peace and quiet are not overrated...

I should just get up earlier in the morning, I love the quiet before the day starts picking up steam. Today, I am reveling in this beautiful weather. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the exhaust fan is on because Miss Sonja K. is sleeping on the couch. I spent some time walking around outside this morning in my bare feet, emptying and cleaning the water table, straightening things on the deck, then...well, we have two dogs, who are SUPPOSED to poop over in the side woods, but they prefer the yard sometimes. So, especially when the weather is dry and sunny, it's good to get that taken care of.

My girls are all going camping tomorrow. Except for Miss Sonja, of course. And Jonathan has plans for the weekend which include a mountain hike in the Adirondacks. So lonely me, here with Paul and Sonja. But the weather forecast is unbelievable, warm and sunny today, tomorrow, and Sunday. We've had a cold and rainy spring, so this is very welcome. Our pool isn't open yet, but the new part did come in the mail. We have poplar trees (cottonwoods), which shed the fuzz in the spring, it looks like it's snowing cotton here. The pool gets filled with it, you can't even run the filter without being right there to empty the basket every few minutes. I really want to cut some trees down. Between the leaves that line the bottom of the pool, and the shade from those trees, blah. I like the sunshine in the yard!!!

So yesterday afternoon, after Suzanne got off the bus, Charlotte Claire, Camille, and I went to the library for a few new stacks of books. Then to Kohl's so I could pick up one teeny tiny thing that I ordered online. If you ship to store, you don't have to pay shipping. And the thing was a new bra, so not actually teeny tiny ha. The thing is, they have the same lines for returns, and for pick-ups. Some of the returns are complicated with Kohl's Cash involved, ect. So it took a while. Then, to Target to pick up a 'script of Xarelto for Sonja. This stuff is expensive! I googled it, over four hundred bucks! So I called the pharmacy, and our insurance coverage made it only $61. I guess she's at risk for blood clots with the surgery and all the lying around during recovery.

We enjoyed Target. I let Char get a silly t-shirt, and Cam found a lovely dress on the clearance rack, a women's size x-small. We didn't even look in the girls' section. They're growing up on me. We also skipped the toy section, apparently I was the only one who wanted to look at toys.

Then, Price Chopper for a few fresh veggies and some blueberries, some donuts (6 for $2.99!), some chicken and cheese and coffee and and and. What fun, I was walking along, and who did I see? My sister! It was so fun! She gave me one of her Oreo coupons. We dawdled a little, but I wanted to get home to Sonja, and the girls were being super patient. Then in the parking lot, who did we see? Abigail!!! I wanted to go in the store all over again, to walk with her and shop with her and talk with her! But we had to get home.

Home...ah home. I didn't have to make dinner, because they had already eaten various assorted things here, and I bought chicken strips AND olive loaf, the girls made sandwiches in the van.

Move more, eat less. That's my life. My goal. It's no fun to be fat and lazy and to hate getting sweaty. It's no fun to have things that rub and chafe and jiggle. So I don't give up. I do my push ups and avoid sugar like the plague. I subconsciously believe that if I was trim and fit and could move without aching and creaking, I would not have a care in the world. But shh, I also have this belief about if I lived in one of those big houses with the huge-0 industrial stoves, and an indoor pool. I'm not actually wasting my days pining for the house, but I'm not giving up on the idea of getting really fit.

Instead of pining for the dream house, I try to channel my energy into making this place nicer. That is also hard when you're lazy like me. I would prefer to sit on the deck in the sun, thank you. I would prefer to sit in my chair and blog, thank you.

Anne is coming over today, my little break is over. Her big brother Davian is coming over in a few hours, he has a half day of school and is getting off the bus here. So we'll have a nice day here. A busy day.