Jen FitzGerald's Blog, page 124

Finally!

There are few pleasures I enjoy more than the smell of my bedclothes after they've been washed and line-dried. Now that spring is here and I had a good weather day yesterday, I was able to hang my sheets, blanket, and bedspread outside to dry.



And last night when I snuggled into bed...smelled the fabric softener and fresh air...ah, heavenly!

At the March meeting of my writers group, I was presented a hanging planter for my work on the contest I coordinated (and am still coordinating). I joked that it was something else I could kill, but here we are a month later and the little guy is hanging in there--literally and figuratively--and finally looks as if I'm going to get some blooms.



The initial burst of azalea blooms are wilting and falling off, but the Sweet Williams are now starting to open up.



Hope you had a super weekend~

It's writers group weekend...

Let the temptation begin!

I'll be spending the whole day with my writer friends, but that also means being tantalized by the delicious smells of the two restaurants we hang out at.

Wish me luck at resisting the really bad things...

Hope your weekend will be just as fun but without the temptations. :)

And happy birthday to my mother-in-law!

Running behind today, so this is a quick and easy post...

The evolution of my azalea bush. :)

 March 20th
 April 3rd
 April 10th
April 11th
According to a friend of mine, azaleas are hard to grow. My other one died and since the pair of them had been planted to flank my Chinese wisteria and I no longer had two...I moved this one to the pot and the corner of my patio. I seems to like it there, so I'm not messing with it.

I'm really tired of gaining and losing and gaining and losing the same FIVE pounds!

For the last several of months I've gained and lost the "same" few pounds. Ugh!

I reach a certain low weight and something triggers in my head that says, "Go ahead and splurge, look how good you've done." And so I do. And then along comes writers group day and I allow myself to go hog wild. Our group meets at a Tex-Mex restaurant and I pig out on chips and salsa and enjoy a delicious high-calorie meal of enchiladas with beans and rice or a juicy burger and steak fries.

And then I've gained back the weight...

But I've had it.  I'm bound and determined to lose those five pounds and a few more in order to finally finally drop below the gosh-darned 130lb. mark. Just once. I just want to see it on the scale's readout. I know I won't stay there for very long, but that's okay. I'll shift above and below it for a few weeks as my body adjusts to this new phase.

I've done good, and whenever I've been tempted to splurge on something, I remember the scale readout, I think about the progress I've made and about the hated poundage I don't want back and I say no.

I'm going to have to give up my new vice: flour tortillas. Or at least reduce the number of them I consume. But they are so darned tasty. Back to more proteins and more veggies. More celery and peanut butter, I guess. I really should get back to my salad lunches, but the prep work stops me in my tracks. I'll have to research my cost of buying all the lettuce and veggies fresh and raw versus the pre-made salads at the local grocery store. If the difference is negligible, then I may go for the pre-mades. Of course, once the kids are all out and our expenses decrease across the board, then maybe I'll splurge anyway.

I'm still walking every morning, though I'm maintaining a slower pace. The faster pace was making one of legs hurt in a way that wasn't right. Instead, I'm going to increase the grade of the incline to challenge my leg muscles more. I've already noticed some increased muscle mass, both in my calves and right above the back of the knee. Which might also account for the seeming lack of weight loss.

Now if I could just get rid of my belly, but I know it's going to be the hardest area to lose and tone.


And just for fun--the best SQUIRREL PICTURE EVER!

It's FRIDAY again...

Just gotta get through the day and then it'll be the WEEKEND again.

Sonshine will be having friends over Saturday for the next round of Dungeons & Dragons and I'm looking forward to putzing in the yard some more. My goal is to get the back lawn mown and weed whacked. I don't mind the mowing, but I have never been able to properly wield the weed whacker. I can whack if I really have too, although it's not pretty, and Sonshine's gotta earn his keep somehow, right?

I have the last of the brush pile on the side of the house to dispose of. Last night, I broke out the chain saw to cut the larger branches and limbs into truck-bed lengths. Tonight, I'm going to work on raking up all the leaves that have been smashed down and wedged into the grass and ground so that it can all go to the dump first thing in the morning.

Once all that's done, then I have to start digging up the bush and tree stumps along there. Not a fun or easy task. Thankfully they're not large, not are there very many of them. Not sure what my plan is but it'll probably involve a lot of water and the roto-tiller, though *not* at the same time--churn up the dirt and pull out what I can. Then soak the dirt until it's soup and pull out some more. What do you think?? Any other suggestions?

The goal of all that effort is so that I can put in the flower bed I've been dreaming of for years. I want to plant all bulb flowers, so I definitely have a few months to put in the work. Plus I'm borrowing a page from AWESOME REGINA's book and asking for labor for Mother's Day in lieu of gifts.

And while I'm catching my breath between bouts of manual labor, I'll be proof reading and fixing a friend's website.

What are your exciting plans for the weekend?

What's for dinner??

