Habits

It is so easy to let slip a habit that I worked so hard to create. After the unusual week, with my husbands' parents visiting, I am completely out of the habit of writing and mostly out of the habit of exercising. So now I must try to build these habits back. I started today by walking Chica and now by updating my blog. I think I am going to have to start walking Chica every morning anyway because she doesn't want to go out in the morning anymore now that it's getting cooler. She will walk with me, but she won't go out by herself. It's forcing me to walk again :) The writing daily, well that's going to be a bit harder of a habit to reform. We shall see how it goes.

A Whole Week

I cannot believe a whole WEEK has past since I updated my blog! Well.... maybe I can believe it since I have been super-busy cleaning and then hosting. We had so much fun!!! My husband & I took them through St Augustine and all around Jacksonville, though there were still some places missed--there is only so much we can do in the few days they were here :) Dad loves fish but doesn't get much in Arizona, so we introduced them to 2 different fish camps. Mmmmmm! I am going to have to work out hard to avoid putting on weight this week! And we must have hit almost every Starbucks & coffee shop around town :) After a wonderful visit, they headed out early this morning and the housed is back to normal (or it will be after I clean up a bit). I should get back to regular schedule tomorrow.

A Full Day

The craziness continues as I prepare for company. I hadn't realized how long it's been since I gave my house a thorough cleaning! I keep the living areas presentable, but I hate to dust, and floorboards or behind furniture? Forget it! I need to get on some kind of schedulen so I am cleaning more often than whenever family or friends stay the night. Anyway, the front room is now completely cleared, de-cluttered, and cleaned. I also went back and did a few overlooked parts of the living room. Tomorrow I'm moving on the the kitchen and possibly the bedroom. Oh! And I weeded out the garden beds again. If we dont get more rain soon I'm going to have to start watering. Com'on clouds!

Cleaning Day

Today has been a day of hard work! With family coming, I decided to do some deep cleaning that I had been putting off. 12 hours later, the living room is completely dusted (and with all the decorations DH has brought home, that's a LOT of dusting) and the office/music room is cleaned out! Now THAT is an accomplishment. We took the keyboard up to the music shop to put it on consignment, cleaned up the accumulated junk that was lying about, cleared the office desk and dusted the majority of the room. It looks completely different. Now someone will be able to sleep in there when company comes. Much accomplished today :)

Migraine

Ouch! I have been in pain for the majority of my day. 2 hours my last chiropractor appointment, I "cracked" my neck and something went wrong. I ended up with a headache that would not stop. It grew for 2 days straight, so after a morning of working through the pain running my various Thursday errands, I took myself back to the chiropractor to fix what I messed up and then drove home to sleep off the pain. Then, an hour later, I got a call from my husband--he had sliced his finger on a mower and needed me to come help him out. Both of us down for the count at the same time, not a good situation. I've got the migraine mostly under control right now, but his finger is going to take some time to heal.

Teaching, Shopping, & Mowing

Busy day today. After a VERY late night waiting up for my dear husband, I got up ealier than normal to make it to my Tuesday English teaching. I love my class, even though I'm just assisting. The girls are all so sweet; it's awesome getting to knew ladies from different cultures. Then this afternoon, after a stop at my chiropractor, I hit the store for some sweet deals. I ended up saving just over 50% with all my coupons + sales :) I use a website called SouthernSavers.com which makes it so easy. If I put in more time, I could probably save more (not like those extreme couponers you see on TV, but closer to 60-75% off). But I am busy enough and a 50% savings is good for me. After bringing home the goodies, I was off to assist my husband in our 2nd job--lawn care. 2 lawns later it was getting dark and I was finally home for the evening. So I guess I did walk today, but it was around a store and outside working, not quite what I had planned. Hopefully I'll be able to get back out there tomorrow.

Pet Store Visit

Well, I did it--I got back to walking today. I took Chica to the pet store about a half mile away. She really likes to sniff around the store--so many interesting new smells. I came this <> close to buying her a doggie toothbrush, but I wasn't certain she would let me use it on her. Plus, her mouth is so small, I'm not sure a finger brush would fit comfortably inside anyway. After walking home, I spent an hour weeding out all 3 of the tiers of my planter. Whew! If I don't stay on top of things those weeds go wild FAST! All weeds have been vanquished (for now), but I'll have to keep an eye on it. More walking on the agenda for tomorrow.

Rain, rain, & more rain!

It has been raining all day! Bands of heavy rain followed by bands of light rain with maybe a break here or there. During one of the short breaks I managed to get outside to do some more weeding, but that was about the extent of my exercise for today. It was truly a lazy day, but we all need those every once in a while :) I made a Mexican pizza for dinner tonight, complete with a homemade whole wheat & cornmeal crust. It was ok--a little on the dry side and not quite crispy/thin enough, but fairly good.

