Life

I'll be back in the new year, I hope. Things are too busy right now for daily blogging, and besides I broke my glasses and can hardly see out of my old ones. It'll be a week OR TWO before I can get them repaired, due to the holidays and living in a rural area.

Wednesday & Thursday, Dec 12 & 13

Getting back into the habit of blogging seems to be difficult! :P Wednesday I made it up for a good walk on the treadmill, walking 2 miles in 35 minutes with intervals. We're out of bananas the right amount of ripe, so my morning porridge had apples and canned peaches in it--wooo watch me live dangerously. Still vanilla yogurt. Still mocha to go.

Hubby met me in town for lunch. I had falafel and pita with a tossed salad, a pretty good lunch. I'd taken grapes to eat at work, and 2 crackers with salmon cream cheese (thinking I'd be on my own for lunch). A piece of chocolate later.

The kitchen is a disaster again (renovation disaster) so I made room to do rice in the cooker and make a pineapple based sweet and sour with ground beef and spinach.

I'd been forgetting my back stretches some lately but made sure to do them Wednesday night.

This morning I got a shorter walk on the treadmill but decided to do it when I woke up even though I could only walk 20 minutes. Still did one mile, which I suppose is better than no miles. Breakfast: porridge with apple, vanilla yogurt. Mocha to go.

Flat-out busy at work today. The water pump for the car finally arrived and hubby spent the day doing that, so I took tuna and crackers to work for lunch, grapes, and two oranges. He was going to put a ham in the oven for supper but forgot. I made patties from ground pork, baked potatoes, and Greek salad.

The kitchen is now clean and the dishwasher is running. I'll be doing my stretches in a bit. When hubby comes in from changing the oil on the car I understand we'll be installing the range hood. I also thought that yesterday!

Tuesday, December 11

Couldn't seem to get up for the treadmill this morning. :( Not only that, but I didn't even have enough time to eat breakfast at home, but cooked my porridge (etc) and took it to work. Along with the mocha.

I walked some on my noon hour but not enough to get my heart rate up. I bought a sandwich for lunch: ham, cheese, lots of sprouts and tomatoes on whole wheat. A piece of chocolate later.

For supper I fixed a spinach salad, yammy fries, and a beef steak. Later a banana shake. Spent my *extra* time in the evening working on the calendar for the other side of the family. I now have 7 pages done and am waiting for some of the input for the other 5. Hubby's home now for a few days. We'll see how it goes with the car and the kitchen.

Monday, December 10

So I managed to drag my carcass out of bed at 6:45 and hit the treadmill for the first time in a couple of weeks. Just so's you know, it's still totally and completely dark when I get OFF the treadmill. Two weeks till the days start getting longer again. I'm finding it hard this year.

Next up was breakfast: porridge with apple, banana, vanilla yogurt. Took mocha to work. Ran errands at my lunch hour. I ate black bean soup, leftover Greek salad, grapes, and an orange. A piece of chocolate at 4 (only civilized!)

Got home and fixed shrimp and broccoli. I was still hungry so I pulled spaghetti and meatballs out of the freezer. I've cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom and done my back stretches (which I also ignored while I was sick.)

Early to bed would be good. Hubby is home on days off again starting tomorrow.

Sunday, December 9

Look at that, a two week holiday to be sick in. I've been recuperated(ish) for the past four or five days but haven't gotten back into the swing of things on this blog.

I've posted all my kitchen renovation/ house cleaning/ vehicle woes over on my other blog. Here, suffice to say that I have not been FlyLadying on a regular basis for...a month or more? It showed. Though I'd still have had a massive cleanup this weekend after ripping out a ceiling, I think it would have helped if I'd been keeping things up to date. It would have been less overwhelming anyway. I think I need to do a modified FlyLady the next couple weeks to make sure things are up to speed before the hordes descend for Christmas week.

I'd intended to go to the ball exercise class on Friday but apparently the rest of the sessions have been canceled and I'm not sure why. Then I thought I'd go for a walk when I got home (being as it was a sunny, if cold, afternoon) but the sight of the kitchen squashed that idea. Hubby needed help with the potlights anyway.

So Saturday and Sunday I started each day with a walk outside. I'm slower than I used to be. :( Both days it was about minus 8 (20 degrees Fahrenheit) and too early to be sunlit.

Today I've eaten: an orange, toast & scrambled eggs (with bacon, onion, mushrooms, zucchini, asiago cheese), a pomegranate, a banana shake, a bowl of chili (with corn). Sadly, I think this was a GOOD day for eating well compared to the past couple weeks.

