luxuriating in laziness...

If I were an animal, I would definitely be a tree sloth. I would of course turn into a cheetah when someone pulled into the driveway unexpectedly, for some panic cleaning. I do love my comfy chair and my morning coffee. For years and years, this practice was just unheard of, this sitting here and meditating on important things, like which shade of white I should paint my cabinets. No, for years, I was more than busy, from the time I opened my eyes in the morning, until the time I opened them again several times during the night.

These days, I find it difficult to have a quiet moment in the morning. The girls are awake, and Jonathan's alarm will go off in a few minutes, he likes to be up early. I usually get up and sweep, wipe down counters, straighten things out...but this morning, the quietness was too alluring, I had to sit down and write. My fingers just get itchy.

My oldest daughter, Emily, is a nurse, but she's really a writer. She has won a few contests and awards for short stories. She's reading a story this afternoon at a medical/nursing presentation, and I am going to see if I can manage to go with her. (She also had an article published yesterday on www.brunstad.org , "Why I Can Be Thankful On Bad Days Too").

Yesterday, I played with chalk paint. I repainted an extra wood kitchen chair...in a shade of yellow...it's rather bright, but I like it. I ended up putting it in the living room with a pillow on it, it's rather interesting. I also painted a wood crate to put paper recyclables in. I still need to take the yucky fake wood blades off the living room ceiling fan, and paint them. I like to keep busy, but get so tired of doing the same housework day after day. This morning, I am so comfy in my chair, and my little friends are coming over...first the two year old, then little Davian. So it's totally worth it that I told Miss Char and Miss Cam and cousin Danielle that I would give them a dollar to vacuum the kitchen and living room, wash the counters and coffee table. They are in full swing, and ha, I get a few more minutes to write.

Camille said, "A dollar for all that work?" I told her that if she does it really often, it will add up. And seriously, they have to do things like this for no money all of the time, but guess what? They are working really hard!!!

They love to play dolls when Dani comes over. They also like to make things for their dolls. I am thinking of taking them to the warehouse store to get some boxes, so they can build things.

This weekend, Mirielle is going to Washington D.C. to visit Samuel. She's taking Kathryn, Suzanne, and Jonathan, as far as I know, and they are going camping. I want to go! But Paul is leaving Saturday morning for another week in France....

Okay...weight loss update...I'm holding steady...I've been maintaining the same weight for months now, which is better than gaining it back, but ugh. I had been starting to regain last year, so I got serious, and lost 14 pounds, but can't seem to get past this point. And the reason: I am too comfortable. I need to move more, be more diligent, work harder. The brink of middle age is when most women pack on a few pounds, and losing weight right now for me is difficult. But, I am not giving up. My days have gone like this for the past week or so: eating really healthy all day, then having some chocolate in the evening, or popcorn, or something I shouldn't have. So I just need to avoid that, and I will do better. Every night I go to bed and tell myself, tomorrow evening, I am going to be much more careful. ha.

And the first thing I thought of this morning, and this is sad...is that if I go with Emily, there will be cake. Cake. Is there anything more yummy in the world? For me, the battle doesn't begin when I see the cake, it starts right in when I KNOW about the cake. It's a special occasion. Then I think of sugar...all that sugar. And I decide, no, I won't have any. I'll just smile, and say, no thank you. And if ONE single person says, "Oh, have some, it's really good!", I will just slap them. ha.

I do have a good bit of self control. I made a triple batch of chocolate chip cookie dough yesterday, and baked up three pans of cookies. I didn't eat even a taste of one. I just enjoyed how they looked, and the heavenly smell...I gave some to Davian's mom and dad, and sent some home with Annika's mom, and the kids had some after school. I want to bake some to send to Samuel, they don't serve cookies like that in the Army.

My coffee is gone, and the girls are still cleaning up, they are so funny. I need to get up and throw in a load of laundry, and get moving. Annika will be here any minute now....