Weekend Wrap Up

I can’t believe it’s Sunday again already! I have to survive a five day week this week:(

Exercise:

I ended up running on Saturday morning with Dennis as he had an appt on Friday evening. I was tired of running around my house so we went out to the dyke to run. It was super bright and sunny on the way out, but then the big black cloud moved in on the way back.

We got 6.6km in which is better than nothing.

I worked out yesterday afternoon and did another NourishMoveLove workout- 20 minute resistance band workout- legs, cardio and core. I definitely was feeling that workout on my run this morning.

Sarah and I did another ten kilometers this morning. It seemed super slow though we picked up the speed on the way back. I’m not sure how to approach this with Sarah, but really feel we could be running faster at the start as we drop almost a minute off our time. I’d rather run a little faster on the way out and a little slower on the way back and be more even!

We got lucky though and it was a gorgeous morning for a run!

I did the seven hip and low back stretches for the fourth time this week. Hopefully it helps:)

Shopping:

I met up with another teacher from work at Chapters yesterday so we could choose a few books for the kids Bookclub this year. We have had kids asking about it so we are going to try and do the club over zoom once a month. It will be nice to have a little bit of normalcy! We also enjoyed a lovely tea afterwards:)

House:

I have been very productive this weekend for little things. I got the curtains fixed, my hydration bladder fixed, all laundry done and put away and my plants watered.

Knitting:

I have mainly been working on socks for a lady at trivia. I have one sock done and am just considering if I could get the other done by Tuesday night. I somehow don’t think so:(

Well that’s it for my weekend, well except for my reading but I’m not done my book yet.

Have fun!

AJ

Solitary Sunday

I really need to make some plans for my weekends!

Exercise:

It was just Sarah and I for the run this morning so we went to Hyde Creek and ran ten kilometers there. I tried to be really cognizant of engaging that deep stomach muscle while I was running. My hip got a little sore as I think at times I was tucking my hip instead of engaging my abs. It was definitely better than last week though!

This afternoon I also did a half hour of weights. I didn’t want to do a NourishMoveLove workout after a long run, so I just did straight weights.

Knitting:

I have re-knitted the toque, but am still not happy with it. I will take it to work so Lyndsay can test it, but I think the yarn is too stiff for the style of hat she chose.

I haven’t done much else and think I’ll go to read in bed.

Have fun!

AJ

Family and Weekend

Does it get any better than seeing family and having a weekend?!?!

Cooking:

I spent Saturday morning cooking and baking. I did a green salad, deviled eggs and “nan cake”. My grandma used to make a cake that we all remember. I have been trying to recreate it. This time I was told that I got the topping pretty close, but I need to find a fluffier white cake. Finding a fluffy gf cake might be tough but I refuse to make cake I can’t eat!

Not much of the salad got eaten so it will become my lunches for the week and meant that I didn’t need to spend today in the kitchen.

Family:

My brother, sister in law and niece and nephew showed up early so we walked over for ice cream. The banana fudge walnut was just as good this time!

We then headed over to my other brother’s for dinner. It was a great night of food and visiting. It’s nice to have a family that gets along. Here is the best picture of the night.

Exercise:

Today I finally got back to exercising. This last week just didn’t go according to plan due to long work days and horrible air quality, but this morning I got out for 10km with Sarah and Dennis. I found my hip starting to hurt again at about 7km and I am wondering if I change my gait when I am running slower with Sarah? I will have to do some experimenting to find out.

I also got a workout in this afternoon. 44 minutes of weights. I did the three sets of 10 with increasing weight. I like doing this, but am tempted to go back to doing NourishMoveLove.

Knitting:

I had gotten really close to finishing my sweater yesterday, but ended up doing the bottom edge this afternoon. I hope this sweater ends up being as useful as I think it will be. The one problem with it, is that this Debbie Bliss Eco Baby Cotton is not colour fast:(

I am now starting on a test knit, but have done three searches and haven’t gotten gauge yet. I will have to go back to trying tomorrow night as right now I’m going to go crawl into bed with my book.

Have fun!

AJ

Sore Feet

Boy do my feet ever hurt from those shoes yesterday and boy can sore feet impact your day!

Teaching:

It was tough going to work today because I was tired and my teaching buddy is off on Wednesday’s.

We got through an All About Me sheet and another worksheet on rules. One little boy figured out that sharing toys was both good and bad because “normally we share, but during COVID it’s bad to share”. We ended up putting both a happy and sad face on that one. We also learned how to put papers into our duo-tangs and we read lots of books.

I bet the kids would say the best part of today was that they got to go outside for ten minutes between recess and lunch and ten minutes after lunch, but not actually for recess and lunch. Unfortunately they were trying to play hide and seek but there is nowhere to hide in our current playground zone:(. Standing still didn’t work so well🤣

The two bad parts were that they are refusing to refill my portable soap dispenser now and are insisting students use the wall dispenser. There’s just one problem- my students can’t reach it and if I put a stool there, I would have a stool in the middle of a walkway 🙄. Secondly, I went to put salt on my brussel sprout salad at lunch and the entire kid came off and dumped all of the salt on my salad. I wasn’t a happy camper!

