#198 Nomad Diary. 3-9 August 2024. 3rd of 4th Week in Shady Shores, Texas. Lake Lewisville. Darrell's Folks, Sister and Niece. Friends at Denton Church.
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| Holding My Exercise Ball |
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| Family at Church in Denton, Texas. Shirley, Cyndy, Donald and Kylee |
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| Our Airbnb Cottage and Our Truck Near Lake Lewisville, Texas Saturday. 3. We go grocery shopping after lunch at our airbnb. Cyndy called and coordinated her dinner menu and our contributions. Since our tour and new information yesterday about memory care and assisted living residential facilities, Darrell’s Mom has had questions and ideas as she is processing the information and some possibilities. Sunday. 4. Church from 9-11am in Denton with family. Darrell is leading singing. Planned a phone call visit with my two sisters who have coffee on Sunday afternoons near Noblesville, Indiana. |
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| Grandson Quinn's Picture from His First Day of PreK4. He's Excited! |
Monday. 5. Cyndy started her first day back to work as a 3rd grade teacher this year. She’s been teaching for 35 years, and done every elementary level and had every kind of student! She knows what she’s doing and she’s survived the covid virtual classroom changes and challenges and back into the classroom building again! I give a hand to every teacher that’s come through this gauntlet! We helped get tacos fixed for dinner at Cyndy’s house. Darrell made refried black beans from scratch using our pressure cooker and a recipe we’ve gotten used to. We waited all afternoon for a windshield replacement for our truck. The repairman showed up after 5pm when he should be finished for the day and found that he didn’t have all the parts to complete the job. The temperature is around 100 degrees and quite unbearable. He put in the order for the parts needed and tabled the repair for another time yet to be scheduled. Tuesday. 6. Today Darrell and I had a plan to cook roast for everyone for dinner. We went to WinCo a favorite grocery of ours in Denton. We got a big pork roast and everything else on our list. We’ll use Cyndy’s fresh garden okra and squash for sides as well as her potatoes. After our trip to the grocery, we returned to our airbnb cottage for lunch and our online Bible class with our friends in England. I prepared the roast with a dry rub and slice carrots. I put it into our pressure cooker to begin cooking it with the plan to finish it in Cyndy’s oven while cooking the rest of dinner. We got to Cyndy’s house around 2:30. I was going to put the roast into her oven at 3:30 to finish it, but something happened to derail that plan. The temperature in Cyndy’s house was going up and was 80 degrees inside. Mom started telling about the system problems in the house. I decided to go back and finish dinner at our house and plan for Cyndy to come with the folks to our place to eat. We drove back to our place and walked into our air conditioned house where the thermostat read 72 degrees! Ahhh. Darrell and I cooked dinner and were ready for them when they came to eat around 5:30. It was a pleasant visit. Cyndy had a repairman scheduled to arrive in the evening. Darrell called the windshield place a couple of times today and got an appointment on Wednesday morning at the shop location.
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| A Reminder of New Zealand!! A Vintage Bag Clip That I Accidentally Took From Irene's Farmhouse Kitchen in New Plymouth. Brings Back Great Memories!! |
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| Picture of Owen and Esther with Beautiful Smiles |
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| A Screenshot of My Friend Mary Katherine's Cooking Channel on YouTube. I Made This Recipe! Looking Forward to Seeing Her in Alabama at Church! |
Wednesday. 7. We slept in until 7am. That’s late for us, and we don’t resist it! Lol! We did our morning exercise routine and Darrell reminded me that we have been doing these DDP yoga routines for 12 years!! It really has helped me through the years to wake up and stretch and get going for my day! While Darrell took the truck for the new windshield, I stayed at the cottage. I spend time washing up breakfast dishes,doing laundry,doing my sleep breathing exercises,’daily’ Bible reading,prayer time,and e-notes to friends.Darrell gets back with the newly installed windshield. At Cyndy’s house the new air conditioner got installed in a very hot space in her attic. Cyndy quickly put dinner together before we all headed off for evening Bible class in Denton.
