Random Thoughts

I know part of what I’m about to say should not be a complaint in a world full of vanity about aging.

I’ve ALWAYS looked younger, much younger than my chronological age. People tend to talk at me as if I’m a child. Although I do not talk at children unless they’re misbehaving, then it’s more of a stern look, not so much of a talk down to or put down of them or their actions. I get the feeling, sometimes people have assumed I’m a child who doesn’t know what she’s doing or perhaps they may feel I am doing somethings I should not do. I honestly do not know.

What inside of a person makes them think it’s okay to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t do. Especially if it doesn’t pertain to illegal actions or self harm.

My personality is to listen to everyone and allow them to speak. I don’t necessarily believe anything I hear but I do believe in allowing people to speak. I don’t give my ideas or thoughts on what people are expressing or tell them what they should or shouldn’t do. I do believe hearing yourself speak is a conversation in itself, you can work out your problems, you hear what you have said and recall later. You can rationally work out your issues with or without help.

I do not believe my thoughts on this comes from my psychology background either. I believe deep down that everyone, at some point, needs a way of expressing either themselves, their trauma, or just thoughts in general. I’ve noticed for a long time that children will talk to you about anything on their mind if you just sit with them and draw, color, play their video games, or just seem interested. Even the “rough” teenage years, I felt. I know and love my children dearly even if I do not agree with their actions.

So back to my original thought, I do not feel heard or believed, I feel people are dismissive and treat me as a young lady instead of middle aged. I do not think I look young anymore, I see age in the eyes and my eyes show weariness.

I see everything and make mental notes. For DECADES, my lifetime, I have stated things that I have seen or noted. People, my parents, my spouse, my children, teachers, pastors, rabbis, sibling, pretty much everyone, except my now deceased grandparents have been dismissive of things I say. Only to find out later that I was correct. Only my mother has returned to me later to tell me that I did speak the correct thing and she was sorry to be so dismissive. I’m some what of an Aspie and lying is just NOT my thing. I’m not very persistent about it either, I just know and won’t go against what I know is correct even if I am the only one. I just state once or twice to someone, they usually dismiss my words and I return to whatever I was doing. I do not take it personally, usually. I just wonder why I’m dismissed, gaslit, or ignored while people seem in general to insist you acknowledge their ideas, thoughts, etc. I acknowledge I hear you but I do not give my opinion. Unless someone wants me to agree, then I will state I do not agree but I do not elaborate. I do not want to insert myself or thoughts into conversations. Especially ones I do not care about or have the mental energy to discuss.

I’ve had a difficult time recently, thinking about my friends. There is an obnoxious amount of my friends, former coworkers and some family being diagnosed with either cancers ( a LOT of lymphoma and breast cancers) and blood clots and heart failure. I am sad for them and all they are enduring. I am not depressed, just finding being middle aged rather young to see so much loss in my age bracket. I pray daily for all of my friends who are surviving cancers currently and those who are living with the clotting problems and heart issues. I’m sad for the families of those who lost their mothers and fathers and there are still fairly young children at home. It is heartbreaking!

Online Chromebook Sale

I’m not affiliated with Walmart and I have no idea about anything PC wise.

I am an Apple MAC girl, that being said I know many people who are using Chromebooks when homeschooling their children.

I would like to share what may be a good sale. I did purchase a Chromebook for my own homeschoolers to use.

One of my computers has finally decided it’s finished working and it’s too old for me to have repaired.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-11-6-Chromebook-AMD-A4-4GB-RAM-32GB-Storage-Black-16W64UT-ABA/592161882

Maybe some experienced person can post in the comments whether this is truly a good purchase or not and why.

If one so chooses, thank you!

Blessings Folks!

Revamping My Blog

Life became overwhelming these past 2 years. I used to blog daily, even if I set the post to private, to friends only or to selective post that only subscribers could see. I just couldn’t get around to my normal blogging. Things had become so overwhelming for a little while.

Our Life here is completely different now.

My husband is home full time now permanently, he has a heart issue related to the forced mask ordinances in our state during the plannedemic.

Things are more stable here health-wise for him, he’s been allowed to do remote heart monitoring from home, which is awesome by the way.

I’m currently remodeling things, changing and updating my house and feeling the need to do the same here on my blog.