Now I need to fix my lunch for tomorrow and put the slipcovers back on the couch. I've also been neglecting my flat-on-the-back time, so maybe I'll do that and then head for bed early. Now there's an idea.

This week

I've been sick with a nasty cold. I haven't been walking, I haven't been cleaning my house, I haven't been doing anything useful. Unless coughing and sneezing have suddenly become useful. Ahem. I thought not.

Yeah, hope to get back in the swing soon.

Tuesday, November 27

I didn't get up to walk--sick :(

And it DUMPED snow overnight. About eight inches. Bleh the roads are slime. Breakfast: porridge, apple, banana, vanilla yogurt. Mocha to go. Hubby met me in town for lunch. I had a salad and a bean burrito at a new restaurant. Quite a decent lunch. I took peas and grapes for snack.

At home I made spaghetti and meatballs for supper. And I've prepped out a stew for the crockpot tomorrow. And cleaned the kitchen and enough of the porch to get through it again. It's bad in there.

I'm tired and sick. That's it.

Monday, November 26

Bleh. Jim's cold having grabbed me and held me close, I didn't even bother pretending I was going to get up and walk. Besides, I'd slept poorly. I HATE being sick. Had my usual brekkie: porridge, apple, banana, vanilla yogurt. Mocha to go.

Drove home at noon and--being as we're honest here--fried sausages and potatoes for lunch. No veggies. The only redeeming fact is that Jim had more than twice the amount I did. Sigh. I did have peas and grapes for snack.

I got home to a completely installed under-counter microwave. Wow. I have counter space! **Happy Dance** I served us salad while the mini-meatloaves and yams were cooking. Later I made a butterscotch pudding. (**Looks back at the day--I really can't claim healthy choices today, can I!)

Cleaned the kitchen as best I could around the tools and such. Apparently a section of upper cabinets is on the agenda for Tuesday. Bed early. Sick. Tired.

Saturday & Sunday, November 24 & 25

Once again a weekend went zipping by and I forgot to post here. Saturday I slept in and went for a walk outside. Came back and fixed my usual breakfast: porridge, apple, banana, vanilla yogurt.

Cleaned up upstairs; we'd gotten all the kitchen trims out to sort through the other day: crown molds, light rails, fillers, and kick boards. I tossed the cardboard packaging out the door and restacked the wood by category. Did some other sorting upstairs. Came down and did some critting on the laptop.

Had peas and oranges for lunch/ snack (breakfast was kinda late). It began to snow so I rushed off to town for the library, a quick buzz through the Christmas craft fair and the grocery store. My daughter called, panicking because all her Christmas decorations were in storage here as their place is so tiny. Thankfully my boss's son, who is in my son-in-law's college class, was home for the weekend and agreed to take them back. Disaster averted. While I was digging them out of the storage cabin I realized we'd just stacked all the cardboard from the cupboards we've installed thus far so I hauled it all to the burning pile and lit it. A few times I took a break and did some more critting.

I zapped burritos for supper. Finished off the crit in the evening and sent it out. Started reading Body Clutter. Looks like an interesting approach.

Sunday, got up and walked. Had 2 slices wholewheat toast with a sliced banana for brekkie. Feather dusted and vacuumed the house. When my sick hubby got home, I did the laundry, eventually putting through four loads. I opened a jar of ham and clam soup for lunch. Later an apple for snack.

Began to feel my throat tightening up and my eyes burn. Yay. Why does he have to share?

Made two big sausage casseroles; we had part of one for supper and I froze the rest in containers. We also had salad. Later I fixed banana milkshakes that felt good on our throats. Kinda dragged myself through most of the day but did go to bed with a clean house, so that's worth something when you feel like something the cat dragged in.

Friday, November 23

Yay me, I made it up for the treadmill today. Had breakfast: porridge, apple, banana, vanilla yogurt. Mocha to go.

Hubby picked me up from work at 12 and we drove to the next town over, hoping to get our passports processed there. Again, much too long a line for our timeframe. Gotta huck those applications in the mail, come Monday. Enough is enough! We grabbed a pizza-by-the-slice cause we were in a hurry (not the greatest lunch). Got some Christmas shopping done. Hubby went on up to the apartment to work and I caught a ride back home with his folks, who'd had appointments there today.

