A View of Lisa's World

Working on things...Year of me mini-report

Working on SO many things that I'm not blogging...but realizing at the same time that none of the many things I'm working on are being documented because I'm not blogging. UGH.

It is month 10 of the Year of Me and I have to say that it has been pretty crazy...I'm sad that I haven't kept a better journal of the whole deal, but I'm trying to just live it and sometimes that takes all of the energy I've got. I think that I just haven't really been ready to share, haven't known how much or what I want to say. Now I want to get back to blogging...I miss being able to look back and see what I was doing and thinking last week, last month etc. I think that in many many ways I'm a totally different person than last year at this time, and in many ways I'm not.  It is a trip.

For now, a mini-report.

Since I have begun the Year of Me:

• I've worked out approximately 90 times with my trainer...this is a serious record.
• I wish I would have kept better track but I'm thinking that I've walked around 100 miles
• I've found triceps and biceps and an entire host of other muscles I didn't previously know existed.
• I'm just about 25 pounds lighter than when I started
• I wanted to more lighter than that by now...but I'm working on measuring success in new ways too
• Early on I discovered that hitting things made me happy...it is a success to me that I can hit more things for longer and get less tired.
• Hitting things still makes me happy
• Just this past week I'm surprisingly learning that I like Jiu Jitsu quite a bit too. I did not expect to enjoy it, but I do...and boy is it a workout.
• Just yesterday I learned that my lower back does not like Jiu Jitsu as much as the rest of me, and today I had to miss my second ever workout due to my own injury...this makes me grumpy and unhappy.
• I'm working on being gentle with myself mentally and physically...this is not second nature.
• I'm working on not eating cookies because my back hurts....this was second nature but I'm turning that corner.
• Everyone who loves me knows now that my mood directly corrolates to my work out schedule and consumption or non-consumption of cookies
• I'm working on being less moody.
• I'm working on the muscle between my ears more than any other muscle in my body.
• I do not enjoy working on the muscle between my ears as much as hitting things and Jiu Jitsu, but I am convinced it is the best thing I've ever done for myself.

 

In other news, the house project is almost complete...so close I can barely stand it. It has been months...months that have totally sent my trying to be zen brain a flutter with clutter...but I could not be happier with how everything has turned out! By next week I am hoping to be sharing the complete before and after report....but first we have a few more details to get done and I have to wait for these photos to arrive that will be going on one of my walls. Did I mention I was excited??

Happy New Year!!

I can see why you might think I'm confused in thinking that it the new year on August 25, I mean, my freaking blog header still says June so why wouldn't it appear that I'm confused on my dates? But make no mistake, a new year started today.

Yep..school started today...and though I haven't documented our Summer very well here, it was a good one.I love spending time with Todd, but getting my routine back is pretty dang exciting for me. I am excited for all that this "new year" will bring.

The first new year this January launched the "year of me". I started working out and in miracles of all miracles, I'm still working out....and even more shocking, I actually like it...dare I say love. I've found muscles in places where I'd forgotten muscles could be and gotten in touch with a side of myself that I seriously thought was gone forever.  I think that the emotional changes for me are the most remarkable, though there are definitely physical changes too. It is all at once sort of uneventful and overwhelmingly different. Kind of crazy. I really need to come back to a whole post on just this subject soon, but it requires some thought and more brain power than I have at the moment.

Meanwhile, this new year means the new house look (which is still in a crazy state of flux), new work responsibilities, new food plans and continuing to take the "year of me" to the next level.

It also means I have a second grader. A boy that I couldn't be prouder of. Who moved to the "big kid" side of the school and who has added fashion to the long list of things he has his own opinions about. As always he handled the first day with confidence and a casual saunter. Man I love this kid.

Last day of May...

So first of all, I want to say thank you to our military past,present and future, and their families for the many sacrifices that they make. This is something that I've always felt was really important, but it has become even more real to me over the last almost 2 years. I think I've mentioned before that I read a blog everyday written by the mom of a soldier wounded in Afghanistan. Following his story and that of his mom and sister is heartbreaking and eye opening and inspirational. I think of Kevin every day, and knowing that he and his family are not alone in their struggles and sacrifice is humbling.

So as I'm getting back into the blogging groove I realize that I need to take more photos around here. In the months of April and May I took very few personal photos. I did do some work shoots which were fun, but I barely picked up my camera around home. I need to fix that for the summer.

