One Year Ago

One year ago today I wrote this post A New Person, New Attitude, and New Goals. It’s a little bitter sweet looking back at that post. I had just hit my weight loss and fitness goal and set some other goals for myself.

Looking back I’ve made good progress on my three other goal areas: Time, Finances, and Happiness. A lot of that has come from me joining Automattic. There is still work to be done, but over the last year I feel we have become more financially stable. My time is more flexible and I get to spend a fair amount with my family. Overall I feel pretty darn happy.

Fitness on the other hand has taken a nose dive. Around mid October last year I ran a 10K race and after that was proud of myself and thought I would slow down a bit. That led to taking a break and falling back into old poor habits. It really seems to be all or nothing with me when it comes to fitness. If I’m not exercising I also end up making poor eating decisions.

Since mid July this year though I’ve started to get back into my good habits. Even though the past little bit I haven’t been exercising as much I feel like I’m pretty much over this cold except for a rotten cough. Last night I started doing Jillian Michaels 90 day body revolution. This is the same program I used when I lost all my weight. This time I’m going to tie it in with my running and am determined to do well in all four of my goal areas by getting my fitness right again.

Looking back at the pictures in my post a year ago is going to be my motivation. I looked and felt so good then, I want to get back there. There are about two months left before this years 10k race I signed up for so I have some work to do, but if I lose weight by working out hard and eating right it’s just going  to help my running come back even faster.

Striking Out with the Jokes

I’ve been striking out with the jokes lately. Today I was driving Caile to her friends house and going through town traffic was busy and moving slow. It’s a single two way street with a middle left turning lane.

Caile suggested she wished we could just drive up the middle and pass everyone. I asked her if there was a reason that might not be a good idea, and she knew right away why it wouldn’t work. It reminded me of a joke that I heard years ago though so I told her.

When I heard the joke it was based in Newfoundland, but you can insert what ever Province or State you want to make fun of.

Did you hear that Newfoundland is going to change their traffic laws? From now on they’re going to have all the cars start driving on the left side of the road instead of the right. If that works out then next year they’ll move the trucks over too.

Once again it took me a bit to explain the joke and why it was funny. Also as I was dropping her off at her friends house who’s father is from Newfoundland I suggested she not tell them the joke 😉

 

End of Soccer

Noah’s soccer season is coming to an end this week. They have one last practice but it is more of a fun time where they will get together as a team, have some treats and maybe play a parents vs kids game Tonight they gave out the medals to the team.

I’ve never been a big soccer fan, but Noah loves it and I love watching him play. It’s still just a bunch of kids all running in a glob after the ball, but he’s getting a lot better. He’s made some great passes, and has even wanted to play Goalie a bunch this year.

My favourite part is he gives it his all when he is out there. He doesn’t stop running up and down the field and isn’t scared to challenge anyone for the ball. I’m looking forward to see how he grows his skills as he gets older.

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Dad Joke

On the drive to dance class Ella and I ended up in a conversation about house numbers. She speculated that having a house number like 1 would make it easier to remember. Showing her where number 1 on our street was I said I wouldn’t want to live there because it is at the beginning of the street and a lot busier than where we live.

After going over a few different numbers we came to the reason she wanted a new house number. Out house number has the number 7 in it.

I hate the number 7.

I told her not to let seven hear her say that because seven is mean and scary number. All the other numbers are scared of seven seeing as 7 8 9. Not getting it I repeated and did it a bit slower. Everyone is scared of 7 because seven ate nine. You know 9 is in 7’s belly.

Still nothing. So I had to go into full explain mode. We’re having pizza for supper tonight so afterwards I can tell everyone that Ella ate pizza. Same thing 7 ate 9. All pleased with herself that she now got it she wanted to know if she could tell her friends.

Day at the Lake

This morning we got up and headed to visit Jen’s Aunt and Uncle at their cottage by a lake. It’s about a two hour trip each way so we wanted to get away at a good time. We took Jen’s Mom with us as well as it’s her Brother we were going to see. Visits out to their “Camp” are always fun days. Not only is the property beautiful, but the company is great too.

