Inspiration

Here are two blog posts that have been encouraging me this week.

Changing Lives One Laundry Load at a Time at smallnotebook.org (love this blog - would it be totally pathetic to print this post out and stick it on my fridge?)

Successful Decluttering for Busy Mamas at steadymom.com



So this afternoon it was sunny and not-freezing, so we put on our fleece jackets (because we're so outdoorsy like that - hah!) put Maisie in the buggy and went for a walk. First we went to the grocery store where I bought FUN random ingredients: tahini, coconut milk, limes, and trail mix with no chocolate in it (craziness!), and yes I do have a plan for each of those ingredients (the plan for the trail mix being to get in my belly). Then we were all in good spirits and decided to continue on to the park. We have a park in our neighborhood that just opened last August, which we call Pickle Park (actually named Hickman Park) that is just the right distance from our house: far enough you can fool yourself into thinking you have gotten a useful amount of exercise, but not so far that you wimp out whenever you're feeling slightly lazy (like, every day). So we struck out for the park from the grocery store, and you can actually make a loop from the store to the park back home again, which is kind of nice.

At the park we saw dogs, we saw kids biking, we saw a remote control airplane, we talked to other kids, played on the swings with them, went down the slide, climbed the rock spiral, ran around the bike path, and checked out the exercise equipment. We did it all, people. We squeezed every drop of enjoyment we could out of Pickle Park this afternoon. And I even managed to get a few pictures.

Stella and Maggie exercising at the park.




"Mommy, I'm hanging just like a sloth!" (Yes, she learned that from Diego.)




"DOG!!!" (That girl can spot 'em anywhere.)




Picture of the remote control plane. (No, I can't see it either, but doesn't our park look lovely?)