First Real Snow Fall

It was forecasted for a few days now, so we knew it was coming, but we were still hoping things would change. Unfortunately it finaly hit and we now have a fair amount of snow on the ground.

It’s still falling as I write this, but it slowing down and I think most of the accumulation is done. I’ll have to go clear the driveway soon.

We took advantage though and have been using this time to get our house back in order after a mad Christmas. I even went through all my closet and storage container to get rid of clothes that are too big for me. In the past I’ve always held on in case I went back up in weight. That’s like giving my self an excuse that it’s OK to do that. Not anymore they are all going. Part of my motivation for this was when I posted a comparison family picture from six years ago to this Christmas. I still had the same sweater I was wearing and I wore it a few days ago, even though it floated on me. Time for it to go.

Once all that was done it felt like a good time to make the most of the snow and get out for at least a short walk to enjoy it. I could only convince Noah to come with me, but he and I went for a little trek into a little wooded path. As much as I could do without it, the snow really is beautiful.

snow-storm

Christmas 2015

It’s amazing how much a difference a day can make. Yesterday was Christmas Eve, and it was a bit overwhelming. All the kids seemed to have too much stored energy and it was coming out and not always in the best ways. There was lots of bickering and arguing going on. It was a busy day with Jen and I working to get lots of headway made for today and meals last night.

Christmas for me is all about getting to spend time with family and friends. We are lucky enough to usually celebrate with multiple meals between getting together with my family and Jen’s. In years past though we have always had meals with Jen’s family at our house and meals with my family at my Mothers house. This year though we are doing both sets here.

There are lots of upsides to this because everyone gets to come to us and we don’t have to travel and hurry from one place to the next. It also means a lot of work getting meals ready, cleaned up, house presentable etc. Getting to be with everyone is worth it though, and the food is always excellent.

With all the prep work yesterday and the kids the way they were I ended up going for a run more or less to clear my head and get some time alone. I always feel better after a run and indeed it did help.

Today has been a different story. Because of all our hard work yesterday there wasn’t as much to do today. The kids let us sleep in until shortly after 7:00am which was lovely. We opened gifts with Jen’s family and celebrated my Mother In Laws birthday at the same time. My sister and her family came over for what has become our Christmas lunch tradition of enchiladas and quesadillas. Once we were done we took advantage of some amazing weather and went for a walk all together at the marsh. There were many other people out with the same idea.

When we got back I peeled some sweet potatoes for dinner and then, strictly because of the beautiful weather, I decided to go for a run again. For Christmas I had received a couple items of winter running wear but I’m very thankful I didn’t get to try them out today. Instead I went for my first short sleeved run in quite a while.

After a delicious Christmas/Birthday dinner in which I was able to control myself and not over do it on the desert, unlike last night, it was very nice to sit and relax for a bit.

Once everyone left though we did a final cleanup of the gifts so that we can make it through and sit in the living room without squishing anything. Now with the kids off to bed we can really relax, just Jen and I, with just the lights from the Christmas tree.

I’m very thankful to have so much family close by who we can share these special holidays with, it really does make the little bit of stress that comes along with the busy time of year all worth it.

Fitbit vs Runkeeper

For the past few days when I’m out running I’ve been tracking my runs with both Runkeeper and my new Fitbit Surge. Even if I was extremely happy with Fitbit’s tracking I would still be doubling up with Runkeeper at least until the end of the year when my goal is reached.

The first day I ran with the Fitbit I was impatient and didn’t wait for it to find GPS and hit quick start. It seemed to be taking a really long time to find and I just wanted to go. Since then I’ve waited for it to connect to GPS before starting out though. Today I started both Runkeeper and the Fitbit within seconds of each other and the results were pretty off. It looks like Fitbit didn’t really have a good GPS signal after the first km it seemed to catch up and track things properly.

Fitbit should have started pretty much the exact same spot as the end.
Runkeeper is right on the money

You can see the difference between the maps above, Runkeeper on the right is pretty much bang on what I ran. Fitbit on the left should have started the same place as the ending is marked.

Has anyone else had issues with the GPS in their Surge? It’s not a really big deal, but I’d like to be able to depend on one and so far I love everything else about the Surge so I would like it to be it.

Getting Close

Sometime this week I will be hitting my goal of 500km in running. I’m really excited and even though it isn’t really a lot compared to many runners, some weeks it has been a battle to get my 25km in that I needed.

This past week was one of them. I had started out with great intentions to get ahead for the week by running 10km but that didn’t work out. Shortly after starting I had to turn around because I wasn’t feeling well. Self inflicted by eating to much bad food. That caused me to pretty much get all my running in from Wednesday onward. I ran two 10k’s and a 5k with a rest day on Thursday. I much prefer to spread thing a out more but it felt good doing two 10k’s in a week.

Because of that, and the new FitBit, I’ve been doing much better at eating well this week, especially these last two days. It’s been motivation for me to track what I’m eating again. As much as I dislike doing that, with FitBit it is easy and it really keeps me accountable.

Christmas Shopping with Noah

Today I was able to get out on my first shopping date with one of the kids for the year. We’ve started drawing names so each Jen and I take out two kids individually to pick out small gifts for their siblings and have a treat with Mom or Dad. 

We had some ideas before we went on what he wanted to get them and as luck would have it we could get all three at the same store!