Had a sandwich, then a leftover turkey dinner from the other day. Some peas and grapes. After I finished reading Tahn by L.A. Kelly, I read my nano '05 novel. Yes, all 52K of it. It's all Jean's fault cause she made me remember it. And now I'm dying of curiosity what she thinks of it. No pressure timewise, but have you read it YET? :P And I was going to go to bed early, too. haha.

Wednesday-Thursday November 21-22

Wednesday I slept through my alarm. Had breakfast: porridge, apple, banana, vanilla yogurt and mocha to go.

I discovered a few pages that had mis-printed on the calendar so instead of spending noon hour binding them, I went for a walk. May I say very cold? Even walking very briskly did not help much. I'd brought tuna and crackers and peas and grapes for lunch. I think I needed hot food! I was still cold when I got home and even though the house was at nearly 68 degrees, I stayed chilled through for a couple more hours. Heated a piece of lasagne, then a bowl of split pea soup and toast.

Finished up the house blessing by cleaning the bathroom,watering plants, doing mirrors, vacuuming, and washing the kitchen floor. And went to bed early.

This morning I actually caught the alarm in time to treadmill! And got in a solid workout. Breakfast: porridge with apple, banana, and vanilla yogurt (if you're bored reading about my breakfasts, think how I feel eating them!) mocha to go.

This time I had all the calendar pages good for sure so got to the graphics shop right at 12. Brandy always lets me bind my own (8th annual!) and charges me half price so its a good deal for me. Got the holes drilled and then across the street to the post office where I stuffed ten of them in padded envelopes, scrawled out addresses, got them weighed and stamped and GONE! The rest are for hand delivery. I was five minutes late getting back after my break but I figure I did pretty good.

I'd brought a jar of borscht for lunch so it was nice having something hot today. Along with a few crackers and peas and grapes. After work had a massage, swung by the grocery store, broke down and grabbed an A&W burger on the way home (almost 7pm). I'm planning to take it easy the rest of the evening to rest up from the massage!

Hope my American friends had a good Thanksgiving today.

Tuesday, November 20

Somehow hubby hit the alarm wrong yesterday morning and turned it completely off, which we almost never do. So it didn't go off this morning. I woke up easily in time for work, but not for treadmilling. Had breakfast: porridge, apple, banana, vanilla yogurt. Mocha to go.

Came home at lunch and made fried rice with the leftover beef from the other night, onion, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli. Had a very stressy afternoon at work. I came the closest I've come in a long time to kicking someone out of the store: an older man who was still being tediously *polite* and repetitive when he finally left. Spare me. Had my peas and grapes and wished for pizza. Why yes, I guess I'm an emotional eater. Who knew.

Hubby had a stressy afternoon too with his temporary crown falling out and the dentist's office shoe-horning time to do the permanent a few days in advance of his scheduled appointment, also a leak in the truck tranny so he had to take it back to the GM shop for them to have a look. Turned out to not be significant. At any rate, no progress on the kitchen today.

I stopped for a barbecue chicken on my way home, toaster ovened some fries, and tossed a salad. Hubby headed off to the apartment and I tackled the living room. Where everything was stacked that had been in the way in the kitchen. Oy. That took more than five minutes. My evening routine is done and my lunch is made for tomorrow. Though this is usually the night I do the full *house blessing*, tonight I am being satisfied with *tidy* and mostly dusted. That there FlyLady duster is kind of cute and has been randomly swiping at things for a few days. I'll run the vacuum and wash floors etc tomorrow. I'm bushed.

I finished printing off the calendar and its ready to get bound tomorrow. I'm waiting for the phone to ring saying hubby's safe and sound and arrived at the apartment and then I'm headed to bed. Better check the alarm!

Monday, November 19

Yay me! I made it onto the treadmill! And then I had breakfast: porridge with apple, banana, vanilla yogurt. Mocha to go.

Went home at noon and re-discovered the word chaos. Hubby's been working on the kitchen! Thankfully I had lasagne in the fridge from the other night and zapped us each a piece. We also had salad. I have to say I was glad to go back to work and a bit apprehensive going home at the end of the day. (Had peas and grapes for afternoon snack)

Hubby had followed directions and put two packages of turkey drums and thighs into the oven in the roasting pan 45 minutes before, so I chopped up two yams, a few potatoes, six carrots, an onion, and three cloves of garlic and put them in the pan under the turkey (added a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper). Ummm, delish! And best of all, three lunches for hubby in the fridge.