The forecast wasn’t looking the best as it was calling for rain off and on for most of the day but we already had plans made and they adjusted their plans to be there to meet with us so we took off anyway. Very glad we took the chance because we had a few fine hours there and even then it just sprinkled for a bit. Once it started raining hard we went inside and on their covered deck so even that was fine.

The kids had a great time playing in the lake. We brought our inflatable boat with us so they paddled that around. They even gathered some water lilies so Jen’s Aunt could make a display with them. Even when the rain started coming heavy Alexandria didn’t want to come in. She stayed out on the water having a blast. Noah made it quite a while with her, but eventually came in to dry off. His highlight of the trip though was a half hour four wheeler ride that Jen’s Uncle took him on.

Camp fires are one of my favourite things, and not just because you can use them to cook S’mores. With the overcast day it wasn’t overly warm so sitting and talking by the fire with Jen’s Uncle was a pleasure.

Walking Bunnies

Alexandria likes to walk the bunnies around the backyard on leashes. They seem to enjoy it too.

Photo 2015-08-08, 7 48 31 PM

Much Better Day Today

Yesterday was one of those days where just nothing seemed to go right. I would have likely been better off if I had just stayed in bed and there were parts of the day when I felt like that is what I should do. Just call it over and get out of the way.

It started right when I got up. My full intention to get out for a run. Instead the cold seemed worse than it had been. I ended up getting into a coughing fit so bad I almost threw up, my nose was running like crazy, really everything just felt gross.

I settled into work and the work day actually went really well. But then I was getting ready to head to an appointment in the city. On a normal day it takes about an hour and twenty minutes to get there. I have myself just a little bit of wiggle room to take into account traffic. When I was getting ready to go I made myself a coffee for the road. On my way out the door I went to grab the mug but instead knocked it over spilling a lot of hot coffee all over the counter and floor.

After getting that all cleaned up I didn’t have time to make another or time to stop for one on the way, but off I went. On the highway about less than half of the way there I hear the warning that the highway I’m on has been closed between exits 6 and 8 in both directions. I had just passed the last exit before hitting this. Traffic slowed to a crawl, we had to exit the highway and take a detour through the back roads past a couple exits. There were times we didn’t move at all. I had to get Jen to call and tell them I wouldn’t make my appointment on time. They told me to come anyway, that I might have to wait a bit, but that they’d get me in.

Made it in about an hour after my appointment was supposed to be and had to wait about another 40 minutes to get to see someone. In the end it worked out but it also cost me over $100 more than I had been told before I got there, that was a bit of a surprise.

On the way home I had heard about a Restaurant close by that was serving Pictou County style pizza and that it was really good. I decided to try and cheer myself up by grabbing a slice of that. Maybe it’s because I had just had the real thing so recently, but this didn’t cut it. It was OK, but not like Acropole Pizza.

The highway was still closed on the way home so I had to go through the detour again. It was a bit faster than on the way in but still very slow with complete stops. When I finally made it home I went to make myself a smoothie and broke the lid on our food processor. I was scared to touch anything else after that.

Today on the other hand has been amazing so far. I stayed in bed past 8:30 am, I honestly can’t remember the last time I did that. Jen had taken all the kids for a couple errands so I was able to get up and take my time. I even made a coffee with nothing going wrong. After I was ready I took off to meet everyone to go blueberry picking. It’s just the beginning of the season so the berries were great and the weather was about perfect too.

After a quick stop home for some lunch we took off to the Wolfville Reservoir Park to go for a swim. The water was beautiful and my sister and her kids ended up coming too for a while. I didn’t stay in the water a long time but relaxed on the shore and then went for a little walk with Noah as he was done in the water too.

What a difference a day can make!

Noah and I went for a walk
Kids Swimming
Waiting for the blueberry bus
Kids swimming
Caile picking blueberries
Noah picking blueberries
Ella picking blueberries
Lots of Blueberries
Taking the blueberry bus back to the fields

Battle of the W Logos

We have a bit of a debate going on in my house, which W logo is better? As anyone who knows me I might have a bit of an obsession going on with WordPress swag. There are an awful lot of things in my office and life that have the WordPress logo front and centre.

