It’s another Wednesday, which means another early 5:30 a.m. swim practice morning…. Unlike last week, today was one where Asher didn’t want to get up…. Ugh. But, he knew he “had” to, because he had practice conflicts last night and couldn’t go, and he can’t go Thursday (XC meet) or Friday (soccer practice) this week.
I think I will be glad when cross country ends after next week. This has just been a hassle juggling all these various practices. And, I actually worry a little bit that these early morning practices could inadvertently turn him off to swimming (something he has always loved!). Know what I mean? If he starts associating that swim= miserable 5 a.m. wakeup time, he could end up deducing that swim = miserable. Which would be terribly sad. I am also apprehensive of what is to come, because I think the older club groups actually have early practice 3x/ week! (But, I think they also have a p.m. option most days, too- so, that’s good, if Asher continues to not be a fan of early rising.) BUT, I am also pretty sure that the high school swim teams do weight lifting before school, swim after school….which will eventually mean more early mornings…
ANYWAY! Enough about that.
I had a good day overall yesterday and actually fit in basically everything I said I would. (Minus the groceries. However, the fridge has been cleaned out and a list has been made. Our evening today looks gloriously open, so Ivan will be getting groceries at some point tonight.)
My legs/abs workout was a good one. In an effort to reset my food choices, I decided to track my food for a week again. I’ve said I don’t think tracking forever is in the cards for me, but nothing really beats it for me in terms of gaining awareness of what I’m putting in my mouth.
I squeezed in a walk before a meeting at 1, and it was gorgeous out. Leaves are suddenly really starting to turn, but it was sunny and 70 degrees or so.
A huge group of geese flew over me, honking, at the park- the iconic fall soundtrack in Wisconsin. 🙂 They made me smile. I’ve heard that sound every single fall on repeat since I was a little kid.
Between my workout, walk and shower, I also squeezed in a good chunk of podcast listening. First I listened to Best Laid Plans while at the gym. I found the discussion of David Allen’s old book Getting Things Done very interesting! It made me want to read that book at least once. Then I listened to Best of Both Worlds, and enjoyed the preview of Laura’s new book, Tranquility by Tuesday. At the end of the episode, I went online and pre-ordered a copy from my phone while standing in the gym weight room! They sold me. ha. Looking forward to reading it! Finally, I listened to the first part of Deep Questions, but didn’t finish that one yet.
Last night Ethan and I attended the meeting at school about his 8th grade DC/Philadelphia trip that’s coming up. It sounds so amazing!!! I’m so excited for him. The itinerary looks awesome. They will see so many incredible sights. Not to mention, flying on a plane, staying in hotels, going out to cool restaurants with your entire grade and all your friends, no parents along! Haha. How fun. We got the whole run down on what to pack, all the rules, etc. I am personally already looking forward to the 3:30 a.m. school drop-off time so they can catch an early flight. lol!
Their school will be laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, and they are holding an essay contest to select 4 students to actually participate in it. Ethan decided to write one and throw his name in the hat! I am sure there will be lots of competition, so who knows if he’ll get chosen. But it would be awesome if he did. I’m glad he is at least going to try. It would be a great honor! Students who are chosen have to pack a suit jacket, tie, the whole nine yards in order to take part.
And now today….. a full body strength workout, work, and a Meet Committee meeting tonight for the swim team at 6:30. Feeling: mildly cranky about a lot of looming swim meet prep work. Just got word that the event timeline (and a bunch of other stuff) has TOTALLY changed now, last minute. It’s going to be a big headache to re-work all the volunteer job slots and schedules on my end. Already wondering how many parents will suddenly be “unable to volunteer” now that the timeline has quite drastically changed…. It will be fine. It will work out. I’m basically just not in the mood to do it…. 🙃 (For real, I’m not doing this volunteer job next year!! I swear it’s not that bad and I really don’t “hate” it, but it can just be a drag…..).
