WEDNESDAY WITNESS

WAKING FROM AN AFTERNOON NAP there's time to live the rest of the day out. Stretching and yawning, I'm still a tad bit tired.  I didn't sleep the best and was up early this morning to get ready for Hubby's medical appointment.  Made the drive.  He is penciled in for surgery this month to remove a lymph node in the neck.  

Beforehand, I went to Starbucks for morning tea and stopped by MARSHALLs to look.  Left with a new wallet and handbag.  I was trying to remember when my kids gave me my red wallet.  I think I have had it twenty years.  It is wearing out.  Time for a new one.  It was a nice feeling to pop in and buy a handbag leaving the store with a purchase that I do not have to fret about spending money for a simple item.  For so many years, I would fret because there was no money even for a small wallet.  Times have changed.  Thanks be to God.

After Hubby's appointment, I wanted to go to HOBBY LOBBY to purchase some plastic baggies with a zip top to hold some of my loose jewelry.  It's been a while since I shopped there.  Fun to walk the aisles of the store.  I'll go back when I have more time to just saunter.

Already putting Autumn and Christmas decorations out.  Say what?  Christmas in July for sure.

They had what I needed so later today, I will begin bagging up loose pieces of jewelry to make some order out of my stash.  Their jewelry department has the neatest things to help with jewelry making and storing.  I think I would like to begin making some pieces.  Hummm.  This might be the beginning of a small business.  I walked by their doll houses which I have eye balled for years. I believe I will give it a whirl.  Something on my Bucket List.  

Drove over to Aldi for milk and creamer.  Needed to go by Dollar General for some supplies, but was too tired.  Decided that CHICK-FIL-A would be my CHEF today since I was tired.  

Ordered two Cobb Salads.  Their sight says they are 850 calories.  I think not.  MyFitnessPal says they are more like 500.  At any cost that's seriously too many calories for someone who wants to eat three square meals a day staying under 1200 calories for a day's count.  I'll have to eat less for supper to fit in because yesterday I was over the top too high on calories.  Back to smaller meals or the weight won't come off.

Drove HOME a back way and found it to be so very peaceful.  So many trees and vines decorating the sides of the road.  Light rain and quiet made for harmonious driving.  Ate lunch at HOME and then tiredness came on.  Time for some shut eye.  The door bell rang just in time to wake me.

The month has come to an end and JULY appears tonight at midnight.  Just like that the month is gone.  Quickly it has vanished.  It seems like it's the first of a month and then next it's the end of the month.  RED, WHITE and BLUE flags and pinwheels, parades, fire crackers, banners and Patriotic memorabilia abounds.  Ready, set, go... and HOME MADE ICE CREAM for sure to celebrate. 

HaPPy 4th of July u' all.  Our Dependence remembered.

Celebrate our country's freedoms. 

In the evenings I started re-watching the PBS series MERCY STREET.  Terribly graphic.  I like the time era they are portraying, the interior of the Green mansion, the costuming, the story line. Binge watching makes for a quick take on a series.  I was disappointed that this series was not renewed back in 2017.  Shucks.  The Green Mansion in the story is beautifully decorated.  The dresses are beautiful.  Nursing me back to health.

Yesterday, I made a quick trip to GOD's STOREHOUSE for Senior Discount day.  I bought two small serving bowls that match my BLUE GARLAND pattern dishes, artificial lemons and limes for wreath making, some discounted greeting cards, and a Happy Birthday Banner to hang on the fireplace for my 66th Birthday this month.  My trip was short, but sweet as they were extremely busy full of shoppers.  I took ill and had to go sit in our car while hubby checked out. After resting, I felt better and was able to drive the car home on my own.

Praise the Lord, I have witnessed another Wednesday,

👵 d

MARY ANN TODD LINCOLN's DRESS

MARY LINCOLN was interested in FASHION and jewelry.  As First Lady of the United States, some thought her to be a dumpy dresser and have a rather crass Kentuckian accent, but she spoke fluent French.  Depending on who you visited with about Mary would determine the outlook that was given toward the President's wife.  

At an early age Mary was sent to Madame Mentelle's finishing school, where the curriculum concentrated on French and literature.  She learned to speak French fluently and studied dance, drama, music, and social graces.  By age 20, she was regarded as witty and gregarious with a grasp of politics.