I’m not sure how I want it to look yet. I have considered changing the name. BUT I have used ‘thesimplyfreelife’ because it reminded me of my maternal grandmother. She called me TangTang and would say, “TangTang you know the BEST things in life are simple and free.” For me, lately, just focusing on the simple and free things have helped give me some peace when things seem so crazy, overwhelming and completely out of control.

A friend has suggested I vlog or podcast, I’m ALWAYS talking and putting voice notes into my devices. I am considering doing so and adding it to this blog. My “voice notes” in my phone and ipad have been, I suppose, somewhat therapeutic for me.

I didn’t realize how much we’ve been through until I started listening to and deleting some of those voice notes from my phone.

I absolutely ABHOR the phrase “NEW NORMAL” UGH!!! Seriously that is what my life is now “a new normal” and my standards of okay are so different. My goals are very different also and that is okay.

Do You Ever See Wild Animals

Do you ever see wild animals?

I live in a big city near a college. They are building what I called rackem stackems all around my city.

It’s strange I hear about environment conservation and carbon footprints and emissions but people keep tearing down trees to erect these mass occupancy housing units.

Just this past month I’ve seen foxes, deer and rabbits. So yes to live in the city I see a LOT of Wild Animals here but I believe they’ve chopped down their hiding places sadly.

On our walk one day not far from home.

I don’t have any fox pictures. We see a lot of foxes. They seem to be super scared and take off the moment they sense your presence.

My rabbit pictures are blurs. 🤣

We see owls a LOT when we go outside to view the moon. We’re moon gazers here. We’ve seen bats flying when moon watching.

Three Jobs I’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter

Daily writing prompt
List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.

Three Jobs I’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter:

The first one is naturopathic physician. I’d love to help people be healthy. I am a registered nurse. We do not have healthcare in the United States of America. We have what I consider to be sick care. Mediocre sick care at best. Very EXPENSIVE mediocre sick care. I believe in teaching people how to be healthy and maintain health and care for the ONE and only body they’ve been blessed to have. I do not like medical care which consist of covering symptoms with different drugs. This is NOT sustainable and in my humble opinion causes more health problems and issues.

The second job I would pursue if money didn’t matter is running a small nursery selling houseplants. I LOVE plants and have too many in my small home. I used to rescue plants, which replaced my rescuing cats and dogs who needed homes. I do not think I’m that great of a plant keeper, but I LOVE plants and love experimenting with different propagation methods. I’m currently working on propagating and replanting my scrawny fittonia plants.

The third job I would consider pursuing if money didn’t matter is a business helping find suitable home health caregivers for people who need anything from a part time respite care relief to full time caregivers in their homes. I have an innate ability to read people in person, psychology background and listen well and believe I could choose wonderful caregivers to help others not just people who are looking for an easy paycheck and little work. I’m also interested in helping new mom’s with organizing their homes, meals, aftercare after birth, those have been the hardest things for me, ESPECIALLY considering I was on bedrest with most of my kiddos at some point. I had difficult pregnancies with some preterm labor.

Those are the “three” jobs I would consider if money didn’t matter.

What would my life be like without Music?

What would your life be like without music?

Hmmm 🤔

What would my life be like without music.

Without music my life would be pretty quiet.

I love to play classical music while we read or do school at home.

I love to listen to Pantera while I was dishes or vacuum especially when there is a huge load of dishes or the floor is really dirty. ( I have light carpet where I have carpet).

I love listening to any Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of The Dog) while painting, drawing, ironing clothes ( yes I still iron… I know many people put their clothes in the dryer to remove wrinkles.), and doing my weekly declutter/ reorganizing things.

I can’t imagine my life without music. Music brings me happy feelings, calm feelings, remembering good times especially of family and friends, who are no longer with us.

I believe music is a gift from G-d and am happy to be able to daily include music in our lives.

Maranta ( Prayer Plant) makes me smile.

At My Age My Parents Were

What were your parents doing at your age?

At my age my parents were plotting to retire. The were empty nesters. They had planned for decades to retire at an early age and travel and just have fun in general.

Dad retired early, then became very bored so he went back to work. A different new job. Then retired again years later.

A Lesson I wish I had learned early in life

Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.

