Hi! The september banner is up! And I’m only a day behind! So it goes, right?
Not gonna beat myself up over that. I have been sweltering in the hot, hot, hot temps we are experiencing here in southern NH. I’m not complaining about the heat, oh no… because soon enough autumn will be upon us. I will take the heat. But eesh, it’s sticky here. Perfect weather though for enjoying our sugar baby watermelons! (see banner above).
Sometimes it’s the simple things, like having a post-work snack and getting watermelon juice all over your lips and chin and hands and arms on a hot day. Makes me happy.
And tomorrow is the Friday before the Labor Day long weekend. Weeeee!
Hurricane Earl is making his way up the East Coast as I write this. I wonder what if anything the weather will be like here? Supposed to reach New England some time Friday night into early Saturday morning. If it ends up raining I will be okay with that—we really need the rain.
So, yeah, September for me is about getting back to basics as I move myself forward. What does this mean for me? Here’s the short list:
• SLEEP. SLEEP. SLEEP. As in, lots of it. At normal bedtime hours. Without lying in bed tossing and turning and fretting. Without waking up every two hours wondering why it is that I am having trouble sleeping. I have been trying really hard to get a grip on my sleep issues over the past few weeks which is why I haven’t been posting as often. I used to stay up waaaaaaay too late in front of the computer writing and reading and procrastinating going to bed. No more! It’s not good for me. So I have to work on new routines so I have time to write that is not late at night. Gets my mind too worked up. I am committed to getting more sleep at night for my own physical and mental well-being.
• RUN. RUN. RUN. As in, lots of it. I have been running regularly again, and I feel so much better. Now to just keep it up and work in some longer distances and a steep hill here or there. While I’m not interested in doing a half-marathon anymore (too much anxiety), I do want to challenge myself physically. It would be great if the heat would dial itself back just a smidge so I could run outside again. Me and the treadmill have a tenuous relationship at best.
• EAT. EAT. EAT. As in, lots of the good foods. The slow foods. The nourishing foods. I have been incorporating more wild salmon into my diet and whole grains. More fruits like organic pears, gala apples, calimyrna figs, watermelon, and tomatillos. I stopped eating canned soup for lunch because I was convinced my body is a BPA nightmare. So now lunches are homemade soups and sandwiches. Way more time-consuming to prep, but totally worth it. I find I am fuller longer, too.
• DRINK. DRINK. DRINK. As in, lots of water. Way more water than I usually do. I have this really cool glass water bottle that my Mom gave me that I use at work to drink from. It helps to feel like I’m drinking water out of glass instead of a paper cup. Over time I realized that I was drinking too much wine and beer out of sheer boredom and to relieve stress after work. Now it’s water. Don’t get me wrong, I loooove me a good glass of wine. But less. Everything in balance.
• READ. READ. READ. As in, digging into the huge piles of books that have been slowly taking over my nightstand and desk and living room. I want to make more time for reading and relaxing. Some books are silly fun fiction like Susan Wiggs. Some are references on topics like conception and pregnancy (eek!). Some are non-fiction stories of adventure. Some are young adult fiction novels which I am particularly fond of like Laurie Halse Anderson. I want to make my way through them all.
• BE PRESENT. BE PRESENT. BE PRESENT. As in, being in the moment. Enjoying each day. Letting myself feel what I need to feel, good or bad. Practicing mindfulness and gratitude.
These are the things I am working on as I get back to basics and move forward. How about you? How are you doing? What are your plans for September?
Tags: gratitude, summer
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Back to school is here. It’s everywhere. It’s in the commercials on TV and the radio. It’s in the advertisements at my local grocery store. I saw school buses on the way to work today. And I know my sister is prepping to send her kids off very soon. My mom teaches and she is also starting back to school soon.
I hate back to school. I don’t want to see ads for backpacks and 5-star notebooks on TV. I don’t want to compete with lumbering school buses that slow me down during my morning commute to work. I don’t want to admit that days are getting shorter and the morning air is getting crisper with that back-to-school smell to it.
It all culminated for me last night because it was not only “back to school”, but it was a Sunday. And the two together are pretty unbearable. I did not sleep well. No shocker there.
I don’t know why I still get that awful, uneasy feeling about school and Sundays. But I do. I am not in school anymore. I survived. But, wow, those feelings of panic and ickiness linger. How am I going to handle myself once I have kids? The Sunday routine of making lunches and doing homework and picking out an outfit. Too much! Too much!
But I guess it’s really no different than getting ready to go to work, right? Sunday nights are just blah all around, then.
