New, Good

I'm on my 6th morning in a row of waking up and doing yoga before work or life get in the way. 6 days. I haven't done anything physical activity related for 6 days in a row since I quite swimming in 2001. I'm not really sure what's happening to me, but this morning, when I was otherwise determined to sleep in a bit and take a day off, I found I couldn't go back to sleep after I woke up at 6:10 because I had a burning need to do a series of sun salutations. So I got up and did them. Claire burst in the room at the end of my workout, devastated to see that I was done with "doing the yoga." I told her she could do it on her own, so she spread out her nap mat and asked me to "turn on the girl on the TV." You know, the one who does yoga so much better than me. So I did, and she was entertained the whole time I got ready.

As a complement to the yoga, I've been doing a new barre DVD every night. I know, WHO AM I? But now that I don't have to do any work after the kids go to bed, I've been feeling like I should use that time more effectively. But after having a glass of wine with dinner and putting on my pj's, I can't seem to muster up much besides reading books and answering the occasional email. So I've cut wine out of my evening routine and now I'm bouncing around doing ridiculous booty barre routines every night. (It's actually a fantastic workout, and not even the perky instructor annoys me. Maybe it's the accent? Accents make everything more palatable, even perky blondes with abs that I didn't believe were possible to achieve on a woman.)

In other bits of self-improvement, I got a hair cut today that involved cutting off 4-5 inches of hair and adding some sort of actual style. And then my very nice ex-pro-hockey-player-turned-Aveda-stylist spent extra time showing me how to blow dry my hair with the round brush I have always found too intimidating buy for myself, so maybe now there's a chance I might even be able to recreate the look on my own one day! My ex-pro-hockey-player-stylist also said, "I mean, clearly you work out" at some point in our conversation and I got to nod sagely and reply with, "yes, I do yoga daily." Because I DO!

(New 'do, in the parking garage after walking across the windiest street in Fort Worth)

I ended out the day with a waxing appointment that was badly needed before swim suit season (much like the yoga and booty barre) and after last week's pedicure, and the purchase of a new bottle of Jergen's Natural Glow Fair to Medium lotion, I feel like a new (though poorer) woman.

Today endeth the self-improvement spending spree, but these were all things I hadn't done since JP lost his job, so it was time, and I'm still on an "I turned 30 so I'm investing in myself" kick. I have a call into our health insurance company to see if they cover any part of speech therapy because as long as I'm going to be 30, I'd like to become a 30-year-old that can say the words "emergency," "calculator," and "Israel" (and a bunch of others) without having to repeat the first syllable 5 times. As an added bonus, I'm sleeping extremely well and haven't had a headache in 6 days, which might also be a record. JP's budding business just launched today- his website is live and he's gotten several calls and already has two lessons signed up!

So things are good! JP is crazy busy and it appears I'm going to be a single parent for much of the summer while he's coaching, but it's good. After the last several months, it is amazing to see him so engaged and busy and happy. So bring it summer- by then I'll be a yoga booty barre master of the round brush with a son in day camps because he's done (DONE!) with daycare forever and a second income that should begin trickling in. Things are good.