If you’re not in the Winston-Salem area, you might not know that it snowed yesterday. Straight-up. And today? It felt like 70, and it looked like this. Sunshine rays burning up my happy face.

Friday is my Saturday, so I could have sat around doing nothing. And after a week of trying to get back into normal life after an excellent vacation to San Francisco, I was up for it.

But I did something. As much “something” as I could while sitting down. Like budgeting. Like organizing all my files on Dropbox (new love). Like editing photos and writing. (By the way, the more photos I take and publish without all those fancy Instagram filters, the more I want to do some serious research on how to use Photoshop to do respectable, appropriate color corrections on my images. I mean. Just sayin’.)

It was a good way to gear back into a routine.

And you know what’s a for-sure way for me to feel motivated to keep making good changes? New shoes.

I’ve spent almost my entire life loving shoes. I remember wanting to sit in the outer pews during Mass so I could watch congregants walk back from Communion; specifically to watch their shoes as they walked. I found it a fascinating show. (Some Indigo by Clarks flats)

I haven’t had Keds in twenty years. My feet have a memory of these shoes, and it’s been undisturbed all this time. These shoes feel on my feet just as I would have expected them to.

I got to the age (I don’t know when) that comfort has finally taken a front seat. Next to cute. I actually spent several years not being as interested in shoes. And I think it has to do with not quite knowing how to navigate the world of cute and comfortable shoes. Thank goodness for a job on my feet; it forced me to figure it out. (Naturalizer)

It’s juice recipe day!

I do this funny thing in real life: I like to alternate my green-juice days and my orange-juice days. And whenever we get beets again, I’m sure I’ll have red-juice days.

Why? Because I’m a little nuts? Yes?

Go make you this juice. Or if you don’t juice, go eat all these foods. They’ll taste great and you’ll feel delicious. (I’m not even kidding, I bet this would make a nice chopped salad with some vinaigrette and maybe a sprinkle of feta or goat cheese? Pecans, too?)

Greeny sweet tangy juice

It seems that mango pulp is so malleable, it gets pushed through our masticating juicer along with the liquid. It made for a pulpy juice. I didn’t mind it so much and it was delicious, but I’m not sure I’ll make it a regular ingredient.

• 1 apple, sliced
• 1 mango, sliced (I left the skin on)
• 1/2 large cucumber, sliced
• large handful spinach
• 4 carrots, peeled

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Thank you, husband.

Patrick spent the past week gently nudging me up from the place I was — feeling overwhelmed by all the changes I need and want to make — to a place where I feel like I can tackle them little bit by bit. And then he sent me this quote yesterday. “I love this,” he said. I do to …

“Do not wait: the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along.”
From Napolean Hill

So after my grand return to my blog last week, it still took several days before I actually kicked things into action. Really, it started when Patrick suggested we ride our bikes to the farmers market Saturday morning. How could I say no? So I said yes.

And can I tell you what power there is in saying yes to something that’s good for you? Even when maybe you’re still feeling a little obstinately attached to the idea that life is too hard to make good things happen? So powerful. Even better is when that good thing includes the biggest hill you’ve climbed in six months and it takes you five minutes to reach the top (where your husband — on his single-speed bike loaded with panniers, no less — is patiently and happily waiting for you).

“Do not wait”

So, it was a good Saturday. Followed by a good Sunday. Followed by starting the week out wide awake, ready to clean dishes. Ready to run a mile (maybe it wasn’t the four miles I ran during my last go, but I was running … “start where you stand”). Ready to finish up little house-cleaning projects and find a 10K to run (the Salem Lake Trail Run — it’s even seven whole miles!). To order some sewing tools I realized will help when I finally sew my apron (a rotary cutter and self-healing board!). To eat sensibly (it’s a no-sugar week for me; I’m looking forward to how good I’ll feel in just seven days).

Wanna see what it looks like? When I come back to life?

I ran. Damnit. I RAN.

Half a sandwich. It was enough.

There is nothing like starting out the day with a clean sink and empty counter.

My husband made me slow-cooked, steel-cut oats. While I slowly, slowly woke up. Coffee, too. He’s that way. I love him for it.

More running. Because I can.

Riding my bike to work. Me and that bike — slowly rekindling our romance.

This was Patrick's, until his bike commutes demanded a bigger bag. Now it's mine, and I think we'll be getting chummy as I tote it around my many, many walks to run errands.

