One foot in front of the other...

I posted a while back about ups and downs,  highs and lows,  and lately I've been in one of the down phases. I suppose some of it can be ascribed to end of winter blues. I have also been stressed over work related things. I am tired. I am sad. I seem to have misplaced my motivation to do a lot of things. 

Which is not to say that it has been all misery all the time.  We've done some fun stuff. I've had some up moments for sure. It's just my overall mood lately, I guess; I'm tired and I just have to keep slogging through.

Just a little ball of sunshine right now,  aren't I?

I am here to say that I need to start feeling better,  and to do that I need to start taking better care of myself. Spring will make its presence felt eventually  (hopefully sooner rather than later), and wouldn't it be great if I could greet it with energy?

So I promised myself that if we got home at a reasonable time today, I would get in a workout. Can't say I really wanted to do it, may not have been on my best form...but I did it. 

I would like to get at least two more workouts in this week...Lately it's been more like one workout per week...Three is better.

We've been sticking to the slow cooker plan, trying to make sure we have plenty of meals in the freezer each week which helps a lot. Work lunches were going pretty well up until a couple of weeks ago when things got busy, so that has been a challenge. I have resorted to cans of Amy's Kitchen chili, that will probably have to do for the next couple of weeks, but will try to add some fruit and/or raw veggies to go along with it. 

What have we been up to....Well, there was Winter Chop Chop, which is restaurant week here in Saint John. We always enjoy checking out the menus and trying new things...This time around there were quite a few menus that interested us, so that pretty much wrote that week off. It was fun, but we were happy to get back to home cooked meals at the end of it.

Saint Patrick's week we did an Irish Whisky tasting on the Thursday night, which was interesting.

Then we went out to dinner on Friday, and the restaurant had a special on a flight of Bushmill's Irish  Whisky, so I basically did whisky tasting two nights in a row.

Fun, but have had enough whisky for a bit.

I am taking a Sunday afternoon painting course. I took some time to debate that with myself, because I know I don't handle it well if I have too much going on and this meant giving up six weeks of Sunday afternoons...Then I thought I wasn't going to get in because the class was full, but at the last minute the added a second class, so I've been doing that - 3 classes done so far. We're spending a lot of time learning to mix colors, which is maybe not the most exciting thing, but something I wanted/needed to learn. 

Our first class, after painting a color wheel, we painted oranges.

Oh, and there have been a couple of Van Vino painting nights in there too. There was another one I would have liked to get to but I had something else going on that night. 

 

Oh, and I mentioned in my last post that I was thinking of doing a painting from a photo I took last summer, which I did do. Lately I haven't found much time to work on any thing else. 

 

This past Saturday we went to a fundraiser lunch for a charity that is friend is involved in, then got groceries on the way home. Then Sunday morning I had to work, and then rush off to my painting class....It was really hard to wake up this morning and realize it was Monday. I've got more busy weekends coming up in the next month...I'm tired just thinking about it.

I know for many people this would not be a lot, but for me it is. I need a certain amount of time where I don't have to be anywhere or do anything, otherwise I get overwhelmed and exhausted.  

We've had a weird winter. Very little snow, a few cold snaps, but mostly mild. One week - in early February maybe? - where we had two snow storms and had a big pile of snow dumped on us. That's still melting. Back the the alternating cold and warm...And this week snow. 

I've had lots of pictures popping up on my Facebook feed the past few weeks from two winters ago - the snowpocalypse winter, where we completely buried. That was a long hard winter, but it made for lots of good photos. This year there hasn't been much to take pictures of, especially without these guys.

I am still sad. I've had people ask when I will get another cat, but I'm just not there yet. I do it to myself too, actually; Maybe now? Am I ready now? And then realize all over again that I'm not. And every time it is hard, and it is a relief.