March Review

Here were my intentions at the beginning of the year. Let me review how I’ve done, so far. (I know, I know, it’s the 4th of April already, but this is for March.)

RESOLVE (or better yet – INTENTIONS)

• Finish losing the weight I need to by eating right (lo-cal, lo-carb, wine only on special occasions) and strength training 3 days a week.

I stuck pretty closely to my diet in March, but still no movement on the scale. I’m really discouraged, but I’ll keep on with it. I really have no other choice. Even if I’m not losing anything, I’m definitely not gaining, so that ain’t nothing.

I INTEND to keep on eating decently in April.

I’m still avoiding wine, except for the occasional glass when I’m eating out with a group, or at a party.

I still haven’t done any strength training yet this year, but again, I INTEND to. (Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of these months you are going to see this post and find out I’m lifting weights and doing lots of core exercises. Just not last month.)

• Walk regularly, either alone or with a group, at least 4 days a week for at least 5 miles.

My FitBit keeps me on the straight and narrow. I managed to log over 280 miles in March (about half of it outside) because the weather is finally improving.

•  Grow enough vegetables to enjoy and to help supply the food bank.

I got my onions planted in my garden, and I’m doing a decent job of keeping the weeds at bay. I put in another row of onion sets that should be ready about a month after the first ones. I planted seeds for two kinds of squash (yellow zucchini and yellow crooked-neck). Only about a month before I can put in tomatoes, and peppers. I’m going to start some green beans seed in the greenhouse sometime this week. My artichoke plant seems to have survived the winter very well.

• Travel to see Bill and his family. We have the trip to Birmingham all booked. We’ll take the Empire Builder to Chicago and rent a car, then drive to Birmingham in time for Kate’s graduation from 8th grade. Then we have several days to tour around (possibly go to Shelbyville, TN to check on genealogy stuff or to Atlanta or Tallahassee to visit friends.) We’ll also visit my cousin just west of Nashville on the way down. Then Ian will graduate from High School (if he turns in his project that is finished, but still sitting at home). We’ll drive back to Chicago to see Ray and Co., and then ride the Builder back to Seattle.
  • Take several short trips as well.
  • To Pacific Beach
  • To Portland – DONE
  • To Spokane to look for genealogical information
  • To the San Juan Islands (because we’ve wanted to return and keep saying “We can do that anytime”, but we never do.)
  • To Victoria, BC

I will volunteer at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Portland in June. I will go down for the whole week. I’ve got the hotel all booked, and I’m ready to go. What a gift that it will be held on the West Coast. It probably won’t be out here again in my lifetime.

• Keep up with Headspace and Tai Chi.

I’ve done a decent job keeping up with Headspace. I finished up the pack on Happiness and have been doing “Advanced Headspace”. I still do it regularly every morning. I credit it with helping me keep my sanity.

I haven’t been as regular with Tai Chi, unfortunately. I still make it to class at least once a week, but my church meetings seem to fall on Thursdays and that’s when one of my classes is. I am trying to schedule around it, though.

• The other big news around here is that Al finally decided to have his cataracts attended to. He had the left eye done the 22nd of March, and the right eye is scheduled for the 19th of April. He’s really happy with the first eye, but it’s keeping me busy putting in drops 4 times a day.

• We both attended the Democratic precinct convention, and Al was selected as a delegate to the Congressional District (I’m an alternate). We are both Hillary supporters, but Bernie Sanders seems to have stolen the hearts of the Democrats in Washington.

That’s where I am and what I’ve been doing for the past month. I hope I keep up with you better in April.

 

February Review

Here were my intentions at the beginning of the year. Let me review how I’ve done, so far. (I know, I know, it’s the 5th of March already, but this is for February.)

RESOLVE (or better yet – INTENTIONS)

• Finish losing the weight I need to by eating right (lo-cal, lo-carb, wine only on special occasions) and strength training 3 days a week.

I did much better with my diet in February. I had one major splurge when we went to Portland for Valentine’s Day and I ate my weight in goodies at Fogo de Chao.

I INTEND to keep on eating decently in March.

I did manage to give up wine, except for the occasional glass when I’m eating out with a group, or at a party.

I still haven’t done any strength training yet this year, but again, I INTEND to.

Still not much movement on the weight front, but I am holding steady, even with the occasional splurge.

