Saturday, March 29, 2014

Felicidad

My weekly weigh-in was yesterday, and I weighed 235.0 pounds.  That is a loss of 1.6 pounds for the week.  It seems every week I reflect on what kept me from losing more weight.  Last week it was my daughter's birthday and Thai food.  This week it was dinner at the Mexican restaurant, but the thing is, my weight is still going down despite the fact that I am out there living life, getting pleasure from the food I eat, and enjoying occasional treats.  That's a huge win in my eyes, even if the weight loss is slower than I had hoped when I started.

And this is yesterday's thing of beauty:


I've only had margaritas twice in the last three months, and I loved every sip.


Friday, March 28, 2014

Wet Flowers

Oops, almost forgot to post the picture I took today.  It's more wet flowers.  The sun showed up for a half hour today, and it just so happened to be the time I was out running to the store a few essentials I needed to make dinner.  The air was crisp and fresh after a downpour for a good part of the day.  I was happy to get out during the brief sunny part.


Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Beautiful and Fiery


This is the fire opal ring that my husband gave to me for our 25th anniversary.  It's extra special to me because it belonged to his mum, and she gave it to him to give to me.  It reminds me that I am loved dearly by my in-laws, and that warms my heart.

Opal is also my birthstone, and I love this ring.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Mmmm Meat

Yep, I'm sharing a picture of my dinner for today's 30 Day Beauty Challenge picture because a healthy home cooked meal is a beautiful thing.



We had pork sirloin and roasted garlic Parmesan asparagus.  Not too long ago if there wasn't potatoes, rice, pasta or a dinner roll on my plate it didn't feel like I'd eaten a complete meal.  This meal was, however, very satisfying.  My perception has changed and I no longer feel cheated if I don't have a big dose of carbohydrates for dinner.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Clouds in My Coffee

Most mornings the first thing I do is grab a mug, pour some coffee, add some creamer and walk away from the mug to put the creamer back in the fridge.  Today, it occurred to me that I was missing out on 3 seconds of pleasure that every coffee with cream drinker can easily enjoy.

Clouds in my coffee.


And stirring too vigorously makes bubbles.  Tomorrow I'm going to handle my coffee routine more gently and more intentionally.


Sunday, March 23, 2014

Self Acceptance

I saw this today, and it really just says so much.  I've been trying to explain to a couple of people how loving myself could lead me to leave some people behind.  I've been trying to remain kind to the people I've left behind and not criticize or judge them.  I've been saying it's about how I respond to that person more than it is about how that person behaves.

All of that is true, and not exactly true.  Yes, it is also about the bad behavior of the person or people I have left behind, but my response to it is the more important aspect, I suppose.


I missed taking a picture yesterday, and I'm cheating today by sharing a picture I saw on the internet.  I'll look for something beautiful again in my world tomorrow.  Today I was cleaning toilets.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Two on Friday

I waited till the end of the day yesterday to remember to look for something beautiful to appreciate.  It was a busy day, and besides that, I was preoccupied with a few worries.  We took my daughter out for dinner for her twentieth birthday last night, and then bought here a cute bicycle she's been wanting.  It's not built for serious riding, but it's fun, and it caught her eye, and she wanted it, so we were happy to buy it.  She's trying to hold onto her child-like wonder for as long as she can, I think, and that is something to celebrate.

When we left the store I looked up and saw these gorgeous clouds.  The picture doesn't do them justice, but the beautiful sunset is a reminder to me that longer sunny days are on their way.


And now this morning, my daughter is all set to go out and take a leisurely ride around the neighborhood on her bike.  The song, Bicycle Built for Two is running through my head, even though it isn't relevant at all.  It's the only bicycle song I know!

It needs a basket up front and a bell and some tassels on the handlebars!


And look at what a gorgeous sunny day we're having!

Also, it's Friday, and I hopped on the scale.  I weigh 236.6.  That's a loss of 1.2 pounds for the week.  I think it would have been more if we hadn't gone out for Thai food and had birthday cake last night, (I weighed 235 the day before.) but I'm happy to forget about numbers on a scale and enjoy a celebratory meal and dessert once in a while.

