Annie, I realized this weekend that I do a lot of squatting while I help the kids. This motivates me to do even more. Bpathome, I am going to start planks this week! Strolling is still exercise. ANY movement, no matter how small, counts. It all counts. Sounds like a really fun walk! Lizbeth, I am sorry you needed surgery! It's OK if you missed some time-- what is always important is that you are back. To me, this is a learning process. I know what you mean about mornings. I try to go on automatic and just get it up and do it without thinking. Gibby, woo hoo!!! How did the weekend go? Amj, glad you are feeling better. What a great support your DH will be! My husband has no interest in exercise. Blfenton, I love how you incorporate exercise so regularly. I definitely see this as investment, as you said. I think, for a long time, I thought of it as vanity, or someone bossing me around about what I "should" be doing, but being 40, I see what a long road lies ahead (or short one!) if I don't take care of little problems NOW. Gscience, that's great that you already have a routine! RE: the fruit/veg, I am trying to get more in by eating some every other time I eat. Are you going to be done soon with the school yr, or teach during the summer term, too?

Anele, I have totally "drunk the koolaid" when it comes to crossfit. When I was going to planet fitness, a crossfit box opened up in town. I emailed the coach and said "I'm 45 and going from being completely sedentary to going to the gym every day and doing 7 weight machines and 30 minutes of cardio". I was wondering where my fitness would need to be to start crossfitting?" The coach coaxed me into coming in and doing the three session on-ramp class, and the fitness evaluation. I couldn't even do a squat. I couldn't do a lunge. I couldn't jump rope.. My balance is just... Tragic. I have a bad knee, and I was 70 lbs overweight. I was definitely out of my comfort zone. I apologized about my capabilities the whole time they evaluated me. Then they asked me to come for a class and assured me they would modify the workouts to my level. There are a few ways in which crossfit is miraculous: 1. They have somehow managed to inculcate a supportive, encouraging tone into an industrial gym with loud aggressive music. Everyone takes pains to help each other, praise each other, encourage each other! I very quickly felt that no one was judging my weakness, only pleased for me that I was trying crossfit. Love the people! 2. The workouts are different every day. Some days they work on strength, some days agility, stamina/speed/flexibility.. Benchmark workouts are repeated every few months, so you can see the improvement. 3. MODIFICATIONS - this is key! For example, today I was told to do three sets of 10 pull-ups. I clearly can't just do them, but instead of telling me to skip that part, one day I will... They simply stretch 3 big rubber bands across for me to stand on. I bounce and pull-up. Then at the peak, I dig in and lower myself as slowly as possible. If bouncing makes the pull-ups too too easy, then a coach steals one of my rubber bands, making me pull a little to get my chin up.. If you can't run well, you can row. Can't do push-ups, do them on rings. 4. Performance psychology... So they taught me how to lift weights with decent form. Then they tested me for my maximum ability to safely lift.. Then: they put me in a team with a 35 year old guy who was 6'5" tall with full tattooed sleeves. Our team score was the time it took us to lift 65% of our max weight 50 times between the two of us. I was lifting 45 lbs. he was lifting 160 lbs. but while I lifted the weights 5 times, he had to hold all that weight at a collar position, straining. So you better believe I hurried!! And while he was struggling to lift 160 lbs 5 times, poor me, standing there, shaking, trying to hold my weight up. He hurried too! So we were each encouraged to perform better. It's diabolically clever!! A couple of things i've learned: I thought I was doing great doing 10 sit-ups. The first time I had to do 30, the coach told me I could take as long as I wanted, just get them done. You know what? It took me a while, but the next time he said do 30, I absolutely knew it was doable. And so I was willing to put a little more energy in to do it a little faster. And a few days later, I was asked to do 50. The confidence I had from doing 30 helped me do the fifty. 90 % of the game is mental! It really is! I may feel incredibly puny at crossfit, but I walk proud the rest of the day. One big thing I've learned is that your body has to warm up. Honestly, when doing a bunch of sit-ups, the first 30 are the worst. After that, you are warmed up, you find a rhythm and it gets easier, much. Then as you approach the end, it gets tougher again. But however hard you feel something is when you start, it won't stay that hard. Your body will loosen up and perform more efficiently. Being surrounded by fit people pushing themselves HARD is motivating. Changes my perception of what working out is. I have been doing crossfit for five weeks, and I can't believe the changes I'm seeing. The workout generally takes 20 min to 1 hour, and I go 5 days a week. My motto for this week is: walk in strong, crawl out stronger. Lol. In 5 weeks I've actually gained 1.3 lbs, but I've dropped two pants sizes, from a stuffed into my size 18 pants, to a 14!!! And I feel good except I'm sore somewhere every day. I'd be happy to talk more if anyone has questions. I

This latest, new plan isn't bad at all, but I think the old hutch is prettier. I agree with Sweeby on the overthinking thing, specifically about the part where you're wondering about foci and symmetry. Let's leave the analytic geometry in the schoolroom. ;) What you're saying about things to focus on is that your kitchen is going to be so stinkin' gorgeous that everywhere someone looks will be a beautiful prospect? Try opening a thread on that problem and see if you get any sympathy. (Sorry, couldn't help teasing... I do know what you mean, but in a space where people really do face in all kinds of different directions it's a non-issue.) As to the symmetry, the enforced assymetry of the large, different color hutch and the narrow white toasterish thing helps to offset the enforced symmetry you have elsewhere and make the space more organic and less mathematical. (Well, organic is really mathematical too, Fibonacci style, but I'm not about to start doing numerology on your hutches...) Re how much stuff you have: There's one of those corollaries to Murphy's Law that says, "The amount of stuff to be stored automatically expands to fill the space available in which to store it." Or else things get spaced out farther. My friends are always amazed at how much more I can fit neatly onto their shelves than they. Sometimes you have space and make beautiful arrangements. Sometimes you just get it all put away. ;) Re the overhugeness of the hutch. Toddlers. Toddlers inevitably become taller. They sometimes become very tall indeed. Perhaps when they're all at least moderately tall, like my mother did when we grew, you'll get "good" kitchen dishes. That you want to put in the hutch. Or you'll put the old, yucky ones in the hutch for your tall not-toddlers and their taller friends. Drawer storage is great for some people for dishes. For me it's a bit low, and I'm not even all that tall! My dishes are going up. So while you might not imagine it now, think about the ravenous hordes that will be blowing through your house in another ten years. When they've all left home, and you don't want to reach up for any daily use stuff, think about all the hand print dishes, my favorite grandma mugs, and lumpy first tries on a potting wheel that your kids and grandkids will bestow upon you, and which you'll want to see, but not necessarily in your front room, and that will make you happy but might not make you want to use them. Yep. If you really want the skinny hutch because of your love of skinny hutches, go for it. But I think your kitchen likes the big contrasting hutch.

I just love the color combination. Verbena bonarenisis front & center, really should have planted toward the back so I cut some back & moved to the other side. A white daisy I got at spring fling 2016, a gaillardia, lots of coneflowers (original came from spring fling too), rose campion blooming for the first time, and my cutleaf coneflower "bush" for lack of a better term is about 5ft tall. In the midst of that jungle are some daylilies (another fling thing or grown from seeds), cosmos, marigolds and basils. Volunteer lettuce that came up from last year's seed. I think it's setting blooms? The stem has grown thick and tall, then these tiny leaves are sprouting from the top in almost a petal look. One of my coneflower blooms. I know the centers start out green & turn dark brown, but this one seems to have stalled out halfway. I've always been fascinated by aberrations.