I barely got any sleep last night.  Two hours would be a liberal estimate.  Today was pretty much a lost cause before I got out of bed, or so I thought, but then I felt a bounce in my step at 7am for no apparent reason.

I think it really started yesterday.  It was a pretty productive day… after a rough start to the weekend, Kristin and I turned the house from a trainwreck into a… well, we made it livable again.  We knocked out most of our laundry, cleaned each room fairly well, and I spent a little time last night preparing some food for today.  Going to bed feeling accomplished is definitely a trigger for a more optimistic morning, even when facing down a Monday.

There was a recipe out there for steel-cut oats to make enough to last the whole week.  For anyone who wonders, it was four cups of water, 1 2/3 cups of steel cut oats, and a healthy pinch of salt… get it boiling, keep it boiling for three minutes, and seal it up.  Leave it sealed at room temperature overnight and then keep it in the fridge from that point forward.  This morning, I simply had to microwave it for three minutes and stir in some brown sugar and cinnamon, and I had one healthy, tasty, and easy breakfast.  Considering lunch and dinner were all portions of leftovers from the last two days as well, today was bound to be smooth sailing in the kitchen.

I think the healthier food (oats, rice, boiled egg, boiled chicken breast, homemade beef stew and my new black tea obsession) really made me feel a bit lighter today, not just physically, but emotionally as well.  The extra energy that comes from eating well doesn’t take too long to show up and today was no exception.  I couldn’t sit still from about 9:00 this morning until… well, I’m still feeling spry.  I’m about to prepare some food for tomorrow’s lunch to keep things on the right track.

The weather may have played the role of getting me out of the house.  Forty degrees doesn’t seem like much until it’s the first sign of a spring thaw and it’s a clear blue sky as far as the eye can see.  It was light out until 6:30 tonight and I can just feel the seasons changing.  I took advantage by doing something I haven’t done since I was a teenager:  I jumped in the car with no goal, no direction, and just started driving.  I took every turn I didn’t recognize, stopped to snap a few pictures, and didn’t worry about finding my way home.  I knew I’d get back eventually, and I did, but the hour and a half that I spent on the road was almost nostalgic.

Taken along Oberlin-Elyria Road during my drive tonight

Or it could have been the 70s rock soundtrack I had assembled.

(Because I lived for two and a half months of the 1970s.)

On other notes from my day, I turned in the mortgage paperwork, so that’s exciting.  I should hear more details on that later this week, putting us in a better position to pay off this roof over our heads on a much shorter time frame.  I ran a few other errands, got a ton of actual work done (the kind I get paid for), and just generally felt like a success.  After last week’s dismal attitude, it was refreshing.

Still left on the agenda, I’ll be thinking about which projects to tackle this spring and summer, which I can handle myself, and which will be farmed out to the various high-rated folks on Angie’s List.  There’s a lot I need to accomplish and a limited amount of funding, but I do believe that the house will be transformed between now and my birthday.  I’ll be sure to document the changes via Instagram.

On that note, I’m feeling like we’re done here.  Check back for updates!