The smell of straw and fresh horse. The sound the stirrups and straps make as you maneuver in your seat. Ah yes, I am back in the saddle. I started out with a short ten minutes this morning, and while I have an annoying intermittent cough, it is because I loosened up some junk with my exercise. It felt great to move with purpose again. I will work my way back up to 30 minutes.
Horseback riding in Ohio
I have no guilt about not walking/running today. I can barely breathe just doing normal housework; I can’t see getting on the treadmill and making it worse. (Bad cold.) So instead of talking about walking, let’s talk about what’s4dinner.
DH keeps bringing home these great deals on chicken from our fave grocery store, Aldi. Six thigh/leg quarters for under four dollars! I put two thigh/leg quarters in the crock pot with carrots, onions and celery, and lots of salt and pepper. I still have four quarters left which would be really good in enchiladas, but I digress. It’s just a typical crock pot chicken dinner, but I will boil noodles closer to dinner time. Normally I would throw the noodles right in, but I am trying to avoid gluten. I have some fun and tasty rice elbow noodles that I will cook for my own serving of the chicken soup. My house smells so good right now. Wouldn’t it be loverly to add some of my famous white bread rolls to go with it, but alas…I indulged in homemade bread yesterday and pay the price today. So I will be good. The last time I made this chicken dinner, I added a roux and heavy cream to the soup along with brown rice. It was absolutely DIVINE and yet, DH couldn’t bring himself to eat much. He hates rice that much. Poor guy. And here I am needing to eat mostly rice. I love making crock pot meals after I have thoroughly cleaned the kitchen. No mess! And because the kitchen was clean and dinner was made by noon today, I had time to make a big batch of peanut butter play dough and also a cheesecake for the Family Home Evening treat. Why all of this kitchen fooferah? I was listening to talk radio, of course. I also got all the laundry folded and put away and the school work doled out to “Etherealanna”. What will I do with myself tomorrow? I’m throwing you a bone since I frequently neglect to show photos of dinner. Here are “Tori” and “Farley” riding the bus to school for fun.
Why is it my day off really screwed up my day? I had the chance to sleep in so I took it instead of getting up and walking. I ended up feeling sluggish and waspish all day. Also could have used a nap in the early afternoon, but no dice. I know I have complained about this before…that I HAVE TO HAVE MY WALK every day in order to feel good. Lesson learned, for the 57th time.
In other news, sweet potatoes in a spinach smoothie are so tasty! Creamy! Sweet! Yummy! I would take a picture, but it pretty much looks like every other green smoothie I make. Here’s to several more weeks of great health. Here’s me in the apron I sewed all by myself.
Saute celery and onions in a little oil or butter or margarine. Add potato dices. Start a roux, pour in with veggies and add a couple cups of water with two chicken bouillon cubes. Serve with plenty of salt and pepper. Etherealanna and myself made this one day for lunch!
I was sick as a dog yesterday, and in spite of that, I walked on the treadmill for ten minutes. Granted, I had to take a couple minutes break for reasons that I will not name here, but I got back on and finished my sentence. I record this because I thought maybe one out of the seven of you that read this blog may use it to inspire yourself in your own personal goals.
Today’s walk/run felt much much better. I am contemplating a new recipe for a smoothie; bear me out on this. I had a canned good with no wrapper. I shook it, and was hopeful that maybe it was some leftover cranberry sauce so I cracked it open. Oops. Sweet potatoes. What am I going to do with sweet potatoes? Canned sweet potatoes? The smell kind of turns me off, but I know how nutritious they are. I started thinking, what if I put a whole banana, spinach (of course) and like, one section of a sweet potato. I’m going to try it and I’ll let you know how it turns out. I’m hoping the banana cloaks the cloying flavor, and I’m also hoping that it will be an awesome texture. Out.
to clean up my mp3 player. It has a bunch of corrupted files on it, and an entire album that just doesn’t lend itself well to walking/running…so I end up skipping a bunch of songs. The album is Dosage, which is a truly fine album and has lots of great songs on it. But none of them are songs that I want to listen to while walking and occasionally running. That is all.
For the record, I shoveled yesterday and cleaned off both cars and tried counting that as my exercise. Sorry, it just didn’t do the trick like it was supposed to, and by the end of the day, I was an emotional lump. I could feel a chemical depression starting to settle into my chest. Sometimes I get angry that my body does this to me, but in the end, having this weakness is going to make me a better person. Just thinking about how I discovered a way to combat it on a daily basis makes me feel better. All of us have weaknesses. If we can find the solution to those weaknesses and make ourselves stronger, then we will have at least partially figured out the whole point of our lives on earth. I would be mistaken if I left out the Creator from this equation though. He gives us our weaknesses so that He can make weak things become strong for us.
In case you were wondering, I did walk/run this morning, even though the mattress monster tried to get me, and partially succeeded for over an hour. But that is not what I’m writing about tonight. No, tonight I want to commend a little boy who has a sense of cleanliness. My Farley, who is growing up so fast, loves to put his folded clothes away. One of his Christmas presents was a little electronic sweeper that picks up great. (thanks, Aldi!) He loves to sweep the floor with it, and is very thorough. My tidy little boy, whose spot under the table always looks like the floor of a chicken coop, asked me tonight after dinner: “Is this plate clean?” He pulled a large glass plate out of the dishwasher, and yes, it was sparkling clean. “Yes.” I said, slightly amused. He proceeded to place it on the floor, fill it with popcorn from the giant tin (thanks Husband’s employer!) and eat off of it like a dog.
Basically, the road conditions are listed as treacherous. Which is why our local community school corporation is not closed. What? Whatever. Helped ‘Dale’ clean off the car in my robe and boots with no socks on. This kind of situation brings to mind the sacrifices of the pioneers who crossed the plains with rags on their feet. How did they do that? I came in hopping on each foot while the pain from a little snow penetrated the skin on my ankles. Panting, grunting…I was outside for like, ten minutes. Clearly, I would have been one of those left behind in a shallow grave. I am thankful for those who have gone before, pioneers of all kinds, who paved the way for my life. I love my life. Out.
I am grateful for mornings where there are no hitches in my getalong. It will be a much better day today. Out.
Whats4dinner? 