Blast from the Past

I know its been sad, and traumatic and scary. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, my friends. A light I like to refer to as 'I'm baaaack!' Yup, for all of you who missed me terribly, have no fear, I am back in the blog-saddle now. Whoa, so much to try to catch you up on.... pretty safe to say it isn't going to happen. I mean, who could actually cram 4 months worth of life into one blog post? I will, however, catch you up on all the important things from the past few months.

(But first, a confession. I am clearly horrible at time management. For this I apologize. For several months, after my homework and house 'chores' were done, although I certainly had some time to blog I was unable to find it and instead flopped on the sofa and watched King of Queens with my husband. (Best TV sitcom of all time, hands down. If you don't know it, I am sad for you.) Anyway, glad I got that off my chest....please accept my groveling.

Okay, so important stuff you forgot that you were dying to hear: 

1.) I got an iphone. (Remember my old style technology?) I am now smarter in many, many ways. Mostly because I have a facebook app and a groupon app and a yoga app, which collectively means I can stalk my friends boring lives while doing the downward dog and checking for gotta-have deals on all sorts of things I don't really need. Genius.

2.) In the months that I wasn't blogging I took some time to clean my house. Not as in wipe down the counters or do the laundry (a commonly 'forgotten' thing at the 31 household), but I mean CLEAN. Like mop and shine all the floors, wipe down the windows and scrub the grout white again. My house is now sparkling, which I am sure makes all you readers feel much better. Of course, I can't guarantee how long it is going to stay this way because, as it turns out, it doesn't just continue to keep itself so shiny and clean. Very cruel trick.
Mr. 31 got on the cleaning wagon too. He rocks. But he does much harder things than me.... like while I was scrubbing the kitchen floor he was hard at work ripping all the soaking wet insulation out of our basement floor joists. Then he dug up the front yard and did a bunch of pipe and concrete work to fix the issue that caused the water leakage in the first place and then he scrubbed down all the mold that the wet insulation caused. So, I am very grateful because Mr. 31 does a lot bigger, a lot stinkier, a lot grosser jobs than me... and yet I still complain. (sigh) Which reminds me that we are never happy as humans and I really need to pray for contentment and pray that God makes me a more grateful person, because truly, it is a struggle for me.

3. I have completely embraced a paleo lifestyle over the past 9 months. Might be the single, best thing I ever did in my life. (hmmm...well, except for marrying Mr. 31). Since then I have decided I want everyone I know to also live this way and to experience such healthy awesome-ness. (When I figure out how to convince them I'll  let you know - in the mean time I guess I'll just blog about it.) Long story short I was miserable health-wise for years and, as it turns out, I have several nasty food intolerances - a.k.a what I was putting into my body was the issue. I have eliminated all grains, (exception: small amount of rice) dairy, corn and soy from my diet. Basically I consume nothing that is processed or sold in a bag or box at the store. What I do eat is lots of organic, fresh veggies and fruit (check out Suburban Organics!) and lean meats. Of course, woman can not live on healthy food alone and so I also consume hardy portions of Enjoy Life chocolate chips and a wide variety of 'yummies' that I am constantly experimenting with baking. Some recipes have been failures (but lets not lie, if it resembles chocolate I don't have many qualms about polishing it off ) but others have been fantastic. I'll share some soon. I still have fleeting moments where I miss bagels slathered with cream cheese, hot, gooey pizza and cheesy nachos, but the benefits of this lifestyle far outweigh a few tasty bites! Along with my health doing a complete 180 I have noticed loads of other benefits - to mention a few: 25 pounds lost, clear and soft skin, and no 'before meal' crankiness. (At least not crankiness that is food related....)

4.) Mr. 31 and I re-did the landscaping in our front yard. (We also finished the bathroom remodel. I promise to try and post photos!) In the midst of all our flower planting (and front porch swinging) we had some in-depth-about-our-future conversations and decided to really take the next few years to concentrate on our financial 'house'. Ugh. Financial conversations are just about my least favorite ones to have. I want them all to resolve themselves overnight and they just never do. They are probably friends with the why-can't-my-house-stay-clean gang..... Anyways, one thing that I do appreciate is the bond that talking through 'serious' issues like this creates between Mr.31 and myself. I love the experience of being partners in all aspects of life and the closeness that occurs when you are planning your futures together - emotionally, physically and intellectually. I think its very beautiful and powerful.

Think on that and go chat with your spouse or significant other. Oh, and pick some weeds while you are at it.... gardening is good for the soul, i think. Especially when you do it with your best friend.