Let me get right to the list of the few things we are doing without, that are changing a lot about my daily habits (and how my brain works):

» Parking the car. Well, just my car (It’s still a little too cold for Patrick to ride his bike to work, which he’s anxious to do).

» No internet service to the house. That means no cable, too.

It’s just those two things, really, but it’s amazing how they change the landscape!

Walking, walking, walking

Our new home is within two miles of: our favorite coffee shop; a wonderful bakery; two grocery stores; the bank; the library; the entire downtown; the gym (if I decide to join … I’m contemplating an all-at-home scheme); a beer/homebrew shop; a brew-pub; a really good local bar/restaurant; a huge park (with running track!); any number of food and service businesses that we have yet to explore.

In other words, we are finally living in a space that does not require a car for our day-to-day. So it’s decided: I’m walking whenever I can.

WHAT NO INTERNET?!

Kinda sorta. We have an “unlimited” data plan for our smartphones … quotation marks because the limit is 5G apiece, after which point our connection speed drops. A lot.

What does it mean? It means that with that data plan, so long as we don’t go over our 5G (which is cumulative; it slowly fills up as we use it), we can use our phones as portable wi-fi hotspots.

Guess what? I used up my 5G about a week ago (damn you, Parks & Recreation!), Patrick used up his the other day, and our cycle doesn’t start again until the Jan. 24. Also, that slower connection speed is SO slow that my browser times out before it can load, essentially rendering the hotspot useless.

Lesson learned: streaming a lot of video is out of the question, and streaming any at all isn’t even advisable if we want to be able to do things like check our email and write blog entries.

Where it all comes together

Too bad about my internet-less home, right?

You know what? Not really. I haven’t watched ANY VIDEO (not even a three-minute anything) in a week. And I don’t miss it. Not a bit. Now, I would like to pick up Parks & Recreation where I left off. And we haven’t finished the second season of Breaking Bad yet. wanna.

But it can wait. All in good time. All in carefully parceled, purposeful, focused time.

And not being able to get on the internet on my computer? Problem solved: I have a library within twenty minutes’ walk of my house. And they have unlimited wireless for me to use. For the cost of a little exercise and absolutely no money.

Let me pile it on a little: Having lugged my (decidedly small and not really cumbersome) computer to the library, and knowing I can’t just spend the entire day here, I’m feeling less wander-y. No wasting time on random links and three-minute videos.

To re-iterate: this is where it all comes together …

These two simple limits have helped me carve more meaningful chunks of time. Yes, I still occasionally find myself idle (less often, because of all the walking). But now I’m more likely to spend that idle time reading something (really reading it), or choosing to observe the moment in appreciation (you would not believe how corny I am in real life; really, truly corny — because I love how light breaks through a window, or to hear the out-of-season call of birds, or the way that dog sighs when she’s sleeping …).

And to think on the months ahead and how we’ll have to parse our internet-connectedness at home. I am grateful for the purpose it will require me to assign those moments.

Purpose, purpose, purpose. More of this, please.

I was inspired by Ms. Less Serious Life to make the polenta recipe above. (I’ve only been daydreaming about trying polenta — for the first time! — for a few years).

I might even make a red sauce to serve it with, too. (Such a copy cat.)

How about I let you know how that goes? Sounds nice, right?

I have a front porch. I’ve wanted one of these since we moved out of my childhood home when I was ten (wraparound porch galore).

Today: I put away all the knick-knacks, make triple-chocolate brownies for my new neighbors, and practice my interview skills for a job I would love to get!

Oh. Hi!

I’ve been, umm. Busy? Yeah, I think I’ve been busy, and that any objective observer would agree.

Patrick and I lived out of a few boxes for a month, in the company of my generous parents. We spent Christmas at their house, but also visiting extended family in High Point and Raleigh. And then we closed on our house! And then we moved into our house! And then we had lovely family visiting our house!

And our house! It’s beautiful. I don’t have pictures yet to show you the whole deal. But you can believe it. It’s better than I could have imagined my house would ever be.

And I’ve been slowly unpacking boxes and arranging shelves (I want to get it as right as I can the first time).

And I’ve been thinking … “I should write!”. But then I’ve been thinking “but I don’t have pictures, and also what do I have to say that’s new? And also I’ve been eating only OK and I haven’t been exercising as much as I’d like to …”

Oh brother. Excuses already? It’s only January 6!

So forget about this blog entry being exceptional or full of beautiful photos or educational or inspirational. It just is.

And isn’t that nice? To just be sometimes? What-will-be-will-be kind of being.

I’ll be back. Soon. Photos. Promise.