I was given this writing prompt and decided to go with it.

My life has been greatly affected and inspired by my maternal grandmother.

The lesson I wish I had learned earlier in life, is that my grandmother was a literal walking encyclopedia with a wealth of knowledge for all things natural.

I wish I had taken notes on almost EVERYTHING she’s ever told me. I only have a notebook of things she told me once I realized the value of her speech.

I seriously missed out on a legacy that I can not get back. The newer generations do not realize the value in the old. Simple things like making bread or growing a few things you can eat from your own garden. Life has been fast paced and hurry hurry rush rush.

Stop and enjoy people before you lose that opportunity and maybe take note of what memorable things they say. Especially if it touches your heart.

Say hello to my Mexican Petunias ❤️

Todays Thoughts about Trump Indictment

Biden has a free pass to do crime
The media and democrats and republicans are covering for this POS.

It appears they accuse Trump of doing the very things they do.
That is how I know what to look for. Just see what they’re charging Trump with and you know what they’ve done or are doing.
We do not have a republic.
We have a country ran by 3 letter entities who constantly cover up things done.
If we all vote for Trump, Trump WILL END the corporate run of our country and put it back to the people. Our votes would actually count. The Glowies can’t handle that.


They have waged a war against the people because they hate us that much and think so lowly of us.
This is why they put Biden in in the first place, he is bribable, they will cover for him and bury his garbage to protect themselves.
They are punishing us for even voting Trump in in the first place. They perfected the steal and did better in 2020 than they did in 2016. They told us how bad Trump is and got angry with us then when we put him in.
They spent the entire Trump Presidency trying to take him out. They NEVER RESPECTED HIM AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES nor TREATED HIM AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. In fact they undermined everything he did. Flew behind him to other countries trying to cut deals ( Obama and Nasty Nancy Pelosi)
Watching the behaviors of so called republicans and democrats proved to me 💯 that Trump has been the only person since Reagan who wasn’t 💯 controlled by the people who actually run our country.
We voted him to run the country so he ran the country as if he was/is the President of the United States of America 🇺🇸
How dare he do the job Americans voted him to do.

We do not have media. We have propaganda I’m not just speaking of CNN MSNBC or FOX they’re all obvious.
Unless you are reading things that Government puts out as they come out or are looking for fine print or even non biased state ran media, you’ll NEVER actually know what they are doing to us, what they have done or what they plan to do. Once you find out you will be gaslit. Even in the midst of all of this stuff happening IN YOUR FACE!

I listened to someone saying MAGA is dividing the Republican Party. There is no Republican Party sans MAGA. No one likes the republicans because they have been feckless. Yes the democrats have pushed evil things on us but republicans do not defend us. Sometimes they complain and speak as if they care but they don’t really do anything.
You’re not a good person if you stand by and do nothing while bad things happen in your faces.
The democrat party is demonic and pushes evil on us but believe in looking good to the public so they are all about optics. They’ve spent years using black people to keep themselves in power by telling them how racist republicans are and in the same breath tell you you’re too stupid to have an ID to vote and butcher copy paste a clip to try and make you think Trump is the racist.

Bill Clinton was a nasty awful man but when he got impeached ALL OF THE DEMOCRATS Stood besides him.

THE FECKLESS REPUBLICANS KNOW TRUMP IS INNOCENT BUT THEY LACK SPINE, INTESTINAL FORTITUDE, GONADS AND CHUTZPAH to stand up and do the RIGHT HONEST THING!
The more these people talk on either “side”, the more I see why they go after TRUMP. He is the ONLY ONE who actually cares about HUMAN LIFE, America and Americans and the TRUTH!!!

My Renovated Kitchen

I never realized how much our life revolves around our kitchen! It isn’t just meals either.

Our small house felt super tiny and cramped for about a month with everything put into the living room, stacks of boxes , a shelf I bought from Amazon and put together for my temporary kitchen near my front door with the microwave, a dorm refrigerator, our air fryer, toaster and Instant Pot. Decorative baskets housed bread and bagels, healthy chips and other snacks, condiments, etc. Our Berkey and Alexapure were nearby also filtering our water.

Less than a full month later, we have a REAL kitchen again!. YIPPEE SKIPPEE!!! That was surely an experience!

