Going To Walmart

 Hello, my good friends!

I hope life is treating you well!

It's early Saturday morning here in my neck of the woods.  I'm here in my living room relaxing and thinking about what I need to do this weekend.  And the cat has decided to climb on my lap as I am trying to write this.  I swear she tries to make my life difficult. 😂 

Among other things I need to do this weekend, I need to go to Walmart to get a few groceries.  While I know I need to get it done, I don't look forward to going.  There are people there.  What I try to do to avoid the crowds is to try to go there early in the mornings.  Tomorrow morning, I will take my reusable bags and try to get there as early as I can.  This usually means that I get there around 7 am, which is nice.   There aren't that many people and I don't feel like I'm going to walk into anyone.  And I mean that literally.  When there are too many people, I constantly feel that I am going to accidentally walk my cart into someone.  Or there are too many people and I feel like I am getting stuck in isles,.  

I couple of weeks ago I took a little vacation.  Instead of doing my shopping on the weekend, I decided to go during the week.  It was lovely!  I still decided to go out early at 7 am ish.  There was practically no one there!  I felt like I had the whole store to myself.  

So that's the trick.  If you are able and you want to avoid all the people, go as early as you can during the week.  

I will say that I probably will go back to my online delivery orders soon.  I do pay for Walmart Plus, but I do like to see my options.  However, once it starts to get cold later in the year, I have less motivation to get out there.  

That's it for now.  I hope you all have a very blessed day!

~Brandi~

Howdy, Friends!

Hello, all my good friends!

I hope you all are doing well with many things to be grateful for!

I've been having a great summer.  While I have still been working some ot, I've cut back some for the summer months.  I didn't want to look back and wonder where all the time went.

I've done some fun things, including going on a 27 mile bike ride, family get togethers, and seeing Potter Fest in Volant, Pa.  Potter Fest was semi fun, semi volunteer for work.  My sister asked me if I could help her take a couple of our clients there, she wouldn't be able to by herself.  I of course said yes.  That was a fun day, but I did tell her that next year we are just going to go so that we can experience everything that they have.  If you are a Harry Potter fan, I definitely recommend going to check it out.  The town goes all out for this event.  

One of the things that I am looking forward to in the next month or so is biking the Ghost Town Trail with my brother.  This is somewhere around 30 ish miles long, from Ebensburg, PA to Blacklick, PA.  We are starting at the top and heading down.  This won't be a round trip, I don't think either one of us would be able to go back up the mountains at that point, hahahaha.  We might try to time it with the leaves changing, that will be a pretty sight in the fall.

And, of course, I'm also looking forward to seeing Taylor Swift at the beginning of November.  That will be a dream come true for me and my niece.

On a different note, I'm trying to be on social media less and less.  While I wouldn't not check it out (I like to see family and friends updates), I'm tried of the negativity on several platforms.  I like to fill my day with as many positive things as I can, and the negative energy I see is not helping that.  What I would like to do is share more of my own positive thoughts as much as I can and spread out good energy.  I'm hoping that you will join me.  And this is in both real life and social media.

One thing I am grateful for today, getting to go for a 2 mile jog this morning.  The air was still a tad bit on the chilly side, so I didn't get too hot and sweaty.  

I hope you all have a beautiful day!

Say Kind Words

Hello, my good friends!

I hope you have been blessed today and everyday!  I know I am.

I've been thinking a lot about something lately, and also putting it into practice.  We need to say more kind things to one another.  Just by saying "good morning" to someone could help lift their spirits.  

Often times we may just walk by one another without even acknowledging that person's presence.  No eye contact, no hello's, just walking right on by pretending they're not there.  That's crazy to me.  

Let's start by at least saying hi to someone.  And maybe even add a smile as we're saying it.  Even making someone feel seen can start lifting someone's spirits.

I do by best to say some kind words to people everyday.  I'll be walking in the hallways at work and I'll start talking to someone.  Saying "good morning, beautiful," or "I love that shirt," or "your soul is shining" can make someone's day.  I can literally see people light up when kind words are spoken.

