Grateful Sunday #4

I first have to be grateful for the fact that my weekend seemed calm and a little longer than usual.

Exercise:

I’m grateful for running buddies who wait for me when I’m somehow running late. I have no idea where the time went this morning. I did get to the park in time to do a hilly 3.8km in sleet. That’s why it was only 3.8km! I looked down at the first kilometer and it was super slow so then I had to pick up the speed to make sure that my average would be under 7:00/km. I didn’t want to undermine my average pace which has been steadily dropping this year. Now I just have to get it through my gas that it can’t continue to drop all the time!

I’m grateful for a running buddy who said it felt super fast to him too, though we weren’t really going that fast.

This evening I got a hallmark workout in. I kept my word and went up to ten pound weighted since it’s a new month and added four pound weights to my minute of jogging between each of these moves: burpees, froggers, dips, pushups, crunches, reverse crunches, Superman, raises, pullovers, bicep curls, around the world lunges, squats, plié squats, Bridges, and mountain climbers. It was at least something!

I’m grateful to have some equipment at home so I didn’t have to venture out in the wet.

Cooking:

I did my second Fresh Prep meal of the week called turkey scallopini with broccoli and rice. It was supposed to take 25 minutes and it took me thirty. It tasted really good, though the amount of broccoli seemed skimpy to me. It was easy to make and quite yummy and I got five servings out of it, so I’m happy.

I am wondering if I’m sending more on groceries with getting this as I’m not as organized with my grocery shopping and food prep. I guess I’ll find out soon enough as I’ve skipped this week’s ordering.

I’m grateful to have access to a program that allows me to try new dishes.

I’m also grateful I enjoy time in the kitchen as otherwise that would be a lot of time I didn’t enjoy in life.

Knitting:

I have to admit that most of the day was spent knitting and listening to the Yarniacs podcast. I am about halfway through their episodes now. They mentioned 2 knit lit chicks podcast but I can’t find their first episodes- anyone know where they are?

Sharlene has mentioned she tries to teach something each episode and during episode 100 I learned something great! I always have to look up M1R and M1L and usually end up writing a note on every planner, but they mentioned a trick to remembering.

M1R- I’ll be RIGHT BACK

M1L- I LEFT the FRONT door open

For right you go into the back and for left you go into the front. I hope I never forget this again!

I’m grateful for any tips people pass along. I’ll also be grateful to never have to look this up again!

I had started a Cowl just to use up another skein of yarn, but ended up living it so I will be keeping it. In fact I have started another just like it.

Now I just have to figure out an outfit to go with this tomorrow. I’m like a little kid and have to wear my new stuff right away.

I’m grateful to end up with something I like. I’m grateful to be six skeins under my stash goal with a whole twelve days to go still:)

Most of all I’m grateful for quiet weekends where I get to knit and bake and cook run:)

I’m also grateful for modern conveniences that allowed me to get my dishes and my laundry done while I knitted.

Have fun!

AJ

Grateful Sunday #3 (take two)

I tried to post this last night and woke up this morning to be told it couldn’t be posted, so I am trying it a different way.

Exercise:

I met up with Dennis, Brenda, and James for a walk this morning. Dennis and I decided to walk as we had run Saturday and this is the first time we had seen James in more than a month as he fell off his roof on Christmas Eve!

It was a nice walk, enlivened by the snow that kept coming and going.

In the afternoon I made up for walking with a 4km run to the park and back. I thought that going at 3pm would be quiet because of Superbowl, but it was surprisingly busy still. I didn’t push myself, but still maintained a decent pace and felt better for going.

I then did a Hallmark workout in the evening. I have added weights since it’s a new month. I’m starting small with just 8lbs, but plan to up it each month. I should also be able to put in more traditional weight lifting moves and not just bodyweight movements. Tonight I did: burpees, crunches, hip swings, reverse lunges, squats, pushups, froggers, reverse crunches, bridges, dips, plie squats, and curtsy lunges.

I definitely noticed the weights on the the curtsy lunges the plie squats!

I’m grateful that James wasn’t hurt worse than he was and is back on his feet.

