We did it!

Yay! We woke up this morning and followed out work out schedule as planned. Hurrah! It makes me so happy that we are pulling through.

I also made superior progress on my crochet project last night. It is very close to being complete! I think once this is finished I will need to really push myself to complete the next project on my list. Especially since I was so excited about this one. The real test will be completing a project that I have knowingly put off finishing.

In other news... I will restrain myself from beginning yet another project, but one on the new free patterns on the Lionbrand website is absolutly beautiful...

Crochet Magnolia Afghan

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/80266AD.html?noImages=

First Day of Failure

So, first of all, I am going to blame it on the Republican National Convention.... we slept in... til 6... and did not exercize. No that it is officially out, I don't feel too bad about it, I have been a little sore from the past 3 days, and probably deserved a little rest. :)

I will however be doing my weighted ball exercizes tonight. And I will try extra hard to wake up tomorrow. Oh well.

Knitting club was GREAT! I just love the ladies that I meet with on Wednesdays during my lunch. They meet in a very idealic location... a yarn shop loft above a gift shop on the cute sightseers dream town square. It is lovely. Everyone works on something different... quilting, knit, crochet, you name it... they've done it. It is so much fun to show them what I am currently working on and see their projects in progress. Community is nice.

The Happiness Project

I recently discovered a new blog: The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

She is an author who decided to take a year and try every "happiness plan" on the market for her soon to be published book of the same name. I mostly have enjoyed her wednesday "tip" day where she gives out life tips she herself has developed or that she has found. The range from how to motivate yourself to exercise or not shop excessively to my favorite, her look at Pope John the XXIII's list of tips on how to lead a better life:

Ten tips for living a better life, one day at a time -- from Pope XXIII.
http://http//www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2008/02/this-wednesda-1.html

The greatest thing about this list, a Gretchen points out is that it is a list for today... just today... tomorrow we will try again, make adjustments, etc... but, today we will try.

UPDATE ON MY GOALS:
- yesterday I only drank one :) soda
- I completed my weighted ball exercises last night
- we woke up, exercised, and said prayers this morning
- I am ready for a wonderful day: knitting club... a chance to work on another goal of completing my project!

Fall Garden Planning

As summer turns to fall, I have had my thoughts set on planting an assortment of perennials and flowering ground covers in my flower beds. I am mainly tired of just growing weeds and haven't yet purchased and planted any actual plants (other than my vegetable garden).



http://www.highcountrygardens.com/ has made this planning a lot easier through mail order online shopping. I really like that this site made suggestions based on region and specialized in drought tolerant, sun-loving plants. They also have a good "dead plant" policy. 90 days to make sure everything survives and then a refund, credit, or exchange based on preference. I am hoping that everything lives!

I purchased:

• 8 Veronica rupestris "heavenly blue" - a ground cover with 4" tall blueish-purple flowers, these I will plant around my already establish amaryllis bulbs.




• 3 Nepeta "Six Hills Giant" or "Catmint" - looks kind of like super sized lavender, and I couldn't resist the photo of the cat enjoying the catmint!




• 3 Achillea filipendula "Coronation Gold" - Catmint's suggested companion, smaller in size with round dandelion type flowers (Both this and Catmint will be planted along the shed in the backyard, in between the hardy hibiscus and crape myrtles




• 1 Agastache Sampler - includes 5 different Agastache plants, which flower from summer through fall and attract hummingbirds and butterflies. These I will plant under my redbud tree, outside my bedroom window. I think the hummingbirds will definitely amuse the cat who likes to perch there.

All the plants are scheduled to arrive by September 26 for a weekend planting hurrah!

Ready to Make Each Day Count

So, sweetie and I have discussed it, and we've decided that it is time to put productivity into hyper drive. Far too much of our time recently has been spent watching tv and being inactive (and in effect unproductive). Sweetie is a great motivator, and is definitely leading by example. He has been cleaning up the breakfast dishes pronto every morning... and I couldn't be happier with such a nice and tidy kitchen.

Last week, he suggested that we retrain ourselves to wake up an hour and a half earlier than normal so that we can really enjoy our mornings together, and always have time for breakfast and our Liturgy of the Hours.

I decided that this is awesome (and has been great), but still not quite enough, so we are adding the exercise that we are always avoiding to the mix. I rearranged the sun room furniture to require no daily moving so that we can get out there and exercise every morning. So far so good, we put in a good 25 minutes of cardio this morning and I feel great!

On a personal level, I have also decided to incorporate my many unfinished projects into this whole thing. I am going to start with the practically complete yet set aside bunch first... in hopes that I will be able to complete one each week.

This week I am concentrating on my newly begun and soon to be complete crochet project. Then I will pick back up a tiny sweater project that is 75% there already.

Here goes...

Falling in Love with Crochet... Again.

After a long absence, a slight hiatus in the knitting realm, and desperation to re motivate to complete many different handmade gifts, I have started another project. It began as a knit project, but soon was torn out and started anew as a crochet project.

I had forgotten how quickly a crochet project forms. How it turns into what you hope it will be so much more swiftly than knits. Granted, I LOVE the smoothness of a knit project and how much for professional my knit projects appear than my crochet, but there is just nothing like seeing the progress of a project develop over a short amount of time. Ah, crochet.