Goals

The alarm app on my phone offers me a horoscope every day.  It is seldom that I read it but today, I did.  To sum up, today was to be a good teamwork day.  This came to mind shortly after getting to work- helping the science teacher with things, and her mentioning that it went better as a team.  Teamwork is now a topic on my mind.  It is something that I think I struggled with as a child, but I think I have mostly figured it out now... I hope. 

There are eleven days left to the month.  Through part of my health plan I joined a challenge to walk 100 miles in the month of May.  I got off to a very slow start.  Today was the seventh day in a row for me to have reached my step goal of 10,000 steps a day.  After doing a little bit of math I need only to walk about 3.3 miles each day to hit that 100 mile mark in time.  I've got this. 

The leaves are finally unfolding themselves to say hello to the warmer weather.  Places that were bare over the winter are starting to be clothed with plant life.  It is a beautiful process.

Happy things for today:

• Being part of a team
• Having the confidence that I will walk 100 miles this month
• Season's change
• Goals
• Lists
• Smiley faces 😉

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Lilacs

This morning began with a meeting to update the Baronial Laws and Policies.  My original thoughts of just bringing them into the 21st Century was not ambitious enough.  We got through what I think was the hardest part today and the only new section that I am sure will be added.  We scheduled two more meetings in June.  Hopefully that will be enough and by fall this will be done. 

K and I were both a little fried after the meeting and played Minecraft for part of the afternoon.  When I pulled myself away from the game to take a walk it was close to 7 PM and I expected it to be a little chilly out.  When I walked to the meeting this morning it was sprinkling.  Walking through the city this evening though, it was 77 degrees.  It turned out that playing inside and walking later in the day was probably a good thing as it was probably even warmer in the afternoon. 

My friend from Texas got on and played Minecraft with us and she and I talked on the phone while playing and then she went with me via the phone on my walk.  It was nice to have the company.  I walked a little over three miles and made my step count again today.  That makes 6 days in a row! 

Happy things for today include all of the things above and lilacs.  I love the smell of the lilacs blooming along the way as I walk this time of year.

I couldn't quite get all of me me, 

the state capitol, and lilacs in the picture.

Lilacs!!

Lilacs in white, light purple and Dark purple. 

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Largesse-picture heavy

Some talented SCA friends got together today to help make largess to donate at an upcoming event.  I think we all had a pretty good time and I know that a bunch got done.  I am so grateful for the people who brought their talents to the cause and especially to the people who organized it so we could have this productive day.  Today I learned that there is this thing called an archer's tassel.  It is a wool tassel that is used to clean off arrows that have landed in the dirt.  What a great idea!  I also got to try out Viking whipcord making; that was fun.  

While walking home I decided to take a side trip up the new stairs in a local parking garage.  The stairs have been under construction for quite some time so I have been avoiding the garage.  The new stairs are completely enclosed and so are hot and stuffy.  I'm not sure why they can't be open air.  The top floor of the garage can be a neat place to get pictures from.  Walking stairs is also good exercise.  At the other side of the garage, the stairs have been removed.  There was something about the stairs that used to be there that I liked.  Something in the design that brought some kind of nostalgic feeling.  I wonder if I was there as a kid?  Any how, I miss those stairs and I hope the replacement has some style.

Happy things for today include:

• Being with friends (and spending time with some that I haven't seen in a while)
• making tassels
• helping with the Viking whipcord
• untangling yarn (yes, often I enjoy this task)
• fresh air--SPRING air
• fifth day in a row over 10,000 steps.
• hearing people say, "wait, you have a blog?"
• learning about myself

Making the Viking Whipcord.

Clouds 

Getting silly out for dinner. 

Tried to get some moon photos. 

The State Capitol.

New stairs at a parking garage.

From the top of the parking garage. 

The other side of the garage will also get new stairs. 

Blossoms at night smelling pretty.

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Walking

After work today there was a friend I had planned to meet for a walk.  They canceled because of the rain this morning, they were right.  Having not been there before, I decided to check out the area anyway.  I put on my old sneakers and headed through the fields.  Soon there was water seeping into my shoes and soaking my socks.  The area was nice with rolling fields and trees, birds chirping and bees pollinating.  There were no real marked trails though and the maintenance roads are seldom traveled.  I'm not sure if I will go back there or not.

Through my health plan I signed up to walk 100 miles in the month of May.  I have a long way to go.  I did walk to craft night tonight though which brought my step count over 10.000 for the fourth day in a row.  Hopefully I will be able to keep this going over the weekend.  There are some people who used to live nearby visiting the Barony for a short time and they came to craft night.  It was great to see them and the folks who came to see them that don't regularly make it to craft night.

Walking tends to help make me happy.  Today my happy things are the wildlife and natural beauty I saw while I walked.

The state capitol as seen through the fragrant lilac bush. 

Setting sun beam!

 The moon was close to full as it peaked through the clouds.

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Ice Cream

For science today we got to go outside to a place where there is a nature learning area.  Because of this I had over 8000 steps after work today.  That doesn't happen at work too often.  Along the trail there was some scat with the remains of a squirrel.  I took some pictures and will post those at the end...after the picture of the pond.

Instead of going to fighter practice I went home after work.  I realized that K and I haven't planned out the next few weeks and all the things that are coming up.  I thought I might still go back out and get to practice but we went to the grocery store.  Gideon didn't find what he wanted for salad dressing.  He had tried a dressing at school and liked it, but we couldn't find that flavor in the store, so we went to another.  We have a friend who works at store number two and we visited a few minutes after settling on some other salad dressings.  Grocery shopping got me up to almost 11,000 steps.  On the drive home we ran into traffic.  There was some kind of road race and the police officer stopped traffic to let them by.  Eventually cars in front of us started turning and doing u-turns to find a different way.  My thoughts were on the ice cream we had purchased at the first store, melting while we sat in traffic less than a mile from the house.  I got the ice cream out and walked it home.  I still arrived at the house at least five minutes before K and Gideon did with the rest of the groceries.

My happy things for today are getting out to the nature area at school and because of all the walking I have over 12,000 steps on my Fit-bit and that makes three days in a row reaching my step goal. 😊

Before getting out to walk the rest of the way home I got this shot of someone's flowers.

The pond by the school. 

Former Squirrel 

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Today is brought to you by-

--the letter D, the color blue and the number three.

Day three of walking after work and day two of reaching my 10,000 step goal--that makes two happy things in one sentence.  The third happy is my friend and I put together two favors and she started making some kits so more can be done.  

Blue Sky

Blue Favors, with the letter D. 

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Short

Yesterdays color musing has left my creative brain fairly empty for today.  This very statement makes me want to stretch my mind and exercise whatever part of my brain houses my ability for word play.  Some days I feel that I can sit and write and things sounds lovely, most days I can not.  Today my post is short.  Tonight my eyelids are heavy and only want to close.  My happy things for today are:

• Getting up early enough to eat some cereal at the house and not something in the car on the way to work or grabbing a snack bar when I got to work.
• Going for a walk this afternoon.
• Reaching 10,000 steps (it has been a while since that has happened.
• Cat purrs.

Maple tree with helicopter seeds.

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