Grateful Sunday

It was a very nice day:)

Exercise:

This morning turned into a walk with Brenda and Dennis as my legs were still tired from yesterday.

I tried to get a run in this evening, but that was derailed too🤣

Oh well!

Grateful: to be flexible enough to not let changes in my plans bother me.

Grateful: for the gorgeous place I live where I saw a heron up close on my walk this morning.

Knitting:

I have spent most of the day knitting, actually I have spent most of the weekend knitting.

I finished a wide headband out of my MJ Yarns leftovers from the sockhead slouch. I love how this headband turned out and you can see the details of the pattern I made up on my ravelry projects page:).

The hat is my version for Sarah, the secretary at work. It is the Wellem Im Sturm pattern. It went super quickly with the bulky yarn and used up another ball from my stash:)

I am currently knitting the hat pattern Sarah picked in the yarn she picked. Can you tell I don’t think it’s the best fit for her. She can take her pick and I’ll donate the other!

Grateful to have people around me who appreciate my hobby.

Grateful for ravelry where I can find so many awesome patterns and lose myself for hours looking at all the options.

Socializing:

I went out for a run tonight and just as I was coming into the park o saw my friend Cori and her husband and kids ahead of me. By the time I had caught up with Cori I found myself getting ice cream and walking around the park. It derailed my run, but I think the social time was way more important for both Cori and myself (she’s the friend who just lost her dad). The time definitely cheered my day:)

Grateful for friends that are easy to be with and just include me.

Grateful for Bruno’s friend who bought me ice cream:)

Grateful for the energy that kids display that spurred me on.

Well I’m going to see how much of this toque I can get done tonight.

SAL Update

I wanted to do this separately so that people who don’t want to know about my life don’t have to wade through that!

Stitching:

This is a picture of the project that has set on my shelf for the past eleven years. Yhis year I am determined and it at least moved onto the coffee table. This is where I was at. This is where I am at now:

I know it’s not a ton of progress, but that tie back wasn’t there before! I just counted and I put in 125 stitches over the past three weeks. I know I can do better, but it is more progress than I’ve made in the past eleven years:)

Be sure to check out everyone else’s progress! There are some amazing projects! If you’re interested in joining, just click on Avis’ link below.

Just a note, if there’s anyone in the SAL who can tell me an easy way to add all these names while on an iPhone, please let me know:)

Avis

Claire

Gun

Carole

Sue

Constanze

Christina

Kathy

Margaret

Cindy

Heidi

Jackie

Sunny

Hayley

Megan

Deborah

Mary Margaret

Renée

Carmela

Jocelyn

Sharon

Daisy

Anne

Connie

No Plans Changed

Yesterday morning when I was with Lyndsay, she asked what I was doing this weekend and all I had planned was a run on each morning. Well that sure changed…

Exercise:

I slept in this morning and then had to rush to be ready for my run with Dennis. It was pouring out again so it was a good thing that I was meeting him. We ended up doing 6.52km. It felt fast and when we were on the way back I looked at my watch and saw it was at 4.67km and I could possibly set a new PR for 5km, so I tried to step up the pace. It worked! My old PR was 31:45 and now I’m at 31:18. My goal is 30 minutes (fast for me but slow for everyone else). I was very happy to be finished and change into dry clothes!

Socializing:

I met up with Dennis and his wife Martha for coffee and couldn’t believe how loud and noisy Starbucks was!

Later in the afternoon, Michelle who is Life of a Canadian Girl texted to see if I wanted to go for coffee. She asked if I had anywhere new on my radar and I told her the o my two I had were about an hour away. She had nothing else going on, so agreed to try one out. (Yes she just shot to friend #1!).

We headed out to The Polly Fox. It was a very cute spot- white furniture, exposed brick wall, and natural wood tables. The small fridge case was slightly bare as we were there later in the day, but it all looked very yummy! They also had a full blackboard of drinks ( including four non dairy alternative milk), and two page breakfast and lunch menu. I got a chai latte and a cinnamon bun to eat and they were both wonderful. It took me a few mouthfuls to identify that the strong flavour in the cinnamon bun was coconut, but it was definitely not a deterrent. Michelle had a London fog and a vegan cashew bar that she finished and said was good.

What I enjoyed most about this cafe and bakery was that it was quiet and the tables were spread out so you didn’t have to eavesdrop. It was a lovely change from Starbucks!

Baking (Stretching My Skills with Sally):

Last year I tried a few of Sally’s Baking Challenge items and quite enjoyed the challenge of trying new things. I was talking with Abbey of Three Cats and a Girl and we decided to both try these challenges and then link up to talk about our results, so please check out her attempts too. I was really interested in doing this because I knew she would be doing the recipes as called for while I would need to convert them to gluten free and dairy free. I should say that I change as little as possible and just sub in gf and df ingredients to see if the recipe will still work.