Pecans

Boy, yesterday was a BUSY day! I ran errands all morning, visited a friend with her new baby in the afternoon, and cooked and helped my hubby at night. The whole day slipped by without a lick of "exercise". Oh well. Much was accomplished anyway. We now have a new programmable thermostat installed! No more messing with the lever trying to get the house to cool off!! YAY!!! Now to figure out how to work it..... This morning I went outside to check on my plants (which are getting plenty of rain thanks to the nor'easter sending much clouds our way) and discovered 2 things: 1) Those pesky white rooted weeds that I rooted out of the middle tier are growing under the platform for the rain barrel on the top tier! After I planted all 3 tiers of the planter with vegetables, my husband decided it would be a good idea to move our rain barrel up high. So he built a little ledge on top of the end of the garden for it! I had to respace a strawberry plant for that thing! But hopefully it will come in handy when we need water later on. Anyway, the weeds are growing right up through the slats in the platform! It looked like a forest of white roots when I took a peek underneath. That is going to be difficult to weed out without destroying the plants adjacent. I did a little this morning, but then got distracted by discovery #2) Chica was trying to eat a pecan. That may not seem too weird, but I had not given it to her, nor had I ever fed her one before! How did she know that it was good to eat? A mystery.... I investigated (after I cracked it open for her :) We have a pecan tree in our neighbor's backyard that grows over into our backyard. We've been waiting for the fruits to ripen, but it is still loaded down with green buds. However, after walking around the shed to the back of the property, I noticed my neighbors walking their yard while intently looking at the ground. The pecan tree belongs to them, and they held something (I assumed pecans) in their hand, so I asked them what to look for. When pecans ripen and drop, they do not look like they do in the store. They have a dark outer shell attached, and they usually drop so hard that they are half-buried. The best way to find them is to feel them under foot. (good thing I had flip-flops on) So I proceeded to feel around and picked up a good double handful of the things. Hopefully they will be good eats for us tonight. That explained where Chica got the pecan, but how did she know it was food? She learned it from the neighbor's dogs! They get out there and find, crack, and eat the pecans along with their people! In fact, their little dog has gained quite a bit of weight from eating so many of the nuts :) Mystery solved, I came inside, washed my nuts ;) , and set them out to dry.

Wicked White Weeds

YeeHaw! Hot diggidy! Git er done! After breakfast and a 20 minute walk (about 1/2 mile backwards to change it up), I let Chica into the backyard to chase lizards and started on my daily weeding. I try to weed one of the 3 tiers of the planter daily to keep up with things, and to get a good feel for the moisture in the soil. Well! Today I set out to weed the middle bed, and 45 minutes later I had a pile of these pervasive white rooted weeds that are constantly popping back up! I just decided to dig as far down as I could to find the source, and boy howdy! those things grow deep. I usually dig down about a hands length and just snap them off, but this time I took a cultivator and dug down about 2 feet anywhere I saw the heads of them so I could find all the other branches and (hopefully) get the source out. I did this all along the 10 foot length of the middle planter. Whew, that was a job, but quite fun. I love a challenge, and theses weeds have been just that! I don't think I got the root in all of the places, but I certainly put a dent in their growth. Hopefully they'll get the hint and not bother to grow back ;)

Oops

Yesterday was so busy, the whole day slipped by without a chance to write anything! Oops. I watered the planter for the first time this season yesterday morning. It had rained for a week straight after I planted the seeds, so it didn't need watering before. Now it's been a week since it has rained and when I weeded it on Sunday, I noticed the soil was getting very dry. I want veggies from these plants, so I do my best to take care of them :) Then I was off to the doctors, home for a short while for lunch mixed with business paperwork, then off to tutor for the afternoon. Yesterday evening I worked with my husband for a few hours and then made a late supper of garlic shrimp pasta. Mmmm. It's one of his favorite recipes and about the only way I enjoy shrimp. Yeah, I know: I'm weird. But I taught biology and know what those guys eat. I have a hard time with catfish too. Anyway, no real exercise to speak of yesterday, but I'm planning on going for a walk or skate later this afternoon. We'll see how that goes.

A Beautiful Day

Today was GORGEOUS! I love fall weather in Florida :) A little nippy in the morning and warm with a cool breeze the rest of the day. I spent much of today outside (of course) weeding the garden and helping my husband construct his pond. It is going to be beautiful when it's finally done. Then I went to the third of 3 consecutive weekend baby showers. Each one was different and each reflected the mother's personality. Intriguing how that works out. Finally we ended the night with a movie at home (theaters are too expensive, especially on the weekends). Looking forward to a day of rest & worship tomorrow!