Moving Day!!!

OK folks, Round em up and move em out! I'm moving the blog over here while I switch my blogging focus to my efforts towards smaller pants and better health.

Weekend!!

Feeling purty darn good today. I slept in till about 10 a.m. (pretty late for me) and then lounged for a while. Big bowl of cheerios for breakfast which is much better than the bowls of ice cream I have often treated myself to on the weekend. So, I've had a little "biggest loser" style workout waiting for me in my front yard which involves moving a big pile of wood from a tree we had cut down a few months ago to the back yard where it can go into our regular "wood to burn" pile. I didn't get everything all moved to the back yet, but I did have 40 minutes of heavy sweating moving the pile from one side of our big yard over to the gate where it can go in the wheelbarrow and moved again! Quin helped a bit, but mostly he and Brady just had some fall frolicking.

Then we had a bit of shopping to do and went to a big complex that has a Panda Express. I ordered the bowl with plain rice and mixed veggies and only ate half, although I did sneak a few bites of Q's orange chicken...Now we are off to Frighttown, where my only goal for the night will be to not pee my pants. Seriously, I really hate scary stuff like this. Happy Halloween!!!

Friday Night Fun

Well it's Friday night and I'm off to a hot night at the gym. I'm really lucky to have my mom as my workout partner, honestly if it weren't for her keeping me on track, I wouldn't be able to do this but she really is the one person I can never say no to, especially when I know we both just need to suck it up and get out there and sweat!

Luckily, Quin is going to a Halloween party at the community center where we go to the gym, so if I have to drive there anyway, I can't really make up any kind of excuse not to get out and go workout. So, here's a picture of me and the Quinster, from a few months ago. I'm really hoping top post a picture next November of me looking half as big!

Tonight's goal: 30 minutes on the bike & 10 minutes on the treadmill!

Goals

I couldn't resist starting out with a little peak at my front porch. Thanks to many lovely gifts and a little bit of my own work, I have a front porch that I absolutely love coming home to every night, and the addition of the seasonal gourds and pumpkins really showcases the charm of Autumn in the Northwest.

I'm a few minutes away from hitting the gym with my mom, it's just too drizzly out there for our park walk. I've been doing really good with increasing the amount of exercising I've been doing over the past few weeks, but unfortunately I haven't been so good with my diet. Like at all. Like despite my good intentions to hold off buying Halloween candy as long as possible, I've still managed to eat six Reeses PBC's in the past two days. Reese's are my kryptonite. However, my mum has been losing like mad (prolly cause she is really watching her diet). So I got to thinking...what if before I go back to school or take on anything new in my life, I put my health and weight loss efforts first.

I really want to go back to school, make the final push through for my degree and get crackin on grad school. Bu, I'm going to wait till next September. And in that 11 months, I am going to lose 8-10 pounds every month. That would put me very close to my ultimate weight loss goal. Time to get really serious about the diet and exercise. I have a great diet and exercise buddy in my mum and I'm going to make this my priority and the focus of this blog.

Quick update: Just got home from the gym.
30 minutes of treadmill alternating between 6% and 1.5% incline
10 minutes of stationary bike.
phew!

Making Space

I'm preparing to head out for my evening walk and thinking. Mostly I am thinking about how I am slowly but surely making spaces in my life for the things that matter. I spent the past weekend (with the help of my burly partner) moving our bedroom furniture all around. When we bought this house way back in December, we did little more than paint and throw our stuff into each room.

The process of looking for a home that would work for three adults and one kidlet while sorting out the financial issues had taken months of time consuming and emotionally draining energy. So, when moving day finally arrived and reality sunk in, I'm not sure I was prepared the way I imagined I would be. The past five years of being in Portland have been ones of tremendous growth but also of relative instability. I had been very limited to the possessions I sought and sensitive to the space I created being temporary. Many decisions were ruled by my, "but will it be right in a few years?" thought.

Combine the living space issue with a new relationship (living together and all) and it's been a perfect storm of uncertainty. But now the horizon seems calmer. And I want to nest. I find myself still experiencing fear as I bring new things into the home, imagining a future in which I am forced to move quickly and without warning, trying desperately to figure out what to do with all these possessions. Or what to do without a partner...or any money...or...But I'm trying to come out of the bubble and let go of those fears, and that is making space for all kinds of new things.

Recovering From a Rough Start

I had a rough start today. I am a creature of intense habit, firmly grooved into my daily routines. They serve me well for the most part, of course some habits are healthy than others but mostly they keep me organized and on track. One of my little routines involves me leaving my cup in my car each night so that I am forced to go out to the car and retrieve it. Of course since I'm going out anyway it only makes sense to then start the car and warm it up for my drive, right? Yes, I think so too. I've been pulling off this little stunt for...oh about 10 years now. Today the game changed.

Somehow I locked the car with the keys in still in the ignition, car running. hmmmm. After $120 and an hour and a half late for work, life goes on. Interestingly, while I sat and waited for the locksmith to arrive, I was staring at a quote that I framed and hung up several years ago. This quote used to be intensely meaningful to me and supported me through a hectic time. I haven't thought of it so much until today.

"Once you began to understand that you are not the hero of your own drama, you know expecting victory after victory, and you deeply understand that this is not paradise, life becomes much easier."

-Leonard Cohen

About This Blog

So I began this blog several years ago, not really knowing what it would be about, but knowing that if I did not soon secure a cool domain name and that if I waited till I was ready, there would be nothing left for me. So in the spirit of my goal to began regular maintenance on a blog and this journey of self-discovery/pre-middle aged crisis I am having, I though it would be good to reexamine the name of this blog and take my cue from there.

Minerva was the Roman goddess of warriors, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, crafts, and the inventor of music. Minerva pretty much literally ruled all the things that I find myself most interested in these days. So, it therefore seems fitting that two years ago I choose the name Minerva's Atlas for my blog. I therefore declare that I shall chart my journey through all these disciplines and see where this particular atlas leads.

I've been thinking a lot about crafting lately and it seems that quilting is what I am truly drawn to, even though it scares beejeebers out of me. And it might also seem just a bit dull, and possibly involve way too much math for me to be successful. Nonetheless, I am going to keep it in mind as I move towards a place in my life where I can have creative outlets.

In This Moment

I'm thinking more about my writing these days. I'm thinking how delicious it could be to go get a MFA in writing, to to eek out a living teaching at community colleges and doing workshops while all the while coaxing my own slow writings along. I read somewhere that, "Writing is easy. You just sit down out a typewriter and open a vein." Wow, that struck me, because of course it's that easy. But...not for me. Slow to finish, but quick to start. That's me. So I try to start now. And I start with something else I've been neglecting. My spiritual practice.

Tonight I reflect on the gifts of today. I am grateful for time spent walking through the park with my mother. I am grateful to see the clear development of my new sixth grader into a "real" middle schooler. I am grateful for my partner who very thoughtfully left me a clean house to come home to. I am grateful for butternut squash and for the tiny (read: terrifyingly large) frog that was perched on top of my bedroom door tonight. And for my brother who carried the frog away from the excited puppy away to safety. These are the gifts of this day and in this moment I acknowledge them.