Tumblers and Birds

I ended my last post with a picture of Peter and my mom before he left to go back to Raleigh, so I thought I would start this post with a picture of Sarah and my mom before she left to go back to Charlotte.

Both kids started back to class on Monday and they seem to be settling in well.  I am praying they both have a great semester!

I have set a few goals for myself this year and one of them is to drink at least 90 ounces of water a day.  "They" say that in order to lose weight you need to be drinking a ton of water - roughly half your body weight in ounces.

I have a Built tumbler (that I believe is technically Sarah's but she's not here and I am so, I've been using it.)  

This cup is under $13 at Walmart and keeps ice frozen overnight and the water is nice and cold!   BUT - it doesn't have a handle and there isn't a straw so you actually have to take sips.  On a good day, I've been managing to drink about 45 ounces of water.  (I prefer coffee and Diet Dr. Pepper thank you very much.)

All during the Christmas season, I saw moms and teen-aged daughters going crazy for a Stanley tumbler.  This thing was selling out online and while it's pretty, I just didn't get the hype.

These things are $40 and were flying off the shelves.  I am not about to spend $40 on a tumbler when I have a daughter who has a collection of water bottles, tumblers, cups with straws, etc. all sitting in a closet here because she only has room for one water bottle at school. But when I was in Marshall's yesterday I saw this:

It has a handle and a straw and is very similar to the Stanley but was only $16.99, so I grabbed it on a whim.  It felt like an impulse purchase and a bad one at that because I have a perfectly good water tumbler at home. 

But y'all, just after owning this thing for 24 hours, I cannot sing it's praises enough!  I came home, washed it, filled it up and in less than 2 hours, I had consumed 40 ounces of water.  FORTY!!! With the Built cup, it would take me ALL AFTERNOON to drink a mere 30 ounces.  

It isn't even noon on day two of owning this thing and I am almost done with my second 40 ounces of the day!  That's 80 ounces BEFORE LUNCH!

What kind of magic is this?  I honestly think it's the straw.  The straw and the handle.  The straw makes drinking it so much easier than sipping from the opening in the lid.  And the handle makes toting it around from room to room so much easier.  It was definitely worth $16.99 and now that I am a water drinking fool, I expect the weight to slide off effortlessly!  insert laughing face emoji here

I don't think the ice lasts as long in this cup as it did in the Built tumbler but I'm drinking the water so fast that I don't think it's an issue. 

So, moral of the story:  if you are having trouble getting in your water for the day, use a straw!  

In other news, the cardinals have finally figured out how to use the bird feeder.  Several months ago, we had a male and female cardinal show up to the bird feeder.  They both just sat there looking at it and looking around.  Neither one of them seemed to figure out that they needed to perch on the edge and eat out of it.  They looked so forlorn and were looking around as if to say, "We heard there's free food here but WHERE IS IT????" 

Occasionally the female would come and sit underneath it and look around looking for the food but she could never figure out what to do.  It was so pathetic.  What was probably even more pathetic is that I was trying to tell her what to do from behind the kitchen sink.  "Hop up on the ledge.  Turn around and hop up on the ledge.  Watch the chickadee.  Do what she's doing!" Not only could she not hear me because I was inside and she was outside, she couldn't understand me because she's a bird and doesn't speak English. But when you are a crazy bird lady, none of this matters.

On Wednesday, I looked up and there was a male cardinal eating from the bird feeder.  I was elated!

 

After watching him eat for a few minutes, I determined that the feeder might be a little small for him and it's probably hard for him and his big self to eat easily from this particular feeder.  So now I am considering getting another larger feeder.  What is wrong with me?  

In other bird related news,  I started following the Audubon Society on Instagram. (It come up under Suggest For You. I guess even Instagram knows my love of birds.) They announced yesterday that the Audubon Photography Awards were officially open for entries so I was thinking about submitting the above photo.   Just kidding!

But seriously, though, if you like birds, you should give them a follow.  The images are spectacular and there are so many beautiful birds that I never knew existed.  

Since it's Friday, I'll leave you with this funny meme:

Why do I feel attacked?  :)