Good morning my friends, It may have been a quiet week on this thread - don't despair I'll be getting back on track this coming week with lots more to come. My friend is hanging in with me sharing her ups and downs along the way. One thing we are both doing is not giving up no matter what. We are following the path to success because we let go of any indulgences and return to our goal path. That is the secret of many success stories. Don't give up - get to it. We all need to remember that no one is perfect. No one diet/exercise program fits all. You are unique. Let's focus on this for a minute. If you are lurking and thinking about losing weight which is one of the reasons you have landed at this threat - I encourage you to come back and follow along. Being unique allows each of us to find what works for us and what doesn't. Where do you start? How do you start? Start with honesty. Think about yourself for a moment. Are you happy, sad, angry, in pain? Are you frustrated? How do you feel at this moment? Do you take time for yourself each day? Are you busy with family commitments? work? Can you allow yourself to give yourself the personal care that you are entitled to? This is an area that is vital to taking a step forward. See if you can find some time in each day where you can focus on your needs, wants and wishes. Do you have health issues? If so, when was the last time you had a check up? Do you have or need medical support on this journey? If you have any health concerns and want to lose weight is it possible to check in with a health worker to discuss what is right for you. What is your relationship with food? Is it your go to place when you are down? Is it your security blanket? Do you punish yourself - by that I mean when you are angry do you not eat? Do your emotions rule your eating habits? If so maybe you need some help dealing with things that are bothering you. Or maybe you need a support buddy. Your mental health is part of a health goal. You deserve to feel better emotionally so don't ignore or dismiss your feelings. How you feel is important. How active are you? Is most of your day spent sitting? Standing? On your feet? Do you walk? Exercise? Are you active or living a sedentary lifestyle? Accessing where you are with your activity level is part of a successful health journey. There are many ways to add activity to your day with many websites dedicated to this, local community groups, interest groups such as day trippers, fun fitness such as walking groups, local sports clubs or even just a friend you can get out with. Your local library may have fitness DVDs to loan. Even housework can get you moving. Whatever suits your level of starting think about how you can do some activity each day to get moving. What is in your kitchen? What do you put on your plate? There are many small steps you can start taking to gradually change your habits over time so you don't feel overwhelmed by the idea of losing weight. Don't think of it as a diet but a lifestyle change. No matter what you choose to do - come back to your goals if and when you have a moment or period of indulgence. This life not a prison sentence. Give yourself breathing room so you don't feel burdened by your journey. We are each unique in our needs and goals. I welcome you to join me on my journey. I am here for support, to share and pull you along. I am not perfect. I have ooooopsy moments too but I get right back to it. I am in this for life, the long haul. If it's only a healthy change first for awhile with weight loss later what is important is the fact I am making small changes in the right direction. You can do this. I encourage you to give yourself time each day to take care. You deserve time to yourself. If you don't feel you have time - talk to me. Maybe we can figure something out together. We are worth the effort. Let's make today a great day to put our foot down in the right direction. It's Saturday. Get out there and live a little for yourself. Love yourself today so loving others is easy. Join Me! Cheers, Peggy

The Invisible One is finally reporting in. After last SundayÂs gathering, The Bug got me down, eliminating my ability to say anything the least bit witty, not that I could have matched the others at that, anyway. DH and I enjoyed everyoneÂs company immensely. It was wonderful to dine among GW celebrities Igloochic (the delightful, devoted mother of adorable Jesse -- I hope he is doing much better), Buehl (who I later realized is the Kitchen Forum FAQ compiler/poster), and cooperbailey (with whom I had several things in common). It would be fun to meet more GW folks, whenever and wherever. We are in Towson, MD, so I expect weÂll be headed south when it happens. Some have pronounced our kitchen "finished." Now, we all know that "done" is a relative term. I hastily took some pictures of our kitchen before last weekÂs dinner meeting, and the only thing really missing is a window treatment. However, I need to straighten up the counters, find the best angles, and gather all the spec details before preserving our kitchen for posterity in the Finished Kitchens Blog. That new project is definitely on my Someday List  another relative term. :-) Alice

Week 14 update! I learned yesterday that the bathroom tile has arrived, so hopefully tiling can start next week. In the meantime, we've moved our bedroom furniture in and give our son our old bedroom. This weekend we're going to finish the details in his new Sesame Street room and get some things hung in our new bedroom, so I should have photos of those two rooms early next week. Today they're doing interior door hardware, cutting off some of the interior door bottoms so that they don't hit the carpet and also to allow better air flow. One of the issues we're having now is that the new side is so much more air-tight. Now that the heat is on the new side is roasting and the old side is cold. The plumber will come back to put insulation around the baseboard water pipes, so that should help. We're also having issues with the baseboards being really loud when the heat is on. We're working on that too. Still to be done: Bathroom tile and fixtures Bedroom ceiling fan and light switches (delayed coming in) New sidewalk and lamp post Turn our son's old room into a walk-in closet Shutters on bottom left window and additional porch post

When I walk the dogs their three miles every day, at about the furthest point from our house is a home with six enormous lavender plants spilling out over the sidewalk. They're the size of a small shrub and one bush is usually filled with bumblebees and the others are filled with honey bees. I'd like to think they are mine since I've read they can travel 2 or 3 miles. As the crow flies it's shorter than 1 and 1/2 miles but it's still a long way. Poor little girls. No wonder their wings get frayed.