I'm having another cataract removed tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to better sight in both eyes.  It is a huge blessing to regain near-perfect sight in both eyes again.  That means this weekend, I'll have both eyes functioning like new!  Some of our family members join us on weekends, and we enjoy really nice visits together.  Steve's brother Ken visits regularly.  It's excellent because Ken and Steve can go out together on the boat.  They enjoy each other's company, crabbing, and fishing.  This coming weekend is particularly special because Steve's sister and family will be here.  Unlike Ken and Trudie, she lives further away, so we don't see each other very often.  It will be fun to see her little ones as well.  We also invite our Canadian friends to join us for meals every chance we get.  It's always great fun when we get together and share a meal.  Last weekend they brought a noodle dish along with some excellent green beans.  I heated the beans, and as I carried them to the table, I dropped the bowl.  It shattered, and beans scattered all over the floor, so we lost out on that part of the meal.  It would have been a really lovely addition.  In the end, we enjoyed our time together.  Sometimes our neighbors share things from their gardens, and we try to put these items to good use.  This week is all things zucchini, and ill add some green tomato sides.  We are on the downward slope of summer, so everything is ready to harvest.  Of course, we're already inundated with crab again, so we'll start shipping more out.  We sent crab to my sister in New Mexico and our cousin in Dallas.  This week we'll package and ship crab out to Stevie in Austin.  We are sorry he couldn't hang out with us this summer, but we're grateful that his health is improving.  As far as my keto diet is concerned, I managed to reign myself in as planned, and I'm back on a downward incremental weight loss.  I wish it wasn't such a struggle to lose weight, but the biggest problem is that I enjoy eating.  That truly impacts me, so I really monitor the amount of food I consume.  It's pretty easy to overdo, and it shows up almost immediately when I consume too much food.  Again, I'm working on weight loss exclusively for my health.  However, it's nice to comfortably wear my clothing, and it's also nice to feel like I look slimmer, so I'm going to continue to work toward my goal weight.  I'm still looking to lose 20 more pounds.  It hasn't been speedy, but it will eventually come off. Good luck to me!

   It's crabbing season again, and we're ready to go.  The boat is launched and waiting out in the bay until Thursday, when Steve will drop the crab pots.  We really love this space and enjoy everything it has to offer.  As it turns out, our family members love this space too.  Our niece and her little family are here until Wednesday, and Steve's brother just left yesterday after enjoying the weekend with us.  Summers here are filled with never-ending beauty and abundant outdoor activities.  I've also visited several parks in the area that I never really noticed, and it's lots of fun to explore each unique space so that I can show visitors a great time in beautiful spaces without a huge expense.  We.re looking forward to our son's visit as well.  He and Harald arrive this evening and will stay until Sunday.  Our son Stevie cannot join us this summer because of a dangerous cardiac event.  Apparently, he was in A-Fib for a long time without realizing it, and by the time he noticed something was wrong, he was in heart failure.  He went to the emergency room and landed in their ICU until they stabilized him.  Then they transferred him to a specialty hospital where he will undergo an ablation this afternoon.  Steve headed to Austin as soon as we heard and stayed there until Stevie stabilized.  While there, he helped get the paperwork completed and sent to Stevie's work so that he's covered while he's out.  We're praying that his heart begins a healthy rhythm.  This was a massive reminder of how very fragile life is and that we must enjoy every moment to the best of our ability.  Our family and friends are priceless.  Every moment we share is irreplaceable.  We're very disappointed that Stevie can't join us this year for crabbing, but we're so grateful that he survived this ordeal and will emerge healthier than he's been in a long time.  We'll try to get together in November instead.  In the meantime, there'll be no shortage of visitors and activity around the bay.  As an aside, I've gained weight.  Ugh!  The green chili came in, and so did my colossal appetite for delicious green chili edibles.  So, yet again, I must reign myself in before I get too far into incremental weight gain.  I must reduce my portions and not get tempted to overdo those things I love.  I think I can manage to do that.  I will give it a try and check back next week, hopefully with a good report.  

