Hello March!

Oh my goodness am I grateful for a new month!

I always struggle with January and February. Always.

They seem like they last for-e-ver.

The last week of February felt like it was an agonizing, never-ending month of struggle and just trying to hold it all together and not doing a very good job at it!

I am welcoming March with OPEN arms!

Spring starts in March.

St. Patrick's Day and pinching is part of March.

Daylight Savings Time is in March.

My mama's birthday is in March. 

I have new goals for the month.

I intend to work hard to accomplish them.

I am beginning my month was some self care.

One, because I need to.

Two, because I need to.

So, it's going to happen.

Gym tonight.

Gym tomorrow morning.

Massage tomorrow afternoon. 

Ordering groceries online so I don't have to walk through the store.

Babies on Sunday afternoon.

I can do hard things.

We all can.

But we must fill ourselves up before we can.

It's just the way it works.

So, let's start our March with some self care... whatever that is fo ryou.

Early Morning Gym

Before my stroke, I would go to the gym after work.

I would run home from work, change my clothes, quickly say "hello" to my children and then go to the gym for an hour.

Then I'd run home, try to get a late-night dinner together, do my laundry, run errands, help with homework, etc.

It was a lot.

Just before my stroke, I started going to the gym at 5 am.

It was MUCH more quiet.

I feel like it's a more inclusive crowd in the early mornings.

I am able to get onto any machines or have access to weights that I am wanting to use.

People are freaking friendly.

I feel like it's almost like a morning gym family.

PLUS, it gives me my entire night to be with my kids and to get my things done that need to be done.

It's far less stressful and I really focus on my time working out.

I went back to the gym in July after having not been there since my stroke in December.

It took a lot of slow, small, baby steps to get me back to where I wanted to be.

At first, I was doing six or seven different exercises - two sets of 20 reps.

My schedule is:
Day One: Hamstrings and Glutes

Day Two: Cardio, Biceps and Triceps

Day Three: Legs

Day Four: Cardio, Back and Back of Shoulders

Day Five: Cardio, Chest and Shoulders

I do abs about two times a week, just when I feel like it.

I do stretching and yoga everyday after my work out.

I was getting a bit bored with it after the new year.

I needed something different.

So, I started doing four sets of 14, 12, 10, 8. The sets of 12 and 10, I'm going up in weight with each set. The set of 8, I drop back down to the weight I used at 14.

I am very deliberate in my lifting. Slow and steady, always in control.

It has made a big difference, just in a couple of weeks.

I love going to the gym.

It is good for me mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually.

I love to listen to my music and zone in to my body.

I love to show my body how grateful I am for it and how proud of it I am.

I love to see other people on their journies, too.

Yes, I have to be VERY careful not to compare myself to other people. Very careful.

But, this morning I saw a mom and daughter come in.

They began their journey of health at the New Year.

I would say the daughter is mid-twenties and the mom is mid-fifties, early sixties.

They would both be defined as "obese" by societies standards.

While I was stretching, they laid out their mats right in front of me.

They both got into a plank position and started doing pull backs, one arm at a time. They then went to their backs and did some chest exercises.

They BOTH more than DOUBLED the weight that I've ever done on either of those exercises.

Those women are STRONG. 

Those women are LEGIT.

I wanted to bow to them, for real.

It reminded me that we are all on our own journey, and that wherever we are on that journey is just where we are supposed to be.

A Rare Saturday Post

Thursday, on my way home from work, I stopped by the grocery store.

We needed milk, bananas, paper towels, shampoo, Tylenol PM...

I walked in and saw these flowers.

I stopped.

I fell in love with the orange.

They had purple, too.

Oh, and some yellow (my favorite color).

I'm not a roses kind of girl necessarily.

I love different, unique.

After smelling the purples and the violets and the Gerber Daisies of all colors,

I put these orange beauties in my cart.

The price tag - $5.

Sometimes, I buy myself flowers.

I take them home.

I put them in a vase.

I add water and nutrients to them.

I put them on my table in the front room, or on my kitchen table.

I open the blinds in the morning to bring them sunlight.

I usually only buy them when they are $5.

I buy them for me.

I have finally learned, after 41 years, that I don't need someone else to buy me flowers to prove to me that I am worth it, that I am loved, that I am worthy of love.

I can prove that to myself.

$5 flowers remind me every time I look at them that I AM worth it. I AM loved. AND, I AM worth of love.

$5 flowers remind me to stop for a minute. 

Don't just walk right by the floral department that you have to walk by to get to the rest of the store.

Stop for a minute.

Look. Smell. Touch.

See the beauty. Smell the scent. Touch the fragile, sometimes broken petals.

$5 flowers remind me that we all need water and nutrients.

We all deserve to be in a clean, glass vase with a ribbon tied around it.

We all deserve to have sunlight and to be noticed.

The orange reminds me that Fall is almost here.

The orange reminds me that everything will die soon, so that it can come back to life even better and stronger and more beautiful in the Spring.

The orange reminds me that Heavenly Father has a plan.

And His plan is perfect. 

Orange reminds me that we live in a beautiful world... even if sometimes we need to look a bit harder to see it that way.

$5 flowers remind me to find joy in the journey.