Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts

Friday, January 11, 2013

It's a Beautiful Life!

Ok, I wasn't sitting down expecting to do a Quick-Takes post, but there are so many things floating around in my head, that it just makes sense!
--- 1 ---
Today has been a beautiful day - and I don't mean in the "birds are singing, the sun is shining, the grass is green" sort of way, because - let's face it - it's a foggy, grey, melty, yucky sort of January day when you don't want to see your brown, bedraggled lawn poking up through the quickly diminishing snow.
The day started with morning Mass, followed by the first in a series of 6 classes on Dei Verbum.  Sound boring?  Potentially.  But not.  Did you know that Aristotle and Plato, with just their own powers of reasoning, determined the human soul to be immortal??  I didn't!  (And here's one of a bazillion online articles referencing it.)  It's so beautiful - God gives us so many opportunities and starting points to come to know Him!
--- 2 ---
After class I was pondering just how I was going to get the kids home and fed without having to resort to meat-eating at the local Mickey D's (something we try to avoid on Fridays - the meat-eating, not necessarily McD's) when a friend suggesting continuing conversations over a bagel at the cafe nearby.  Bagels, while not the most incredibly ideal nutritional food, work great for Fridays - and even better, my kids will actually eat them! 
(Awesome looking recipe I'd like to try at home - maybe then my little guy wouldn't be constantly begging me to buy more bagels!)

--- 3 ---
We got to talk about the impression that other people "have things together" (whether they do or not) and how each of us have things together in our own special way.  This is something I've been working on lately - with a book that was first introduced to me approximately 7 or 8 years ago, before marriage and children were even on the radar:
 I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to really go through and take this book seriously, working through each chapter - I'm buzzing with excitement about the potential this book has as a tool to take every facet of my life to the next level!  (And I have to say, that whole idea of peacefulness is really attractive with two toddlers around...)
--- 4 ---
After getting the rug-rats into bed for their afternoon nap (fingers crossed and prayers being said that they'll actually stay there and sleep) I jumped onto our new elliptical machine (Merry Christmas!) and survived my 9th workout of the year - and I didn't just survive it!  (Throughout this post you have been witnessing the post-workout adrenaline buzz.)  Now maybe that sounds slightly impressive when you consider it's only the 11th day of the year, but it's really not that incredibly amazing when I admit that each workout lasts all of 15 minutes - but my speed and endurance have substantially improved over these last 11 days, and of that, I am proud.
--- 5 ---
I know that part of this improvement is attributable simply to consistency and taking it slowly but surely.  But another part of this I can definitely say is the result of simply changing my mental activity during the workout.  I initially thought, hey, I'll watch a little TV while I exercise, take my mind off it.  But maybe it's better to transform something not incredibly enjoyable into something more, rather just distracting yourself from it until the terrible-ness is over. 
--- 6 ---
That transforming force was:
I've long known that jogging to this music is so much more fun than just slogging along in silence or to something with a more relaxed beat.  This stuff really makes you go!  And it's not just the tempo - for me the lyrics are really captivating and thought-provoking, not to mention empowering!  (How's that for big words and feel-good jargon?)
--- 7 ---
My two most favorite tracks:
Dandelions:  pretty much sums up for me how God sees us with all our imperfections and loves us anyway.  Don't know who came up with the animation, but it's perfect!

I don't care what others say, One Girl Army is about Mary!
Here are the lyrics: 
Here lies the old myth,
Breaking the mold with,
Truth to take away the trickery.
Twenty centuries of progress,
Suffer slowly as we regress,
Losing headway to ourselves.

Behold the covers, the sisters, the mothers,
The daughters, and spouses, on the magazines.
Truth has been abused.
How could she fill those shoes?
Propaganda meant to fuel their schemes.

She is strong but never silent,
Sure of where her truth comes from.
One day, one girl army will overcome.

Treading the current, issues at hand,
Shifting, we sway, from justice and then back again.
What we once broke, He has made right,
Lifting her up, giving birth to Jesus Christ.


She is strong but never silent,
Sure of where her strength comes from.
One day, one girl army will overcome.

She is strong but never silent,
Sure of where her strength comes from.
One day, one girl army will overcome.

She is strong but never silent,
Sure of where her strength comes from.
One day, one girl army will overcome. 

Not so much "Quick" - but what a beautiful day!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Friday, May 18, 2012

7 Quick Takes Friday: A little cheese with this whine, anyone?

It wasn't my intention to be all whiny and annoying, but I guess that's what happens when you're low on sleep, everyone in the family has had a cold over the past week, and you didn't get to see your Grandma again as a result...


--- 1 ---
Babies definitely grow too fast.  Even when they're still "little" they can get so big, and when they're getting "bigger" mine is learning to mobilize WAY too quickly.  But who can tell an almost 8 month old that she's not allowed to start pulling up?  She is not at all satisfied with this whole slow-motion crawling deal.  That was so 2 weeks ago.

--- 2 ---
I am far too easily distracted from normal, everyday duties.  My husband put laundry in the washer yesterday before he left from work.  It took me until mid-afternoon to realize the huge laundry pile from our Mother's Day weekend trip was no longer sitting by the basement door.  And no worries, I did get it into the dryer before it started to get all mildew-y, but this morning my poor husband was digging around for a work shirt, at which point I had to sleepily apologize for not getting the laundry upstairs.  Yeah, still sitting in the dryer.  Poor guy.

--- 3 ---
There has yet to be invented a facial tissue soft enough for babies' noses.  Or maybe babies are genetically predisposed to fighting a nose-wiping tooth and nail.  Either way, in the end, no one's happy but baby's nose is slightly less snotty.  At least my 2-year old is learning to be cooperative on this front.

--- 4 ---
I am not the chipper early bird I was last time I wrote a Quick-Takes, but I am still up before at least one of my kids.  (Looking back at that post, I'm now wondering what kind of crazy person wrote it - and if she was on drugs.  And what kind they were.)  He's taken to sleep til nearly 9 o'clock most mornings the last couple of weeks.  At least when we're at home.  Sleeping anywhere else requires earlier wake up times in toddler world.  But still, God Bless You, Dr. Weissbluth!  Forgive me for ever doubting you!  Now you just need to come up with a softer facial tissue, or an extinction program for nose-wiping fits.

--- 5 ---
I'm coming to think that "Quick-Takes" is a misnomer.  Nothing is ever quick when you have two munchkins running around.  In fact, this has been interrupted so many times that the munchkinette is already back in bed for nap #1 and the coffee is starting to kick in.

--- 6 ---
Bare-root perennials have a startlingly higher survival rate when you get them into the ground right away.  I know, it's amazing, right?  Why couldn't I understand this last year?
Just for fun, I'm going to use #6 for a little bragging about my formerly delinquent magnolia.  Isn't Miss Jane beautiful this year?

--- 7 ---
Now it's obvious the coffee is kicking in - and I didn't think caffeine affected me.  Haha!  To end on a cheerier note, the sun is out again today, and we're looking at a third day of gardening this week.  It's amazing how much exercise gardening can be - I feel toned already!  Today, we conquer the new compost bin!  Whee!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!