I finished reading Auralia's Colors Sunday night, so I picked up Tahn by L.A.Kelly and began reading it around the mess. (I'd ordered the book in by inter-library loan.) Every time hubby needed a tool or something I jumped up to help, so I was thankful the book has short scenes! By the end of the evening the dishwasher was completely installed (and running, lol) and most of the electrical was in place for the micro/convec to move to its own little cubby under the counter. It's so big I'll be glad to have it off the counter. Counters are for working on, not honkin' huge appliances. Anyway, when hubby declared himself done for the day we picked up tools and I swept and cleaned the last couple pots that hadn't gone in the dishwasher. The living room is a really scary place right now but the kitchen looks pretty good! Had a couple slices pumpkin loaf before bed. Crashed.

Sunday, November 18

Went for a walk in the morning and found two lonely ducks on the irrigation ditch to send flying. My work here is done. :P

I fixed scrambled eggs for brunch along with a slice of toast. In with the 3 eggs (for 2 people): 2 strips bacon, half an onion, clove garlic, 1 zucchini, a few mushrooms, 4 or 5 cherry tomatoes, and a handful of spinach. With a sprinkle of mozz on top.

We spent the day working on the kitchen, though there isn't a lot of physical advancement to report. I also baked whole-wheat sourdough bread. Had peas for snack. Cooked a small beef roast for supper, had it with potatoes and gravy (only a little of both, I swear!), corn, and a large salad. And a couple slices of pumpkin bread later.

I'm finding that FlyLady routines are really helping keep the mess from the kitchen renovation under control and I'm not losing so much stuff. You know from the: it used to live on that counter and I had to move it and where did I put it variety!

Saturday, November 17

Got up and had a walk in before it started to rain this morning. Yes, outside. I have to be outside when I can or I'll go crazy. Had a bowl of miniwheats and a banana shake for breakfast! :P Spent awhile cleaning the bathroom and playing with my new feather duster. I'm not quite as enthusiastic as the folks that write testimonials to FlyLady, but it seems to do a decent job up in the rafters. Lunch was a large salad and then a piece of toast, an egg and one piece of bacon.

Spent quite awhile on the laptop critiquing in the afternoon. Made a double batch of lasagne for supper so there will be some for the freezer. And made Bonnie's pumpkin bread in the evening. Hubby is munching some as we type and has declared it a success.

Jean and I have been exploring raw food cooking this evening. Check out the pretty pictures at The Raw Chef and Raw Test Kitchen. I don't think I'm going to quit cooking any day soon, but some of the recipes I've found today look quite fun.

Now off to clean the kitchen one more time before bed!

Friday, November 16

Another day that I just couldn't face morning at the alarm. This is crazy. It's going to be almost three months before the days are this long again. Three months is a long time to fight this battle. Anyway, brekkie: porridge, apple, banana, yogurt. Mocha to go.

Went to the ball/ core exercise class at noon. I'm doing a bit better with some of the exercises. It's a lot harder than it looks. Came home, dug a container of turkey soup out of the freezer and had it with 2 slices whole grain toast.

Eventually I made myself plan out a menu for the next week; then I went back to town and bought some groceries. For supper I had peas and leftover ribs and rice. Then I went on the treadmill for 35 minutes, had a couple oranges.

Tired.

Thursday, November 15

I actually dragged myself out of bed for a 35 treadmill this morning. And after less than seven hours sleep. Huzzah. Had brekkie: porridge with apple, banana, vanilla yogurt. Mocha to go.

Snow to go, too. Bleh. The roads were slimey this morning. Hubby met me for lunch; we checked out a newish restaurant. I had steak and potato soup that was really nice (I left about half the potatoes) and a chicken and monterey jack melt on garlic toast. And I stole a few of hubby's fries and gravy! I'd taken peas and grapes for snack. And a piece of chocolate.

He went on up to work. I came home after work and had the leftover chicken wings and fries from last night and a couple oranges. Printed off quite a bit of the family calendar. My printer has decided it would like me to hand-feed the second side of every page. Tedious, that.

Oh! I'd ordered the Flylady duster and scrubber thingie and they came today. It really is quite a cool duster. Maybe I'll even go on a dust bunny hunt this weekend.

I've been reading Auralia's Colors and quite enjoying it.

