June Beauty

  
We have this big beautiful tree - a Catalpa tree - that didn't bloom until last summer, our second summer here.  This year the tree is heavy with blossoms. For a day or two, I kept detecting the fragrance of gardenia all the way in the back while working in the garden, and began to wonder whether I was having nostril hallucinations, since I couldn't place the source of the scent and we don't exactly have tropical plants here in the desert. Yesterday afternoon the fragrance hit me in the face as I walked under the tree and I no longer questioned my sanity.  The flowers are so delicate and fine.  Soon there will be curious long pods hanging from the branches - like pole beans on steroids. 

I made one of my favorite dishes for dinner this week:  Italian-style Stuffed Red Peppers from Dashing Dish.  The savory meat sauce simmers in the red pepper as it roasts, and I love the sweetness of the pepper combined with the sauce.  Even my girls liked it this time; in the past I sometimes save out some of the meat sauce and serve it over noodles for them.  Only 5 Weight Watchers Points Plus per serving (half a pepper which always fills me up with salad on the side).  Can't be beat!  It is one of my year-round staples and sounds good to me whether the weather is snowy or sunny.

Our raspberries are ripening, our lettuce is about ready to be picked, the quince is growing small fruits.  There is a bush near our garden that was cut way back before we moved in, and I am trying to figure out what it is now that it is blooming; the picture above of white flowers that look kind of like a fruity blossom, although I'm sure this is just an ornamental tree.  The people who lived here before us didn't plant one single "productive" plant on the premises - maybe owning the orchards all around us sucked the desire out of them for any other kinds of gardening and food production?  At any rate, I'm making a guess that this bush is a "Mock Orange," but would love input if you recognize it as something else!

Our great caterpillar adventure is well underway, with five little chrysalides hanging in the netted garden up on top of my piano.  We watched in fascination as they each hung upside down in the shape of a J and quivered manically before becoming/forming (?) into chrysalides.  Obviously I have a little to learn still regarding butterfly metamorphosis.  This is my first time observing the life cycle myself.  This morning there was a glint of gold inside and I was struck with awe at the total transformation taking place in a tiny world in my living room.  God is such a mysterious Artist.  

Summer is here without a doubt, and the sprinklers are going full blast several times a week (as long as they're working... so far we have had only one easily repaired sprinkler blowout, but there are many more to come if the past few summers have been any true indication of the time required to maintain a sprinkler system).  There is something comforting to me about the sprinkler rotation, as if its purpose is to remind me that the hot weather is here to stay awhile and I can breathe a sigh of relief knowing the snow boots and coats can stay tucked away in the closet for another few months and the days can be full of outside exploration.  Soon there will be a hot dry wind blowing from the west, and thunderstorms in the evenings, and canning dreams coming half-true, though I never will accomplish as much as I aspire to.  Grilling is on the books for several nights in the upcoming weeks, even though the temperatures are still only in the mid-80s.  I laughed last week when I caught myself wondering if 78 was warm enough to pull out the pool for the kids to play in - when the temperatures are in the upper 80s and 90s for a lot of the summer, 80 degree highs are still cool weather!  When my friend commented last week that we didn't seem get spring and just went from winter to summer, I replied that I thought these low-80s were our spring.  Haha!

Truly Rambly

We got at least ten inches of snow this weekend at our house and it is lovely.

What's not as lovely is my miserable nine month old trying to cut eight... yes, eight teeth at once.  Moaning and crying every second she is awake and my patience wears thin.  Only one tooth has actually made an appearance (well, besides the two she cut a couple months ago) but the entire front of her top gum is puffy and bulging.  Where is my Rosie Joy, the great joy of my days?  

Today was actually a bit better for her and we had a really peaceful day.  Playing outside in the snow as I pulled my girls on their sleds while Rosie napped and then came inside for little girl cocoa and toe-warming.  This afternoon we watched a bit of Olympic ice skating, played with balloons to get some wiggles out, ate filling beans and rice for dinner, and I finished knitting my Cabernet hat (pictures tomorrow)!!  It turned out so pretty and I can't wait until it's done blocking (over a balloon... I have never seen someone block a hat this way but it's genius because... duh!  It shapes it the same general shape as the head that will wear it!) so I can wear it in this cold weather!