I’m grateful for my running buddies’ humor that keeps Sunday mornings fun:)

I’m grateful for having some gym equipment at home so I don’t have to go to a gym (James has had some very interesting experiences there as he starts his recovery. People seem to have forgotten that you don’t say anything if you can’t say anything nice and that you have no idea what others are going through!)

Baking:

I came home and cooked up some ground beef and made taco salads for my dinners this week. I also made up the rest of the frozen cookie dough and will take them to work tomorrow.

I also got busy and made Oh She Glows Ultimate Nutty Granola Clusters.  Last week I had bought granola and wasn’t super happy with it, so this week I made granola. This recipe was great as it took only about five minutes to put together and then the oven did the rest. I also liked how it would be very easy to change it up to make it a little different each week.

I’m grateful I like to cook and bake as homemade always tastes better than store bought.

I’m grateful there are people who create yummy recipes that are safe for people with allergies.

Knitting:

I spent most of the day working on my Date Night sweater. I got to the end of chart A and then didn’t know where to go, so I called my mom. Doesn’t everyone turn to mom when they don’t know what to do 🙂

It turns out that I was just supposed to repeat rows 1-8 over and over again, so Date Night got completely ripped out:(

I really needed something successful so I made a quick headband that used a ball out of my stash.  The headband had a cable in it and this turned out to be off centre for me, but I actually like how it looks.  This will become a gift or donation.

I’m grateful I have a hobby that allows me to be productive while I’m on the couch.

I’m grateful I have an awesome mom who can help me:)

Well, it was a very AJ type day, but I went to bed early as I was super tired! Now I just have to figure out why this wouldn’t post last night! GRRRRR.

Have fun!

AJ

 

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.

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

Grateful Sunday

It was a really good day and so nice to be home I’m familiar ground again. I didn’t realize how tense I was just driving when I had no idea where I was going and was in an unfamiliar car.

Grateful: For the opportunity and resources to be able to have a family Christmas vacation and all that family time.

Grateful: for a comfortable home that makes me happy and safe.

Exercise:

I finally got back to normal! I met up with my regular running buddies Brenda, Sarah and Dennis. James couldn’t join us as he dell off his roof and hurt himself. I can’t wait to hear this story!

We did a run of the river and it was great that Sarah came along so I had someone to run with and yet Dennis got a good run in:). It wasn’t super busy and it didn’t rain so definitely a win win!

The river on a Fall day.

I did meet my goal today so there will be a running review up tomorrow, but I was disappointed that RunKeeper doesn’t celebrate meeting a goal at all- the goal just disappears:(

Grateful: For all my awesome running buddies.

Grateful: For the animals in my life that provide me with lots of cuddles. Kula was a smuggler today:)

Friendship/ Eating:

I ran home and cleaned up and then met up with a couple of friends for brunch. It was Allison’s last day in town so I was happy to get one more meetup. We went to Wendel’s in Fort Langley. This place is always super busy! I got there early and had a few minutes to peruse the bookstore part of the establishment. Lots of cool knitting books, but all too expensive:(

I had three choices for brunch and went with the avocado Benny which as my mom says was just avocado and eggs on gf toast along with some tomatoes. It was still super yummy though!

We then wandered the Main Street and through the grocery store where I picked up a few gf/df treats.

Grateful: for friends who are easy to be with no matter how long it’s been:)

Grateful: to live in a place where there are options for me when I go out:)

Shopping:

I grabbed my mom and hot Costco for gas and food. My dad has given me the idea of buying steak at Costco and just freezing it for my regular Sunday lunch as this way I would be able to afford better steak. I ended up with steak, shrimp, yogurt and cucumbers. It’s going to be interesting meals, but I never know if I should bother shopping when I’m on holidays as it always seems like I’m out a lot. We shall see, but hopefully I didn’t waste my money.

We carried on to the clothing store where I immediately found the red winter wool jacket I had wanted. It must have been my day for red as i also found a red and white striped shirt and a red sweater. Now I just have to get rid of a few things from my wardrobe to make room for this new stuff! One of my goals on this week off is to get all my closets tidied and everything entered into my app.