Wednesday, November 14

This getting up in the morning thing is really hard. Again today I thought I was catching the first wave of the news and it turns out I really wasn't! Yes the alarm is set right. It's my brain that isn't. So had brekkie: porridge, apple, banana, vanilla yogurt. I was so frazzled trying to get out the door ten minutes early to fuel up the truck that I forgot to make my mocha. Had to buy one. That's a sad thing to do with $4.25.

My next excitement had to do with the passport clinic. Apparently I did not clue in that one had to be there way early and take a number. Silly me thought it was drop-in. It said no appointment necessary, by which they meant they wouldn't make them ahead of time I guess. At any rate, they were not giving out more numbers when I arrived. So much for that. At least our apps are ready for the mailbox now, all filled in and everything.

So I had the full hour to WALK and tried to pick the steepest streets. So I did get my walk in after all. I'd taken leftover pasta sauce and rice, peas, and grapes for lunch. Also had a piece of chocolate.

When I got off work I was feeling stressed out. Had to go by the grocery store anyway for lunch stuff for hubby so I bought marinaded chicken wings, came home and cooked them up and french fries. I did also have a salad and a couple oranges. Really...I was looking for a splurge that wouldn't do too much damage. I was just sick to death of healthy food! If the healthy food was making me skinny that would be one thing, but...that's not the case.

So now I've been calendaring all evening and am on way off to clean the kitchen and read til hubby gets home. Which, due to the mines having changed time (and our town not) will be quite late. I like to wait up if I can, even if we just talk for five before I crash. He's too high on caffeine from the drive to sleep right away. And then we'll see each other at lunch time tomorrow. Which reminds me to think about lunch after I've posted this, too.

That's it. The November blahs have hit.

Tuesday, November 13

I finally managed to get out of bed early enough to treadmill before work, though only 25 minutes fit. (My goal is 35.) Typical brekkie: porridge with apple, banana, vanilla yogurt and a mocha to go.

Had some soy nuts for snack in the morning--maybe 1/3 cup. Spent most of my noon hour standing in line at the bank to get money orders made for passports. I'd brought the last of the baked beans along with peas and grapes for snack.

For supper I stir-fried a zucchini with onion, mushrooms, and garlic and had a small steak. Later when I was hungry I had a bowl of Kellogg's Mueslix cereal with skim milk. I spent the evening scanning photos for the *other* side of the family's calendar. I finished reading Stephen Lawhead's Scarlet and prepped the blog posts for it for next week. While lying out on my back on the floor I started reading the next one: Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet. Got to bed at a decent time.

Sunday-Monday, November 11-12

Sunday morning I got up in time to go for a walk outside. I walked to the irrigation ditch and back, but all the ducks have flown the coop since last time I was there (two weeks). Jim wanted bacon and eggs for breakfast--I had a poached egg on toast, 2 oranges and a mocha. For lunch I made kinda clam chowder (big batch) from the ham bone broth I'd boiled up last weekend. Fixed half whole wheat biscuits (ate 2). I was smart enough to put supper in the crockpot before breakfast: beef short ribs with sweet and sour sauce. We also had brown'n'wild rice mix and a salad. Also had an apple, peas and grapes for snacking on.

We got all the filler strips in on the cabinetry Jim installed Saturday and mounted one more cupboard. It took us quite awhile to figure out how EXACTLY things will get installed around our brick chimney what with the need for wiring to be run there. Even though there wasn't a lot of visible progress, there still was plenty of mental progress.

Hubby woke up in the middle of last night with a full-blown electrical solution. Sadly it kept him awake quite awhile so I let him sleep in today. Then we went to town for the other passport paperwork, came home, racked the plum wine, and got my oven fixed (yay!). Somehow we missed breakfast, had chicken noodles soup and biscuits for lunch, crockpot hoison chicken with rice for supper (tossed salad and leftover butternut squash).

We sorted out a bunch of stuff for the kitchen renovation including tools, so when he left after supper for the apartment and day shifts to start Tuesday, I had a head start on my FlyLady weekly blessing hour. Considering what a disaster area we had most of the weekend, the house if quite decent. All the kitchen counters are mostly clear, the dishes are done, the bathroom is clean (took a swipe at the cabinet fronts in honor of the bathroom zone this week), the plants are watered, the mirrors are wiped, the coffee table has been rediscovered, the floors vacuumed. Whew. I've also done most of my evening routine and know what is for lunch tomorrow at work. And errands for noon hour are set out on the peninsula. Shortly I'll be off to read and do my back stretches. That's it.

I feel pretty good about what all we got done this weekend. It's looking soooo good.