Hello wednesday. Whaaaaaaat's happening?

Hiya.
Feeling spot on shiny this morning. life is good.
Last night I got a lot of good and not so good errands and chores done.  Trimmed hedges, mowed grass, tidied house and then (*sigh*) treated my carpet to clean up after my...um...leaky old cat. I had hoped to start up my blueberry wine but just ran out of time. I'll do that tonight instead. After that long loooooong full day (I only got my work lunch at 3) J and I just relaxed a bit and watched some Doctor Who before signing out.

This morning I got up to the Day 3 of insanity workout that focuses on arms. 3 times through of (50 sec work/10sec rest) planked row + fly (8 Lb, R arm), planked row + fly (8 Lb, L arm), skull crusher tricep dips alternating side shoulders, pushup + half burpee, chest press (10Lb dumbells)+ bicycle legs, "sandbag" swing (10Lb dumbell). Nice workout and then some blueberries and oatmeal and I'm out the door and in to work raring to go. Another busy day. I get to wear my manager hat today and do job interviews...weirdness. I'll try and be an adult :)

Have a great day everyone :)

Fruity

Last night was fruitful. (bwaha. My sides.) Chopped and froze up 26 cups of raspberries and 28 cups of rhubarb. Also picked up 10 Lb of blueberries (they were on for $2/Lb!) to start a batch of wine tonight. I do believe I will get a few more blueberries and some cherries on the way home to freeze since they're suddenly cheap and I'd love to have some around for baking later.
On the weekend is the farmers market and for once we'll be home, so bring on more fruits and veg! I am hoping for peaches and saskatoons and some cucumbers, green tomatoes and heirloom carrots. Soon it's squash season too. He heh. I love this time of year. :)
Last night I was reminded of why I need a garden...had some baby potatoes and garden fresh peas with some chicken for supper and mmm...so much flavour. You really only need a bit of butter and salt and pepper and the flavour of the food just leaps out at you and jumps up and down on your tongue. I'm in foodie heaven...made some fresh rhubarb almond muffins for dessert and it was glorious :). We ran errands in a happy healthy veggie haze.

This morning I got up for another home workout. I did the Day 2 of the Dailyhiit insanity workout for abs and then since that was rather short I added in as much of their posted workout from last monday as I could. Insanity Day 2 was twice through (30 sec work/10 sec rest): cross legged ab/butt raise (L),  cross legged ab/butt raise (R), scissor step pass-throughs, bike abs, pointed toe touches (L),  pointed toe touches (R) and Vsits. Ye olde abs were complaining by the end. Then the daily workout. It was rounds of 15 reps of squats, jump squats, side and front lunges (both legs), deadlifts (20 Lb) and calf raises. They wanted 5 times through but I ran out of time, so I did 3 full times through and then another set of squats and deadlifts before I ran off to the shower and some oatmeal with maple syrup and raspberries (I'm hooked) to make my bus.

And now?
Science :)

Bountiful and blessed

What started off as a very lame weekend ended up a great one, with us visiting Dad at the lake, going fishing, relaxing and just drinking coffee and visiting with him, playing around with the wood lathe he bought recently.  And then we stopped for supper and a visit with my in-laws on the way home from the lake too. As a huge bonus, after supper I got to pick raspberries in their garden - they have 2 HUGE hedgerows of raspberries and I came home with all kinds of garden fresh goodies in the end - tonnes of rhubarb, about 18 pints of fresh raspberries (they get that much every 3-4 days for all august, can you imagine??), some fresh peas and baby potatoes, and even some jams, pickles and sausage she had made earlier...I felt guilty at how much I came home with, but they insisted. They were happy to have me come and pick and she even picked with me so I could have a LOT to take home for freezing for jams and such...cuz I have a freezer now. He heh. Bazinga!
I plan to make some small batches of rhubarb and raspberry mead, as well as some jams. Soon there will be much a brewing and canning at Casa Geo. Oh yes....This has given me the itch to go berry picking next weekend too...it's time for the local u-pick farms to have lots of saskatoon berries and strawberries to pick, so I can get another bounty for the freezer and future wine cellar then too. Bwahaha! I want to try a bunch of small experimental types of wines so I know what is good to make bigger batches of next year...
This sort of thing makes me crave a garden. Reminds me of gardening with my mum and grandma and there is NOTHING like garden fresh veg. Next year I will have raised beds in my front yard for planting and I can't wait....my own carrots, beets, peas, lettuce and tomatoes? Yeah!!!
Got me so pumped that this morning I decided it was back to basics again. We are done holidays until at least mid-september and I honestly have done not much at all this July exercise wise and so now, thanks to the help of the plyo box I made with my dad, it's back on. Beast mode. Working consistently with healthy diet for a while to get back on the level. I was really starting to notice how my mood and ability to deal with stress is significantly reduced when I am not working out or eating clean, so for the good of me and my slowly shrinking muscles, it's back to things again.
This morning was a try at Day one of the DailyHiit Week of Insanity workouts. Solid. 30 seconds work and 10 seconds rest (5 rounds through) of: box jumps, box step up elbow to knee (L), box jump up and back, box step up elbow to knee (R), mountain climbers, birddogs with ab crunch L side, birddogs with ab crunch R side. I used my 10 Lb weight as much as I could for the step ups and made sure I went all out for the intervals and it felt great to be sweaty. It was hard...I can tell that I've lost a bit of strength, but now I feel great.
The box worked well - it's 14" by 22"  so I have a few height choices and it seems we built it strong enough. It has the unplanned bonus of my cat going inside the bottom of the box contentedly and curling up in it when I have it tipped to use the 14" side while I workout - it means that I don't run the risk of stepping on him while I exercise (he tends to get underfoot and I don't want to step on his old fuzzy butt).
Now? Well, I've had my oatmeal with maple syrup and fresh raspberries (so very very good...) and I am ready for the day.