For January the challenge was artisan bread. It was a very simple recipe of flour, salt, yeast and cool water that was left to rise for two- three hours and then you were encouraged to leave it for up to three days to build air bubbles in it.

I actually ended up making this recipe twice. I made it on Monday night and couldn’t leave it any longer than the two hours. I liked how this bread looked as it was a lovely browned dome, but unfortunately it didn’t rise a lot and it ended up being undervalued:(. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of this one, but I cut off a thin slice from all four sides and then threw the rest away.

On Thursday night this week, I gave the recipe a second try. I had made the dough, using Bob’s Redmill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour (the recipe calls for bread flour but I don’t know if any gf bread flour) on Wednesday night and after leaving it to rise for the full three hours, I covered it and put it in the fridge. I have to admit that once again, it didn’t rise much in those three hours. On Thursday, I shapes it into two long loaves and then baked it. They only took about 18 minutes to cook rather than the 20-25. This time they were fully cooked, but it was a very hard and chewy bread. I ate all of it because even bad homemade bread is better than store bought, but I don’t think this is a recipe I will come back to again.

Thanks Abbey for taking on this challenge with me:)

I’m so grateful that my boring day at home turned into a fun day out with a friend:)

Have fun!

AJ

Gets Better as it Goes

The day was tough at work, but outside of work, it was lovely.

Exercise:

It was great to get back to working out with Lyndsay! I really loved how my new Garmin successfully tracked both my treadmill run and my cardio session. We did intervals and I actually got up to 7.6km/hr which is fast for me. On the cardio we did reverse lunges, squats with overhead press, burpees, bicep curls, sit ups, jump squats and five jumping jacks between each of these. I was definitely a sweaty mess by the end, but a happy, sweaty mess.

Teaching:

It was another tough day with the kids. We got through calendar, music, addition math games, and some polar bear learning.

I felt like I spent the day talking about kindness, that rules apply to everyone and the idea of persevering. One of these days I’d like to actually teach some content!

Socializing:

I met up with two friends for our annual Dine Out dinner. We went to Chicha downtown which is Peruvian food. It was a very small restaurant and the tables were very close together, but it was wonderful food!

Sorry for the poor picture- it was a very dark restaurant. I had the quinoa salad, the crispy cauliflower, the ceviche and then fruit for dessert. It was my friend’s turn to pick the restaurant and she definitely doesn’t pay as close attention to the dessert as I do🤣. My favourite part was the ceviche as it had a ton of seafood in it, along with pieces of orange which was really good.

Well I’m off to bed, have fun!

AJ

A Great Friend

Well it was another day just like many others.

Teaching:

My class has been so off this week that I just can’t wait for tomorrow to be over and hopefully they come in differently next week!

We got through a lesson on bossy r this morning, but it took into quiet time too because I was trying to help four students finish up the art from yesterday during calendar, but the rest of the class just couldn’t handle doing calendar on their own😖🙄. It’s January and they can’t even sit for calendar yet:( there’s a way to feel like a failure as a teacher!We got our art finished by the end of the day, but it took us three tries.

I went on my prep to pick up the Chinese food lunch some of the staff were having for Chinese New Year. Unfortunately I can’t eat the food, but I was the one with the prep.🤣

This afternoon we had buddies where we did lunar new year crafts and then we were supposed to have a lion dance, but the company that does it, didn’t show up!😖😖. Of course, our principal didn’t tell us that until two minutes after it was supposed to start, so we had to quickly come up with a plan. My students read for a few minutes and then we went to gym and played musical chairs. The kids loved it!!! It was definitely the best part of the day:)

Exercise:

After finishing up the prep, I came home and dragged myself out for a run. It was soaking wet and the park was mostly flooded, so not particularly fun, but I did get another 3.75km done. I can’t believe how little I have managed to run this month:(. We are expecting rain every day for the rest of the month, so this won’t be the last of my wet miles.

Baking:

I tried the bread again, but I will write about that more on Saturday.

Knitting:

I have been knitting on a headband to finish up the MJ Yarns I made my slouch hat in. I just want to finish it off so I can deduct it from my stash count. I am super happy with the headband so far though;)

Gift:

During buddies, my buddy teacher, Lyndsay, gave me a shirt she had bought me. It says, RUNNING, cheaper than therapy! It is a baseball style shirt and I love it!!! I think I might live in this shirt for the next little while:)

Well, I’m back to the headband, though I should be going to bed!

Have fun!

AJ

Maybe A New Habit?

