Sunday, February 20, 2011

Grey skies are going to clear up!

Today started out with a bang. Well more of a smash really. It was one of those mornings where everything I touched turned to crap. So a smashed and shattered glass, spilled juice and broken egg later it seemed there was very little hope for today. The house looks like a moderate explosion went off in each room which normally I can overlook but having to clean up, in order to clean up the broken glass was causing me great irritation and a dark cloud formed squarely over my head, complete with steam coming out my ears. Why can't I keep the house clean? I could make a lot of excuses for myself but basically...I had to embrace the fact that I'm lazy and hate cleaning.
However my kids really seem to have a knack of pulling out a word of encouragement at the right time. Today they were able to take the little black rain cloud hanging over my head and turn it into, well, hilarity.
The kids have been cheering me through the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred workout DVD which I do on the days I don't run. 3 days running, 3 days shredding, and one day of wondering why I'm doing the other 2.
At first I was thinking Jillian was soft and easy, that was level one. Proceeding to level 2 really kicked my butt. Sometimes I have to stop, though stopping is usually because I can't do that and laugh at the same time, it's just not possible. There's a team of us working on the 30 day shred. "Extracising" as Nadine and Ryan call it.


"You've got to swing your knees if you want to see results mom. Keep going mom. That''s it, shake it out. Really swing for your arms for those flap jacks (also known as jumping jacks, it was bittersweet when they started saying jumping instead of flap)"
So today amidst the glass, juice, and all the rest of the chaos I received an encouraging "shake it out mom, you're doing great".

So after an attitude adjustment (my own), and an adequate starter amount of coffee I decided 5 miles on the treadmill was in order. I wish there was a way to simulate running outside on the treadmill. Really it's just hard to want to stay on there for very long. I decided to add an element of danger and had a near drowning  today when I accidentally sprayed my water bottle straight up my nose. Sheesh who knew running could be such a dangerous sport.
When I emerged from the basement it was time for lunch and then to hit the creek bank for the celebratory birthday snow shoeing extravaganza. Ryan turned the big 4 yesterday, and though it was FAR too cold to snowshoe yesterday, today seemed to have had the weather custom ordered for it. The snow was perfect, the temperature was a-ok, and off we went. The kids are really good at show shoeing. They float along on top of the snow, flop down in the snow, eat a LOT of snow, and love all of the above. Oh and Nadine kept stopping to chew on tree branches because she heard rabbits like to chew on branches and she'd like to be known from here on out as "princess Gunther the bunny" although that changes daily (I dunno).



Oh, and Braeden hangs out in the backpack and loves anything to do with being outside.


My fur family is made up of two tremendous athletes and one dog who is getting a bit too old for our snowshoeing shenanigans (it makes me want to cry when I type that)
Bert tolerates outings like this. Not without a bit of whining, and I sure don't make him come. He did make the entire loop with us. I love him.
Cleo has more energy and athletic ability than I've ever known in a large breed dog, especially a Newfoundland. She goes, and goes, and goes, and goes, and would still go some more.
Oliver currently has the added benefit of often being able to stay afloat on top of the snow. From the size of his paws I'd say he's going to be a contender for largest dog we've ever had and consequently may find his efforts increase exponentially next season.

After all that some popcorn, hot chocolate and a dry set of snow pants or "salipats" as they're known around here, Tim (who according to Nadine "ew your air smells like coffee" <3) took the kids down to the skating rink to try out "Honkey" also known as hockey. 
The kids haven't exactly mastered skating. Truthfully Ryan won't even try it at all. He appreciated the idea of being given a "honkey stick" but no thanks to the skates and skating. Whatever, they'll get there when they get there.
Braeden and I stayed home so he could beep Cleo's nose and both of them could take a nap.


All in all this turned out to be a pretty successful day once I "shook it out" got past my poor start and chose to embrace the chaos.





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