Keeping It Easy and Simple

Cooking In My Kitchen

 After years of cooking large meals for my family, I have given that up. In my mind I still love cooking. Probably is the reason I like to watch cooking or recipe videos. I will copy a recipe and then later look at it and say, "I am not doing that." Usually too many ingredients or too many steps to it. One thing that stops me from making something is how much clean up is it going to make for me. I like things to be easy and simple these days. Not that I cannot do the more complicated ones. I still could.......just don't want to. My favorite food to cook is a burger or a steak put in the NuWave oven. Easy and something I love to eat. Breakfast is usually eggs and some kind of meat. Just recently I have added a cup of Fage Greek yogurt to my daily menu. I needed to add more protein. That is why I often have the Keto Chow replacement shake made into ice cream. The protein and fat is something I have to keep track of or I will not get enough. 

Going to keep the counter clutter free!

Recently I took my small cooking appliances off the counter. I organized my cupboards so that now I can have those appliances in the cupboards out of sight. Easy to get to when I need them. The only ones I left on the counter are the ones too tall to go in a cupboard. I love having that much room on the counters! It looks much better than being cluttered. In the near future I will work on some of the other cupboards. The ones I cannot reach easily. No sense keeping stuff I do not use in them. I have two large stockpots that I don't use for anything other than making my supply of Essiac tea. I brew it from the dried ingredients and it needs to be done in those stockpots. So I will be keeping them. 

My Cleaning Supplies

Keeping with the easy theme in my home I keep my vacuum cleaner close by and easy to get to. No big deal to get it out and do a quick vacuum. Since my apartment is so small it takes less than five minutes. If cleaning or dusting is on my list for the day, I put the cleaning supplies out in the kitchen. As long as I see them I will not forget what I was supposed to do today. Not leaving things out or letting them pile up somewhere has been key for me living here. I do have that problem with papers piling up but make sure to go through them at least once a week. Throwing away or filing every single one. 

Every Day Water Supply in Canning Jars

You may have items you just cannot part with. I did. So I came up with ways I can use those items. This was the case with my canning jars. I have many but I don't think I took them all from my house when I moved. I might ask my husband if he would let me have them now. Not that I need them. I am just attached to them. When I moved from there I left a large amount of foods I had canned in the cupboards. The jars I am missing are the smaller ones. The pints. It was hard moving from a house to a studio apartment. So I was not able to take everything. Maybe it was a good thing........

Bunny Trail

The thing is as you get older many tasks are harder to do. Like standing on a chair or a stool to put something away. Or to fix a curtain rod or blinds. To quickly grab something you forgot to get out and now you need it instantly. That happens way too much. I am a list maker so I make a list of everything I need to do or to get out. That does help me a lot. When making a recipe I always put the recipe on the refrigerator. Then look at it often throughout the process. Label all the jars you store ingredients in so you do not make a mistake......yup, I did that! Doing routine tasks will be easy after you get used to doing them daily. That is why I do not like to change the way or time I do things. Not so much that I am set in my ways. 

Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

My Things Matter To Me

Cleared off the counters!

As I look through my kitchen finding items I might want to get rid of because I haven't used them in a long time, I spend time thinking. Thinking of the day I got the item. Or the reason I bought it in the first place. Or who gave it to me. Or what job I use it for, or did use it for. Or, or, or. So many things that have special meanings for me. Not of interest to anyone else. Only to me. When I am gone, what will come of it all? Thrown out to end up in the landfill? Donated to charity or thrift stores? To end up in smoking home? I know they are just things..........but they are my things and I love them all. 

My mother-in-law gave this to me as a gift

Nothing I have is of much value to anyone but me. Many are valued due to their memory. That is why when I was looking at decorating videos on how to create a new look for my apartment I could not follow through on it. I did not want to part with my old furniture or other keepsakes. I suppose if they were destroyed, out of my control, as in a fire or a flood it would be easier. I watched the people of CA searching for something left in their burned out homes. Anything! A little knick-knack or a tool. A memory they didn't want to lose. Even if they had pictures of their things most of them were lost too. Unless they stored them online. My whole life I have taken care of all my things. When I lost anything it was usually due to whatever man was in my life. I found out they didn't care about my things. Only their things!

My treasured cat that my husband bought for me in Florida

Why are things so important to someone? I wondered about that for myself. Thinking maybe it is not normal. Well for most of my life I lived with a spouse (three in fact!) and had no place for my own things. The only time I had that freedom was when I was able to live alone. Which I am doing now. As soon as I moved into this apartment almost seven years ago, I started putting out my treasured items. I could use them instead of packing them away in boxes in the attic. What a great feeling that was! Things that represent my past..........my life. They have meaning for me. Not like some home decor item you buy just because you need it at the time. 

