Adulting Sunday

It’s so unfair that life and adulting get in the way of such a lovely day as Sunday!

Exercise:

I met up with Dennis and Brenda again this morning for a run. We did laps around Brenda again as she’s still working her way through the learn to run program. I got just over 5km done.

I ended up going out again this evening. Amazingly I felt so good and made a personal best in my 5km time of 31:47. I am getting closer to my goal! When I looked down to turn my tracker off, it said I was doing a 4:22/km pace- hopefully that’s true as it’s amazing for me!

Cooking:

I am mainly a snacker but decided I should try making some of the actual meal recipes from my current cookbook- Sylvana’s Gluten Free and Dairy Free Kitchen: Timeless Favourites Transformed. I tried the Homemade Fettuccine with Sausage, Broccoli Rabe and Parmesan. I can’t say I gave it a great test as I didn’t make the fettuccine but rather bought pasta. I also couldn’t find broccoli rabe and was a little disappointed she didn’t give an alternate suggestion. I also bought a ton of cheese today, but not parmesan🤣. I’ll say it looked good and was easy and I’ll let you know how my kale and sausage pasta tastes tomorrow.

Products:

I did buy a lot of cheese today! I tried three new kinds for dinner.

I had Sheese vegan mature cheddar style slices. I found it had a sharp taste to it, but quite a rubbery texture:(

Next I tried Chipotle Cheddar Style Wedge by Nuts for Cheese. This had a nice kick to it, but was soft like a cream cheese.

Finally I tried the Nuts for Cheese Smoky Artichoke and Herb Cheese. This had a tang to it and was even softer than the cheddar variety.

I would buy the Nuts for Cheese items again for a charcuterie board, but wouldn’t bother with the Sheese again.

Eating:

Speaking of food, as long as I maintain this, I’ll get to colour in another square today. I’ve had:

Brunch: steak ( makes my mom worry less about my iron)

Late lunch: Mac and cheese

Dinner: cheese and cucumber

Knitting:

After a quick cleaning of the important parts of my condo, and all my laundry, I have spent most of today knitting on my Not a Boring Sweater second sleeve. I actually finished and got the ends woven in. Here it is:

Well that’s it for my day!

Have fun!

AJ

Saturday 2.0

I heard this phrase on the radio this morning and loved it! It’s a long weekend here so it’s appropriate:)

Exercise:

My run turned into a walk as otherwise Brenda would have been on her own. I did manage to run 0.7km so that I could ensure I made my 100km for this month:)

I also got a short walk in this evening, just because it was too pretty out not to be outside.

I also decided a workout was necessary so did:

50 squats, 50 plié squats, 25 front lunges, 25 lateral lunges, 25 curtsy lunges, 25 backward lunges, 100 front kicks, 100 roundhouse kicks, 100 back kicks, 100 standing crunches, 100 hamstring curls, 25 crunches, 25 bicycle crunches, 25 static crunch with scissors, 25 reverse crunches, 100 jabs with 2lb weights, 100 hooks with 2lb weights, 50 uppercuts with 2lb weights.

Socializing/ Shopping:

I had arranged to meet up with my Corianne as her husband and kids are away camping. She indulged me and agreed to hit Main Street with me as this has been on my bucket list for a number of years.

We skytrained down and didn’t realize we were so hungry until we had zero interest in looking around.

Bob Likes Thai Food was our first stop. I went here several years ago with a guy I was dating, but hadn’t been back. The interior has definitely been updated, but thankfully the food was still amazing. We shared Miang Kham bites which were several flavors wrapped in a lime leaf- amazing! And the green curry chicken which was as good as I remembered! It was great to be out with someone who would share:)

We started back and stopped to look in several shops. There are a lot of consignment stores in this area!!! I wasn’t impressed with their prices though:(. I tried on a t-shirt, but for $35, I wanted a better fit and more excitement.