     This past week we had guests over for dinner and served them some of our favorite keto dishes, including veggie masala and green chili stew.  They loved both and were amazed at the role shredded stir-fried cabbage and radishes played in becoming substitutes for rice and potatoes.  We also enjoyed the conversation very much.  These are our dear friends from Canada, and during covid, we could not see one another.  That was a trying time because it's hard to be away from friends and family for so long.  Canada was particularly careful, so we could not cross the border, and they could not cross into the U.S. for nearly two years.  So, we're really enjoying the ability to be together.  Enjoying friends is a beautiful thing made even better with the long separation.  Just being joyful and recognizing the blessings in our lives dramatically affects our state of mind.  In fact, I've been thinking a lot about mental stability and the keto diet that I've been on for many months.  I'm beginning to realize that I don't have the ups and downs I had before I went on keto.  These ups and downs used to be extreme for me, and they gradually improved as I got older, but they were still around.  I find that being on the keto diet is keeping me relatively stable.  I don't have those times where I try to go to bed and can't sleep because of racing thoughts about some anxiety-producing event that I fear might happen.  That was something that I suffered regularly, and it's not happening anymore.  Some of our family members have difficulty with depression, and others have severe mood swings that can be debilitating.  So, I'm sharing the good news about keto and emotional stability.  I have several documents representing studies that explain why this is so.  However, the best evidence is my own life and the fact that I'm not going through these periods of anxiety.  Also, I recently listened to a YouTube video where Carol Brown described her severe bipolar disorder and depression.  She was suicidal, and nothing helped, including medication.  However, after she went on the keto diet, she stabilized.  I will share her link because her story is very important and could become life-changing for those in deep depression.  Also, as I've said before, the keto diet prevents seizure activity with me.   Recently I read that there's a brain connection between seizures, migraine headaches, and depression.  In fact, doctors are prescribing the same medication for seizures that they prescribe for depression.  I'm not a doctor.  I just know what's working for me.  However, several studies support my claims, and I will link one of them.  Ultimately, having a happy, healthy outlook daily makes all the difference in one's quality of life.​

     I've had some successes recently including spending a day fasting and consequently starting to lose weight again.  So, I've decided to fast every other day until I get the weight off that I want because it was not that difficult and helps me lose weight pretty quickly.  I realized that fasting helped with the weight loss when I got my cataract surgery several weeks ago.  I don't really remember if I talked about my eye surgery, but I am so relieved to be able to see.  I got a lens that allows me to see close up and distance, and it is such a blessing after having used magnifiers over the past twenty years.  Now I can see without the magnifiers even though only one eye works well.  I will be receiving my next lens in my left eye at the end of the month, so I'm looking forward to having both eyes actively engaged in seeing well for the first time in several years.  Every part of our body is terribly essential.  You begin to realize that when one little part starts to go wrong and it's not so easy to work around some of these problems.  I'm amazed at those who can overcome huge afflictions.  It takes hard work and commitment and certainly diminishes my small successes, but I remain proud of myself for everything I continue to accomplish.  The other thing I did was I started selling on eBay and cleared out a ton of stuff in the process.  It's a bunch of fun because what you can do is find things out in the world and then put them up for sale.  Even if you make fifteen dollars a day on items that cost you a dollar, it's worth it.  So, Steve and I will start doing this as a side activity.  We've begun looking for items of value at thrift stores and estate sales, and we're going to start putting them up and see how it goes.  We'll do this until we can get sick of it.  We'll even continue doing it when we're in Hawaii, although we'll probably have to hoard everything and then put them up when we return to Washington because shipping from Hawaii will be much too expensive.  In any case, I'm enjoying being able to see well again as I engage in my new selling activity while continuing to slowly lose weight.  So, here's to small successes that add up over time.