The first half of the year yays and nays.

Yays:

Good travel! Paestum(*see below), Scotland, America for a wedding and gathering of family, Poland and Slovakia.
Marriage is in good shape, still going strong after 15 years.
Health has not noticeably deteriorated.
Finances are holding strong.
Housekeeping has not suffered but I still need to get into a routine.
Very much enjoying creating and decorating my planner, it has become a hobby and fun memory keeper.
Pagan stuff: After some down time this has picked back up this year, I am doing more to honor special days and everything I do I am putting more intention into.
Gaming is back in my life and I’m really enjoying it again. Just need to keep it in check so I don’t get too sucked in.
Food in Italy.
I practically built a new computer this year, it was intimidating but fun and runs like a dream now.

Nays:

Been down with colds a bit more than usual and taking longer to recover from minor illness and long flights.
No weight loss whatsoever and lost motivation to exercise.
Something in this area just attacks me in the early Summer, what I thought were bites are seeming more like hives of some sort. I’m allergic to being outside. Every time I spend a few minutes out of the house I come back with an itchy bump or two.
Reading has been pretty good, I’m on my 42nd book for the year.
Lunches at home were bad but I’ve made the change already.
Still no idea what is coming after this tour.

2nd Half Plans:

Starting off with a couple of days at the beach South of here for some R&R for the husband. He’s been working hard and a bit stressed.
Sorting a trip to Norway, North of the Arctic Circle and will be heading back to Sicily. We’ll be working on Oktoberfest in Munich again this year and thinking London for Christmas time. Possibly a U.S. trip for our granddaughter’s first birthday as well.
Might have a few visitors from America in the next few months.
I have been trying to motivate to exercise daily, it’s getting there but dang I’m lazy right now. (partially because of the allergy thing too).
I have already starting planning my lunches at home better, I was in a rut of eating comfort food and that has tapered off. Focusing more on lighter, healthier lunches like tuna fish, miso soup, chilled seafood soup. Also, I’ve been snacking better with nuts instead of chips most days and will continue to.
Want to work on upper body strength and toning.

*Paestum Archaeological Park – is just South of Salerno. We decided to take a drive down there to check out this site one Saturday. Please click the link to their site for great information on the temples and history. It was a really nice day trip and we liked the area so much we booked a hotel on the beach for 4th of July time.

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Lughnasadh approaches (Aug 1), this marks the beginning of the harvest season and turn towards Autumn. For me, it is a time to reflect on the year so far. What worked, what didn’t and what was neglected. To celebrate the positives and note the problem areas for further reflection moving towards Samhain. Typically for special Pagan days I will make a meal from scratch to commemorate the season. For Lugh I will likely bake a whole wheat/grain bread and possibly a hearty soup or a meaty pie of some kind. I need to research and think about it more.