{ Cleaning, Organizing, Gardening and Baking }

In that order.

Hi friends, how was your Monday?  I'll be honest, I kind of wish that it wasn't Monday yet, I feel like the weekend went a little fast for my liking, but hey ho, it is what it is.

I did a lot of puttering around today and I'm absolutely exhausted right now.

I wasn't going to share this first picture because I really don't like the way I look.  Since moving to Texas and going through all these ups and downs and craziness, I've had to stop exercising the way I used to, stopped eating healthy and put on 5 pounds.  It's not a lot and I can get it back off easily, but for now, I'm not happy with my body.

And so I thought about not sharing this photo, and then I thought.  You know, this is me, this is my online journal, and it's my journey through life, ups and downs, whether I'm skinny or a little overweight, feel good about myself or not.  It needs to be documented and I'm not going to omit anything from it.

So there I am, in all my glory.   I AM getting back on the bandwagon next week and I'm already made up all my meal plans, exercise plans and so forth.  I am super excited to get fit and healthy again.

So I started this morning by giving the green living room a really good clean, top to bottom, and then shifted some things around.  Moved some shelves from one wall to the other and exchanged a few decorations here and there.

This living room has always been one of my favorite places in the house, mainly because of all the natural light that it gets with the huge windows and big glass patio doors.

My Rosemary and Basil are doing amazingly well in this room too.

After I finished inside, I moved outside again.  Still working on the yard.

We have so many ideas and so many plans to do this and that, it's just a matter of time and money, really.  But I went ahead and started my planting today, probably a little later in the year than I usually do, but it's still summer, it's still warm and I don't have to worry about cold weather yet.

The whole time I was outside, Marley hung out with me.  He loves the outdoors and he's a really good dog, he doesn't run off, he just stays right by my feet.  He will venture up to the driveway but that's as far as he goes.

This is one of the projects we've been working on.  We've removed all the grass and weeds from this flower bed, and have laid down black mulch.  The plan is to add in some flowers, greenery, etc.    But so far it's looking really nice :)

He got a bit thirsty while being outside in the heat with me, and came right up to get some water from the watering can.  Hahah

He is so cute.

While working inside, I popped on The Keeping Room on Netflix.  It looks like something I will enjoy, but I wasn't able to get through it all, I actually only saw about 30 minutes of the movie before having to turn it off to get outside.  I will finish it tomorrow some time.

Dinner time was quickly coming around, isn't it always like that when you keep yourself busy during the day?

I set the dough for my bread bowls, in my bread machine and then to rise, I placed them outside on the patio table.  I always use the summer heat to help rise my bread and it does a very good job of it.

And here's the finished product.  My bunny chow for dinner.  A couple of you asked what it was, and I do explain it on my food blog, so click on over to the Bunny Chow recipe and read all about it.

I also posted my Pressure Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese recipe :)

I have another busy day tomorrow, am getting a haircut at 11am and then need to quickly pop to Walmart for a few things, then need a money order to pay a bill and a trip to the post office.

I do want to get a bit more stuff planted as well, but I'll see how I'm doing time wise tomorrow afternoon.

I'm off to go and read again.  I know by now some of you are probably sick of hearing me talk about my book but I can't help it, it's beautifully written.

Have a wonderful Monday night friends.
xoxoxo