A Plus Attitudes

I love summers because I love being and doing things outdoors. I live in an area where a quarter of the year is spent indoors because of cold weather and snow. I try my best to get out as much as I can even in the bad weather, but once the warmer seasons arrive, I welcome and relish the time I have to be outdoors.

This morning I woke up to a dewy, foggy, and humid morning. I have been eating out on my back deck almost every morning, especially when I know I will be spending a lot my day indoors working. Well, I almost didn’t go out this morning because I thought everything would be too wet. You know how the mind starts to work. It listing off all the negative reason why I shouldn’t go outside and before I know it, my mind has talked me out of doing something I really enjoy doing. So, I said bleep it, I’m going outside. I grabbed an old dish rag from the pantry, wiped down the seats and table, laid a dry seat cushion on my seat and brought my breakfast outdoors. And voila, I’m enjoying my morning breakfast outdoors.

I’m so glad I did too. I forgot how wonderfully fragrant everything is after a nice summer’s rain. I am also reminded of how lucky I truly am to be enjoying the outdoors when so many parts of the word are having a sweltering heat wave. In fact, my brother-in-law and his family are vacationing in Europe right now where the temperatures have reached an all-time high; which I’m sure has put a monkey wrench in their sight-seeing plans. So, I’m going to sit here and just be grateful for my slightly humid, dewy, warm moment before I head off to work.

I hope all my lovey readers are having an enjoyable day and if you are in one of the areas where the summer heat has gotten unbearable, I hope you are able to seek refuge in a cool place until the heatwave breaks.

Oh, in case you are wondering what my breakfast is:

Beverage: Rice-milk mocha

Ingredients

• 1 C Trader Joe’s no-sugar added, vanilla rice milk
• 2 T Trader Joe’s Organic Cacao powder
• 2-3 ice cubes(I like my mocha cold in the summer)
• 1 t instant espresso
  put all ingredients in a blender or bullet and run until it is blended

Peanut Butter and Berries Oatmeal

Ingredients

• 2 small handfuls of Quaker Oats
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1 cup blue berries
• 10 black berries
• 1 T all-natural peanut butter

Make the oats

• Place the oats in a microwave safe dish
• Sprinkle the cinnamon on top
• Cover the mixture with water
• Cook for 1 minute in the microwave (the water should be absorbed)
• Top the oatmeal with the berries and peanut butter
• If you desire a little milk on top, pour your choice of milk on top(I use any non-dairy milk I have available)