My life is, basically, pretty boring. I'm a mom, a stay-at-home mom with two teenagers who have their own things to do. I'm a wife, with a husband that works outside of the home - who has his own things to do. What do I do all day? Well, I'm currently in the process of cleaning and decluttering. I've found, while wandering around this house, all by myself, that we have way too much stuff. And, therefore, I need to get rid of some of that stuff. I've organized my office. It went from this:
To this:
To, finally, this:
I'm very happy with the outcome. I still need a new chair for the "desk area" -- kitchen barstools are not the most comfortable for long periods of time.
My next project is our upstairs bonus room -- what a mess! There are toys up there dating back to the stone age. Well, okay, I exaggerate, but there are some things from when the boys were very young and although they're still young -- they're a little too old to be playing with Pokemon and Playskool action fgures. So, I've set up the boxes -- keep, sell, donate and then there's the trash bag. I'm finding quite a bit is going into the "keep" box because the toys have true sentimental value and the guys want to keep for "future generations" or the trash bag because they're broken. But, at least either way -- the stuff will be off the shelves, out of closets, etc and find new homes -- either in storage or in garbage (or in someone else's house for the few things that make it to the sell or donate piles.)
Our family did manage to get another hike in a few weeks ago. Beautiful! We went to Hanging Rock State Park. It's located in the middle/northern part of North Carolina - just north of Winston Salem. It was - wow! We only had a couple of hours to spend there -- we were on our way back home from Charlotte and took a side trip. But, I really want to go back and explore more. Here are some photos from that hike:
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| That rock face in the distance is where Hanging Rock is located. Although not a difficult hike -- it was considered moderate because of the elevation and then the climbing (rocky) near the end. |
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| These are some of the stairs that we needed to climb. They seemed never ending -- this is just one section, there were, at least, three sections like this |
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| That is Hanging Rock from below. |
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| Where the tree is, center of photo, is where you need to go to make your way over to Hanging Rock -- where that group of people are just right of center. |
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| A view from Hanging Rock. |
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| Panoramic from Hanging Rock. |
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| And, finally, here's me and my oldest standing on Hanging Rock. We made it! |
I have found that hiking is really one of my favorite activities. I think that if I lived somewhere close to one of these beautiful parks, I would hike much more frequently than I do now. Although there are hiking trails not far from my home, they do not have the same pull, for me, that these more "mountainous" trails do. I love the challenge of the rocky terrain. I love the feeling of expectation -- what's around the next bend? What will the view be like from the next open area? What will the view be like from the summit? Not that hiking in any area is bad -- I've hiked several of the parks near my home and will continue to do so when I get the chance, but they just don't have the draw that some of these other areas do. But any hike is better than cardio work out at the gym just about any day! But, I still manage to get to the gym several days per week :) if even for 30 - 45 minutes to get a good sweat on the elliptical.
So, trying to stay busy. Still watching my diet, still trying to stay active. On a side note, I am officially down just over ten pounds -- so I'm happy about that
For those struggling with this weight loss thing -- all I can say is stay active, watch your portion sizes, eat healthier, stay active. The formula does work.