We stopped in the Soap Dispensary and a few other places, but didn’t get excited until I came to Blue Heron Cheese. I had been told about this place from a parent in my class so I knew I needed to stop. I bought the four types of cheese they had left and got told I should come first thing Saturday morning for best selection. I can’t wait to try a recipe with ricotta as that is a cheese I haven’t found dairy free before. I will also be having a bocconcini,tomato and basil appetizer for a meal in the next couple days😀

Our final stop was Cartems Donuts. Neither of us are huge donut fans, but this was another place I had been told about so we thought we’d stop. I had a gf/df salted caramel donut, which I didn’t realize was a chocolate based donut and Cori had a London Fog donut that had cream filling, but the cream filling was lumpy and not creamy:(. We agreed afterwards we should have gotten the earl grey and salted caramel gf/df donuts and shared them. Oh well, they had four options I could eat which was nice and if I ever start craving donuts, I’ll know where to go.

On the way home on the skytrain, we got off one stop early and checked out Golden Spike Days which is my city’s Canada day celebration. Yet again I was disappointed:( First it cost money to get in. Second there was nothing there but advertising and food trucks:(. I think I need to find somewhere that does an old fashioned country fair for Canada day!

All I’ve managed to do since I got home was have a nice long nap!

Eating:

Peanut butter on toast

1/2 miang kham & green curry chicken

Salted caramel donut

Salmon burger

Knitting:

I have started the ribbing on the right front of my cardigan, however I’ve decided that I don’t like that only one stitch was taken off for the buttonhole, so I think I will be restarting this part tomorrow.

Well, yet again, I’m tired so I’m off to bed.

Have fun!

AJ

Still Quiet

It was another quiet day here.

Movies:

My mom and I enjoyed several rom-com movies today, including A Christmas Prince and the sequel to it. They’re cute and my mom enjoyed them for the second time.

We also watched Christmas Crush which was quite funny. We both noticed that the musical scenes in this movie were well done.

I didn’t realize that my mom has actually seen more rom-com’s than I have!🤣

Knitting:

I got a headband done out of the rest of one of the skeins I used for my sweater. It also worked for one of the HPKCHC classes this month. It’s my favourite colour so I think I’ll keep this one for myself.

Product:

I have to mention the cheese I have been eating down here. It is a cashew cheese and it is so yummy! My dad actually had some and didn’t realize it was vegan!

Well I’ve packed my bags and checked in for my flight, so I guess I have to go home tomorrow. I hear I’m going back to torrential rains again😖☹️

Have fun!

AJ

Unstoppable

I don’t know what’s up with me today, but can I be like this all the time please? 🤣

Exercise:

I did my run over to the park and back this morning and I didn’t meet any weird people:). Maybe I can go back to that run as I much prefer an out and back or a single loop over running the same loop multiple times!  I got to run a full thirty minutes and every kilometre was under 7min!😀🎉🎊. I started wondering how many times I needed to do that before I could check that goal off when a friend told me, “when it’s every time”. Lol I guess that answers my question. Amazingly I didn’t even feel as though I was running that fast!

That was all of my exercise for the day as I had a massage after school. I try not to ruin the effects too quickly. 🤣

Teaching:

Today was a pretty good day:) we got through a book review activity this morning that just happened to be on a book about being peaceful towards each other😂. We also finally got started on problem solving. I planned to work this into my math A/B week plan from the start of the year, but it just didn’t happen. We started with the strategy of drawing a picture to solve the problem. It is going to take a lot more practice, but we at least got started!!

This afternoon we had “collaboration”. All the children are in the gym with the principal and non classroom teachers and we get together in grade groups to work. My co-teacher and I tackled our report card template today and got it done:) we have a brand new curriculum this year that came with a brand new report card so everything is new, unfamiliar and difficult:(. We also got a list made of what we need to do with the children so we can write these report cards:). We are making progress😀

I actually got quite a bit done today as I got the rest of the sight word games cut out and packaged and I finished sorting the math concentration games. I only got two sets of the game trimmed (you should never have grade twos cut something out for you) and labelled, but tomorrow is another day:)

Another card today, maybe these two boys are in a competition to see who can make me the most cards. I thought this one was cute because the Li toe guy came over to study the letters on the end of my desk to make sure he got the spelling of my name right. Good thing he didn’t have to tackle my full name.🤣

Eating/Baking:

I have eaten a ton of new things today, unfortunately I also feel like I’ve eaten a ton:(

For breakfast I tried a new type of cheese on my toast. I liked the simple packaging of the cheese and it smelled wonderful when I opened lithe package- spicy! It even tasted good, but boy is it dense and rubbery! I also don’t think it melts as it didn’t even soften up on my warm toast:( if you’re hiding the cheese in something, like a sandwich with lots of veggies, I think the taste would make it a winner, but if consistency is going to be noticeable, I’d give this cheese a pass.

