dianaschnuth

I’m one of the rare birds who keeps a personal blog about all aspects of my life, not just one. My blog is about Diana Schnuth, not about just gardening, or diet and fitness, or photography, or parenting, or any other single aspect of my life.

My blog isn’t monetized, and I don’t have a “following,” per se, outside of my spouse and a few of my close friends — and even my friends (the original intended audience) don’t read my blog as much as they used to, now that they all rely on Facebook to keep them updated on their other friends’ lives.

Basically, my blog is for me. It’s my digital journal that happens to be public.

Last year, I set myself monthly word-count goals or other blogging-related goals; this year, not so much. As a result, I haven’t set blogging as a priority, and I can tell when I look at my posts so far in 2016. They’re mostly time-related — the 15th of the month is Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, and I always post a Year In Review sometime in January, and I post an Operation Braceface update any time I go to the orthodontist, and I like to post monthly Weigh-In updates in the weight loss category.

I rarely post about general life happenings anymore, and that used to be what my blog was all about.

So, here I am, during my lunch hour at work, with some unexpectedly free time — my normal Wednesday lunch buddy had to stay home sick with her daughter, and there weren’t any fitness classes I wanted to drop in on last-minute.

Let’s pretend that you and I are sitting in the back corner of the local indie coffee shop, watching this crazy rain coming down outside, knowing it’ll turn to snow overnight. Let’s pretend we haven’t talked in a while, and you just asked me how things are going — and meant it.

Thanks for asking.

Well, Connor just got a new pre-K teacher — they’d been between teachers since the last one up and quit without notice to go back to school. You’d think a potential future teacher would want to have some good references, and wouldn’t stiff her former employer like that, but I’m not privy to the whole situation, so I guess I can’t really judge.

Anyway, Ms. Jodi is great — after two days, anyway. She’s moved away from the negative reinforcement of moving kids’ names to different colors based on behavior — Connor used to always be on Yellow (one warning) when I’d pick him up — and instead tries to reward them for good behavior. She has a treasure chest that kids get to pick out of — I’m still not sure precisely how that works. But I do know that Connor got a You Did It certificate yesterday, lauding him for his “Good Attitude!” That’s a big deal. He’s been a little shit at school and at home lately, and seeing him turn around with positive reinforcement and some needed structure… well, it’s pretty awesome.

(I also like that Ms. Jodi is older than I am — maybe a little older than my Mom? Makes me feel like she’s got more life experience, and can teach my kid better than a younger teacher might. Yeah, that’s totally age-ist, and I recognize that. But I also just kinda like her style.)

Yeah, I know you asked how *I’m* doing, not how my son is doing. It’s hard to separate these days. If Connor is a little shit, then I’m in a shitty mood, and so is Daddy.

…

I’ve been eating like stupid lately. I just haven’t given a fuck. I gained three pounds at my last Weight Watchers weigh-in yesterday — and then I kept eating. What the fuck. I finally realized I need to rein myself in, so I decided to start photo-journaling my meals again, starting this morning. If I know I’ll have to admit to myself and the world that I ate two Reese’s Peanut Butter Hearts, I’ll be much less likely to pull the trigger.

I really ate myself into a hole yesterday, though. I ate 70 goddamned SmartPoints in one day. That’s my entire day, plus all my weekly extras and then some. Fuuuuuuuuuuu~

Now I get to be extra super strict with myself for the rest of the week, until next Tuesday’s weigh-in. And I’m going to do it, and I’m not going to fuck it up. I’m too close to my goal to let a year-long plateau get me down. There is NO REASON I can’t follow the plan and get this last bit of weight off. I’m not where I want to be yet, but I’m so much better off than I was, and I DO NOT want to go back there.

…

I’ve been running again, since the physical therapist said last year that I should be OK to try it. I ran all of 3.7 miles in January, and I’m up to 6.2 miles so far in February. I might make it up above 8 miles this month if I run on Monday. Depends on the class schedule at the fitness center.

Anyway, I’ve got a little Post-It note stuck to my monitor at work, with a little graph of how many miles I’ve run per month. Come Monday, I’ll plot February on the graph. My goal is to increase my mileage just a little bit each month.

I’m not interested in running a race right now — I just want to increase my run-to-walk ratio until I can run for a straight 25 minutes (which is how long my runs have been lately), then work up to a good 35 or 40-minute run. That should equate to running a 5K over lunch, assuming my pace stays the same or improves.

…

Well, jeez. My lunch is just about over, so I suppose we’d better get going. There’s honestly not much else to talk about, anyway — my life is honestly not terribly interesting. Which I suppose is a good thing.

I mean, I’m starting seeds for my garden and flowerbeds, so that’s something; work is work; nothing has gone to shit on the house or cars lately; we still do date night once a month; I’ve been baking a lot of muffins lately; and there’s not much else to tell.

So, if you enjoyed our little chat, leave a comment so I know I’m not just talking to the wall here. (Oh, and just in case I post this link on Facebook: please leave a comment here on the blog instead of on FB. Your email won’t be published. I just miss getting “real” comments, you know?)

Talk to you later.