As First Lady of the United States, she hired Mrs. Elizabeth Keckley, a freed slave, to make fashionable dresses for her.  While touring the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, this display of Mary's dress could not be ignored.  A life size form of Mary models the dress as Mrs. Keckley works on the backside of Mary.     

Seeing pictures of this dress before, I wanted to see it first hand as a tourist.  Snap my own pictures.  I was impressed by this state of the art Museum and all it has to offer.  Outstanding exhibit.

She was known to spend way too much while at the White House as First Lady.  Depending on who you talked to.  Information about how Mary Todd Lincoln met Elizabeth Keckley are written about in Elizabeth's book.  Elizabeth shares how Mrs. Lincoln describes her personal financial situation and that she will use Elizabeth as her seamstress if she is cheap.  Mrs. Lincoln did indeed use Mrs. Keckley for quite a few dresses during her reign as First Lady.

Elizabeth learned her sewing skills from her own Mother as a child.  Elizabeth was a talented and skilled seamstress who became Mrs. Lincoln's personal modiste and confidante.

After Elizabeth's book 

Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House

was published, this seemed to end the close relationship the two of them had.  

Mrs. Lincoln's Social Rivals dresses are on display behind her.  Beautiful articles of High Society garments worn when Mrs. Lincoln was First Lady can be viewed as well. 

Mrs. George (Mary Ellen) McClellan

The wife of General McClellan, "Nellie" was one of the more sought guests in Washington social circles.  She shared her husband's unflattering opinion that "Mrs. Lincoln doesn't shine particularly as a hostess."  Mrs. McClellan felt that her husband had support among "the better class of people" and was outraged by the Lincoln administration's treatment of him.  She wrote to her husband, "I almost wish you would march up to Washington and frighten those people a little."

Miss Harriet Lane

President Buchanan's niece and hostess of the pre-Lincoln White House, Miss Lane was the first woman in the White House to be called "First Lady."  She was popular and tasteful and set the fashion standards of the day.  Anticipating the arrival of the Lincolns in Washington, D.C., she wrote to a friend, "They say Mrs. L. is awfully western, loud and unrefined."

  

Miss Kate Chase

Mrs. Stephen (Adele) Douglas

Thank you for stopping by.

Impressed by the dresses,

d👵

EATING THE COLOR WHEEL on the Rainbow Diet.

THIS IS IT!  This Spring and Summer I am being brave and eating a certain way in hopes of achieving weight loss off this 'ole body of mine.  I have a little over a month before I go back to have labs done and it is my earnest desire to weigh much less than I did at my April Physical where I was told, "You are now diabetic."  

On my information in my health portal I read MORBIDLY (severely) OBESE.  Through the years I have been recorded as OBESE.  Then Morbidly Obese and now that word in parentheses SEVERELY enters the charts.  WHAAAAAAAAT?

MORBIDLY (SEVERELY) OBESE.  How did this ever happen?  One pound at a time where I couldn't stop the weight from coming on board.  

I'd find out YEARS later after having  the thyroid removed that it is common to gain 10 to 15 pounds quickly.  Which I did.  I think it would have been appropriate for my doctors to educate me on this when I told them I was gaining weight.  My Endo Doctor looked at me like I had two heads.  

My Family Physician more or less said to eat less and exercise.  No mention that a lack of healthy hormones can do this to a soul.  No mention that T4 only treatment does not include all the other hormones a healthy thyroid puts out.  Lil 'ole me had to read it all by myself and use logic to come up with you mean the thyroid puts out other hormones that the medicine I am taking doesn't have?  What gives with that?  Politics.  You are allowed just enough hormones to be alive and the condition you live in lacks.  

Then I learn after years of this gaining weight that some of the meds I was taking and take can add weight.  Along with being menopausal weight gain is common.  Put it all together and I had the PERFECT STORM for being heavy and getting heavier.  Not to mention that some of the meds I was taking can cause weight gain AND cause blood glucose to climb.  Putting two and two together I gained weight and it kept climbing.  