May also means that Todd finished baseball season. He has decided that he loves baseball, which is pretty cool because it is my favorite sport. He is still practicing even though the season is over. His team ended up in second place after an awesome season, but after about the 4th game I was basically just toting my camera back and forth but not shooting...I even left it home a few games. The fence is a major bummer, and I like to cheer and spit sunflower seeds during the game, so I'm letting myself off of the hook. I did get these 2 shots one day before I was told that shooting on the field is not allowed. 

In other May news...I've completed month 5 of the year of me. I have so much to say on this subject that I don't know where to start. I figure that now that I'm blogging again I'll be sharing more about this journey than anyone really wants to hear so for now lets say that I'm much happier and healthier than I was 5 months ago.

Where have I been?

I've been on a little blog break. I didn't plan it, it just happened. Nothing big here, nothing bad. Some days I couldn't figure out what I wanted to say...some days I had something to say and was too tired to say it, and some days I just didn't want to say anything.  So I didn't...and I didn't feel too bad about it, and that was nice.

One of the many things I've been up to during this "year of me" is working on  not feeling bad about things. I am trying to do what I truly want to do and not what I feel like I should do. This is new.  A lot of things are new. 

Even before this little break I think blogging felt like something I should do and not like something I really wanted to do. So I posted surface crap and edited myself to death until I finally had to let it go.

Then a funny thing happened...I started to miss it. 

I just went back and looked and I started this blog in March of 2005. I didn't really realize it had been that long. Wow. For 5 years this has been the place where I can dump what is in my brain, document a memory or a funny story and look back and see where I've been, what Todd was up to etc.

And then I started trying to be "professional" I think I may have blogged about that once before, but my worlds have collided over the last year or so. I've taught less classes online, started my photography business and bumped into more readers in the grocery store. Even though I have separated my "personal" and "work" blogs, every time I started a post here I started thinking more about who might be reading and less about well..me! 

But I'm over that.

I also let myself fall into feeling like I didn't have anything interesting to say. I read all of the inspirational blogs, I see the fabulous organization and decor and the beautiful crafting and scrapbooking, I read about people running and meditating and making and lovely homecooked meals with home grown vegetables that they have photographed in a beautiful way.  I'm not really doing any of those things...I might like to do some of those things, but I can't quite keep up right at this moment, and I'm tired of feeling bad about that too. And while where I am at at the moment feels like an entirely different place than I was 6 months ago, I don't really have any photos or scrapbooking projects to show for it. 

But I'm ready to let that go too.

So I'm coming back, to dump my brain and tell funny stories and and document stuff I'll be happy to have documented someday. I have no intentions of being professional or inspirational, but I am going to be me.

PS: Now I have to hit publish, because I am leaving my house at 10pm (which half the time is when I go to bed) to go out with friends, most of whom are significantly younger than me and probably not finding leaving their house at 10pm as crazy as I do.

Lame attempt...

In an effort to keep the blog going I was trying to figure out what to blog about, because I can't yet blog about what I want to blog about because I don't have the photos.

So, I was cruising along reading blogs and got all excited to do a ten on tuesday post like Nora...so I logged in over here and started to type and realized it was Weds. Such a loser.

So...here is a lame attempt at 10 on Weds.

1. I've spent 3 days trying to get a photo of the 3 of us for my little project but we've barely been in the same place at the same time the last few days...but tomorrow I'm just going to grab them and throw them down and take the dang thing.

2. I love my office more than words can express...but my house is still a wreck from the project. Tomorrow is dedicated to resolving that.

3. I'm recommitting to the "year of me"...not that I uncommitted but I started letting myself miss a walk here and there and could feel the ground of a slippery slope beneath my non walking feet.

4. I need to update the blog header and wrap my brain around the fact that it is actually March.

5. After a week off from my trainer, I'm feeling yesterday's workout...and no doubt will feel tomorrow morning's...it is a love/hate thing.

6. I have the cutest new stuff for my guest bathroom, but have been hiding it from myself and dangling it as a reward for getting the office project done...why? I don't know....but I'm hoping to get it in there soon.

7. Phase 2 of this little re-do around the house is to refinish my Grandmother's antique buffet...I don't have a complete plan, but I'm excited about it.

8. Also part of phase 2 is creating an area for the crap that has to come in and out of my house everyday...backpacks, gym bags, coats etc etc. I'm looking for decorating ideas...if anyone has any great deco blogs feel free to link me up. Surfing for this stuff is another reward for finishing the office thing.

9. Pearl is currently snoring so loud on the couch it is ridiculous...I just had to turn up the news.

10. I actually pulled off a 10 on Tuesday (even though it is an hour from Thursday)...details, details.

A week about me in the year of me...

