A Brainstorming Top Ten and some Friendly Fill Ins

Today I'm catching up with Top Ten and the Friendly Fill Ins - enjoy.

This week for Top Ten Thursday (I know I'm very late) Tamara at Part-time Working Hockey Mom has asked us to brainstorm an upcoming project: top ten ideas on how to remodel your terrace, how to fit in more exercise into your days or how to pimp your blog,...?

My project is to make sure we're getting all our nutrients and and include more veggies that we've not had before in our pescatarian (fish eating vegetarians) diet.

1. I've recently bought a fabulous chart that outlines nutrients and the veggies they're found in, which I plan to stick to the wall where we do our food preparation.

2. Follow instagram accounts that share healthy vegetarian recipes. A great one that I've found is Vegetarian Eats.

3. Try new foods when out and about to see if it's something we'd want to experiment with at home. Something that I must try as I've seen it in several recipes, is Jackfruit.

4. Remember that a lot of vitamins and minerals can be found in seeds which are really easy to add to all sorts of things.

5. Lots of people always assume that we find it difficult to get enough protein as we don't eat meat anymore, but there are lots of other ways to get this very important nutrient, nuts being one of my favourites especially in the form of peanut or cashew butter.

6. The other important mineral that is a little harder to get is iron, though you'd be surprised how much iron is in vegetarian foods. This Website gives details of the different foods and how much iron is in them. The other factor with plant based iron is that it's important to try and optimise the absorption by eating vit C rich foods with your iron ones, and avoid tea or coffee at mealtimes.

7. Another thing I'd like to do to perk up our diet is to try some new vegetables in our meals. One of the supermarkets we were at recently had some veggies that I'd never seen before so I'm definitely going to google some recipes and try them. 

8. Explore more health food shops to find new and unusual things to eat. We've got some seaweed noodles in the cupboard that we need to try - they're black and full of healthiness.

9. In project eat better we need to not become too obsessed with what we're eating that we lose the joy of food.

10. Never forget that chocolate and coffee have lots of really important nutrients in them, especially the feel good nutrient that it would be silly to live without.

Have you got any projects that you need to undertake? Before you leave today, make sure you hop over to Tamara's Blog and see what my fellow bloggers have come up with.

Now it's onto Friday's Friendly Fill Ins which is hosted by 15andmeowing.com and Four-Legged Furballs, visit their blogs to see other bloggers answers. The bits in bold are provided for us and the rest is purely me.

  

1. My beloved brings out the best in me as he always has faith in my abilities even when I don't.

2. Animal cruelty and neglect makes me grumpier than Grumpy Cat and more morose than Eeyore. I'll never understand the mentality of people that can hurt an animal, especially cats as they are such beautiful creatures (but then I'm a bit biased).

Lord Rocky Horror - much chubbier than when we adopted him.

3. If money grew on trees, I would buy us a house and take in lots of animals that need a good home.

4. I have a fear of spiders and heights when I'm in a car which I know is a bit bizarre. Spiders is a sensible fear as lots of them in Australia are very poisonous, but the car thing is a bit odd as I'm fine with heights otherwise. 

That's it for today, if you've enjoyed this post why don't you join us next week on Thursday or Friday or both.

Until next time, have a really wonderful week.

Pamela & Ken

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Top Ten Thursday - There's a New President in Town

This week's top ten is a political one (oh no I hear you cry). Tamara at Part-time Working Hockey Mom has given us the following guidelines:

"Today let's assume President Trump is out. Impeachment and removal from office, boom. For some reason Mr Pence doesn't automatically take over - it's you who's in charge now. List the top ten priorities you're tackling first."

Where to start...........

1. Healthcare: making healthcare available to everyone no matter their income or social status. I'm not sure how you would change the messed up system that exists now, but it's just so wrong that people in a low socioeconomic area who can't afford health insurance can't get medical care when needed without practically going bankrupt.

2. LGBTQ Rights: I would reinstate the guidance that included transgender people under the civil rights act and protected transgender children in schools. I would make sure that the LGBTQ community were very visible on the White House Website (my predecessor removed all mention of them), and during Pride month the White House would be lit up with a rainbow. Just like Justin Trudeau in Canada I would attend Pride events to show that my administration was a true ally and friend.

3. Education: work to improve education standards across the land, making sure that there is the same high standards no matter where a child goes to school. Included in this would be giving more money for the quality of school lunches as he who shall not be named has reduced this. Before and after school activities should also be in place for those children whose parents have to work long hours.