Thursday. 8. This morning we set the alarm for 5am, got up to help with Mom and Dad’s needs. I took Mom to her 6:15am appointment at Flower Mound Presbyterian Hospital. She had a procedure of injections into her knee to block nerve pain. Darrell stayed at Cyndy’s house with Dad. Mom’s actual procedure took 10 minutes! We were back to the house just before 9am. She did well. Darrell’s Dad started the day well by knowing that he would like scrambled eggs for breakfast after Darrell offered to cook them. A little after breakfast he started being disoriented. By the time we arrived back from the hospital, Dad was in a mood where he didn’t like Shirley and her telling him how things were. She overlooks his swings because he can equally be looking to her to direct every movement he makes and thanking her for her help. I collected items at Cyndy’s house to make chicken noodle soup in our pressure cooker. I also made Banana Bread today. My friend Mary Katherine started a YouTube cooking channel a few months ago and she has a Banana Bread recipe on it that I saw recently. I used her recipe with a couple of my own modifications. It is delicious! Check out Mary Katherine’s Table on YouTube with her tried and true southern recipes!
Friday. 9.
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| Phone Call With Owen (2 years 11 mos) |
Nomad Notes.
Sleep Apnea progress: I continue to do daily breathing exercises following Dr. Dylan Petkus recorded sound tracks. It has made a big difference in my sleeping. I still use a tongue trap. I still snore some(according to Darrell) and also have interrupted sleep most nights. I have a sleep study appointment at the end of October. I also have a few other things to incorporate within the suggestions of this doctor’s protocols. At some point I will likely book my complimentary 45 minute session with this doctor.
Daily Routines:
Morning: Most days my routine and Darrell’s is to awake without an alarm. Our wake up varies from 5am-7am. We get up, drink some water, put on exercise clothes and do a recorded DDP yoga routine on our yoga mats that we carry in our suitcases. Then we make breakfast together. We like strong coffee. Usually a French Roast brewed in our french press maker. My favorite breakfast currently is: over easy eggs with sourdough toast, avocado and EV olive oil. Darrell eats his eggs over medium, has a slice of cheese on his unbuttered toast. We keep a jar of fruit preserves and have a slice of jelly on toast with coffee. Darrell’s favorite breakfast is his homemade pancakes. He makes them a few times a week when we are in a place with a kitchen. We top the pancakes with fresh berries or other fruit, and real maple syrup. Sometimes we cook sausage or bacon at breakfast too, but we haven’t been the mood recently.
After breakfast is cleaned up we often read on our phones while sitting outside when possible. Throughout the day we each work on Duolingo for language. Darrell is quite far on Spanish and purchased another system to push him to keep learning further. I did Spanish at a minimum level for Duolingo and then overlapped with Portuguese for a while. Now I’m doing minimum Portuguese. I know more than I used to know, but I’m not proficient at it yet.
Lunch: Usually we make a big salad for our lunches. We like different toppings on our salads. I love making and using an Italian dressing that is heavy on fresh garlic and EV olive oil. Darrell usually adds crackers and cheese to his lunch.
Dinner can be anything we fix at our house or go out for. While here in Texas we have gone out to dinner with the family a few times. We’ve gone out and eaten steaks, salmon, tacos and pizza. We’ve also fixed all of those for family dinners ourselves too.
After dinner in the evening we read or watch something on tv if we have tv. Here we have watched remodeling shows, Antiques Roadshow and dry bar comedy on YouTube.
Bedtime comes around 9pm.
On our drive to Texas Darrell signed up for Sirius Radio. Since then we play the radio in our house using a mini Bose speaker. It’s a nice background to listen to.
Wherever we are we attend Bible classes and worship services on Sundays and a couple of other days too. We have a consistent e-Bible study on Tuesdays that is coordinated by a church we attended in Tunbridge Wells, England. We have enjoyed being welcomed by so many churches wherever we are living during the week. I’ve connected with many new friends in places I haven’t expected and this makes travel even more enjoyable for us. We have come to visit Darrell’s folks here through several years now. Going to church with them, especially for the last 4-5 years, I’ve learned the people there. It’s a small church of less than 50. The dynamics of the group has changed with the aging and some newer members. I’ve been encouraged by the classes and worship there. I’ve enjoyed getting more and more details of people there as I learn a little more or I’m reminded during our visit. Two of the 80+ year old women have told me stories of bringing an older family member to Christ. That’s so encouraging. One’s 80 year old sister and the other’s retired husband who was a drinker and gambler and changed his life in repentance and has now passed on. Such incredible stories of hope!
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