We timed it around lunch time because for his treat Noah wanted a cheese burger. Trying to be good I packed a wrap and apple for myself to eat right before we pulled in so I wouldn’t be tempted by McDonalds food. 

Once I had Noah all setup with his happy meal I tried opening his toy for him and knocked over my full hot coffee all over my foot and floor. Just the kind of scene I wanted in a busy restaurant. Noah thought it was kind of amusing and we were both impressed the have me a new one when I went to tell them what I had done. 

Besides that mishaps we had a fun time. Looking forward to getting out with Alexandria very soon as well. 

 

Stepping It Up With FitBit

Today I jumped on the FitBit band wagon. Only I won’t actually be on the wagon because that won’t up my step count 🙂

This is either going to be a real good thing for me or a bad one. This could be the push and the motivator for me to get back on track. It could also make me a bit obsessive. It put it on around 4:00pm today and was at times walking laps around the main floor of the house just to make it to 5000 steps. 

I also started tracking my food and water intake as well. At least I drink enough water. I tried eating well today and still ended up way over the calories. Tomorrow I’ll do better and I’ll also burn more calories. 

The FitBit is one of the newest benefits from Automattic which is amazing. We have a group setup and I know there is no way that I’ll keep up with some of my coworker leaders but it will be good motivation to try. 

I’m looking forward to trying out the run tracking on it tomorrow and seeing how many steps I get on a regular full day. 

  

Zeus, Me, and the Christmas Tree

For most of the afternoon I suffered from a headache. After school the house was pretty hectic for a while which didn’t make it any better.

After dinner everyone went Christmas Caroling at a local nursing home. It was too late for Noah though and Alexandria had riding lessons. They were only there for a bit and I went to pick them up. After dropping Alex off at riding I brought Noah home and got him to bed. I went strait back into my jammy pants that I had only taken off for the short time going to get them.

That left just Zeus and I to hang out on the couch enjoying the quiet. Nice and peaceful and to top it off my headache is gone.

I’ve Created a Monster

JK model (30)Pretty sure I’ve helped create a monster, a leggings monster. For sometime now the ladies in our house have become very enthusiastic about leggings. It’s become one of the primary pieces of clothing in each of their wardrobes.

A few weeks ago Jen even hosted a leggings party at our house. An independent representative from JK Apparel brought her inventory of leggings over and Jen invited a bunch of people over to try them on and buy them. It was a successful party I’d say.

Last week I had the opportunity to work a bit answering some support questions for WooCommerce. I setup a few test sites so I could play and while digging in and learning things I really wanted to learn more. To motivate me I wanted to find something I could actually sell in a live store so I could set it up and maintain it a bit. It also could be anything that would take any real time and that’s when it hit me.

It took very little convincing to have Jen sign up to be a rep for JK Apparel as well. Her first shipment of leggings and other things are on their way. Since I put the idea in her head it’s taken up a lot of the conversations in the house. Jens been calculating, planning, and organizing getting ready to hit he ground running. There is no doubt in my mind that she’s going to do awesome in this venture and I love seeing her so excited about it.

It also makes me happy that I’ll get to play more with WooCommerce but not have to do any of the actual work involved with processing orders 🙂

Morning Walk at the Marsh

Jen had the day off today, well at least until after school, so we took a bit of time this morning and went for a walk around the marsh.

The water had a skim of ice on the top in some places. The grass and cat tails were shimmering with a bit of frost. Our faces were a little cold when we were done, but it was a really nice way to spend time together.

Car == Fixed

A couple weeks ago I wrote about how my car wouldn’t start, and since then it has been sitting in the drive way not going anywhere. We made out fairly well on one car, although it was challenging at times and we burned a lot more gas driving just the big SUV. Today that came to a change though. It is once again alive!

It took a couple weeks due to time, weather, and lack of tools. Weather has been cold and wet and I don’t have anywhere to do any work to the car except in the drive way. About a week ago after I had tried checking all the things I could with the tools I had I was pretty sure it was the starter itself on the car that as gone. Luckily all I needed was a new socket set and found one on sale for only $20. It’s a good set and I really should have had one ages ago.

After many YouTube videos for research and a pretty big scare one night I was ready to get to work. After the car had sat about a week I though it would be wise to take it for a drive so it wasn’t just sitting and things getting ceased up. So I went out and tried to push it and get it going by myself with a bump start. The only problem is our driveway is on a hill and I had to push up the hill. Didn’t quite have it in me by myself and so I ended up calling from my cell phone in a panic for Jen to come out and put the break on because I was just barely able to hold the car from rolling down the hill, across the yard, and into our shed.

Yesterday came and the weather was beautiful, so when everyone else was out in the morning I went out and took apart the car a bit so I could get to the starter. Pulled it out and right away saw what the problem was. There was a braided wire from one part of the starter to the other that had broken. Jen was thrilled with the picture I sent her with the starter on the kitchen counter.

2002 Honda Civic Starter
2002 Honda Civic Starter

After considering just trying to repair the connection a friend reminded me that there is lots of current that flows there and if it broke it could be because something else in the starter is not working right. Found a used one at a local salvage yard but they weren’t open until today. They have all their parts catalogued and organized so when I stopped by they went right to it and brought it to me, all tested and ready to go.

Today on a lunch break I went out and put the new starter on and everything else back together and it started the first turn of the key. This makes me a mechanic now right? I’m very excited that I was able to get this fixed for about $100 when the part itself was quoted at almost $300 not including labour.