Wow we were just hit by a huge thunderstorm. It was awesome, amazing, and a little bit scary. It was nothing like the one that swept through Canberra City last night, but incredible just the same.

I love thunderstorms. This was intense, the wind was blowing so hard I had to lean all my weight on my front door to get it closed. Outside we couldnt see the end of the driveway the rain was like a solid wall of water. Imagine a fog closing in, but it is completely made of water that lashes down.

It has passed now, from tempestuous to tranquil in forty minutes. Nature is quicksilver in her moods. Just a week ago we were bemoaning our dead lawn, now it is lush and green again.

Here are some photos taken in the city last night, I dont know who took them, it wasnt me, so if they belong to you let me know if you want me to take them down.

Progress Report - End of February

I cant believe it is the end of February already. Anyway I hopped on the scales this morning with less trepidation than I had expected yesterday and the results were:

End of January - 81.3
End of February - 81.3

Yep maintained for February Yay. I do know that in the middle of February I had gone up again, so it was a bit of an up and down month.

Last night I sat down and edited my trusty spreadsheet, I can see where I have been and where I want to go with my weight loss, and this has helped me get my mind back on track. Next time I am dithering about and going through a flat spot someone remind me to open my spreadsheet, it seems to help me focus lol. Yes I am a bit of a geek like that, I love plans and graphs, all that type of thing, that's not to say I am really good at sticking to them, but I love making them.

I think the difference for me in the last week has been upping my veggie intake, and drinking a truckload of water. I feel so much better when I am drinking more water, but the dumb thing is I forget that when I am going through one of my unmotivated periods, and so I feel even worse, and unmotivated because i am so dehydrated. One day it will all click for me surely. The biggest hurdle I fact these days is that I am so bloody forgetful, and get easily distracted, so I forget to drink my water, and I get off plan easily when something else catches my attention. That's one of the things I complain about with my kids, its obvious where they got it from lol.

Also did some scrapping last night, I am trying out 8.5 x 11 formats for a change. I am trying to fit my scrapping vision into my own personal style, for a long time now I have copied lots of different styles, but I think I am finally working out exactly what suits me, that makes me happy.

Growing up is such a trial - but I am sure it will be worth it in the end ;-)

New career perhaps?

Ever noticed how often no blogging correlates directly to no forward movement on the weight loss endeavours?

Well that has been me lately. I haven't blogged regularly for weeks now, although I have been reading other peoples blogs when I can find time, and I haven't been losing any weight either. I'm not sure where the scales are at now, last time I weighed was over a week ago and I was back up to 83.5 after having been down as far as 81.something ( I think it was 81.9), so more than 1.5kg gain since the beginning of the year.

I cant believe how difficult I have found it to just do the right thing for the last few weeks! I am not eating really badly at the moment, but my exercise as been sporadic. My knee is playing up again, funnily enough when there is rain around town. You know how your old Grandpa used to tell you it was going to rain, he could feel it in his bones, or his arthritis, or his bad leg etc, well I gotta tell you I think old grandpa was right. We have had months of dry dry weather, no moisture in the air at all, and I have had months of problem free knee. In the last two weeks we have experienced RAIN, yes rain, and I have had PAIN, yes pain in my knee. Weird pain, aching and sort of feels tight like it is swollen, except it doesn't look swollen.

Maybe I can travel the world predicting rain now, makes for an interesting career move. I might be more successful at that than I have been at the weight loss lately.

Still I am not despairing, I know I will lose it, I just need to work on the one step at a time process. Earlier this year Dietgirl wrote that she will see her goal this year, even if she just loses one pound a week, so based on that theory, I will see my goal this year too - just one pound a week, surely that's not too much to handle.

M.I.A

This is a really quick post to say I am flat out at the moment, I'm still reading your blogs, but not having much time to comment or write any posts myself.

Bloggest Loser week 2 - My house is much cleaner than last week, I even have progress shots which I will endeavour to post later this week.

Weight loss progress - gone in reverse a little over the last two weeks, have managed to gain around a kilo - blah. But its not the end of the world, and I will lose it again before too long.

Kids have settled in at school very nicely, and I am now trying to adjust to working four days a week instead of two. I think I like two better!!

Hope everyone is well, and I will resume more regular posting very soon.

xx

What really counts

Sometimes it takes something like this to remind me about what really counts in life, its not all about counting p0ints, its not all about counting kgs, yes those things can factor in somewhere, but thats not what its really all about.

Click Here to see what I mean

I am ALONE

and OMG it is great! No, nothing bad has happened,its just that my baby started school last Wednesday, and this morning is the first morning I have been able to stay at home while her Dad takes her to school along with her brother and sister. I stood in the driveway in my pj's while she waved madly from the backseat of the car, all the while grinning from ear to ear, she has been busting to go to school with the big kids for so long, and I waved back. Then I walked in to the house looked around and thought

I am alone.

The feeling is almost intoxicating ;-)

It has been nearly twelve years since I have been home alone. I know I must sound really silly to some, but I wasn't expecting to feel so good about it. Last Wednesday when I took her to school for the first day I wondered if I would feel a bit sad that my baby was leaving, but I didn't, well only for about ten seconds when I realised that she has the same teacher that my son had when he started at the school, and who is undoubtedly the best teacher in the school to have as your first ever teacher. Other than that I was just really excited for her, she has been so looking forward to school. As she is the youngest of three children she has watched the other two go off to school everyday for her whole life, and spent the whole year last year asking how long until I start school. She has taken to it like a duck to water, and that makes me very happy.

The older two also have great teachers this year, and they are also settling in really well. I can only hope it is a great year for all of them.

Now onto our other scheduled events.

Holidays:

Just brilliant, very relaxing, great weather, we all enjoyed it immensely. A more comprehensive post on this coming soon.

Husband:

Well the aliens have been here again and given me back the model I paid for. Our holiday did him the world of good, he is so much more relaxed and happy right now, and has been such a pleasure to be around. Obviously I need to make sure he takes holidays much more often during the year, then I might stand a chance of keeping this nice husband lol.

Weight Loss:

Managed a modest loss over my holiday which I am thrilled about. Will give a more comprehensive update on this one too in the next few days.

Creating:

Finished the scrapbook pages I needed to do for my parents Anniversary Album in the nick of time. Had to express post them to Sydney last Thursday after staying up till very late on Wednesday completing them. So my grand total of scrap pages this year has already overtaken last years total (which was abysmal). Also went to a Stampin Up party yesterday - OMG I am hooked, the products are just beautiful, and all colour coordinated ... drool... I put in a rather large order, and am itching to get it back so that I can start playing.

Have also been working on creating some ideas with Rachael regarding a small business opportunity that may pan out for us. So my ability to think creatively is beginning to expand after being stifled for the past few years.

So I have been really busy in the last two weeks, and the year is lining up to continue in that vein, but in such a good way. I have started catching up on all my favourite blog reading, but haven't commented anywhere yet, there are so many of you with so much going on that I don't know where to start.

Hope everyone has a great week lined up, I will be back soon to fill in a few more details etc.

xx