TToT – The Stuff of Distraction

August 22, 2015 Off By Lisa

Sometimes I get distracted.

Last weekend, I intended to post a second TToT because I had all the things to be thankful for. Then I forgot where I wrote them.

I found a draft in my drafts folder. It may or may not be the intended second TToT. Either way, I’m going to snag the couple of items here, add to it, and call it a day.

Thankful number one is a lovely photo of our CSA farm’s flower garden…how lovely is this place? Immediately behind the flower section are the vegetable sections. Part of our benefit there is we can pick our own from different sections each week. Can’t say any of us love the part where there are bugs around, but we do OK for a bunch of bug-o-phobes. And while I’d love to tell you we bring home bouquets of these gorgeous blooms each week, the truth is that we do not. Our allergies are just too bad and they make us miserable. So we enjoy them where they grow.

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Thankful number two? Awesome produce. These beauties (and so many more) come from our local CSA farm and other local farms through our supermarket. Just gorgeous.

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Good, wholesome, homemade food. I’ve done lots of great things with fresh produce lately – homemade tomato juice, summer squash and greens soup, some very good smoothies, fried green tomatoes, homemade coleslaw, baked eggplant chips, and more… The Vitamix gets a good workout for many of those, too. That little bugger continues to be well worth its price.

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We had a perfectly good dark and rainy day recently. Sleeping in a bit on said day was awesome. Sometimes you just gotta.

We took my Mom along on a trip to our favorite mountain spot. Gorgeous. Great bird sightings. Loved the new trails and other improvements. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more about that in the coming weeks as we spend more time there through the late summer and fall months.

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I wrote something besides a TToT post. I posted two book review this week – check them out by clicking on the images below. (I think it will work.) Both great reads. I’m so happy to  have “met” some very smart authors through blogging and the Facebook thing. I’m glad to have to the opportunity to read their words.

P.O.W.E.R. Lisa KramerSingularity Helena Hann-Basquiat

Here’s a good one – Dyanne’s comments NOT going to the spam folder for the first time in like three years. Still needed approval, but it’s progress.

Monday morning finding that the new lower weight stuck (and has continued to stick) was a good thing. Clark has likened weight loss efforts to running down an escalator. I’m assuming he meant an up escalator. Excellent metaphor.

When I whined a bit to my Hub about the fact that I didn’t think I had done anything on Friday to make someone’s day better, he said the homemade coleslaw and homemade pickles I made for his favorite deli sandwiches counted.

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So I guess the thankful there is that I’m glad he can find the good about me so easily. There are days when I just really don’t see it all that well. And I think I’m safe to say his thankful is that I make him lots of good food.

Homemade pickles turned out really well. Delicious. Definitely worth waiting a month to taste them. These were perfect with the favorite deli sandwich dinner. Perfect.

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Hanging out at home with some of my favorite people enjoying a lazy Saturday and/or Sunday afternoon – and I think this happened two weeks in a row, actually. I do feel kind of bad that we were inside on an absolutely beautiful day today, but Kidzilla has a late summer cold and isn’t feeling up to much of anything. Books, TV, sick tea, and cozy blankets. And doting parents to provide these things and wait on her hand and foot. Those are her thankfuls right now.

Zilla and the Rottens had their yearly checkups all on the same day last week – WHAT was I thinking when I scheduled that? Everybody is well and healthy and for that we are very thankful. Zilla prefers not to have her face on the internet, but the Rottens are attention hogs, so they’ll fill in for her.

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The BoSR/SBoR allows me to toss whatever leftovers I found in drafts together with this week’s thankfuls and pretend it makes a whole lot of sense even if it doesn’t.

Therefore, I am finished.

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How about you? What are you thankful for? Are you easily distracted? What is it that distracts you most often? Do you feel guilty when you spend a Saturday doing a whole lot of nothing?

You know the drill – share ’em or link ’em. And remember to check out the other great posts on the linky!

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CategoryLife
Tagsbooks CSA dads dinner family food husbands kids kids in the kitchen life love marriage moms rest rotten cats seasons summer Ten Things of Thankful wives

About The Author

Lisa A. Listwa is a self-employed writer with experience in education, publishing, and the martial arts. Believing there was more to life than punching someone else’s time clock and inspired by the words of Henry David Thoreau, she traded her life as a high school educator for a life as a writer and hasn’t looked back. She is mother to one glorious handful of a daughter, wife to the nicest guy on the planet, and reluctant but devoted owner of three Rotten Cats. You can find her adventures and thoughts on living life deliberately here on the blog.

24 Comments

  • ivy says:
    August 22, 2015 at 11:34 pm

    It sounds as if you may be feeling better this week… zilla not so much physically… but man the rottens are looking good huh? What a lovely photo of that path as well… I have to go read your reviews I saw them in my emails that I have yet to get to this week… I save it all up for Sundays sometimes!

    • Lisa @ The Meaning of Me says:
      August 23, 2015 at 2:39 am

      Yeah, a bit in some respects; not as much in others. I’m fighting to keep from getting Zilla’s germ and (knock on wood) so far, I’m OK. Zilla will be fine soon enough.
      The Rottens are very good looking cats – I’ve always thought so. And with a clean bill of health from the vet, they’re in really good shape for slightly mature cats. Although they can’t seem to get their shit together (literally) about the cat box and the vet definitely thinks that’s more about attitude than anything else. I give up.
      That new path at the hawk sanctuary is absolutely lovely. Just beautiful.

