Fitgirl Chronicles

Summer in Saskatchewan

Every year we make a trek to visit family in Saskatchewan and every year I am blown away by the generosity we receive and the sharing and caring that takes place. To me, material things in life aren't important it is the kindness, fellowship, and generosity of spirit that matter. Picnics, laughs, cooking together, talking, happy hour, sharing and caring; as corny as it sounds this is what matters.

My sister in law is a cook extraordinaire.

Her lasagna.

Recipe please...

If you can believe it this is my sister and brother in-law's view from their house in the city where they live. I have said it before and I will say it again...I love the prairies!

A picnic with a prairie view.

There is nothing better than a really good sandwich outside on a summer day.

Saskatchewan Landing.

Another of the amazing meals we had.  Chicken purchased from the Hutterites and the best mashed potatoes ever.

More cartwheels.

More skateboarding.

I had to take a picture of this trailer we ran across. Only in Saskatchewan would you find this "Pilsner Homage".  Pilsner and The Roughriders are definitely all the rage in this province.

A portrait of me drawn by my daughter.  Fairly representative except for the ponytail sticking straight up on the side of my head; I haven't done that since the eighties.

PJ hanging out on the patio and looking adorable.

Mark's Margaritas (we ran out of sugar for the rim) but they were just as good as last summer. 

The bittersweet goodbye with the puppies saying adieu.

Until we meet again.....

Breathe, believe and be....

That's me getting all philosophical again.  But good points in life to be sure.  My great friend Lara gave me this cool BELIEVE magnet.  Just a small thing but I LOVE it for what it represents.  Thanks Lara.

One of my goals is to believe in me and to believe I can do what I set out to achieve.

Today was Saturday and as weekends can get kind of crazy I decided to get up and go for a walk straight away which was smart because there were so many projects calling my name.

My husband and son and faithful Tessa came with me.

This hill looked like a good idea at the time.....

Not such a great idea in hindsight... 

Thankfully, it was not a serious injury and we continued onward to get 60 minutes in.

A little run along the trail.

Wild Rose ....

We were tempted by a garage sale on our travels... no finds..

Love the sky I could look at it all day; we had a beautiful day today.

I spent the rest of my day in the garden my favorite place to just BE.

I got these new shasta daisies today they are a new variety...I have forgotten the exact name, but I thought they were so pretty.

I love perennials because so many of mine are given to me from friends and family and every time I look at them it reminds me of them.

The peonies are so great right now, almost finished so I wanted a shot.

After I planted some new flowers and weeded my garden we got an amazing thunderstorm which cooled everything off.

And the BREATHE part of my day is just trying to be thankful for the goals I have met and what I am doing in moving forward.  I am taking advice from fellow blogger Teresa of Mama Wants a Sixpack, who said in summary regarding exercise, "just do it".  Great advice Teresa and Nike.  I need to stop fretting and just do it - whenever I can fit it in a day.  Thanks for that Teresa.

With that I will say goodnight.  Have a great night everybody.

Longboards, rollerblades & a saucy puppy....

That was my workout today.  I went for a 1 hour walk with my kids and our dog.  My son on his new longboard and my daughter with her new rollerblades and our dog with her saucy attitude.  It was a good workout and I am still aiming toward running.  Glad to get back to the workout routine.

I love looking at the world from my dog's perspective.

I  ate healthy today lots of salad and veggies. Tried to make up for too much food on the weekend.

I added fresh basil to the red leaf lettuce and a few kalamata olives, green onions, celery, tomatoes and cucumber....

Dressing is 6 tablespoons of olive oil to 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.  I only used a small amount.

Tonight I am going to do some crunches and the exercise called "the bridge".  I have been going to physio for the last little while for my knee/hip/pelvis out of whack and I need to strengthen the glutes and the muscle on the inside of the knee to balance out the pull on the knee so "the bridge it is". And then some stretches. I am trying to look at exercise as each little bit helps instead of an all or nothing attitude which I tend to do sometimes.  Hopefully this will help me get to my goal.

Have a good night everyone.