Balance

Friday:  snow

Saturday:  tank top & cut offs while gardening

Sunday: feather vest and sweatshirt, long pants

 

On Friday when I pulled into our neighborhood and saw that it was snowing, I promptly drove myself to the liquor store to get some wine….for medicinal purposes, of course.

 

We didn’t get up to much on Friday night and then on Saturday morning we had a club meeting.  Following the meeting we got groceries and ran a couple errands and then went home and did this:

  

Where you can now see lava rock, it was all overgrown rhododendron.  We ripped and cut it back, leveled the ground, laid down some landscaping fabric and a “barrier” tie at the back and then filled it in with lava rock.  I called it my 20 minute garden….probably it was more like an hour of work between the two of us, but still, quick and done!  That spot right there (and on the sidewalk) is the hottest side of our house in the summer and tomatoes flourish there.  Historically we each get our own tomato plant and then our plants duke it out over the summer to see who the best producer is!  We end up with way more tomatoes than we can eat though and everyone else we know also grows them so there’s no one to give them to.  So, this year I decided to clear cut a spot and plant container blueberries and raspberries instead.  Hence the lava rock garden and pots! 

 

Saturday night while watching random television I decided to try making coconut chips.  They turned out AWESOME, too good.  I used this recipe but next time would severely limit (or eliminate) the salt, I found them much too salty for my personal taste.

  

On Sunday after going out for breakfast (somehow this has become tradition) we went back home and picked up Grace and then went to a park in a neighboring town for a walk.  It’s always refreshing to go somewhere new, while we are blessed to live on the doorstep of a beautiful forest with well maintained trails, it gets a bit overdone walking the same ones day after day so we set off somewhere new.  We went about 5-6km in a gorgeous cool sunshine.  We all loved the change of scenery!

  

After our walk we started on some yardwork.  I mowed and edged both of our lawns, did doo-doo pickup and raked up old leaves while Ray worked on his new hanging tomato system.  I got the total short end of that stick (the back yard hadn’t been mowed yet this year, the grass was 8” tall, thick and damp) but it was great exercise!  And, after a good walk and the yardwork, we had a delicious fresh dinner.  It was a recipe that originally came from my late boss but which I very slightly adapted.  Pretty much just marinated chicken chunks which are sautéed with a sweet onion, garlic and tomatoes (canned-drained or fresh) and then tossed with roasted spaghetti squash until warm through and then sprinked with feta.  So delicious!

So, that’s what happened in the past, what’s coming this week?  Studying…….gym…….staying away from snacks/sugar……..more studying.  I’m such a creature of habit that having this exam hanging over my head is really messing with my feeling of balance.   I think it’s maybe a bit why I’ve been feeling almost like I’m depressed (I’m not).  It could also be because I’m now taking an exam for something that I won’t, in the forseeable future, actually be able to use.  Either way, I want the exam to come never but also tomorrow so that it’s over with.  That depressive, out of balance feeling is probably driving an urge to “feel better” that I’m trying to assuage by eating sugar and carbs (serotonin, anyone?). 

 

What’s on this week for everyone else?  Anything looming on the horizon that is messing with your regular balance?

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