A great workout

Went to the gym this morning(as usual, haha).  Worked my legs, abs and back.  Then did 20 minutes(7 miles!) on the bike.  I didn't use the heart rate sensors, so it didn't adjust on me this time.  After that, I had a little energy left over, so I did 10 minutes(almost a mile) on the elliptical.  I had to talk myself through the last couple of minutes, but I made it. ☺

Aside from my energy level and stamina, I haven't seen any major changes.  I haven't lost any weight, because I'm building muscle, and muscle is heavier than fat.  My hips and thighs have shrunk a little, but not much.  I'll wait to take an "in progress" picture until I can see more of a change.  Maybe by New Years Day; that'll be three weeks of working out every day.  Which reminds me I need to ask if the gym will be open on Christmas Day; I know the Kids Club will be closed, but I can leave the kids home with Hubby and his dad if the gym will be open.  If it won't, I'll just do some exercises at home, and go for a walk in the neighborhood.

I'm off to clean house some more; Hubby's dad's plane out of North Dakota was delayed, and he missed his connecting flight by five minutes, so spent the night in Colorado.  He should be here tonight.  I'm glad, because it gives me a little more time to finish cleaning.

Argh!

As hard as I tried to avoid it, it seems it was inevitable. I've got poison ivy. Again. I had it a couple years ago, and it was awful. It's not too bad yet, but it is spreading. I went swimming this morning (today was opening day for our neighborhood pool) and that seemed to help a little; must have been the chlorine in the water. When I started itching again a couple hours later, I diluted a little bleach with water, and dabbed it on my itchy spots. I think I made it too strong. Wow, that hurt! I'll dilute it more for the next time. And I'm planning on going swimming again tomorrow, if I can manage that. Because we still have no fence. The guys were busy today, and didn't come. They'll be here first thing in the morning, so I'll miss out on a little of the work, while I take the girls to church. I'm hoping they'll have the doorframe put together and installed before we get home from church. That would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.

Fortunately, I don't have any poison ivy on my hands, so I'm still able to knit. I'm just over halfway done with the blue "Posy Patch", and I've got my test knitters working on theirs. Once I get a little more feedback from them, I'll send the design proposal to Knit Picks. I really hope they like it. It was very disappointing last fall when my cardigan pattern was rejected by Knitty. I worked so hard on that design, and I love it so much. That rejection hurt, as rejections usually do. Naturally, I don't want to be disappointed again. But..."nothing ventured, nothing gained"...so on we go!

Yard work and house work and knitting, oh my!

Oops...once again, it's been a while. I need to get back into the habit of writing. I don't like this writing once or twice a month stuff. And yet, I keep doing it. Oh, well.

♥

Anyway, we did more outdoors work this past weekend. Most of the window trim on the back of our house was rotten and/or bug-eaten. It had gotten to the point that it needed to be replaced ASAP, or the rot would have started to get into the framing of the house, which would be really expensive to fix. So we hired our new friend Kerry to come and replace all of the rotten trim, and Hubby and I worked alongside him, learning as we went. Then Kerry's employee John painted the whole back of the house, and all the trim around the whole house(the front and sides of the house are brick). My house looks so good now! Well, on the outside, anyway. I need to do some serious cleaning and de-cluttering(as my mom calls it) inside. Maybe I'll do some of that today.

♥

We also did a bunch more yard work while Kerry and John worked. Hubby went behind our back fence, into the poison-ivy-overrun pasture, and cut down all the trees and vines behind the fence. I can see the sky behind my fence now! I am so happy about that. And he sprayed some "vegetation-killer" on everything that was growing back there. It's pretty strong stuff; the fumes were giving me a headache, and I was next-door talking to the neighbors when he did it. Hopefully it'll kill all the poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac; we've been assured all three are back there. Inside the yard, I did more trimming, and raking. Hubby cut out the roots of the bushes and trees I had cut down, so we'll be able to plant grass in those spots.

♥

I'm not really much of a gardener, but I'm making a valiant attempt this year. I'm doing a container garden on the deck right now, and I might move some of the plants to prepared ground if I think it's necessary later. Here's a pic of my baby tomato plants; I just transplanted them to these containers, and I'm hoping they survive the shock.

In the largest container in this picture are pumpkin plants, and the little one to the right of that has zucchini.

In this last picture are my bean plants. I love fresh green beans! I also just transplanted these ones; I had about 15 plants in one pot. I picked the best 10, and split them between two pots. The ones in the right-hand pot have perked up some since I took this picture on Saturday, thank goodness.

The next thing on the to-do list is to burn all the brush; once again we have piles. We won't be able to work on that today; it's supposed to be windy. Safety first. But another thing on my to-do list is to pull all the pickets off the back fence. We're going to redo it, as inexpensively as we can, which means leaving the posts and some of the supports that are already there, as long as they're level and square. We're also going to make it about half the height that it is now, to take advantage of the great view of the pasture, now that all those trees and vines are gone.

♥

In knitting news, I've made a bunch of squares. ☺ And I'm working on more. I also got yarn to make baby blankets for a friend of mine who is having twins. I'm going to make a pink and a blue blanket, both with the same pattern. I'm designing the pattern, and I'm going to submit it to Knit Picks, for their Independent Designer Program. I'll be using Knit Picks Swish DK yarn, which, I've been told, is a lovely, soft superwash wool. It definitely feels soft in-the-skein; I can't wait to get it knitted up.

♥

And I have a new favorite yarn: "I Love This Cotton" from Hobby Lobby. I got some for making squares, and now I'm wondering why I waited so long to try out this lovely yarn! It's incredibly soft in-the-skein, and even softer in the knitted fabric. It has great stitch definition. It's a much smoother, softer cotton than the "Peaches and Cream" that Walmart sells, or the "Sugar and Cream" that Hobby Lobby sells. And the price isn't much higher than that of those yarns. If you haven't worked with this yarn yet, go get some. You will love it, too.

Okay, I know I haven't posted anything since Thursday...

so here's a general update on everything. Laura's shawl is progressing slowly; I need to focus and spend a few hours today working on it. My goal is to finish it this week so I can give it to her on Sunday. Which means I'd have to finish by Friday, so that I can block it on Saturday. Which means I have to get busy!

I didn't knit a single stitch yesterday; I was too busy. I did 6 loads of laundry; ironed 6 shirts, 5 pairs of pants, one pair of shorts and 3 perler bead creations; sewed one split seam, 9 buttons, and one small hole; and attempted to felt two sweaters in my washing machine. It's a front-loader, and it doesn't look like it worked. Oh, well. I can just fall back on my original plan; taking them to the laundromat and felting them there in the top-loader.

I am on day 14 of the Love Dare. I should be on Day 15, but I fell a little behind. I'm caught up now, thanks to yesterday. I'm changing. This dare is all about doing what I can to improve my marriage. I can't change my husband; I can only change myself. I can only hope and pray that he decides to change for the better as well.

I think we're planning on going to the pool later today; it's supposed to be really hot out. I'd much rather stay in the air conditioning, but the pool might be fun, too.