I guess I was suppose to know these medicines can cause weight gain and higher glucose levels.  Passing the buck, the print out that you receive when purchasing a drug states side effects and I should have known, but when the glucose continued to climb, I would think my doctor would have responded to this by mentioning that glucose can climb from meds and by the way, three of the meds you are on cause weight gain and glucose to climb.  Humf.  

Being insulin resistant and leptin resistant may have contributed to weight gain as well.

With my doctors, there has been no mention of nutrition anywhere with my weight gain problems.  No mention.  Nadda.  Nothing.    

I had thought before that eating foods where the animals have been given growth hormones to beef them up might cause a person that's consuming foods made from these animals to put on weight themselves.  I still think this is possible.  Also GMO foods could cause the people that are eating the products to get ill.  I still think this.  

Startled September 2020 at my heavy weight that had climbed some more at my Endocrinologist appointment, my eyes bugged and my emotional health whimpered out loud, "Oh heavens, that cannot be right."  But it was and I was shaken up, hurt by the reality of my heavy weight that has continued to climb upwards on the scales since I had my cancerous thyroid removed in 2010.  I have had night sweats thinking about if I continue to gain weight, I will hit the 300 pound mark on the scales.  I cannot have that happen.  I will not let that happen.  

I have studied up on diets and have to lose weight.  I watched what I ate especially over the holidays.  I had already given up coffee with creamer in August.  I did not make my holiday candies.  I ate less and less.  Then in January 2021, I decided to give up sugary sodas also diet sodas.    

When I weighed in at the 2021 physical and had only lost 7 pounds since September I knew I had to do something drastic.  With the diabetic diagnosis something finally clicked in me and I told the doctor that I'd like to try and lose some weight before August 2021 when labs are done.  As of this date I am 32 pounds lighter than I weighed in September 2020.  Low carbs is the magic bullet for me.

My journey:

1) Spring water is a H2O decision.  Made the switch to not drink fluorinated water if I can help it and to use fluoride free toothpaste.  Gave up coffee with creamer and drinking more spring water and teas.  Later sugary sodas went bye bye even diet drinks.  Artificial sweeteners can cause an increase in appetite and actual weight gain.  Not good for the liver period.    

2) Use a more natural deodorant.  Aluminum isn't healthy for so many reasons.    

3) Cutting out HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP helped make me aware that I do not need this in my diet.  

4) Drinking Hormone-free milk.  Worth the expense.  

5) Grass-fed beef and free-range eggs were next.  Grain fed animals are being fed GMO food.    

6) No GMO foods when possible.  

7) Checking the ingredients on processed foods and staying away as much as possible from added ingredients and chemicals to food.   

8) Steering clear of pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, antibiotics in foods along with artificial sweeteners.  

9) Watching the sodium contents and sugar contents.  

10) Adding nutrients to intake such as vitamins and minerals.  Some enzymes and amino acids.  

11) Eating slower and chewing longer before swallowing food.

I did 21 days of the Daniel Diet which I started in May.  When I finished it I took a week for vacation and did not go hog wild, and allowed a few desserts during this week.  The Daniel Diet is made up of vegetables, fruits, beans and some nuts.  I was very happy to complete this course before vacation.  

I had that meat ball and spaghetti meal that I had wished for, but went easy on the spaghetti noodles.  Proud of myself for eating a small portion and calling it good.  I was satisfied and knew it.  

I survived the Daniel Diet.  Onto a week of limited foods.  I am on my way to completing the week where each day of the week has a focused color for the day.  For instance, Green Day is about green foods.  Only green foods.  No meat or dairy, nuts, etc.  I suppose I could have had pistachios nuts.  They're green!  Next time maybe.

With eating this way, I feel full and know not to get off track and splurge.  If I do this again I will follow the color wheel starting with RED, moving onto ORANGE foods, then YELLOW.  Next. would be GREEN, BLUE and PURPLE.  The seventh day will be called the RAINBOW FOODS DAY.  Eat left overs from the previous 6 days and begin eating regular foods again with some meats, nuts, dairy, some grains.  Easy on the grains period and easy on the starchy vegetables.  Include olive oils and avocado oils.  

I try to weigh myself in my birthday suit on Monday mornings.  Here's to a lighter self.  A healthier me.

If God is for me, who can be against me?  Myself.  I have to eat healthy and relax.  What I stuff in my mouth matters.

