Our Glorious Weekend

Happy Tuesday, friends!  I'm back to work today, but wanted to take a few minutes to re-cap this weekend for you.  I feel like we crammed it all in there, like we really didn't waste the precious time we had.  I love weekends like this, where it just somehow works.

Saturday morning A and I went to breakfast, then wandered over to the grand opening of our friends' shop, Viv's Vintage.  If you're in the Fort Collins area, please check it out!  She has so much great stuff, and it's just a fun, happy place.  I told A we had to support Viv... aka, I needed to buy something, or maybe several somethings.  I knew it was going to be tough to pick just one thing, but I had no idea just how tough it would be!  I wanted so many things, but when it came down to it, I decided to bring these beauties home:

Not only are they gorgeous, but they were just the right thing for holding sewing stuff.  It was like accomplishing 2 important things all in one; supporting a friend, and De-cluttering our office.

After Viv's I had planned a fun date for us.  So we packed up and headed to Denver.  We started out with burgers at the Cherry Cricket:

A was so incredibly happy to get his cricket burger fix.  From there we dashed across the city to the Pepsi center where we had a lovely time learning all about the delicate intricacies of the Colorado Mammoth Lacrosse team and their classy traditions, like shouting "Get in the box!" at players from the opposing team as they're charged with a penalty.

And we especially loved how sassy the Mammoth goalie was.  The game was on when I took this picture.  It kinda reminds me of the kid in little league who's supposed to be playing right field, but just picks dandelions instead*.

*On a side note, I was totally not that kid.  I was the kid in LEFT field picking dandelions.  Totally a different thing.

Sunday was a catch-up day for us.  I tried (unsuccessfully) to get some school work done.  Went to yoga.  Came home and made Arroz con Pollo, and then we watched "The Voice".  I have been waiting so long for this show to come back, and could not be happier it is back in my queue.  Oh, and we watched like 4 episodes of "The Big Bang Theory".  It's my favorite.

Today I went down to Boulder to see my mom.  She decided that since she had to do the whole chemo thing, it was better to shave her head than it was to have her hair fall out in her sleep.  She looks pretty good with no hair.  I intended to go to yoga Monday night, but was too sore from yoga Sunday.  I have been having a hard time getting my workouts in lately, and the main two factors have been feeling sick, and being crazy sore.  I am kinda worried I may have taken on too much physical activity at once?  I am trying to be a good steward of my body, and do what it asks, not just what I think is the best thing.

So that is my weekend, wrapped up like a pistachio, with just a hint of it peeking out for all to see.  How was your weekend?  Have a wonderful week!

Waking up

Over the last several years, I feel that I have done a pretty good job of convincing myself and the people around me that if I'm not entirely a morning person, then at least I am no miserable to be around in the mornings.  I go to bed early so I can get enough sleep.  I wake up WELL in advance of the time where I need to be anywhere appearing civilized.  While my coffee goes everywhere with me, I don't refuse to speak a kind word until I am 1.5 cups in.

Some people like red solo cups... I just like this cup to be full of goodness

But then there are days...  Last night I didn't sleep well.  In fact, despite having gone to bed at 9:45, I didn't fall asleep until nearly one am.  That put the kibosh on me making it to Monday morning water aerobics.  Boo.  I reasoned it away saying that since I have today off, I really didn't NEED to get up at 5:30am to go work out.  I have time, after all.  I can even go to yoga tonight, to a class I have been working up to for the last few weeks, and test my abilities.  It's almost a blessing, right?  And since I don't have to work, I don't have to pretend to be nice either...  It is a grumpy morning for me, guys.  Be glad you aren't witnessing the madness.

Even stranger that my lack of ability to drag myself out of bed this morning and pretend to be happy about it, was that A, the biggest enemy of the morning hours I know, was all kinds of chipper this morning!  It is work to get him out of bed before 9:30am, and this morning he was awake by 7:30, and HAPPY about it!

People, I feel like I am in the twilight zone... what is going on here?!?!

My Wishes

My wishes for this next week...

That A and I can make some good progress on the things we want to sell in our friends' shop.

That I can take time to create something for myself, not just for others.

That I will feel well enough to get back into my 5day/week workout routine after 2 weeks of not hitting that mark.

That I not lose my temper about the little things that don't REALLY matter.

That the weather will clear up enough so that I can ride THIS beauty to work again.

What are your wishes for the week to come?

Linking up with Sunday Wishes at -fly far. fly free

Sweetly Saturday

Happy Saturday, friends!

This is my week to have a 3 day weekend, and I am thrilled to start it off with a list of the things that have made this week special.  Have any of you started making lists of what you're grateful for yet?  It will change your perceptions in ways you have not imagined, I promise!

1. Pinterest.  I finally jumped on board, and I don't know now why I waited so long.  I love being able to see what inspires my friends, and sharing with them what inspires me!
2. Sick leave.  I have almost always had jobs that offered paid sick time.  HOWEVER, those same jobs made it not just difficult, but almost impossible to use our sick time unless you were in the hospital hooked up to life support.  I am so thankful to work somewhere that allows their employees to use their sick time and not just suffer through feeling icky.
3. My classes are going well.  They do require a lot of work, and they stress me out, but so far, so good.  I may just wind up an Accountant after all!
4. My job in general.  I seriously work with the best people ever.  We have properties in 2 cities, and I am the only person that lives at my property.  When snow hits, I don't have to go into the main office, I get to stay at the office on my property.  This is such a huge blessing, since my car isn't great in the snow, and A is back in school, so I can't just steal his whenever the need arises.
5. Throw together dinners.  Monday night I hadn't been to the grocery store, and hadn't even had a chance to meal plan yet.  I didn't want to spend all of that time and have yet another receipt to keep track of, so instead I made this:

Stuffed Delicata squash and pan-fried tilapia

Salad with Amy's Goddess Dressing

 It was pretty delightful.  I love when a meal comes together at the last minute, and it was better than either going out, or something I could have picked up at the store.

