Spring Cleaning Part Eight – Meditation

So, I know this post is late.  We had family in town this past weekend, and I couldn’t find the time to get a post prepped between getting ready for them and tying up all the loose ends at work.  However, the thirty minutes a day of meditation definitely helped my stress levels.

In fact, I found a new place to meditate, or take my laptop for some writing, or even to read a book.  Michael and I bought a water fountain (a little one) for our backyard, and I cleaned it out last week.  Once I figured out how it worked, I would get up every morning, go to the backyard, turn on the fountain, sit on the patio and just meditate.

Now, I didn’t do thirty minutes every day.  It’s quite hard to focus that long, especially for an “oh, look at the shiny distractions” kind of girl I am.  But there were a couple really great days of just focusing.  I focused on the water running.  I focused on the sun rising slowly (that was probably my favorite).  I focused on the wind or the birds waking up.  I focused on calming scriptures of the Bible.

There are so many ways to meditate, and so many things to meditate on.  If you haven’t tried it, it can be pretty exhilarating.  I would definitely recommend it.  :)

It’s so easy being green!

This blog post is so late.  We have had quite a bit of adventure in this house lately.  Last night, these horrific storms blew through our town.  They shook the house (which was built only 12 or 13 years ago).  Our power went out for an hour.  I fell asleep at that point, but when the power came back on, our alarm went off which was very loud and Jerzee jumped on my head.  You know, in case I was needed, I should be fully awake.  :)

Anyway, this post is about our fun weekend.  It was St. Patrick’s Day!  Well, it was on Saturday, but we decided to stretch out a little.  I decorated the house in St. Patrick’s Day Decor.

Then, I took Jerzee to the winter Farmer’s Market, along with a trip to the doggy cookie store.  I DID take my camera, I promise, but I completely forgot to take it out of my purse at the market.  I was too busy trying to haggle down some honey and honey sticks for my husband.  When the summer market is in full swing, I promise to visit again and take lots of pictures.  There is more at the summer market anyway.  At the doggie store, we bought a surprise for Loco for his upcoming birthday, but you will have to wait until next week to find out what that is!

Michael had to work all day (yay for busy season…).  So, I spent the afternoon weeding our much overgrown garden beds near the house.  I didn’t shoot before pictures, but imagine all the blank spaces were filled with grass.  It was really bad, but I’m excited to buy new plants for all the room we have now!  Oh, and Michael mowed the yard the very next day.  I just wanted to take a picture now so that we could have it when it was all done.  :)

But we did have Corned Beef and Cabbage for dinner.  I found out yesterday that I’m not a fan of leftover cabbage.  Good to know for the future.  :)  We also went to Whole Foods to pick up some food for the week.  Michael had been before, but never really explored the store.  We looked at everything before leaving with our yogurt and chicken wingettes.  And Whole Foods is green, right?

Since Michael did work, he wanted to do something special, so Sunday night he took me on a surprise date!  We ate at this pizza place named Grimaldi’s.  The food was SO good.  The leftovers have been awesome as well.  We had White pizza (meaning no sauce and white cheese) and Grilled Chicken, Red Peppers, Mushrooms and Whole Tomatoes.  So yummy!

After that we walked around the boutique area surrounding the restaurant.  It’s like an outside mall with a park smack dab in the middle of it.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it, but it’s really peaceful.  Families bring their kids and can make a day of it shopping and playing in the park.  Oh, and on top of all the stores are these apartments.  It’s tres chic.  :)

The river in the park was still green for St. Patrick’s Day.  They must have had the same idea of stretching out the holiday.  :)  We ended the date with some gelato.  Overall, amazing weekend.