Healthy Living

I decided to get my (body’s) life back in order and begin running again. I was a runner for a couple of years (and more than a couple of years on and off before that) before Peanut was born. In fact, I ran during the first half of the pregnancy and walked 2-4 miles the second half. I dabbled with working out postpartum but it just never stuck. And I’ve had enough of it – I cringe with jealousy when I see a runner and my body aches in anticipation of the muscles tightening and relaxing with every step. So this week I started walking/running with Peanut after work. o-m-g sore does not begin to describe how I feel right now. But I must say, I’ve been craving this sore feeling for almost a year and I’m happy that I’m getting back into it.

Related to the note above, I’ve dusted off my old running shoes (I desperately need a new pair, but choose to spend my non-committed-well-earned $$ on bloggy things and camera stuff instead…who does that?) and my Nike plus. Since I have to have the phone with me anyways, I geared up the Nike plus on my iPhone and things are going well. Except that it’s not calibrated (I am not running 7 minute miles) and it won’t sync with the website. Do you know how easily I get frustrated when technology doesn’t work the way I want it to? (very very very easily) *Update* I figured out how to fix it since I started this post. All is well again.

Unrelated to above, please look at Bella’s face in this photo (she’s the big brown dog).

Don’t you just want to smother her with kisses?

I’ve been thinking a lot on the balance between work, home, kids, husbands, blogging, photo-taking, photo-editing, eating, scrapbooking, cleaning, working out…the list goes on. How does one find a happy medium among all of those things? I know that the appropriate answer is to choose the things that are important to you and let the others go, but what if I really don’t want to? What if I truly enjoy every single one of those things, along with probably about a half dozen others? Instead of letting some things go, I’ve become insanely good at scheduling every last minute of my day to make sure that I have time for everything that I want to do. Sometimes this works so great that I feel completely fulfilled and happy; other times I get so overwhelmed that even sitting down to watch television gives me anxiety.

I’ve started to get up early to give myself an extra 30-45 minutes to do the things that I won’t have time to do later that day. Considering that I go to bed by 10pm most nights, I can stand to give up some sleep and I still end up with almost 8 hours a night. I’m calling that a good compromise.

How do you balance life, work, and all your other hobbies and responsibilities?

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This morning we woke up and decided to make the best of an absolutely gorgeous day. While Jon mowed the lawn, Peanut and I went to a garden place around the corner from us and picked up some stuff for our yard.

Then, while Jon played with Peanut, I tackled the garden.

Here’s what we have this year so far:

Let’s have a closer look, shall we?

On the left we have some strawberries. In a couple of weeks these will be taking over majority of the garden.

Oh, and what do we have here? A puppy! Cailey was enjoying the sunny day as well. Especially since we threw the tennis ball to her.

Back to business.

Here are some sweet peas. I seriously can’t wait.

A little trick – plant half now and half early in the summer to enjoy them longer!

And some Zucchini. Because we can make baby food with it.

And yellow squash. Because we can make baby food with it.

And Spaghetti squash…you know, because we can make baby food. And spaghetti.

Some spinach. This one’s mostly for me. Also, it was free because it wasn’t looking so hot.

Some watermelon. Who doesn’t love watermelon? Side note: last year we had 3 come up and they were amazing. Another side note: I can eat a whole large watermelon in one sitting. Then I complain non stop about being uncomfortable.

Some scallions. I love scallions. A lot.

And here are my two biggest supporters. They came outside to check out my progress and were very impressed. Then Travis ran up and licked Peanut’s face up and down. So they went back inside.

And now I’m going to give you an awesome little secret I learned last year.

Did you notice that my garden is covered with grass cuttings? That’s right, peeps, grass cuttings. We use it instead of mulch in the garden to keep the weeds away, the soil moist and rich with nutrients. One of Jon’s uncles grows a ton of veggies and fruits and he told us this little tid bit. Let me tell ya, it’s amazing. And the best part – it’s free!

So, internet friends, let’s hear it.

Do you have a garden?
What are you growing?
Go any cool tips and tricks?

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