I always white knuckle our return to Flagstaff after having been away for six months. What will have changed in town? How will the neighborhood look? Is the house still in good shape? I always find that no matter how much things change many things remain the same. The town is very spread out so it will take a while to come upon all the changes but the neighborhood looks the same and the house is clean, tidy and waiting for us thanks to good house sitters. One of my old assistants from work stays at the house during our absence saving them lots of daily commute time which has worked out great to date.
I have lived in our highly personalized home for 15 years so am always glad to be back in my cozy mountain cocoon. First up is going through the mail, unpacking lots of stuff, doing the laundry, arranging for fall yard cleanup, cleaning out the garage to get to the holiday decorations and decorating the house for Christmas. Paul’s tasks were first and foremost filling up and heating the hot tub for his aching back, getting groceries and cleaning/servicing the vehicles. Next, we started making appointments; medical, dental, insurance, hair, massage, colleagues, friends, etc.
Paul quickly re-immersed himself in work life and extracurricular activities while I pondered life on the home front. I quickly unpacked my craft room, organized my sewing supplies, visited my local sewing store, chatted with my sewing coach, sewed many flannel holiday pillowcases for friends and family and finished up an embroidered pillow for a holiday gift. I wrote a reference letter for a past employee, met with our house sitter and had a lunch meeting with my successor. The phone has started ringing with invitations to this and that but I am not quite ready for politics and people. I have made five different kinds of holiday goodies, most of which are on their way out of the house as gifts.
Having three weeks before the holidays, I immediately got back on a healthy diet after many food intake sins accompanying our fall travels. It’s a protein shake for breakfast, hummus & veggies for lunch, protein and veggies for dinner and a couple of clementine’s and pecans for a late night snack. The refrigerator is full of chopped veggies, healthy proteins and plain, yes plain, yogurt and cottage cheese. I am especially proud of my protein shake which includes three superfoods (flax meal, powdered kale from my garden and frozen acai fruit puree). I also made some chia seed pudding which is quite good but high in fat calories so intake must be monitored. Maybe this is outweighed by its high nutritional value and the fact that it expands in your stomach which should keep me full longer. We are experimenting with a vegetable spiralizer to replace some of our carb intake. I purchased gummy vitamins along with numerous medicinal teas all touted to step up metabolism and improve overall health. I am sporting a Fitbit and slowly getting the lead out on movement toward the 10,000 daily step goal. We will see how long all this lasts but I do have some helpful props. I will step up my efforts in the New Year and keep you posted on progress toward my ongoing weight loss challenge.
In closing, I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on the weather. It is cold, dry, and unseasonably windy here and unfortunately we have not had any snow in northern Arizona yet. I keep comparing Flagstaff weather to eastern South Dakota weather. The only real difference is that our lows aren’t as low and our highs are a little higher during the day here. That’s all I have for my Flagstaff “coming home” news but we have only been home several weeks. 2017