I also tried a new bagel at lunch. We had the leftovers from yesterday today. The bagels were Udi brand. They felt dense like a bagel should, were not overly dry, split in half nicely and were a good size. I would definitely recommend this product if you’re looking for a bagel.

I have also done some baking this evening. My co-teacher has been fabulous lately and so I wanted to make her cookies. She is diabetic so I know not to use sugar and I have been trying out different types of “banana cookies”. I call them this as they utilize bananas for sweetness. I tried this Recipe by Foodolic for banana maple walnut cookies. I followed the recipe, but mine don’t look like hers:( We’ll see what they taste like tomorrow!

My cinnamon bun bread pudding seemed to be a hit at work as there wasn’t much left when I left the staff room at lunch. I love the idea of not having to throw out my failures so I’ll have to keep that recipe in mind:)

Crafting:

I made myself do three threads on the rued rug to make up for the days I missed this week. It just doesn’t seem to progress very fast:(

I also got my yarn wound into a ball in preparation for making a toque to go with my new jacket. I just want a nice simple toque so that the gorgeous colour variation in the yarn will be highlighted. If anyone has a pattern suggestion, please let me know! I want to start it tomorrow at knit night!

Organization:

I got my house tidied this evening. I can’t say it’s clean, but it’s at least tidy:)

I have the best mom in the world as she didn’t say a word about how messy it was when she was here sewing today. I know she says she doesn’t care, but I want the place to be nice so everyone will like it as much as I do!

My mom also grabbed the BB cream I had been looking at on the weekend and a sweater hanger for my closet. I really wanted to move my running gear into it, but I made myself tidy instead so it will have to wait:( I can’t wait as I think it might be a system that will work really well for me!

Well I think that’s it for me tonight! I’m going to go finish the last ten pages of my book:)

Have fun!

AJ

Surprise!

Well I definitely did not expect to get up to a dusting of snow this morning! I don’t remember it ever snowing in November before!! I live on the West Coast! It’s supposed to be mild and raining!!!!

Exercise:

I purposely took today as a sleep in day, although my sister in law managed to text me at 6:15 so it didn’t last long, 😂 I did get out for a run after work but this was doomed.  I didn’t want to go as my phone had died and it was super cold out, but when I checked I saw it was 3 degrees and would be -2 in the morning. I decided to charge my phone a bit and get out there! I knew my phone didn’t have much battery left and when I took it out to take this picture 

It died:( I find it very difficult to count a run as a run if it isn’t recorded so I walked for a bit, but then realized I had to run again to stay warm. I probably did about 3km, so pretty well just a rest.

I did a Lyndsay workout later this evening. It was comprised of four circuits and I was supposed to do each three times. I ended up only doing each circuit once, so yet again, pretty well a rest day.  I’ll try to do this workout properly tomorrow night!

Teaching:

I started the day by checking out the Book Fair that has been on since Wednesday. I purposely waited until this last morning in the hopes it would be quieter, and it was:) I didn’t buy anything for my classroom but did pick up a few things for my niece and nephews for their Christmas presents. Shucks, as I write this I realize I didn’t get anything for Gus and he’s a bigger reader than James and Lucy. Oh well, I can check out another bookstore ( haha it will be such a chore🤣).  I wanted to get Lucy a recipe book as I hear she’s liking to cook but it seemed very expensive. Of course the three I chose were all on sale so I managed to escape with only a $15 hit to my credit card:)

Thank goodness my class was back to their lovely selves! Calendar was first up where the special helper couldn’t find his sharing in the sharing bag. Supposedly this will help😂

I’ll have to remember to climb in when I’m having trouble finding something!

We got a lot done today! McCracken spelling to help with their sounding out, a talking circle about our favourite weather with snow winning, of course,

My walk to work today

a math worksheet we hadn’t gotten to a couple weeks ago, finished up the number printing booklet, planners, silent reading and art.

