41 Thoughts

It’s so hard to imagine that this time last year we were on a sunny, sandy beach in Hawaii for my 40th birthday.

I got to have my favorite lunch at my favorite restaurant in Kona. We got to celebrate with family. We hiked every day, we swam every day, we ate good food. Hawaii is always amazing, no matter what.

And then we flew home 8 days after the first case of covid came to the US. After being home for so long, not seeing many people, not going anywhere, not doing much, it is truly had to believe that in one year everything has changed.

Here I am, another trip around the sun–41 years old. No trip, no family, not doing much. 🙂 But it was still a pretty good birthday. I woke up Tuesday morning to my kiddo jumping into bed and singing me happy birthday. Then my husband making me an omelette for breakfast. Then working out (yoga and my exercise bike). Then going to the park with Logan. Then I went for a long walk in the sunshine with Bella!

Dinner was sushi!

The next day…the inauguration! And homemade cheesecake from a friend for my birthday. <3

So much has changed since I first started this blog. I started writing it in 2008. Basically 13 years later…here we are. The blog world isn’t as popular anymore. Now it’s instagram “influencers”. Or blogs that are just disguises for advertisements and constant MLM schemes. Me? I like writing, I like sharing, sometimes I have things to say, sometimes I don’t. I write here less, my focus has changed. There have been many times I wanted to quit the blog. I feel like my focus has changed a lot.

In the beginning, it was all about weight loss. It was inspiring stories and tips for readers about how I lost 110 pounds, about how I changed my life. I liked it. I thought I had a good message–instead of the usual diet obsessed culture of extremes, my story was about making small changes to develop a healthier lifestyle. I kept the weight off for over 10 years.

Now? I am finding that there are more important things than obsessive exercise or weighing my food and counting my calories at all times. It really does start to take over your whole life and that wasn’t what I wanted my focus to be on.

Longer Weekend

In the last year it’s definitely been hard to get excited about weekends or long weekends. Pre-pandemic we’d impatiently countdown the holidays and weekends. Now? Every day is pretty much the same. Weekends are pretty much just like a Wednesday. The only difference is that on nice weekends (i.e. not pouring rain) we try and get outside for a hike as a family.

Saturday we went to Orenco Woods Nature Park. It’s out in Hillsboro, so quite a trek for us. But I’m glad we went.

There were lots of super cool things for kids! A sandbox, swings, climbing structure (Logan got to the top!), bridges, paths, lots of “art”.

It was chilly but not rainy. Logan got the wiggles out running around the paths. There were a bunch of them, little trails and some nature preserve areas (those areas were not for dogs).

The art was so cool! Logan had so much fun exploring. The climbing web was by far his favorite thing there. He didn’t want to leave the park. Often times when we go hiking he loses steam around the 1.5 mile mark and starts whining about going home. But this park was such a hit we practically had to drag him to the car. 😉

When we got home I baked a loaf of sourdough. I am so happy we have a new oven and I can get back to baking bread! My favorite recipe is great and the bread turns out fantastic.

Monday was a holiday, and one that is a little bittersweet with all of the awful racial things that have been happening in our country. And I took Tuesday off because it was my birthday. Another rather bittersweet day. Last year we were in Hawaii on an amazing trip for my birthday.

Monday I took Logan to Fanno Creek Trail in Tigard. It was super cool! We parked at the Garden Home Rec Center and picked up the trail there (behind the playground). I guess the whole thing is 4.5 miles long and it’s ADA accessible (paved) the whole way. A great trail for kids.

It was a really cool trail through neighborhoods. The trail was wide enough for people to be safe. There were bridges, we saw a bunny and a creek. I think the trail is pretty long but we did 1 mile or so and then turned around. Michael’s mom joined us (Michael was working). It was a nice outing!

And then we came home and I tried my hand at making ciabatta bread for the first time. It was a very slow, easy weekend, not much going on but it felt nice at the same time.