Posts Tagged ‘exercise’
« Older Entries |exploring fall on my feet
Saturday, October 22nd, 2011
My writing just isn’t prolific right now. Most of my thoughts remain in my head for the moment, tucked away until later. And that is okay. Instead, I find myself thoroughly exploring Fall.
It is difficult to be working all day long, knowing that the sunlight is getting ahead of you. When I finally get home from work, I have about 15 minutes before the sun has completely gone away, leaving behind the early evening settled in inky darkness. So I dash home and strap on my running shoes and make my way outside. Sometimes I go for a run, and sometimes I go for long, fast-paced walks—at least 3 miles and sometimes closer to 5.
I am actually really loving the rhythm of walking right now. And sometimes Craig joins me.
It’s fun to check out all the houses in the neighborhoods decorated and ready to go for Halloween. Strings of orange lights, decorative ghosts swaying in the breeze hanging from the trees, pumpkins piles on front stoops. Fall is everywhere. I can smell wood stove fires, the scent of cinnamon, and the distinctive taste of the crisp autumn air. The trees rustle in the wind and leaves swirl about my head as they lazily fall from the sky.
Soon it will be raking time; I give it another week or two. But for now, this time is still mine for exploring. And the weekend is finally here, so I can get out of the house and enjoy this breezy, 60°F day in the sunlight. The leaves are putting on a dazzling display.
So Craig and I are off for another long walk, ready for more Fall exploration.
Tags: autumn, exercise, gratitude, mindfulness, running, walking
Posted in Let's Get Physical, The Daily Balance | No Comments »
picking tomatillos
Friday, September 30th, 2011
I cannot believe that today is the last day of September. Wow. I also can’t believe that the garden is still going. I am just now starting to pick tomatillos!
Here is what the tomatillo plant looked like in mid-summer.
And now there are little hanging tomatillo lanterns with a tart green fruit inside.
I have been combing through cookbooks and websites to try to find fun tomatillo recipes. And I think tomorrow I am going to try for a tomatillo chicken stew.
I just think tomatillos are so elegant looking.
So fall is definitely here, but we are still having some fantastic warm temps in the 70s. I have been outside running or walking almost every night for the past 3 weeks. And we’ve also gotten our fair share of rain over the past weeks as well, which has greatly helped with growing grass. And now the tomatillos are ripe and ready to be picked. My own little fall harvest.
The garden is still doing its thing, and I take great comfort in that. It greatly helps with my denial that fall is here and that it is pitch black out by 7 p.m.
For reals.
Tags: autumn, exercise, gardening, gratitude, organic, running, tomatillo
Posted in The Daily Balance, The Growing Season | No Comments »
wide awake with wonder
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
It is late. And I need to go to bed. But I cannot fall asleep! It is the end of June, and I find myself pausing to take in the wonder.
The beauty of Summer finally here after such a long and weary winter. The smell of fresh-cut grass after Craig mowed tonight. Our little house slowly transforming itself with new floors, a new fan in the living room, a porch waiting to be loved, walls waiting to be painted. Our car finally inspected after having to get the windshield replaced today after it cracked this winter. Our fridge stocked with freshly picked lettuces and baby spinach and sugar snap peas and garlic scapes from the garden. A new jug of straight-from-the-cow raw milk that my Mom picked up from the farm today. Bills all paid for the month. My running shoes taking a break after a hearty workout. Stacks and stacks of books piled neatly on the dresser waiting for me to dive into them. Work completed today and still more work just waiting for me to tackle tomorrow.
I am so thankful for how busy and wonderful and productive June has been. I have been making such a conscientious effort to be more efficient and productive this month. No matter how often I get frustrated or how often I feel overwhelmed with how much I have to do and all that I want to get done, I have been trying harder than ever to go with the flow and take very slow—yet very deliberate—baby steps to get more things accomplished in my day-to-day. I am a lover of to-do lists, but they often get recycled from week to week and not much ever gets crossed off.
But not this month. I set out with some pretty ambitious goals, and I made them happen one small step at a time! And that is worth celebrating! Here are a few highlights:
• refinish hardwood floors in living room and dining room
• buy ceiling fan for living room
• get ceiling fan installed
• remove knob and tube wiring in the attic
• rewire upstairs hallway light
• install new outside outlet near driveway
• rewire basement
• get rid of old couch
• get quotes for painting living room and dining room
• decide on new paint colors
• weed garden
• plant tomatoes
• clean gas grill and use it!