So, how do you ease that back-to-school Sunday anxiety feeling? What works for you? Do you have a set routine that helps? Or do you live in Sunday denial like me?
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This has been a much better week I am happy to report. It feels good to be back into the swing of work (finally!) and making dinners and watching movies and reading and getting to bed earlier. Maybe the last 3 days of steady rain have something to do with this, but a little rain is nice now and then. It makes me nesty. And seeing as how we’ve had next to none all summer long in New Hampshire, I’ll take what rain I can get!
I also think my outlook has a lot to do with running. Been running regularly over the past two weeks and I feel pretty good. While my starts and fits of running over the last few months have definitely impacted my overall fitness, I know that not all is lost. I definitely have something to build on. It is so easy to get out of the running routine, but baby steps back into it are worth it. Running makes me happy. It makes me more mentally alert. It calms me down. The first 20 minutes of a run might be pure awfulness, but the lasting effects are bliss. I haven’t lost any distance, but I may have slowed down just a tad. No biggie. I will get back into the groove and accelerate at my own pace.
So, happy Friday! Hope you find the time to eek out a run or whatever you can do to give yourself a breather.
And let’s enjoy the end of summer and savor every last bit! Can’t believe the end of August is upon us.
Tags: exercise, gratitude, running, summer
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It’s time! The potatoes are finally ready! We started harvesting them last weekend.
After potato plants bloom, the leaves start to turn brown, and eventually the potato plant part dies. You can begin harvesting potatoes any time after the plant blooms (new potatoes!), but waiting a week or two after the plants turn brown helps the potatoes to develop thicker skins if you want to keep your potatoes around for a little while.
We pulled out a mini hoe, shovel, and wheel barrow and began to dig away!
Here is our little potato patch.
We planted 6 different varieties of organic potatoes this year, and you can read more about how we did it here. As we started digging, it was so fun to see what color the potatoes would be!
Hi potato! There you are!
Is it a cranberry red or red cloud? I’m not sure.
So you remove the dying potato plant from the soil, and then gently dig down into the soil sifting through to pick out the potatoes. Some of our potatoes were pretty big, some were very teeny, and just one was a little rotten. Ewwwww.
The rest came out quite dirty, but nice and firm with skins intact.
We have harvested 4 plants so far, and here is our bounty.
I love the color of the purply-blue ones. They are called all-blue.
We are quite thrilled with how our first year of growing potatoes has turned out! It was a nice harvest last week.
While our squashes failed this year, so far in August we have gotten tremendous amounts of bush lake beans, roma tomatoes, melons, and beets.
Now what to make? Should I roast the potatoes? Warm potato salad? Home fries? Scalloped? What is your favorite fun potato dish?
Tags: beans, beets, gardening, gratitude, organic, potatoes, summer, tomatoes
Posted in The Growing Season | 2 Comments »
Last week was really rough for me. I had a terrible time transitioning back into work. I was grumpy, sleep-deprived, anxious, and pretty miserable all around.
But I did manage to squeak out 4 great runs last week. And that makes me happy. I will build on that this week.
I also got an amazing haircut and am very happy I broke down and finally did it.
My head feels much lighter now. And I finally have my layers back!
I bought calimyrna figs for the first time on Friday, and they make the most delicious snack.
Craig and I dogsat this weekend for his sister’s pooch, and it was really fun to cuddle up with a dog. It was neat to have a little shadow.
I also harvested our first melons from the garden!
The watermelons kept popping out of their slings and finally came off the vine.
Organic cantaloupe and sugar baby watermelons!
We went to a fantastic housewarming party on Saturday night for two of our good friends, and we had a blast seeing everyone. I hadn’t been out in ages, and plus we had been away for 3 weeks. So it was reaffirming to catch up with our friends and just chill out eating summer BBQ foods and having tasty beers. We stayed out very, very late. But it was worth it.
Today we visited my parents and caught up with them and showed off vacation pics.
And tonight I washed our sheets, cleaned the kitchen, and made a batch of zucchini and summer squash soup for our lunches this week.
I am feeling more optimistic. This is good! This week I hope to tackle planting new lettuce and baby spinach seeds. And more sugar snap peas.
And I WILL run, of course. Now if I can just work on peaceful, restful sleep I will be golden.
Tags: cantaloupe, exercise, gardening, gratitude, housework, laughter therapy, organic, running, summer, summer squash, watermelon, zucchini
Posted in The Daily Balance, The Growing Season | No Comments »
