wiped out this evening.

We left our luggage at the hotel front desk as our room wasn’t ready and went for lunch.  There is a row of restaurants on the same street as the hotel.  At the last one I found roasted vegetables with ham.  They were good although they had a few more green peppers than I would have preferred.  Felt good to eat on plan though.  Nicole had a wood stove pizza.

After lunch I tried to nap on the couch in the lobby of the hotel.  Nicole figured out the bus schedules and how to get us to our tour for the afternoon.  We got into our room a bit before 2:00 but had to leave right away to get to where our tour started.

We ended up calling Uber to take us.  He dropped us off by the church but not the tour company office as we requested.  We got to the tour office and luckily there was a man outside the door as the office address had moved.  The man gave us directions but they weren’t very specific.  We walked back to where the Uber driver had dropped us off and ended up having to call the tour office as we couldn’t find the office.  They were rather rude and told us we had three minutes to be there or they were leaving.

We finally found it and ended up waiting for them for five minutes.  We went to the Basilica de Sagrada Familia.  It is under construction but had some amazing features to it.  I loved the stained glass in it.  It was certainly not as ornate as some of the cathedrals I saw in other parts of Spain but was impressive.

We were both so tired the tour group tested our patience.  There must have been 25 or more people in our group.   The cathedral was crowded and people felt pushy. After the tour of the cathedral we were to have gone somewhere else with the group but we were both too tired to go.  Nicole had figured out the subway system so we rode two trains and then walked 1/2 mile to our hotel without getting lost.

I ate some pecans I had brought from home when I got back to the room and that may be dinner.  We both missed a night’s sleep last night and are exhausted.  Plan on taking a shower and going to bed early tonight.  Trusting we will both sleep good and be ready to hit the streets tomorrow to see the beautiful city of Barcelona. I walked over 8,500 steps today!.

Grateful for a safe trip, grateful for nice people we met along the way, and grateful for a bed to sleep in tonight.

 

First leg of our adventure arrived over 30 minutes early in Newark.  We are delayed departing for Barcelona however.  So far they are saying we have a two hour delay.  That will solve what to do in the morning when we couldn’t get checked in to our hotel if we arrived at our original time.  Trusting we will still get out tonight.

Struggled to find veggies at the airport restaurants.  Luckily I had bought two salads at the KC airport thinking I would eat both for lunch but couldn’t do so.  I had the extra one for dinner here.  I will need to search some more and find some food to take on board the next flight.  Have plenty of time to look as we still have four hours to wait.  ‘

This is a big airport with lots of shops and people.  It is interesting what people wear these days. Can’t believe how many people travel these days.  Lots of airport announcements regarding lost and found items.

Well this adventure is off to a delayed start.  I’m sure all is in perfect alignment and is designed for a reason and purpose.

Off to search for veggies for a midnight meal.

Packing day!  I need to leave the house by 8:00 in the morning so my goal for the day is to have everything packed and loaded in the car before I go to bed tonight.  We have a 12:25 flight tomorrow so need to be at Nicole’s house by 10:00.  So ready to get this adventure started.

Took a two-mile walk yesterday morning and plan on doing the same this morning.  Need to remember to wear a hat though as the sun gets hot.  Not sure I am ready for summer temperatures.  I like that the house gets a bit chilly at night with the windows open.  I am not a big fan of AC so won’t turn it on until the house doesn’t cool down at night.

Forgot to stock up on chicken lettuce so after my walk I want to run into town and pick some up.  May look for one more top to wear with my skirts.  I tend to spill things down my front so an extra shirt might come in handy.

Tim said he would come out and mow for me while I was gone.  He can listen to my mower and decide if it needs to go in for a check.  It sounds at times like it cuts out to me but I don’t know much about mowers.  I have been able to get it started without using the magic spray.  Thanks Tim!  That makes a nice Mother’s Day gift!

I have been watching some barn swallows nesting in a light fixture just out my south door.  They sure get noisy and protective when someone walks on the deck.  I think I see little heads poking up out of the nest now but am not sure.  I need to get a ladder out and take a peek.