It was amazing that during art today ( we made poppies to decorate our class wreath), the children had a choice between listening to music or having me read some more of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to them. They actually chose listening to the book. It made me so happy and I was even more excited when I heard one of the boys in my class spent his tooth fairy money on books😀🎉🎊 at the book fair. Maybe I’m rubbing off on them:).

I was a little sad that not one book was bought for our class during the book fair:( I guess I’m not popular this year.

I also remembered to take a picture of our new rug. The children were super excited that we had a new rug and have deemed it, “soft and luxurious”. Their words🤣!  The lines are definitely helping with everyone having personal space.

I had to share this picture that I was given with you. I get some interesting ones sometimes, 😂 

Cooking:

I tackled the pumpkin chili again tonight as I had it for lung and it was definitely vegetable soup then. I went back out into the cold after my run to hit the grocery store (passed by a very cute fireman which improved the cold walk slightly😂) and grabbed some ground turkey and a chili seasoning mix. I cooked it up, let the chili boil down somewhat and added the new ingredients. It’s pretty good and even has a smoky taste since I let the bottom burn while I was reading and crafting:( It is still much better!

I couldn’t wait for the chili so I had my Brie cheese on cucumber for dinner. I often use cucumber slices as my crackers and I actually don’t miss crackers at all!! This was the last of the cheese I had gotten from the Oliver Wine Festival. It is by Black Sheep Vegan Cheese. I’ll have to look up where I can buy them locally! This cheese had a very smooth and creamy texture with quite a light flavour. It was yummy and I think it would be excellent to offset strong flavours while still providing that cheesy taste to dishes. I think I will try to get some turkey meat tomorrow and try out a turkey and Brie sandwich 👅

Reading:

I finished listening to The Time Machine by H.G. Wells tonight on Librivox. I had always assumed this book would be difficult to read since it was written in 1895, but it wasn’t. It was an excellent book and easy to follow. I have to say the narrator for this 3rd edition on Librivox was excellent- good pace, pronunciation and intonation.

This book tells the story of a learned man who has created a time machine in his lab. He goes in a journey into the future and then recounts his experiences to some peers at a salon style gathering.

The book demonstrates amazing creativity and imagination on the part of the author. It is exceptionally detailed and moves along at a good pace. The author however has quite a cynical outlook for the planet earth.

I enjoyed this book and think others would too. If you enjoy science fiction you may find it interesting. As well, I think that it would be an excellent book for a class or a book club to read because there is lots to discuss around its themes.

I’m so glad I’ve finished this book as now I can cross it off my November to-do list and add it as the second entry into my Classics Reading Challenge that Abbey at Three Cats and a Girl got me into:)

Crafting:

I finished a square on the rued rug so I also get to take that off of November’s list. I will of course, continue to do one thread a night so that perhaps I can get two squares done this month. I think I intentionally forgot to count how many squares I still need to do. That might be too much for my poor brain to handle! Lol

I’m also working away on my handwarmers, though I have to admit the pattern has me a little confused so I may need to leave it until tomorrow when I am not tired.

Family:

I haven’t seen my mom today🙁 though I have learned that my parents will be in town until at least November 13th now, so yay one extra day! While my parents are away there are always tons of things that I think, “oh I’ll wait until mom is home and do that with her.” I should really learn to create a list as I go, but I never do so I am trying to create the list now (in no particular order).

1. VV for warm sweaters✅ and cords
2. Ivivva for a new running outfit ( I think I deserve it for running every day)
3. Thin, warm down jacket✅
4. New running headphones
5. Sew Christmas presents( my mom is an amazing seamstress so I’d like her to be around to help if I need it)✅
6. Walmart for sports bras✅
7. Neverland tea room (I have a coupon)
8. Spend gift cards✅
9. Go get pillow for RV pillow cover✅
10. Exchange skull pan✅
11. Westwood tire for new tires✅
12. Truck tune up✅
13. Get flu shot✅

Gosh I know there are tons more things, but i can’t remember them:( I’ll add them when I think of them.

Well I think I’ll go read some more. I feel like I’ve been writing the same thing each day lately so I’ll try to do something interesting tomorrow to break up the monotony🤣

Have fun!

