Friday, July 19, 2013

Good to be home........


 I love my mom's back yard, it's so private, there is a pool, there are pretty flowers, and it is so quiet and peaceful. The only sounds are the birds and the little waterfall in her pool.  I could lay there for days just reading and napping. It's so nice for her to have this space in the later part of her life. Growing up was nothing like this for me. We lived on a tiny lot sharing side yards and a backyard with neighbors, our house was very small and there was no privacy. If my parents were yelling at each other, everyone in the neighborhood heard it. I wonder who I would be now if I had had this back yard instead of the one I grew up with.....


It's a nice place to visit, but it's good to be back home.

I continue to purge the things we no longer need. I drug all of our old backpacks and duffel bags down from the top shelf in the closet where they were stored, most have deteriorated and it's time to throw them out. Time for lots of things to go. Only the things I love or find of good use should stay.
Thank you William Morris for that wisdom I learned long ago, but fail to follow. I continue to keep my head down while walking, picking up sticks, rocks and rusty things, and I bring them all home......


Weight Watchers check in today. I have lost a total of four pounds, average 2 pounds a week, yay. Good healthy weight loss without starvation and depravation. Spending the week at my mom's set me back a bit, but I was strong for the most part. For example, she had a doctor's appointment and left before we got up. She put "breakfast" out for us. Pop tarts, croissants, brownies, muffins, and cheese danish. Ugh...... I gathered it all up and put it all back in the pantry, got out the blueberries and strawberries in the frig, cooked up an omelette and had a nice healthy start to the day instead of a sugar buzz. I watched my portions carefully except for the beer I had to have as soon as I got home (no alcohol allowed in her house) and the extra portions of chicken bog. Do you know chicken bog? If you live in South Carolina you do, otherwise you might be saying ick, about now. My mom makes it for me every time I come down, because I love it and can't get it anywhere else. You cook a chicken all day, cook up a huge pot of rice, mix in the chicken and rice with some spicy sausage and lots of black pepper. I mostly don't eat meat because no one else in my family does, but I will eat me some chicken bog! I paid for it on the scales, but in my WW meetings the mantra is:  "is this food I am about to eat worth the points?" and hell yeah, chicken bog is worth the points!

Wesley has taken on duty as my personal coach and she is kicking my butt on our walks. We walk these hills every day, fast and I nearly pass out, but I feel so good at the end of it, and she is so great to be helping me out with my weight goal. After dinner the other night when my mom brought pecan pie and caramel brownies (I know!) to the table, Wesley looked at me and said: "Is it worth it?" and no, it wasn't! I didn't have one brownie or piece of pie, so I could have more chicken bog :-)
 I told my meeting leader that story today and I got a bravo star for Wesley, ha!


I finished reading The Garden of Evening Mists by the pool. What a beautiful book. If you enjoy Japanese culture, this is a great book. I was sad to come to the end of it.

We went to the library yesterday for more books. What a great thing the library is. There are art books I have checked out many times, over and over. I saw some of them yesterday, they are like old friends. It made me smile to see them there on the shelves. I checked out a book about a Chinese chef and a food writer, but so far it isn't as great as I thought it would be.... we'll see. I have cut back on my computer time and added reading books in it's place, enjoying this change very much.
We also got some movies. Last night we watched The Fall. This is an AMAZING movie, you should watch it!!!! It was filmed in 18 different countries and it's eye candy as well as being a really great story! HERE is the trailer

Still being a lazy artist, but I have lots of inventory, so why not. I'll have to get back to it soon enough. Right now we are on the last stages of the Tour de France and then summer, for me will seem over and I will send Wesley back to college. Lazy days right now though......

11 comments:

Michèle Hastings said...

Chicken bog sounds delicious to me! I would have foregone the dessert as well.

cookingwithgas said...

Chicken bog!? What say you Chicken bog... sounds interesting.
Vacation sounds worth the points.

Tracey Broome said...

Yep, chicken bog!

Vicki said...

All sounds great!
Enjoy your time out and wonderfully lazy days of summer :)

Unknown said...

I want chicken bog now!! have to give that a whirl. Just keep doing what you're doing Tracey... don't let guilt take over too much, it's the emotional equivalent of debt, apparenty!.. i'm deep in emotional debt!!.. but I'm off those pills, we'll see how that goes. Enjoy the rest of the Tour... and Wes!

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Scott, go for it! Let me know how it turns out:-)
Yeah, that guilt monster, trying very hard to ignore that.

Lori Buff said...

Swimming is great exercise, I hope you were putting that pool to good use.

Shannon said...

Hey Tracey, good to see you at the potluck. Now, I know why your plate was full of every kind of fruit. :) Good luck with your continuing transformations and self review.

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Shannon, thanks, it was good to see you too, not enough time to chat though!

Susan Wells said...

I love! the pics of found/made things Beauties!!!

Tracey Broome said...

That's Susan!