Digging in the Dark and Other Adventures

First of all, thank you to everyone who took the time to read my last blog post.  It's interesting because that post was viewed 3 times as much as any other one I've done and it was viewed in countries like China and Australia and the UK!  So hopefully it helped someone out.  I know it definitely helped me--it's as if once I got that out I had this burden off my shoulders and now I have all this energy to do all sorts of projects around the house.  Lately I've been like the energizer bunny.

First I decided to tackle that giant hill of sawdust and the big empty spot where the tree in the front yard once stood.  Did I mention we cut it down?  Yep--no more leaves for the neighbors to complain about.  However, I decided to go all renegade and planted a square foot garden in the front yard!  Hee, hee--I wonder what they think of that?  A friend mentioned that I should check out the book "Square Foot Gardening."  It looks like this:

I'm super jazzed about this idea--so jazzed that I made my two flower beds MYSELF!  Yep, that's right!  It went swimmingly but when it came time to mix the secret soil together I started right before dusk which explains why Parker, Kennedy and I were mixing and hauling dirt in the front yard at dark with our main illumination being the headlights of the car.  It seriously looked like we were burying dead bodies.  We are kind of ghetto over here.  We especially looked ghetto with head lamps strapped to our foreheads...

(The neighbor actually came out to see if everything was alright)

Also, I've been painting furniture like crazy!  With this awesome invention that I'm sure most of you know about but I just discovered--Chalk Paint!  It's AMAZING!  If I was one of those super cool crafty bloggers I would insert pictures here of my projects along with step by step instructions.  But I'm not.  So just look up homemade chalk paint recipe on pinterest and be prepared to be amazed.  I was sold at the first sentence that said I didn't need to prime or sand and it's done from start to finish in a day.  (Well it CAN be done in a day if you aren't distracted by things like Candy Crush and Facebook and Survivor.)

So that brings me to my next plan that I need everyone's help with.  When I started this blog part of the reason I did it is to help me be accountable for making some changes in my life and I think more or less that has worked.  I have DEFINITELY rethought how I parent and we made some great changes--and also came to the conclusion in the end that the majority of the time when I trust my instincts I do ok.  What HAS fallen a little by the wayside is my good eating and working out habits--which is ironic given that I work for Weight Watchers I know.  But like I teach in my classes, none of us are perfect and while I do ok at managing my weight (thanks in large part that to keep my job I have to maintain my goal weight) I could improve how I eat and the exercise I get.  Oh--and I'm supposedly running a 1/2 marathon this weekend.  Which I have not trained for.  Yikes.  Actually that's not true.  I decided on Tuesday I better see if it was even possible for me to run farther than 6 miles.  It's possible.  It just aint pretty as is witnessed by the Burgerville guy who kindly offered me some water when I ran into his store at mile 7 looking like a crazed, dehydrated woman who had never run that far before.  Oh wait...

Anyway--so as soon as I get over this stomach virus I have I'm making plans to get myself in order.  I figure that the last year was so tied up in my kids that I can afford a little "me" time.  That doesn't involve so much Baja Fresh.  Curse that delicious Baja Fresh...