Patio Yoga!

Imagine how thrilled I was when I went out to top up the birdbath and realized that it was warm enough with the sun blazing out of the 7:30 AM sky to do yoga on the patio today.  I spent a few minutes sweeping away all the leaves and dust and other non-yoga-favorable things, unrolled a mat, set my Kindle up to show me the yoga poses, and set my phone app to play my favorite morning guided mediation.  It was lovely.  It was also hard to concentrate on the guided meditation because I kept listening to the birds but I yanked my mind back to Franko's voice and reveled in the feel of the warm air and sunshine on my face and body.  



Tulips have started blooming.  The orange one with the lilac edges in the front is just about ready to open fully and this clump of red tulips up on the retaining wall (in back of the rental side, to be honest) is open and looking very much like spring.  I hope that Pick 'N Save has tulip bouquets on their $5 Friday special because they're DIL1's favorite flower so I try to get her some at least once in tulip season.  Last year OJ and I were there on a Friday and I said that maybe we should get some tulips for Mama and he agreed.  "Mama needs flowers," he said.  Such a considerate boy.  He gets that from DS who got it from Durwood, who I think got it from Pappy (his dad).  I'm not at all sure it didn't start with him because Pappy's dad died long before he was a grown man.  But it's nice to know that trait passes down the male line.





I tried a bit of layering for today's Me Made May outfit.  It's Shirt No. 1 (refashioned from a Bonaire-bought caftan) over the Epistolary Dress No. 1 over cropped Pants No. 1, all from 100 Acts of Sewing.  I have high hopes for sewing up another Dress No. 1 and one of the Tunic No. 1s that I have cut out tomorrow and Thursday.



See this blank space in the garage?  The most satisfying thing I accomplished today was putting the snowblower away for the summer.  That's where it sat since last October.  Now it lives in the backyard shed until next fall.  Let's hope that no more flakes fall.  The latest I ever remember having to shovel snow was May 2.  We're almost a week past that.  Fingers crossed.




This morning I whipped up a batch of WW Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties.  A pound of ground turkey, plus some minced onion, spices and herbs made 10 two-ounce patties that got fried up and frozen in packs of two since that's a serving and a serving equals zero points.  That's right, pilgrims, two patties about 2" in diameter each equals no points.  Combine that with an egg scrambled in a few sprays of Pam and some sauteed onion and bell pepper, which also counts zero points, and a toasted Lite Thomas Multigrain English Muffin for 3 points, and you've got yourself a delicious and filling breakfast for hardly any points.

Yesterday afternoon I counted out and weighed out bags of tiny pretzel twists, some lite kettle corn, caramel mini rice cakes, and some reduced fat Cheezits into 2 point bags for snacking.  Now there's a big big 2.5 gallon zipper bag of snack bags in the pantry so I can grab something when I get the munchies and not overserve myself.  My weight loss has kinda stalled out the last couple weeks but then we've been on a going-out-for-burgers jag so I'm just happy not to have gained weight and, since I'm working to eat this way for the rest of my life and no one can be expected to be perfect forever, I feel like I'm doing just fine.

May 8--Juan Gris, Landscape at Ceret.  The sun-blasted stucco houses blended into the fields of ripe grain.  Olive trees lent their dusty green to the hillsides.  Even the shade looked stifling.  Ellie and George felt like they were driving through force fields of heat mirage that rose from the dusty roast like wraiths from Hell.  Every once in a while Ellie caught the twinkle of sunlight on water through the trees and knew that soon they would be able to see the sea.

It's time for bed.  I'm tired.  Durwood scolds me for not "relaxing" but I'm much happier getting things done than I ever am sitting around doing nothing.  Doing nothing isn't relaxing, crossing things off my to-do list is.  G'night.
--Barbara