Author Archives: Dianne

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About Dianne

Domestic goddess, wife, mom, gardener, paper and collage artist, geocacher, local traveler, cross stitcher, baker, crafter, Facebooker, blogger, decorator and photographer.
Dec6

Hanging in there…

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Just a quick update. I was going on my 3rd day with the  pain in my right hip and back and decided to go to urgent care to see if I could get medication. I had tried both the orthopedist and primary doctor and only heard back from the ortho doctor I didn’t even know. He didn’t have my chart, so he wasn’t going to give me anything. I waited 7 hours for his call for nothing. It seems that first you see the orthopedist and then they want you to get physical therapy. No medication for pain, just OTC stuff.  So I did try the PT, and boy have I been suffering. I pulled a muscle or muscles big time!  It’s stabbing pain and when I mostly go to sit down or even walk. Sean had seen the same doctor. She was kind of straight forward. At the time I went, I had taken the last Aleve in the house and they normally don’t agree with me. I wasn’t hurting as much there like I do at home. I did get pain pills and a muscle relaxant and have taken both. They help a little, but I’m still hurting when they wear off a bit. I also had to proof read a paper for Sean that took a few hours to do, but I kept standing up and walking around.

The sofa and chair are coming tomorrow! That meant Brian vacuuming, moving stuff and pretty much getting the house in jumble. I can’t wait as I will be sitting on the club chair and ditching the computer chair.

Here’s hoping I will be more myself in a few days. I wouldn’t wish this discomfort on my worst enemy! Take care of your backs!

Here’s the only thing that is fully decorated. I’m not too worried about this, but I am more worried about wrapping things. May have to wait until the last minute.

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I will take a better photo soon!

Dec5

PT…hope it’s the right thing for me

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Just to let you know, I went to my first physical therapy session. I was in a communal waiting room and no one came for me after 20 minutes. I go back to the  desk and they said I should have gone right in the PT room. No one said to do this. Felt like I started off on the wrong foot there-yes, a pun. I had gone geocaching in the late afternoon on Sunday, went down a hill a little fast and felt something pull in my other hip. I told the PT this and it didn’t seem to phase her. I spent most of the time on my tummy. They put heat on my back first-nice. Then I did a few exercise with my legs. Then she made me do 3 sets of upper body push ups and asked me to do another, which I refused. Well, since yesterday I have been totally miserable! I can hardly move around without shooting pain in my right hip! I called the office today and the receptionist said the PT said I needed to be re-evaluated or to go to the doctor. I asked if I should stop with the exercises and she said only if it made me feel worse-yes! Why would I call? I did try them again and Brian went to pull me up and I was in terrible pain! I decided to call out at the school tomorrow. That stinks as it’s only once a week, but I can’t do anything remotely associated with leaning over to help the kiddos. I am losing pay for pushing myself so much.

So… I think I should have been eased into these exercises. I told the PT about having Lyme Disease and assorted aches and pains for years (14 now). She told me the only thing that will help me are the push ups. I am finding sitting in the old desk chair does help, but doing those exercises messed with my right side.

I tried to put more of my autumn things away, and that’s almost taken care of. At least the tree is up and when the ornament boxes come out of the basement, I can get help with decorating it. I can’t even think about making cookies or wrapping gifts. : (

I was alarmed to hear that about a week ago,  someone shot a rifle very close to our house and bullets went through a house about 1/2 mile away missing someone and hitting their wedding photo. It was the start of hunting season, yet there are ‘no hunting’ signs posted and most of the area around us is private property. Even my 82 yr old neighbor still uses a gun right next door.  We heard him that day too and saw a deer hanging from a tree in front of his property the next day or so.  Many years ago, People magazine had an article about a young mother with twins who happened to be out in her yard (probably like this yard) and she was wearing big white mittens that resembled a deer tail. A hunter in the woods saw her raise her hand and thought it was a deer and shot, killing her. Now tell me, if it’s not an arranged hunt, who has the business of almost taking a person’s life like what happened last week or taking the life of a mom whose children never got to know her for  a blood sport?

I was out in the yard today and heard rustling up the hill-deer were running away. I yelled to them, ‘I just saved your life!’
Close-up of Blue Spruce munching deer

Dec3

Tablescaping for Christmas-a post for Zoey

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Last night I was invited to the Ladies’ tea at the church where I work. I was expecting tea sandwiches but we got delicious gourmet finger foods. And get this,  there were about 35 tables which were all decorated differently-so lovely for the holidays! One had Christmas cacti and crackers. Another had cranberries in pretty glass containers while another had angel wings on the back of the chairs and the ladies wore halos (kind of glad I didn’t sit at that one-lol) I picked these as my favorites.

I’ve never had duck confit before. It tasted like sausage.

Everything was tasty and rich.

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This is where I sat-with the pastor’s wife and right next to the stage. I felt honored!

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Deane decorated the table. I like the touch of holly between the trees. We all loved the glass mugs and they were from Walmart!

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On the stage, next to one of the trees that looked like this:

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We saw a skit about a man who was at the inn when Jesus was born, complaining about his room.

