Where to begin?

I just caught up with reading several of my favorite blogs and thought to myself that I had better get on the stick with my blog or even my kids would stop reading me. It has been an interesting spring  - to say the least and it feels like we are marching straight into summer.

Several weeks ago I had the opportunity (or perhaps I should say - made the time) to go and visit a new friends of mine on her beautiful farm in the Shenandoah. I only met this kindred spirit a few summers ago while working at the CSA (Stoney Lonesome Farm) but it has been fun to discover that we have a lot of the same dreams and we keep finding "another thing in common." So it was a complete joy to drive down to see her place. It was beautiful as the pictures show. We had a delightful lunch and visit and I cant wait to go back and see how she is making headway carving out her dream spot.

wouldn't you love to wake up to this view?

Other things I have been busy with include my little gardens. Hours and hours have been spent cleaning up and moving and starting new plants. Our plans are so up in the air that it is hard to know what to do with gardens and such but I decided if I got it all in early then I'd have to be able to at least enjoy some of it should we pick up and move this summer. So the vegetable garden is planted and flowers are seeded and it's been great therapy as well as good exercise.

dianthus are gorgeous and you can see the peas and radishes in the background

 

I have a lot of things in containers so I can move them with me,

including my strawberry plants, tomatoes and peppers

Which is a great segue into the 100 day challenge which ended this past week. While I did not reach my goal of 25 lbs. I did lose 20 and learned quite a lot - about stress and plateaus especially. I plan to start the next "100 days" in May which will take me to mid-August. My goal is another 20 but I've learned that it's not really about the numbers. Other ways I've noticed success:

• my rings come off my fingers - seriously that is very exciting. They've been stuck on there for a long time.
• I've lost almost 5 inches overall - which is noticeable on some items of clothes - shirts hang looser and pants  have to be dried so they aren't quite so stretchy on the second day of wear
• 20 lbs is 1 pants size! That was fun!
• Food choices are easier. A sweet dessert doesn't sit so well. I don't crave chocolate quite as badly and I go several days between fountain diet cokes. I am aiming to cut them out completely and don't even keep it in the house anymore. Even bigger changes are the number of meatless meals we eat and to reward ourselves for eating healthy we eat "better" foods.

 
So we'll give it another go and this time hopefully no bursitis and the exercise can be a bigger focus without restrictions. I do have some before and I need to take an after for round one.

coming soon - Birthdays and Bluebells..................