Uncomplicating things

My life is just so complicated. I mean I try to balance working part time, working from home, going for walks, volunteering, support groups, getting together with friends, hanging out with my husband, cooking, errands, taking care of the cat (most important according to him), keeping up with my blog, facebook, and a million other online communities, reading, gardening, physical therapy, going to the gym, doctors and dentists, and the many other details of my life. So last week I got a brain storm. (I am not sure what I was thinking but it sure seemed like a good idea at the time.) I make my husband's lunch for work every day. It usually is a sandwich, celery and carrots sticks, and an apple. Last week, I said 'what if I make a different entree salad every day'. How smart was that? DUMB!

I have a cookbook with some great salads. I chose (after consulting my husband) chicken Caesar, nicoise, antipasto, taco, and pork noodle salad. Each day a different one. Well, this means the day before I needed to prep a container of lettuce with vegetable toppings, a container of toppings that might make the veggies slimy, some home made dressing, and then anything else needed to round out the salad. For example for the chicken Caesar, there was a lettuce container,a chicken container, a cheese container, and a dressing container. Every day I had to set aside time to make all these different containers. And on the days I had to work or had late meetings, I had to make them the morning of the day before... While we did like the salads - I had the same salads every day - in the future, they will be interspersed individually, once a week or so. Not five days in a row! Very time consuming. This week is sandwich week. Much less complicated.

Yesterday, my back was not reasonable and cooperative at all. I ended up spending some quality time with an ice pack on it. Then I end up being freezing cold and have to put on a sweater and drink some tea to warm up. This morning I got up at 5 and put some ice on it and went back to bed. Its supposed to be getting better damn it! (Great,now I can start lecturing my back on how it is supposed to be getting better - that's an exercise in futility - kind of like training the cat...) I did notice yesterday that my crocuses are really appearing as are tulips and daffodils and iris. No flowers yet but some greens are showing.

Today we are going to celebrate a friend's birthday and going into Boston to walk on the harborwalk and out to breakfast/lunch/brunch/coffee type thing. It should be fun. The weather is going to cooperate mostly. The sun will be shining and there will be a breeze off the tropical North Atlantic ocean... I will wear a warm coat. But it will be good to see my friends. This is all part of that social life I am trying to return to...