Then the chorus sang three songs.

Finally a young woman was a speaker who also teaches Bible study. She was saying that Christmas should really be a sad holiday as we know what happens to Jesus. And she mentioned how commercialized it is. But of course it’s a celebration of who was born to save us. : )

So I had a lovely time.

When I came home. Bri can’t seem to use my camera phone-it’s the same one that took the lovely photos above.

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By the way, I had to go and do ‘maintenance’ on my garden cache. It was wet and rusty from jingle bells someone had added. I had to replace the container, log book and everything inside. I also hide it in a different spot, under a patch of catnip! The bush it was under had lost all it’s leaves.

Then we went along a busy road and found 6 caches! One was hanging in a tree-a flashlight! You unscrewed it and a happy face popped out and the log was in the back of the top. Clever! Brian finds the nanos for me (tiny ones). We finally found the one down the road here (1/2 mile away) as we figured out it was in the guardrail. It was getting dark and Brian took the flashlight and retrieved the container!

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The entry before me is dated June 3rd!

I had a full late afternoon and evening!

Nov30

Hello there Christmas!

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It sure is funny what you find on outings! I went with Brian when he deposited his check and we found a cute little store up in Kennett. They had healing kinds of things, and a mixture of art, jewelry and even a lending library of wellness books. I told Brian to go back up sometime and pick me out something. We then went looking for a new geocaches. The hardest part with these were finding places to park. The one we didn’t really try to find had cars zooming by-I just didn’t feel like having people watch me poke around, so we went to one I tried to find in June and I could see it under this big electrical box from the car!

I needed something at the Dollar General, but before we went in there, I hit the Habitat for Humanity resale store. The first thing I see is a sign that all Christmas items were 50% off! That included trees. So one really stood out-prelit with at least 400 lights and it had tinsel woven on the green branches. It was under $40 and I know this had to be over a $200 tree. We got the box and it looked new. I will have to load it up  with ornaments to cut back on the brightness. Right now I have both autumn stuff and the tree up. I’ve never had a tree up in November before! It took only a few minutes to get up too.

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I have to mess with the branches a bit. I was trying out some holly up near the top there.

I’m really excited to decorate it. I have a lot of work to do to get it tidied up in the living room. I also received a big gift order and that box is in there too.

Finally some Christmas spirit! Not feeling great as my hip and back had dampened my enthusiasm. I did go to the physical therapist and she thinks my issue is the ‘gel’ between my back ligaments  that is all shifted to one side. I have to do a form of a push up several times a day, 10 times a session. That is killing my arms. I think it is helping a bit. My insurance won’t pay for the PT (it sure doesn’t pay for much, and has a rule about pre-existing conditions, which is crazy for people over 50).

I went back to the church on Wednesday and the kids were mostly good. I’ve worked here 2 months now! We had my middle brother and our mom here on his birthday that night and I made yummy vegetable lasagna for dinner.

The next day, Brian and I took Mr. Cosmo kitty to the vet for a check-up. He is a good weight for his age and is pretty healthy. But, she did take a peek at his teeth and said that a few looked like they needed to be extracted at $20-200 a tooth! He’s had a tartar issue all his life. I can’t see subjecting an old cat to anesthesia either. Signs he is having issues is eating really slow or chattering when he eats-he does neither, but I will watch him. I am still working on paying off my own dental bill. Geesh.

Sunday evening I was invited to a ladies’ tea at the church. Sounds nice!

Nov25

Get togethers

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My friend Angela (who I met through a local pal on the internet about 13-14 yrs ago) was down in southern Chester County to go to….can you guess? Longwood Gardens! She arrived in the afternoon of Thanksgiving when I was a tad busy, but Brian and I were able to have dinner with Ang and her hubby Bob the next evening. We had a nice Italian dinner and they really enjoyed it as that’s the kind of food Bob likes the best. We exchanged birthday gifts. Angela made me from sweet items, a little book made with cardboard houses and she decorated each front differently. And she made some cute hanging decorations, one with a ‘D’. I’ll have to photograph them. I gave her one of the 4″ x 4″ collages of with an antique print of a lady and child and birds in a pretty frame.

Here we are after dinner

Brian has a little problem with the camera phone,

because with the same camera I got this shot last night:

Brian is standing there in the white and red hat looking like he is getting ready for Christmas!

A fella from my high school has a bonfire event at his house each year, but usually on Black Friday. He switched it to Saturday and boy did he have a crowd. There were people from many different years of high school, but I only knew about 8 people at the time we were there. That fire sure got hot. There were about  3-4 large tables of food-barbecued meats, chili and mac and cheese, desserts. I took a bean dip and finger foods not knowing what I brought would be such a small amount. Bill was so nice. He said they have a little cooking competition with the chili and when we left he hugged and kissed me, thanking us for coming. : )   I saw a few of the same ladies who were at the pumpkin carve a few weeks earlier.

