More Examples of Stepping Stones

Here are some more examples of stepping stones that Mother, Hubbie, and I made. Hubbie and I worked together on the top one, which uses a broken flower-pattern dinner plate. I made the patriotic red, white and blue stone, using broken tiles, and clear jewel stones to form a sort of star pattern in the middle. For this one, I added red concrete dye to the Quickrete mixture. I also made the lady bug stone and the red-dyed stone featuring small seashells in starburst patterns. Mother made the seashell/rock combination stone at the bottom. None of these are grand, but they were fun to make, and add interest to the path in the arbor. Directions for making the stones is in the previous blog.

Making Stepping Stones

Today, Mother, Hubbie, and I made the stepping stones shown above. The top one is mine, the middle one is Mother's, and the bottom one is Hubbie's. Right now, the Quikrete we used to make the stones is still wet, and mine, for example, has concrete residue on the tile pieces I used, but this will wash off easily with a wet paper towel after the stone has set for a few hours.

Here's how we made the stones:

1. Use small or large plastic plant dishes for molds. Once the stones are dry, they will come out of the dish without much trouble.

2. Cut a piece of screening, a little smaller than the mold.

3. Mix Quickrete at the ratio of about 5 cups of the concrete to about 1 cup of water. We use a gallon ice cream bucket to mix the Quickrete. Add the water a little at a time to the Quickrete and mix with a large, old, spoon, until the concrete is a little wetter than cookie dough.

4. Put a layer of the Quickrete into the plastic dish and spread it out. Place the screening on top, and add the rest of the Quickrete. Smooth the concrete out.

5. Tap around the dish to bring air bubbles to the top of the concrete.

6. Add embellishments. In the examples above, we used a whole tile, a broken tile, a broken plate, jewel stones, and seashells from an old necklace. We usually lay out our design on the table before we mix the Quickrete so we'll have some idea of design placement before we begin.

7. Lay the embellishments on top of the Quickrete, and when you are satisfied with your design, push the embellishments down into the Quickrete.

8. Once your design is completed, do not move the stone. Allow it to dry two or three days.

Stumbling Blocks Wednesday

I arrived at water aerobics a little later than usual this morning, because (stumbling block number one) the van wouldn't start. Yesterday, Hubbie and his son were trying out a jack connection to a boom box and inadvertently left the car key turned on in the ignition. It was on overnight...result, dead battery this morning.

The reason they were trying the jack is because we have a lot of audio books on tape, but this van has only a CD player, so Hubbie and Son were checking to see if a jack to the boom box would work. It does, which is good, because now we can listen to books on tape when we travel in the van. But since the van's battery was dead this morning, Hubbie had to take me over to the college pool in the truck, then come back home and use booster cables to start the van.

We saw an interesting thing at the college this morning, when Hubbie came to pick me up. He seemed to be studying a large bush when I got to the van, and pointed to a bird in the limbs. It was a fledgling road runner. Poor thing was trying it's best to hide from us, but it's little fuzzy gray head, where a topknot was just beginning to grow, it's round eyes, long beak, and long slender gray body with long tail were just too obvious to be camouflaged by the green leaves.

Later this morning, Mother and I decided to make stepping stones, but found that (stumbling block number two) the Quikrete was not useable...the bag had gotten wet when the hot tub ran over last fall. Hubbie tried to save it, but it was in solid clumps today. So we made a run to buy some more, stopping by a grocery store first to pick up on-sale bananas and grapes, and at the farmer's market to pick up tomatoes and cucumbers.

Finally, we did get three stones made, which now need to dry for several days. Over the past several years, we've made lots of them, which I enjoy displaying in the arbor. Directions for making stepping stones, and pictures of ones we've made will follow in another blog post.

After lunch, Mother and I made Tarjeteria greeting cards. Examples of cards we've made will also be in another blog post.

Birthday Bash

I got up extra early this morning so I could cook the lemon pudding for Hubbie's birthday cake, and get some other things done for the birthday gathering before I went to Cardiac Rehab.



Today was education day at Rehab, which meant I had to stay an extra 30 minutes. The session concerned managing medications. The registered nurse emphasized several points, which I already adhere to, like keeping a record of prescription drugs and vitamin supplements; providing that record to all of my health care professionals; incorporating taking my medications into my daily routine; putting my meds into plastic days-of-the-week pillboxes; taking my meds exactly as directed; and refilling prescriptions in a timely manner.

The nurse also explained various brands and types blood pressure and cardiac medicines, and encouraged us to discuss them, and any reactions to them, with both our physicians and our pharmacists.



I worked hard enough on the cardio-stepper today that it took a while for my heart rate to slow to a point I could remove the monitor. Finally, though, I was able to leave, and I got home about 10:30, showered, dressed, and began lunch preparations about 11 a.m.



Hubbie's family drifted in around 11:30 a.m., and we all sat down to lunch at noon. After lunch, dessert, and gift giving, Hubbie toured his family around the yard and flower gardens while Mother and I cleaned the kitchen. Then we all sat in the yard and visited for a while. The weather, cooler with low humidity, was perfect for being outdoors. Before the family left mid-afternoon, we gathered them near the dogwood tree for a snapshot.

Besides Mother and me, the group included Hubbie's two daughters and son, his two sisters, a grown grandson (an Army veteran who served several tours of duty, including to Iraq), a young grandson and granddaughter, two great-grandsons, a great-granddaughter, and a son-in-law.

