Thursday, February 18

I felt better today. I had some running around to do and did not work out. I ate very reasonably until dinner. We went out for dinner as a fundraiser for Natalie's school choir and I ended up getting a coney with chili cheese fries. I should have made a better choice but it was gooooood!  

I don't think I did any nurturing today, so I need to work on that. 

Tomorrow I will be babysitting my nephew all day. It will be just the two of us, so I won't be able to go to the gym. We may go for a walk if it isn't too cold.

I will let you know tomorrow night! Enjoy your evening!

A Good Day, With a Side of Grief

My day was great. I got so much done. I went grocery shopping, went to the gym and did Aqua Zumba, and got a ton of things crossed off of my to-do list. I made really good food choices that included a nice salad for lunch.

The difficult part to my day came in the form of a hidden grief land mine. I was looking through Facebook posts and saw something someone else posted that reminded me of a conversation Sue and I had. This person happened to use the exact phrasing Sue used in our conversation.

Just like that, the tears were flowing. The "why can't I have my sister back?" thoughts flooded my brain. I was taken right back to what it felt like to have her in my life. She always had my back, she always made me laugh. There is now and always will be a big Sue-sized hole in my heart. She was a small person physically, but that hole is HUGE.

It hurts. It's not fair. I'm angry.

It was a good day overall, but the pain of grief knocked me down this evening, and I need some time to rest and process it.

Have a good evening, I'll check in again tomorrow.

Tuesday February 16, 2016

It was another day at home with all four kids and I loved it. When I don't have to get up so early (5:30), I feel much better and have a lot more energy. I got a lot of things done around the house, and did a lot of cooking. I nurtured myself by playing several games of solitaire. Exciting, I know, but I love me some solitaire!

I did a good job with eating today and made lots of good food decisions. Then I went to yoga class and it was a bit more challenging than usual. 

It was a good day. The kids go back to school tomorrow and I'm feeling ready to go back to the gym, so I'm hoping to have a great report. Have a wonderful evening!

Monday, February 15

It was a nice, relaxed day here at my house. The kids were home from school and I had a few trips out to drop off/pick up a couple of them at a friend's house and a birthday party. Other than that I put some Jambalaya in the crockpot and we just hung out together. This whole day counts as my nurturing! 

I did not exercise today, but I did a good job with my eating. No sugar! 

It was a great day! I hope yours was too!

Valentine's Weekend

Good morning! It's Monday. I didn't blog for the whole weekend, so I have some catching up to do.

On Friday I waited around at home for the guy from the window company to come over to fix a window that wouldn't completely close. It was just as well that I sat around at home, because I felt like I was coming down with something. I got a few things done around the house and the window got fixed, so it was somewhat productive. I did not exercise, but I had no sugar, and I read a lot (nurturing).

Saturday started with my dog-walking date, but it was COLD! We cut our walk short, it was -11 F with the windchill. I couldn't feel my legs when we got back. I think we made it around 30 minutes (we had to make it to Starbucks and back! Priorities!). I took Joe for a haircut, and had my nephew over to play with Ben for awhile, then we started to prepare for Card Night.  Frank's sister, her husband, and their son came over for an evening of pizza and Euchre playing. We love having card night!  I couldn't have any of the dessert, but I stuck with it.

Sunday was my first day of working in the kitchen at church to help serve Coffee Hour (big spread of breakfast/snacks after the service). It was fun, but there were Valentines goodies everywhere! Since it was Sunday, I was allowed to have sugar, and I did. After church I relaxed for awhile (nurturing) before Frank and I went to dinner and the movies for Valentines Day. I had dessert after dinner, which, coupled with the stuff I ate at church, means I went overboard on my one day when sugar is allowed. I need to be more careful next week!

Today is Monday, and the kids are off school both today and tomorrow. It really throws off my workouts when there are four extra people around to distract me! I'll report tonight on how things go. I'm back on the no sugar bandwagon. Have a great day, and happy belated Valentines Day!

It's a Challenge, This Week...

Another day of craziness! Today I got up, took kids to school, went to work at the church for a few hours, then off to lunch with a friend, back home to bake several dozen cookies for Valentines Day parties, kids got home, made dinner, and now I am sitting at the weekly middle school book meeting at the library. 

So, let's see...I didn't exercise, I stuck to my Lenten no sugar rule, my lunch with my friend (and fun conversation) was my nurturing. This is clearly not one of my best exercise weeks. I'm a little frustrated with myself that I keep not fitting it in. I'm proud of sticking to no sugar  (and that was a challenge while baking several dozen chocolate chip cookies!).

I will be stuck home tomorrow to wait for a guy to fix a window, so no gym for me (again!) but I can find a yoga video and follow along. I'm going to work on that tomorrow.

Have a great night!

Sick Kids, Clean Dog

It's been another crazy day! The first sound I heard when I woke up this morning was like a warning bell to a mom-of-four's ears--the barking cough. The croup cough, which sounds just like a seal barking, can wake me from a dead sleep. I've had a LOT of experience with it, unfortunately, and I knew immediately that our Ben would not be going to school today. Soon after checking him out, Natalie came to me complaining of nausea and fatigue. So, I had two kids home sick today. (Only one was okay with being photographed.)

Isn't he adorable and pitiful?

I didn't exercise, except for a 15 minute stint of snow shoveling. I made it through day one of lent without eating any goodies. I'm not sure I spent any time nurturing myself. I was too busy taking care of two sick kids, doing the (long overdue) grocery shopping, picking up Sam from an after-school club meeting, getting the dog groomed, and helping the two little boys fill out five billion Valentine cards and do homework. Ack! 

I'm tired tonight. I have a full day planned for tomorrow so going to the gym doesn't look like a good possibility right now, but we'll see.  

The good news is that Violet looks and smells lovely, and Ben perked up enough to do some yoga! Have a great night!