Basking in the Greenery That Is Summer

Today is day two of thirty of seeing if a regular CARs practice will benefit me. In the past, doing CARs has paired with more knee and back pain for me. But maybe this is just me building up muscle strength. Today I noticed something disturbing. My left knee pain is actually aggravated when doing my left hip side-lying CARs. This is because I am actually loading my knee during these movements. Obviously, I am not suppose to be. Many of my left hip muscles (gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles anyone???) are so weak I don't even know where to start! But I am determined to follow through with this 30 days, so I will be being extra careful tomorrow to focus on using my hip muscles during my hip cars, and to not load my knee. Hmm, maybe I shall consider trying prone hip CARs.

Let's see. What else can I document? Yesterday Diana cut my hair. That was brave of her. I am not an easy receiver of hair cuts. She used the number one blade guard, and then went without a guard for touching up around my ears and my neck. The results are good. Likely at some point I will purchase a #2 guard, but this works for now. There were far less strays, I think 'cause Diana knows how much I dislike them, and spent extra time and energy cleaning up. I am lucky to have her as my partner in life. Yesterday I also made berry muffins. They are good. I used a combination of blueberries & strawberries. As has happened all the times I have cooked muffins in my new muffin tins, the muffins took way longer to cook than anticipated. I am wondering if I should use a hotter oven with these tins, especially if I don't want to wait and extra 10 to 15 minutes for my muffins to get done!

Weather right now: Partly sunny/partly cloudy, 74 degrees Fahrenheit

On the lunch plate: leftover turkey, peas, tomato, berry muffin

In the drinking cup: 2% milk (I've been having a craving for it lately)

On the dinner plate: tuna macaroni salad, tossed salad

Birds I heard while outside drinking my smoothie: Cedar waxwing, Northern cardinal, American goldfinch, Baltimore oriole, gray catbird, house wren (always so noisy)

Bird I saw while outside drinking my smoothie: Ruby-throated hummingbird

Amphibians I saw while outside drinking my smoothie: 2 frogs

Insects I saw while outside drinking my smoothie: 1 inchworm, many grasshoppers, many mosquitoes, others I couldn't identify

Mammal I saw while outside drinking my smoothie: 1 human (my daughter Snow hehehe)