Grateful: to have my mom for company as I was running errands. It makes the tedious time go so much quicker.

Grateful: to have made peace with my body so that I can feel comfortable wearing bright colours. I know I’m not perfect at this, but I’m a whole lot better than I used to be!

Reading/ Listening:

I listened to another episode of the Not Your Mom’s aromanxw book club podcast and found another book I want to read. I’ve decided that I’m still going to read lots of romance next year, but I will try for one non fiction book a month.

Grateful: for this podcast that keeps me entertained while I knit tedious sections.

Grateful: for the variety and number of books I have available to me!

Movies:

I rewatched Write Vefore Christmas as I hadn’t managed to do a workout to this movie the first time i watched it. I really enjoyed this book and it reminded me of Love Actually with its multiple story lines.

I ended up doing a 17:30 workout with a minute of jogging between moves. I did: 30 reverse lunges, 37 crunches, 37 reverse crunches, 5 pushups, 20 jacks, 5 burpees, 25 curtsy lunges, 10 high knees, 25 squats, 15 plié squats.

I know it’s not a ton, but I figure it has to be better than nothing! I’m thinking that I’d like to come up with a similar workout for non Christmas hallmark movies that I could do throughout the next year. If anyone has ideas of elements that are in lots of Hallmark movies, please let me know:)

Grateful: for hallmark that produces feel good movies

Grateful: for the clever person that came up with the hallmark workout so I can combine two of my favourite things and not feel guilty about sitting watching a movie.

Eating:

Not fabulous, but not as horrible as lately. I think I will still give myself a couple of days before I get on the scale.

I had: half a tortilla with peanut butter, the avocado and egg on toast, shrimp plate,1/3 of ginger cookie, 1/3 of chocolate chip cookie ( neither were very good) and 1/2 of peanut butter bar ( delicious)!

Well I’m off to start a new book.

Have fun!

AJ

Grateful Sunday

It was a nice day though I know ya just the calm before the storm.

Exercise:

I did show up for my run this morning. My running partner Dennis was amazing and stayed close the whole way. If you knew how fast he is, you’d know what a big sacrifice this was for him. I figure he was probably running backwards at times. I hit about four km and struggled from there, but another run got done and I only have 39.1km left to do before I make my yearly mileage goal.

I also did a small, easy Hallmark movie workout this evening. I did:

60 reverse lunges

52 crunches, 53 reverse crunches

10 pushups

20 jacks

15 burpees

35 squats

10 plié squats

5 dips

5 rows

10 curtsy lunges

40 front kicks/ side kicks

15 bicep curls

Thankfully I have had multiple naps today and have spent all my other time on the carpet.

I am grateful for having reliable, supportive running buddies in Brenda and Dennis. They listen to me make goals for next year, but remind me I have to get healthy first.

Knitting:

I have spent a lot of today knitting a market bag. It is the last one I need for tomorrow so I am glad I got it done tonight and can get all three gifts wrapped up tonight. I did the market bag/ produce bag free pattern off Ravelry and it was a quick, easy knit that looks great! I used Indigo by Berrocco and I think it will be a great bag!

I’m thankful my grandma and mom taught me to knit so I can accomplish something even when I’m on the couch and that I can use my hobby to make gifts for others. I am also thankful for Ravelry that gives me access to so many awesome patterns that I may otherwise not know about.

Movies:

I watched the Hallmark movie, Road to Christmas. This was a very cute movie and I remember last year it inspired my around the world Santa study with my class. The movie does a great job of highlighting the Christmas traditions and the importance of family at this time.

As I’m only allowing myself one Christmas movie a night, my second movie of the day was Valentine in the Vineyard. This is the continuation of the story of Nate and Frankie. I really do love how Hallmark has started doing sequel movies so you get to see what happens to couples after they initially get together.

I’m thankful for good entertainment that leaves me feeling happy.

Blogmas:

Thanks again to Abbey for hosting this Christmas Blogmas. It’s been great thinking about items that I probably take for granted too much.