I am working on the windows & windowsill now.

It is true though, that the more you get rid of the better you feel. In time the item is forgotten. Clear open spaces is what my goal is now. No clutter. No excess stuff to clean around. Finding places or new homes for the treasured items. Making my apartment easy to clean and care for. Even if I get help to assist me it will be easier for them too. I am not getting rid of everything! I like to rotate the items I put out. Put the ones I am not displaying in the curio cabinet. Then a few months later change them. It is a good method I discovered for keeping them useful and appreciating them. 

Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

kat's Studio Apartment - Apartment Life

I am not sure how I manage but almost everything I plan to do I eventually do. After many years of starting and stopping......Atkins, low carbs, keto & finally, ketovore. Ketovore is a cross between the carnivore food plan and keto. Mainly meats but some other keto friendly foods as well. Now I am definitely on it and stick to it at least 90%. I figure that is good enough for me. I do feel better on it and that is the main reason I eat this way. The other reason is that it is so good! Easy to shop for, easy to cook and easy to clean up after. What more could you want? After years of cooking for others this is a relief for me. Especially since I cannot stand in one place (at the sink or the stove) for very long. My doctor said don't stand longer than five minutes in one place. I try not to.

Cat Collection in curio cabinet

Another thing I have been doing over a bit of time is getting rid of all my excess things that I do not need. There is free table downstairs in my apartment building and I try to set something on it every week. If I see someone picked that item up I put another one down. Kind of interesting to do. Because I figure if I don't use it I may as well give it to someone who will. I don't know if I will ever get brave enough to start putting my ceramic cat collection on the table. Maybe not. Maybe I will wait till I am in my nineties to do that. The same with my dolls that I have had since I was a child. I don't know if "uncluttering" or downsizing as it is sometimes called is an aging thing or not. I see a lot of videos with young people doing it too. Maybe it is trending that we bought too much stuff and now need to get rid of it. I tell myself if I ever have to live in an RV or a van I could never do it with all the stuff I own. 

The best I could do for now.

Since I am following the "ketovore" food plan I have found a lot of gadgets I own for food preparation I no longer need. Basically everything I have out on my counter I use often. I have too many other items that are just taking up room. I am thinking of getting rid of those items. It is funny how someone said on one of the "decluttering" videos that the more you get rid of the more you want to get rid of. Yes, that is definitely true for me. I am seeing that in myself every time I see something I put on the free table is gone. Makes it so much easier to clean or find what you are looking for. I removed as much as I could from my counter so it would not look so cluttered. It also gives me plenty of room to prepare my meals. 

Oma Lisa, my childhood doll

As I get older I find I don't really need so much stuff. If I can use it for other purposes than what it was meant for then I do that. I would always rather use that than purchasing anything new. When I write down my lists of what I need to do or what I want to eliminate from my life I can analyze it further. The key is to get started. Experts are always telling us to find our why. My why is to make life easier now. Not work around it until the day I die. If it is not serving any purpose now is the time to rid myself of it. As I said before there are some items I will never part with. One being my childhood dolls. They still bring me pleasure and I just cannot part with them. At least not yet. 

Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

Bathmophobia Fear of Stairs Is Real

3 Story Apartment Building for Seniors & Disabled

 The past couple of weeks I have been living in my apartment on the second floor with a faulty elevator. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. I knew this would happen eventually.  I really do understand why this happens. Elevators are a man made machine and they break down. Like a car or a computer. Nothing lasts forever. Even knowing and understanding that it is difficult for me to be without it. I have gotten used to it. Comfortable. Time to examine my options and get out of my comfort zone. Moving from here is not an option I want. For one thing a year ago I moved my son upstairs in my building so I could help him. The other thing is that I really love my apartment. I do not want to give it up. Nor do I want to move to first floor apartment. It is noisy down there. Too much activity for me. This is my home. So what to do?

Again???

The only option I really have is to increase my mobility. Maybe I have made it worst by never using the stairs since I moved here in 2018. They are steep and I admit I have a fear of them. So maybe the reason I cannot go down them is not my mobility issues but my fear of stairs in general. There is actually a name for this fear. Bathmophobia. Fear of stairs! Even as a child I was afraid of them but I would still use them. Just very carefully. I have been researching how to rid myself of this fear and how to use stairs when you have bad knees. I have two that are bad but normally one is worse then the other. In other countries elevators are not commonly installed in apartment buildings. Those people are able to live without ever having an elevator (or lifts as they call them). 

