Birthday weekend!

My husband's birthday is tomorrow! Mine was last month and I have to say that I'm more excited about his birthday than I was about mine. Does this say something about me? There are some surprises in store for the weekend that I am super excited about. With my own birthday, I didn't have the same anticipation.  Not that my birthday wasn't fun and good. Other people's birthdays are just more fun for me! Is everyone like this? Have I crossed the line from "young" to "not so young" now that I am over the attention of having a birthday and all of the hullabaloo(!!)?

Happy birthday to Eric tomorrow! May his 31st 33rd birthday and the coming year be an amazing one!

"Birthdays... I hate them, but I love them.  Have an X-ellent one, Eric."

"Take in the fact that I just did that!"

Why do you work out?

I went to the gym this morning, nervous for my first ever Les Mills RPM (spinning) class.  I have been on a spinning bike for interval training, but have never actually taken a full spin class. And I was scared.

By the way, I just did a google search to try to find a picture of people taking a spinning class.  Every one I found had people smiling. I didn't feel like that was a good representation of what happened today. Other than smiling people spinning, the search for some reason also turned up a whole bunch of pictures of Bob Harper.

Since I am posting this, it is no mystery that I survived. But I will admit that within the first 30 minutes of the 55 minute class, I did think once or twice that there was actually a possibility I might throw up.  (Of course I ended up on a bike just behind some kind of super-biking chick who actually out biked the instructors and didn't break a sweat.)  By 40 minutes, I was having some serious leg fatigue and wondered if I would even be able to walk back out of the gym to get Little Man from Kids Club.  I envisioned stepping off the bike and just crumbling down on to the ground. With 5 minutes to go, we were doing hills and my legs pretty much just stopped working all together. The coordination and strength were gone.

But I survived! Was able to walk to Kids Club, and now, 3 hours later, the soreness has set in.  In the meantime though, I felt good. I disliked pretty much every one of the 55 minutes I was on the bike, but now find myself thinking I should go back again next week. It was a good workout, and I feel weak now which means I might feel strong tomorrow (if I can actually move my legs).

That got me to thinking about a friend who is some kind of warrior superwoman.  She runs almost every day at an ungodly hour, like 3 or 4am, and distances that require serious training and effort.  Tomorrow she told me she is going to the 1 hour weight training class (BodyPump) and immediately after to RPM. And I don't know but she's probably running in the morning too.  First I was thinking, "How in the world can she spend an hour lifting weights and still be able to do all of the leg work of a spinning class?" It has to be conditioning.

So in the great winding ladder of my mind, I then thought, "Why would someone do that to themself?" Why would anyone in their right mind choose to work out for 2-3 hours 5 or 6 days a week? (And, for ease, I'm going to lump those who are NOT in their right mind along with professional athletes, models and other people whose livelihood depend on them being in optimal physical condition.)

So here are some possible reason I thought of, though I fully intend to ask my friend the next time I see her what the real answer is.

* Exercise as hobby
* Exercise as weight loss tool
* Exercise towards some other goal
* Exercise as part of healthy lifestyle

I am not an exercising super woman.  I try to work out 3-5 times a week for up to an hour. Sometimes I get into a routine and will go stretches of doing an hour a day, 5 days a week. Sometimes much less.

Why do I do it?

For me, exercise is fun.  I generally enjoy being active and working out. It helps me to feel healthy and strong. Exercise is also critical for me in terms of stress release and anxiety reduction.  I have a lot more trouble with anxiety and insomnia if I'm not working out regularly.  I also like to set a goal and train towards it to mix things up every now and then. (Hence the spinning class because I'm hoping to do a run/bike/run duathlon this spring.)  For me, weight loss isn't really what exercise is about.  I actually tend to put weight on if I am exercising more often. The unfairness of that is for another time.

And so, dear reader, if you exercise, why do you do it?

Yeah Baby! Socks!!

I spent my birthday gift certificate to our big local running store today.  I got my first pair of knee-high compression socks!! As much as I cannot believe I am even saying this, I am actually excited about them.  My friends who are "real" runners rave about them, and I hope they will help the calf tightness that I have to run through pretty much every time I run.