I thought I was somewhat of a minimalist, but found out we still had too much stuff. I’ve made several trips to drop off donations of extra items. The National KidneyFoundation came by and picked up some large items and Habitat for Humanity also picked up items.

I have nerve damage from a car accident 7 years ago. I broke my neck in several places an still to this day can’t feel a couple of my fingers. I decided to make life easier for myself. During our kitchen renovation I donated 99 percent of my Fiestaware Collection, and decided to use Correlle Dinnerware because it’s lightweight and fits easier in the new cabinets. I also donated our melamine dishes. I didn’t realize those were darling husbands favorites. He absolutely HATES the Correlle. I kept a set of fiestaware bowls that my teen boys use to eat often. They’re heavy and on the very top shelf, since my boys are all tall, even the 10 year old is my height (5’6), they unload the dishwasher and put those dishes on the top shelf. I accidentally broke most of our drinking glasses because they’re so heavy and just slipped out of my hands usually while I’m washing dishes. We’ve been using my heavy Rae Dunn coffee mugs, I haven’t dropped those but I have a handle to grasp. I would like to purchase a small set of lightweight pretty simple drinking glasses.

I want my kitchen to run smoothly, be easier for me to navigate and keep clean and still look beautiful.

Kitchen before
the wall tile was finished

I’ve made a list of what I need to make our normal meals. I realized I’m in a season where I cook basically the same things but switch it up slightly. I plan our meals out 2 weeks at a time but leave a bit of room to change my mind.

We’ve ALMOST returned to normal life. I babysat my sick grandson for a few days, he must be well for 24 hours before returning to his “preschool” so my children have been sick with a virus now for a week, taking turns being sick. We homeschool so I’ve made them read, but I’ve also allowed them to play Xbox, but they’ve mostly slept. I pray everyone is 💯 by Monday so we can return to our normal schedule.

Have a most excellent Friday!

Sweet Day Starter

I went to Aldi this morning after dropping off my son at work.

I love going Aldi shopping early in the morning when they first open, it’s kind of empty except for the workers and us early bird customers.

Today’s shopping trip was especially sweet. At checkout a sweet smiling delightful woman paid for her groceries, then hands the cashier associate a Snickers bar and said I hope you have a super sweet day!

She made the “alway delightful” associate smile even more. ( He exudes happiness and energy every single time I’ve seen him working). Her act of kindness also made my day. She gave us all an energy boost from her act of kindness.

I had company when I returned home. I have the honor of keeping grandson while his mommy and daddy knock out some special errands today.

Have a SUPER SWEET Thursday Everyone!

Wednesday Ramblings

The electrician is currently replacing our outdated outlawed fuse box with and updated electric panel, so I decided to sit down for a moment and share my rambled thoughts.

We are still in the midst of our total kitchen renovation. We thought our kitchen floor issues were from a bad leak we had in the ceiling from a hailstorm. We initially had our former home owners insurance out to look at it and they said the roof was barely dented and the shingles looked fine to them. They dismissed us and our concerns only to drop our homeowners insurance a month or so later because they said our roof looks bad and couldn’t be covered under homeowners because we are not up keeping it. We paid for a brand new roof and repairs to our attic from the water damage. Those guys who replaced our roof said it could have been hail damage and had to to replace some of the attic flooring and insulation and treat the mildew and mold in the attic. They also replaced some of our fascia.

Our kitchen floor had some give to it and sunk in near the sink, I’m told it looked like a pipe leaked and went into the wood. We’ve had plumbers out first, then contractors to get bids about the floor and kitchen remodel. It took months to get everyone out and vetted and choose one. Then we wait to get fitted in their schedule. They do commercial and residential construction projects.

After the kitchen was demolished, they found an old drain that went from the ceiling through a major ibeam floor joist. It was cast iron, and had been disconnected when we replaced the sewer and water lines but because it was in the wall, it was capped and closed at the end it was cut. Little did we know it was rotting in its location. When we had hailstorm damage, I believe water got into that pipe from the hail damage to the roof. I’m not going to speculate much or play any blame games. I do wish we had a thorough inspection by the Insurance company when I had them out. They didn’t even go into the attic. I’m disappointed with insurance companies, especially that one in particular. But as I’ve said, my house so ultimately it’s my responsibility to get competent professional individuals out to help us decide what and where the problems are, so we can get them fixed before they cause major damage.

