Current Events

My life right now is all over the place.  The move has not happened, however, oddly enough my partner has a new Iphone. I suspect the rent money for the new place went to his new phone.  His blackberry is not even a year old and we are not rich.  I'm working very hard on not jumping to conclusions, but it is very difficult not to see the writing on the wall.
On Saturday I went and spent the day at our local Occupy site and gave them my full support and in return they gave me theirs.  I have been very active on the forums and the facebook pages, so much so that people, when they found out I was coming, actively looked for me there.  I have been communicating with several people in private messages and actually talked with a young lady who informed me that  I am welcome at the site to stay there until they can help me find a warmer place to live.  I have a lot to offer actually, so it's beneficial to all around.
If you follow my work, you know I have deleted some posts and that I don't want to post my personal life all over the place.  I'll make it simple, I would rather live in a tent in a Canadian winter, with no money and few possessions, then stay one more minute with my partner than I have to.  And with that being said, that is what is happening.  I am rebuilding from the bottom up and may never have a home again.  Once I am settled I will be blogging from the Occupy site.
I am not a crazy woman, I have not come to this decision lightly.  You see, except for my odd forays into the park and the twice a month grocery shop, which required permission and which came with a penalty afterwards.  I have not been allowed to leave the house in months and months, and months.
Many Blessings to you all.

It's check in time for the Witchy Fitness Challenge

So After all that I have found out in the last couple of days, I've been surprisingly calm and using it to my advantage with the Witchy Fitness Challange.  Walks are good things, very good things.  I'm getting out 3 days a week.  I'm hoping to get that up to 5 days by next check in, but I'll have to see.  My partner, I've noticed is not very supportive, but then I don't need him for support.  He wants bacon... always bacon and he likes to give me extras by putting it right in my mouth.  I know he is sabotaging me and my lofty goals, but I keep my portions down and I know how much he loves bacon and I talk him into no more than a bite now, so ha....  Breakfast, fortunately is the only meal we have together now because of his schedule for being a security guard.  The other plan I'm working on while I walk is how to get out of here even more quickly so that my desire to be healthy is not trod upon.  Walking is a good think tank enducer.
I'm going to keep up with this and hopefully I'll be able to log in with a weight loss or diminishing inches.  One thing I do know, I'm not going to let anything stand in my way.  I read somewhere that the truth can set you free, I believe it now.  :D  To all you ladies I hope you stick with this program, I think it's working.  I'm already getting out more than I used to, I'm meeting new people and starting to hook up with old friends I haven't talked to in years.

Saturday Check in for the Get Off your Broom Challange

So today is the The Get Off Your Broom Challenge check in.  I thought I would have aced this, but no.  There have been a few interruptions and upsets and now my stomach  has reacted in the worst way possible, and the very reason I became a couch bound witch is rearing it's ugly head.  I hate IBS.... I curse it and send it back to the bowels of Hades, where it can wreak it's havoc on someone more deserving (I have a list of more deserving).  Hard core exercise is off limits until my stomach settles down again.  Walks are good and instead of the calisthenics and walking every other day, I"m switching up to something I can accomplish.... Walks every other day and easy to eat foods, like rice, poultry, jello, simple soups, poultry, nothing that will aggravate this tummy of mine.  With luck this will be better in a couple of weeks, it always blows over as long as I don't over do.
However there is one exception..... being Canadian we have Thanksgiving on the 10th of October, so we are still doing Turkey Day and I will not give up my stuffing.  Thankfully sweet potato, butternut squash and mashed potatoes are easy on the tummy, and turkey is poultry :D.  There will be no wine, but I might make a Chai tea for sipping on in the afternoon, while we smell that turkey cooking.  I'm doing the turkey tomorrow, it's an all day event, we like it slow cooked at a low temperature, and having it fall off the bone all juicy and moist is the best way to eat it. Then there is the next day off being all sleepy and relaxing from all the tryptophan in the bird.
One more thing I'll be doing is looking up ways to alleviate stress, maybe take up yoga or something so that this does not happen again.

1 step forward, 2 steps back, 3 whopping steps forward

My partner knows just how upset I have been and with the Landlord demanding the return of the computer we had been renting, my hopes were dashed for the wheel of the year project.  All of my notes were on it and I had no idea how I was going to be able to work on anything without internet access.  I spent most of last night uploading to Google and stuffing my flash drives with my favorite programs, spreadsheets and things I've created.  There were tears at the frustration and the loss of it all, but aside from the occasional sniffle, I stayed quiet.  It is not my partners fault, it is the Landlords and one day soon he will get his comeuppance.  To be quite honest I have been feeling thin, like not enough butter spread on too much bread.  Everything has been lacking and my life has been dictated by this man, when I can come and go, what I am allowed to do, and he is rude to me, so I ignore him and pretend like he's not there and won't answer the door when I'm alone because nothing good can come of visiting a woman alone after 10 pm.