We stopped by my mom’s house as she wanted me to get some birthday gifts. I had asked for sheets and she delivered. Also got a big red mercury glass owl and Brian had gotten me a smaller one. I see a Christmas vignette in the making. We had a good time, and Brian seemed to loosen up a bit at the bonfire. It’s been a rough year for him. My brother had decorated the front windows of my mom’s house with clear lights and mostly red decorations. Inside he had started to set up his lighted houses-a harbor scene-very nice!

Nov21

And so it begins…

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The next 5-6 weeks will be crazy busy won’t they? I guess it’s what you put into the holidays too. I haven’t had the best few months hoping my hip would improve like my right shoulder did all those years ago-that’s the thing, I’m much older now.

We are having new young ladies at our dinner table tomorrow night, Miss Mary and her little one 6.5 yr old Miss K. I don’t have her mom’s permission to use her name yet. I was busy getting the table ready and I made these desserts also:

The top is a Family Circle recipe simply called ‘Cranberry Tart’. It’s not all the simple-the bottom layer is a goat cheese and cranberry layer. They you cook up a bunch of cranberries and pour it on top. They called for cranberry juice, I used orange juice-didn’t want cranberry overload. And I was suppose to use a pie plate with a push out bottom. I did put a piece of  parchment paper in the bottom, so maybe I can still gingerly lift it out tomorrow.

The bottom is an unbaked pumpkin bread pudding loaded with eggs and cream-a Domino Sugar recipe. I have to make the sauce and it seems like a lot more of the above. I may make half the sauce which should be enough. It is baked and put in little ramekins now for tomorrow. Don’t you love when you can use things you have?

The other food will be turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, asparagus, corn and green beans.

I’ll probably add some more photos tomorrow.

I’ve done very little Christmas shopping. I plan to do a big order from a catalog I like and fill in the holes at my favorite stores like TJ Maxx, etc. I am pretty sure I am skipping holiday card sending this year as it’s so expensive. If you still are doing yours, please don’t feel offended if you don’t get one from us. It may just be this year. I may change my mind, but I have to see.

Nov19

Mercury Retrograde Birthday

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Mercury’s retrograde periods can cause our plans to go awry. However, this is an excellent time to reflect on the past. Intuition is high during these periods, and coincidences can be extraordinary. (Or things just start ‘happening’ for no reason…..)

I was telling people on Facebook how my day has had it’s ups and down.  A pal who is a psychic (it says spiritual as occupation) said it sounded like I was being affected by the Mercury retrograde which is occurring for the next several days.

I woke up not feeling well, so not sure if it was sinuses or a cold. I’ve been ‘deep’ cleaning a lot, so I’m thinking it’s the dust factor. I’m glad I digging deep, but it happens almost every time.

I had a few knocks on the door-good stuff was delivered!

First from my friend Angela from NY

So pretty and perfect for the autumn!

The Fed Ex came and these Peruvian Lilies were from my mom. I had sent her some and they lasted a long time.

Sean wanted to take me out to lunch and I had a Livingsocial.com voucher that would fit the bill. It was a British Tea Room over in Delaware.

We were a wee bit late and Sean was like deer in headlights. There were mostly women, but a few teenagers who ogled him like he was a teeny bopper singer. : )

We both had Christmas teas. I had like a coconut, vanilla and Sean had a chocolate mint.

I had to order the ‘High Tea’ as part of the voucher. I had an entire pot of tea plus this and a salad.

egg salad, chicken salad and cucumber tea sandwiches on the lower tier; Cherry scone and a sausage biscuit in the middle and dessert-mostly pumpkin enhanced. I shared many of these with Sean who had a salad, egg salad, pasta salad and fruit salad.

That cellphone would prove to be the first mercury retrograde of the day. More later.

He looks thrilled, doesn’t he?

Look, another guy Sean!

There were a few geocaches found. It’s fun with Sean. The first one was behind the shopping center where we had lunch. We went up a little hill near a ball field. There was a cement barrier. We saw it inside a log!

We got gas and there was one near the lamp post-ha ha.

We decided to go to Kmart. Brian needs new clothes now. I got him a shirt and jeans and a few other things. I had left my phone in the car to charge up and I went to look at it and it was completely dead.  I can usually get it to start up again. We had saved our tea and Sean had gotten a drink from Subway (for his dinner as he has class) and I had to hold the now lukewarm tea. Brian called twice on Sean’s phone and the second time he threw it at me and the tea went all over the mat (my car). It had a lid on it too. So I drove home with my feet up. It only got wet around the edge of the rug.

We went out to dinner as I had gotten a birthday pack with assorted, mostly restaurant coupons, so I picked (www.birthdaypack.com) a place down in Hockessin, DE. I ordered a Denver steak, medium well and it came almost black on the outside and mostly red on the outside. I complained and  I got my wine for free.

I came home and plugged my phone in and it started to reboot (I had even called T-Mobile and was told to get a new battery). I did order the battery anyway.

On top of all that I am just plain grouchy-I really tried not to be too.

I’m waiting for Sean to come home from class to have cake.

Got a call from my brother Ken and niece Tori, so that made me feel better.

It’s been an interesting day for sure!