Walking laps around my hall

Little steps is essential for me to change anything. My first step has been to start walking laps around my hall. This is an easy step as I have done this in the past. I am walking two laps presently with my walker. I still need to use that for any walking I do. There are times when I need it constantly in my apartment  then other days not at all or not as much. The second step is using my Vibration Plate. I am still in the testing mode with this piece of equipment. It is supposed to work for many different health issues and one being for people with Lymphedema. So that is why I bought one. 

Overcoming my fear of steep stairs

The third step of my plan is something I going to try today for the first time. Walk up 3 steps and down 3 steps on the stairs at the end of my hall. I believe there are only 8 steps down to the landing. Trouble is I cannot carry my walker with me. So using a cane even though I have not come up with a solution for sitting down at the bottom of the stairs. Going up with the good leg and down with the bad one. Maybe increase it after it becomes easier. The biggest problem for me is that these stairs are very steep. At least it seems so to me. Going to try to keep focused on the stair in front of me and not the whole thing at once. Doing it daily is also part of my plan. Not giving up.

Eggs are a good protein source

I have been increasing my protein while following a low carb/keto food plan that is heavy on the protein sources. Twenty carbs or less along with an eating window from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM (Intermittent Fasting). I feel this is the most healthful food plan to follow. I can stick to it with no problems. In fact eating this way makes you calm and more peaceful. It helps people sleep at night though I have never had that problem. Processed foods, grains, starches and sugar affect me in negative ways. Eliminating them is one little step that is essential for me! 

 

Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

A Crazy World We Live In - Apartment Life

Home!

The world has gone crazy. I honestly believe it has. This is not meant to be a political or religious post. It is just that the more people cry and whine about things such as race, gender, religion, age, etc. the worse our society becomes. I agree some changes are good. Not the majority of them though. They go too far. Crying "discrimination" for every little thing. Yet those same ones crying about it are the ones discriminating against others. Bullying people for not understanding what they are telling them. Or judging people who are disabled and cannot read or comprehend simple instructions. I see it almost daily in the apartment building I live in. Because they make the most noise about certain issues they are the ones who get what they want. Often the whiners are not even participating in the event or activity that they were complaining about! 

Coffee Time!

A man in my building yelled "discrimination" about a group of women who want to have coffee together to talk about our feelings or problems with no men present. Yet they had no plans to be at it. Just to complain about it to the management company. So they can say, "I fixed you girls!" I believe since the management company is saying they are correct it is discrimination, then isn't the whole apartment building discriminating against people who are not elderly, disabled or low income? After all you have to meet that criteria to live here. Men and women are different. Regardless of your sexual preference. It goes beyond the physical body. That is why when women are gathering together they talk different than when men are present. The men joke and talk about politics, sports or news. We talk about our menopause, children, our feelings, relationships, our past lives, etc. It is a whole different conversation when the men are not there. 

My hall

It is one of the problems of living in a building such as this. Supposedly we are living independently in our private apartments. In such a close environment it is important to at least try to get along with each other. Easier said than done. One negative person can spoil the whole feeling of our building. Though we have had more than one since I moved in. As I wrote about previously on this blog, we had an "elderly abuse" situation in the past. That was started with a manager and a small group of tenants who banded together to bully others. The ones left over from that group will at times try to bully other tenants. I find the best way to live with people like that is to ignore them. Social media is good in that way that you can put someone on ignore or delete as a friend. Too bad you can't do that in real life. I do not add to their conversation and get away from them as soon as I can. Best to stay off their radar!

Our Backyard

My idea for a "Girl Talk" coffee hour was not meant to do anything secret. Nothing against the men who live here at all. Just the women in my building getting to know each other better. There have been some that I don't know very well and would like to know better. It is good to have a women support group if you have an emergency or problem. Or just to have others you can talk to or turn to if you have that need. People become so concerned with being politically correct that it overtakes common sense. There are many organizations that separate people by gender, color, religion, age or interests. Are they bad? Not at all. Many of these groups get together to discuss their problems or how to help others. Many communities depend on these organizations to improve the lives of others in need. Which is what I thought I would be doing in my building. The men in our building group together outside almost daily smoking and talking. It is not like they are being kept from any social interactions. In fact, us women were in the process of planning activities for the whole building. Like movie nights, game nights and potluck suppers. Without us planning them they don't happen. 

My neighborhood!

For now we are having our coffee hour in someone's apartment. At least they cannot control what we are doing as a group of women in our own apartments...........yet. It is hard if you lose your rights to get them back again. Even in an apartment building. Once they tell you no it can even show up on your lease. The lease, if you read the whole thing, which I do, only protects the landlord, not the tenant. It only favors them and what they want. That is why I always say someday I might end up living in a camper somewhere. I especially love this particular apartment. If I had to leave it I would have to find another place and I don't think it would be another apartment. It is hard to conform to so many rules after you lived with barely any. At times I miss that. 