Words have power.   Let's make them good and kind words.  They can make someone's day.  And I hope they choose to pass it on.

Have a blessed day!

~Brandi~

Writing Letters, My Current Zen

Hello, all my good friends.  I hope today is bringing you many things to be grateful for!

I have started a new zen practice in the past few weeks: writing letters to people.  I like to have a bedtime routine in the evenings.  I take my dogs out, and then I take some of my daily supplements with my sleepy time tea.  I'll go up to my bedroom and start reading a book.  I'll read for my about a half hour to 45 minutes and then it's lights out.  Generally speaking, I fall asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow.  It works. 

As you may know, I like to be in a zen state as much as I can.  I try my hardest to not lets things stress me out or bother me.  But I am human, and sometimes the day gets the best of me.  Sometimes I just need to not think about things and just let them go.  Get away from all the negative things that may be happening out there.  

Earlier in the year, I noticed that my sister was sending some postcards to some friends, and it got me thinking.  Who doesn't like getting a letter from someone in the mail?  I remember when I was little I would be excited to check the mail.  Not that I was expecting anything, it was just fun to do.  As I got older, checking the mail wasn't nearly as exciting.  It's not as fun checking the mailbox when we start getting bills and all kinds of junkmail.  No offense, Columbia Gas.  

I also want to give people reasons to smile.  That's one of my missions in life, to give people reasons to be happy.  So, I started writing letters to my loved ones.  I even went out and bought some cards to mail out.  

I have added writing these letters to my bedtime routine.  So now when I head upstairs, I write a letter to someone.  Maybe not every night (stamps are expensive lol).  But at least every other night.  I get to take a moment and slow down when I'm writing.  It's relaxing.

I hope that those of you that have gotten a letter from me have smiled when you saw it in your mailbox.  I hope that when you were reading it that it brought you joy.  

I am going to try and continue this zen habit.  I hope this motivates you to start a zen habit, maybe even writing letters to your loved ones.

If you would like me to add you to my address book so that maybe I can write to you, please message me on Facebook.  If we aren't already Facebook friends, please comment on here with your email so that we can share our addresses.  I'm not wanting to share my home address directly not this blog, for security reasons.

Have a blessed day, my friends!

Swifties Since 2008

My niece Haivyn and I have been Swifts since way back in 2008.  She was just knee high to a grasshopper (not even 10), and I was older.  Fine, I was 30.  

The backstory, I had taken her to a Pittsburgh Pirates game earlier that year, and she did not enjoy it.  It wasn't her thing.  It's ok, I forgive her.  A couple of months later, Taylor Swift was the opening act for Rascal Flats at Star Lake Amphitheater outside of Pittsburgh.

I talked to my sister Rachael (her mom) and I got us tickets to the concert.  However, we told Haivyn that we were going to a Pirates game instead.  Let's just say that she didn't want to go to the game, and she had no problems letting us know that.  Verbally and nonverbally.  My sister lived in Blairsville at the time, and she drove to my town in the early afternoon.  We would then be driving to the concert from there.  This whole time, Haivyn is not happy.  

Keep in mind that Rachael also made sure that Haivyn was wearing her Taylor Swift shirt.  For hours, Haivyn had been letting us know how she felt about going to the game.  Including in the car as she is fuming in the backseat.  Now she's not even 10, so she doesn't know that we aren't driving in to the city of Pittsburgh.  Star Lake is nothing like PNC Park.  

We get parked and get out of the car.  We get the tickets out and have her look at the tickets.  Yes, at that time they actually had paper tickets that they would mail to you.  She sees Taylor Swift written on the tickets.  And you can literally see her wanting to jump for joy.  However, with the mood she had been in for half the day, she can't just immediately show excitement.  