4. Environment: climate change does exist and I would make sure we joined back up with all the sensible countries who are trying to do something about this. Fuel efficiency standards would be implemented, along with a national campaign to help people think about how they can help the environment by reducing their carbon footprint. I would reinstate the bans on plastic bottles in national parks, lead bullets, and lead sinkers in fishing, and give back all the land that has been removed from national parks. I would definitely ban drilling for oil in the arctic and try and find some way that any future republicans couldn't reverse this. I could go on for ages on the environment as he who shall not be named obviously has no regard for mother nature and how we need this planet to survive if we want to keep living on it.

5. Hunting: this law broke my heart when it was brought in - hunters in Alaska are now allowed to hunt hibernating bears and wolves, kill their babies, and use much more aggressive hunting methods. This law will be one of the first to be corrected as any fair minded person must see how wrong this is.

6. HIV/AIDS: reinstate funding for research and support both nationally and internationally.

7. White House Staff: I would definitely want George Stephanopoulos as my communications director - he did a fantastic job for Bill Clinton at the start of his presidency and he has the charisma needed. I'd definitely have roles for Ellen and Oprah, incredibly strong women who so many people look up to.

8. Guns: I was watching a show about America recently and one of the people on it made the statement, "the only way to stop gun violence is to give more people guns". Is it just me or does that make no sense whatsoever. Under my administration gun ownership would not be allowed until 18, and there will be very strict rules involved. Handguns will be banned (except for policemen and military) as well as military grade weapons like some of the ones that have been used in mass shootings. There will be stringent checks which follow the UK's guidance; 'Gun owners ... must meet background checks, which involve a review of a person's criminal record, mental illness, alcoholism, drug addiction, and references regarding mental state, home life, and attitudes toward guns. Licenses must be renewed every five years, although they can be revoked earlier if police find that someone's gun ownership poses public safety risks or a person no longer has a good reason for the license.' (Vox).

9. Twitter: this will be banned from the White House unless my communications director is using it to promote the good we are doing as an administration.

10. Redecorate: we will need to remove any of the tackyness that has been put there by the family that must not be named, and introduce some comfort and colour to different parts of the house. I'll also have to make sure that it is very cat friendly, and apart from our three furbies, I'm sure it's time for a president of the United States to begin taking in abandoned cats.

There you have my priorities - what would be yours? Before you go, make sure you hop over to Tamara's Blog to see what my fellow bloggers have come up with for when they take office.

Until next time, enjoy the last few weeks of summer (or winter) wherever you are in this wonderful world.

Pamela & Ken
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Top Ten Thursday - Summer Time

This week, Tamara from Part-time Working Hockey Mom, has asked us to list the top ten things we did, enjoyed, read, ate, experienced,... this summer! It's been an amazing summer here in the Scottish Highlands with days and days of glorious sunshine - it would have been even nicer if I didn't have to work. Still, we managed to cram quite a few great things in over the past couple of months and I'm going to share a few of them with you now.

1. Not far from us is a lovely fruit farm and we, along with many other people, took advantage of their pick your own service, spending a lovely hour picking strawberries and raspberries. We ate some that night with cream and icing sugar, but the rest went in the freezer for use in smoothies.

2. On one of the very hot days we went to Carrbridge for lunch and then we watched some very brave lads jumping off the old stone bridge into the river below.

3. On visits to any beaches we did our bit for the planet and picked up any plastic we came across. We nearly always find shotgun cartridges no matter where we are.

4. Of course there were several visits to old graveyards and the overgrown ones look particularly lovely at this time of the year as they are very green and vibrant.

5. Like the big kids that we are we went to the circus when it came to town and sat in the front row. It was great fun and there were some very talented acrobats and strength performers.

6. For the first time ever we went camping for a night together. Yes we've done glamping but that's where everything is provided for you, so this was a little different. We quite enjoyed it except for the size of the tent - we couldn't stand up in it so maneuvering around was quite a challenge and we also had Bramble Jelly with us. I'd definitely do it again if we had a bigger tent.

7. We attended an art class together which was really interesting and fun.

8. Bramble Jelly Sassypants loves swimming so with the hot weather we've had she was even more eager to get in the water wherever we were. One day whilst I was at work even my beloved stripped down to his boxers and went in with her.

9. The brats, aka Lord Rocky Horror and Princess Cookie Cat, continue to provide us with lots of love and laughter no matter what time of the year it is.

10. The best thing about summer?? Being able to get out more in this beautiful part of the world with my wonderful husband - it's been a fabulous summer so far.

How's your summer been if you're in the northern hemisphere, and I hope those of you in the south aren't having too cold a winter. Before you go, make sure that you hop over to Tamara's Blog to see what my fellow bloggers have been up to this summer.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and lets all pray that the farmers in Australia get some rain.

Pamela & Ken

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