  • Tammy says:
    August 22, 2015 at 11:42 pm

    What adorable pictures of Rotten Cats. Was the one stalking the stuffed animal?

  • May says:
    August 23, 2015 at 12:36 am

    Fresh produce, sleeping in on a rainy day, keeping the weight off–not a bad week at all. Except I do hope the sick tea worked and Zilla is up and at ’em!

  • Kerry says:
    August 23, 2015 at 5:00 am

    Love flowers, fresh produce, but not so much bugs.
    🙂
    Glad kid and cats are healthy and doing better and cool that she knows how she feels , not wanting pictures posted of herself. Not all kids know what they want and how they feel like that.
    Read your reviews and loved them.

    • Lisa @ The Meaning of Me says:
      August 23, 2015 at 10:59 am

      Yeah, not so much the bugs! Thanks for reading the reviews – both great books!
      One thing I can say with certainty about Kidzilla is that she has always been very aware of herself – she knows her mind, her body, and is very clear about who she is and what she needs. I think that’s frustrating at some moments, but overall will serve her very well in life.

  • clark says:
    August 23, 2015 at 8:33 am

    good that all checks went well for all life forms involved!

    I would agree, the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) holds that word conservation is one of the highest of principles in the ‘sphere ( in fact, the saying is ‘a word for everything and everything has (at least) one word!’
    It’s looking like Summer may not last all year… oh well

  • Michelle Liew says:
    August 23, 2015 at 9:16 am

    It looks like a back-to-nature week for you! You are right, the produce is awesome and so is the farm!

  • jean baldridge yates says:
    August 23, 2015 at 11:33 am

    Really gratifying to read and to look at. You had a great week. Thank you for sharing it honestly and fully!

  • Sarah says:
    August 23, 2015 at 11:55 am

    A month?!?! I never wait a month to eat my pickles! I’m impressed with you.

    But some do get better. I tried a new recipe–sweet and spicy, and the second jar was much better than the first.

    Hope Zilla feels better soon for more hiking!

    • Lisa @ The Meaning of Me says:
      August 24, 2015 at 12:02 am

      Hey, I’m a rule following kind of girl. My aunt said two weeks until the bread and butter ones would be ready and a month until the garlic dills would be ready. They were SO GOOD! I think I would like the sweet and spicy – send me the recipe???
      Zilla’s working on it – nasty late summer cold although I have NO clue where she picked it up. We have a trip planned next Saturday, so hopefully she’ll be back to 100% by then.

  • Dyanne @ I Want Backsies says:
    August 23, 2015 at 8:38 pm

    Certainly my comment not going directly into your spam folder was the BEST thing on your list! Why does wordpress hate me so?!
    I love the place where you hike. So pretty! I love to do that, as long as it isn’t snaky. So not this time of year.
    I can’t get anyone in my house interested in soup when it’s hot outside. Soup weather begins when the weather starts to cool down, and then we have it often.
    We’ve had a couple of dark, rainy mornings this week, and I was able to snuggle under the covers and enjoy the thunder and rain.
    Yay for good check ups, although I don’t know what you were thinking having all four on the same day. I wouldn’t have even tried to take all three cats in the same day!

    • Lisa @ The Meaning of Me says:
      August 24, 2015 at 12:32 am

      Of course it’s the best! 😀 I have no idea why you go there – or the others who do. Special, I guess.
      We love it there, too. I’ve never seen snakes, but the Hub has. Of course he and his friend go to much less traveled places than we do as a family.
      I love soup all the time. I’ve been very lax about soup this summer, though. Just got out of the habit, I think, and made other things. I have several on a list to try as we head into fall, though. I like to make it each week and keep it on hand. With Zilla and the Hub out all day and either packing or buying at school, I’m here by myself for school day lunch and soup is just fine for me.
      Rainy days under the covers are awesome.
      We have always taken all three cats to the vet in one visit – did it when we got them and then just kept the habit. Once we took Cat Two alone because he’s a royal pain in the ass about the vet. But usually, it’s a three-for-one deal. But why we did the Kidzilla on the same day is beyond me. Things always look easier in my head and on paper than they turn out in actuality! 😀

  • Cece Mifflin says:
    August 23, 2015 at 9:55 pm

    The walk in the trees looks wonderful..

  • Kimberly says:
    August 23, 2015 at 11:44 pm

    That is a darling spot. I bet your mom loved it. When we went camping, we did a lot of hiking on trails like that — although they were pretty rugged to walk on!
    Those veggies look so delicious. I’ve been eating the ones from my mom’s garden. You can’t beat the taste when it comes right out of a garden. I can’t even bear to eat the ones in the grocery store in the summer.
    I hope that you have a wonderful week 🙂

    • Lisa @ The Meaning of Me says:
      August 24, 2015 at 12:26 am

      Kim, these trails were more rugged than they appear. They’ve made a whole new section to make at least some of the sanctuary more accessible. It is, but the trails aren’t completely smooth.
      The veggies from the farm and the ones the market gets from local farms are SO GOOD – much better than the mass-produced and shipped stuff. The best is when we get something like beans or cherry tomatoes from the self-pick garden and have them right away for dinner. Delicious.
      Have a great week, too – I’ve been absent from reading, but I’ll be around soon!

  • Eli@CoachDaddy says:
    August 26, 2015 at 2:18 pm

    I’m thankful for mountain spots like that one, and also for friends who check in on you.

    Blogs distract me! I will always choose reading a blog over 94% of everything else.

Comments are closed.