Gloom and Doom

Well, we're back to the dark season... and in the weeks ahead the days will go so short that I'll start to wonder if they even started. 

When we moved across the country from Maine to Washington I had thought that the weather would be similar... I mean both states are kind of located way up there in the tippy-top corners of the US.  But no, Washington (at least where we live) is much more mild with little shifts in the temperature, but huge shifts with the amount of sunlight we get -  in comparison to Maine.  We get a bad rep for being rainy, but really it's just super drizzly starting about now (September) through to the spring.  Once we hit November there will be days when the sky seems to go dark by 4:00P.

Now that I've properly depressed everyone, I'm desperately trying to figure out how I'm going to keep my energy level up this year while the weather encourages everyone to walk around in comfy sweat pants and never quite crawl out of bed.

I'm stocked up on Vitamin D... popping my 2000 IU's daily since there's zero chance my skin will be making any with the sun not making appearances for weeks at a time.

I even started taking it earlier this year, ordered up my first bottle about 3 weeks ago now.  I feel better... maybe it's all in my head... but who cares if I feel like I have more energy then I'm all for it.  I snag mine off Amazon.  Have you ever used their Subscribe & Save thing?  So you go on their website, you look around for stuff you would normally grab at the grocery store or a Walmart/Target store, stick it in your cart and then decide how frequently you need to get more (it ships as frequently as once a month).  I love it for a couple of reasons. 

1. It's cheaper!  Hello!  I hate giving away my money when I don't have to.  So I just make sure I've got 5 or 6 items coming each month and I save an extra 15% off the price... and BTW the price is already cheaper than Walmart's prices, so double bonus!
2. I don't have to think about it.  I am notorious for getting to snag the paper towels or toilet paper when I'm grocery shopping.  And let me tell you, it's horrible to be the one who finds out you've used the last square and there's no backup supply.
3. My shopping trips are super quick now... and that is an incredibly great thing especially when you're a military wife (whose husband is constantly deployed) who is having to make trips to the grocery store with a pair of insatiable elementary school-age boys!  Grah!  At this point I really just have to hit up the chicken, meat and dairy sections of the store and I can head home - because I have our toiletry products being delivered by Amazon, and I get a weekly produce delivery from a local organic farm - genius!

Wow, I totally went off on a tangent there... back to the task at hand - figuring out how to keep energy levels up while the dark season creeps in.  A couple years ago I had some nursing aid at my doctor's office tell me I should put in daylight light bulbs.

To preserve your sanity, please don't do this!  Maybe this would work well for a desk lamp, or for the occasional light bulb here and there, but my kitchen has approximately 12 recessed lights and replacing all of these with daylight flood bulbs was not only a little expensive for an experiment, but also created the worst lighting ever!  It was bright, that's for sure.  But bright in a sterile, operating room, going to perform brain surgery... and then later make dinner... kind of way.  It was super irritating.  It reminded me of being in a Walmart.  Do those lights make you feel pissed off and angry too?  So lesson learned.  Won't be doing that again.

 

Exercise seems like a good way to keep the energy levels up, so I'll be making a point of getting in the habit of heading over to the gym - as outdoor exercise becomes infrequent.

 

Anyone have any other ideas or things they resort to when the days get super short?

Grinding My Teeth Off

Yes, it's been a while since I ventured onto Blogspot to write anything.  I think my mind has been in a bit of a fog.  Most of them time when I feel like writing about something, it's because it was on the top of my mind and I had a clear vision of what I wanted to say.  Not the case lately.

We have been struggling with the mind-numbing task of trying to purchase a home.  My husband's military orders changed, but allowed us to stay here for another three years (at least) so we decided to take the plunge again.  We found a house right around the corner.  And by right around the corner, I mean everytime we had a showing or inspection I've walked to it in about 3 minutes.  The house is in pretty rough shape.  The bones are good, but the inside is pretty nasty.  Grimey, nasty carpet.  Walls that have never known a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  Laminate flooring which was horribly installed - and that's hard to do with a fool-proof product like this one.  A strange little room built in the garage, with a hole punched in one of the walls.  But surprisingly for a foreclosed home, the kitchen still has all the cabinets and appliances in place - although they are "vintage" (circa 1990) so will need to be pulled eventually.  The house is one story, with 3 bedrooms.  High ceilings in the living room, a big family room that is in the same open area as the kitchen.  A huge yard.  Big deck.  Gigantic garage with shelving built in - well, huge once we get that strange room out of there.

