A Work in Progress

Well, I know that this picture is not great but as it was pitch black outside, and there is no electricity in the room yet, it remains "as is"  for today's writing inspiration.  This is the second half of our, still unnamed, but what I think we will continue to call, back porch.  We had a deck with composite material included when we built our house.  Two summers, 50 cans of DEET, and 1,000,000,000 mosquito bites later, we screened in that area, and added a larger outdoor deck to it.  Well, looked nice, but was not functional.  We never sat outside, due to the continuing bug situation, and the heat.  We were always huddled into the screened porch.  We decided sometime in 2009, that we would screen in that area as well, and begin preparation for an inground pool as well.  I came up with the brillant idea of adding a fireplace to the newly screened area.  This has been installed today, and you can finally start to get the feel for what the finished product will be like.  We are pleased with the quality of work thus far, and although we are anxious to have this completed,  know that it will take time in order to be done properly and to all of our specifications. 
With the new year still fresh in our midst, I have again recommitted to putting myself first on my list of things to do.  I am forever inspiring and motivating people to do this for themselves, and as the saying goes, it is time for me to practice what I preach!  I have been down this road before, although luckily, the load I now bear is much less than in years past.   I am one of those people that will always have to remember that weight maintenance is an ongoing thing.  I fell into the "I am skinny now!"  trap a few years ago, and due to my ignorance, have put 30 lbs back on!    In 2004, I successfully lost 88 lbs through hard work, dedication, and most importantly putting myself first.  It may seem terrible for a wife and a mother to do this, but I will tell you one absolute truth - when I take this time for myself I am a better wife and a better mother.  I have more patience, I am stronger and it helps me focus on all of the other things that I need to get done in a day.
We all know that anything really worthwhile takes time and hard work.  We know that when things are done right, instead of the "quick fix" , the path to get there is long.  When you know what your desired outcome is, and once you make that decision to go on that path, you should not stop until you get there.  So today, even though I taught a cycle class this morning, I made the time to run 4 miles.  I felt great, and could have gone much further, but had to get back for the bus.  (see I AM a good mom!)  It also was 35 degrees, and since tomorrow I teach 2 classes back to back, I did not want to push it.  But let me tell you, that I have my focus back.  It feels wonderful.  2010 is MY year, so look out people!

And speaking of looking out, beware of the dvds on the floor in the kids' hallway....day 3!

day 2

Well, you know what they say...."you can't make this stuff up". In true fashion of making the "ordinary, extraordinary' I will tell you about 1/2/10 Sedgley style.

I had the fortune of getting up and heading to the Y to take a cycle class at 8:15 this morning, I LOVE to take classes, and because I teach so much, don't always get the chance to, but am going to attempt to add that to my daily routine. Anyway, I love the Y, and even if I stopped working there, (which may happen when I am like, uh, 99 ) I would still go there EVERDAY.

Took a brillant class, and managed to sweat out close to 600 calories. Great way to start a Saturday! Don had the task of bringing all 3 kids to Brady's 9am basketball practice, and we all gathered back home around 10. I was sitting at the table savoring some high fiber oatmeal when they got home. I noticed immediately that it sounded like only one of the 4 loves of my life was walking into the house. When it was Don, I was taken aback, and thought, "what have you done with the kids?" They were all still in the car playing on their respective Nintendo DS's.....not sure exactly when they even realized that they were home, or that they were sitting in a car outside in 32 degree weather.... it was one of those funny and sad moments. As much as I was laughing at the fact that I have kids in that phase of life, I was thinking how sad it is to have kids in that phase on life....

So, the "vide-its" finally realized that they were home and freezing their asses off, and came inside. Now usually I am the "Queen of Christmas Past" come Dec 26th. However, since it takes so much time to decorate our house in N.C, I do enjoy keeping the spirit going. In NY, I used to have the tree at the curb arounnd lunchtime on 12/26, so for me, to still have decor up after the new year is something else.

Once the DS's were turned off, Don addressed the kids with his famous PLAN FOR THE DAY. (he loves those) He explained that we were going to have a Christmas scavenger hunt, after lunch, and that they were to find anything that was Christmas decor related and bring it into the dining room. Well, the kids could not do this fast enough. They immediately started to gather things as if they were squirrels hoarding nuts for the winter!

Within 30 minutes, all non fragile, "yes you can touch that" Christmas decor was in the dining room. We usually put up a main tree, and then two trees just for fun in our family room, and one on the outdoor dining room. This year, since we are in the process of screening in the whole back of the house, we only did the family room tree and the main tree. As per our good friend Richard's recommendation, we did the main tree in our foyer, so that has remained in tact, and we hope to work on that and the scavengar hunt results this week.

I had to bring Rory to basketball at 1pm, and we stopped at the grocery store afterwards. Somehow, (neither one of us is taking responsibility) as we walked past a display of juice, an entire bottle of cranberry juice spilled and emptied out all over the floor. I took a picture with my cell phone, but have yet figured out the mobile upload feature. So for now, that is my mental pic of the day....

We then had some neighborhood play dates, and since we felt like some diningroom table dancing may be in the future, we had no choice but to have Chris and AnnMarie over, since they will not be hosting any dance-a-thons anytime soon.

I prepared two Hungry Girl recipes. The boneless buffalo chicken and the onion rings. They were great, however, the name of the cookbook should be called "Starvin Marvin" because it took about 2 hrs to cut and prep the onion rings!

We played a few games and shared some laughs, and here I am. Happy and ready for another brewsky....

See ya tomorrow!