She doesn't know what to do with herself.  She wants to shout for joy, but her body is telling her that she needs to continue being in a bad mood.  The battle within herself only lasted a few moments.  Her inner Swiftie won the battle.  By the time that we were walking to the ticket gate, she was showing her Swiftie heart.

The show was great.  I have no idea what I did with the memory card of the show.  I'm hoping that I find it one day.  That was the first and only time I have been to Star Lake Amphitheater.  Neither one of us have been to another Taylor Swift concert since.  But I have good news.  We got tickets to her Eras Tour for next year!  It's going to be a long wait, but it'll be worth it in the end.

I ❤️ Reading

 Hello, my good friends!

I hope this Monday is bringing you joy.  While some might think of Monday's as a drag, I like to think of them as a fresh start to the new week.  Monday Funday!

I know I have written about it before and I am sure I'll write about it again.  I love reading.  I always have, it brings me joy.  I associate reading with love.  My mom would always read to us every night before bed, it was a part of our bedtime routine.  One of my favorite books when I was just a little one was Bread And Jam For Francis, a classic.

I can't really think of a long stretch of time where I didn't read.  I would almost always have a book with me during my school years.  Every day after school you could normally find me at the library browsing through the books.  Shout out to the Blairsville Public Library for always making me feel welcome!

Today, one of my favorite genres is what I like to call the Harry Potter Genre.  Light sci-fi/young adult/mystery/action.  It's a little bit of everything.  I still love my mystery and thrillers, but a lot of times I just want a book that I can fall right in to without worrying about remembering every exact detail of an intricate plot.  

And since I broke my hand and needed surgery 6 weeks ago, I have had a lot more free time on my hands. I have been reading at a little faster pace than I normally do.  I normally average a book every other week. However, I checked yesterday and I think I have finished 8 books in 6 weeks!  Go me!  All of the books have been on my kindle, since it holding a book and turning the pages is a challenge (especially when I had either a splint or cast).

I think I will leave the debate on kindles vs physical books for a blog some other time.

What books do you enjoy reading?

It's Sunday Zenday! 7-16-2023

Hello, my good friends!  I hope life is blessing you and you have many things to be grateful for!

I am grateful that I am slowly but surely covering from my hand surgery.  My accident happened almost 5 weeks ago, but I do think I am healing quite nicely, considering.  My cast is off and the pins are out, and I am so happy about that.  I have a removable splint now, which I need to treat like a cast.  But I can take it off to take a shower, wash my hands, and move my fingers around.  I still need to be careful, but at least I can use both my hands to type now.

I am also grateful that I was able to go to a family get together yesterday.  I got to see some people that I haven't seen for a bit and it was nice to catch up and spend some quality time with them.  Hopefully I'll see as many of them as possible at the next event, our annual holiday party right after Thanksgiving.

So I was going to check how things were going in my bucket garden.  I hadn't been out back for a few days, and I wanted to see how things were going, plus give them a nice drink of water since we haven't had too much rain this past week.  And guess what?!  I was pleasantly surprised to see some patio tomatoes ready to pick.  It's always exciting to pick the first veggie of the season!  I was able to pick about 5 of them.   Each one is roughly about the size of a couple of large cherry tomatoes put together, they aren't that big.  And that's ok.  They will still taste great!  I only wish that I had some toast and some vegan mayo to make a little sandwich for dinner.

I may possibly still end up with a couple of crookneck squash, I saw a couple of flower buds on them.  But I am not holding my breath for that.  I did see some peppers.  I don't think they are going to get that big, but they will still taste good in a little salad, yummy!

I am already thinking ahead to next year.  While I will still do bucket gardening, I do plan on have a couple of raised beds.  I think the squash and the cucumbers will turn out better in those.

I am beyond blessed to have all of you!  I appreciate you taking a moment out of your day and reading my little blog.  What do you have to be grateful for?

Be blessed and have a great week!

It's Zen Day 7/2/2023

 

I hope all of you are having a blessed day!