Needless to say, we are excited to get in there and start ripping the nastiness out and putting in the newness.  But here we sit.  I have spent the last month pulling paperwork on a daily basis for the mortgage company.  This process would be so easy if I wasn't going back to school, or trying to grow a business.  If only our bank statement was only one page long, and we only had to show a W2 for my husband... ah, how easy that would be.  But with our complicated finances come days of tedious tasks to prove that the deposit that entered our personal account, from the business account had come from a legitimate source.  And what was this deposit over here, and please write an explanation for your screw-up over here.  I seriously got to the point one day where I thought I was going to lose it.  It simply felt like they were just digging deeper and deeper just looking for that one solid document that indicated that we were huge losers.  :(  My husband wanted to walk away, watching what it was doing to me.  We aren't horrible people.  We owned a home before... in fact, we bought that home with the help of sub-prime lending, maintained the home and when it came time to sell, we were not foreclosed upon or involved in a short sale.  Shouldn't that speak volumes to this mortgage company?? 

We shall see.  Projected closing date for the house around the corner is next week.  Fingers crossed that I don't have to unearth more dusty documents before then.  Hoping everything goes smoothly, because anyone who knows me is aware that I have more than enough things to keep me busy aside from mortgage paperwork... and each one of them has been seriously neglected lately.

Snowboot Sock Magnet

We just got our first snow of the season!  Weather report is calling for a couple days of snow and the expectancy that it will stay is ZERO.  Temperatures here in Washington are just too warm to support snow on the ground.  It's so unfortunate because the boys finally want to play in the snow, whereas when we were in Maine the snow was just too high and they were too small.  I love days when it snows.  Even in Maine the temperature seemed to warm up when the snow was flying... well, warmed up to tolerable levels.  I actually really like to go out and shovel while the boys play.  Great to have a reason to get out and do some purposeful exercise and get some fresh air.

Took the boys to go sledding.  G still wants me to ride with him, which is fine by me.  P is more adventurous so I think he took about three times as many runs down the hill.  During one of my treks up the hill I began to wonder what it is about the mechanics of the snowboot that encourage sock removal.  Anyone who does not know what I'm referring to has clearly never experienced playing in the snow to the fullest.  It's when you've moved around enough in the snow and suddenly you start to feel your warm sock creeping off your foot.  As a kid I recall my mom wrapping my feet in sandwich baggies or bread bags.  This was to keep your feet drier since we would play in the snow for hours.  By the time we came in to warm up our sock was hanging on by a toe and our feet were slipping all around in those sweaty plastic bags.  For some reason I guess I thought the snowboot would have evolved since childhood.  Or maybe my socks would be tight enough to withstand the "foot stripping" appeal.  I was wrong.  The toe of my snowboot was like a sock magnet, tugging relentlessly at my wimpy socks.  Four trips up the hill and I could feel exposed heels.  Felt like I needed some sweet sock garters.  And on that note, I'm now going in search of a picture of a 1950's husband, home from work wearing the black sock garters and gigantic starched boxers...  wish me luck.  This could be a whole new market for the sock garter manufacturers. 

Today's weather report brought to you by. . .

Forrest Gump.  Yesterday we were greeted with "little bitty stingin' rain", but today it's "big ol' fat rain".  Okay, so maybe we don't look as bad as Gump did in that puddle up to his chest, but certainly feels that way when it just rains, or drizzles for days and days in a row.  Now if tomorrow calls for the rain that comes straight up from underneath...

I love fall, but this isn't fall.  This some sort of sick step backwards to spring.  Everyone asks me if it rains here as much as "they" say.  And I always say it's more gray and just a little drizzle during certain parts of the year.  If this keeps up, though, I'm going to have to change my answer.

Frustrating Day

Today was a frustrating day.  I had spent the last month preparing for an open house for my business.  I really just wanted to have an occasion for people to come over, eat some food, socialize, and try out the products I've put so much work into creating.  I chose to have the event today because I wanted people to have time to settle down from the back-to-school rush.  I created an event on Facebook, because I felt like it was the easiest way to get the word out to people in this area (social media seems to be a prevalent means of communication here).  I invited the few people I knew, and asked them to pass the invite along to anyone else they thought would be interested.  13 people RSVP'd that they would come, and another 8 listed themselves as "maybe". 

