Feline Friday

The look on Bruce Lee's face sums up this week. It was a rough week here at home. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday people were here replacing all the floors. The cats were NOT happy, especially Jet Li, who now we know should have been named scared e cat. He has been Traumatised!! Bruce Lee pretty much rolled with it all and is fine. Jet Li...still after two days of no one else being in here and plenty of pampering is not fine. Tuesday was the worst. Jet got himself so worked up he was panting and planted himself in the one bathtub for HOURS even after everyone had left. We still have to have the bathroom floors done, but I said that had to wait a couple of weeks so that he could calm down.

It's a learning process...

I'm still learning about the climate and growing seasons here in the Midwest. SW Florida was the complete opposite growing season so it has been a little confusing. I have decided to start out VERY small and learn a little more each year so that by the time we get the land we want, I will be ready. The container gardening that I decided to try here this year is starting to yield some results.

The first of the 25 cayenne peppers that are on this one little plant has finally turned red and the green pepper plant has already yielded two large delicious peppers. Obviously pepper plants do very well in containers.

The rosemary, choc. mint, oregano, thyme and basil are all doing well and will be able to move inside to our bay window when winter gets close. I have been able to keep them going there since we moved here. I've been growing herbs in pots inside and out for years...that is a staple I just can't do without.

I did do one tomato plant in a container and it has not done very well and I will not try that again. It had a lot of tomatoes but so far the three that turned red had bottom rot from drying out too much in between watering's. I have three huge plants in the ground and this is a pic of the first RED one. I counted about 35 green ones of various sizes on the ground planted ones and they are all doing well.

All herbs, peppers and tomato's were grown in organic soil with no extra fertilizer or insecticides.

I am getting ready to try a large pot of various salad greens.

As you see, I'm just learning so mean while...we rely on the farmers market that is here with local produce June - October for my canning and freezing.

FELINE FRIDAY!

Meet Jet Li. His interests are long naps in the closet, tuna, golf balls, herbs and tormenting his brother and the humans that he lets live with him. Jet does have a softer side too though and enjoys snuggling and being brushed.

Find your JOY!

Moving was a much bigger adjustment than I thought it was going to be. We moved four years ago from a rather large city in South Florida to a rather small community in Southern Illinois...it was somewhat of a culture shock. Not so much better or worse, just very very different. I went from working 186 days a year to a full time job, the food, the weather, the people, EVERYTHING was different.

The first year here I was SO happy. It was my idea to move after all. I was experiencing the four seasons, snow, a quieter, slower pace of life, more time with our families, exploring new places I had never been...it was wonderful. Then almost a year to the day I remember thinking Ok, that was fun, now I'm ready to go home. I really wasn't wanting to leave, but it was just so much change at once that I realized I wasn't really sure exactly who I was anymore.

So I took some down time and just kind of played it day by day for the next two years to kind of figure out what was next. I wasn't unhappy, I wasn't depressed, as a matter of fact I was still glad we had made the move, but I think I just needed to just BE for awhile. I spent a lot of my free time reading, watching movies, just hanging out. Then like before it just hit me one day OK, let's get on with this next chapter. I realized that working so much more than I was used to was the biggest problem for me. I wasn't able to do so many of the things that I used to do because of a lack of time and that's why I felt like I didn't know myself anymore because I wasn't doing all the things I normally had done. I hadn't really changed, but being at work so much more had changed the circumstances.

I found a blog today http://www.homemakerswhowork.wordpress.com/ and it is one of my new favorite places to visit. It is filled with real women, with real lives just trying to figure out the course of their own personal journeys like I am. I plan to visit often to maybe get some more ideas on how to better balance life so that I'm not sacrificing because of too little time.

Some of my favorite things...

Ahhhh the weather has cooled down. The forecast for the next week is only upper 80's...yeah!!


My friends are always sending me these lists of favorites to fill out. For me this is always kind of difficult because I have a hard time choosing just one. But, here we go, I decided to do this one and to NOT use the answer "too many to choose" on anything.


Local Restaurant- The 9th Street Grill

Restaurant- Hops Brewery

Book Series- Janet Evonovich's Stephanie Plum Series

Christmas Movie- The Family Stone

Scary Movie- 1980 version Crawlspace...the thought still scares me even now.

Beach- Boca Grande Florida

Magazine- Body and Soul

Health Store- Mari Mann's

Nail Polish- Revlon Red

Day of the Week- Saturday

Season- Fall

Holiday- Thanksgiving

Dessert- Pumpkin Pie

Veggie- Corn on the cob

Herb- Basil

Cold Cereal -Total Raisin Bran

Frozen Entree- Don't eat them

Domestic Pet -Cats

Feline Friday

Meet Bruce Lee. He is our almost three year old feline friend that allows us to live here with him and his brother Jet Li (I will introduce him next time.)
How did we meet? Well, hubby and I were out Christmas shopping and came across these two adorable brothers at the pet store. I was against it. We had just lost the last of our two other feline friends that had lived with us for 15 and 16 years and I wasn't sure if I was ready to allow myself to get attached. So we went to lunch to discuss the pro's and con's of bringing these two little guys home with us. We even discussed names. Hubby suggested Bruce Lee and Jet Li...yes he owns a Tae Kwon Do school and is a fan of both of these particular martial artists. I wasn't too crazy about those names so we decided to just think about it until we got to know them.
The pro's outweighed the cons and after talking to the woman at the pet store and learning that they had just turned 6 weeks old and had just arrived there a couple of hours prior I decided they should come home with us.
As for their names. We didn't have a cat carrier with us because we were not planning on bringing anyone home so these two very rambuctious cats were given to us to take home in two of those little cardboard carriers. I checked both carriers to make sure they were secure. We set the two of them in the back seat of the car and we didn't even make it out of the parking lot before one (Bruce) literally busted his way out of the top of the carrier meowing loudly and then just looking at us. I decided OK...I think those names will fit. And they do. These are two very active kitties.
I will update you on their activities each Friday.

Baby it's HOT outside!!!

This polar bear at the St Louis Zoo looks how I feel. It is HOT!!! Now you would think that after 20 years in South West Florida I would be used to the heat. NO...it's hot and I am thinking of the wonderful fall days ahead.

We have had a 10 day long serious heat wave with temp's way above normal. Tomorrow's forcast is actual temp's high 90's to 100 with the heat index approaching 110-115. Can anyone say Global Warming??