Tag: family values

Daily Food Diary – Day 215 of 365

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness

It is Day 215 of my Daily Food Diary and it’s another late day – 2nd in a row.

Yesterday morning we headed to Gravelbourg to put new flowers on my parents and grandparents graves and to freshen up my uncle’s gravestone.

Dan cleaned up the headstone and painted the base yesterday.
I went to paint the letters and the rosary trim this morning.

The original plan was to work together, but one of us had to stay focused on Molly.

We tried having her loose, thinking she would stay close to us.  She didn’t.  We didn’t have the place to tie her down on a comfortably long leash.  Shade was hard to come by…. unlike crickets!   The entire graveyard was covered in little crickets! 

Fortunately, the crickets backed off while I was painting this morning.  I had a bit of an opportunity to empathize with my Dad as he originally carved the headstone. “In the memory of Herman…” must have been heartbreaking so soon after losing his little (younger) brother.    A year later, he would be carving his Mother’s name and date of death on the right side of Herman’s monument.  Thirteen years later, he would add his Father’s to the right.

When my parents bought their own headstone,  they bought one to match for Grandma and Grandpa Martel and placed one on either side of Herman’s. 

Last night I had a nice  visit with my Aunt Lil.   She is doing amazing.  At 91, she is still in her beautiful home, she reads and does puzzles, she has a small garden, she drives to do her own errands, and she BAKES – including her own bread – totally by hand.

I don’t have to look far to find women to admire and inspire in my family.

We drove home earlier today.   Tomorrow, I will be back to posting at my regular mid morning time.

Daily Food Diary – Day 215

Breakfast:

(1) c coffee (2)

(1) c Cheerios (147)

(1/4) c 2 % milk (28)

Lunch:

(3/4) Lg taco salad (green, yellow, red, white)  w/ fried bowl (645)

Snacks:

(1) Smirnoff Ice (114)

(1) Bottle Pepsi (200)

(30) g Caramel Corn (140)

(1/4) c mixed nuts (180)

(24) oz water

Supper:

(1/4) Lg taco salad (green, yellow, red, white)  w/ fried bowl (645)

Total net calories: 1567

Net calorie goal: 1222 – 1567 = 345

That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day! 🙂🌹

Daily Food Diary – Day 148 of 365

by annemariedemyen, posted in 2025, Health and Fitness

It is 148 Days since I began posting my Daily Food Diary.  148 Days without ONE MISS! 🔥🎉🔥

It has been 5 Years since I retired.  At the time, I was in poor health.  I had no idea what I would, or could,  do with my retirement.  AND… I went through an identity crisis of sorts. 

I was no longer the work that I did.  My parents were gone, so I wasn’t engaged as a daughter (as I had been).  I wasn’t actively parenting, or even grandparenting (due to COVID and family dynamics at the time).  With Dan working 13 hour shifts, I was on my own A LOT.  And I spent much of the time trying to figure out who, or what,  I was. 

Throughout my  life, I have come to know a handful of rare and wonderful people who stood out.  They were people who were always so consistent and solid that I KNEW they NEVER doubted who they were – anytime or anywhere.  But I couldn’t put my finger on why – or what they did differently.  I just knew that I wanted to be one of them. 🤔

Recently, I finally figured it out.  These people who always stood out to me embodied the core values that I had been raised to value.  

I was very fortunate growing up because my parents did stress core values that would help me to appreciate and enjoy the good times in my life.  They also stressed the core values that would help me to get through the challenges and the difficult time.

I always knew these core values were important, and I valued them, but somehow I thought they were rules about how to treat others.  If I treated people a certain way, it would keep me out of trouble, it would make them like me, it would make people validate my self worth.  I always wondered if I was being sincere, or if others believed I was sincere, because I was using these values as  bartering tools.

Five years into my retirement  I finally get it.  Core values are not something we have or something we use…. Our core values are who we are.  🤦

*** I need to make a retraction or a clarification to an earlier post where I was talking about my drinking (or non drinking) history.   At one point I said I started drinking more (at least more regularly) once  my husband Dan came into my life.  I did not mean to imply that  Dan  drove me to drink…  We were just at a place where we had the freedom, means, and motivation to socialize more than was ever typical for me – with each other and with his hockey team.. etc. 

Dan, holding baby Cason.  Very much the man I married. 💞

Daily Food Diary – Day 148

Breakfast:

(1) coffee (2)

(1) tsp olive oil (40) (.7 grams)

(2) eggs (160) (3 grams)

(4) slices shaved ham (54) (.5 grams)

(4) mushrooms (11)

(2) green onions (16)

(3) asparagus spears (15)

Snacks:

(60) oz water

(1) mango (135) (.1 gram)

Supper:

(1) potato (163)

(2) tsp butter (69) (4.7 grams)

(7) jumbo shrimp (140)  (1.2 grams)

(1) tsp olive oil (40) (.7 grams)

(15) asparagus spears (49)

(4) mushrooms (40)

(2) green onions (16)

(5) oz beef strip sirloin (225) (3.8 grams)

(1) Lemon oatmeal cookie (68) (.6 grams)

Total net calories: 1089

Net calorie goal: 1243 – 1089 = 154  under 👍

Total saturated fats: 15.4 grams

Saturated fats goal: 13.75👎

That’s it for today. Take care and have a good day! ☺️💕