As a child we opened presents on Christmas morning. My next oldest brother would wake me up early to open our stockings which had an orange, some life savers and usually hair accessories and something little to do. We then had to wait for my grandma to arrive to open the presents under the tree. I remember always wanting to put off opening presents as long as possible as I like the anticipation so much!

For the past ten years or so, my family has not done presents. It was tough to get used to, but now I love it. First, I am one of the few of my social group who is not in debt in January. Second, it has given me a lot more time to just enjoy the season. I can go to the mall and just enjoy the atmosphere without going crazy trying to find the perfect gift. It has given me the time to make gingerbread houses with my niece and nephews. I get to make cookies and look at lights. It has taken the stress out of the holidays. Thirdly, I love not having a whole bunch of “stuff” to dispose of come January. You always have the one gift you’re excited to give and then you run around trying to find something to give everyone else. It’s pretty nice eliminating this from life:)

I’m grateful for getting to enjoy the important parts of the season- friends and family.

Well other than some food prep and napping, that is my whole day!

Have fun!

AJ

Grateful Sunday #2

We had to Fall back in our time today. I am really hoping they decide not to continue this practice as it seriously messes me up!

Exercise:

We had a short run today at Mundy Park. It was really neat that a friend we haven’t seen in a while came out too. She walked with Brenda, while Dennis and I did the usual route. We had a 6:35 average and I had to giggle at runkeeper sending me a message saying it was my fastest average in a month- it’s my first run of the month🤣 Dennis did tell me he’s proud of me for having a steady pace and running continuously. What a great guy!

I’m thankful for my running buddies as they accept who I am and what I’m capable of doing.

I definitely earned that tea with my 26 minute run as it used to take me 44 minutes. I also enjoyed the view at tea as we sat beside a group of firemen:)🤣

Reading:

I finally finished Meant to Be Yours by Susan Mallery which is the fifth book in the Happily Inc series.

What a wonderful book! This book takes us back to Happily Inc, a wedding town that has seen the pairing up of four wonderful couples before this. Renee is a wedding planner and Jasper is a writer.

I was actually surprised by the pairing as I was expecting the book to be about Jasper and Wynn, whom he was with before. I quickly figured out that this was a much better pairing!

The character growth in this book is huge and very satisfying. It was down realistically as we all do or say stupid things and have to learn from them. Both of these characters experience this emotional growth and it was great to see.

The supporting characters are also wonderful as usual. They aren’t perfect, friends show up at the wrong time and others say what is right, not what is popular, but they definitely add a wonderful element to the book.

The pacing was different as Renee and Drew hop into bed together quite quickly, but then it slows right down.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys small town romance!

Thank you to Susan Maller, the publishers and to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

After listening to a podcast of Not Your Mom’s Romance Bookclub I have spent a lot of today reading Melt For You. I’m really enjoying and thinking I may be up until I finish it. I’d better read quick.

I’m thankful that I’m a reader. I think being a reader makes life easier and it allows me to experience things I never would be able to otherwise.

Socializing:

I met up with Brenda for ice cream as I had to get a pair of knitting needles to her. I had the peach caramel ice cream and it was so good!!

I’m thankful for having such amazing ice cream, that doesn’t make me sick, available so close to home!

Eating:

I have had a better eating day today than I usually do on Sundays. I’ve had a mini kind bar, a steak, veggies and dip, ice cream.

Knitting:

I have also been spending some time knitting another market bag. This time the pattern is from Purl Soho and I’ll share when I’m done:)

I’m thankful I have a hobby that allows me to be productive while relaxing and also allows me to make things for friends that will hopefully show them how much I appreciate them in my life.

Oh and I have bought three skeins of Shi Bui Pebble in a gold colour that I’d like to use to make a shawl for my friend. I have about 600 yards and would appreciate any pattern suggestions anyone can give!

Well that’s it for me!

Have fun!

AJ

Grateful Sunday #1

I put number one because I’d really like this to become a regular thing! I have so much to be thankful for and yet it’s so easy to concentrate on the negative- but that’s not who I want to be, so I’ll make the effort!

Exercise:

It was just Dennis and I this morning because Brenda was delayed out of town. I left the choice of run up to him and boy did he pick a doozy! We ran from my place out to the marina where my parents used to have their boat and back. It turned out to be a great run and I definitely felt like I earned my tea!