Sorry for no post last night. My oldest friend came into town for a convention and made the trek out to see me for the night. It was awesome as we definitely just pick right back up, regardless of how long it has been:)

Teaching:

It was a tough day today as my students just weren’t listening well. We got through music and a math lesson on adding doubles. I had them jumping up and down for the doubles, but unfortunately, they just couldn’t handle it:(

We also worked on our snowflake art this afternoon. We were hoping to be done, but it looks like it will be tomorrow.

I was definitely frustrated by the fact that a parent sent an email to me today saying that three of my girls were in the office Friday at lunch because of problems on the playground, but I knew absolutely nothing about this:(. Argh communication people, please!!!!

Exercise:

I got home this afternoon and really didn’t want to run, but since I hadn’t been out yet this week, I knew I needed to go. I wasn’t fast with this cold, but at least I got a few more miles in!

Reading:

I finally finished the book, Seduction with Sapphires by Jane Feather.

This book is very entertaining. I liked the main characters as the female is strong willed and always true to herself while the male is enlightened and grumpy hero.

A well written and entertaining, though very modern historical romance.

I have read other books by this author and thoroughly enjoyed them, but with this one, I found myself continuously pulled out of the story by inconsistencies in behaviors. It seemed as though they were dressing in 1870s clothing and had some of the traditions of that time, yet they leaped into bed on their second meeting, he cane by the house just before dinner, she never came home some nights, and so on. It felt like 1920s behaviour. I found it quite distracting and it definitely took me a while to get through the book.

Knittting:

I finished my Seattle Sockhead Slouchy hat. This is the first project I have knitted off my queue and I love it!! The pattern is super easy and definitely appropriate for a beginner. The yarn was MJ Yarns One Ewe Fingering which is 100% superwash Merino in the colour Whirl, and was pretty and easy to work with.

I have about 85-90 yards left and am thinking of what to knit with it so that the skein will all be gone.🤣

New Habit:

I had to get up about a half hour early this morning as my friend had to leave earlier and I found I really liked having the extra time to just sit and knit and drink tea in the morning. I’m not sure if I’d be able to give up the half hour of sleep, but I may have to try it out:)

Have fun!

AJ

Monday Misery

Well I can no longer deny it- I woke up with a cold:(

Teaching:

Between epic sneezes (as my students called them) we got a journal written about whether we like or don’t like snow, a lesson on adding zero, writing about our hip hop on Friday, and a polar bear labeling session. As well as the usual calendar, quiet time, gym, and silent reading.

We all survived, but I definitely didn’t have my usual patience.

Baking:

My bread baking today was a disaster, but I’ll try again this weekend and tell you all about it then.

Knitting:

Still knitting the stockinette on the sockhead slouch and listening to Yarniacs podcasts. I am just so excited to finally be knitting something from my queue and I’m loving the look of this yarn!

Exercise:

I really wanted to run today, but after sneezing all day I just couldn’t drag myself out in the rain for a run, so it was just another hallmark workout for me. I’m getting close to being out of Christmas movies!

Tonight I did a minute of skipping between squats, crunches, burpees, dips, froggers, plié squats, reverse lunges, curtsy lunges, lateral lunges, Bridges, reverse crunches, pushups, and high knees.

I am really hoping that the more consistent body weight workouts will help me improve my running, though I realize I’ll have to add weight to them to really see improvement. I’m thinking that will come when I switch to regular workouts when I’m done my Christmas movies.

Well I’m off to bed as tomorrow is going to be crazy busy!

Have fun!

AJ

Grateful Sunday

It was a pretty good day of my activities.

Medical:

I started the day by going for my necessary bloodwork. I love he new app our LifeLabs has- Save My Spot. I hit the button as soon as the lab opened and went from the end of the line to second. I don’t think the people in front of my liked it, but I sure did as I was home in twenty minutes.

Exercise:

I managed to be home in time to meet up with Dennis and Brenda for a run. As we headed out on my regular sidewalk, my thought was that I should push the speed a bit since we wouldn’t be going very far, but wouldn’t you know it, Dennis found a way to add on. We got a total of 5.44km done which isn’t bad when we’re still dealing with snow everywhere. I felt like I was running fast, but my Garmin shows otherwise. It wasn’t until I was talking with my mom tonight that it dawned on me that perhaps the loss of nine vials of blood just before my run, had an impact🤣

This evening, I got another Hallmark workout done. I did a minute of jogging in between each move and I tried to go faster than usual with this. I did: squats, plié squats, crunches, reverse crunches, burpees, Bridges, reverse lunges, curtsy lunges, dips, pushups, Superman, and froggers.

Baking:

I finally spent some time in the kitchen today. I started by making a loaf of banana bread. It turned out to not be very sweet as I was short of honey and used bittersweet chocolate chips, but I actually don’t mind it. The recipe came from The Allergy Free Cook Bakes Bread. I love this series of books as everything always turns out, even when I make a ton of substitutions like I did today.

