Ok, I give up and I am moving!

 I spent way too much time on trying to figure out the issues with blogger and my photos yesterday. I finally gave up.

I will be moving to a new blogger platform on WordPress.

https://walkerlady.wordpress.com/

My 2026 goal for the year is to post once a week, hopefully on Sundays. I hope to see you over on the new blog soon!

Thanks for all the fish....

Walker Lady and Abby

I'm not Crabby, but because I know Crabby, I am trying to post again!

Hello to all my faithful readers!!! There is least one or two of you still out there, right? I hope so! Because Crabby McSlacker is posting again, I have been motivated to try to do the same.

I really want to start blogging again. This journey of life is heading into my twilight years and I feel like there are a lot of O.  L.  D. ladies like me out there, that are looking for answers on how to navigate these challenging times. Spoiler alert, I do not have those answers for you!

First off, I am still having issues with posting pictures on my blog. I've tried and tried and researched reasons as to why, but still have not had much luck with getting them to appear. Here's where my friend, Crabby, comes in. She doesn't post a ton of photos either. Will people still READ a blog with no, or few pictures? I find that hard to believe. I belong to a quilt guild that sends out a newsletter each month. I swear, only a small percentage of people read the newsletter. Instead, they ask other members, their questions that the answers to, are in the newsletter. So I will keep trying to add photos, but there might not be as many as I used to put up.

Enough on my blogging woes....

I should update you on my life, you voyeuristic people you! I made a few changes about two years ago and suddenly, the weight startied to drop! It was so drastic that the doctor had to run a bunch of tests to be sure I didn't have some hidden issue, such as cancer! I've been scanned, blood tested, and my body has been invaded by all manner of test equipment. They found nothing. I now weigh about what I did in MIDDLE SCHOOL!!! (153lbs) I am loving this new body that has eluded me for nigh on SIXTY years.

All my children have moved out and are currently self sufficient. That has helped our budgeting a lot! hahaha Who knew how much we were paying for these kids when they lived with us, as adults? They all contributed to the budget as much as they could, but we still were spending a lot more than we realized, on extra food and utilities. It's been quite the challenge to only make meals for just my husband and myself. 

My husband will be able to retire in two years and a lot of our current life is centered around what that means for life changes? Will we continue to live where we are? What major expenditures will be try to accomplish before having our monthly income cut in half? Will we be able to live on that lower income?  What will we do with all this extra time we will have? There are all kinds of financial challenges ahead. Mix in how to set up our estate or do our wills or having the DNR's in place, and it's a tad overwhelming.

It's been a tough year, due to politics. That adds a huge layer of concerns to our lives. We can't count on anything and are very apprehensive about the future of our country. I am so ashamed of what our government has done to our nation. It is so wrong. It hurts my heart. 

I have a lot more to say, but for now, I just want to get this post out there and see if I can do a blog post a week in 2026. I plan to allow myself the freedom of talking about old age crap, political crap, healthy living stuff and weight loss crap. My blog could be all over the place in different topics next year. I hope you all bear with me. 

I also hope you all had a happy holiday and are looking forward to a better new year! See you next week!

Hugs from WalkerLady and Abby

Is it time to give up?

 I am thinking of stopping my blogs. I have lost a lot of weight and my life is crazy, as per normal. lol For some reason, I can no longer post photos on either of my blogs. Maybe I will go to another service in the future. For now, I am just going to keep on, not posting. Rest assured, I am doing fine though! 

What a difference a year makes!

 I was wasting time on the computer this morning and looked to see if I had anything to write about on my blog. Imagine my surprise when I noticed it's been almost a year since I last wrote anything!!!

This post was started in April 2024. I loaded the photos and then never finished the post. You have now been warned that this could be a very long post with lots of OLD photos. Then again, I might delete several and add some brand new ones. I guess you'll just have to read on and see where I'm going. I certainly don't know that answer myself. 

Abby is still my constant companion. When I left off blogging last year, she was hitting another down period. (she's doing better now)

A few nice things happened last year. My aloe plant bloomed. A pair of wrens made a nest on our porch and we were able to watch the eggs, then the babies, and then poof, the family flew off. It was such a treat though, to watch them up close.

The Mister played at open mic night a few times.

And then it was camping season. I dreaded camping last year, at first. Then I realized how calming it had become for me. We're actually going out for the first trip this spring, in a few days. I am very much looking forward to getting out again.

One of the places we went to last year has a power plant across a small lake. We captured a few shots of it, after dark. It makes industrial look artistic, doesn't it?

 

Viewing the lake from inside the camper...sweet!

These geese provided some entertainment:

 

Peek-a-boo!

What a beautiful view:

I think I'm going to stick with just catching up on this old post. I'll try to post again, sooner. There's a lot going on in our lives right now. I've also lost a lot more weight. Yes, I'll share photos, next time.

Thank you for visiting today!

Bye for now!

After the frenzy

Abby is still around and about. 

I know she's been pretty quiet though. 

She kinda over celebrated the new year's arrival.

A southern tradition on the first day of the new year, is smoked ham hocks, beans, and rice.

(Often referred to as Hoppin' John)

As a northern born woman, I'd never heard of it before.

My southern born husband says I've gotten very good at making this dish.

I have an Instant Pot recipe that I use. It actually makes

this dish easier to prepare and it tastes yummy!

After eating all the goodies, it's time for a nap.

We were still dealing with leaf gathering in January!

Trouble is, we also have a lot of wind that doesn't actually help much.

I got a fancy new dog bed. It holds three dogs at once!

I'm still walking at least once and, more often, twice a day. I lost 30-35 pounds last year.

I am not sure if more will come off. If not, I am ok with that. for now I am fitting into

clothes better and feeling more fit. That's good enough for me, for now.

Till next time, walk on!

Leafing around

It's fall and the leaves are dropping. I actually blew all these leaves off our yard and into a pile along the road. Our city ha a service that will vacuum them up in a few days.

Roxy wants me to share.

Don't be alarmed. This was just a flair up when cooking on the grill outside. Nothing was harmed, including the burgers. hahaha

As we move through the holidays we have had power outages. Here I am, using a battery neck light to work on crocheting during such an outage. 

Then it was time to decorate for the holiday. Last year I dropped and broke this snowman that I got from my folks' estate, many years ago. My husband put him all back together and gave him a fresh coat of paint. I added new buttons and hat decor. It meant a lot to me to have him fixed up again. He holds a lot of sentimental value to me.

The bird feeders have been hung out and the cardinals are frequent visitors. I always remember Mom at these times because she loved loved loved when cardinals visited her feeders back in Minnesota.

I am not eating as healthy as I should but it tis the time of indulgences. I made all this for Christmas feasting. Most of it is gone now as the new year approaches.

We had snow just before Christmas and afterwards, bitter cold. Many people had pipes burst and one of the universities had a pipe not only break but it flooded their gymnasium and totally ruined their wooden floor.

We did not have trouble. We did have a slow drip drip leaking from a faucet. It will need to be fixed when the weather is better. It's made an impressive ice display for now though!

Mom made Christmas so special for us. She also taught me to knit. I miss her a LOT during this time of year. I have attempted to relearn knitting, several times. This year, I am making progress. Thanks Mom!

It's always an up and down time for me this time of year. All the holidays, all the birthdays, all the memories ebb and flow around me. Abby offered to help me through it all but so far I haven't taken her up on her offer. Perhaps after today, with the promises of the new year ahead, she'll come back for a visit.

I hope all of you are surviving and thriving.

I know I am trying to, too.

 

And the holidays begin

This time of year is quite busy for us. Four out of six of the family have birthdays between October and December. Then there's Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas mixed in. 

Let's get started! First off, it was my birthday. I love cheesecake better than cake cake.

I was gifted this coffee cup by my son. I like Jack Skellington.

We went camping. It rained a lot but we didn't care.  It was so peaceful and pretty with all the fall colors. In between showers we did a little hiking on easy trails. The three of us also played a bunch of cribbage games. 

The next weekend The Mister and #3 Son drove to St. Louis, MO for a YES concert. It's a six hour drive. After the concert they drove home and got here in the wee hours of the morning. They rested up on Saturday and on Sunday The Mister and I went to a Renaissance Faire while #3 Son babysat the dogs. We haven't been to a faire for years. The weather was perfect and we had a great time playing music and seeing a few old friends.

We did our last weekend of camping a week later. This time it didn't rain, but it snowed!

We live in the south. This was an unusual event!

We stayed warm and toasty as needed and even enjoyed a fire to cook hotdogs on and keep warm.

When we got home I had a TON of laundry to do. Unfortunately I couldn't do it because the drain pipe backed up! We had a plumber come out and work on trying to unclog it but he gave us the bad news that he thought our old cast iron pipes had rusted almost shut and we'd need a complete replacement of piping. The next day a second team came out and took a look and decided to tackle the clog again and they busted through!!! We still have to replace that section of pipe but we have a few years to do so.

Halloween was next on the list of events. We had simple decorations, about 30 trick-or-treaters, and went for a walk around 8pm to see all the neighborhood decorations.

This was one of our ghosts in the window:

One of the pumpkin decorations seemed to glow in the blue lights:

Here's a blast from the past. This is my sisters and me, back in the early 1960's. I must have been really impressed with that tiger costume my baby sister is wearing. Mom used it for several years because I remember it well! Isn't that clown mask I am wearing the creepiest thing?!!!

I found this little guy on one of my walks and he's now keeping one of my sewing machines company:

It's leaf raking time. We have a city service that collects these for free. I only did part of our front yard, but at least I did some of them!

 Abby's been doing ok. She says hi.

Sorry I did such a long post this time. I hope you enjoyed it in spite of that.

Till next time, happy trails!