I designed this little social media poster the other day as a snarky attempt at describing Canadian weather:

Last week I bundled in winter coat et al to venture outside.

Over the weekend it became sunny and pleasant. Then, the weather goddesses flipped the switch and we’re in summer. 😃

I don’t mind. Rink season with the kids is over now, and although I don’t completely trust the arrival of blissful weather, I’ll happily enjoy it this week. The trees are starting to open up and multiple spring flowers are finally appearing and colouring my world.

It’s been a long winter and I am happy it’s mostly behind us. It won’t be long until the lawns are dried up and I’ll be returning to my Asana Rebel fitness exercises outside.

Speaking of exercise, I took a looooong break from yoga. Maybe 6 weeks? This was a mistake – by the middle of March I was once again feeling stiffness and tightness in my neck and shoulder area, which turned into backaches and made me more fatigued.

I realized I cannot stop exercising anymore because my body is no spring chicken. To care for myself I must do two things: eat less carbs and sugar and keep moving.

I did enjoy those pastries with my tea on cold and gloomy winter afternoons… But now, I will reduce (not eliminate) that little habit.

Here’s what happened when I returned to my yoga fitness app last week:

I was sore. Sore enough to want to quit. 🙃

But I did not quit. Instead, I reduced my workouts from 30 minutes to 10 and focused mostly on stretching.

My flexibility returned by the third day and as of today, my fourth day in six, I began to do weights/resistance training again.

I feel good. Great, actually!

For a gal who doesn’t enjoy exercising this is an interesting turn of events, isn’t it. Just a few days of gentle stretching and some low-key weights has improved my physical and mental disposition and I feel encouraged to keep at it.

Trust me when I admit here that it isn’t always easy, but also trust this:

If I can do it, anyone can. 🥳

As far as my disposition is concerned, I’ve had a turnaround of sorts. The last two months of hockey and ringette were incredibly busy, stressful at times, and dragging on. Fun times were had, and everyone finished with results they (and I) are proud of, but now all that driving and the late nights are over and as soon as that happened, I packed up my stuff and returned to the suburbs. I reached a point of needing some serious decompressing not to mention momentum with my writing and my Etsy shop, and I slowly took charge of my life once again.

Until today. I borrowed my mom’s car to drive into the city to relieve Tucker from being stuck in the house all day by himself. I brought a homemade chicken-pasta casserole for dinner, a half watermelon 🍉 for snacking on, and some organic salty snacks for the kids courtesy grandma. 🥰

I’m writing this on my phone from the back deck at the city house. After an exuberant and very vocal reunion with the Beaglehound, I brewed myself a coffee to sit out back for a while before tackling the clutter in the kitchen. Then, this happened:

Meh.

I picked up my cup and went inside to make another cup, and fill a jug with water to pour over the coffee before Tucker licked it all up. Not sure how caffeine will affect him, or if he even likes the taste, but I didn’t want to risk even more exuberantly hyper behaviour… 😂

When I came back I saw him tentatively licking, but the jury is still out how it affected him.

So, thanks for stopping by! I might take advantage of this sunny day to walk the dog down to the lake since this is a very short-planned visit into the city.

See you in the comments.