Monday Meanderings

I took this picture Friday night, after both girls crawled in bed with me to read for a while. It was very sweet...and reminded me of the Pixie's first night here on earth, when the three of us had some tender, loving time together all in my bed after the doctor and midwife left. These are good things for a mother's heart.

I thought I would do my meanderings a bit early. We *might* get a lot of snow over the next day or so, and you never know what that's going to do to the schedule!

• My weekend list turned out to be a joke. I didn't want to do the monkeys, realized after doing a bit of math that I had a lot more of the cardi to do than I had expected, and then had a horrendous run this AM - only making 5 miles.
• I'm not too worried about the run today. When I trained for the half back in 2007 (as a walker) I discovered that when I had a really bad - painful - exhausting - think you are going to die - sort of run, it was always followed by a huge breakthrough of some sort. I can live with that. Besides, I'm still ahead on my training schedule.
• I let myself bake cookies and have hot wings today because of the Super Bowl. None of it tasted all that great, and I'm disappointed. Ditto some chocolate dipped pretzels I tried the other day. I used to love all of that!
• The thing about eating healthy is that when you get used to it the things you used to love taste like garbage...which is a good thing 99% of the time. When you want a treat, though...well it did kind of stink. (And I'm pretty sure I'm going to pay for it tonight...)
• I do get to eat treats on my healthy living plan...lest you think I'm all about deprivation. I couldn't live without my near-daily dose of dark chocolate (Currently Green & Black's Dark Chocolate With Cherries or Dagoba's Dark Chocolate With Lavender and Blueberries) I also can't live without my occasional Starbucks. All of these things are about quality, though.
• The good news - I'm starting to feel a lot better now that I'm eating more. I can't believe how exhausted I'd become - or how much denial I was in about how I felt. I had a little bump in my weight for a couple of days, but I'm starting to drop lbs. again, and that's a good thing.
• I'm also fierce in the gym again...and I LOVE that! When you spend (literally) 20 years believing yourself to be fragile because of your depression issues, it's a very, very good thing to discover how strong and tough you can actually be. Honestly, that's more important than any of the other results I'm getting.
• The winter finally got to me...and I spent the last wee bit in my paypal account to buy some new, vibrantly colored roving. I'll share when it gets here! I have a small stash already...but oddly most of it is blue....which is not a favorite color, and definitely doesn't help me get out of the doldrums of late winter.
• Funny how the idea of buying yarn right now makes me feel itchy and wasteful...but I could easily buy fiber with total abandon if I had the funds for it.
• Speaking of spinning, I finally mustered up the gumption to mail my butterfly back to Mr. Golding. Silly to miss it so much when I know it's coming back....
• My daily spinning habit has suffered a wee bit over the last week. Time to get back to it!
• Incidentally, I have two spinning projects that I managed to walk away from for no good reason. That's a very, very bad idea. Why? It's been a very long time, and I have NO idea what ratio I used for either one. I'm not sure what happened. Normally I'm very good at sticking with one spinning project until it's done. No explanation. I'll have to go back through my blog archives to see if I can find pictures to help out. (Edited to Add...I did check my archives and found several pictures of each on the spinning wheel. Unfortunately, the photos were taken at such an angle that you can't see beyond the bobbin. Note to self...perhaps it would be wise to get pictures that include the entire wheel so that I have a record of the specifics.)
• My BKB and I had an interesting conversation about one of our local yarn shops this week. It's been under new ownership for about six months now, and in that time it's moved away from smaller/independent yarn companies towards the big suppliers. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's dulled the store down in my opinion. It's been months since I walked in and felt inspired/excited about anything they carry. The sock and lace yarns - always a treat before - are downright dull. As a result, I don't feel any great desire to go and browse anymore, which is kind of sad. That trip to the yarn shop always used to get my creative juices flowing!
• At the same time, it's a bit of a relief to be freed from temptation.
• It's also nice to not feel any special allegiance to either yarn shop in town. I can shop online to my heart's content and not feel guilty now. In fact, that's my preference these days because I'm finding more and more that the things I want can't be had locally anyway!
• Speaking of my BKB (sort of), she's thinking about doing an Etsy store and has become something of a Jill Of All Trades. She's super-cool, and I love hearing about how much fun she has trying new things. I used to be that way...but now I'm way too obsessive about the knitting and spinning to allow myself the time for that.
• I led my last full meeting as my PEO chapter president this week. (We'll elect, install and pass the reigns along at the next meeting, so I'll start but not finish it.) At the very end as I closed the meeting I got a bit choked up and almost started to cry. As glad as I am to be finishing up my term, it's also been a very good thing for me in terms of personal growth.
• My Mother's Day gift arrived this weekend! I'll share later this week. I also bought myself a little training gift, too, and am very happy with both.
• In a completely random note...I found an Etsy seller who makes custom fit shoes for any size. My strange feet and I are seriously considering it.
• Have I told you how much I love Masterpiece Classic? The last part of Emma is on tonight, and it's become my favorite version of that beloved book.
• Well...I do have an inordinate fondness for Clueless, too.....
• By the way, I watched Nanny McPhee today with the girls. That movie is so beautifully filmed that it makes me drool. I love, Love, LOVE the colors and costuming, and now I feel a need to crochet a granny square afghan like the one in the nursery.

I think that's about enough for now.

Have a great week everyone!