Accelerating

We seem to be blessed with a daily viewing of ducklings on our evening walks with Buddy.  This is a fresh batch, newly hatched in the last day or so.  There were 10 babies, I just couldn't get them all in the picture.  The weather has turned sunny all of a sudden and we are supposed to get nice beautiful days for the next two weeks with little to no rain and only the odd cloud.  It never really gets that hot here as we have one of the most moderate year round temperatures in the world (Parksville an hour away from us gets that title).  I will take sunny and 20 degrees celcius any day.  Buddy particularly loves the sun.  In fact, he regularly insists he needs to go out to empty his bladder and instead hops up immediately to our patio couch to lie in the sun instead, funny dog.

I had a lovely Mother's day with calls and texts from my 4 stepkids and flowers and amazon GCs from all of them.  Mom came over and I cooked her a BBQ supper and we watched a movie.  Hubby spent Mother's day visiting his Mom who has been moved to a different facility that treats Alzheimer patients but also others with other mental disorders.  Her overall care will be better as there are more care workers there and they treat the mental, not just the physical.  While she can still speak she may or may not have recognized her two sons on Mother's Day.  She is still deteriorating at a fast pace mentally but seems to have gained a little weight since moving to the new spot and she had pink in her cheeks so that is a positive. 

With less than two weeks away before our holiday to Greece hubby just got back from a five day business trip and we are now trying to wind the business down until our return.  We have decided that we will not be taking a laptop with us.  We are taking an older ipad (7 years) and our phones and a couple of old fashioned books as both of us hate reading on electronic devices.  I have begun packing, at this point my suitcase is laid out and all that is packed is underwear and my bathing suit.  Really, what else do you really need?  This isn't a beach holiday but we will be spending a few hours on a volcanic black sand beach at Santorini as well as three days beachfront on Naxos.  We love walking the beach so we are also taking older water shoes as my 25 year old memories of Greek beaches were that most of them are made of pebbles, not sand.  If the water shoes become smelly we will leave them behind rather than stink up our luggage on the way home.  We are still doing carry-on only at this point, each with the smallest sized suitcase and hubby with a small backpack and me a large purse. We will have to check luggage on Aegean Airlines as they have very strict carry-on requirements and some very small aircraft.  We are only taking one ferry but the lighter luggage will make that much easier.  Why are we taking carry-on only?  Because it takes 4 flights to get to Santorini from Comox and the days of lugging around a bunch of luggage doesn't make any sense, especially when you are moving around in a country rather than staying put in one spot.  There is no chance of lost luggage when you carry everything on and it is much speedier at places like London Heathrow when you don't need to wait for your luggage to clear customs.  We will be physically responsible for moving our luggage in a lot of places and the lighter it is the better.  The first year we went to Europe we each had a large suitcase and a large carry-on.  That was four years ago,  We now travel with half as much.  I take a small container of laundry detergent and we will do a small amount of washing part-way through our trip.  

While hubby was away I managed to get completely caught up on my accounting work, cleaned the house, mowed the front and back lawn and got the most steps in a week ever on my fitbit.  I am hoping to hit 70,000 steps in a week next week, each week creeping closer to the target. I just weighed myself and am now at 139.3 pounds.  The second weight goal I had was to be under 140 lbs before we went to Greece - achieved!  A total of 7 pounds since I started the weight loss goal in earnest.  I am aiming for an end-weight of 135 lbs with a goal to keep the weight off permanently.  It seems I am losing about .3 to .5 a pound a week which is appropriate since I am definitely not starving myself, just eating healthy, not snacking and increasing my physical activity.  I am eating tons of fruit instead of things like bread and chocolate (my kryptonite).  I do expect to gain a pound or two in Greece but also expect to be walking my butt off so hopefully that will help.  I will avoid bread as much as possible, not always easy in Europe where bread products figure so heavily into breakfasts. 

This weekend is a long weekend in Canada and we have zero plans other than some yardwork and I am spending a few hours Friday night with a friend in a pub.  If the water is calm, tides are right, and temperature warm enough we might even go kayaking!  I am not counting on that though as hubby has loads of work to catch up on from being away.  It appears we are getting two more contracts so the second half of the business year is likely to be as busy as the first half.  

Have a lovely weekend everyone!