• fix cracked windshield on car
• get car inspected
• make and keep dentist appointment
• make and keep doctor’s appointment
• make and keep annual exam
• make running a priority
• remember to take vitamin and fish oil
• reorganize and de-clutter basement
• get porch repainted! (working on it… TBD… asap!)
Phew. It’s been hectic and rewarding and awesome around here. But right now I should be asleep! Still so much swirling around in my brain. Taking it all in. I feel good. I feel relaxed and invigorated and satisfied… albeit wide awake.
Some old habits die hard I suppose. Happy June to you! I hope your month has been everything you wanted it to be!
Tags: exercise, gardening, gratitude, home improvement, housework, mindfulness, summer
Posted in Household Management 101, Let's Get Physical, The Daily Balance, The Growing Season | No Comments »
seriously icy
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
Happy, happy March to you!!! WE MADE IT! March is here!
You know what this means, right? March means SPRING! For reals.
But it is still very much winter here. I am still in my get up, go to work, come home, go running routine. But now I am so very curious to see how March plays out. Will it stay cold? Will the sidewalks soon be cleared from snow enough that I can start running outside? Will the lion-like winds continue all month? Will it suddenly warm up and *poof* the snow will be gone like it did last year? How long will it take the snow to melt? Will I ever see robins back in our yard? When? When? When?
Yeah, I am pretty much reaching my winter limit here in southern New Hampshire.
It snowed an awful mess of a storm on Friday. I volunteered to shovel the driveway and walkways after work. It was a heavy, wet, slushy snow. And then it snowed again on Sunday, leaving another 6″ of lighter, fluffy snow. I shoveled that, too.
Now it is Wednesday, and I am still sore from all that shoveling. Great workout! While the temps have warmed up to the upper 30s (ooooh! ahhhhh!) during the day, it still gets very cold and windy here at night.
What does all this mean?
ICE. Stupid amounts of thick, slippery ice coating our walkway.
Making it from the kitchen side door to the driveway in one piece has become a sport.
And if I go down, it’s not going to be pretty.
Tags: exercise, running, spring, treadmill, winter
Posted in Let's Get Physical, The Daily Balance | 4 Comments »
winter awakening
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
Hello! I am still very much behind on getting my thoughts together about my latest traveling adventure. This seems to happen to me every time I go away. I tend to have trouble transitioning back into my routine.
So I am still working to catch up. But where did I go? I went to Munich, Germany for 9 days to tag along with Craig on a business trip. I had so much fun. It was amazing to once again get out of town in the middle of winter. To get back to Europe! While I was in there, I took a side trip to Verona, Italy. INCREDIBLE.
I am busy sorting through photos, getting caught up on laundry, and trying to plow through the mountains of work-work that I came home to. All while trying to pick right back up with my running routine. The upside of all of this is that I am pretty darn busy and content.
This is good. Really good.
Normally by about this time in winter I am dragging. Normally I am down in the dumps. Normally I just sort of slog my way home after a long day of work and creep up the stairs to my bedroom and dive under the covers and hibernate. My infamous winter hibernation.
But I am doing so much better this year. No hibernating! In fact, I feel like I am having this truly amazing winter awakening. Granted, this could easily be post-vacation talk, but I do feel very alive and aware. I love that the sky is now the tiniest bit still light out when I leave work. I love waking up to the sounds of chickadees and song birds in the morning and the way the harsh winter sunlight streams through the trees. I love making hearty winter soups on Sundays to last throughout the week (this week’s creation is a southwest black bean).
And I kind of love forcing myself to get on the treadmill when I come home from work. No, seriously, I do. You see, it is all too easy to just resign myself to sleep and collapse on my bed every evening. But the kick and release I get out of going for a run is so worth it. My body feels lighter, less sluggish. My mind feels elevated. I am sleeping so much better at bedtime, too!
This winter awakening is pretty fantastic. I can look at my calendar and see that March will soon be here. And with March comes Spring! It’s not too, too long now. We have endured freezing cold temps and feet upon feet of snow. But there will be an end.
And I will bide my time with work and running and cooking and snuggling and writing until the thaw comes.
Tags: exercise, gratitude, running, travel, treadmill, winter, winter hibernation
Posted in The Daily Balance | No Comments »