• Walk regularly, either alone or with a group, at least 4 days a week for at least 5 miles.

As far as exercise goes, my FitBit was again the saving of me. I managed to log over 220 miles in February (most of it on the NuStep) because the rain kept coming.

•  Grow enough vegetables to enjoy and to help supply the food bank.

I got my onions planted in my garden, and I’m doing a decent job of keeping the weeds at bay. Only about six weeks before I can put in tomatoes, squash, green beans and peppers.

• Travel to see Bill and his family (for Ian’s graduation from High School), but don’t focus solely on that. Take several short trips as well.
  • To Pacific Beach
  • To Portland – DONE – As I said above, we went to Portland for Valentine’s Day weekend. We rode the train down, spent the night in the Residence Inn – Pearl District, rode the streetcars around town, met my cousins for a drink before dinner, and splurged for dinner at Fogo de Chao. An excellent time was had by all!
  • To Spokane to look for genealogical information
  • To the San Juan Islands (because we’ve wanted to return and keep saying “We can do that anytime”, but we never do.)
  • To Victoria, BC

I also have another trip planned to Portland in the middle of June for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). I will be volunteering and will go down for the whole week. What a gift that it will be held on the West Coast. It probably won’t be out here again in my lifetime.

• Keep up with Headspace and Tai Chi.

I’ve done a decent job keeping up with Headspace. I finished up the pack on Relationships, and I’m almost finished with the set on Creativity. I will start Happiness in March.

I haven’t been as regular with Tai Chi, unfortunately. I still make it to class at least once a week, but my church meetings seem to fall on Thursdays and that’s when one of my classes is. I am trying to schedule around it, though.

That’s where I am and what I’ve been doing for the past month. I hope I keep up with you better in March.

 

Provide

As you may remember, my one word for the year is “Provide”.

Goodness gracious, where on earth did June go? July has totally snuck up on me!

I didn’t do much about “Providing” in June, except to be one of the eight people required in order for Franke Tobey Jones to take the bus sightseeing. It may not sound like much, but I can’t tell you how many really great sounding trips get cancelled because we don’t have enough people to go.

Anyway…

Early in June, Big Al and I took the train, and spent the day in Portland. I thought I posted about it, but apparently I didn’t. We didn’t have any particular plans or sightseeing aims, we just went down for lunch – left at 8:15 in the morning and were back at 5:15 that evening. Portland is a great little city with easy-to-get-around trams, and lots of “street art.”

I know I’m in the Pacific Northwest because the public drinking fountains bubble water all the time.

The flowers and plantings in the public parks and on the streets were beautifully tended – it was the Rose Festival the following day.

The train station has great mission architecture, and has been refurbished/well-maintained, and the views of the sound from the train were reward enough for our tickets.

On Friday that week, the FTJ Lunch Bunch went to Seattle for lunch at Sky City at the Space Needle. (Good Grief! I never posted the pictures from there either.)

It was a beautiful day, and I overwhelmed myself taking pictures, as well as eating myself stupid on clams and mussels. We had great views of the sound, of the city and of Mt Rainier.

I KNOW I did posts about FTJ’s trip to Northwest Trek and Mt Rainier Scenic Railroad.

I think I remember now why I hadn’t already posted about Seattle and Portland. I spent most of May and June doing a photo-a-day in anticipation of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). You can find all my post by searching here for #journeytoGA and/or #PCUSA. Also during the week of deliberations, I followed the proceedings on Live Feed and on Twitter and Facebook. GA will be in Portland in two years, and I’m determined to go, even if it’s only as an observer.

At church, I continue to provide leadership as a member of the session and as the chair of the Hospitality and Outreach Team. Summer is a busy time for us as we are the organizing group for our National Night Out Street Party in early August and our Annual Picnic in mid-August. Additionally we will be trying an activity during worship in July when we will pack “Gift of the Heart” School Bags for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and Church World Service. If that goes well, we will do a similar activity in the fall, making hygiene kits for a local homeless shelter.

Now that I talk about all the “stuff” I’ve been doing in June, I understand why it seemed to disappear in a puff of smoke.

On a related note, the deer continue to demolish many of my flowers, and Big Al and I are off to the nursery to see if we can find something that they won’t destroy. I’m thinking maybe Foxglove (digitalis). I understand it’s as poisonous to deer as it is to people. Bwhahahahaha!!!!!