This evening I decided I should try to work off a few nibbles so I did a combo workout. Started with a minute of cardio and then did 36 reps of a weight exercise, and kept repeating this using different cardio and different weight moves. I ended up doing:

Bicep curls, jog, deadlift, Skip, squats, high knees, plie squats, moguls, reverse lunges, toe taps, rows, jog, bridges, Skip, sit ups, high knees, shoulder press, moguls, lateral lunges, toe taps.

As I write this I realize I could have done jumping jacks and criss cross jacks. I should really have a list of weight moves and cardio so I can just choose as I go and don’t have to try and remember them!

Grateful for the fact that I have an awesome running buddy who believes in my abilities when I don’t and is incredibly encouraging!

Grateful to have a body that can run 10km with no prior notice!

House:

I was about to go pick up some dried fruits, but saw my helpless girl student going into the store with her dad, and so turned around and came home. I spent a good three hours cleaning my house. It’s as good as it’s going to get!

Grateful to have a nice, bright, warm and cosy place to live:)

Cooking:

I didn’t really cook, but got the nuts put out, the meat trays done and the roast beef wrapped pickled asparagus ready. Tomorrow I will just have to put out the crackers and the cheese. I am supposed to be doing charcuterie, but with my allergies I decided to do the different elements separately as it always drives me crazy when I go to a party and they ruin it for me by putting stuff together. Plus I only have one small board:(

Grateful for the fact that I have so many food options these days! While it would have been nice not to spend my childhood sick, it sure wouldn’t have been easy to deal with dairy and gluten allergies back then!

Grateful also to have friends who put up with my quirks and are fun to be around!

Knitting:

I finally texted my friends and said I was done with cleaning because I wanted to do some knitting today. I finally found a bag pattern in my book, sock Yarn One Skein Wonders. I am just about to start the bag body, so I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

I really need to get going on knitting cause I am only on project thirty and my goal for this year was forty!😳

Grateful to have a hobby that allows me to sit on the couch and still be productive.

Grateful to have had my mom and my grandmas who taught me all these needle arts!

Grateful to enjoy this beautiful view while I am knitting. I think I’m pretty lucky to not even have to leave the house to enjoy the Fall colours.

Eating:

It started out really well as I had a bag of running chews on my run, a slice of apple bread, leftover Cambodian curry, and two peppers with cream cheese. Unfortunately this afternoon while I was prepping food, I nibbled:( I’m noticing that I often fall down on my eating on Sundays. Maybe I need to have a definite plan and food made for Sunday, like I do during the week. This week is going to be interesting food wise as I bought food for my get together tomorrow rather than my usual weekly groceries, so I’ll be eating out of my cupboards and freezer. We’ll see how it goes.

Grateful that I love to cook and bake so I can have interesting, healthy food!

Grateful I have a mom who helps me to work towards my goals, even if she thinks they’re silly.

Well that’s my day in a nutshell.

Have fun!

AJ

A Busy Saturday

It was a busy day, but with fun things:)

Exercise:

I headed out this morning to do the Woodhaven Swamp up and over. I definitely didn’t remember how uphill it was! We ended up walking a lot of the uphill but then enjoyed the downhill. Sarah was even screaming “wheeeeee” on our way down the hill. We went around the swamp, but I started us off on the wrong path. It worked out though because we ran into two cute guys walking two cute labs:) Why don’t I meet these guys when I’ll see them again?

We ended up trying a different route back, but it worked out and I think next time we’ll go that route there and back so we can run all of it.

This evening I also got my usual routine done- 50 banded squats, 50 plié squats, 50 dips, 50 pushups, 25 crunches, 25 reverse crunches, 25 bicycle crunches, 25 Russian twists.

I purposely didn’t do lunges as I haven’t done them a lot and I don’t want to hurt for my long run tomorrow. I’ll just have to make sure I start including them more often!

shopping:

I grabbed my mom for company and hit the library one town over. Yes I have read all the books I’m going to in my town’s library. I returned books and when I went to take books out, it wouldn’t let me:( It turned out they had put a note on my account to get me to go to the front desk because I had left my knitting needles in the knitting book I returned. I am so glad they found them as they were a pair of my expensive Addi Turbo needles!

