Workout Update

I've been working with a trainer at the gym twice a week for six weeks now. Today we had the six week evaluation to see how it is going and to plan for phase 2. Phase 1 has been focused on core strength and balance and trying to improve my posture. So, what did the evaluation reveal? I'm taller than I was six weeks ago, which I guess is a sign that I am standing up straighter than I was before. I also lost inches, but not any weight (adding muscle?). My blood pressure and resting heart rate have improved, so I guess that's progress.

In phase 2 we get really serious - more strength training and increased cardio workouts. Also, starting on Monday I will have an eating plan designed by my trainer. Since DH and I are actually pretty healthy eaters, I don't think there will be that many adjustments except for the times that I eat. The one change that I knew was coming is no more Diet Coke. Yikes! My trainer wanted me to quit cold turkey and substitute tea, but I know that's not going to work. I got him to agree to a slow tapering of my consumption to be completely off it in three weeks. He's got lots of good reasons, most of which I've heard before, but the hard part will be that I really LIKE it. Oh well, no use paying all this money to a trainer and then not listen to him.

Flour Power

Last weekend I fed my knitting habit and for Mother’s Day weekend I fed my bread baking habit. I am so lucky that DS#1 lives in Lebanon, NH which is very close to the King Arthur Store. On Saturday DH and DS ran a race in Woodstock, VT. It poured and I elected to stay behind to sleep in. When they came back they were drenched and tired, so they decided to warm up and then take naps. This was my chance to head out for my flour fix.

After getting only slightly lost, I arrived at the King Arthur store just as the morning’s baking class got out. After stowing their goodies in their cars, all of the students made a beeline for the store. It was jammed. I snagged a shopping cart and started to snatch up the things I knew I needed. I got white whole wheat flour, high fiber flour blend, hi-maize fiber, malted milk powder, potato flour, Harvest Grains and malted wheat flakes. They got everything on my list; then I started to browse. The store has every gadget and gizmo the home baker could want - baking pans, baking tools, linens, aprons, dough buckets, mixers, bread machines and on and on. They also have every ingredient you could possibly want from mixes to make cakes and scones to bagel toppings to 3 or 4 different kinds of rye flour. It’s a baker’s paradise. I controlled myself and only bought a dough scraper.

After a lovely weekend and Mother's Day breakfast with two of my favoite guys, we headed home. And what was the first thing that I did when I got there? You guessed it - I baked a loaf of Harvest Grain bread.

Lilacs

I love lilacs. Lilacs make me think of my Nana, who loved them, too. Lilacs make me think of Mother's Day since that's when they seem to bloom, so that makes me think of my mom. Lilacs make me think of my childhood. Lilacs screened our yard from our next door neighbor's yard. We had white and purple and, when they bloomed, my mom would cut some, wrap the stems in aluminum foil and send me off to school with a bouquet for my teacher.

We have two lilacs in the front of our house. Every year I say I'm going to cut some to bring into the house, and every year I forget until it's too late and they are starting to fade. Not this year. I saw them out the window as I was vacuuming and stopped what I was doing, grabbed the clippers, and cut myself a bouquet. The lilacs are on the piano now and the room smells like memories.

Spring Has Sprung

So spring in Vermont can be a capricious thing. Last Monday we had lunch on the deck and then I sat out there in the afternoon with my computer chatting with DH while he worked on two new raised beds for vegetable gardening. Then for the following two days it snowed!

Now it is quite warm again, but is it really spring? I think I got the proof I needed when I went to the local supermarket after church on Sunday. There in the produce aisle were fiddlehead ferns and rhubarb – sure signs of spring. I passed on the ferns because I don’t really like them, although I will pick some up for DH and DS #1 before they are gone, but I did buy rhubarb. While DH was out participating with the Marine Corps League in the Annual Maple Festival Parade, I baked him a strawberry rhubarb pie. It was the least I could do for someone who has spent days building raised bed and shoveling soil for me.

Now the peas are poking through the soil, the arugula and lettuce are up and maybe there is a hint of a beet or two and some Swiss chard, but time will tell. Anyway, I’m going to continue to think spring.

Road Trip

Since DS #2 joined the Marine Corps, I have bonded with a group of women on the knitting website, Ravelry, who also have kids in the military. It’s been great to be able to chat with a group of women who really understand what it’s like to have a child deployed to a war zone. We chat as a group on Thursday evenings, not just about our kids, but also about our knitting and life in general.

It turns out that one of my Ravelry friends with a son in the Navy lives in Rutland and has another son who lives not far from me. Last fall Cindi stopped by my LYS while visiting her son and his wife so we could meet in person. Shortly after that, I took a trip to Rutland on a Sunday afternoon to sit and knit at her LYS. A month or so ago, I went down to Rutland again when a Ravelry friend from Massachusetts, Corky, (2 sons in the Army) was in there to visit family. The three of us had a lovely afternoon knitting together and chatting in person. Two other friends from the Midwest (Marine and Navy corpsman sons) are coming to Vermont in July so that we can meet them in person, too. It’s amazing that one can feel so close to people one has never met in person, but it’s even better when you actually get to see them.

Last Thursday night the subject of WEBS, a yarn store in Northampton, MA, came up during our chat. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it’s a very large yarn store with a huge warehouse in the back where one can wander around and find great bargains. It also happens to be the time of their annual sale. Cindi had never been there so she suggested we make a road trip. Bright and early yesterday morning I headed to meet her in Rutland and then we made our way down to meet Corky at WEBS.

I don’t suppose I really needed any yarn, but there is never such a thing as too much yarn. It’s hard to go to WEBS and not buy a lot (although I did get out of there with only one skein of sock yarn when I was there last May). This time I had two knitting friends to encourage me and a request from my sister for some yarn to go with some in her stash. We wandered the store petting all of the yarn and filling our baskets. Then we went out to the warehouse and wandered the aisles snatching up more bargains. After more than three hours of shopping, we finally made it to the check out. Here are photos of my haul.

Yarn for socks for DH


Sock yarn for me

Yarn for my sister

Yarn for unknown project

Yarn for a shawl

We were starving so we headed over to Chandler’s, the restaurant at the Yankee Candle shop (or should I say complex). We had a lovely, if very late, lunch (Thanks again, Corky.) and then wandered into the candle shop. Next came an hour of sniffing and critiquing the zillion different candles that they stock. The names got so confusing that we weren’t even sure which ones we liked and which ones we didn’t. We finally made some selections and bought something to remember our trip. We each got a candle holder that says “Hope” which seemed to sum up our feelings about those who are deployed.

Our original plan was to knit outdoors on the beautiful grounds of Yankee Candle, but it was getting late. We still couldn’t say goodbye to Corky, so we chatted in the parking lot for longer than we should have. We headed back to Vermont and Cindi dropped me off at my car. I finally arrived home at 9:30 PM. I was exhausted, but it was a wonderful day.