Less Alcohol ~ APRIL 2022 ~ One Day At A Time

Completely blew it at my sisters last night ... 4 glasses of wine. It is tough starting the month on the weekend! Hope for better resolve during the week days.

April accountability: 0 days AF
Alcohol: 2 days (6 drinks)
Goal: Limit 1-2 glasses per day; 12-16 AF days per month. Aim to drink no more than 2 nights in a row.

Happy April! I am going away to a wedding this weekend, so for this week I want to be AF today-Wednesday. The first day is always the hardest for me. So far I’ve had two drinks each day Friday and Saturday. Not horrible, but all this daily alcohol is making my skin look old, despite all the water I drink in a day!

I’ve also been porking out these last few days, so I need to rein that in as well. Amazing how just 2-4 pounds makes a huge difference in how my clothes fit!

@MissMay - yes I remember posting that ... and it is so true. The drink definitely took me away last night ... When the 3rd bottle opened I wanted a drink but really didn't need it. Refreshed and heading out to Enchanted Forest to buy more plants and work on my front flower beds today. No wine for me tonight!

@Lilylady3k

So sorry that you lost all of that stuff in your garden : - (

As for mine. My bearded Irises have been up for about a month, I have them in the front, the back, the side. I haven't cleaned their beds of last year's leaves yet. I leave them in the fall to keep the soil from blowing away or becoming full of weeds in the spring. We were at minus 2 Celsius this morning (around 30F) even though it has been +15 in the afternoons. Not quite time yet to clean up the irises.

First for me will be the potato garden, which usually takes me about 3 days. I cover it in the late fall. I expect that in 2 weeks from now I will begin that, turning it over shovel by shovel. Carrot and Beet seeds will also go in around the last week of April.
My garlic I planted in the fall, and put 4 inches of mulch over, which I likely will remove around the beginning or mid of May.
Tomatoes and peppers don't go in here until the snow is all gone from nearby Mt. Baker mountain, which I can see from my porch. Usually the 3rd week of May.

My dianthus have been up for about a month, but I have left the leaves surrounding them for now to prevent early spring weeds. I will take those off in a few weeks, and put coffee grounds in their place. I think that I have around 20 Crimson/Ruby dianthas all together. Sometimes I lose a couple and put new ones in their place. It looks like they are all there this year.

Tulips are up. They will flower fairly early. The bearded irises vary depending on where they sit, the ones in full sun flower earlier.

I had cut back my lilac bush in the fall and put the branches in places as mulch/fill. Those dead branches laying on the ground are budding!! WTF.

My hollyhocks have been coming up and greening for about a month. They don't usually flower until August.
I smush the sunflower heads into the ground, so they should come up on their own.
I only found out a couple of weeks ago all of the medicinal uses for sunflowers, leaves, flowers, stems and seeds. Who knew? I don't usually do anything with them, they are outside of my fence so the deer eat them and hopefully poop the seeds all over the neighbourhood : - ) I don't eat sunflower seeds, too much work. I do fill like one jar with the seeds in the fall in case I have any gaps to fill.
The plan was to have the black hollyhocks and yellow sunflowers together. Only one hollyhock down that side flowered last year, the rest are still going to be too young yet to flower, but the greenery is lovely. Kind of a long term thing, in a couple of years that side of the fence will be coloured like bumble bees : - )

Saturday night no drinks but I did have 2 small "red" grapefruits that hit the spot and I put myself to bed super-early - 7:30! (thank you to the person who said this before because it was a good idea). Result: Sunday morning 6 a.m. hill run, 5 miles in an hour. Feeling less old! Weight is down a bit -2 lbs. I'll take it and keep going.

Cost of living sure is going up. In my part of the "States" restaurants got VERY expensive. Lunch menu looks like dinner menu prices. Drinks went up too. A glass of wine is $12-16. Oh well, guess we'll just drink and eat less and get healthier.

Weather is getting hot and I am thinking of making healthy smoothies for those times when I feel overheated and drained and achy which is often. Instead of drinking wine to settle that "discomfort", I can make myself a low sugar, anti-inflammatory smoothie that is refreshing. A "superfood" smoothie for me is more appealing that an mocktail since it's got more substance to it. If anyone has recipes for ones that are on the lower-calorie side and super-easy to make, let me know. I can also use a low-cal gazpacho recipe.

AF this evening!

April accountability: 1 days AF
Alcohol: 2 days (6 drinks)
Goal: Limit 1-2 glasses per day; 12-16 AF days per month. Aim to drink no more than 2 nights in a row.

4/1 - 2 wine
4/2 - 4 wine @ my sisters
4/3 - AF

@dawnbgethealthy - You have a lot of gardening to look forward to in the near future. Does sound a little chilly up there still!