My partner has a way of pulling the perfect thing out of thin air, and after dropping me off to do the grocery shopping, he went shopping, unbeknownst to me.  As I shopped I stormed around, worried that the Landlord would break into the place somehow and just snatch my computer and with everything on it.  I got through the checkout and called my man to come pick me up... and it was then that he told me he was wiping my computer and making sure that everything was off it because he was going to go throw it at the Landlord.  He knows there are things on there that I created that are next to impossible to recreate, he also knows that those are the things I put on my flash-drive last night so he wasn't worried that if he wiped it clean that I would be missing stuff.  I told him thanks and the tears started to flow... I'd never been so glad that he couldn't see my tears, he didn't deserve them.  I walked my groceries outside and waited the 15 minutes it takes to pick me up, wiping the the tears from my face and neck, wishing they would stop.  They finally did just as he showed up and he helped me put the packages in the back of the car.  He started to tease me about how he had no money left and then realized I was too upset to wrap my head around something as mundane as a joke.  "I went to the pawn shop, Baby, and I spent some of the money we were going to use for the move on a new laptop for you. It's better than mine and has a nice big screen so you can work on your blog more easily."  I was so happy I burst into tears.  He knew how much I had been bugged by everything that has been going on since before my birthday, and he smiled, said happy birthday as well, and then he told me what he had discovered.

Tonight when he got home after buying the new laptop, he realized he had left his keys inside.  Now he needed to get in and he also had put in the lock that kept others out, especially the Landlord, who when we first moved in had been visiting while all of us were out.  So my baby used a credit card  and jimmied the lock, easily (which he didn't expect), when he got in he noticed that the weather stripping we had put up had been removed and the lock was easier to get at.  I had been telling my baby that stuff was missing and moved around, and he had returned to calling me wacko, so I stopped telling him.  As he showed me how easy it was to break in,  I told him money was missing from the jar, and had frequently been going missing.  I'm no longer the wacko.  I have a new kick-ass computer and I have been vindicated.  My day went from worrying about not being able to blog, study, research and write any longer, to the complete opposite.  I love my new toy, it's perfect.  My man is happy and I'm happy... and tomorrow the Landlord will be happy because he will have his lappie back.  I may have to kick around and wait until my baby is home so I can go for walks, but I have my life back again.  Looks like I won't have to give up my Witchy Fitness Challenge, which was of course my biggest worry.
You see being rather reclusive, it's important that when I reach out, I don't loose that life line and retreat all over again. :D

The one hour walk

Fitness Challenge

So I start my journey with the getting off my broomstick with a walk, an hour long walk and ramble and even a climb up a very step rocky outcrop.  I walked the whole time, only stopping long enough to take a few photos.  My legs hurt, my butt hurts and my hands hurt, but it was nice to know I could still climb, even with the added poundage.  It was a good walk and I came home with this huge sense of satisfaction.  I feel better, and tomorrow I do calisthenics unless I do my big shop... my big shop is an hour of running around the superstore, and filling a cart to overflowing.  This is taxing on the mind, on the body and on the soul, because the prices make me want to rant.  So lets return to my happy space and here are the pictures I took from going for my walk.  By the end of the month I want to be able to walk the entire way around WestWood Lake in an hour.  I've not done the entire circuit yet, but I am getting close.

The lake is filled with dead trees.

I climbed that hill coming and I climbed it going... HAHA - Take that!

These guys here were fishing for Wide Mouth Bass and their dog was real friendly.

This one shows the tops of the trees more closely.

A great view of the lake and the shore.

Ok... I know this is not the lake, this is the path home, and I cross this way many times.  It's at the top of that hill that I climb and there is a sense that witches have worked here.  There are little offerings of balancing stones frequently found her, and a clearing that looks as though it's been swept and rocks placed in just such a way.  This time they are all together, but I have seen them in a round and other shapes.  It even looks like the log at the back is a bench of some kind.  

I made my way home and slumped myself down on the couch with a glass of water, because I knew I'd overdone it a bit and I would not be getting up for quite a while.  

The Get off your Broom Witchy Fitness Challenge

After a lot of sitting around and wishing I'd spent more time outside enjoying the weather.  I got up off my butt and looked at the big mirror in our living room.  I normally don't like looking there.... the silvered glass is so stark.... and honest however this is what greeted me:

That's me in all my glory... and don't I look thrilled.  Truth be told, I'm only 5 foot 2 and weigh a whopping 170 pounds.  As for my measurements, they go something like this:

hips 46 inches

waist 35 inches

chest 41 inches

thighs 24 inches

arms 14 inches

This is not acceptable to me.  How am I supposed to tromp through the woods and collect things without leaving more destruction than it's worth.  I let it get to far.

My true goal is to loose 60 pounds, but for now, for this project I'm halving it and for the next 3 months my goal is to loose 10 pounds a month.

The plan is simple, I will walk in my woods for an hour, every other day. On the alternate days I will do calisthenics for half an hour.  I've always eaten healthy, so that's not a problem, it's more about portion size.  My partner likes to encourage me to eat up it's yummy.  The food is yummy, but the added fat is not, so I'll be saying no to seconds and thirds.

So there you have it... my first post for the Get off your broom, Witchy Fitness Challenge.