OTTO’S TOY

If you have ever been into a pet store, and specifically went to the dog section, you have probably seen a toy that is a stuffed animal but instead of having regular stuffing, it has an empty water bottle.  Dogs like the crunchy sound of an empty water bottle.  In the store I frequently shop for Otto’s things, these can cost about $10 bucks.  And I have purchased 2 of them.   After about 2-3 months of pretty frequent and rough playing, the toys finally died.  Meaning they were ripped apart and could not be sewn back together.  Well, after the death of the 2^nd toy, I decided to make one for Otto using one of Caleb’s old t-shirts.  I cut out part of the torso, knotted one end and went to sewing.  Before sewing up the opposite end, inserted the empty water bottle.

The toy turned out ugly and my sewing skills need some work, but all in all it worked out quite well.  It withstood tug-of wars, fetch and chase.  Since the fabric of this shirt was old, the fabric itself got some tears in it pretty easily and quickly.  But my design (the sections I sewed together and knotted) held up quite well.  So despite its ugliness and the fabric ripping after the 3^rd day of play, my design worked quite well.  And for that, I am a little proud.  J

Here are some pics of putting it together, the finished thing and Otto playing with it.

HIKING

We really enjoy being outdoors, hiking through woods and seeing nature.  It is such a beautiful place to be.  This weekend we are outdoors quite a bit.  Yesterday we walked at the Chattahoochee River State Park for 5 miles and today we went to Sweetwater Creek State Park for 3 miles.  After doing both, we quickly realized we are ‘flat-landers.’  By that I mean, we much prefer walking on flat land as opposed to trekking up steep hills.  The Chattahoochee path we walked was level, read, easy; the Sweetwater path we chose was difficult and felt mountainous at times.  At the top of a couple of strenuous hills, we decided to stop and have a look at nature.  Having a ‘look at nature’ was not a euphemism for stopping to catch our breath and rest.  Wink wink. ;-)

Here are some pictures of our walk today.  Otto had fun playing in the water.  After the walk, he was as tired as us.  We were tired but quite happy.  Love walking through the woods!

FOOD – IT’S GOOD FOR YOU

Could I have made a more obvious statement about food than the one in the post title?  :-P

Anyway, lately I have been trying to lose weight and eat more healthfully.  I pack a lunch nearly every day of the work week of every week of every month of every year for about 6 years for hubby and I.  (If anyone wants to calculate that, go ahead as I would like to have a dime for every one of them!)  But it has really been on my conscious lately to eat better and definitely eat in moderation; though come Friday or Saturday night, the careful eating goes right out the window, crashes and burns.  The older I get the more easily the fat packs on and the more difficult it is to shed.  (If our bodies were really intelligently designed, then why can’t we tasty, salty, sugary, high-fat foods that we all love and enjoy and still be slender, well-muscled and in good shape?  I ask that sarcastically of course.  Maybe.)  I know I need to take better care of my body especially if I want to live to my 90s.  Granted, I realize that an incalculable number of things can go wrong and prevent that from happening, but if things go as planned, I will be an awesome, funny, cool old woman who people still want to hang with.  So I have to eat better. 

Hubby and I are now counting calories for most meals.  Honestly I hated, I mean truly hated, the idea of counting calories.  I don't think I can accurately express my level of hatred-ness of this idea without using expletives.  It seemed completely tedious, aggravating and a time waster.  In reality it is a time-consumer and tedious, but not aggravating.  After seeing results of counting calories, I am super happy that we are doing this now.  It actually WORKS!!!  I am much more conscientious of the food I consume and don’t want more than I can work off – except for the 1 or 2 cheat weekly meals that I need to keep me sane.  (Obviously we exercise too.  I mean our dog is not going to walk himself.  haha!)

Back to the lunches.  For a while, I ate a salad for lunch every day for about 4 weeks and it was delicious.  Then I got tired of it and moved on to other foods, about as equally healthy.  The salad I thought was awesome.  It had iceberg lettuce, spinach sometimes, beans, cauliflower, cucumber, carrots, mushrooms, bell pepper and dried cranberries.  Basically veggies with a little bit of lettuce.  It was truly tasty; I actually looked forward to eating my salad.  I was excited about lunch and not because I was hungry!  I used a Caesar Vinaigrette dressing by Kraft for my dressing and it was delicious.  But after about 4 weeks of salad I was ready to move on to other foods. (pic of the salad below).   Now I make a wrap, have fresh veggies (with awesome hummus), cuties and string cheese for lunch.  This particular lunch is less than 600 calories.  Love it!  I will be an armchair nutritionist and say this and the salad are really nutritious and healthy meals to have.

So here’s to many good, nourishing meals!  And the night (or two) of wine!

                                     

                                          salad components