Another beautiful KS spring day – although it will feel more summer like by mid-afternoon.  It is to reach close to 90 again today.  When I came out of Prairie Past Times yesterday the thermometer in my car said it was 93.  Not a big fan of hot weather.  It has been easier this year tolerating it though as I am not sweating near as much as I did last year while I was hyperthyroid.  I did sweat a bit after my walk yesterday but I wasn’t dripping like I would have been a year ago.

Lost another pound today so am now over halfway to my goal weight!  Sure trusting I won’t blow it while I am on vacation.  It is harder to get back on the wagon if I fall off than it is to stay on.  I am really determined this time to stay off flour and sugar as I know my very life depends on it now.  Flour and sugar feed cancer and I need to do my part to make sure the thyroid cancer doesn’t come back.  The heart issue I am having reminds me to take better care of myself too.

A lady contacted me about her and her boyfriend staying here for two months starting July 5.  I haven’t heard back from her so not sure she is going to book.  I have mixed feelings about it anyways so if she decided not to I will know it wasn’t meant to be.  Two months of having someone living in the house is a long time.  She had good reviews from her other hosts on Airbnb but I like my private space.  I would be willing to try it once to see how it went though.

Got a call from someone looking for a room the weekend of the DK and rodeo.  I already have all three rooms booked that weekend.  They may bring their camper out and plug it in down by the barn.  They have a horse so they weren’t sure what they were going to do with it.

Grateful for new baby birds on this beautiful day, grateful for Tim and his willingness to mow for me while I am gone, and grateful that it is packing day and my adventure starts tomorrow!

I think it is finally sinking in that I am leaving Tuesday morning for Italy!  Going to Italy is on my 70 things to do before I turn 70 list.  I met the cutest man on the Camino who was from Italy.  Lots of eye candy to look forward to if others look like he did!

Yesterday I got the last of the old McDonald’s records from 2011 put in a trash can that will go to the curb Wednesday morning.  I used the new electric leaf blower to sweep the floor while I was down in the barn.  The new leaf blower is much more powerful than the battery operated one was.  One more load of junk to put in the trash when I get back and the barn will be cleaned up and records I could get rid of gone.  I still have two totes of records in the basement to haul up and out but I don’t have any more trash can room this week so they will have to wait until I get back.

Doing laundry today so I will have everything washed up so I can get packed. Need to get a couple of protein items weighed up and bagged to take.  Decided to trust I can find what I need and not take too many.  Usually there is chicken on a menu and trusting I can find enough veggies to go with it.  That is all I will need.  Two eggs and a piece of fruit and a small bit of cheese works for breakfast.

Still need to figure out what food to take with me on the airplane.  I have eaten enough airplane food to know they won’t meet my needs.  Trusting I will have time in Newark to get something to take with me for the flight to Barcelona. If not, I may go hungry for a bit.

Another beautiful Kansas day on the prairie today.  It is to get to the upper 80’s today.  Almost think summer is here but it was nice and cool this morning early.  I want to get out and get a nice long walk in before it gets hot.

The baby chickens are getting braver everyday.  The big one still protects the little one.  I haven’t seen them apart yet.  They are growing so they must be finding something to eat.  They don’t come running like the others do when I scatter oats and sunflower seeds in their yard.  I try to find them and give them a few too.

Planning on going into Art Day at Prairie Past Times this afternoon.  Have never considered myself an artist but they have a broad definition of what that is.  I usually take knitting to do.  I have a shawl I am almost finished with so will probably get it finished this afternoon.  I knit in spurts these days.  I can go weeks without picking up my needles and other times I make a shawl or blanket a day for several days in a row.  Have a full tub of completed ones I don’t know what to do with.  Always feels good to get yarn used up though.