AJ

Onward:)

A pretty good day for my first day off the couch:)

Exercise:

Well I managed to get up and do a workout this morning. It was another of Bea Free‘s deck of cards workouts. I had to do sumo squats, push-ups, bicycle crunches and punches. These workouts really do work well for my Tuesday morning when I don’t think jumping around would be appropriate or quiet enough for my neighbours! I walked to and from work (they cleared my path) and I got myself out to run club tonight.

I was going to go down to a slower pace group since I’ve been sick, but Paul the owner said he thought I should stick with my usual. I did end up being fine as it was short intervals tonight.

4X30 seconds

4×60 seconds

And then repeat this another three times with only thirty seconds rest each time, even between sets. It was a good workout, but note to self, don’t eat cucumbers before a run!😫

I’m a little worried about tomorrow morning when I’m supposed to get up for a run. It’s so dark at 6:15 now and only about 4 degrees.  I’m trying to avoid the gym until there’s actual snow and ice, but I’m not sure how I’m going to get myself out there? Don’t really like running in the dark by myself. I did remember to ask Paul to put the word out that I’m looking for a 6am run buddy. We’ll see tomorrow, I guess.

Teaching:

No tears today🎉🎊🎉🎊😀

My school has a hip hop teacher for this week. Each grade group learns a different hip hop dance and then on Friday there is a performance. I have even been roped into participating in the staff one😳. I have to admit my students ranged from amazing to oh my! You look at a few and it’s tough to keep a straight face! In actuality though, they do amazing to learn and perform a dance in a week. I don’t think I could do that! Actually I know I couldn’t 🤣

We also had a visit today from our two kindergarten teachers from last year. It was great to see them and even better to be able to ask them questions about the children. I really missed having that articulation in September this year!!!!

We finally started out pumpkin unit this afternoon. We have two Jeohovah Witnesses in grade one and so won’t be doing “Halloween” activities, but we figured we might be safe with pumpkins. It was hilarious when I asked the children what colour a pumpkin could be as we were “scientists” today so we were going to colour them a “realistic colour”. Several children said blue! I thought they were talking about the blue pumpkins people put out to signify they have non candy treats for children with allergies, etc, but no they meant blue. My co-teacher explained the book they read yesterday said that pumpkins can be blue. I guess I learn something new every day!

We took the children outside today since it was just such a perfect Fall day! 

I know I’ve shown these trees before but they were just so beautiful today, I couldn’t resist another photo!

Eating:

I dug into the third of the Black Sheep Vegan Cheeses that my mom brought back from the Oliver Wine Festival for me. This one is called Voursin. It was delicious!!!! It has such a yummy, herby taste and was perfect on the cucumber slices!  I would highly recommend this cheese if you’re looking for a non dairy goat cheese alternative as that’s what it reminded me of. It would be perfect for a cheese board! I’m going to have to look into seeing if the company delivers when I’m done these last two cheeses!

Knitting:

I finished my handwarmers just after I finished my blog post last night. I’m actually wearing them right now as I was cold when I came in from my run. I am very happy with how they turned out and love the colour!!!! These might be my new go-to ones.

Pattern:

I’m sure there’s a pattern out there, but I didn’t look for one. These would fit a 7-9 year old. I casted on 30 stitches and split between three needles. Did six rounds of knit one, purl one ribbing. Then did 20 rounds of knitting, however, on every fifth round I did a cable of six stitches. I alternated between a front and back cable. The cable was always done on the last needle. On the 20th round, I knitted three stitches, cast off 4, Knit to the end of the round. 21st round was Knit three, cast on four, Knit to the end. I knitted fifteen more rounds and then did six rounds of k1,p1 ribbing again and casted off. For the right hand the thumb hole was done at the start of the round. For the left hand it was done towards the end of the second needle. Sorry I wrote this in an awkward manner, but you’ll get the idea!

The other exciting knitting news is that I got a new project bag! One of our education assistants at school was on a BC ferry this weekend and came across a bag she thought was perfect for me. I have her the go ahead to get it for me and today I got to pick it up at school. It’s so cute! I’m very happy with it and while I hope it will work for a knitting project bag, I know I’ll get use out of it elsewhere if it doesn’t.