My Office

If it was just about me and not the others in my building I could live easily with no personal interactions at all. I am on my computer from morning to night. I would not even get off it at night when I do if it wasn't for my pet rabbit. He likes me to turn it off and go sit in the recliner to watch videos. He really does. I can find a million things to do on the computer. I have many online friends to talk to. No matter the time I can always find someone to talk to. Don't say I don't really know them since I do not know them in person. I believe I know them better through our written conversations than small talk in person. The computer creates an environment where you can live easily alone. Which it has for me. But I do have some friends in my building that I have grown close to. Even if it is just to share a cup of coffee and know others care. Making connections helps each other.  

Copyright © 2024 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2024  Kathleen G. Lupole

 

Two Holidays Down, One More To Go!

Christmas

Two holidays down and one more to go. New Years Day is the easiest of them all in my opinion. Though the other two are no big deal to me anymore. Funny about that. Holidays always caused me more stress than anything else through out the whole year. I can pinpoint it starting the first year I was with my first husband. He was Jewish and having never grown up with Christmas as part of his life he embraced all the holiday routines. Decorations, holiday foods, meals, Christmas parties and the gifts! Oh yes, he loved the buying of the gifts more than anything else. He would buy gifts for everyone. Even his business clients. My family would come to my house on Christmas Day and it looked like a dream. In reality it was not for me. Buying presents for others stressed me out. Not from the financial aspect but the actual going to the crowded stores and finding something that person would like. I had no trouble buying for my son but everyone else presented a problem to me. When my mother's health became bad she would mail me a check and tell me to buy everyone presents from her and my father. Oh boy, just what I wanted to do! 

Surprising Mom with a colored television!

Truthfully the best Christmases I remember were the ones before I grew up. Or the time my parents and brother came to my apartment for Christmas Eve. After my parents left to drive home my brother and my son and I went in his car to my parents' house to beat them there. When they arrived home, we were quietly sitting in their house in the dark. My mother turned on the lights and there we were. Also there was a big color television sitting there in place of their small black and white one! My brother had found it for sale used at a good price and we got it for their Christmas present. They loved it.! On the drive there my brother kept pointing to the sky and saying he saw Santa in his sleight. My son was soon saying he saw them too. He was so excited. It was one of my fondest memories. 

My brother, Mickey in his wild west show in Harpursville, NY

When we were children our Christmas gifts were usually a few toys, a book or two and some clothing. Usually pajamas. We always got the same number of presents. Yet almost every year, I would get the biggest present because it was doll and one year a doll house. My brother would just grab that big one and open it himself before my parents could stop him. Every year I got a new doll. My brother who is two and half years older than me always got things related to cowboys, guns and race cars. He is still into cowboys and guns to this day. He builds black powder guns and makes buckskin clothing for himself. He has a wild west show with a group of others who put on shows at a variety of places during the summer and fall.  So those interests have always stayed with him. I will add that he is a very unique brother and has always been so (even though he always opened my dolls!).

Decorated my door with mostly Christmas Cards I received.

My Christmas has changed in the last few years to being a really quiet day and not doing much of anything except decorating my door and giving out cards to the people who live in my building. I am quite happy with it this way because it not a stressful time for me now. No spending money on presents that nobody wants. Remember those gift boxes of talcum powder or bubble bath? Those were the gifts you got when someone had to give you a gift and didn't know what to give you. I can picture them in the store now. I do not know if they still sell stuff like that now or not. I buy myself whatever I want all year long so I don't need to get any presents. Nor do I cook a Christmas meal. This year I had Keto Chow salted caramel ice cream that I added pumpkin spice to. Later in the day I had a large rib-eye steak. Perfect for Christmas Day! No big clean up job. No stress of whether someone liked a present I bought them. My son lives upstairs and he came down a few times but he is not into Christmas either. 

Rabbit

The thing about living alone and being alone on a holiday is that it really is no big deal........unless YOU make it a big deal. Fretting about it months in advance causes you to dread the day so much. Becoming depressed because you are alone. It is just a day like any other day. If you have a pet you aren't alone. I know I still have to care for my pet like I do every day. Pets don't know it is Christmas or that you are going to buy them a bunch of presents. But you can if you choose to do so. I think they like it better if you stay home whether you get them presents or not. I buy this little boy so much stuff all the time so he doesn't have to wait for Christmas to get any gifts. In fact, he slept most of the day........

Copyright © 2024 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2024  Kathleen G. Lupole