Almost every day, one or the other of my children (sometimes both) ask me what's for dinner. Anyone who works a nine-to-five job knows how hard it is to come home from work and then have to throw together a meal. Depending on the meal, it could be another hour or two before it's time to eat. Unfortunately for me, I'm ready to eat as soon as I walk in the door. Waiting another hour is not usually an option.

Several Sundays ago, maybe a month, I cooked up all my meats. Taco meat, BBQ pork, Fiesta Chicken, etc. I don't remember what I started with, but let me tell you, it was soooo nice to have everything almost ready. Because the meals were already mostly cooked and were things I really enjoyed eating, it wasn't a chore to put dinner together once I got home.

One of our new favorites--Fiesta Chicken--totally easy to prepare using a Crock-Pot! Toss everything in the crock, cook all day, shred the chicken, and serve.

I mostly kept up with it, until weekend before last when I was at my writers conference and I didn't get home until mid-afternoon Sunday. I also didn't grocery shop, since I usually do that early on Sunday mornings, so last week we powered through with whatever was in the house which meant a lot of easy, high-carb meals like grilled cheese and quesadillas. Not good for my waistline.

This past Sunday, I got back on track and it's been so nice to come home and be able to put together a healthy, filling meal without too much time or effort at the end of the day.

Have you ever pre-prepared meals?

Before and After

Last week I mentioned I was going to clean out the flower bed. And I did. It looks one hundred times better!

You sorta got a glimpse of how bad it was in the picture of the Sweet Williams. Remember...


Here's a picture of the whole thing before...


And after about twenty minutes of work, here's how it looks now...


Huge difference, huh? Of course, there's a pile of leaves and weeds just outside this shot. I didn't have any yard bags, otherwise they'd have been bagged while I was out there.

Best of all I discovered that one of the Double Shasta Daisy plants *and* the Gerber Daisy plant that the Brown Eyed Girl gave me are still alive! Look...

 The Shasta Daisies.
 The Gerber Daisies.

The Gerbers are nothing more than tender green shoots at this point, but I was very excited to see them.

I'm very glad spring has finally arrived. How about you?

It's the little things...

Way back when I started my weight loss journey, the only exercise I performed were three easy-peasy simple little things, what I call waist twisties, side stretches, and cross-body toe touches. My calisthenics. I started with a 12 count of each and eventually worked my up to a 30 count.

That's not to say I did them every single day for the last two years, but that's where I started. In fact, I haven't done them in quite some time. Months and months, probably. And I have been thinking that I should get back to them. Why? Because it's large muscle movement two-to-four times a day. Important for someone who sits at a desk for eight hours a day and then sits some more at home at the end of the day.

So I started on Tuesday. On Wednesday I couldn't figure out why I ached--though it was a different ache from the one I'd been feeling previously. And then it dawned on me--my two rounds of calisthenics had used muscles that normally don't see much action.

It was a pleasant sort of ache that encouraged me to follow through and keep doing it on Wednesday. And Thursday. And today.

It's amazing how just those few minutes of very mild exercise a day has had an impact on quite a few aspects, including my energy level and my hungriness. But once I adjust those, will level out. I hope. I hate feeling hungry.

Any small thing you've found that's made a big difference?

Can you believe it...?

Remember last week, I posted about the horrible state of my backyard? And I lamented the condition of both the Chinese wisteria and the azalea??

Well, looky looky here! New growth on the wisteria and blooms on the azalea. I can't tell you how happy that made me.





The sweet William is spreading and I see a ton of buds on it as well.


Yeah, yeah, I need to clean out the leaves...this weekend, I think.

The leaves on the trees are shooting out as well and they'll providing shade in no time.




And just because...

A good time was had by all...

As I mentioned last week, my writing group's biennial conference was this past weekend. I wasn't interested in most of the workshops, which was all right, since I knew I was going to be needed in my capacity as a board member.

But I did get to attend three workshops and I got something important out of all three. In addition, one definite proof job and as well as the possibility of a future job fell in my lap. Thank you, Angi Morgan, for talking me up. I appreciate your confidence in me and my abilities more than you know. I also received an opportunity to expand my repertoire of services. Amy Atwell, author and founder of Author EMS, also spoke at our conference and discovered she had a need that I could fill. So I spoke with her and have an invitation to contact her at the end of the week. WOOT!

My favorite program, however, was the talk by Cindy Dees. Not because I was specifically interested in the topic, which was informative and timely, but because Cindy is so dynamic and funny and awes me with her depth and breadth of knowledge on so many different topics. And I got to sit across from her at dinner and soak up more of her knowledge and humor.

The conference was a success on multiple levels and I was add my thanks and appreciation to the conference coordinator, Lara Lacombe, who did a fabulous and thankless job with amazing grace.

I arrived home Sunday afternoon happily exhausted and with lots to think about. I'm still processing.

And if I'm this pooped after only two and a half days, what am I going to be like after the four/five days of RWA's national conference??