Update: A Month Later

This blog has been dead for almost a month. I miss writing on it and I think about it often, but time is the biggest issue. I've said it a few times, but it's gotten more and more difficult to keep up with the blog. The biggest culprit is the number of assignments I have. I am regularly getting requests for work, which is awesome, but leaves precious little free time for fun things. Like this blog.

What's Going On?

The gardening project is all but defunct. The brutal summer made daily, sometimes twice daily, watering a necessity. After our trip to Florida, during which I obviously could not be as conscientious about organic pest removal, the squash plants were decimated by squash bugs. I finally yanked them all and planted broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts in their place. A week of extreme sickness during the first week of the school year meant that I did not tend to the garden as I should have. In one week, while temperatures were still extreme, the little plants all died. All of them. Now, I have okra plants still growing and a very small number of carrots are popping up. Everything else, even the kale that looked so good as it was sprouting, has died. The fall garden is a non-garden, so I'm planning on turning over all of the soil and anxiously awaiting next spring. Still, I may try to put out more seeds in the meantime. Time is the number one concern.

I am having a little more difficulty eating an entirely clean diet, but only a very little. Clean eating has become such a way of life that I automatically reach for healthier foods. However, there are many days that I need a quick meal instead of a healthy one. On those days, I have a pre-packaged, frozen dinner ready. I'm trying to have less of those so that I force myself to make something clean and healthy, but I've since found that if it's not fast, it just doesn't happen. Several days last week, I barely ate at all. As I age, that is having an opposite effect on my body. I actually put on weight when I'm eating very little. I don't know how that is possible!

Exercise is going as well as possible. Now that my husband is back at work, I can only get to the gym two or three days per week. It's hard, but it's working. I'm concerned about the 1/2 marathon in October, but I'm still confident that it will go well.

I also built a web site for my sister who is a lactation consultant in Southern Missouri. Breastfeeding is the healthiest choice for babies and their mothers. In Southern Missouri, lactation consultants are pretty hard to find. My sister, Jill, is a traveling lactation consultant. This means that she will provide breastfeeding help in Lebanon, Missouri, she'll travel to Springfield, MO for breastfeeding classes, or she'll go throughout that part of the state. When I was nursing #1, I would have loved to have a lactation consultant come to my home, so I think it's really a great thing that she is doing. Check out her website at  https://sites.google.com/site/missourilactationconsultant/. Let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions about the site itself.

Also, the election is consuming me. Don't be surprised if you find a few political posts here. Though this isn't a political blog, I'm all over this election. No stone left unturned in my quest for the best possible choice for our nation's president.

I'll try to update more often, but I make no promises. These days, time is not on my side.