Trouble sleeping? I may have found the answer

When I go to bed, usually around 8:30, it doesn't take me too long to fall asleep.  My trouble is that I wake up several times in the night.  Sometimes I go right back to sleep, other times not so much... especially in the wee hours of the morning.  I'm a morning person; sunrise is the crowning jewel of my day.  So if I wake at 3 A.M, as I did this morning, it's really difficult to just lie in bed and wait, but I try.  This morning I prayed for a while, blessing all my descendents one by one, from my oldest child, Jim, to my youngest great-grandson, Ivan.  I still couldn't get back to sleep, and my mind wandered.  Out of the blue, I got an idea:  What if there was a podcast that would help me sleep?

Well, with that thought I got out of bed and made a cup of tea, vowing to do a Google search on the topic.  I don't allow myself to do anything in the morning until I've done my Bible reading, which takes about 20 minutes; if I don't do that first, it won't get done.  Needless to say, I didn't concentrate on what I read very well because I was anxious to find out if there was a podcast such as the one I had dreamed up.  I do remember a little of what I read, though:  In the book of Job, his friends finally shut up harassing him so he and God would have a chance to tell them what's what, which means I'm about done with that book of the Bible for this year.  In the New Testament, I read part of a letter Paul wrote telling me my body is only a tent for my spirit to live in while I'm on earth.  I also read a Psalm and a Proverb, but I don't recall specifically what I read in those, having been rather distracted thinking about finding a podcast to help me sleep.  

With that done, I did my daily Wordle.  Then I was ready to consult Google about a podcast.

Imagine my surprise when I found out there are hundreds of them!  I found a list of the fifteen best ones, though, and chose one called Nothing Much Happens.  I laid back in the recliner and began listening.  I didn't expect to go back to sleep at this time of the morning, but believe me, it did relax and calm me.  I have an Alexa device near my bed, and I will be listening to this podcast tonight, unless I find another one I like better.  

In another finding, an ad I found on my googling journal told me about a secret ingredient that makes boxed mac and cheese taste much better... one teaspoon of fish sauce.  Ewww.  And yet, I want to try it, and have actually put it on my list.  

But wait a minute, there's more googling to be done, because as I was typing up above about laying in bed I thought, is it laying, or lying?  And shouldn't lying be spelled lieing?  

No wonder I have trouble going to sleep.  

Sweet dreams, my friends.

Oh, now I know why this all sounds like a crazy person wrote it:  It's the full moon, which hasn't disappeared yet this morning.  See it between the pine trees?

It's a cooler day today

It'll be back in the 90's by the weekend, and stay that way for the foreseeable future, according to Weather.com.  I guess we'd better be used to it by now, because I do believe it's the "new normal".  Of course, everything is still dry as a desert.  And yet, I'm enjoying the garden.  I have four, count 'em, FOUR soaker hoses I move around from row to row.  My Alexa device is very handy for setting timers for me so I don't forget the water is going; otherwise by the time I remembered what was going on, I'd have a swamp in the garden.

This was taken around 6:30 yesterday morning.  That zucchini plant has really been doing well.  The closest plants to the front are my turnips.  That corn is almost ready to pick.  

I don't use soaker hoses on the strawberry plants.  I just stand there with the hose every morning and give them a good drink.  They're looking pretty healthy; the one on the top left is sending out lots of babies to bear sweet berries next spring.

Today I brought in green beans and okra, as well as some beets.  I'll be breaking beans as soon as I get this entry done.  I also pulled and hoed weeds for a looooong time!  I get my needed exercise every day in the garden.

That's my latest zucchini in front of the row of okra.  I like to keep zucchini coming until frost.  I don't make zucchini bread or cake.  I pick them small to stir fry.  We have too many things in the house already that are loaded with oil and sugar... like the butternut squash pie I made yesterday.  We also had butternut squash soup the other day.

I've spent so much time outside in the garden, I can tell I've gained a lot of strength from the work I do there, and we're eating good home-grown stuff.  Now if I'd just lose some weight.  I've been stuck on 162 since before Christmas.

On another subject:  My doctors have wanted me to take atorvastatin for a long time, but I'd heard and read so many stories about people not being able to take it that I refused it.  Finally this year I decided I may as well try it.  I knew it was for people with high cholesterol, and I figured if it gave me any side effects, I could just stop taking it.  However, I got a big surprise.  My blood pressure, the top number of which was running from 130 to 145 (which doctors don't worry about any more) is now usually in the 120's almost all the time.  I didn't think it would do anything for my blood pressure.  Oh, and the irregular heartbeat I've had for years is almost totally gone.  It was a minor thing anyhow, but the blood pressure meter was always telling me how many times it skipped when I used it.

If I'd known it was a miracle drug, I'd have taken it sooner.

Oh, I went to the doctor with Cliff.

The doctor still doesn't think he has asthma, but he doesn't offer anything else that it could be that's making him find it hard to breathe.  I asked him about the wheezing; he said that seemed more like a throat thing, and made an appointment for him with an ear-nose-throat doctor.  I'm beginning to think Cliff is right when he says his only problem is that he's fat.  His lungs look like they're in excellent shape, according to the CT.  By the way, the doctor ordered a CT, but he ordered a special kind, and they didn't do what he asked.  He has called them to rectify the mistake without cost to us, but so far we've heard nothing from them.

So that's the way it is at Woodhaven Acres.  I'm going to break some green beans for dinner.