I hope you are all gearing up for a wonderful weekend!

Time to rest

I am not good at resting.  I called in sick on Thursday, because I was feeling, well, sick.  By 11:00am, I couldn't handle doing nothing.  I wanted to be productive.  I hate sitting all day doing nothing.  So I figured I could run the self-clean on my oven.  We moved in 13.5 months ago, and in that time, the oven had never been cleaned.  This was my shot;  I was staying home anyway, I wanted to air out my house and get some fresh air too.  It seemed like the perfect plan.

Uhhhhh, no.  Apparently, I need to clean my oven more often, because within an hour, my smoke and CO detectors were very angry with me, and not afraid to show it.  Not good when your head feels like it's being split open from the inside.

I feel like the world may have been telling me to slow down, take a breath.  I stayed home for a reason, and that reason was to get well.  It's kinda like in yoga, when you push hard all the way to get to your final rest in corpse pose, and then you get up and run out the door right away.  Rest only works if you allow yourself to rest.  Your body can only soak up the benefits of rest if you surrender to the process of healing.

It goes against my very nature, but I want to practice letting things be, not just on the yoga mat, but off of it as well.  Being able to accept where I am today is critical to where I will find myself tomorrow.  I may not be where I want to be today, but if I can accept it with grace, I have a better chance of being exactly where I want to be tomorrow.

What makes a place home?

I've been thinking about what makes a specific place home to me.  In college, I was in a Sorority, and that place became home to me.  Those women became my family.  So much so, that after I graduated and moved back to CO, I wondered if I had made the right choice. 

But then again, Colorado was home too.  How can you deny that the place that has been your permanent state of residence for over 20 years is home?  What about my Grandparent's house, the one that I always loved to visit and that my cousins still own?

Check out THAT awesome wallpaper!

Home means a lot of things.  But maybe what it means most to me is that feeling of belonging.  It doesn't matter how long you are there, all that matters is that the people who surround you love you, accept you, want the best for you.  Home is a place where there is no pretense, you can just be who you want and need to be.  It allows you to express exactly who you are at that time in your life.

I think that's why the home environment is so important to me.  I don't want to come home and have to be myself in someone else's space.  That is a difficult thing to accomplish.  My style and taste may not resemble anything anyone else might ever find desirable.  In fact, the rest of the world could find it hideous, for all I care.  I just want that space to reflect me and make me happy.

What images or places remind you of home?

A January wrap-up

January went way too fast!  I can't believe that it is February already.  With my January goals, some went very well, while others kinda flopped.  So let's look back, and I'll give you the run-down (my comments for each goal are in pink):

• Establish a start weight (as of January 1, 2012) 160.8 lbs on January 1
• Lose 5 pounds I really only lost 1.4 lbs, weight on 1/30 was 159.4 lbs through
• Exercise 22 times (for at least an hour at a time) I did 20 times, which I think is pretty good
• Limit dessert to no more than 1/week For the most part.  I did double up on dessert once or twice
• Limit eating out to no more than 2x/week  Epic fail.  We had a really busy month, and used it as an excuse to eat out more often
• Limit television time to 1 hour a day, and schedule my tv time in advance Sorta fail.  My tv averaged out to about an hour a day, but I didn't schedule it, and it wasn't consistent.  Once I started school, tv time dropped a lot
• Make a schedule for sewing projects I would like to complete this year and prioritize them from easiest to hardest.  Done.  It isn't really in order of easiest to hardest, but it took shape in a way that makes me happy.  My January sewing goal was to make 6 aprons, but I only got 3 done.  A lot of that had to do with me getting frustrated with little things and setting it aside, not from a lack of time.
• Once a week, post a list of things I am grateful for Win!  This was my favorite January goal, and I really felt the difference in the days I focused on good things vs other days of the week.  So much so, that it is now a February goal too!
• Limit the monthly grocery budget to $250  We came in at $246.47.  I am really proud of my ability to not only try to stick to the budget, but also to keep my receipts so that we knew what we spent!  We are pretty to stoked to lower the grocery limbo bar this month, and see how low we can go!
• Schedule at least one "date" with A  Yes!!!  We had a blast at painting night together, and it was a departure from the normal hum-drum date.
• Take one whole day to do whatever I want... even if that's sleeping all day!  Kinda, Sorta, Not really.  I had a pretty lazy Sunday, but I got anxious about taking a full day for myself and decided I needed to get productive in the late afternoon.  I would give myself a C+ on that one.
• Study a minimum of 6 hours per week once school starts on the 17th.  I found out 6 hours is not going to be enough, and spent more time studying.  This month I am budgeting approx 12 hours for study time each week.

How did your goals go?  Did you feel like you accomplished what you wanted?  Did you learn something new?