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for the sound of geese honking. I find geese pretty fascinating, actually. How do they know to all stay in a group like that? How do they know to form a big V? Where exactly are they going?? And how do they get there, with no GPS?? 😆
GRATEFUL KAE 
We had an extended discussion about the migratory patterns of geese while cycling to school yesterday. We heard some Canadian geese overhead but weren’t sure if our local river goose (named Bruce the Goose) migrated so 5 year old and I decided we’d mark on the calendar every time we saw him and then we’d fine out. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t but yay for hypothesis-testing, getting those principles of research design in early.
LikeLike
Haha, I love it! Yes, never too early to start research design! Fall-time walks (or cycles) with a 5 year old are some of my favorite memories from when mine were younger. Between pretty leaves, lots of animals/birds out and about and cooler air, it’s just the perfect activity. 🙂
LikeLike
Aw on the trip. I was one of the 4 who won the essay contest circa 1995 at my school so cool that E’s school does the same!
And Aldi Instacart grocery pickup has changed.my.life the last three years! $1.99 fee, where was this when my kids were little and running up and down the aisle hahaha…
LikeLike
That’s so cool! Good job! I imagine you still remember that day well. 🙂 And thanks for the tip- I’ve never tried Instacart! My only online grocery pickups have been at WM’s for a huge load, and while I feel our experience was “fine”, I felt like there were some general drawbacks, too. I do like Aldi a lot and used to go there ALL the time, but lately the whole “go to 2 stores” thing hasn’t fit in as well as it used to seem to…
LikeLike
Those are some early mornings; kudos to you for showing up so early and making it work!
I am loving the changing leaves here, too. I think fall will forever be my favourite season, even though the magical part only lasts a few weeks. Maybe that’s why it feels extra special? The perfect combo of cool mornings, warm days and beautiful scenery. I love, love, love it!
LikeLike
Yes, I was thinking about this too. Everyone gets so excited for “fall” in September, but you’re right- the actual “fall” that everyone is envisioning usually isn’t until October around here- and then really just a few weeks. September is usually still quite green and actually pretty hot many years around here. We are definitely into the good part now, though! I like your take on it- the short duration makes it extra special. 🙂
LikeLike
When I was in high school, our first bell rang at just after 7 (I think it was 7:06 or something like that) and the athletes definitely did weight training before school started. I remembering wondering how they got there (I rode a school bus which frequently dropped me off late so that I had a lot of tardies in first period) and how on earth they managed to not be exhausted by lunchtime. I do not envy any child who has to regularly get to school earlier than the already early times!
LikeLike
I did not have to be to school ever for athletic practices before school, but the string quartet I played in all through high school (on the side from orchestra, I was in a quartet with 3 friends and we played at weddings and competitions and stuff) would practice at 7:15 a.m. But that was only maybe once a week or so. School started at 8, so that gave us 45 minutes. I do remember my dad not being a huge fan of those 7:15 rehearsals because it messed up his mornings. haha. He was always the designated driver bc my mom had to get off to teach school somewhere else and couldn’t drive us around at that time.
LikeLike
It’s good that XC is wrapping up soon. It seems like being a multi-sport athlete is really challenging with all that is expected of you. You must have to kind of pick one thing once you enter HS? Although the swimming season seems really really long but I think he’s doing it at the club level, not through school, so that might be why it runs for so many months? It seems like he is very good at swimming so hopefully the early mornings won’t deter him. But gah – I hope this is your last year being the volunteer coordinator. That sounds like such a frustrating job. How generous of you to do it again!!
I went back on weight watchers recently because I was falling into less great habits. Like you, I’m not a forever tracker but it helps to rein in my eating and get me back on better habits. I’m back down to my target weight range. I wasn’t too far above it but it sure is easier to gain than lose, especially as you get older. I didn’t have to do much to maintain a lower weight in my 30s. Now in my 40s, I’m targeting a bit higher range than my early 30s and I find it harder to stay there. My metabolism is slowing down I guess and I’m getting closer to menopause. So I’m trying to strike a balance between a reasonable weight goal and not having to be too careful about what I eat because that is not a fun way to live!