Got my pill-box filled with three weeks worth of pills yesterday so it is ready to go.  I feel like such a drug user these days. Trusting I can get off of some of these pills after I get back and have the stress test completed.  Did find out when I was checking to see where I was at with my medical deductible that if I have to stay on the blood thinners a three-month mail order supply is cheaper than a one month supply from the pharmacy.  I would rather not have to take them but if I do I will switch to mail order.

I had picked up two new t-shirts when I was in KC last week.  I got size small thinking they would probably be too small for now but I would be able to wear them later this summer.  I tried one on this morning and it fits.  My mind doesn’t see my body as a size small yet.  Wonder how long that will take?  Wonder what size I will wear when I lose the last 21 pounds?

Grateful for a clean barn, grateful for another perfect KS spring day, and grateful my trip begins Tuesday.

Got the yard all mowed up yesterday.  Found Roxy’s shock collar which I didn’t know was off of her.  That was lucky!  I didn’t even mow over it first.  She hadn’t run away. Wonder if I can trust them to stay in the yard without their collars on now? Don’t think I will risk it yet.

Had the nicest two guests last night.  They were a young couple celebrating their second wedding anniversary.  They went into town to have dinner at Radius and then came out and sat in the swings with the fire on and watched the stars for a long time.  She loves dogs and my dogs joined them for the evening.  They left a little after 8:30 this morning to go hike the prairie and see the buffalo before they headed home.  I have their beds made up and am waiting for the towels to dry.  That was easy!

Ran into Emporia this morning after they left to pick up a prescription and I thought I was going to go get a pedicure.  The battery for my leaf blower I use to clean out my riding mower bit the dust so I priced an electric blower.  It costs just a bit over what a pedicure cost so decided to get the leaf blower instead.  It will last a lot longer than a pedicure will.  I doubt anyone will notice my toenails aren’t painted!

I think I have everything I need so I can get packed up Monday.  Still have all day Monday if I decide I can’t leave home without something.  Nicole loaned me a small purse and a carry on bag that I can use.  I tried the small bag today and it works perfectly.  Need to remember to snap the extra security hook as I had been told by several people that it is easy to encounter a pickpocket in Italy.

Lost another pound today so I have released 20 pounds so far!  21 to go so almost halfway there.  Am working to remember to let go of the fear of what I am going to eat while on vacation.  I will do my best and reboot and refocus once I get home.  I only get to go to Italy once – right?

I am having a hungry day.  I could have eaten breakfast again when I was finished eating this morning.  Not sure why hungry days happen and some days I can barely finish my meal as I get so stuffed.  I have learned not to trust what my stomach says and just wait it out as another meal comes soon enough.  I haven’t died yet of starvation although my stomach makes me believe I am about to sometimes.

It is another perfect day on the prairie.  The house was a bit nippy when I got up this morning as I had left the windows open all night.  It is warming up outside and inside now.  There is a gentle breeze with bright blue skies, the birds are singing their songs and lots of sunshine.  I got kissed by the sun yesterday when I was mowing.  Started my farmer’s tan!  My arms look funny when I wear a sleeveless shirt as they get really brown from mowing and I usually wear a t-shirt with sleeves.

Nothing on my to-do list left except for packing.  Getting excited to get this adventure started.  I got international cell service and my bank cards approved for travel yesterday.  Got my last needed prescription this morning so should have enough drugs to get me through 16 days of being gone.  Can’t think of anything else I needed to do before I leave.  Maybe tomorrow can be a rest day for me.  I have a fun place to go Sunday afternoon if I feel up to it.  A fun rest day sounds good to me right now.  It has felt busy and a bit chaotic lately.  Nice to slow it down for a day or two and enjoy my empty space.

Grateful for easy guests last night, grateful for an empty to-do list, and grateful for 20 pounds released!

I got the main floor cleaned and the guest room downstairs ready.   Now to play the waiting game until the guests arrive.  They haven’t let me know what time they expect to arrive.

Need to run into Cottonwood Falls to drop off the recycling material and get gas for my mower.  With the rain we got this week the gas has decided to grow.  I would like to get it all mowed up before I leave Tuesday morning.  May have to have someone mow it for me while I am gone.  I’m sure it will be really tall if I wait until I get home the 24th of May.