For those of you that have read my previous blog, I believe my hand is healing nicely.  The pins are annoying, but the pain is almost gone.  In fact, I didn't even need to take any ibuprofen for my hand yesterday.  I go back to the doctor this Thursday, hopefully these pins come out.  I might still need to wear the cast for another week or so, but I can deal with that.

My bucket garden is doing nicely. I'm not sure if I'm going to get any crookneck squash or cucumbers.  I did a little bit of research on them, and they like larger spaces.  It's not that they can't be planted in containers, but the roots like a lot more space to grow.  I'll need to remember that for next year.

The tomatoes and peppers are doing well. I'm seeing some flowers on my big bertha tomatoes and mini peppers growing.  And the patio tomato plants are doing very well.  Some of them already had tomatoes on them when I planted them a few weeks ago.  Hopefully it won't be too much longer until my first tomato and pepper salad of the season.

I have been trying to do do some thinking on my long term plan to have a zen yard.  The first big step is to get a fence.  I am hoping to have that done by the end of summer or fall.  That alone will make me feel much more at peace.  I have seen some amazing ideas on the World Wide Web for a zen outdoor space.  It'll take some time and dollars, but it'll be well worth it at the end. I essentially want lots local wild flowers/plants growing everywhere.  And of course a decent amount of space for a container garden area.

Well, I think that will just about wrap up this week's blog. I will let you know next if if they take out the pins in my hand. May this coming week bring you many blessings!

I Am Grateful And Blessed! Thank You!

Hello All!

I hope everyone had a great week this past week!  The weather was decent, not too hot or too cold.  The squirrels and birds are definitely picking up that I'm putting food out for them.  I don't know who enjoys seeing them more, me or my one dog Fleury.  And for the first time a few weeks ago, I had a squirrel take a shelled peanut out of my hand.  It was awesome.

I'm going to stray away this week from talking about my garden.  Not much new in that area.  I did get a tiny little dog zen statue.  I'll try to share a pic of that next week.

As a few of you may know, I recently broke my hand almost 2 weeks ago.  I'm not going to get into what actually happened.  That's a story for another day.  And my purpose for sharing this is to talk about how blessed I am.

I wasn't wanting to share this.  Please understand that I am not asking for anyone's sympathy.  The last thing I want is for you to feel sorry for me.  Do I need help with some things?, yes.  And I certainly appreciate any good vibes you would like to send my way.

I could look back on that night and dwell on the thousand different ways it wouldn't have happened.  But that isn't going to help.  I'm not one to sit around feeling sorry for myself.  What's done is done.  I choose to be grateful that it wasn't worse in a thousand different ways.  And it could have been way, way worse.  Easily.  For one, it could have been my right hand.  That alone would have been a struggle.  Or I could still be laying in a hospital bed right now.

I am going to heal. It will be a little bit of a process, but I'll be good as new before you know it.  Someone was looking out for me that night.  And for the I am truly blessed.

Some shout outs:

*my neighbor Carl.  I truly don't know what I would've done without him that night.  He came to help me, as soon as he figured out something was wrong.  It could've been a way different ending without him.

*my stepdad Charlie. When I called him that night and said I needed to go to the ER, he dropped everything he was doing to take me.  He also took me to the hand specialist the next day.

*My mom and Bekah.  They were on vacation at the ocean.  They packed everything up and came home way early to make sure I was ok.

*my mom for taking me to my surgery (and not taking any videos)

*Bekah, for helping my put on my watch (and lots of other things around the house)

*everyone at the ER.  Not everyone has a good experience with the care at the ER, but I truly feel that they did everything in their power that night.  They were caring and attentive, along with giving me great medical treatment.  And they tried everything the could to save my 5 year McGuire ring before cutting it off.   I guess its better to lose the ring than the finger.

*Dr. Alexis Pilato and her office team.  They got me in the office asap and scheduled me for surgery the next day.

*the surgery center.  everyone there was very friendly and helpful in that stressful time.  We even laughed together when my pregnancy test came back negative.