I have something else really cool to report.  There is leftover birthday cake today, and I decided to have a slice with my coffee this morning because, you know, we don't have cake in the house often these days, and we don't have any more birthdays coming up for quite awhile, and well, because it is my favorite kind of cake...

I had two bites and found that I really wasn't as happy with it as I thought I'd be.  It's dense, and sweet, and full of white flour, and I think I've developed a taste for healthier foods, so it wasn't that great.  I pushed the plate away and didn't finish it, and I have no desire for any more cake for a while.


Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Spring Brings,...

It's pouring today, and right now we've got hail too.  I really dislike this weather.  Well, that's not exactly true.  I wouldn't mind it, in fact, sometimes it can create a nice cozy feeling indoors, but we have this kind of weather for weeks and weeks at at time, and it does make me weary.

I sound like a broken record.  I have the same complaint every year.  So many of us in this area talk and complain about the weather, but it doesn't do anything to change it, and it doesn't make enduring it any easier.  Better to look on the bright side.  All this rain creates the lush, green, beautiful landscape around us.  Summer always comes, and those Summer days are glorious.  If I look outside I can see signs that Spring is here, and that means that the seasons haven't stopped marching forward, (pun intended) and I'll get my sunshine soon enough.


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Another Quickie

My phone works!  I let it dry out for a day and fired it up today, so I'm able to post a picture.  This is from my oldest daughter's room.  It's full of little things she loves, and because she loves it and because it is in her bedroom, it makes me smile to look at it.


Monday, March 17, 2014

Romantic? Maybe. In a Way.

I have no picture to post today because I dropped my cell phone in the toilet, so I'll just write about something beautiful instead...

Today is not only St. Patrick's Day, it is also the thirtieth anniversary of my husband's and my first date and kiss.  I was sixteen and a junior in high school.  He was eighteen and a senior.  We were both cast in the school play, "Arsenic and Old Lace," and when the production ended we both attended a cast party.  I had had a crush on him since the moment I saw him at auditions for the play, and I saw the cast party as my last chance to get him to notice me too.

I tried and tried to flirt.  At sixteen I was not so experienced at this.  Then later during the party everyone went downstairs and we were all dancing.  The lights were low.  Michael Jackson's Thriller album was playing on the stereo, and I knew that the next song up would be a "slow dance" song, so I positioned myself in the room just so my future husband would have no choice but to ask me to dance.

My scheme worked.  We dance, not just to that one song, but for the rest of the night.  He wouldn't let anyone else ask me for a dance.  We didn't kiss that night.  Before he left he hugged me and said, "Give me a call."

I said, "Why can't you call me?"

He said, "Because I lost the piece of paper with the cast phone numbers on it."

I was really scared that I was getting the brush off, but I called him the next day, asked him out on a date, and he accepted.  My best girlfriend chauffeured for us, and we cruised the loop downtown and went out for ice cream.  When we dropped him off at his house I walked him to the door and stood there with a stupid grin on my face until he had no choice but to say, "Aw, give me a kiss."

And that was that.  He was mine forever.

And I had just finished composing and sending him a lovely Happy Anniversary card to send via text message when I dropped my phone in the toilet.  Yes, I was sending a romantic message from the throne.  Fitting for thirty years, no?  The ONLY good thing about dropping my phone in the toilet is I did it AFTER flushing.



Sunday, March 16, 2014

A Light in a Dark Corner

 

This is a candle in my bedroom that I love.  I haven't lit it in a long time.  Looking at it and snapping a picture has inspired me to declutter the corner of the room where my rocking chair sits so that I have a cozy place to light my candle and read or listen to music or just sit still for a few minutes.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

A Quickie

No time to write.  I'm headed out the door for dinner and drinks with some girlfriends, but I didn't want to forget my challenge, so I'm posting a hasty selfie, and now I'm off!