Feeling a bit weird today again. Not sure what is going on.  I have a knot in my chest and waves of icky feeling goes out from the knot.  No real pain though.  My heart rate is in the lower 50’s so not thinking it is Atrial Flutter.

The Cardiologist assured me yesterday I do not need a Pacemaker.  That was good news!  My family doctor has been telling me I probably need to consider having one put in.

I was able to get my blood thinner medication refilled.  I had to call the Pharmacy and ask them to call the insurance company to get a travel exception so the Pharmacy could fill it early.  After my guests leave tomorrow I will go in to Emporia and pick it up.  I want to get a pedicure before I leave so I will take care of that too.

Need to do one more walk through the house to make sure I have everything ready for guests.  Hard to find the motivation to get it all cleaned since it is only for one room and one night.  They deserve a clean house too though.

Going to be a beautiful day and weekend in KS.  Mid 80’s tomorrow and Sunday and bright blue skies with not much wind.  Doesn’t get better than that.  My guests wanted to do some star-gazing tonight and they should have a perfect night to do so.

Kathy told me the baby chickens were out and about with the big girls this morning when she went down to check on them.  Good news!  Trusting they will continue to play nice together.

Still need to make a few calls and get a travel advisory placed on my credit cards and to get international service for my iPhone.  I hate talking on the phone and have been procrastinating doing so.  I’m running out of time so need to get that done today.

Felt a bit discouraged when I went to the Cardiologist and got weighed.  According to his office my BMI was between 25 and 26 and he considered me overweight.  I had lost 3 more pounds since I saw my family doctor on April 18.  My scales show my BMI has dropped to below 25.  Oh well, it is what it is and will soon enough be below 24.  My goal is 23.0.  There is conflicting information on what a person of my age should have as their target BMI goal.  One source says 25.0 is perfect and I shouldn’t go below that.  Other sources say 23.0 is what the target should be.  Wonder who is more correct?  Wonder who paid for the studies that were done and what their motivation was?  Sometimes I think our health care recommendations are designed to keep us sicker and need more medication.  Hard to sort them all out sometimes.

Once my guests leave tomorrow I will start packing.  I have my list ready and just need to pull out things.  It makes such a mess I wanted to wait until after my guests leave to get started.  Hard to focus on the trip until they leave too.  First things first!

Grateful for the beautiful weather today, grateful for a clean house, and grateful the chickens are playing nice.

Happy birthday daddy!  I think of you often and miss you.  I feel your presence though, especially then I am trying to fix something.  I hear your laughter when I do something stupid and feel your pride when I succeed.

Went to the Cardiologist today.  Left with more questions than answers again.  That seems to happen to me a lot!  He looked at the report from the ED that diagnosed me with Atrial Flutter.  He didn’t understand why they reached that diagnosis other than that is what the machine said.  He said the strip didn’t show that.  Did I have it or not?  He isn’t sure.

He is requesting more information from the ED to see if they have any other proof of their diagnosis.  He seemed surprised they sent me home without putting me on a blood thinner.  He almost took me off of the blood thinner my doctor had put me on five days after I was in the ED but decided to wait to see if the ED can provide more confirming information.  He did order a Nuclear Stress Test to be done.  That will probably not happen until I return from my trip.

His office is to call me with the results of the Stress Test and if it is negative and the ED has no more information he will let me go off the blood thinner. If I didn’t have Atrial Flutter he really didn’t know what might have been happening.  I have a follow-up appointment with him in August.

Not sure what to think of all this yet.  Maybe I was given a reboot and the medical field doesn’t understand how that works.  It would be great news if it wasn’t heart related although that leaves me not knowing what did happen.  As long as it doesn’t happen again I guess I am good to go!

Didn’t do any shopping in Topeka.  I tried on the skirts I had gotten last year and they fit so I have what I need for clothes to take to Italy.  The shirts hang lower than they did but I have no trouble keeping them up so I am good to go.  Glad I didn’t buy something new yesterday.

