Tuesday 16 December 2014

Holidays

Four more days to the holidays!!  We were chanting this last night and clapping.  Two weeks off with my wonderful girls, I can hardly wait.  It's been dark and dreary when I leave in the morning and when I come home at night.  We all need some more sleep and a rest from our routine.  The last time we had a good chunk of time off together was July and while it will be a busy time over the holidays we will be together and that's all that matters.

This is 6pm in our backyard.  Snowman building by exterior illumination.

The clean eating diet has been going well ... with a few exceptions.  I am not feeling guilty about having the odd cookie and I refuse to call it "cheating" the important thing is to keep exercising!  I'm feeling great.

Lots and lots of veggies.

Do you have an elf on the shelf?  One of my girls friends told her about it last year.  I knew about them but did not want to give in to the hype...and then she felt she was missing out on something very important and I had to give in and get one.  So how is your elf magic doing?  It's become part of my morning routine...get up at 5:30, have a shower, brush teeth, move elf.  The things we do.  

Hanging from a snowflake in the kitchen window.

I'll be back after the holiday's.  Merry Christmas!

Wednesday 10 December 2014

December

Hello to the 15 people that read my blog - welcome!  Well it's December 10 and it's cold outside.  We are ramping up to Christmas at our house, I can hardly believe Christmas Eve is two weeks away from today.  I've bought two gifts and I've decorated and made 5 dozen sugar cookies and a dozen peanut butter chocolate chip shortbread.  It has been an extremely busy time on the farm for us.  We had a door blow right off the top part of the barn 2 weeks ago and we are in the process of re-building it.  The horses have been coming in at night from time to time.  I know they don't need to come in at night but we bring them in when it's going to be really cold or if we are expecting a lot of snow overnight.  My husband chopped down our Christmas tree last week oh it's an original.  He offered to find another one but I thought that would be wasteful so this is our tree.  It's uneven and sticks out all over the place but we love it anyway.
Next year the girls and I will go to a tree farm and pick one out.  

I'm happy to report that this winter so far has been MILD.  Yes I'm still wearing slippers and layers in the house to keep warm even with the furnace blowing at 68 degrees, and the heaters on in the mudroom, bathroom and upstairs hallway.  (Note to self:  get hubby to put that extra insulation in the attic)  I say it's been mild but it is just December and last year we got that unexpected ice storm on December 22nd.  So I'm not holding out for an entirely mild winter but fingers crossed for no ice storm and an early spring this year.  Amen!

So as things get busier I wanted to take the time to say Happy Holiday's!  All the best to you wherever you are.

Monday 1 December 2014

Change



This is not a word that frightens me.  I went through so many changes up to the age of 12, I don't feel content unless there is a big change going on and turning everything upside down.  Funny though, it too me years to figure that out.  I bought my first house, got married, had a baby and completely renovated the house all in 5 years.  I left my full time, permanent job to take on a 6 month contract that had me working closer to home.  I turned down a full time, permanent job offer to work contract for a year with the promise that a permanent job would be mine in the end (it was).  I moved my family twice in one year so we could live on this lovely farm.  I know I can embrace change.  And things have been become a bit too day to day lately.  Not mundane (Danny nearly knocked me unconscious on the weekend swinging his head toward his oats bucket as I walked by with it - rookie move) but everyday I wake up and know what the day will bring.  My husband and I have gotten settled nicely into our new fall / winter routines so I'm about to shake it up.  I'm on a 28 day clean eating program.  It's also a pretty hard core exercise schedule - 6 days a week.  What's life without a little challenge?  Today is my first day and I know it's going to be one of the hardest things I've ever done.  Most of the food on the program is stuff I eat anyway, I only had to buy greek yogurt!  And I steamed kale instead of roasting it - delicious!  It's the exercise part that scares me a bit - I haven't done a proper push up in years and tonight I have to do 15.  And I am going to miss my processed food, I'm not going to lie.  This will not become a fitness blog but I will post updates.  Please send me your positive vibes and wishes.