closing in on summer

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We're getting close to summer.

Lawns are being mowed, we've started some kale and lettuce in our containers.  I have some strawberry plants to replace the old ones I managed to kill last year.  So, we'll have a small container garden up and running.

Elizabeth is doing very well with reading.  She's reading aloud confidently, and sounding out unfamiliar large words. 

Nathanael is expressing interest in letters and words, so we've done some occassional work.

Adelle's interest in language is mostly toddler-ish.  "Mommeeee!! Up! Up!" Or "Da! Hi!" Her other words are hit or miss - words that she used before, she doesn't use now.  And, instead of saying words, she prefers to nod yes to anything, and everything.  At least now animals are getting different sounds instead of the ubiquitous "grunt, grunt."

I'm experiencing mommy guilt, but as we all know, that's nothing new.  Right now, my guilt is centering around the fact that I haven't printed Adelle's one year portraits yet.  She's almost 18 months.  Maybe I'll take the 18 month portraits, and then just send them all at the same time.  2 for 1!

I did a 5k in April, and managed to finish in less than 45 minutes.  My mom came in exactly 3 minutes behind me, and we were both glad to be done walking/running.  I now have a running buddy here, though, so I'm hopeful that our bimonthly get-togethers will spur me on to further progress.

I finally (quickly) found a geocache I'd been hunting and missing.  Don't know why it didn't occur to me to look on the other side. Probably I was trying to keep young children from falling into the icy water?

I'm getting rid of stuff.  I have boxes of things piled up.  I'm planned to do a yard sale at some point this summer, and the rest will be given to Salvation Army/Freecycle.  So.Much.Clutter.

I am grateful my city offers curbside recycling.  I feel a lot better about throwing out old magazines, papers, and random whatevers.  And grateful for freecycle. I wonder if I could freecycle my extra body weight?  Jude hasn't been too interested in swapping metabolisms with me, so I guess it's all on me now.







 My mental self-talk involves a lot of "I'm fat."  Which is probably because people didn't recognize me when they hadn't seen me for a few years. And I've gained about 20 pounds since November 2011. Not cool. Midlife metabolism change?  Probably. (yay 34!) General sense of stress/emotional eating? Absolutely! (You mean I shouldn't seek validation in my food?!) I'd like to blame it on not having the genetic switch that makes me want to exercise.  I saw something about that on TV recently. Maybe I should be watching less TV.  But why, when there are so many yummy-looking recipes to make?  Especially the sugar-laden carby ones?

I have half a cow sitting in my freezer, waiting to be used. If I were 2/3 of my brothers, I'd totally be grilling that beef.  However, I feel my grill is inadequate, and I am embarassed to bring it out to grill on my patio. It's a teeny camping charcoal grill.  I should get over it.  Who cares what the neighbors, with their big, shiny, no-squatting-to-turn-the-meat, propane grills think.  I got beef. And summer is made for grilling.

And spring, and fall, and winter if you ask my brother.