Swamped

It's been a while. This past month if I haven't been actively working on something I've been almost completely shut down. Every time I start scrabbling up the side of the mountain of things I have to do,  it feels like an avalanche buries me again. It is overwhelming and, at times, disheartening.

Right now I'm going to go see if I can climb at least as high as getting the kitchen clean...

sugar is my downfall

I'm still struggling with too much sugar in my life. 
Yesterday I had a couple of small candies. 
Saturday's food:
cornflakes, skim milk, 50% sugar o.j.
oatmeal, skim milk
one bean/beef chalupa, one beef puffy taco, chips, one beer.
one mint candy
one tootsie pop without the tootsie roll.
water

I know it seems like not too much, but I would like to add more vegies and less breads.
sugars:  milk  sugars, bread starch, sugar from oj and candies, sugars in cornflakes.

counting calories

well, I decided to count my calories and fat intake for the day:
breakfast:
milk   80/0
corn flakes 100/0
oj 50/0
splenda 0/0

snack:
coffee w/ 1/2 & 1/2  20/0
breat & butter:  bread homemade (unknown) butter 100/11

lunch:
1 small piece pizza from EZ's (unknow)
oj  50/0
chocolate piece 30/3

Snack:
activia  110/2
chips  140/6

Dinner:
Chicken 160/8
dressing 110/1
cauliflower  ?/11
strawberries ?
with coolwhip 20/1

Snack:
1/4 small bag popcorn from Target (unknown)

Well, I did pretty well until I was tempted by the popcorn.  Too much salt, but I only ate about a quarter of the bag.
Total: at least 970 calories and 43 g of fat.

February Check-in

January went fairly well. I'm building a habit of going to the gym twice a week, I've found a machine that I really like using, and watching Netflix really does make it feel faster than 30 minutes. So far I've lost about 3 pounds according to the scale, but I think I've also been building muscle.

I finally finished a long outstanding spinning project, 2 ounces of carbonized bamboo is now 336 yards of heavy lace weight yarn.

I found a fantastic deal on a new (to me) wheel this past Saturday, so I purchased a Lendrum with awesome accessories, and so far it's been a wonderful spinning wheel. Most importantly it does not hurt my back the way the Joy did during long spinning sessions.

I am still tired from this past Saturday, which was the annual Newport spin-in. The weather was perfection, the company was excellent, the bargain on my wheel was epic. But it was a whole day of being around lots of people and being engaged and social, which is really quite draining for me. Yesterday was a wash for me as it was mostly spent on recuperation, today might require a bit of white tea to get me going. I've got lots to do for work and school, and I'm determined this week to not fall behind on things.

good information

I discovered that I am eligible for the Silver Sneakers program thru my insurance.  I get to join a fitness club for free and use their facilities as much as I want.  No more xmases, summers, spring breaks where I don't have a place to exercise.  hurray for me!!
I did miss aerobics Thursday (I did go to yoga) as my knee was acting up and I didn't want to make it worse.  I guess I did a little too much stretching on Wednesday.  When I was going down the stairs Thru. morning, I felt a pain a weakness.  It seems to be better today.
Yesterday Rodney came and he and his helper painted the stairwell.  It looks great.  By the time they left, I was very tired from being on my feet from 7:30 to 2:30.
Today I cook slow cooker meatballs and marinara.  Hope it turns out good.

I was on time for class this morning (7:25am) and we worked with the large balls.  Then we did stretching.  Boy, I've been wanting a nap all day, but have resisted going tot sleep ( mostly because I was driving a lot)
I hope I'm not sore tomorrow.

A Busy Weekend

On Friday, when I was feeling quite anxious and overwhelmed, I decided that physical activity was the key to bleeding off some of my excess negative energy. So, on Friday afternoon, I started moving furniture. By Saturday night I'd moved everything but the bed, nightstand, and cat tree in my living/sleeping space (I left the pantry and closet alone since I did them earlier in the year). Sunday morning I put the finishing touch on things, brought gobs of unwanted items to charity, and started enjoying my new space. The key is that I got rid of 2 pieces of large, unused furniture (also donated, since I got them for free). Here is the result.

Front Door View

Seating

 This looks like the same seating arrangement, but that's only because I moved it all and then moved it back when it became apparent that this works best.

New Yarn Home

I'm working on getting this neatend up, I just have to figure out how to get the boxes to be bigger on the inside.

New Desk/Entertainment Area

I have a second green shelf to hang, I just need more dry wall hangers. It's going in that empty spot above the second monitor.

Oh, and I finally got a frame form my master's diploma. I found an official frame at the thrift store for $10!

New Sewing Area

Those books in the desk support are all my sewing books. I haven't finalized the set up, but you get the picture.

This is a much safer place for the bookshelf. This way if there's an earthquake, rescuers won't have to dig me out from under all those books.

And my sleeping space. It feels so much roomier without the looming doom of the bookshelf, and I finally got around to hanging my shell lights.

So, while none of this actually decreased the amount of work I have to do for this overwhelming project, at least one source of frustration in my life has been conquered.

Oh, and just so you know, the glass on my desk/sewing table weighs 60 pounds and I moved it three times over the course of this endeavor, trying to get just the right feel. I moved it to where it is now, from where it is now, and back to where it is now. I currently feel like Xena.