One of the demo guys did mostly excellent work with the demo and cleaning that mess up. Only one problem had, was he covered one of our a/c vents with the brand new subfloor. We still need it uncovered. He did not tell the guy who put down the lvp flooring about the vent.

We found surprises in the kitchen after the drywall was removed. Like old water pipes where maybe a washing machine used to be in the kitchen. Our laundry room is an addition to the house. We also noted many little things I’ve affectionately named “what the heck” did they do that for. Some things simply do not make sense.

This project has me curious, what else will we find under all of this mess!

I’m sitting in my dark bedroom watching my sick grandson sleep, typing on my iPad mini using data, listening to the 3 folks, an electrician and his apprentices work to install a brand new electric panel in my old home.

Life in Chaos

We are living in the midst of a full kitchen renovation.

I have planned for months how things would go. I figured it would be like camping in our living room. I thought about things a lot! I did some research, I asked questions from those who have done this before myself, and I thought I was well prepared and made my list. I planned most of my meals. I set up a temporary kitchen in my living room. I started decluttering my kitchen and got rid of anything I never use, I packed many of my things I want to keep. I kept out things I needed for day to day life until the Reno begins. Then I got a call that they can start right away. Oh boy!!! How exciting!!!

Sweet Hubby kindly dumps, I mean packs the rest of the kitchen in the boxes which I had collected just for our Reno and he proceeds to completely empty the kitchen. A crew came later that night and taped off our kitchen entrances with large sheets of plastic and black tape.

The very next day demo begins. They beat and ripped out the old cabinets, countertops, light fixtures. They ripped up old linoleum and flooring. We had some old water damage and the flooring was coming apart in layers. They cut out old drywall and tossed it. We got to see a huge mistake the original builder made. There was an old cast iron kitchen drain pipe going through our main floor joist. The original builder plumber had cut a hole in the main floor joist for a large drain pipe. OY VEY! Why? Our guys cut it out, replaced and reinforced the joist.

The following day they worked on the floor reinforcing all floor joist and laid a brand new subfloor.

So far we have new outlets, new lvp floors, painted walls, recessed lights and the cabinets are going in at this very moment.

We’ve be using our microwave/ convection oven combo, my cheap ($19.99) Walmart brand tiny coffeemaker which uses either ground coffee or any brand of coffee pods like k-cups and the like. Our crown Berkey for filtered water is awesome! My Instant Pot has been awesome also. I’ve made ground beef tacos, frying my beef on the sauté function, I’ve fried turkey bacon, scrambled eggs on saute, and grilled cheese on sauté function. I’ve absolutely fell in love with my Instant Pot during this reno and could probably do paid commercials for them, with all I’ve used my Instant Pot for and fell in love with my Inastant Pot or should I say I have a new found respect for all I can do with that thing.

We’ve have eaten pizza and a few meals we ordered and picked up at a restaurant or fast food. This gets too expensive especially for a large family of mostly boys! Breakfasts have been super simple, cheerios, eggs, fruit, organic breakfast bars, granola, yogurt or leftovers. Lunches have been simple also sandwiches, chips, salads, fruits ( we’ve had bananas, oranges, plums, blueberries, grapefruit and apples.) Dinners have been tacos, canned soups and grilled sandwiches, microwave burgers, microwaved veggies, Pizza establishments we’ve used are Little Caesars and Dominoes, We’ve also bought chick-fil-a and Bojangles. Mostly because they were local, not because they were healthy or anything.

I’ve pretty much went to the grocery store several days in a row. We have a medium sized dormitory refrigerator set up in our living room’s temporary kitchen and an ice maker ( which has been a lifesaver, with our hot southern September days).

My house is about 60 years old, so many updates we’ve done and are doing currently have been sorely needed. Especially the electrical upgrades! I could only use my hairdryer on one outlet in my house. Any other outlet would trip a breaker and turn of the power in half of our house. Frustrating and scary! Every appliance except for our refrigerator has been on power strips which I flip off at night.

That’s all I can remember at the moment. I’m sitting in a very noisy dusty house at the moment while hubby watches college football and the boys and the girl are “gaming”.