Saturday I cleaned out the planter that is on the front steps - the Gerber daisies and Mandivilla (sp) were pretty much toast and planted two mum plants in it. I'm not a big fan of mums but it's that time of year and thought a pink (they called the color purple) and deep red one might look pretty there. Dad probably fell out of his recliner thinking I actually planted something on my own :)
I've decided it's time to take care of me and honoring my body (my temple) that God gave me. I don't drink, smoke or do drugs - but I don't take care of my body like I should aka I don't exercise at all. The only weight lifting I do is carrying Butler down the stairs 3-4 times a day. So....I did it, I signed up with PrairieLife which is a "gym" close to the library in WDM. I'm going to try to do Yoga one night a week and do weights 2-3 of the other nights - Wed is small group Bible study. By doing this I will help my body get rid of stress and help my depression when it rears its ugly head. One of my goals with the weight machines is to get my arms toned and firmed so that when I quit waving so does my arm - I'm sure most ladies got that one right away :) Butler will just have to wait another hour before being let out at night because the Yoga class and/or weights would be on my way home from work.
I found out something yesterday when I stopped at Casey's on my way to spend some time on Mike's bench - they make pizzas in a small size. I had no idea. I thought medium was the smallest size they made. So last night for a treat I bought myself a small pepperoni pizza. It was awesome and Butler ate the crust. I won't do that very often but it was nice to know I have that option. That was the first pizza to be eaten upstairs in my bedroom since before Mike died - we almost always ate upstairs - on the bed while watching tv.
Then today I really treated myself to McDonald's and headed to Walnut Woods to sit for awhile reading and enjoying nature - check out the pictures below. I ate my French fries on the way to Walnut Woods and then leaned against the car eating my double cheeseburger - didn't eat all that. But I made sure I pulled the pickles out and while doing that I had "one of those moments" where I smiled and got teary-eyed at the same time. Mike always gave me his pickles because he knew I liked them. Then I grabbed a chair from the trunk, my book and sweet tea and plopped down to read for a while. After I'd been reading a bit a young girl and boy walk by - a little ways away from me and the young boy yells out, "oh look a garter snake!" Lovely................
I plopped down in the sunny spot between the shade of the two trees.
The view the other way past the one tree.
Mike and I would also head to Walnut Woods different times when we put a pet down. We'd stop and get a Coke and then sit on a bench in this area to look out over the water and talk about the pet we'd just lost.
Two things.......I remember being a little kid and Dad wanting to sit by the water and just watch it when we would be on vacation. I couldn't understand why he'd want to do that when there was so much else to do on vacation. I "got it" many years ago. It's very calming to sit by the water and watch it flow by.
The other thing.....holidays. I'm still not used to being on my own. To me they are worse than weekends. Mike and I never made plans for Memorial Day, 4th of July or Labor Day. We'd get up and if the weather was nice decide what we'd do. Maybe get McDonald's and go somewhere to eat it - lots of times the Blue Lights by the airport to watch planes take off and land before they rerouted McKinley Avenue. Or we'd get an ice cream cone and just "head out" and see where we'd end up. It's not always the easiest to decide what to do when it's just you.
When I got home and let Butler out I checked the plants and saw a little butterfly on my butterfly bush. I tried to take a picture but I couldn't figure out the zoom option on my phone. I've seen one other butterfly on it and that was a pretty Monarch butterfly.
