Top 5 Grocery Items!

I’m trying to write something every day and the daily prompts provided by WordPress help. Some of the posts are weird though, like this one!

My top 5 grocery items are must-haves, although I have many must-haves!

  1. Frank’s Hot Sauce – I buy quart-sized bottles. I use it a lot! In fact, their slogan “I put that shit on everything!” is just about right!
  2. Bottled Water – Our water is not fit to drink so I buy bottled water. I buy it in gallon jugs to make my tea and coffee, and I buy 24-packs of individual bottles for drinking.
  3. Low Sodium Tortilla Chips – Because I like a salty, crunchy snack once in a while and I also serve them with several of my soups and chilis.
  4. Hershey’s Miniatures and Nuggets – I love my chocolate! We always have these in stock in my house! When I have a chocolate craving, I can eat 3 or 4 of these little miniatures or nuggets and I’m good until next time!
  5. French Vanilla Coffee Creamer – Gotta have my creamer for my 3 cups of coffee in the morning!

What are your top 5 grocery items?

Bobcats, Opossums, and Bears…Oh My!

I live in rural SW Missouri where it’s common to see wild animals. I absolutely love it! I see raccoons, opossums, and skunks almost daily. I’ve seen the usual black skunks with white stripes but also completely white skunks!

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Image by BowmanStudios from Pixabay

I’ve seen bats at night and once a bat got in our house. I had gone to bed and kept hearing what sounded like a big moth fluttering about. I turned on the light, and was shocked to see it was a little bat! He was hanging from the ceiling since I turned on the light. I woke up my son because someone had to witness this! I got a small waste basket, emptied it, stood up on the bed, and carefully placed the waste basket over the bat. Then I took a cookie sheet and carefully and slowly moved it across the top of the wastebasket. Then my son and I took the little bat outside and released him. I bet he was thankful!

Years ago, I was coming home from work and saw what I first thought was a big dog. As I got closer, I realized it was a young bear! I figured his mama was nearby but I didn’t see her. I haven’t seen a bear since then.

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Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay

I’ve most recently seen a bobcat and my cats saw it, too! Thankfully, my furbabies have an enclosure to keep them safe. I think the bobcat jumped on top of the enclosure because there were indentations in the wire, like footprints.

I’ve seen red foxes, coyotes, and mountain lions. The red foxes are beautiful! We have an overabundance of squirrels, armadillos, rabbits, and deer! People have told me about feral pigs and I may have heard them in the woods late at night a time or two, but I can’t be sure. I have yet to see one! I’ve seen moles, voles, groundhogs, chipmunks, gophers, weasels, and even a flying squirrel! It’s amazing! I can’t forget about box turtles, snapping turtles, skinks, frogs, toads, and different species of snakes!

photo of fox sitting on ground

Photo by Alex Andrews on Pexels.com

I can’t forget about birds! I’ve seen pigeons, wild turkeys, mourning doves, owls, roadrunners, starlings, herons, egrets, and several species of woodpeckers including pileated woodpeckers. The most awesome of the birds are birds of prey. I can’t even count how many species of hawks I’ve seen over the years. I’ve even seen bald eagles!

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Image by Kathy Büscher from Pixabay

I got my love of nature and wildlife from my dad. He taught me to respect, watch, and learn instead of disturbing or killing. Do you live in an area where you see wildlife?

How Do You Celebrate The Holidays?

Holidays… 

Holidays are depressing. The grandkids are too busy elsewhere to spend the holidays here, although I do see my son and his family for a few hours on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am grateful for that but I always envisioned my golden years with a houseful of grandkids for the holidays. 

I used to enjoy the holidays when my kids were little. I enjoyed making their holidays fun and exciting. They received gifts of course, but it was the whole season that was important. I didn’t have a lot of money (I never do) but I slowly built a good collection of decor: ornaments, lights, holiday figurines, etc. One thing I did every year was wrap each and every photo hanging on the living room walls in colorful holiday gift wrap, complete with bows and ribbons! It sure made the walls pop in color! I put a tree up and the kids helped decorate it. 

Beginning 5 days before Christmas, my kids would get a small gift each night, like a new folder for school, a pair of decorative socks, or some other small inexpensive gift. On Christmas Eve, the gift would normally be something like a pair of new pajamas or a new outfit for the big day. On Christmas Day, we spent the day watching Christmas movies and pigging out on holiday dinner and treats!

Those days are gone. It’s just me and Dad. He doesn’t care and I don’t care. We just sit here alone and wonder what everyone else is doing. It’s lonely. 

Dad and I don’t even bother getting each other gifts. We get a few gifts for the grandkids (great-grandkids for him) and I don’t even bother sending out cards or putting up a tree. if someone is coming over then we’ll have a holiday dinner of some kind. Last year, I did a charcuterie board and that was just as much work as an actual dinner. 

We always say we’re going to go out to dinner but not too many restaurants are open during the holidays. I’m not sure what we’ll do this year. My oven is broken so I won’t be able to cook anything unless I use my Instant Pot, Crock Pot, or stovetop. Not that I want to cook anything at all. With mobility issues, it just takes too much out of me to cook anything.

Anyway, the holidays are depressing and I’d rather just not have them at all.

Not So Much…

Daily writing prompt
How often do you walk or run?

I used to walk a mile or more almost every single day. When I started having problems with my legs my doctor was no help. I still tried to walk. It seemed like it made my legs worse and since I didn’t know what was wrong, I thought walking might be making it worse so I stopped walking altogether.

Fast forward about 5 years I finally got a diagnosis of severe arthritis and bone-on-bone damage in my knees. If I had found out sooner I could have delayed this condition I’m in at the moment. For the last 13 years, I’ve been dealing with mobility issues and pain.

I wish I could walk…without crutches…without pain.

Haha…Do You Really Want To Know?

Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite word?

My favorite word starts with the letter F. It could be friends, family, food, fun, or any number of words but I think you know what it is.

My favorite word helps me to release negative energy and stress. Most folks are offended by my favorite word. I ask, “Why?” It’s just a word.