I went to the thrift store and came home with some new running clothes and two cute dresses to wear to work which is almost what I went for🤣

I also stopped at the salon to get a pedicure gift certificate for my sister in law as her birthday was on Wednesday. It seemed like the perfect present for this time of year.

I also introduced my mom to the Green Mustache cafe. We shared the waddles.

We stopped at home for a cup of tea, but then I decided I needed a second look at a couch I had seen. I’m glad I went back as the second time I saw them I realized it definitely wasn’t the couch for me.

I did put the time at the mall to good use and used my David’s Tea gift card. I got Forever Nuts which I know I like and then two new teas, Alpine Punch and Banana Grapefruit that I’ll tell you about when I try them. They sure smelled good in the store though!

Movies:

I brought my mom home and have been enjoying their cable tv.

We watched A Harvest Wedding with Jill Wagner. It seemed cute, but didn’t really feel chemistry between the two main characters.

I also watched Love at First Dance which was cute and the characters seemed right for each other. The ending was also very sweet and I have to admit to liking Niall Matter! I would recommend this one over the other.

Knitting:

I have finally chosen my next two knitting projects. It seemed much easier once HPKCHC was back to help me decide what to work on. I’m going to do a pair of socks first and then my black cardigan. I’ll go from there.

Eating:

I had a pretty good eating day:)

A slice of crustless quiche

An apple- half with peanut butter and half with cheese because I wanted the best of both worlds

A half of an order of buckwheat banana waffles with figs, chia seed jam and cashew cream and half of a mango smoothie

Half of a chicken breast and four strawberries

What I’m thankful for:

1) having nature at my doorstep that is beautiful and safe for me to run in

2) having a mom who is similar enough that hanging out is fabulous, even when we do nothing exciting

3) encountering nice people in the world who go the extra step to help others

Well that’s it for me tonight.

Have fun!

AJ

Do We All Become Our Parents?

What can I say, every vacation day is a good day:)

Exercise:

I started the day with a 5.7km walk with Anne and Moiya. It was already really hot out when we walked around a local lake, but I enjoyed it anyways as I knew it would be my last walk with these two.

Coming back I managed to grab pictures of the Easter Island garden art someone had. They have four or five in total and they are all different. Some people are so creative!

This evening, I managed a 5.1km run to complete the Squad Runner mission for today. My mom didn’t want me running on my own (nice to know that no matter how old you get- you’re still your mom’s little girl, but I really don’t think anyone was planning on stealing me🤪🤣), so I ended up running loops around the John Henry Pub and Marina. I managed to add on a little bit more so I only had to do 9 laps to complete this mission on this hot, muggy night. I even managed to be a tiny bit faster than I have been this summer- not back to spring running times, but improving.

Knitting:

I was working away happily on my parent’s boat afghan, until I realized that I was missing a stitch:(. I have ripped back two rows, but still haven’t found the stitch:( I might cry if I have to rip out 25 rows of knitting as this would be my 6th restart of this project, and here I thought it was going so well!

Blogging:

I went through my posts today to review my titles so I will hopefully not repeat too often. I had to laugh at myself as lately I’ve been worried when I only get 30 something likes on a post and as I looked back and saw the posts at the start of my blogging that had only one or two likes, I decided not to worry, I am slowly plodding forward:)

Grateful:

A few months ago I did this after my sister in law introduced me to the idea and I keep forgetting to add it to the bottom of my posts, though I think it’s an awesome thing to do at the end of a day. So here goes:

I am thankful for:

1) having the opportunity to spend time on a boat in a beautiful place with wonderful people

2) having the sunshine that will give me vitamin D and make me thankful for fall weather temperatures

3) for getting holidays from my job as I know how lucky I am to have such an extended period of time

It has been a very quiet day of mostly reading. As I looked around I saw that my parents were doing the same thing. Am I becoming my parents???😳🤪

Have fun!

AJ