Well I think that’s everything that has happened to me today. I hope you all had a good day too!

Have fun!

AJ

Rearranged Day

A busy day that rearranged itself into a quiet day. I was supposed to go for a run and lunch and then shopping with another friend, but…

Exercise:

I slept in this morning and didn’t wake up until 8am. I never put an alarm on as I don’t normally need one but I may have to start using one for Saturday morning. I felt it was too late to go do the crunch as it gets super busy there so I said goodbye to the cinnamon roll for today. Lately I had been thinking about the step aerobics video I used to do daily when I first started getting fit in university. I decided to try it out this morning. I popped it in and did the whole thing. I was warm and glistening but not dripping sweat like I usually am after a bootcamp workout. It was nice to know I’ve improved in fitness over the past twenty years 🤣

Later this afternoon my running buddies joined me for a run around Coquitlam River. I have been wanting to run here as it’s beautiful when the leaves turn colour and fall, but there really weren’t any picturesque spots yet:( I had to make do with these photos. Kula had been at doggy daycare so we didn’t know how far we’d make it before he refused to go any further but we actually got all the way around- a 5km run. At the end we saw this cute signboard on the fence.He is getting better at being a running buddy every time we got out though he still provides cross training in the form of jumping over him as he cuts you off😂 He was definitely tuckered out by the end!

Eating:

I finally finished all the Thanksgiving leftovers (but not the turkey soup yet) and got the chance to try another one of the Vegan cheeses my mom had brought me from the Oliver Wine Festival. I tried the smoked Gouda this time. It was again a little slippery to the touch and the flavour was light, but still quite delicious. Would be great with an apple in a sandwich as it’s not a strong taste. 

So far, I’ve been impressed with these Vegan Black Sheep cheeses!

I also had the chance to go out for sushi today with my human running buddy. Kula decided to stay home for a nap instead 😂.  I’m lucky Sarah was willing to drive to Maple Ridge so we could go to Wasabi Sushi which has a huge gluten free sushi menu:)

I managed to decide on the salmon avocado roll, the BC roll and the Botan Ebi nigiri. It was all so delicious! 

I highly recommend this place! It’s even nice enough for a date:). The only thing was that tonight they made a point of bringing me gluten free ginger; I didn’t realize there could be gluten in pickled ginger. I’ll have to look into this.

Knitting:

I finally did something useful today and organized my circular knitting needles. When I checked Pinterest for ideas on how to store them, I liked the CD case idea, but settled for the page protectors I already had. I’ll have to bring home a binder from school on Monday.  Is it weird that I wish I could buy new circular needles to replace some of mine just so that they would be in their original packages. I’ve now learned to store my needles in the package they come in, but I have to admit I didn’t always know this and now I regret it😞

I also got the yarn organized that has been piling up in the basket beneath my coffee table. It was a real wreck and was getting out of control! It is now a lovely organized basket:) If anyone has any pattern suggestions for what to do with multiple small sock yarn ends (less than 100 meters and some as small as 20 meters), please let me know, otherwise I may need to garbage them.

I have started just a plain pillow cover for my mom as she was right when she said that a pattern wouldn’t show up with the fluffy yarn I’m using (sometimes I hate how she’s always right lol). Hopefully I’ll be able to show you a finished product soon!

Blogging:

You may have noticed I had an unusual blog post earlier today. Abbey at Three Cats and a Girl (an amazing reader and interesting person so check out her blog) had tagged me in a reading blog and I finally got it finished today. It was a tough blog post! First I had to learn how to tag people, then I had to figure out the answers. That was quite the task as I’m not great at remembering what I’ve read.  I had Goodreads to help me, but I’ve recorded 1152 books I’ve read on there so it was still quite overwhelming. I never did learn to cut and paste so I had to retune everything on my phone which took a lot longer than it probably should have. It was an interesting experience and really made me think so probably a good thing!

Reading:

It really worked last night writing about my book club book as I got a few chapters read and am now almost 1/3 of the way done. I’m hoping to get a few more chapters read tonight. Perfect night for it as it’s cold and dark here!

