Thursday and Friday, July 5&6

It's always a pleasure having company, and especially when it's one of our kids. It interferes with some of the schedule, of course, such as coming online to journal. It's always a balancing task, but what part of life isn't?

Towards the end of August our daughter Hanna and her hubby will be moving much closer to home than where they've been the past four+ years. They drove here Wednesday after work and we had a bit of visiting time before it was time to head for bed. Thursday morning my daughter got up early with me and we went for a bike ride for about an hour. She's been working hard on getting herself more fit as well, so it was fun to cycle together. When I left for work, they headed to their college town to look for a place to rent, and were here again by suppertime.

So: Thursday's food.
Breakfast: Do I need to write this every day? I am very boring in the morning! A bowl of fruit salad with Fiber One cereal and a good-sized blop of vanilla yogurt. And a homemade-mocha-to-go for my first hour at work. Lunch: I made a pasta salad, using a small amount of multi-color rotini pasta, a can of salmon, onion, bits of broccoli and snap peas, low-fat miracle whip, lemon juice, s&p. Snack: a handful of snap peas and a bowl of fresh, local cherries (and the 2 pieces of dark chocolate). For supper we barbecued chicken legs (cattlemen's barbecue sauce--anyone know if that comes in a sugar-free in the USA? It tastes great!), baby fresh potatoes with a bit of butter and chopped oregano, and a large bowl of salad (lowfat ranch is my dressing of choice). Later in the evening we had fresh raspberries with non-fat, non-sugar vanilla ice cream.

Friday morning Hanna and I went to Aquafit at the pool. Now THAT is a workout that would have killed me last spring. Hanna teaches Aquafit at her pool and worked here a couple of summers way back when and knew the instructor so that was fun for her.

After my usual breakfast I headed off to work with my mocha in hand. I only work half days on Friday these days, so at noon I went home. Because we were planning an early supper, Hanna had already fed the gang lunch. I made a couple of pieces of toast, slathered on some 95% fat-free cream cheese and a few slices of rosemary ham. Also a handful of snap peas. Cherries sit on the counter; I polished off a lot of those also. I was still hungry: grabbed two Wasa crackers with cinnamon-Splenda cream cheese. We barbecued a beef tenderloin roast for supper and had it with fresh baby potatoes (butter and oregano), baby beets stolen from my mother-in-law's garden (butter), and beet greens (butter).

The kids left for home about 5:00; I also needed to go into town then as I was scheduled to operate the sound system for a concert our church's youth praise team was holding in a park. Due to the early supper, I was hungry again when I got home at nine. Hubby, who spent HIS day driving around the field in circles raking hay was also hungry, so I fried up the leftover baby potatoes and a sausage that had been in the fridge a few days. I gave him most of it but had a few bites. Then a milkshake: banana, chocolate nf/ns ice cream, nf/ns vanilla yogurt and some skim milk. And a glass of blueberry port.

We're having close to record-setting heat these days, which is great for drying hay but is not as nice for people. Hubby is drinking massive amounts of water--he carries a 2-quart cooler jug on the tractor and has a few swallows once every round. I've also been drinking a lot more than usual. We have an air conditioner for our bedroom but even so it is almost too hot to sleep. And the thing is noisy. I don't like winter much but it's easier to counter-act cold than heat.

As far as the housekeeping goes, I've been reading the emails from Fly Lady every day. I've kept up with the dishes daily (or more, with the kids being home) and have kept my main hot spot out (gathering place for junk mail and the stuff that breeds from it when you leave it!) I've also done at least one other thing every day to keep up. I feel pretty positive about it all, to be honest. I haven't totally jumped on the Fly Lady's bandwagon but am trying to tailor her suggestions to my life.