Day 64 of 365

Thursdays are usually pretty rough for me but today was a full, productive day.

• The plumber came and put in my new kitchen faucet from Day 56 and fixed our leaky toilets and showers. Now maybe our water bill will go back down.
• We had a high school kid come and do some yard work for us this afternoon. He's a keeper so we'll have him back again and again.
• My daughter got our new climbing roses from Day 62 planted. Red roses on a white arbor for the entrance to our rose garden.
• I finally (yes, finally) started on the quilt that I fought putting in the frame way back on Day 38. Better late than never.
• I rode the exercise bike for the 18th straight day. Yay!
• We celebrated Mother's Day today. My daughter heads home tomorrow and works through the weekend so we had a Mother's Day dinner tonight. We had barbecued steak, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and grilled garlic bread. Yum! 
• My daughter helped me (or I should say I helped her) finish up planting our garden. Corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, broccoli, cabbage, bell peppers, hot peppers, red potatoes, russet potatoes, kohlrabi, carrots, spinach, arugula, zucchini, cantaloupe, watermelon, kale, rosemary, basil, Italian parsley, and pumpkins. It's not pretty right now, but it will be soon.

Day 63 of 365

 I sure miss my daughter.

I didn't really notice until she came home yesterday. She lives in the big city (big for Idaho) and has a job, an apartment, and a boyfriend. She calls me every day, but since I don't get out much I don't see her much. She comes home ever so often to visit but mostly she comes home to help out.

But that's not why I miss her most. During the week, my conversations with people are nil. I say goodbye to my husband at 6:30 in the morning and go pick him up from school at 4:00 or so. My daughter calls in the evenings. In between the time my husband leaves and the time I see him again, I talk to no one (unless you count the cat). I don't leave the house but once every couple weeks for shopping and even then I can almost get through the day without speaking to anyone.

So when my daughter came home yesterday and helped me bake, we talked and talked and talked. I mostly listened, but I did get a few words in here and there. And it made me realize how much I miss her being around. When I lived with her the first two months of this year as I recovered from shoulder surgery I don't think we talked as much. I think this time home she was glad to be here, glad to hang out, glad to see her kitty. She wasn't always glad to be here. We certainly had teenage troubles, but that seems like so long ago.

We did do some more baking beside the carrot raisin bread yesterday. I had to make some sugar cookies for someone. Unfortunately we kept - and ate - the rejects.

So now this is the absolutely, positively, last time I will bake.  Sugar and flour, be gone!

Exercise update: 17 for 17.

Day 62 of 365

I tried hard for today to be another Sale-A-Bration day like on Day 40.  But it wasn't meant to be. The bad luck at my first stop kind of clouded my day.

This extreme couponing that's getting all the press is hurting those of us who use coupons not in an extreme way. The word is out that one of the gals portrayed on the show committed fraud with her coupon usage, using coupons for items she did not purchase. The show also portrays people nonchalantly clearing shelves with no concern for subsequent shoppers. More and more often, I see people with multiple items in the stores. Not just three or four items of the same items, but 30 or 40 of the same item. 

I started my trip off at Albertsons to use some double coupons. I would have walked away with free pizzas, but the shelves were bare. No sale pizzas anywhere to be found. Sounded like coupon use at that store had increased quite a bit. So I got a raincheck (won't help too much since today is the last day for double coupons) and only came away with free Yakisoba noodles and a 69 cent can of enchilada sauce. If I really cared that much about pizzas, I imagine I would have showed up first thing Sunday morning. Oh, well. Maybe next time.  

I returned my bathroom faucets from Day 56 (so I guess I made money there - except I then turned around and bought two climbing roses), and had to pick up my Enbrel injections (got those free because of the prescription assistance so I didn't have to pay $2037.09).

Target wasn't too bad. Before the coupons, the price was $25.95 After coupons, the price was $12.66. I paid with a $10 rebate card I received earlier in the week so the total cash out of pocket was $2.66.

Shopping wasn't my only activity today. My mom has been telling me about this Mimi's Cafe Carrot bread. I've never even heard of Mimi's Cafe, but I guess they're all over the place. Their rich dark carrot bread is supposedly unbelievable rich and delicious. I checked around on the internet and found a recipe here on how to make it. Even though I said no more baking so we can cut back on the sweets, I decided to try it. For those of you who have had this bread before, is it typically this dark?

Rich? Oh, yea. And full of carrots, raisins, and nuts. We certainly won't be eating all of it ourselves.

Exercise update: 16 for 16.

Day 61 of 365

I realized I've just about finished up two months of this journey so far. My, how time passes. I can't even imagine where I'll be two more months from now!

Two months ago:

*I didn't know if I'd have a job to go back to or not. Still don't.
*I was still going to physical therapy several times a week. Now, I do it at home.
*I was thankful that on some days I could do things for others, like sending out coupons and taking cookies to folks. Now I still do that, but have added pillowcases, quilts, and even concert tickets.
*I hadn't started injections for rheumatoid arthritis. Now I give myself shots every week.
*I didn't know why on certain days I felt worse than others. Now I do (it's a medication issue).
*It hadn't even occurred to me that I should be exercising every day. Now I do - every day - 15 out of 15 today!
*I couldn't raise my arms above my head or bend my knee all the way. Now, thanks to exercising, I've made progress on both.
*I had more bad days than good. Now, I think I just might be having more good days than bad.
*I set a goal to take a picture a day. Now I'm 61 consecutive days into it.
*I didn't know where this all was going to lead me, but hoped it would lead me back into the land of the living instead of the land of the existing. Now, I think it might be doing just that.

And today I forced myself to go outside. Doesn't feel like 70 degrees with the wind, but my phlox sure are happy.

The picture also sums up how I feel about the progress I've made so far.

Day 60 of 365

My husband forced me to go outside today.

He forces me to do a lot of things, especially when it comes to watching television. Makes me watch NASCAR with him, Boise State football, movies, and even tries to get me to watch baseball. For years, I let him have his sports. I left him alone so he could watch what he wanted to watch, when he wanted to watch it. And with me being sick for so long and our main TV being in the basement, it worked well for me. But he's been trying to get me down the stairs, and with me going downstairs to exercise every day, it's getting easier. (And I actually like NASCAR now.)

Usually when he forces me to to do something it's in my best interest. Like making me go outside today. It was a sunny day and being in the sun is always a good thing. It was cold so I bundled up and was dragged out there to sit in the sun. I'm glad he made me go because it gave me a chance to take a little walk around the house and check out the gardens.

We have several gardens. We have a flower bed under our front window. We have the vegetable garden we're starting. We have a wildflower garden that's turning into a perennial garden. We have a shade garden. And our biggest garden is our rose garden. So we certainly have lots of flowers.

Very few of them are blooming right now. Some of them have been a little nipped with the recent weather, but most of my Bleeding Hearts made it through fine. And thanks to my husband forcing me outside, I got to see them today.

Exercise update: 14 for 14.