Usagi.ca

As I suspected, I almost couldn’t move this morning. It was worth it.

I worked out for two hours yesterday! The weather is finally warming up. (The San Diego girl in me is shaking her head over the fact that I would think 36 degrees Fahrenheit is “warming up.”) I spent most of last week aching to go for a run, but no longer having the running stroller or somebody to watch my son. Supposedly, it’s still considered “negligence” to lock my kid in a closet or tied to a tree while I go out. Stupid rigid hippies and their stupid crunchy laws.

(Since this is the internet and people don’t know me from Adam… Oh, why am I being nice? I’ve encountered some absolutely humorless effers online. For their sake, I’ll point out that I wouldn’t really leave my child alone, locked in a room or otherwise.)

Anyhow, Saturday rolled around and my husband had the day off from work. Coincidentally, Bug decided to be a poster child for why birth control is a good idea. Without any guilt or separation anxiety (from me! Haha), I laced up my shoes and headed out the door for 45 minutes.

I didn’t run the entire time. I’m out of practice, out of shape and my ass-mar still makes itself known when the temperatures are below a certain point. I got in a good 20 minutes, however, and walked the rest of the way.

Once I got home, I did 15 minutes of yoga to loosen up everything (get your minds out of the gutter). Penguin had linner ready by that point: poached eggs, hollandaise sauce and english muffins. From there, we went on a 30 minutes walk as a family. Once we got home, I felt energized enough to do a half hour of Pilates. There was hollandaise sauce left over, so we had brinner, to which I added two-tone fries:

• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 3 T. olive oil
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 t. chili powder
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix oil, garlic, salt and chili powder in a bowl. Toss potatoes by hand until coated. Place potatoes in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes and then turn potatoes over with a spatula. Bake another 15 minutes or until tender.

All said and done, I feel really good about things.

I like the first of a month. It feels like a chance to make a new start. My house smells like banana-oatmeal pancakes, which doesn’t really have anything to do with the start of March, but, hey: who doesn’t like the smell of homemade pancakes first thing in the morning?

There are a lot of things that I would like to get done by the end of this month. Of special note:

1. Get the family finances in order.

We’ve had a tough three years! I’m not going to complain, because it could have been so much worse. As it is, we hit a bump financially. We are getting over it, but I want more than that. I want the comfort that my parents had: a retirement savings account, a healthy savings account. It’s do-able. In fact, this will be one of my tasks for the week: create a budget that allows for putting money into savings and a retirement plan.

2. Write more.

You know what? I’m going to do it: I’m going to finish a novel before the month is out. NaNoWriMo says that would be 50,000 words. That’s only about 1,600 words per day. Pfft. I typed that much in an hour when I waited until the last minute (literally!) to write a paper for J-school. (If anyone is curious, I got a B+. Somewhere, the spirit of my dad is grumping, “If you’d done it ahead of time, you would have gotten an ‘A’!”)

3. Fit into my size 6 pants from the GAP, with no muffin top.

Seriously. I’m not going to have another set of pictures where I can’t stand to look at myself (or, for those of you who are going overboard on the body positive trend, “wonder who is that girl who seems to have only a vague resemblance to me and a great love of Pringles and Caramello bars.”)

Now, just so it doesn’t seem like I think my life is nothing but suckage and a work in progress, here are three things that have made the start of my morning great:

1. Hugs from my son!

He’s getting so big, and will most likely be starting school in September. I don’t know where my baby went, but I’m glad that he still loves the cuddles.

Actually, I could go on and on about the awesomeness that is my son. He’s a great eater. The aforementioned pancakes? There are only about six bites left. He ate the rest. He’s also a very happy and social child, and the cutest little dancer I have ever seen.

2. The puppy-cat.

She really is part of the family. Bug and I sat down for breakfast and she went to her cat bowl (which is to the side of the dining room table) to eat with us.

3. “Everlong,” by the Foo Fighters.

It’s one of my favorite songs. Why are you still reading? Go find a copy!