The best part of my running store experience today was the manager helping me with the socks.  In my size, they only had black. Not white. He was trying very hard to convince me that I would like the black ones (because some people think "Hey, the white ones will just get dusty anyway!"). He didn't have to try hard. First, my legs are pasty white, even in the summer, so white knee high socks probably wouldn't be cute on me.  Second, black is slimming, right? Third, I have delighted in my small but growing reputation for running in non-matching running clothes. I like colorful running clothes, and I like clothes that fit me and are comfortable. And affordable (i.e. on clearance). So if they fit those criteria, I will buy them and I will wear them even if I end up in a blue tank and blue running skirt and the blues are close to but not the same color. I guess I am not to worried about matching when I'm trying to survive the actually running part.

Now I get to throw my big, black knee high compression socks into the mix!! I'm not running again until Saturday, but I'm actually almost looking forward to it!

Note to self: next time I go to the running store, do not go immediately after finishing a run. Nothing like trying on new socks after peeling off sweaty, hot, just run in socks right in front of the manager. I'm sure he was thinking, "Damn right, you're buying those!"

I triple love dare you!

For my birthday in December, one of my gifts from my husband was the book The Love Dare.  Nothing says "Happy Birthday" like a book that encourages you to work on your marriage. It should come with a post it note attached that says "Hint! Hint!"

Seriously, I appreciated the thought -- that closeness and communication in the middle of really busy lives is a good thing.

We started the Love Dare yesterday.  So now it's "day two" and I have to say that I'm patting myself on the back a little bit because I feel like I'm acing the Love Dare challenge. Day 1 focused on patience. I think typically I don't have serious problems with this in my marriage. I don't regularly explode at my husband or freak out at him about stuff.  Day 2 (today) is about kindness. There were a few illustrations of what kindness 'looks like' in a marriage, and what unkindness looks like. Again, I feel pretty good about where we are.  I supposed eventually the "dare" will get harder.

In the meantime, I got kind of a slap in the face yesterday when I realized that I probably should be Love Daring my kids instead of my husband.  I am not nearly as patient with my kids as I am with my husband. I'm ashamed to admit that is true. I am much more likely to lose my patience with them, to forget that they are just young children, to expect unrealistic things from them.

So I've decided I'm doing a triple love dare, at least when the dares are kid appropriate.  Closeness and communication family wide is a good thing to work towards, even when it means being patient while my kids destroy the house playing "dolphin swims" in the living room, or when Little Man is still refusing to poop in the potty even though he is 4 years old.

All about the binders

I have an unnatural love for binders. I think I love binders so much that other people (besides my husband) might actually be aware of my binder-love.  If not, I guess I am outing myself today.

I have a lot of binders already, but created a few more during the past two days.

The first fabulous binder is for meal planning.  I love Clean Eating Magazine and their regular budget friendly dinner feature. And their 2 week meal plan. LOVE! The problem has been keeping them accessible for cooking.  So yesterday I spent part of the day tearing all of these meals and ideas out of all of my magazines. Yes, they are now in a binder!! I'm using clean page protector sheets to hold the dinner recipes for the week.  Easy to see, protected from cooking related mayhem.  I think I like it.

Binder two: bills and receipts.  My husband's tax situation is "special" (in the way that "special" implies that I hate the complicated and outside-of-the-majority way we have to do his taxes). We have to keep all our house related bills and any receipts related to the house or household for taxes. Usually what happens is I throw all of that C-R-A-P into a basket until the pile becomes so heavy that I cannot lift said basket, then I curse about it for awhile, then I spend 2 nights sitting on the floor filing all of it until my butt goes numb. Not anymore!! My new binder has month tabs so when the bills come, they will be three hole punched and put straight into the binder.  So far it isn't fancy, but I'm already envisioning my brand new life next year at this time when I get to skip the routine described above and I can just pull out the binder and be done with it.  *angels singing from a divine light*  There is also an envelope in the binder for all of the receipts that have to be saved.  Love it!

And last, today's binder. It's name is... my name! Complicated, I know.  Inside I'm keeping our family calendar, my half marathon training plan, the class schedule for my gym and the movies showing in the cinema room, and a few other pages that I regularly check in with.

I used some of the leftover scrapbook paper from our teacher gift project so now all of the binders are cutesy and matchy, but not all the same.  The only thing better than binders are pretty binders.