I also attempted a batch of granola bars. The recipe is from LunchBox and I have made it many times and it has always worked really well, but unfortunately today it didn’t. I think it’s because I was short of oats and used puffed cereal instead. They got brown too fast and so the bottom didn’t cook completely. My mom suggested using the top as crumble over yogurt so I may give that a try tomorrow.

I was supposed to make bread today, but that just didn’t happen.

Knitting:

I started my sockhead slouch over today, twice. I started the first time and then was worried it was going to be too big so took it off the needles to try it. I determined it would be fine and so then had to start again. I have gotten the for inches of rubbing done and now am on to the plain stockinette. I am using the same size needles as I did for the ribbing and am wondering if that is a mistake. I don’t have a 3mm though and so would have to go to 3.25mm needles. If anyone has made this hat, I’d love to hear an opinion!

Well that is my entire day.

Thankful:

I am thankful for technology that saves me time and makes life a little easier and more efficient.

I am thankful for my running buddies who push me.

I am thankful that there are so many options available for people with allergies these days.

I am also thankful I enjoy cooking and baking so I can have treats that are safe for me.

I am thankful for podcasts that have kept me entertained while I do boring knitting.

I am thankful for my knitting that allows me to accomplish something while being on the couch.

Have fun!

AJ

Super Surprise Saturday

Well for a day that I had no plans for, it turned out quite lovely.

Knitting:

I tried to go get my blood test done this morning, but one part has to be specifically timed so I’ll try again tomorrow. Thankfully I had much better luck buying a Pom Pom at the yarn store. I finished knitting the second version of the Thistle Seed Beanie with only worsted weight this time. I haven’t attached the Pom Pom yet and won’t until the EA tries it on.

Socializing:

I met up with Brenda at the yarn shop and we went for tea afterwards. We tried Black Sugar which was a new cafe for me. It was super busy on Saturday morning, but I have to admit I wasn’t super happy with their chai latte.

Eating:

I just got home from coffee with Brenda when I got an offer to go for lunch with Lyndsay. We grabbed waffles from Green Mustache. This is really the only thing I ever order from this cafe. They are super yummy!

I’ve also had oatmeal, popcorn and cucumber with cheese today. Hopefully better than yesterday!

Exercise:

I did finally get out for a run this afternoon. I had to do my usual sidewalk to the park and back, but I figure that is still better than the treadmill. I knocked another 4km off. It wasn’t my fastest run as I’ve been fighting tired all day.

I’m sitting at 9 runs and 11 workouts so I’d better get back out there tomorrow!

Movie:

I went tonight with Lyndsay to see Parasite and wasn’t impressed. I feel like someone should check on the mental health of the people who nominate movies for the Oscars as they all seem to be violent or depressing this year. This movie was going along pretty good until it suddenly took a turn to awful! I definitely wouldn’t vote for this movie!

Well I’m going to watch a little Hallmark to get Parasite out of my head.

Have fun!

AJ

Cowboys Everywhere

It was finally Friday. Having that snow day in the middle of the week was lovely, but boy did it grow me off!

Teaching:

Today ended up being all about the hip hop. We had a practice first thing this morning and then music class. We tackled calendar and I demonstrated a couple of math games, then we had silent reading and buddy reading. Right after lunch it was time for the performance so I really didn’t teach anything. The children did do a great job of their dance, even with very little practice time.

They were all extremely cute little cowboys.

Socializing / Eating:

We headed out right after school for downtown. We had dinner at Storm Crow Tavern and it was super good and easy for me to eat there. We shared the chickpea fries, the tacos and the Brussels sprouts and they were all gluten free and dairy free. They tasted really good, though we all agreed that the tacos were the best!

We stopped at Turks coffee and had an after dinner treat. Lyndsay had the hedgehog mocha which tastes like Nutella and I had the chai latte with oat milk. It was very good and a cute little place to stop for a minute.

Finally we made our way to the church and attended the prayer evening for my friend’s father. We were a little late due to getting lost and having to find parking, but we were there and signed the guest book. My friend didn’t see us as it was packed, but I will check in with her at another time. I could have gone up but have to admit that the open casket and eleven siblings I don’t know got the better of me.

Knitting:

An EA at work really loved LianeMs toque, so I am busy making her one as well. I am done the rubbing and onto the first of seven pattern repeats. Hopefully this will be done tomorrow so I can go back to my sockhead slouch!

At the same time I have been listening to the Yarniacs podcast from the start. They sure introduce you to a lot of patterns, which is pretty cool.

Well I am exhausted!

Have fun!

AJ