Gettin' All-Primal in the Applachians page 21

[Crabbcakes]

Crabbcakes you're doing great on your exercises! I haven't gotten sore for a long time; I think that means it's time to step it up a bit. Truth is I've never been that into exercising or sports, I'm doing it because I know it's good for me. Which means it's hard for me to stay motivated, I end up thinking of a thousand other things I need to do and before I know the day is gone and I haven't done my exercises. I do walk my dogs daily, that's something I enjoy.

Thanks for the encouragement! Yeah, the stuff I bolded is me to a "T". I don't have a dog because I don't enjoy walking one - well, that and how our schedule is pretty antithetical to what a dog would need.

[Crabbcakes]

Day Six

Still didn't sprint, and completely forgot about walking anywhere except around the house - got involved in cooking and such for the friends who came over for a grill-out/campfire/tractor pull night. I got about 5 minutes of outdoors time before the sun fell when I went to check on the fire First was building in the firepit, and how she was getting along with the saw and hatchet and chopping wood for the fire. This cookout was our play - not what the Primal had in mind, but hey.

Food was compliant. I got some raw sauerkraut and enjoyed it. I even managed to stay completely out of the s'mores roast everybody else was having.



Day Seven

Day off. Church had a brunch - I ate no-cheese no-crust quiche-y thing with tomatoes and asparagus and nothing else as everything was baked goods of some kind. I had to chase Third around and by the time I got to the buffet all the sausages were loooooong gone. Sigh.



Day Eight (today)

Just finished my YAYOGing. Did two groups of exercises, just like I had planned last week: Push exercises (wall push-ups, carb walk, bear walk, arm rotations) and Legs/Glutes (good mornings, squats, box jumps, calf raises). First, Second and Fourth all did everything with me. Fourth put us all to shame.

Food was good. Sardines got 'et today. No sun today as there wasn't much sun to be had. Completely forgot to walk even though I was at the Y and could have done it around the gym.

[Crabbcakes]

Day 9

Food was scant, but compliant. I'm sick of eggs. Walked in the sun a tad. YAYOGing got done: Core (beach scissors, russian twists, crunch it ups, s&m push ups, yes-no-maybes) and Pull (let me ins, curls, claws) exercises. Again, First, Second, and Fourth joined in.

Then I did the evening home therapy with Third. At the moment, all I want is chocolate, cheese, sweet corn, butter, buttermilk. Day 30 can't come fast enough for me this evening. All I don't want is another exercise. I haven't talked about sleep much because I forgot to, but it is the usual sketchy stuff.

I might not write until Friday or later, but I am keeping my home log - Wednesdays are our 12-hour days, and then I get to turn right around and go to Cleveland with Third on Thursday for the first in a series of annual check-ups. First up on the list - a 2-hour visit with her technology services therapist (Third has a computer-generated speech device, commonly called the "talker", formally known as "AAC", which is "Augmentative and Alternative Communication". She taps a touch-screen, computer talks - great for speech-disabled kids like mine, but there is a lot to know in matching the proper programming and hardware with each individual kid, and then there are issues like not turning the talker off just to shut a kid up who might be getting obnoxious with it (that is the equivalent of physically gagging a non-speech-disabled child).

Friday brings an opening-night viewing of "The Important of Being Earnest", the Oscar Wilde play, at a semi-local state university, and the first day of a very, very popular old-timey festival here. They make the county's best sauerkraut. Last year they made more than 2 tons of the stuff and sold out in the first half of the second day. Folks from all around bring Amish wagons (the kind with a handle that you pull) in order to haul gallons of the stuff overland to their cars (the festival is held in a tight, hilly valley). Last year I bought 6 quarts myself. They also make fresh sorghum syrup on premises, as well as wool dyeing, weaving, old-fashioned sawmill (the really dangerous steam-engine, belt-driven thing), Boy Scout campout, craft vendors, historical society, most of the buildings are log cabins saved from destruction and an authentic one-room schoolhouse...

Saturday is piano contest in the morning for the three piano-student Girls Crabbcakes, and then getting my Sunday school lesson done, as it is my turn to teach.

Win - last Sunday I got into a pair of skinny dress slacks I haven't worn in forever and could still breathe all day...

[Crabbcakes]

Day 10

Food was good. Did my walking at an indoors track at the Y. Sun didn't happen today here, cold, windy and overcast all day. YAYOGing didn't happen - on the road all day from almost 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Now I am going to bed.

[Crabbcakes]

Day 11

Screwed up the food today - went to the salad bar in the hospital cafeteria, passed by the blue cheese bits and cheesy salad dressings and cheddar shreds... only to absent-mindedly put a tablespoon of cottage cheese on my plate. I didn't notice it until almost all of it had already gone down the hatch. Sigh.

Haven't done a lick of exercising - I got home an hour ago after putting 250 miles on the car today, and all I want is a nap. Maybe I'll nap for a bit and do it then. Maybe.

Got a little sun as it was sunny this afternoon and I was on the highway driving home in it, and sunshine does reach the interiors of cars, you know.

[annedawso]

Sometimes Crabbcakes you have to listen to your body and have a nap. It sounds exhausting doing all the running around you have on a Wednesday and Thursday.
When you said you had screws up I thought you were going to say you ate a big chocolate bar or something. You know you are eating well when you regard a spoonful of cottage cheese as a screw up.
Hope you have a bit more energy soon.

[Crabbcakes]

Thanks, anne!

