Life's random ramblings

I've been trying to bike at least twice a week, and just got back from today's ride.  It was beautiful - while the news reports snow and cold weather throughout the nation - I love living in Florida right now.  It feels like fall.  I can wear a light sweater (cause I have lots of them and can finally get away with wearing them at this time of the year).  The air is crisp, leaves carpet the bike path, and I'm not sweating as profusely as I will be in a couple more months.  While I was a little low on energy and lethargic, I did my full 10 miles.  Our youngest went with me last Saturday and she did great - I couldn't believe she could go that distance, but she's a trooper.  Here's a section of our bike path:
 

Our oldest daughter had her first cross country track meet yesterday.  She came in 5th of all of the girls.  I was pretty surprised, since she had told us that she was at the back of the practices and not great, and was just doing it for the fun of hanging out with her friends.  While her best friend cleaned house and came in first, I was just shocked and thrilled to see our daughter so close to the front, and am very excited about her upcoming track meets!  She must take after her daddy.  :)

Our youngest daughter has started gymnastics again.  She's spending 6 hours a week working out with a team, and seems to really be enjoying it more than she was enjoying the ballet she was taking.  Needless to say - between getting the two of them where they need to go - flute, piano, gymnastics, and track, and my music lessons, and primary calling, we've been trying to keep up.

Did I mention that we are losing access to our church?  We are being displaced to another chapel for the next 6-8 months during renovations to our building.  As such, I've been trying to figure out where to hold cub scout meetings, activity days meetings, pack meetings and everything else.  We've just cleaned out our closets, and figured out which rooms the classes will be in in our temporary new building, and it will be interesting to see how things go this Sunday at the different chapel.  I figure as long as I plan on chaos, anything other will be a welcome surprise.


I am very excited though for tomorrow.  My primary presidency is totally cashing in on the perks on living in Florida.  Our secretary has been working at Disney for 15 years, and offered to take our presidency to Disney for the day tomorrow to find our "inner children".  It should be really fun, to hang out with these ladies, and relax - without trying to solve ward and world problems, or plan the ward Christmas party etc.  Our husbands have stepped up, and are helping us to step away.  I'm hoping my feet can handle it.  Disney without kids, with 4 grown women will be interesting.  Gotta remember my Dramamine - these ladies may have a little wild in them!  We may not leave until the park closes down...Oh, and the new Neverland is open!

Finally - it is STRAWBERRY season again!  Headed out with some friends this weekend to pick strawberries to our heart's content, zipline, hayride, picnic, hang out by the fire, and consume fresh strawberry shakes or strawberry shortcake.  I'm using my sugar day at the strawberry farm this weekend.
Last year we came home and made 20 pints of fresh strawberry jam. It was SO amazingly good that we ran through it in a matter of months.  We'll have to double or triple our batch this year.

So...it is Friday Eve, looking forward to a weekend full of Disney, Strawberries, and a church re-location.  Can't wait!!  Bring it.

 

Who knew?

Here are some nifty tips I learned this morning:
Did you know that:
Adding cinnamon to your diet can increase your metabolism by 20%? Just ingest 1/4 t. - 1 t. a day!
Eating kiwi helps burn 39% more fat when you are exercising?
Ice in water makes your body work harder (to heat up the water) and increases metabolism?
Tomatoes, green peppers, and spinach contain chromium which boosts the way fat is burned?
Sunlight increases metabolism?

So they say... 

January 14, 2013

Wow.
It has been a while.
I need to be much more diligent.
We had a great Christmas.
A really nice new year.  Which brings up a point. I'm just wondering if we are drawn to the pyromaniacs, or if they are drawn to us?
It seems no matter where we live, we tend to celebrate new years eve every year with friends who LOVE fireworks.  Especially the illegal ones which send you scurrying into your home into hiding when you hear the sirens in the distance.  Sound familiar to anyone?
Why do my friends all have "connections", or a "Chinese" business partner who supplies them with rockin fireworks?  Where are our connections and Chinese business partners?

I guess we'll just have to settle for friends that love fire and have connections.
Nonetheless - we enjoyed watching fireworks that should have been in a park while we rested on blankets looking up at the night sky.  Instead, we enjoyed them from a friend's front lawn, on his neighborhood street.

We got two kittens for Christmas.
We've been very busy naming them.
Everyday we all feel compelled to come up with at least 2 names (per person) per day per cat.
Yes - the kittens seem to be very confused and don't seem to know how to respond.
And thus, we hone our debate skills each night at dinner as we discuss options.  I think the kittens have just decided that they own the place, and are indifferent to our desires to name and dominate them.

Someone was very diligent about feeding them and watering them and cleaning out their liter box for a week or so...and so it goes.

The kids went back to school and so we got the garage cleaned out and organized last week. Now all of the crap that was in the garage (for good reason) is in the hall and in the spare room (aka room of requirement).

Just when we thought things were finally calming down, we found out that finally, the permits have come through and the church remodel is beginning.  As such, I've been up to my eyebrows trying to figure out where we'll be holding cub scouts and activity days.  I also got to learn how to prepare 9 classes and a nursery for a new year with lesson schedules, new books, trainings, curriculums etc. and try to figure which teachers to put with each class.  It seems that there's always something exciting and consuming just waiting around the corner everytime I think that finally, things are slowing down.

The girls are keeping busy.  Our oldest is still in track - practicing 3 days a week, with meets starting on top of that, and keeping busy with her flute and piano as well.  Phew!

Our youngest is involved with an early morning chorus group and performances.  They are working on an audition tape so that they can perform at Disney this spring!  She's been auditioning for a gymnastics class, and officially enrolled today - leaving her short ballet career behind.

I have become a food nazi as my friends roped me into a healthy living challenge (since they said it would be easy since I do most of it anyways).  As such, I'm even more diligent about my morning walks, and adding either biking, weights, or swimming to my routine each morning.  I've cut out sugar, and am trying to use mostly fresh ingredients.  My family hasn't died...yet.

I did discover lemon grass last week.  I'm officially in love.
I even went looking for more today.
I was so thrilled - I found four lemongrass plants.  Can't wait to plant them, and be able to grow my own lemongrass.