So this is the week I've been waiting for. My darling, amazing and wonderful husband (did I mention wonderful?) is off of work this week...and he is helping me re-do my office. You should realize that this project is just getting started and he has a lot of work still ahead of him, so I will probably call him adorable and wonderful a few more times.

I should also mention that right now the equivalent of "helping me" means he is painting, building shelves, cutting down tables etc..and I'm not doing a whole heck of a lot.

Well I did pack up and we  unloaded the entire room, closet and all, and let me tell you, it is frightening how much stuff I had in that room. It didn't seem like much until it became stacked all over my dining room, now it is a bit overwhelming.

I've been taking photos, and I'll share more details of the plan etc. tomorrow after my darling, amazing, wonderful husband gets the painting done.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Reporting on the weekend...the bad news is that Todd is under the weather...again or maybe it is still. Lots of coughing...some here and there fever, which seemed to be down today so I'm hoping that we are on our way. The good news is we had a nice quiet weekend at home, watching the Olympics and drinking coffee with hearts on the cup.

We had our Valentine's dinner last night, which was special because it was on "real" plates and served with candle light.

It is so funny because in an old life I had so many candles and candle holders it was ridiculous...now, not so much. But our plate full of votives turned out to be quite lovely and festive.

Today I got back to training and was shocked to learn just how much harder it was after 4 days off with the bum foot. It made me extra proud of myself for starting in the first place. I learned more new things today, tried more things I never thought I'd do and just reaffirmed that this is the right path for me. I'll be sure to remind myself of that tomorrow when my sore muscles have sore muscles.

So that is the weekend report...no school this week, so it should be interesting!

look what I got...

Who'd a thunk?

I've got to tell you, this whole "Year of Me" thing has been a hoot so far. I'm doing a lot of new things and really loving it. Each time I've trained I've learned something new. We do things from yoga, stretching, weights, resistance, cardio, and stuff that I don't even know where it comes from but I just do it.

Pretty much I just show up and do whatever he tells me to do, and if you know me, that is amazing all by itself. I have no idea what is coming from one minute to the next, one week to the next, but I totally trust the process. I have sore muscles that I have long thought were dead and gone, and I feel stronger already so I'm just rolling with the punches (pa dum dum). 

So anyway, last Thursday he tossed some boxing and hitting of the heavy bag into the mix. As I was punching he said "oh, I think we found something you really like!" I did really like it...I actually kind of loved it...which no doubt means he will make me work even harder next time, especially now that I got my own cute purple gloves (instead of the scary sweaty loaner ones). It just cracks me up that I'm now a person that owns boxing gloves...I wonder what other kinds of crazy things I'm going to do this year? Who knows, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm told.

Someone who isn't doing what she's told is dear Pearl...also known as the big bad wolf. She ate the plastic box, so Matt took the door off of it and put it on her wooden house. She's attempted to eat some of that too...sigh.

As I look at her over on the chair her throne snoring away so beautifully I just wish I could trust her to behave...but alas not yet my friends, not yet.

Year of me...day 18

A big part of my effort to take care of ME this year is walking every day. It is really interesting because at this point the walking is a much more mental thing than a physical one. I don't just mean the mental medicine of fresh air and all of that (although that is nice). I mean the act of actually making myself do it everyday.

It isn't like I'm trying to walk miles or anything...it started with just "10 minutes a day" and my trainer texting me to make sure I was doing it. It is a total brain thing to make it happen, you know, to fit it in around all of the other "important" things that I have to do. But it was pretty hard to excuse myself out of 10 freaking minutes...and I don't want to lie to my trainer so...I walk. Once I got going, I was walking more like 12.2 and 15.4 and 17.5 min (I know this because my stopwatch on my iphone told me so) and I'm increasing all the time. But like I said, it isn't the actual walking that is the challenge, it is the getting on the trail.

So Saturday was the first day I skipped and although I'm pretty sure that PMS played a role in it too, I was a less than happy camper that day. Sunday I had to resort to the treadmill because it was pretty rainy and I couldn't convince myself that it was ok to skip again (I tried). But let me tell you...that treadmill makes every minute feel like 5...holy cow. So today as the news stations are on "storm watch" I was thinking I was pretty much stuck with the treadmill again....and I was less than thrilled. Then I looked out the window and realized there was a lull in the rain and decided to go for a storm watch walk.

It was so windy and beautiful that I decided to take a little iphone video just to prove I was there. I realize that I am huffing and puffing as if I'm running a marathon and I sound (and look) like a weatherman in a hurricane..but hey....it is only day 18 right?