Sigh... aren't those girls up there in those pictures so beautiful?  I desperately want to be fully present in the moments I have them here at home with me.  I have turned off email and facebook notifications on my phone because I found I was constantly checking to see what that blinking light meant and then of course I had to check and see what email came through, and oh yes, just junk email again but what if...?  So a couple weeks ago I turned off the notifications and the temptation to pick up my phone and enter virtual world who knows how many times a day has diminished and the habit of being fully present here with my children, which I didn't realize had begun to slip, has returned.  I turn on my computer almost exclusively for recipe lookup when they are awake and use their afternoon rest time to catch up on email and facebook if I'm not working through it.  Not that I'm succeeding perfectly or that everyone needs to have that kind of rule for themselves, but I find that I do or I am tempted to get lost in the world of facebook, blogs, ravelry, instagram...It is better for our family this way.

I am waiting eagerly for a tax refund so we can keep going with our debt snowball and get a bit more momentum.  It IS possible for us to pay off our debt and I keep praying and watching for God's provision and trying to be diligent with the gifts He has given us.  I am definitely the "nerd" of our marriage, as Dave Ramsey would call me and I am always trying finagle our budget to be able to make it work best and live on less so we can throw more toward the debts.  In the long run we will be most happy at that, I know.   

We bought peanut M&Ms as a treat for our housebound children yesterday but they are impeding my Weight Watchers progress; I think I might gain weight just by looking at the package in the pantry!  But one of my friends contacted me this week saying she just joined WW too and oh joy, just the idea of having someone to talk with and be excited with about it.  That alone is probably a good reason to go to weekly meetings but I just haven't pursued that because it seems logistically difficult to get to meetings at this stage of my life. Instead I am just doing WW online as I had done before I got pregnant with Rosie.  I need to kick it into gear.

I have been exploring the world of workout videos on Youtube the past month.  I always feel a little silly that I'm not just heading out to walk or run but again... scheduling gets kind of tricky with little ones at home and short daylight hours!  I need it in however it works, even if it's dark evening.  Do you have any favorite workouts you do at home?  

16 pounds!

I have been working like gangbusters the past two months on my Weight Watchers plan and have rejoiced to lose about a pound a week for a little while.  I started WW last summer and initially lost a little (about 8 pounds) but because of the chaos of moving and traveling and settling in, it took a backseat a little.  I really started tracking and paying attention again at the beginning of January and especially the last month have been pushing hard.  Today I hit another 5 pound marker and have lost a total of 16 pounds - 1.5 down from last week and a lower weight than I was even before my first pregnancy!  I can't help but dance around the house at these victories!  My mother-in-law pointed out recently that a box of butter is a pound of fat, so I can picture that when I lose a pound.  When I see things like the losses people have on Biggest Loser, one pound can feel trivial but when I see that box of butter in my fridge it reminds me what a significant victory I have had.

The scale doesn't always seem to reflect my hard work, since I sometimes have a weigh in day where I have apparently lost nothing.  I started tracking my size measurements in January and those non-scale victories have kept me plodding along on those weeks, since I have consistently lost size.  I had to get new jeans a few weeks ago and I am down just about another size now.  I have lost a total of 5.5 inches at my waist!  And have to punch a new hole in my new belt already!  That's the biggest loss but I have lost almost three inches at my bust, an inch at my arms, etc.  I am getting rid of some clothes that I will hopefully never need again - even with another pregnancy, I will hopefully not be as big as I have been the past year.  All that data keeps me going and I am so glad I decided to track measurements to make things more concrete and encouraging for me!

It is hard work, but I have been tracking everything I put in my mouth, so I can make informed decisions about my eating.  I have found some great and encouraging WW blogs, some with recipes, some with other kinds of daily information and encouragement.  Since I am not going into town to go to meetings, I have to rely on what I can find online, along with my friend who is also doing WW.

The strange thing about weight loss is that it is easy to separate it somehow from my faith, as if it was unrelated to my walk with the Lord.  But I have been slowly realizing how interconnected it is, that is is an area of discipline in my life that needs to come under His control.  Body image, health, care of my body - the whole point of these things is to better use my body to serve Him.  It is a daily struggle for me to rely on Him for help with self-control, discipline, and success and I need to continue bringing it before Him, when I have "good" weeks and "bad" weeks in terms of my weight loss goals.