A Time For Everything

It's been quite a while since I reported in about my weight loss efforts. Mainly because I fell off the wagon late last year. I've been meaning to get back on plan... Week after week, I intend to and I plan my salad lunches, but then I derail myself by week's end with a fast food lunch or a bowl of cereal for dinner.

Despite all of that, I'm only four pounds over my lowest recorded weight. Needless to say, I'm very surprised, and I attribute that fact to the amount of yard work I've done over the last three weekends, especially everything I did this past weekend. Apparently, chain-sawing and roto-tilling burn up a lot of calories. I had been walking the dog more often than not too, so that probably helped as well. Now that I no longer have Sammy as a motivation, I guess I'm gonna have to JUST DO IT. Especially seeing as how I'm so close to that lowest weight. I still have 25 pounds to lose to get to my goal weight.


In addition to keeping up the exercise regimen, I'm gonna start using MyFitnessPal again. If you don't know what it is, it's a website/app where you key in some info (Current weight, goal weight, age, height...I can't remember exactly.) and it tells you how many calories you get per day. Each day you log what you've eaten--it has a huge database--and it tallies it all up. You log your exercise as well and you gain additional calories for intake.


As you lose, it adjusts the number of calories you're allowed to consume. And since you just count calories, you don't necessarily have to give up the things you love. Of course, carbs and sugars usually contain a lot of calories, so you have to moderate your consumption.

So I'm proclaiming to all of you faithful followers that I'm back to watching what I eat and back to exercising once more. Please keep me accountable!

Anyone else watching their weight??

We lost Sammy Friday evening after several days of her acting very unusual. I had an appointment with the vet for Saturday morning, but we didn't make it. She died somewhere around 6pm, and five months to the day after we put our other dog down. Very odd, since she never really seemed to grieve.

Hopefully, she's found her sister, Honey, and they're roaming the heavenly neighborhoods together on puppy adventures.


To remember our sweet doggies, we bought some flowers, Double Spider Shasta Daisies. So I spent the better part of Sunday tilling up the corner of the yard where they liked to lay and creating a flower bed.



Are you a pet lover? What's your preference? Dog, cat, bird, reptiles?

Last week, I was doing a bit of housekeeping on my writing group's website. After realizing I'd neglected to keep up with getting president columns added--specifically mine from last year--I spent a little time working on that. In adding them, I read them.

As I was reading, I thought how much I enjoyed writing them--even though it sometimes felt like a chore when I'd forgotten and had to get them to the newsletter editor yesterday. And I remembered one chapter member who told me how much she enjoyed reading about my writing ups and downs. Not in a mean way, you know...but that my long-term struggles and my optimism in overcoming them gave her encouragement.

Anyway, I sort of felt nostalgic about writing those and then I thought, Duh, Jen, you have a blog. You can write whatever you want whenever you want. Ha ha ha ha! My president columns were mostly about the state of the writing group or the state of my writing efforts. Mostly about goals. But I never wanted my blog to be all about my writing because if I ever get a fan following (aside from you lovely friends) they probably won't care so much about my writing trials and tribulations. They'll want to know me--all the crazy that makes me ME! And this blog covers all kinds of crazy things, doesn't it?

So today's Friday and after I get through the work day, it'll be back to working in the yard. I've still got a long way to go and since money is an object (see Wednesday's post) and I don't have much, I have to concentrate on things I can do without any (or much) of the stuff. The dead limb pile is still waiting for me and after all the rain (though we still need more) the lawns need to be mowed again. The patio needs a bit more Round Up applied as well as a good sweep. Then I'll probably have to pluck out the dead weeds that didn't come out of their own accord or with the help of the broom or the rain. And after that, I don't know. I think I'm going to buy some grass seed and start sprinkling it in.

What about you, friends? Big plans for the weekend??

Of course, we all have things we'd like to do or places we'd like to go if money were no object. Today is wishful Wednesday and if I had a boatload of money, well, there are all kinds of things I could do with it.

Aside from just selling the house and moving, I'd spend money on my house. The house needs money spent on it either way and I like my house for the most part. It's a nice size and has a decent sized yard. The schools in this part of town not withstanding, I like where I live. It's my neighborhood.

First thing on the list of way to spend money on the house: the foundation. The heatwave and drought from last year or the year before wreaked havoc on my foundation. But that's boring so all it gets is a quick mention.

If you're my friend on Facebook, you'll know I've spent a lot of time in my yard this past weekend, bagging up the last of last fall's leaves, decapitating dandelions, picking up petrified dog doody, etc., etc., etc.

So the next thing to spend money on is a privacy fence. Our neighbors to the east put one up a couple of years ago. The neighbors to the west have a partial one, but it's a mess. So I'd (pay someone to) pull down all the chain link (that was installed upside down) and then have the privacy fence installed backwards, if you will, with the stringers facing inward. They don't bother me and they'll gives me a nice strong surface on which to hang things: bird feeders, hanging baskets, lights, or whatever else tickles my fancy. I'd have double gates put in too for ease of hauling larger things in and out as necessary.

Last evening on my way home, I finally bought the Chinese wisteria I'd been hankering after for years. Not that I want it to grow too big or monstrous, but this! I love the scent of these blooms, soft and delicate and delicious...


What about you? If you had a chunk of change, how would you spend it?

For someone wanting to be a storyteller, I'm awfully bad about taking in other stories. Not only do I need to take them in, but when I come across one that really touches me, I need to study them. What about them did I like? How did the author, writer/director convey that thing that touched me? Etc., etc., etc....

In an effort to increase my storytelling intake as well as to just be entertained and absorb culture/pop culture, I'm going to watch a movie I've never seen before and share it with you here. I'll only be doing this every other week, so each Monday, following Fort Worth Friday, I'll have some thoughts on a movie.

First up, The Perks of Being a Wallflower starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, and Ezra Miller. It is based on the critically acclaimed novel of the same name. In 2012, the film was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Film.


It's a quirky and oft-times dark film. The story begins on Charlie's first day of high school sometime in the early 90s. He is friendless since the suicide of his best friend. He has another secret, which he doesn't even know at this point, as his mind has blocked all memories of it. The film follows Charlie through his freshman year as he makes friends with a clique of outcasts (all seniors), falling in love with one of the girls who is as messed up as he is.

At the end of the movie/year, he and Sam finally connect and they begin kissing and start down the path towards having sex. The film doesn't make it clear whether or not they follow through (they don't according to the write-up in Wikipedia), but while the two are making out, if you will, Charlie's repressed memories are finally unlocked. After he says goodbye to Sam as she heads off to Penn State the following morning, the images begin coming at him.

Charlie ends up in a psychiatric facility for several months as the doctor works with him to overcome the emotional/physical trauma he suffered.

The film ends on an upbeat and hopeful note.

I smiled through most of the first third of the film and grew more anxious though the second third and was figuratively biting my nails at the big black moment.

I really, really enjoyed this movie and give it a 10 on my movie reel rating system.

If you've seen it, what did you think? If you haven't, do you think you might based on my description and thoughts?