LikeLike
That’s great that you’re back to your goal weight so quickly! You’ve mentioned WW before, and it does seem like whenever you use it you very easily/ quickly drop weight! So that’s nice to know, I guess? Like if you slide up a little, at least you seem to have a tried and true method to quickly bounce back down whenever needed. So maybe your metabolism isn’t as bad as you think. I just read an article recently that was debating the whole “slowing metabolism” thing. It seemed to argue that our metabolisms don’t really slow down until 60, and that people generally over-estimate the effect of a slowing metabolism in 30s-50s. It made some comments that people may just actually slow down activity-wise a bit in some ways, or change eating habits, etc. But I don’t know if I buy that- seems like everyone experiences such a similar situation that the slowing metabolism thing makes sense to me. Maybe the article was just trying to sort of encourage people to not just give up and accept weight gain, like, oh well, nothing I can do, metabolism has tanked! ha. Whereas obviously with some real effort there are ways to stay at a healthy weight as people age. But from everything I hear, it does seem to start to get harder as early as 30s-40s….. boo.
LikeLike
That sounds like an interesting article! I am sure there is some truth to it, too. Like maybe it’s not as much of a slow down as we think. But some friends around my age or a bit older have mentioned it and we are all pretty active! So there must be some truth to it but maybe it’s not as drastic or a slowdown as we are thinking! I do really like WW because there are no off limits foods. It’s just about trade offs. Like eat that snickers bar or have a coke but then you have used up a ton of points and will need to just eat chicken and vegetables and fruit, etc. I am a ‘lifetime member’ which means I’ve met my goal weight and maintained it in the past. So I could have access to the program for free but I would need to weigh in at a location monthly. But their downtown location has closed so it would be such a pain to drive to one. But it would probably be worth the effort because then I wouldn’t slip into bad habits and see my weight go up a bit.
Oh and I also bought Laura’s book yesterday! I was inspired by listening to the podcast, too. I wonder if she will see a notable boost in pre-orders!!
LikeLike
good point of avoiding associating swimming with bad experience (early wake up). It’s tricky. but it’s also important for kids to learn about making sacrifice of things that they care about. If it’s too easy to give up when facing adversities, maybe they don’t like it as much as one thought.
great that you fit in a walk and workout, i’m sure they must have made you feel better about your day. 🙂
LikeLike
That is also a good point about if they give up too easily, maybe they don’t like it as much as you thought. Very good point! I do agree. Asher does love swimming, but as he gets older he has other interests too. i have wondered lately if maybe he doesn’t love it anymore as much as he used to. He’s also been swimming for so many years now already, I do actually worry sometimes that he may either sort of burn out or get just bored with it! He has made some comments randomly about how swimming isn’t quite as “fun” as like, soccer, where he gets to interact constantly with friends and talking and playing games and stuff. For swimming, you’re just looking at the bottom of the pool, back and forth, back and forth, for 80 minutes every day. For a 12 year old, might seem a little dull after a while, I suppose!
Ideally it would be great to see him swim at least through high school, and he has always claimed he wants to swim in college. But he’s in 7th grade now, so he has another 6 years here before high school ends, and then it would be another at least 4 of college swimming! I could see how 4-6 days/ week of swimming at this level for another 10 years might get old?? I guess we’ll see! Then again, you’ve been running for how many years now, and apparently, you’re not sick of it! 😉
LikeLike
Fall time is so wonderful and I try to really embrace it (although the changing leaves are not quite as dramatic here as in other places).
This sounds like a really exciting and fun trip for Ethan. I am keeping my fingers crossed that his essay gets chosen!
LikeLike
I hope that Ethan enjoys(ed) his trip! What fun. We went to Williamsburg. On a bus. Well, several buses. It was… interesting. 🙂 A plane ride for middle schoolers sounds like it would be a bit challenging!
I hope that Asher made it through the early workouts and that the end of CC season helps a bit! Hang in there… you have a lot going on.
LikeLike