I had an awful week. Not just a rough day or two, not just a bad week, but a really.rough.week. There were many parts of my week that were actually very nice and totally enjoyable, including having lunch with SD twice, a relaxing play date, not being in a class, etc. But there were also several issues this week that were incredibly frustrating and stressful...so much so that by the end of the week those issues had completely overshadowed all the good stuff that happened in my week and all I could think about were all the bad issues piling up.
My schedule was completely off all week, which meant so were my workouts and I became incredibly upset that no matter how hard I tried I never managed to work out on Thurs. or Fri. In turn my diet flew completely off track, so by Sat. instead of continuing to lose weight I had to explain to S why I was now 2lbs. heavier. {sigh}. These issues and frustrations, coupled with not being able to get to several plans I've had for spring break for things I've been wanting to do for weeks, made me irritable and stressed all week.
Finally, after dealing with even more absurd issues related to new problems with SD's financial aid on Fri.,...another mistake made by the school where they've now returned to lender almost $8,300 of financial aid SD received last year, and they're having major problems trying to get the money back...I had met my last straw!
All the stress of the week flooded my brain and hit me like a ton of bricks. I developed an immense headache...the kind that forms a huge ring around your ENTIRE head and pounds so painfully you feel as if you're on the verge of a migraine (had those too, so I know where this kind of pain is headed).
I was too furious to speak...I couldn't eat my dinner...and my headache became so overwhelming all I could do was cry from the enormous pain. I was completely spent and had had enough. When he asked I tried to explain to SD what on earth was going on with me with all of these frustrations...I wasn't crying because of the stress at that point, I was crying because of how painful my headache had become. Fortunately, despite my protests that I had a ton of work to do and housework needing to be finished, SD realized my headache was getting far worse and what I really needed to do was lie down.
So he gave me some Ibuprofen and forced me to lay down in bed and get some rest. I woke up later with my headache gone, feeling rested, and thanks to all the rain that ruined our Sat. plans I had extra time to get the house clean before S came over for another training session.
So, what do you do with an awful week like that? Because obviously a nap doesn't solve all those problems...when I woke up they were still there. But my attitude toward them was different. And ultimately, what I needed was a chance to set those problems aside for just a little while...to rest, regroup, refocus, in order to have the strength to attack them once again.
And since it's the weekend and I can't do anything else until Mon. to keep working on the financial aid problems, I decided to take advantage of a little bit of time to just relax and actually get to one of the projects I've been looking forward to during this break: beginning some of our spring gardening!
We've been saving up all our egg cartons to use as early planters for those plants that need to be started earlier inside. Back in January I bought several different seeds from
Pinetree Gardens as I planned what we would plant in our garden this year.
My girls have been waiting and really looking forward to this time too...we love to plant our garden together. We become so excited about a chance to work in the dirt, planning the garden layout, planting all of the seeds, pulling weeds, and the excitement of finally seeing the first signs of our plants growing. There's something about gardening that's so peaceful and theraputic.
First we filled all the egg cartons with soil. I grabbed a couple of 1/8 cup measuring cups and they were the perfect little scoops to fill the cartons.
Next we made tiny finger holes and placed in our seeds. Can you see the tiny little tomato seeds here?
Then we used the side flap on the cartons to tape on the seed package so we could remember what was growing in each carton. With just a couple of pieces of tape it made the perfect little place for the labels.
So, what are we growing in our garden this year? Well, this year we're trying to grow several new items we've never planted before. Here's what we're planning to grow:
Corn
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Zucchini
Pickling Cucumbers*
Carrots
Red Peppers*
Mixed Peppers*
Sweet Banana Peppers*
Better Boy Tomatoes*
Grape Tomatoes*
Gourds
Large Pumpkins
Tiny Pumpkins
Potatoes*
Strawberries*
* = new items
We're planning on adding several raised beds to our garden area and extending into another section of the yard to allow more room for some plants that seem to take over, like the pumpkins and gourds.
Just after the girls and I finished planting the peppers and tomatoes, S showed up for my training session, which is always enjoyable because of all the laughing we do at how much balance I lack, and how jello jiggly I become during some of the exercises. S told me I grunt and make noise way more than any other women he trains...hey, I'm aggressive as I work through the pain!
We also laugh a lot because I've decided to rename several of the exercises he makes me do...including renaming the "twisties" to "Charlie's Angels," and "one leg deadlift" to "drunken airline pilot." Because that's what I look like when I do it. See? My names are much better, don't you think?
Exercising is an enormous stress reliever for me (which makes sense why I was so much more stressed out after missing a couple workouts this week). So after the garden therapy with my girls...followed by the stress relief of my training session...my awful week had finally come to an end. And to make things even better, the rain stopped and we found this outside:
The evening was very enjoyable from that point forward. So, what makes all these children sit perfectly still together on the sofa?
None other than one of our family's favorite movies: Undercover Blues. I'd say the movie helped cure my "blues," but that would sound way too stupid & tacky, huh?
And to be honest, I didn't watch the whole movie with the kids. After I made dinner SD and I snuck away into the movie room and caught up on the latest episode of Lost. I'm choosing to chalk it up to simply a bad week, it happens. I'm not dwelling on it any longer, I'm moving forward and motivated to get back on track this week.
This week holds lots of fun plans and events to look forward to. And spring is on the way!
Notice the long metal fence pole in the background. SD's planning to install this at the base of the dog run soon in our latest attempt to keep the dog inside it and reclaim our yard.
More signs of spring...our plum tree that actually grows real plums each year, and our beautiful lilac.
Here's the garden area from last year...it'll be our before shot. A mess, but we have some great new plans for improving this area!
I accidentally almost completely destroyed our rototiller when trying to get it out of the shed. Fortunately SD was able to repair the unintentional damage and tilled up this area for me.
I pulled up all the stones and edging from the walkway along the dog run. We'll reuse these stones someplace else.
And this awful area is being totally revamped too. The bushes will be replanted in other somewhat shady spots where they should flourish much better. All the bark is being removed and I'm hoping to extend our new garden area in this section. Since it's full sun it's a perfect spot for gardening.
We're planning to put in several raised beds this year and a drip watering system. I'd also like to have SD build a short edging fence of some kind between the garden and the edge of the grass.
So here's the plan. It basically doubles the size of our garden from last year and will allow us to plant so much more! 3 large raised beds, 5 smaller raised beds, and an open area in the back for corn. I can't wait to start to make these plans a reality!
Hopefully soon!!!