Project:

I’ve had pictures from my Boston trip printed for a while but haven’t written the date on them yet so they can be deleted off my phone ( the whole point of printing them!) and today I finally asked myself why?  I realized it was because I have pictures printed and dated from my last three trips that aren’t in albums yet and I want to get them dealt with first so I don’t get all these photos confused.  So here I sit organizing the photos from my trip out East in May for my friend’s wedding. I don’t know if I’ll get them labelled tonight but they will at least get put into an album today:)

With knitting, reading, album making and laundry to do tonight, I had better get going!

Have fun!

AJ

Compliments, compliments

A pretty good day…

Exercise:

I tackled the hill this morning. I needed a day off from my regular route so I decided to attack the hill that I live at the bottom of. I couldn’t run the whole thing as it’s quite steep, so I used the lampposts as markers and ran one section, walked a section until I was about 2/3 of the way up when I could just run as it flattens out a bit. It took me thirteen minutes to get up the hill and I figure it’s a good goal to work towards being able to run the whole hill continuously. A picture on the way down the hill:)

I also like that it will help towards my Crunch challenge:) I’ll have to remember to assess how I’ve done at this goal at the end of October. It was a nice route as well as, even with the traffic, it seemed more peaceful than my usual route.

I got to walk to work today which was great on this beautiful day!

The path at the start of my walk home.

I even got a workout in tonight too( though I was tempted to skip it). I did workout three which was six sets of four exercises, 45 seconds on-15 seconds off. I had to do single leg squats, cross country skiers, wood hops, squats, squat with shoulder press, oblique crunches, frog crunches, fire hydrants, leg lifts, squats with leg lifts, skiers, and one other thing that I can’t remember for the life of me. I was sweating like a pig when I was done, a feeling I now love:)

Teaching:

Day two of no crying until after lunch. It really does make the morning lovely! I ran the assembly and survived:) we only had one mess up, not bad! The rest of the day was pretty routine, except for running around like a headless chicken on my half hour prep because my to-do list keeps expanding!!

Eating:

My parents were at the Festival of the Grape in Oliver, BC last weekend brought me home some vegan cheese. Four different kinds!!! 👅 Tonight I decided to crack one open and try it. All of the cheeses are from Black Sheep Vegan Cheese which you can check out on Facebook here:

https://m.facebook.com/blacksheepvegancheeze/

The cheese is made in Armstrong and I always love to support local, small companies.

I decided to try the pizza cheese tonight as it just sounded too good to ignore. I loved how it came wrapped in paper. I’ve always been a sucker for old fashioned and this put me in mind of how cheese would have come in the past. Simple, easy to open packaging was awesome!

The cheese had no awful aroma that sometimes comes with vegan cheese. When I smelled it, I only smelled the herbs that were in the cheese. It does have a rubbery consistency, but that’s pretty normal for vegan cheese so it didn’t put me off!

The taste was awesome! It tasted just like pizza! So much so that I was surprised it wasn’t red! I was able to eat it as cheese and crackers which is a great thing for vegan cheese! This is actually only the second vegan cheese I have found that I could do that with. Predominantly I tasted oregano, but there were other lighter herb tastes too.

I would definitely recommend this Cheese to anyone who is looking for a dairy free cheese!

Knitting:

The razor cami is blocked:)

And it might just get worn tomorrow:)

I ripped out my Canucks toque this morning and started on one a size larger. I’m back to where the decreases have to begin, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I had the chance tosuit my cami for detention on the Harry Potter: Knit and crochet house cup group I joined on Ravelry. I just hope I did it right! I also had the chance to check out the October classes and I think I have three projects in mind that will count. Now I just have to get them done before October 31st!

Compliments:

Today my principal told me I did a good job on running the assembly and a parent told me after school that I looked good today- my outfit and hair ( I was really pleased with my outfit today!). It didn’t take either of these women more than a minute to compliment me and yet they made my day! I smile even as I write this! It put me in mind of what I’m always talking to my students about- one little positive action starts a chain reaction and everything is positively affected! What a lovely world it makes to live in:) I read a book recently that said “to be the sunshine, not the rain”, what a great way of putting it! Rain is necessary to make us appreciate the sunshine, but I’d definitely rather be someone’s sunshine or rainbow than thundercloud!

I hope you all have had a good day too!

Have fun!

AJ