Hubbie had a good birthday, made all the better by being surrounded by loving family.

Monday Again

It seems like Mondays are rolling around faster these days. It's always hard to pry myself out of bed on Monday mornings to go to Cardiac Rehab. It doesn't help that I'm not a morning person to begin with, but on Mondays, I'm an absolute slug.

Once I begin exercising, though, I'm fine. After eating out yesterday, I dreaded the scale this morning, but it showed a two-pound loss. This up-two-pounds-down-two-pounds thing is a fluctuation in water weight, I'm sure.

My blood pressure was good, and my oxygen saturation remains at 100%. It didn't take as long for my heart rate to go down after the session today, though, which indicates to me I might not have worked hard enough on the cardio-stepper.

The educational video was about healthy eating, which the guys in the session pooh-poohed. The men just really don't want to change their eating habits. I sure can't figure out why...did they enjoy triple and quadruple bypasses that much? Just having a 95% clogged artery was enough to make me willing to do whatever it takes to stay healthy.

After I got home, Hubbie and I ran errands around town, including to the farmer's market, where we got some luscious homegrown, salmonella-free, tomatoes. These days, I feel like I'm playing Russian Roulette whenever I buy produce grown in other states.

At home, I made two bowls of potato salad, a sodium-free and egg-yolk free one for me, and my regular recipe for everyone else. Hubbie loves my potato salad, so I try to make it for him frequently through the summer. It's hard to make just a little potato salad, though, so I usually have to wait until we're going to have a family gathering before I make it.

With the barbecue and potato salad, we'll have baked beans (which I won't eat), corn on the cob, and sliced tomatoes and cucumbers for Hubbie's Father's Day/birthday celebration tomorrow. There will also be low-fat hot dogs and macaroni and cheese for kids who might not like barbecue and salads.

For dessert, Mother has baked a lemon cake, which I'll finish with lemon pudding and egg white meringue icing in the morning. This is another of Hubbie's favorites. Because I'm allergic to yellow dye, I'll have a chocolate cupcake and strawberries.

The rest of the day was spent sprucing the house, and making another run to the worldwide discount chain store to pick up frozen corn on the cob, and a bucket of ice cream, that we forgot on our first trip. Since we were out anyway, we stopped by Blockbuster video store, where I hoped to spend a gift card. But we were shocked to find it vacant...when in the world did they go out of business, I wonder? I guess they had too much competition from a couple of other video rental stores in town, as well as from online video rental sites. Now, I'll need to either visit a Blockbuster when I'm in another town, or spend the gift card online.

Wildflowers

Queen Anne's lace continues to grow in abundance along our rural roadways. Sharing space with those now tall and broad-faced wildflowers are butterfly weed, and wild roses. Blooming trumpet vine climbs on barbed wire fences, and nestled near the fence posts are clusters of day lilies.

Mother has planted a small wildflower garden that is just now sprouting. We're anxious to see what it yields. There is a new variety of daisy blooming in one of the gardens, and cone flowers in another one, both considered to be wildflowers.

Hubbie professes not to be a fan of wildflowers, many of which he considers to be "just weeds," but Mother and I find most of them quite beautiful.

Father's Day

We had a quiet Father's Day. Hubbie's children, some of his grandchildren, a great-grandchild, and his sisters will be here Tuesday to celebrate both Father's Day and his birthday, so today the celebration consisted of lunch at a local steakhouse, a card from me, and phone calls from his children.



High fuel and food prices certainly didn't keep folks at home today. The steakhouse was packed. We got there about 11:30 a.m., and already people were waiting to be seated. We lucked out and got seated immediately, since there was a small booth available, large enough to accommodate the three of us.



Hubbie ordered one of his favorite meals...steak, baked potato, and salad. Mother and I stuck with grilled chicken and baked potatoes. The restaurant obligingly prepared my chicken without salt. We all chowed down on the big, fluffy, yeast rolls, with honey, though.



Even by being careful of what I ordered, and eating only half of my meat portion, I still overindulged, so I ate a very low-sodium supper of all bran cereal and half a banana. Mother and Hubbie only ate half of their meat portions, too, so we brought the remainder home. Shih Tzu will enjoy a couple of meals from the leftover steak, and Mother and I will probably make sandwiches for lunch tomorrow from our chicken portions.



I make certain that leftover cooked meats taste fresh the next day by wrapping them securely in plastic wrap so that no oxygen can get to them. Refrigerating meats unwrapped changes the taste. Leftover poultry, particularly, has an unpleasant taste to me if it's refrigerated unwrapped.



Around dark time last night, Hubbie and I gathered up lawn chairs, hand fans, and bug repellant, and went over to the college to join a handful of others to see the animated feature, "Bee Movie," on an outdoor screen. We only went to be supportive of the arts council, which sponsored the movie. Hubbie is not a big fan of animated movies, though he seemed to enjoy this one. Mother opted out of going this time.



The movie, rated PG for some mild suggestive humor, promotes the message that bees are crucial to the environment, not only as suppliers of honey, but as pollinators, without whom plant life, and ultimately all life could perish.



It was a pleasant evening to sit outdoors. After a hot and humid day, the temperature had moderated by 8:30, and there was a cool breeze in the garden where the movie was shown. A three-quarter moon shown brilliantly, and in the clear night sky right overhead, the Big Dipper constellation seemed close enough to touch.