Spring Approaches!!!

Sunny days have brought brighter moments for me, and I feel the awakening of wanting to get out and enjoy the outdoors. Today was one of those days, and so I took a few hours and, with the company of my dog Zeek, we meandered along the Lake Michigan shoreline on the Mariner's Trail. It was refreshing to feel the brisk breeze off the lake, see the deep blues/greens/tans of the lake water, and enjoy the soft giving sand beneath my feet.

I'm eager for Spring....gosh, only 24-hours or so
until the equinox is here. I have baby tomato plants peeking leaves into the world, along with year-old plants awaiting the warm days of late May and the warm fertile garden soil. Its a time of anticipation, a time of thinking of summer things.

I've been pondering what to do during the summer months of 2006. I've had the bug to do some volunteer work - somewhere - but I haven't figured out where. I've had the bug to travel, but again, I haven't figured out where. I've even had the bug to take a summer job, but again...I have no idea where. What I do know is that there's about 6-weeks left in the Spring semester, and so my college teaching days are busy as the session wraps up. This week is our annual conference, and all the hustle and bustle of getting things ready, as we put that on, will fill the hours of this week.

So.....the walk along the lakeshore....what a refreshing, relaxing activity. I must add this into my routine. Zeek will love it, my body will love it, my brain will relish it. The lake feels much like the ocean....

For the past three weeks I've been working on life changes for better health...especially weight. This darned American diet fatness problem...my genes have caused it to haunt me all of my life. Every year I start again, and again, and again....to do something. Recently I've embraced what I call the "Oatmeal diet". That just means that every day I wake up and eat a big bowl of oatmeal, augmented with some dried fruit & a sprinkling of nuts. It fills me up for hours and hours..and with that I don't crave other things...well, except oranges. So...my diet is defined by oatmeal and oranges, plus a regular meal of less fattening items. Maybe I should start defining my life style by "O". If I call the lakeshore walks....Ocean.... then I'm on the Oatmeal/Oranges/Ocean health plan.

Enough for today's meanderings. Happy Spring!!
~S