With the date chosen and people indicating an interest, I knew I needed to get things in order.  I worked hard.  I created a catalog from scratch and had it professionally printed.  I meticulously assembled two dozen Pumpkin Creme Brulee pedicure sets.  I wrapped bath towels, and hand towels with raffia and placed them in wash basins so visitors could sit down and enjoy a personal pedicure while they chatted with friends.  I spent hours preparing products to have available for purchase and created a testing area where all the products could be tried out.  I cleaned for two days.  Prepared platters full of snacks.  As I look back on the month, I was busy getting things ready for today during any free moment that I was not taking care of my boys, or trying to complete work for my classes.

As I was putting food out this morning and brewing a pot of coffee, I chatted with a friend on Facebook who wanted to let me know that she wouldn't be able to make it.  Her inability to come was already assumed as she had just been blessed with a new baby boy 2 days ago, but I was grateful for the chance to hear from her and see how she was feeling.  The start of the Open House came.  The first guest to arrive was a close friend, and then another and another.  So was my day wonderful?  Of course, because I got to be surrounded by the company of three good friends whose love and support is unconditional.  We laughed and talked for hours.  But where was everyone else?  Where were all these other people who said they were coming, that I had prepared special items for?  Was this personal?  Why did my inner-self not allow me to do this to others when clearly they had no problem doing it to me?  Even though it may not have been done intentionally to hurt me, it certainly did hurt me.  Wasn't I worthy of a message to let me know that something had come up? 

Today made me wish for my friends from Maine.  I absolutely love the few close friends that I have made here in Washington, but why has it been such a struggle to find these loving and genuine people?  The kind that would drop anything to be somewhere for you.  Why does there seem to be such a large population of people that do not consider trustworthiness and dependability to be precious character traits?  Is it something that comes with age?  No, I can't believe that because a close friend who moved away months ago had a truckload of character and she was only 25.  Tomorrow I will feel better and I will start developing my next business plan (since clearly an Open House won't work), but tonight... after all the work that I put into today's flop... I think I've earned the right to curl up in a ball and be sad for a while.

Me in 1200 words or less?

As I started setting up my blog, this was my first hurdle.  How can I possibly describe my experiences and my thought process in a way that might make people feel a kinship to me?  And then how could I fit my experiences into 1200 words?  Well, I can't.  I suppose I wouldn't have started a blog if I had as little as 1200 words to say about anything.  Then I wondered who would want to read what I had to write?  I'm not a celebrity or the CEO of a major company.  Just a regular girl.  I have two boys, ages 3 and 5 (which I'm sure will provide a large amount of material for me to blog about).  My husband of 6 years is on active duty in the Navy and presently deployed.  I am the owner/operator of West Road Soy Candles as well as Uforya Body.  I was raised in MidCoast Maine and attended the University of Maine where I received my degree in Nutrition.  After graduation I worked as a Dietitian for 7 years and bartended on the weekends (which is how I met my husband).  I currently reside in Washington State and am about to embark on my Master's in Nutrition program in two weeks (eeeek!).

Wow, so I guess I have a little bit of a resume.  So what can you expect from a blog written by me?  I'll be honest.  There really isn't anything I won't discuss.  Takes a lot to make me blush and I haven't come across many topics that I shy away from.  My primary purpose for the blog was a daily outlet for me.  With my husband gone, I find that I observe a lot of different things over the course of a day and then have no one to share them with - preK boys don't want to listen to what I have to say unless I use the word "poop" a lot.  I would like to empower other military spouses to be strong individuals while still being great supporters of their loved ones.  I want to help people who want to take something they love to do and create their own small businesses (love a good entrepreneur).  I want to share my quick wit so that others can find the humor in every situation, because anyone who knows me is well aware that I can't take anything seriously.  Finally, I want to talk maybe just a little here and there about Nutrition, because it is a big interest of mine. 

Well, I think that's a good start.  Doesn't really let you know all that much about me, but I like a little mystery.