Exercise:

I rushed home to clean my bathroom so I wouldn’t have to after my run.

Dennis and I did the first workout of the season- one minute hard and one minute recovery, repeat ten times. I hadn’t noticed the smoke in the air so much, until I started trying to run hard. Safe to say it wasn’t my best workout.

I also got a short weights routine in. My heart just wasn’t in it as it was already late evening and I hadn’t even sat down yet. Sometimes being committed to exercise makes it feel like I do nothing else after work.

Shopping:

Once again I have had a farmers market across the street from me since the summer and I finally made it there today, on the last day. It was very small as they were trying out a midweek Fall day, but I had wanted to try a new gluten free, dairy free bakery. I picked up some treats to try, but they will have to wait until tomorrow.

Well, I think that’s the sum total of my day.

Have fun!

AJ

Still Murky

There is no more clarity at work today than there was yesterday:(

Teaching:

I had another very unproductive day;(. I managed to change where my calendar was, sort out some books on kindness, calmness and safety as that is the catch phrase here right now and start to cut out math manipulatives. Nothing all that interesting and I really wish I knew more. The two days I was to get to prepare for students is pretty useless when I have no clue what grade or how many students I will have. I will end up looking bad in front of the parents when I am unprepared on Monday:(

The most interesting thing was that I listened to music on my walk to and from school today as I am responsible for studying country songs that feature other artists for trivia. If anyone knows any, please let me know.

House:

I got out of school at my scheduled time of 3:45 and came home to get my bathroom cleaned as that was my job for today. So far I have been able to stick to the schedule, which is good as I’ve decided that anything I don’t get done, I have to do on Saturdays.

Cooking:

I have been having broccoli salad for lunches this week. This is my second salad of this List at Love and Lemons that I am making my way through. Her recipe does not call for bacon, but I did put some in. The recipe cost me about $19 to make and has given me 5 one cup servings for the week. It still seems expensive to me. I do like the addition of the Smokey nuts to it though.

Exercise:

I did just straight weights tonight and followed Dennis’ plan- three sets of ten with increasing weight. I did: shoulder press, crunches, squats, front raises, reverse crunches, overhead tricep extension, plié squats, heel drops, lateral raises, side to side heel touches, curtsy lunges, bent over rows, bicycle crunches, deadlifts, upright rows, scissor legs, hip raises, bicep curls, dead bugs, side shuffle, pullovers, toe touches, hamstring curls, chest press, plank and traveling plié squats.

I also stretched and rolled. My hip bugged me a bit all day, but after rolling it seems to feel better. I am thinking I had better roll daily for a bit.

Well that is my non-exciting day.

Have fun!

AJ

Bonus Day

I probably should have made plans for my bonus day, but I didn’t.

Exercise:

I was very tempted to go for a run this morning, but resisted as Monday’s will probably be my day off right now. I did do NourishMoveLove’s 35 minute booty glute workout. It was good and then I followed it up with stretching. I resisted foam rolling as my RMT said I should give my body a day in between to recover. Fine by me!

House:

My job today were my floors and they got done. I also got some laundry put away as well so my house will be tidier to start the week off.

Knitting:

I have to admit I have spent most of the day knitting and listening to podcasts. I am playing yarn chicken with a basic raglan in sport weight cotton. I am hoping to not run out, but if I do, I’ll do a second colour for sleeves and collar. Fingers crossed I’m small enough to get it all done.

Sorry I don’t have more interesting things for you, but the only other thing I did was have a nap. Trying to build my strength for tomorrow.

Have fun!

AJ

The Weekend

It has been a nice weekend, though I do wish I had had more plans.

Knitting:

I learned that it is probably a good thing that I do not have cable at home as I spent 12 hours on Saturday watching Hallmark movies and knitting.

I did accomplish something though as I finished my sweater! The Weekender is done and it may actually become a favourite.

The pattern is by Andrea Mowry and is very well written. The only change I would make now is to do a different cast off on the neckline and I did a different cast off on the sleeves. The neckline cast off doesn’t stretch at all and I have the feeling it is going to break:(

The yarn I used is Arranmore Light by The Fibre Co. This was a kit through Fibre Co and I have to say I absolutely love this yarn. It has a beautiful depth of colour.

I’m sorry but all you’re getting is one bad photo.

I like that it is not tight, but it also doesn’t have 10″ of ease as I would drown in that much ease.

Exercise:

Today I met up with Sarah for a run while Dennis walked with James. We managed a 5.18km run around the dyke at an okay pace. I always have to remind myself that not every run has to be fast. I was not happy to wake up with a sore right hip and a sore left knee. Thankfully neither really bothered me on the run.