My wife on the other hand has had a crush on Donnie Walhberg since the New Kids on the Block came on the scene many years ago. So when their family opened the Walhburgers Restaurants she decided she needed to get a bit of their swag. That nostalgia is pretty hard to compete with.

So, don’t judge based on the model in the picture, that isn’t fair to me or WordPress, but which W logo is best? We bought the Walhburgers hat for her Father but she wouldn’t put it on for the picture 🙂

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Finding Time for Yourself

The topic of freedom has been on my mind for a while now. During my later teenage years I had more freedom than I knew what to do with. Now there are days when it sometimes feels like my time really isn’t my own.

Honestly I have nothing to complain about in my life, I’m a very lucky guy but some days can get hectic and it makes me wish for a little down time while I’m still awake. As it is I get up early in the  morning to try and fit in a run then start work at a good time so that I’m free in the later afternoon / evening to be there to run errands or run kids to where they need to be.

No one kid is in a lot of things, but multiply that by four and it doesn’t take long before the schedule is getting full. For the most part it’s great. I get to watch my oldest ride horses, something that she excels in and loves doing. My son playing soccer with so much energy and enthusiasm. My middle two, daughters who love performing. Whether it’s drama, dancing, or combining the two.Watching them do these things gives me great happiness and I’m thankful that I’m able to be there and am able to provide these things for them.

Dance class can be rather nice break sometimes though. As you’re not able to watch them practice if you can get the errands ran quickly it leaves some time you can go grab a coffee and read a book before it’s time to pick them back up again.

Yesterday I had to go to the library to return a book and then check it right back out again because I had renewed it twice online and couldn’t do it again. It’s a really good book, but I just can’t seem to find the time to read it while my mind is awake.

On occasion where I try to sneak off to get a few pages in the guilt I feel is real. My wife is a super human I’m convinced and that doesn’t help. She never seems to need a break and is always going strong. As there are always things around the house that can be done she is always finding them and doing them. So if I’m off reading while she’s making supper, or vacuuming, that just doesn’t seem fair does it. If I could convince her to take some time for herself it might be better, but that’s a hard sell.

With the kids getting older it seems to be getting worse. They stay up later which takes away from the quiet time we used to get when they went to bed earlier. There are some nights now that the oldest and I go to bed at the same time.

As I mentioned before as a teenager there was a time where I answered to no one. I had pretty much as close to zero responsibility as there was. That wasn’t a good thing either. As it was it took my life down a harder path than I needed to go. There has to be a happy medium though. It’s important to get a bit of time by yourself to recharge.

Maybe I’m feeling this way because for the past few days I haven’t been getting our running, so that bit of time that I used to clear my head isn’t there. When I was running more often last year that was one of my favourite parts. Having a cold has made it tough so I’ve been trying to rest so I’ll get better quicker. Tomorrow might be the day that I give it a try again. The last week when I was running a lot seemed to go much smoother and have me in a better mental state.

How does everyone else find the balance of work, family, and personal time? Do you feel you get enough personal time?

Soda Cracker Candy

Yesterday and today I was reminded of a treat that doesn’t sound like it would be great but I liked it as a kid and my kids really like it as well.

Jen made them yesterday for a snack for the first time ever. Today when my Mother was dropping off Caile from a sleep over they had made them today and sent them home for everyone.

They’re pretty simple and really tasty. You should certainly try them.

Soda Cracker Candy

  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup Brown Sugar
  • 1 Cup Butter
  • Soda Crackers
  • Package of Chocolate Chips

Directions:

  • Line cookie sheet with parchment paper
  • Arrange soda crackers to cover the bottom
  • Boil brown sugar and butter for 3 minutes
  • Pour mixture over crackers and spread
  • Bake 5 minutes at 350 degrees
  • Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips when bubbling stops
  • Spread the chocolate chips
  • Refrigerate then cut into pieces

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