Day 147: Create Your Path

"Our journey as human beings is not about following a pre-ordained path, but about creating that path. Life rarely makes any more sense when things are done "in order". Life makes sense when we are centered in our hearts and we let go of resisting how our unique journey needs to unfold, in its own beautifully unruly way." 

There is so much truth in this quote. Some things in life may be pre-ordained, but your journey through life is going to change based on the decisions you make. For most of us bad decisions are not the end of the journey, because you can change course and point your life back in the right direction. I always say things happen for a reason and I still believe that, but some things happen because we let them. Today I feel like my life is unfolding the way I want it to. I feel better than I have in many, many years - both physically and mentally.

Breakfast today was a 2.1 ounce cinnamon roll with french vanilla coffee. 2nd cup was Green Mountain Breakfast Blend. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. My very late lunch was a 4 ounce 230 calorie meatball parmesan melt with a chef salad. I didn't have an afternoon snack as I had lunch at dinner time ! Explanation below. Dinner was a 8 ounce 180 calorie creamy chicken broccoli pasta with some romano cheese. Evening snack was a 3.5 ounce 130 calorie ice cream sandwich. So my calories for the day are only 877. Add the salad dressing and cheese and we'll say 1000, which is enough. 

So today the guy that did the electrical, heating and plumbing in my house came over to figure out why my boiler froze up during the winter and to troubleshoot some power problems in my downstairs bedroom/office. He made a modification to the intake on the outside of the house to (hopefully) keep it from sucking in the warm moist air coming from the exhaust. He also fixed the downstairs heating zones, as they were reversed. The thermostat in the dining room was controlling the heat in the laundry room and vice versa ! He didn't find anything wrong with the wiring in the office so we're taking a "wait and see" approach on that. If I continue to have problems with the breakers he will dig further. I feel better knowing he looked everything over and spent a good deal of time testing outlets to ensure there were no overloads or shorts. 

A carpenter from Paul Davis also came to install the screen door in the laundry room. The door is perfect and exactly what I envisioned. Paul Davis had this door specially made for me in Vermont and would not allow me to pay them a cent for it ! Both the bottom and top are screened and there are glass panels I can install in the fall to keep cold air out. I would have been happy with plexi but I got tempered glass ! I had him install the glass in the bottom part of the door now since I can't trust my cats not to shred the screen. There is a bit of a gap at the bottom but I'm going to add a door sweep to fix that. This house was built in 1890 and nothing is square ! I also need to paint the threshold. There was a robins nest with 4 eggs in it on the remains of the old door ! He relocated it to the top of the column right outside the door (you can see a bit of it in the photo below) and I'm hoping mama bird comes back to take care of her eggs ! I'll be really sad if she doesn't. The photo has multiple dark circles on the wall and door frame, which don't exist. The front facing camera on my phone is not in the best shape ... I see a new Galaxy S10 Plus in my future !

The great thing about having people come into my home is it inspires me to clean ! The house wasn't dirty but there was clutter here and there and little tasks that needed to be done. I got a lot done this afternoon while my visitors did their thing. I picked up the winter trash from the yard, swept the steps that lead to the basement from the outside, cleaned the stove top, put away a bunch of paperwork and vacuumed. This evening I got 3 loads of laundry out of the way. Funny story - while I was cleaning the stove I noticed it has a 5th burner - called the "warm zone" and it has convection ! I've been here a year and didn't know that .. lol ! That shows you how much I cook and tells you I never read the book that came with it !

Weather today was cloudy but it hasn't rained so far. I was able to shut the heat off for a change ! I didn't open any windows in the house but I did have the laundry room door open all day and I had the front door open, since there are a couple windows open on the porch. 

I only got one workout in today but I'm ok with that. One is better than none ! I'll tell you, this Mount Kilimanjaro trekking series is a killer. I doubt I will ever be able to complete the whole series but I'm going to try as many of the workouts as I can. The incline in the first one is what gets me, since I'm very new to incline and about 27 minutes in the incline goes to 10 (max) and pretty much stays there until it ends at the 33 minute mark. So I laugh when the trainer says we'll be climbing the mountain together. Yeah dude ... have fun at the summit because I doubt I'll be there .. lol ! It's going to be a while before I can move on to the next workout in the series, since they are supposed to get harder as you go along. Hats off to people who hike and mountain climb ... you guys rock !

Tomorrow I'll be spending the day shopping with my older sister and my mom. I'll bring my morning shake and a lunch bar with me just so I am not starving. Weather looks like it's going to be nice ! Next up for me is a warm shower and my comfy bed !