Got some heavy rain for just a bit last night.  The wind was pretty strong for a bit too.  Only have 1/2 inch in my gauge.  It was a pond filler type of rain though as it came down fast and hard.  Grateful for every drop.  Missed the rain that was in the forecast for today.

The baby chickens survived the storm.  I thought about checking on them just before the rain hit but I wouldn’t have made it down to the coop and back up to the house before the heavy rain started.  They are still hiding out.  Trusting they are figuring out a way to get something to eat and drink.  Not sure if they went in the big house last night or if they stayed outside.

The rest of the day and tomorrow morning I will spend cleaning and preparing for the guests arriving tomorrow evening.  They are only spending one night so won’t be here long.  Almost not worth cleaning for only one night and only two guests.  Will be nice to leave knowing my whole house is clean though.

Don’t know anything more than I did before I went to the Doctor today.  Next time I come to earth I need to remember to read the medical book so I can present with issues that the medical staff can understand.  I seem to not follow their protocol and rules.

Grateful for the rain we received without having any damage done by the high winds, grateful for skirts that fit and that I didn’t buy anything new yesterday, and grateful for a safe trip to the doctor and home again.

A quick trip to KC today.  I didn’t find the main thing I went for which was a dress or skirt for my trip.  We went to Kohl’s but the only one I liked they didn’t have in my size.  I’ll figure something out I’m sure.

Had Lunch at Panera.  I was hungry and didn’t take my time ordering and ask the right questions.  The salad I got had a dressing on it that had sugar in it.  I took one bite of the salad and didn’t eat the rest.  It was way too sweet.  We looked up the ingredients on-line and discovered the second ingredient in the dressing was cane sugar.  I had ordered a bowl of black bean soup so ate that.  I didn’t get my veggies in for lunch.  I got a fruit cup with my salad and ate over half of it.  Got a headache from the bite of sugar and too much fruit.  Learned a good lesson though!

Went to Costco and picked up a few things.  They didn’t have two of the things I was looking for.  We went to IKEA and I got some lamps and a round table for the library.  I’ll have to put them together when I am not so tired.

Got home around 3:30 so it was a quick trip up and back.  Always good to see Nicole. She loaned me two purses for me to use on our trip.  I took her a printed copy of all the vouchers and tickets we will need in Italy.  She is better at keeping track of that stuff than I am.

We moved the two baby chickens into the big house last night after dark.  They were huddled in a corner of the coop yard this morning and this afternoon are hiding between the dog crate and the chicken coop.  The big one stands over the little one to protect it.  Trusting all will adjust and things will settle down soon.  The little one sure is small.  We had to lower the feed container so she can reach it.

Tomorrow I have to be in Topeka by 9:15 for my Cardiologist appointment.  Anxious to hear what he has to say.  Best case is I will get off the blood thinner medication and he will take a wait and see approach before he does anything else.  Can one have Atrial Flutter a few times and then not have it again?  Guess I will find out tomorrow.

Storms are moving in.  We are under a tornado watch for the evening.  Sure is quiet and the air is heavy right now.  I want the rain that a storm may blow in.  Radar doesn’t look too promising that we will get much.  Time will tell.  Glad I beat the storms home today so I can watch them from inside my house and not on the highway.

When I get home tomorrow I will need to clean house for the guests that are coming Friday evening.  I have the beds made in all the bedrooms so will just have to dust and do floors and clean the bathrooms.  Maybe if we get some rain tonight the dust won’t blow in so quick and things will stay clean longer.

Need to call and get my international phone service ordered as well as notifying my banks that I will be out of the country.  Need to get myself organized and ready to go.

Feeling a bit ungrounded today.  City energy tends to do that to me. Right now the wind is calm so may go out and take a walk and see if I can get re-centered.

Grateful for a safe trip to KC and home again., grateful the baby chicks are still alive, and grateful I learned a good lesson on how to eat out and the need to ask questions.