I also did a NourishMoveLove workout called a 20 Minute Full Body HIIT workout. I did change a few moves so that I didn’t remain in a squat, but nothing really bothered my lower half.

I decided to also do a ten minute full body stretch video and added on another ten minutes of stretching and about 15 minutes of rolling. Hopefully this will all help with the knee and hip.

Cooking:

Today I made the broccoli salad which is the second salad from Love and Lemons. I’ll tell you all about it when I actually have it for a meal.

I have spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what to knit with 450 meters of a red cotton. I had planned to do Sense of Summer too but when I started knitting I realized it wasn’t very well written and I didn’t want to tackle it. If anyone has a suggestion, I would love to hear it.

Have fun!

AJ

The Last Friday

I can’t believe it’s the last weekend of Summer!

Exercise:

I got out for a run with Dennis this morning. I was nervous to take those first steps. We went out to try the dyke we had attempted a few months ago, but it was still too mucky and uneven. We were walking back to the car when Dennis decided we should look around since we were there. We ended up running the opposite direction and it was a really pretty run. We ran out this road to the conservation centre and then turned into a dyke. We weren’t sure how far the dyke went so we turned around and came back the same way. My watch said we did 7.26km, but it seems as though the third kilometer didn’t register right, so I’m not really sure.

I also did a workout this afternoon. I did a minute of walking between squats, plié squats, deadlifts, hip raises, lateral shuffle, crunches, reverse crunches, bicycles, heel tap downs, plank, bicep curls, front raise, lateral raises, tricep extensions, bent over rows, pullovers, shoulder press and chest press.

Dennis talked me into trying a new way to do my weights- 3 sets of 10 reps with increasing weight. I did that today and we’ll see how it goes after a few sessions.

House:

I was enjoying my brother’s pool when I got a call that my appt was changed to today so I hurried to it, but then had two hours before my next appt. This gave me enough time to do my daily chore- laundry. I had given myself permission to put it off until Sunday, but this was too good a time to pass up.

Knitting:

I am just coming up to the cuff on my first sleeve and while it may not be done before the weekend, I think it will be done by Monday night.

Well, I think that’s my entire day.

Have fun!

AJ

Netflix and Knit

I know it’s not the saying, but it describes my day.

No exercise today other than two walks with the pup. Sarah cancelled on me which disappointed me, but I’ve now had four days of rest so that hip better behave tomorrow.

Oh as I write this, I realize I did do 20 minutes of upper body weights this morning, so I did do a little something.

House:

I actually still went home and did my chore of the day which was changing my sheets:). I’m not sure this will happen tomorrow, but at least I kept up on most of it.

Knitting:

I redid the front neckline that had broken on me when I was trying my Weekender sweater on. I went up a needle size so hopefully that will make it loose enough that it won’t break again.

I also ripped out the sleeve I had done so far and have redone it with a larger needle size. I will continue to work on that.

TV:

My brother seems to have every channel known to man, plus Netflix so I have been enjoying the third season of the Great Canadian Baking Show.

Now I have to go watch the finale.

Have fun!

AJ

Just a Nice Day

It was just a lovely day all around.

Reading:

I stayed in bed this morning to finish my book. The Light Over London by Julia Kelly.

If you like historical fiction and double timelines you’ll like this book. I would actually recommend it to most people as it was a great read! It captured my attention quickly and kept it. It is also quite short at 290 pages. Both the 1940s storyline and the present day storyline were interesting and well- developed. I also liked that it was based on the gunner girls in the Second World War.

Baking:

I did some baking today, but you’ll have to come back on Saturday to hear about it.

Family:

I took my nephew for lunch today. We went to White Spot which is no longer in the reasonably priced category! $50 for lunch for two and there was no alcohol involved! I had a teriyaki bowl with no rice, but extra veggies.

Gus had a double double burger that was there one minute and gone the next. I told him he must have grown again as I felt even smaller beside him.

We of course went for ice cream for dessert.

Exercise:

After dropping Gus off and having a nap, I met up with Sarah for a run at the river. It was hot and we were slow, but it’s another 4km done. I do so enjoy having company on runs!

I also did the NourishMoveLove 15 minute Power Yoga routine. I started doing some simple weights before this, but then thought that since I don’t know what’s called for tomorrow, I should just do the yoga. It felt good and I think my knee actually came closer to my elbow, even after just these few sessions.

Shopping:

I had ordered two books and one showed up the other day. I live chatted and thought I had arranged to have the other book shipped again, but then today I got an email telling me that they were shipping me the book I already had! I spent some time on the phone getting this sorted out and hopefully my second book will show up soon so I can show them off.

Well I’m going to do a bit of Scrabble and then head to bed with a book to finish up this nice day:)

Have fun!

AJ