Posted on February 24, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

Winter Just Wasn’t My Season…

No snow so far, but the beautiful, warm weekend is long gone–it’s been cold and drizzly out there all day. A climatologist says this is the sixth coldest winter on record in North Carolina and that the spring will be cooler and wetter than normal because of El Nino. Seems it hasn’t been this cold in NC since 1980. That was before my time…

Last night I found a use for one of the glass jars that always seem to find a way into my cabinet…

They make transporting soup to work easy!

I got up when my alarm went off at 5:30AM this morning. Then I reset it for 6:30AM and got back in bed. Then I got back out of bed because I couldn’t bring myself to go back to sleep when I was doing so well with getting up early.

Had a strawberry Liberte yogurt for breakfast, chased by a Pure brownie bar for a mid-morning snack.

I think I must have overestimated the calories in my soup…

I guessed it probably had around 300. I knew I was shooting a little high, but I ended up crazy hungry in the afternoon and broke into one of the Larabars I bought at the drug store during my lunch break.

Maybe I need to be eating more than 1600 calories if I’m going to exercise every day? I’ve been checking my GoWear Fit and even on Monday when I ran and took a walk during lunch I still hadn’t burned much over 2200 calories by 8PM, so you’d think I’d be okay at 1600. Hmm…

When I got home from work, I found a heavy box waiting for me in the mail room.

My spices arrived! I spent $60 on spices at Penzeys, plus shipping, but it’s worth it to get good spices from a friendly company.

Among the jars and bags in my box were a small jar of Galena Street Chicken & Rib Rub and a bag of Chip & Dip Seasoning. I broke into both for dinner.

I had strawberries and cream cheese dip (which had been hiding out in my lunch bag for a couple of days and needed to be eaten), carrots and dip made with the chip and dip seasoning and Greek yogurt, and a half of a chicken breast with the Galena Street seasoning and some mushrooms. A most delicious dinner.

Unfortunately, it took a really long time to cook. So long that I decided to start cleaning my living room, dining room, and hallway, which had grown progressively more and more cluttered since their last cleaning. At some point I realized that even though I was supposed to run tonight, it was better for me to skip it and keep cleaning. I rarely get into a zone where I can clean for hours at a time (which I did tonight, with dinner intermingled), it was cold and rainy outside, and frankly, I’m just tired. I have Thursday scheduled as my rest day, but maybe I should have made it Wednesday…in any case, this won’t mess up my fitness chore chart standings–the week ends tonight for me and I have 24 stickers, so after I pack my lunch bag for tomorrow I’ll have the 25 I needed to reach my goal for this week. I need to write down my goals for next week tonight and put them up on my door…

Speaking of the door: I was trying to get a picture of the huge, muddy, bright orange spot on my carpet that is right in front of the door, but it wouldn’t show up in the picture. Instead, I got a white-eyed Heath licking his nose. Great.

Here are some pictures of my shiny clean dining room and living room!

Tomorrow morning when my jeans are dry I’ll put the drying rack away, and I’ll also take out the recycling next to the door and the bag of trash hanging off of it.

My “inbox” is on the stool, and the pile on the right side of the table is things that need to go with me to work in the morning.

Note that my kitchen area is barely visible in this picture, because it is one hot mess.

It’ll be so nice to come home to a nice clean living room tomorrow night!