I got a sweet push from Danielle that I should post an update, and I’m happy to oblige.

Portland’s January has brought the rain as promised, but it hasn’t bothered me. The tales of weeks below freezing in St. Louis while it’s rarely cold enough to see our breaths here might help a bit :)

Around the homestead I’ve been focused on self improvement. It wasn’t intended as a new years resolution thing – I don’t believe in those – but I guess the timing matches up.

Fitness

After a month or so of downtime, I’ve started running again. I stayed active on the elliptical during the down time but running requires a different flavor of endurance so I’m behind from my previous progress. I have my sights on the Portland Shamrock Run in mid-March. My goal is to do the 5K. It would be my first race ever and I am exhilarated just thinking about it. More exciting still is that I want to use this race to help decide whether I want to take a really HUGE plunge and join Portland Fit. It’s a 6 month program that starts at the end of March and trains weekly to build you up to… a Marathon.

Right now I feel completely intimidated to even think I could do a Marathon.. Today I couldn’t finish a 5k without a couple of walk breaks. But wow, it would be an accomplishment I’d be proud of forever. So I’m considering it. It’s a big commitment so I will have to re-evaluate where I am in life and work as I get closer to the sign-up deadline.

Healthy Eating

For budget and health reasons I started doing meal planning for Peter and I a few months ago and it’s going fabulously. My favorite source for recipes is Eating Well. We are both feeling better, eating better and losing weight. By planning the week’s meals in advance everyone always knows what’s for dinner and I only have to grocery shop once a week. Unfortunately this means we haven’t gotten to try very many Portland restaurants but I stay on Yelp to plan for our indulgence meals to be well-spent :). Instead of making a huge Christmas Dinner we ate like normal that day and the day after Christmas had an amazing meal at the Screen Door. Highly recommended.

Couponing

The past month I have gotten into couponing! It all started after I saw this video:

I decided it sounded worth looking into. It’s a lot of work at first and a little confusing but once you get the basics it’s downright fun. It has changed the way I shop, though. I affectionately refer to the coupon pros as the “crazy ladies”, and they like to take photos of their awesome hauls. I’ve started doing that too, you can view some photos here with info about how much money I saved. A lot of people are skeptical about couponing and want to know what my “secret” is. The “secret” is using coupons when an item is on sale at its lowest price, which often means you get it for free.

And no, it’s not stealing! Thankfully with the internet you don’t even have to figure out how to match coupons with sales on your own.. there are several blogs that the crazy ladies run where they figure out the deals of the week for you. Anyway the starting point for me and what I recommend to others is The Krazy Coupon Lady blog. Specifically her KCL 101 tutorial.

–

In other news, Peter’s friend John has been visiting us from St. Louis for a couple of weeks and will be here for a couple more. I am crossing my fingers for some clear days this week (supposedly we will have them) so we can show him some of the beautiful sights.. maybe a wintery jaunt to the coast, a hike around Mount Tabor, maybe Multnomah Falls or Mount Hood. I hope so, I am starting to get a little cabin fever.