👵d

     

WALKING THE LINCOLN NEIGHBORHOOD

The Lincoln Home in Springfield, Illinois was the only house that Abraham Lincoln owned.  Purchased price from Rev. Charles Dresser was $1500.oo consisting of $1200.oo cash, plus a downtown lot and a building worth $500.oo.  

The original, Greek-revival-style cottage was built in 1839 for the Reverend Charles Dresser, an Episcopalian minister who three years later would officiate at the Lincolns' wedding ceremony in the Edwards home. Lincoln signed a contract in January 1844 to buy the cottage from Dresser and received the deed on May 3. A bedroom and pantry were added to the back in 1846 and more remodeling was done in 1849.

Lincoln's legal practice grew dramatically when he lived in the cottage and he also achieved political success, winning a seat in Congress in 1846 and nine years later narrowly losing a bid to become a member of the U.S. Senate. As his economic and political status increased, Mary Lincoln believed that the family should have a home more impressive than the cottage.

According to the Lincoln Association's fundraising brochure, John E. Roll, who had helped remodel the cottage in 1849, reported that "Mrs. Lincoln decided their means justified a more pretentious house."

According to the brochure, "Lincoln opposed any such expansion, and allegedly conspired with local carpenters to have an inflated estimate of the cost prepared so that he could reasonably claim that it was too expensive. Despite his reluctance to add a second story, Mrs. Lincoln took matters into her own hands, hired carpenters, and evidently paid for the expansion with funds she had received from her prosperous father. The result was what her nephew termed 'one of the more pretentious residences of Springfield.'"

In 1856 the second story was added to the home and the number of rooms doubled to 12, giving the Lincoln Home its current appearance.

Lincoln lived in the cottage that later became a two story house for 17 years with his wife and children before going to Washington D.C. 

In order to finance the building of the upstairs on the cottage, Mary sold 80 acres that had been deeded to her from her father.

WALKING THE NEIGHBORHOOD GROUNDS was truly enjoyable to me as I stepped back in time.  I could easily have stayed for hours.  The original houses made this corner of the world epic.  We had a couple of meals across the street at THE SPRINGFIELD CARRIAGE COMPANY Restaurant.  It was very relaxing to sit and look across the street at the Historic neighborhood. 

Back to the Park.

No automobiles are allowed in this couple of blocks in the HISTORIC PARK.  It's about walking the wooden sidewalks and gravel roads.  Because some of the houses were removed from their original lots, there are some lots that make a larger lot appealing.

From previous pictures of Lincoln's house when he lived there, the neighbors house was once close by theirs.  With the neighbor's house now gone, it makes the Lincoln's property more private.  

A walk about begins from the Visitor's Center.  Some of the houses were open to see inside with more information about the neighborhood and the Lincolns.

Nearest backyard from the Visitor's Center.  

Somebody's Garden!

I had a wonderful time walking this neighborhood and seeing so much.  It was something I have wanted to do for years.  It came to fruition.  I would like to return to Springfield again and continue to see the historical buildings.  Much to see.

Many Historical Home places do not allow people up on the second floor due to the age of the house, insurance issues and what not.  I hope the Lincoln House continues to allow tourist to see the entire house for years to come.  History Buffs would agree that this area is outstanding to have available for all to see. 

We stopped by the Springfield Carriage Company Restaurant in the area for iced tea, coffee and an opportunity to cool off.  We ended up having dessert.  Liked it so much we returned later for supper and returned the next evening for more.

I was on my days off dieting so I treated myself to desserts this week which made the week even more awesomer.  

Typical Tourist

Near by is a lot that a replica of the original Lincoln cottage will be built.

                          At the Springfield Carriage Company.

We'd return to eat Supper on the porch as it was pleasant and the Dining room was crowded.

Salad and a complimentary glass of Gallo Moscato White Wine.

Filet Mignon (grilled medium well) with Shrimp, Potatoes with green peppers and onions was lip smacking good.  We ate like royalty and the Dessert was complimentary.  

Free parking with a complimentary glass of wine with dessert 

made our vacay supper affordable.  

We added the conversation with joy.

At the corner of 8th and Edwards we had light refreshments and dined for two meals.  

Venturing into the Historic Park was what dreams are made of.

d👵