Okay - the nap turned into an early bedtime, which felt good (I fell asleep on the couch and stayed there all night). I should be tanked up in the sleep department for the day. Good thing - four of us are going to a play tonight (yea, something artsy!!)!

It is just that driving makes me tired. I don't enjoy it much, outside of the mobility it gives me to get the Kids Crabbcakes to necessary places and wanted activities. I would much, much rather be on the Deutsche Bundesbahn. Which happens to be all the way over in Germany.

I couldn't care less about shiny sports cars and the like, either - just give me something ugly and safe and dry and climate-controlled (don't want to freeze or fry, you know, although I have done both on more than one occasion), preferably four-wheel-drive (for the snowy days over here) and big enough to hold all my kids plus our American-sized stuff.

Wednesday is our usual long day, and to turn right around after a few hours sleep and drive to Cleveland... at least I could return in the daylight. Dunno' what it is, but I seem to be having a harder time for a while now seeing as well at night as I used to. That makes driving home more strenuous over these unlit hills. Driving home in the dark in the rain is my absolute worst - artificial light (headlights, street lights, powerful well-site lights, etc.) about nearly blind me - the light reflects over all the raindrops and car mirrors and bounces everywhere. I have a non-glare coating on my glasses (and always have) and all, but still. At least, in the hills, there is a break between sources of light. Sometimes I need to be on the highway in the rainy darkness - ugh.

I'm not dangerous to myself or other drivers (if I were, I would sideline myself) and I have a zero-accident & zero-ticket driving record (and I plan on keeping it that way) - the whole car thing just saps the juices.

So - now that I have had a good night's sleep, I guess I have no excuse not to catch up on some movement...

[Mud Flinger]

I've so been enjoying your journal - just wanted to drop a note. Also, the eyesight thing is normal as we age. I don't need to drive often at night, so the time change reminds me each year. The glare and lights bother me also and rainy nights are the worst!

[Crabbcakes]

Day 12

Ummmmm, I seem to have gotten myself into a mini no-YAYOGing rut... no sprinting or YAYOGing or walking or sun to log for Day 12. Instead, I had a really good time with my Fourth. We read Campfire Weenie stories (spooky and unsettling stories for the younger set) and did a Halloween craft and cooked together (she made Mark's ketchup sauce for the pulled pork) and cleaned up the kitchen.

The food was good, in the face of blatant snacking and Halloween candy all around me. At least that is something I can be proud of. I made a pulled pork Carolina-style bbq recipe from Mark's PB Cookbook, a biiiig quantity of it, and the Family Crabbcakes ate it all up in the midst of arguing over who was taking too much. The arguing only stopped when I promised to make an even bigger batch next week... (but as a cook, I LOVE it when my people like something enough to get greedy about it )

Last night's play was fun, although a good number of Oscar Wilde's zingers went right past my oldest two. It was entertaining to listen to a bunch of Ohioans try their hand at English accents (and one Scottish one, I think that was). We'll have to get the print version so we can catch more of the dialogue. There was soda and popcorn and candy bars alllll around me at the two intermissions, and although I came soooo close to saying "screw this - I just want a Reese's cup!"... I DIDN'T.

Except for the local old-timey fair that I soooo want to go to today (Saturday), I have no appointments or anything. Hubby and First, Second, and Fourth are headed off to piano competition at a local small college. I am home with Third (not really interesting to her, so she would be bored, and you know how kids act when they are truly bored mindless) - maybe she can watch me do my exercises... heaven knows, with the daily morning and evening therapy we do here at home, I have put her through her paces often enough.

Oh - walking around the hills and valley that the old-timey fair is happening in IS getting lots of slow movement - outdoors in the sun, even !! Yea!!

[Crabbcakes]

I've so been enjoying your journal - just wanted to drop a note. Also, the eyesight thing is normal as we age. I don't need to drive often at night, so the time change reminds me each year. The glare and lights bother me also and rainy nights are the worst!

Thanks, MudFlinger! I was starting to get a little worried that the glare thing was a sign of something serious, even though I only recently got my new glasses, and therefore just had an eye exam. I don't wish glare problems on anyone, but it is good to know that I'm not the only one.

Glad to hear you have been stopping by - I truly, seriously, love company! Must be that teensy bit of Southern influence still making itself felt... (born and partially raised in the South).

I have been to CO - Hubby's grandmother used to live up on Cheyenne Mountain and his grandfather used to teach at the Air Force Academy. We once went on a huge round trip of the western half of the state - Colorado City, Aspen & Breckenridge (not during the snow season unfortunately), Florence, Sangre de Cristo mountains, Fairplay, Greeley/Eaton, Cripple Creek, Manitou Springs caves, Pike's Peak, Independence Pass, some town right next to the Wyoming border, and a few others I can't remember the names of without looking at the postcards (as my First was just a baby when we went, which would be 15 years ago). Beauuuuuuu-ti-ful state - just way too dry. (So speaks the gal who mostly has lived in wetter places.)

I hope you are happy there. My Second wants to be a chef, and because she is a celiac with a dairy allergy, we are looking into alternative methods of education as the typical cooking schools deal with dairy too much (she hates, hates, hates just the smell of dairy) and wheat flour dust in the air from First's bread-baking here at home will cause an exzema outbreak on her face. (First now mixes her dough outside on the porch so the dust can blow away in the wind and then brings the wet dough inside.) There is a cooking school in Boulder I found that Second would like to try, the School of Natural Cookery. I hear Boulder is one nice place to live.

Drop by again, soon!