Beginnings 2012

Today is the first day of 2012. I have to admit, I am a New Years Grinch.  There is no traumatic story involved, and I don't *think* my heart is three sizes too small.  I just find the whole thing anti-climactic.  As someone who doesn't stay up late and doesn't enjoy drinking in excess, NYE seems like a big effort for... not that much. I am pretty neutral about fireworks, don't like crowds, and am not a fan of watching crowds and fireworks on television.  Bah-humbug.

This new year is kind of a sham. I did not earn my New Years badge this year. My family didn't send out a Christmas card and letter. We packed up our Christmas stuff early because our tree dried out really fast. Fail.

I also am not creating new years "resolutions" this year. Last year's, immortalized in this blog post, ended up being pathetic efforts (other than running Ragnar which was AWESOME!). So this year I'm still aiming for the same.  The theme for the year will be SIMPLIFY.

And now I will start the year off right by totally blowing my own goal.  I am going to be participating in NaBloPoMo -- National Blog Posting Month.  [I'm new to the whole thing, but am perplexed because in a few minutes of looking around at the website it appears that EVERY month is blog posting month???]
That's right - I'm setting a goal to blog every day in January.

Look I did it! Day 1... done!

I Made Stuff! Successfully!

It's been more than a month since I last wrote. All I can say about that is our family has survived a very busy time and it is with a sigh of relief that Christmas vacation began this afternoon. Oh, and the sound of 2 overly tired children screaming at each other about which top goes on which playdoh container. See the family picture up at the top of this blog? Imagine that for the last 4 weeks that is me screaming, "I am going INSAAAAAAAAAAAAANE!"

Oh, and I turned 34 this week! We found a new cupcake bakery nearby and had a Cupcake Wars style date night.

But, today I'm going to talk about making stuff. Because I did that! A month or two ago (or maybe it was last year for how horrible my sense of the passage of time has been lately), I was invited to be a part of a facebook group of local friends who love Pinterest and want to get together to make projects they found there. The only problem? I didn't really know what Pinterest was. Apparently someone got the mistaken impression that I am crafty and/or have some kind of artistic ability. I can bake and do some minimal sewing, but artistic ability and craftiness don't reside in this body. I'm a joiner though, so I made a Pinterest page and started looking at people's pins.

And then Christmas time was suddenly here! And I was one of two parents in charge of the kindergarten Christmas party! And I wanted to find something cute, useful and a little bit unique for the 4 teachers that have so wonderfully taught my kids so far this year. But there is a budget to consider, unfortunately, along with my aforementioned lack of crafting ability and not a lot of time. But then I found the perfect thing!!

These were done by someone who is crafty. 

What teacher wouldn't like something like this? A post-it note stand. Personalized! So we did a little shopping, picked out some fun scrapbooking paper, ribbons, flower embelishments, alphabet stickers, post-it notes and plastic picture frames.  And then I thought "I have a whole tub of random buttons!"  So the kids were actually able to give input into the gift. They picked out their paper (we used two different pieces for front and back plus a third for their "made for you by ____" tag on the back).  They got to pick the ribbon and embellishments.  

And, here is how they turned out!

I actually made these!! 

I can't even tell you how excited I was about how they turned out. And so far it sounds like the teachers really like them.  I have supplies left over to make more, so if you want one, wink my way and I'll see what I can do! 

So then I was on a Pinterest roll! I ended up digging around to find some snack ideas for our Christmas party. I ended up making two things I found on there. 

The first was this.  Apple slice with natural peanut butter, oats, dark chocolate chips and chopped pecans. Mine were not quite as cute as these, but they fit the bill for what I was looking for: kind of fancy looking but also healthy.  (This photo is not mine and these are not the ones I made)

And then I made these!! 

So easy and also cute!! Square pretzels with a Hershey's "Hug" on top, warmed in the oven for about 5 minutes. Put an M&M on top. Take the pan outside where it is freezing (or put it in the refrigerator). About 10 minutes later, they're done! Easy to transport, easy to throw on a plate, taste yummy and are festive looking. And SIMPLE! 

Whew!! My "making" for this year has been all used up in a matter of a week. It's time for me to take a nap. =) 

Merry Christmas!!