*my department director at work and friend Laurie Smith.  I am sure then when I texted her that night what happened, her heart probably dropped.  I honestly couldn't ask for a better boss.  She checked on me multiple times to make sure I was ok that week, and also got ahold of my mom to make sure the surgery went well.

*my coworker and friend, Amber.  At the last minute, she handled not only her share of the workload, but mine as well.  Kudos to her.

*the HR team at McGuire.  It brightened my day to get a get well card from them.

*our Senior Leaders at McGuire.  Along with Laurie Smith, they helped ensure that I was able to come back to work when I did.  I have some limitations, and I am blessed that I am in a position that I can come to work with those.

*Charla Crawford, for tying my shoes.

*my family, I appreciate the love and support.

*my friends, I am blessed that you have been reaching out to check on me

*and a huge shout out to everyone that has been sending me all the good vibes and prayers.  I know that those have been helping me heal as quickly as possible.  Please keep sending them.

With all of your support, I am on my way back to being 100%.  I may not be in my teens or twenties anymore, so I know that it isn't going to happen overnight.  But my goal is to finish at the top of my age bracket when it comes to healing time.

I am grateful in so many different ways.

Sunday Zen Day 6/18/2023

Good day, my lovely friends!

I hope you are finding peace and happiness today, wherever you may be.  I have been spending an extra few days at home, just relaxing and enjoying some zen time.

I know I left off last week with talking about trying to find some strawberry plants.  So, let's just get started.

I kind of felt like I didn't have good odds finding any strawberry plants, but I wanted to try anyways.  It was already going on mid June, and strawberries definitely should already be in the ground.  And just in case some of you don't know, you really need to wait until the second year to see any fruit.

I figured I would start at Walmart.  I knew that the last weekend they still had a handful of strawberry plants, so it was worth a shot.  I wanted to get started early, there was a car cruise in town that pretty much goes from the one end of town to the other, and wanted to get a head start.  the main section of town was already loaded with cars AT 6:30 IN THE MORNING!

Well, I got out there, and there were no strawberry plants.  I checked and double checked, but no luck.  My next try was Home Depot.  They usually have a large selection of plants to pick from.  I have gotten strawberry plants fro the before, and they did well.  I walked on the inner garden section and then the outside section.  They still had a lot of veggie seedling to pick from.  Lots of tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc.  But no strawberry plants.

I came home defeated.  Even though I didn't have high hopes to begin with, I still wanted to find a couple. I was going to my local fruit market that morning, getting 1 or 2 more tomato plants.  Sine they are only a few blocks away, I decided to walk.  Once I get there, I thought I would walk around.  Earlier in the week, I didn't see any strawberries going, but why not check again.  And then I saw what I thought were strawberry leaves and I got all excited.  I practically skipped over the few steps.  When I looked at the tag, it said 'pineberries."

What the heck are pineberries?  So I went to google real quick.  They are basically white strawberries that taste a little like pineapple.  Sounds good to me!  I grabbed 3 of them.  And I also got their last patio tomato plant.  

Once I got back home and got them planted, I did a little more research on them. Along with some other interesting facts, it is highly recommended to have at least 1 regular strawberry plant for every 3-4 pineberry plants for pollination.  I had already started 1 runner from my old plants, so I wanted to get a couple more just in case.

This blog is getting kind of long, so I'll wrap it up.  I dug up 7 or 8 of runners from my old plants.  This was challenging, considering on how dry and somewhat rocky the ground was.  I planted all of them, knowing that probably at least half weren't going to make it.  And I was right.  Probably at least 3 or 4 might not make it.  Let's hope for the best.

There's really no other news from my garden this past wee.  Thankfully it has rained a few times, so I haven't needed to go out and water as much.

If you would like to donate towards my Zen garden, look me up on PayPal at paypal.me/plantbasedbrandi

One of my pineberry plants:

One of my strawberry runners I started a few weeks ago:

A couple of my sister's flowers: