This week was a series of small successes. There were good things in every day, as my friend Sonia hashtags all her pictures. I like the saying; it reminds me to intentionally find the small moments of success that make up our days. This week that was kind of important, so I focused on what was good. On Monday I celebrated that I was able to leave home and head back to work. It seems silly, but last week was just so intense and I was a bit shell-shocked; so much happened. Leaving the comfort nest of my home and family was hard and I felt oddly desperate for them all day. When I actually got to work I just got down to business and it all went down pretty well. It got easier after day one and by Friday I was exhausted, but otherwise pretty normal.
I even managed to have a reasonable week for working out. It wasn’t stellar, by any means, but it wasn’t the worst, either. I danced Zumba twice and ran twice. One of my runs was a short, 2.2 mile run on the treadmill. I have the hardest time running on that thing. I think part of the key to make it interesting is to make challenges for myself. This time, after many stops and starts, I finally decided to challenge myself by pushing the speed up to ‘uncomfortable’ (I hide the screen from myself because it’s painful to watch how slowly the miles and calories tick by) and forced myself to run at that speed until my show (ok, RHOC, 😶) was over. I actually stuck with it for about a mile! I was exhausted, sweaty and so proud! Until I looked at my speed and realized how slow I was actually going. It was only a 10:30 mile! It’s funny how sustaining that speed perfectly on the treadmill is so much harder than an outdoor run with the same average! The next run happened today. I headed out for a nine mile run but decided to push my speed a little bit. I ended up running the first three miles in under 10:20ish splits, and then I stopped to take the dandelion picture, to smell some lilacs, to smell some roses, run up a few hills and my fast time went out the window. That’s ok with me, though. I realized I got tired and let myself head home, proud of what I did. 
Good Things in Every Day…
We got to spend time outside on the patio this week, the weather was so gentle.
This week I discovered that I truly love the cauliflower movement. I am sold: hook, line and sinker. I used it three times this week in place of potatoes and pasta. Whatever I put on top of them makes them taste just like what I think they should taste like! Baked potatoes? Yep. Hash browns? Close enough. Tater tots? Alarmingly yummy. Pasta replacement? Better than carbs! Love.
I also discovered this yummy recipe for ‘bread’ that is really made of egg white, egg yolk, cream of tartar and a little bit of creamy cheese (laughing cow, cream cheese, sour cream…). I made them and used em to eat a hamburger. While they were definitely different than real buns, they totally worked! It was a bit like eating my hamburger with a Pirates Booty bun through both texture and flavor, but not in a bad way. 😉 If you’re looking for a low carb, summer BBQ, hamburger bun option, this could be your ticket.
My garden is growing so fast and I love going to look at it every day. I think I might be surprised at how soon we will be selling flowers- the zinnias, bachelor buttons and sunflowers are already popping up, the annuals I planted are growing rapidly and my vegetable garden is doing beautifully.
I had an epic game of Sorry over Indian food with my kids on Friday. Boy, did we laugh. 🙂
I got a lot of important loose ends tied up at work. Checking so many things off my list kept me gratefully busy and incredibly satisfied.
Gigi’s throat is feeling better and she doesn’t need her meds anymore- yes! I missed her while she couldn’t talk and I’m so glad to have her back!
I can climb a big rock, now. It is something new that I’ve never been able to do before: Rock climbing. Yes, I was terrified at the top and couldn’t bear to stand up, but I got up there. And yes, I know it’s not a cliff, but baby steps, right? I actually want to go to REI now to climb the big, tall, free, climbing wall!
I finally got around to starting the accountability group on Facebook. I’m still trying to figure out how to add people who are not my ‘friends’ or ‘friends of friends’ but I’ll get there with more research… It can’t be that difficult! But it’s up and running and people are already posting… I’m feeling quite positive about the whole venture!
I’m down to crying less about losing my dog and smiling more about who she was and what she was like. There’s this memory I have of her during her first snow when she was a long-legged six month old teenager-puppy. It was when we lived up in Bellingham and had chickens along with the dog and cat and a baby growing in my belly. I was back by the chicken coop letting the girls out, since I thought they’d like to scratch around in the snow, while our cat, Calvin, was white and camouflaged himself in the snow, crouched low while Martha ran lap after lap after lap around the coop. Her breath, vapor clouds in the air, mouth wide with a grin and she didn’t care one lick that with every lap Calvin pounced on her- she had too much joy and life in her to care! It was a beautiful moment and what just keeps sticking in my head as her definition. Perfect.
Good things in every day.❤️