Phew, I think I'm starting to come back to life. My work was closed December 23 - January 3 and I worked from home on Monday. I spent much of my break lounging around in new comfy fleece pajamas binge watching movies and TV series with my cat. I was hoping to get a lot done while off from work, but I guess I needed to decompress.

I was back in the office yesterday and somehow managed to drag myself to the gym around 2:00 p.m. for an hour walk with some light jogging on the treadmill and 15 minutes of yoga stretching. I'm in a bit of a slump and exercise is going to be essential to help me get back on track. I also somehow woke up early this morning and went to the gym for the same hour treadmill/15-minute yoga routine before work.

Looking back in time, I had a whirlwind visit from my mom, brother, sister-in-law and nephew for Thanksgiving. They arrived at my house on Wednesday at 6:00p (somehow avoiding holiday traffic!) and left at 6:00a on Saturday morning. Whew! We had a good time. My mom and their dog stayed with me and my brother and his family stayed at a local inn. The weather was unseasonably warm, so everyone but my mom went for a hike on Thanksgiving and then we all had dinner at a restaurant that provides a fabulous spread with no work involved!

My mom was supposed to stay with me for a few extra days and then I was going to drive her home and stay for a bit for her breast cancer surgery and recovery. She changed her mind and decided to return with my brother because she was feeling anxious about the surgery. So, I drove alone to her home (my hometown) on December 3rd, her surgery was December 4th and I returned home on December 12th. Surgery went well and she recovered beautifully, but it took FOREVER to get the pathology reports. This was nerve wracking because cancer was found in her first lymph node, so they had to remove other nodes for testing. Thankfully no cancer was found in her other lymph nodes! So, my mom has now gone to Florida for the rest of the winter and will have radiation treatment and take an inhibitor drug indefinitely. Whew. We were all very relieved that the cancer was treatable, at least for now. If it had spread, she would most likely be too old to endure chemo, so we were very lucky. My mom is amazingly healthy for 81 and I’m glad that she can continue chugging along for now. I'm trying to appreciate any time that we have left together. I'm so grateful that she got an iPhone about a year ago because it's been a lot of fun to keep in regular touch via texting.

I'm completely out of touch with my finances, but I think my spending has been fairly under control except for a few recent binges at TJMaxx. I hate to try things on while shopping, so have developed the bad habit of buying a bunch of items, spending hundreds of dollars, and then trying them on at home. Inevitably, I end up returning many things. I basically just avoid most stores, but then when I do visit, I go crazy!

I have enough food on hand to get through the week, so will probably do some light shopping on Friday. I also need to get cat litter that day.

Today's meals:
Breakfast - hard boiled egg; steamed broccoli, brussel sprouts and carrots; parsley, olive oil, salt. homemade applesauce
Lunch - leftover fish taco, mushroom barley soup, pear
Dinner - whole wheat pasta w/steamed broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, carrots and tuna, scallions, olive oil, salt & pepper.
Applesauce for any sweet cravings!

For my own memory, I weighed myself on Monday: 146

Happy 2016 to my fellow SA bloggers!

Once again, two months have flown by without a blog entry from me. So popping in for a quick hello to begin again. I completely lost touch with YNAB and my finances, so will need to refocus my efforts.

My holidays were quiet, which I needed, and I am now back to work after a two-week break. I could use another month or so!

I'm very happy that the photo problem is fixed! So, I'm including a snap of my tender girl - Jubilee.