precious sleep, how I love you

Spent all last evening going through camping gear and getting cleaned, dried and packed away form our holiday. Soon our house and deck will not be overrun with rubbermaid bins and coolers. Soon...
Then I made stirfry veg and rhubarb clafoutis...mmm... and after a long exhausting evening I slept in this AM and feel all the better for it. I think I'm back finally from the sleep deprivation of the last few weeks and feel good again. Tonight I hope to get out for a long walk and do some more packing up and cleaning...we shall see. I need to get organized a bit. J is helping (!!!) so we're getting lots done. It's worth the time to feel sane in my own house again!

Hope you're all having a great day!

W is for wimpy. C is for cherries.

Well, I tried to workout this morning...the thing about staying out to all hours all weekend is it mucks up your sleep. I did do a full set of 10 of pushups, tricep pushups, deadlifts, bent rows, shoulder press, bicep curls, butt lifts and bicycle crunches and crunches....and then held my purring cat and cleaned my kitchen and made some oatmeal with cherries. Not my proudest moment. I will try and do an hiit tonight to make up for it. For now... what I really need is some coffee. Stat.
I confess I am currently addicted to cherries. It's starting to be fruit season here and the trucks form the BC orchards are making their way out here and yum...cherries. Soon peaches too :) We (OK mostly I) ate a 5 Lb bag of cherries over the weekend and I grabbed some more on the way home yesterday. Mmmm. Can you get a weird disease from eating too many cherries? Let's find out, shall we?

I went to the woods to...

Gorgeous weekend. Spent time in the cloudy forest with J and other friends and listened to some great music. Relaxed and breathed in the nature, and pushed out the stress and spent time relaxing in beautiful northern Saskatchewan. The final night after all the shows were over we sat up in the staff/volunteer cabin late late late, singing songs with the last remaining awake people as they sang songs by the fire with guitar, piano, banjo, bass and even trumpet, with all of us joining in. I provided the kazoo accompaniment for a few numbers. I will carry memories from that night forward for years to come...the kind of community and connection music brings is something to behold when it pops into your world for a visit :)
Fabulous.
Starting tomorrow it's back to more of a regular routine again.
For now, I am just happy to be...me.

Alive and kicking

Well...feeling much more human again. PMSing enough to eat my weight in cheese, but trying to keep it together. Finally felt well enough to feel like working out yesterday but had such a crazy day I couldn't fit it in until after 9 PM last night, but I did fit it in. :) First workout in weeks...boy I did feel good after. I just did the most recent DailyHiit (3 rounds, 50sec on/10sec rest): Clean and press with 20 Lb (2 X 10Lb dumbells...wish I had heavier), cross country abs, lay down to stand up and jump up (with 10 Lb), alternating forward lunge with side twist (10 Lb). Really felt good to sweat and I feel OK today so I think I have the all clear for more again tonight.

Hope you've all been having a great time lately. I have been, despite my sniffles, which is why I haven't been by so much. Life tends to take over in the summers and there is so much to see and do - don't want to miss a minute of this elusive summer sun :). This weekend I'm off to my very first folk festival - looking forward to a mellow weekend in the sun. J is already there working at a stage so I get to roll in friday PM with all the camping gear set up (hooray!) and just wander into the music and see some friends and relax for the weekend. Crossing my fingers for good weather...

Have a great day!

oops

My head feels fuzzy but no worse so I'll suck it up and endure. Drinking lots of tea.

A little example of how miserable I felt yesterday...I failed to notice until this AM that yesterday in my fog I sent out a message to many of the researchers about "a distilled water system shit down" today.

*embarrased mode*

Ugh

I have some kind of sinus thing going on here...hot, dizzy, queasy. Not cool.
Can't skip work as we are insanely busy and have stuff all evening to do as well.

Courage.

Sun sun sun here it comes

Just got back from a few weeks away...it was lovely. First visited my dad at the lake. Got in a nice woods run and a beach boot camp and had some great fishing and hiking times with my family. After that J and I were off to camping with friends at a music festival for 5 days. Had a wonderful time catching up and being ridiculous. It was over far too soon...
Now I'm back at regular old life and tomorrow am back at my workouts again...but I have freckles :)

Hope you've all had a stellar past few weeks!