Just Getting My Feet Wet

I can't believe it's been TWO MONTHS since I last blogged! Sometimes, life gets in the way...I've made so many changes to my life that it's taking some adjusting to get back to feeling like myself again...

When I last left the blogosphere, I had just become a vegetarian, and I'm proud to say that I'm still a vegetarian, now over 2 1/2 months! And, after doing some more reading, I've just recently decided to give veganism a try, in an effort eat more healthily, but also to try and live in a way that may cause less harm to the world. It's been a week now of no meat, fish, eggs, or dairy products and, I have to say, it's much easier than I thought it would be. I am amazed that even when my family is eating pancakes or pizza that I have no desire to eat it. They say when you become a vegan that your tastebuds reset and that you don't have any craving for the foods you once ate before, but I'm surprised that I'm feeling that way already. I hope it lasts, because already, I've been feeling like a million bucks! My skin seems better, my abdominal fat has decreased, and my GI system is working like it has never worked before! I can't rave enough about it...I'll let you know how I'm doing after a month...

Besides becoming a vegan, I've also made some changes in my professional life. I started a new position working 2 days a week at an office practice near my home. So far, it's going really well. I've already filled up my office hours and I'm ready to add another day in the fall. Besides that, I've also decided to take call about once a month at the hospital where I worked before in order to keep up my in-patient skills. I just worked there this past weekend. I'm so glad, too, because the nurses there are a wonderful bunch of ladies who have become very dear friends to me. I missed them and it's been great to have an excuse to hang out with them again once a month.

Also, my kids are home from school in the summer. As every mom and dad knows, this pretty much kills all your free time! All joking aside, I'm having an awesome time with them. I know the days are few when they would rather hang out with me than with their friends...We got a pool membership at our local pool and spend most of our days swimming. They are slowly but surely learning to swim. And I'm learning a thing or two also...I've never in my life jumped off a diving board, but this summer, I'm learning to do that. I've jumped in 3 times now. I need to work on my form because so far all of them have been belly flops (ouch)! Getting better, though...you really can teach an old dog new tricks!

We've also been reading like crazy thanks to the amazing summer reading program at our local library. For every hour or two the kids read, our library gives them a little prize from their prize basket. My kids have amassed an impressive menagerie of Japanese erasers thanks to the program. (I don't care why they're reading, at least they're reading!) And, they're at an age now that they have enough of an attention span for me to be able to read chapter books to them, which has been great. So far, I've read Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan, The Adventures of Dr. Doolittle, The World According to Humphrey, and The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad to them. Currently, we're in the middle of reading Babe: The Gallant Pig. (They are big into animal books...) For a book-lover like me, it's been a dream to share one of my favorite things with them...I hope they grow up to love books as much as I do.

What else? Let's see: the kids took some golf lessons, we went to the Children's and Science museums, we've had some playdates and birthday parties...oh, and I went on a scrapbooking weekend with my neighbor again like last year. It was a great girls' weekend away and VERY productive. (I came back with over a dozen layouts for each of my kids and I'm all caught up for the year...:))

So, it's been a crazy (but fun) summer with lots going on. I'm just getting my feet wet with the blog again, so be patient with me...hoping to be ready to dive in again by the fall...:)

Hope you're having a nice summer, too!

XO,
K.

P. S. Hope you like the other change I made--with the layout/design of this blog...Blogger has all these new designs, I couldn't resist trying one out...