A Good Start Makes For A Great Day

This morning the sun was streaming through the living room windows nearly blinding my view of the computer screen, but the warmth of it felt good on this chilly morning, so I could hardly be annoyed. I actually wish I had a window in the kitchen so that the sun would shine in on that room as well.

I was up earlier this morning despite having not gotten in the bed any earlier than usual. I found myself making oatmeal and folding clothes at 12 o'clock last night, because someone (me) wanted oatmeal for breakfast and someone else (DH) decided to throw in a load of clothes, like he absolutely needed them, before going to bed. Which meant I couldn't leave my load in the dryer until morning (I know I should have already gotten them out). He never puts clothes in unless I have a load in the dryer and it's usually mostly his clothes in first place.

Well, I made the baked oatmeal and this version included 1 barely ripe banana (riper would have been better), 1/3 cup each, chopped walnut & semi sweet chocolate chips, 1 tsp. each cinnamon & vanilla, & 2 tsp. ground flax. When I decided to do this, I was thinking of my recipe for double chocolate banana muffins, which are delicious, but sadly the oatmeal did not live up to my expectations. It was very good, but #1 I think it needed more banana and #2 maybe less chocolate chips or even mini chocolate chips, because the chocolate over powered the flavor of the banana. It may be because the banana was not ripe enough to have a strong flavor and I think I wasn't as in the mood for chocolate as I thought I was.

 Lucas and I had decided last minute, to go for a walk this afternoon. I had a quick piece of garlic bread to tide me over until we got back, since I hadn't had lunch yet. I wasn't that hungry anyway. We got our 5 miles in. I got a few pictures while I was out. The walk was the best part of the day!

On the bridge...

Down stream...

Up stream...

Around the curve...

Back up the hill....it wasn't too steep.

When we got back I it was way too late for lunch so I had a piece of the baked oatmeal to last me until dinner, which wasn't too far off. We had to make a run to the store to pick up a few things to go with dinner. I had leftover black beans and the rice that DH fixed an abundance of that needed to be eaten. I picked up a can of died tomatoes and some salad, a cucumber, and a tomato to go with.

For dinner,  I fried some onion and green pepper, added the tomatoes and threw in the beans. I heated the rice, topped it with the bean mixture and made me a salad. I made some dressing out of olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, Italian seasoning, and black pepper.

This was a very good day. I can do days like this. It's not everyday that the day is good from beginning to end. How was your day?  What do you do to get your day off to a great start?