The Real Housewife of the BI (Big Island) is back!

Birthweek celebration is over. My neighbor told me that technically, I get the whole month to celebrate. Though this is pretty tempting...c'mon- I'm a (part) Chinese person. We ain't about that life.

This week marked a return to reality- Ry is back in school. And I gotta say, this is not a happy moment for me. Aside from sleeping in longer, I kind of enjoy hanging with my homie. That being said, it was kinda nice to meet up with some friends to go on a short walk/run, and I've had more time to tackle a few very thrilling projects (this is dripping with sarcasm):

• I've done my best to make Marie Kondo very proud of me- I've recently sold off a number of (formerly) cherished items we've had for years that were hiding in cabinets. It's still a little painful, but I'm trying to focus on the satisfaction of the house looking slightly less cluttered (we are far from 'spartan' over here). Over time, I've truly come to realize the importance of learning to live with less.
• Today I finalized a HELOC for our lanai renovation later this year. It was a process that felt a lot like getting a new mortgage/going through escrow, which is to say- it was a lengthy pain in the behind. But it's done, and I'm glad.
• After a month of gathering four estimates, I've scheduled our very first house tenting. It's admittedly a bit belated, as our house is a little over a decade old. Though the cost was a bit shock inducing ($2500), we've had a number of recent termite infestations...so we can't avoid it any longer. And get this...there is a THREE month wait until we can even get an appointment! Clearly, we're in the wrong line of business.,,so I am going to encourage Ryan to ditch college and become an exterminator, a plumber or a stripper. Cash is king, baby.
• My other overdue project? House painting. Based on the estimates a few people have provided ($8.000-11,000), I have decided that I will employ the services of Jolene M, (not) Certified House Painter. This is not my first rodeo, so I know that I'm not terrible, I'm just slow (from the misery).  

Having said all that, I realize that it is an incredible blessing to have a roof over my head (and the resources to care for it). The tasks may not be thrilling, but they're certainly better than the alternative of homelessness.

I've also made a few efforts over the last few weeks to 'rewrite my script'-

• I applied for two jobs and I have a second interview for one of them. Both are low paying, but offer the promise of flexibility that my teaching job could not.  
• After many, many months of a litany of excuses, I'm also celebrating a week of better eating. I'd lost about ten pounds earlier in the year, and then regained a good amount of those over the last six months. And I haven't done much to change that.

Thankfully, I got the kick in the pants I needed from a book on wellness that could have been written by a screaming Jillian Michaels...if, say, she had also grown up in a Russian gulag and had not yet resolved her anger issues. The tone of the book was firm and one of 'blunt honesty'- you have no one to blame but yourself for overeating. Stop making excuses. It didn't exactly promote the usual self love/forgiveness ideals you tend to see touted (but sometimes that's exactly what an increasingly chubby girl full of excuses/self love/forgiveness  needs to hear).

Today was one of those days where I could have not only fallen off the wagon, but also rolled all the way down the hill, Ryan got sick (worrisome coming off the semi-serious infection he just got over a few weeks ago). This meant I had to notify school, cancel an AM run with a friend, cancel a girl's night out with two sets of friends tonight, cancel his swim lesson (which we still pay for) for this afternoon, cancel his soccer class for tomorrow (which we still pay for) and cancel an all-day excursion for tomorrow that I've been planning for weeks. I was also a little more upset than usual because we've recently missed a few other swim and soccer lessons.

In any case, I reminded myself that getting upset over all the cancellations/rescheduling was undoubtedly, a negative experience beyond my control. However, plowing through snacks all day in frustration would only have created a second negative experience (anxiety and disappointment from eating too much) that I would have regretted. So today at least, I managed to salvage the day...and this is good. One day at a time.

I"m hoping the residual 'bummed out' feelings get wiped out from tomorrow's scheduled long run. My run partner is doing the Honolulu Marathon, so we're hoping to up our mileage going forward. I'll do as much as my Achilles says I can. I also have three awesome mom friends from Ry's school that I'm planning on walking/running with now that our kids are back in school. I've found that combining friendship and fitness really is the key to consistency for me.

I don't have much going on until for the next few months, so I need to remember that boring can still be good, and that there are always many ways to see and experience the beauty in life- books, friendship, laughter, watching children play, a new recipe, performing an unexpected good deed...