Friday, March 14, 2014

Weird and Wonky

Last Friday I weighed 240 pounds, and this Friday I weigh 237.8.  I've lost 20 pounds in 2 months.  This is really nice progress, and yet, I'm afraid to believe I'll ever be "thin" again.  I still struggle sometimes with negative and critical thoughts about myself (You've lost weight before, and you always blow it.  Better not get your hopes up.  You'll fail, you always do.) but I've experienced the magic loving myself can create, so I can forgive myself for having those thoughts and learn to trust myself more and more.

I'm having trouble finding beautiful stuff to take pictures of around my house.  Isn't that strange?  I'll have to try harder, get out some more or create some beauty if I'm not finding things beautiful around me. 

This is a bead I made out of a bunch of leftover glass that's been sitting on a bookshelf in my bedroom for years.  I haven't made any beads for years.  I'd like to do it again sometime, but I don't have a safe comfortable place to set up my kiln and torch right now.  I got tired of freezing in my garage while I worked, so I stopped making them.

Anyway, this one is wonky and weird, but I love it.


Thursday, March 13, 2014

Sunny Days Are Here Again

Two views of the sky in my world at two different times of the day and in two different parking lots.

I never take the beauty of Mt. Rainier for granted.  That's because it's hiding behind clouds so much of the time, so when it shows up, I take notice.  The sky has been so gray for so long, as is always the case here in the Pacific Northwest, but we're finally seeing signs of Spring, which will have plenty of gray days.  Still, the sun is appearing more and more and that always improves my mood and energy level.

The days of reading on the deck and manufacturing my own vitamin D instead of taking supplements are coming!

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

A New Challenge

I've been trying to be more intentional and more mindful in my day to day living, but it is not an easy thing to do.  It's so much easier to just do the same things I always do without thinking about them.  Trying to live intentionally feels a little bit to me like trying to make a ball roll uphill.  It takes constant thinking and doing, and I get tired of it and go back to letting the ball just roll downhill, even if it means letting the ball roll into a puddle of slop.

As a way to add more intentionality to my day, I've decided to challenge myself to write here every day for a month.  I also plan to add a picture of something I find beautiful, whether it is extraordinarily beautiful or just an ordinary thing that I have stopped noticing.


The sunshine is beautiful today and I love the way it feels on my face and shoulders.  Pepper, our little Boston Terrier loves the warmth and the sunshine too.  The lawn is growing again, (and needs to be mowed!) and Pepper just looked up after chewing on a blade of grass.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The Trees

I've mentioned the pendants I started making a couple of times now, and I thought I'd post a picture of a couple of them, but first there's an interesting story about those pendants.

For a couple of weeks I was seeing trees everywhere.  I don't mean real trees outside.  Of course, I always see those, but I was seeing the imagery of trees in articles I was reading, shows I was watching, tattoos.  Everywhere, every day.  I was beginning to wonder if it was a sign from the Universe or if there was some message I was supposed to be getting from the trees.

I thought maybe it had to do with pruning and new growth because I had been experiencing some of that in my life, and then after seeing a Celtic tree of life symbol as a tattoo I Googled, "tree of life," and I found beautiful jewelry that I wanted to wear with trees on it, and then, because I make jewelry, I thought instead it would be more meaningful if I made myself a tree of life pendant, and that's how I started making them. 

When I shared pictures on Facebook of the pendants I was making, people started asking to buy them, and then I stopped making them, which is weird, but I think it was as Magic Mentha mentioned, a difficulty with receiving that made me stop making the pendants when others expressed a desire to pay for them.

There is another layer to the whole "tree" thing, and another possible message from the Universe or my psyche, and that is that I should begin working on a novel I started last year.  I only wrote a few chapters, but when I looked at the very last sentence I had written I couldn't help wondering if the trees were telling me that I needed to tell this story.  The last sentence I wrote was, "Kali scratched her head while working on her History test and suddenly remembered the strange vibrating tree in the middle of the woods."

The trees.  They are giving me something, and I'm still not sure if I'm imagining it or it's a true sign, but it doesn't really matter, does it?  Anyway, here are the pictures I promised:


The pendant on the right is actually larger than the one on the left.  Here is a picture of them together so you can see their actual size: