A little less love

I got my first lesson in growing coconut palms in my yard today.  You gotta give them a little less love and attention and some really really bad soil.  That goes against everything I've ever been taught about growing plants.  

You see, we planted two young coconut palms in our front yard about six months ago.  We gave them lost of rich top soil, special palm fertilizer, lots of water and mulch. Well, sadly to report, our TLC efforts were futile.  Our palms turned from green, to lime green, to yellow, to orange, and brown.  

Then, to my surprise, during this morning's walk with Max and Pepper (our twin hounds), I found a beautiful young coconut palm growing wild in our backyard in the midst of palmettos and forest - completely ignored and growing beautifully!  

So, I'm embarking on a coconut growing test for the next three months.  I will completely ignore the two troubled plants and give the one growing wild lots of TLC.  Can the stakes be reversed???? I'll let you know.

By the way... pounds lost since I last posted about my diet.....  none!!! zippo! :-(

Not giving up - yet

Ohhh, I'm so bad with this blogging thing. I'm a true disgrace to the world of bloggers (A.K.A - blogosphere? I think ) out there. Thoughts just don't seem to come to my mind anymore - maybe I'm just brain dead or just plain dead tired.

Anway, here's my update on dieting - I'm still on day 3. What happened is Corey ended up really ill and in the hospital for a few days, which turned into really bad anxiety eating binge for me. So, I'm picking up where I left off.... (sigh.. long sigh...)

Tyler is working on his 4th grade Florida book and teaching me so much about this quite fascinating state we live in. There is sooo much history! I particularly love the history and architecture about the Spanish Colonial period - it reminds me so much of home!

OK - so I'm pretty homesick tonight. It happens when I'm tired. My mind checks out and wanders back to the smells of fresh pine and roasting coffee, and sounds of swaying breeze through the pine forests of the mountains in El Hatillo (Honduras). Oh yes - I'm homesick.

Any cures for missing being a big baby and missing Mom and Dad?

I'm dieting - again

OK - so I've really been feeling heavy - belly heavy, heart heavy (I'm starting to have nightmares of what I would do if I had to deal with chest pain ), and head heavy (yes - my face as a whole (and my head) all of a sudden seem to be just too big).  So I decided this morning, as I painfully remind myself that nothing in my closet really fits me anymore, that I'd better get back on the diet thing - again.

My goal is to lose 5 pounds every 2 weeks - that should bring me down for sure 20 pounds by the time we have our next family reunion at the end of May.   

The clock is officially ticking, and come tomorrow night, I will be keeping a tracking log of daily food intake.  I'll keep you posted. 

Sleepless Ramblings on Florida Water

It's 1:30 am, and I'm having one of those sleepless nights when it feels like I can even hear the breathing sound of the tree frog stuck on the window outside.  Ok - that's slightly exaggerated, but you get the point.  So I figured this is a good time to slap a few blog thoughts together to keep my new blog going.

Here's what's on my mind tonight:  the water in Florida - it stinks. (literally) - it smells like rotten eggs, and I think it makes the air have an eggy smell as well.  If you live here, you know what I mean.  If you don't, next time you visit try leaving your windows open (if the weather permits) and you'll smell it for yourself.  I'm on a rampage against the stink. The first step we took was installing the mother of all whole house water filtration systems - glad to report the water stink is gone and we now claim having great water (I've course we'll be paying on it for the next decade).  Now, I'm on a quest to figure out a way to bring the fresh air in and keep the stench out, and I'm looking for ideas - I'm ready to try anything.  

Here are a few experiments I've been told to like to try - they all relate to landscaping:  

1. landscaping with carbon pellets on the ground below the windows (not sure if this is a fire hazard yet - I need to do a little research)

2. someone mentioned planting small citrus bushes around the windows as well - (not sure how the root systems can affect my house foundation - more research to be done on that as well)

3. landscaping with baking soda - (whomever gave me that idea forgot that baking soda blows away)

4. landscaping with rock salt - (I'm not sure exactly what this does - but it is one of the ingredients we put into our water filtration tank)

OK - so you see I'm open to suggestions.  Shoot away....  

The trimming of my electric bill

You don't realize the magnitude of your family's "energy hogness" (yes - that is a Jami'ism) until you attempt to make changes in the way you use electricity.  We began our energy trimming journey about two years ago, just a few months after moving into our new house.  Ok - here's where I do full disclosure:  I had two reasons for embarking in this journey: 1. Part of my job working for an electric company is marketing the energy conservation programs offered - so I needed to become a believer myself first.  2.  I got the shock of my first high bill from our supposedly energy-efficient built new home.

ANYWHO....  I'm glad to report that I've become a full believer in practicing energy efficiency and that shocking electric bills in our household are a thing of the past.  (our bill avg is $110 - this is a great bill for a 2,000 sq ft of ac in South Florida)

The major things we've done:

1.  Switched all our light bulbs (about 40) to CFL's ("twisties" - that's what my kids call them)- each CFL can save you over $30 and they use about 75% less energy than the normal kind

2. Our programmable thermostat is set to 77 (78 is recommended -but for our family it's a little too warm) when we're home and 80 when we're away.  And we replace our AC filter every month

3. We just got a new energy-efficient front load washer and dryer and the majority of the time I wash in cold water.  

How do you keep your energy usage under control?  Please do share - everyone can benefit from a little savings...