It's finally Friday!

It's been a busy week, and I'm glad that it's Friday evening!  Before I head out to finally tackle the garden, I'll purge some of the highlights of the week here :)

Loch's open house at the Math & Science Academy was this week, and he was eager to show us his new school.

Here's their garden, ready for fall planting!

Posing in front of the school

Showing off the school's new t-shirt design, and check out the dolphin, it's covered in money!

They have a gazillion class pets in his classroom, some kind of bearded dragon, 2 other unknown lizards, turtles, crickets (for food, I presume), fish and...

Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches!  The masking tape made me laugh - when we went to tour the school last spring the teacher told us all about how the huge cockroaches escaped last year and had to be rounded up, I guess this is the new solution :)

Here's the "chore board"... check out the upper right hand corner :)

Other events - I got started on my list of maintenance action-items... 

Here's the new pair...

Turns out my days of 20/20 are over, not only did I need glasses, but I am now going to be sporting multifocals - I imagine I'm in for a nice surprise when the glasses are in and I first pick up a book again!  Wow, glasses are expensive.  Of course the eye doctor quoted about $600, I almost choked - then I hightailed it over to BJ's (our equivalent to Costco), they were cheaper than anywhere else and I was able to order virtually the same pair for $196.  Still expensive, but at least now I will be able to see.  At $600 I think I'd stay blind!

I might have mentioned it's still been in the high 80's and 90's still here, no longer!  Yesterday the temp fell 20º in 20 minutes!  We were leaving music lessons hot and sweaty, when the winds picked up to about 35 and the cool air just started blowing in fast.  I felt like doing a happy dance in the parking lot!

what a difference!

My eye appt prompted me to go ahead and get my haircut (for the first time since last November!), which prompted me to go home and "wash that gray right outta my hair", that culminated in eyebrow tweezing and a home pedicure.  None of those things will help my blood pressure but they sure improved my outlook!  

It's 65º outside right now and after dinner, I WILL go outside and see what the garden has for me, I have really neglected it for about 10 days, and from the back door I can see what looks like red confetti all over the beds... cherry tomatoes I'm sure!  Oooops.....

Hubby will be happy to know...

...turns out that doing things "my way" isn't such a great deal after all!  (be advised this post has nothing to do with plants!)


Some of you may have gathered a little info about me from my blogging, such as that I'm a Type A, a little (okay a LOT) OCD, go-go-go, sleep is a waste of time, why put off tomorrow what needs to be done an hour ago kind of gal.  This little old personality of mine worked out well when I was out in the workforce, enabling me to be on the directing end of things instead of the following end, but is really not a very helpful trait as a mom - moms need patience, need to answer endless questions, and lots of "coaching time" for little ones to succeed.  This is something I've always struggled with, and probably the only reason I didn't homeschool my kids to be honest, I know my limits.  So turns out this personality is also causing a few health issues for me as well - nothing earth shattering but stuff that definitely needs attention.  Namely, my blood pressure...


A little background - for most of my life I've always been the one with the low 110/60's readings and so I never was faced with reigning in the stress level in my life, I thought "why should I?", stress makes me really productive!  Then about 3 years ago I was diagnosed with borderline hypertension.  "Borderline" made me nervous since I'm not overweight, am active, yet have a family history of this sort of stuff.  But at the age of 38 I refused to take the "mild" hypertensive diuretic meds prescribed to me and discussed with my doctor doing it another way, and he gave me a 6-month go-ahead to try.  I started watching my diet and adding lots of good fats in the form of fish, nuts, olive oil, added some red wine... basically the "Mediterranean Diet", bought a treadmill to get some more aerobic type measurable activity other than my daily gardening and running around, went on a bunch of supplements such as grapeseed extract, niacin and some others and did well and journaled great numbers for a year - up until I kind of "forgot" to keep on going!  So now, imagine my non-surprise when I decided to start taking my BP at home again and am finding numbers consistently in the 135-145/ 85 range.... not good.  I know now that no matter how good my diet is, family history is a factor and I'm going to have to admit defeat and take the next step, ugh!


In the big scheme, a prescription isn't what I'm wrestling with anymore, it's this one big thing... how do I eliminate stress?  I'm smart enough to know that this is a huge factor with me, probably enough to make the difference if I could just let go of it!  I don't even have any real stress to be worried about, compared to many other people with bigger problems than the ones I face.  I just happen to thrive on it!  I love and live for deadlines, fixing financial woes, worrying about the kids, college (seriously, and they aren't even 9 yet LOL).  What am I supposed to do without anxiousness and worry? Who else suffers from this love/hate relationship with stress or truly enjoys it?  I hope I'm not alone out there :)


So... my completely "Type - huh?" husband is going to love this revelation that I'm having, that not only do opposites attract, but their way is actually much healthier!  :)


In the meanwhile, my suppressed anxious girl inside had to take action, as is my way with everything, and scheduled a complete cardiac evaluation/physical next week, which led to the eye exam scheduled for tomorrow, which led to the mammogram, which led to the research on supplements to help with the lovely feeling of early menopause, which somehow led to me scheduling my kids' dentist appointments... get the picture?  Yep, I need help LOL...


It's still 89º every day, so I'm waiting for the weekend to deal with the fall garden, we are hoping for temps in the 70's in between the rain forecasted.


p.s.  you know I can't blog without at least one photo, so here it is!...

This was this morning, I expect they will be "boots on the ground" any time now...