A perfect week and can the long weekend please continue?

Ohhhh I want this weekend to just keep going on!!! I liked this weekend so much.

Friday was the big snow day, so although I worked, it had a “let’s all just hunker down” feel. Then no work or school for any of us Saturday, Sunday OR today! (MLK Jr. Day Holiday)

I feel like we had a great mix of productive + relax- my favorite kind of weekend.

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Saturday I accomplished several things from my list- the biggest was to CLEAN THE HOUSE. Our house was long over due for a good cleaning, since we were away for 2 weeks (and no one cleaned, like, the day before vacation, either…).

I spent too long Saturday straightening and doing a really thorough clean of all the main areas of the house. It felt amazing in the end though. Asher went to the gym with a friend and Ethan had soccer (indoor); Ivan did some errands and drove the kids around.

Saturday also = Lower Body #2 day, which I successfully completed at the gym. I am loving this new strength program!!! Super happy so far. The length of the workouts has been right in that 40-60 minute range (not currently doing the Turbo 30-minute option). The exercises are great- emphasis on variations of the big basics but enough variety/ accessory to keep it interesting and fun.

Ivan and I also did our nacho night out on Saturday since we stayed home on Friday.

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Sunday we were super lazy in the morning. I read my Second Brain book for quite a while and puttered around playing with some of the ideas on my laptop. More on this later, but my “Second Brain” is basically going to be a combo of Google Keep + Google Drive. (I already used these, so this just makes sense- I am mostly just trying to optimize my use of them now. Feeling very inspired to really make my technology work for me…. that’s supposed to be the point of it, right? To make our lives easier?)

Sunday workout= Run + Upper Body #2

I ran 3 miles on the gym treadmill (always run first bc I still don’t fully trust myself to not bail on the cardio after my strength training, lol! I guess I’ve done this too many times in the past…).

The Upper Strength workout was really fun. It included pull-ups (I did band assisted) which I hadn’t done in ages. They are so hard for me, but they also make me feel really strong (um, eventually..haha). And, I recall from the past that they are SO good for practically instantaneously toning up your back and arms. 😉

I realized as I logged my Sunday workouts in Strava that this was a “perfect week” for me!! Meaning, I completed 100% of my planned workouts.

Per my Strava records:

• 4 strength (2 upper, 2 lower) = 3 hour and 35 minutes
• 3 runs = 9. 23 miles ( 1 hour 28 minutes)
• 1 yoga = 25 minutes
• walks x5= 3.43 miles total (1 hour and 12 minutes)

If my math is correct, that total= 6 hours, 28 minutes

I’m very happy. The morning workouts feel like a game changer right now. And this feels very reasonable- out of 168 hours in a week, this is only 3.8% of my time spent exercising. MORE THAN FAIR.

(*Walks were shorter than average this week due to snow/low temps but I actually don’t normally count walks in my formal “exercise” total, anyway- especially if just slowly walking Charlie.)

Sunday afternoon was the big Wild Card Packers game!! And WHAT A GAME!! It was a huge upset win over the Cowboys and was super fun to watch. Never count the green and gold out. 😉

We had a delicious dinner at half-time of steak milanesas and fresh made guacamole (Ivan made these), cream of zucchini soup (I made this) and air fried seasoned potatoes in our new air fryer (Asher made these). It was all fabulous.

Then more football…

The boys and I played a round of Yahtzee after…it had been a long time since we played a game together.

Monday

Today I did more reading in the early-ish morning.

I recently ordered a bunch of sticky reading flags to mark important passages in my book (a la Elisabeth style- she does this and I loved the idea!).

Well, I got a huge pack on Amazon of 1,000 or something, but at first I thought I didn’t care for them. I peeled the whole first “stack” off from the first sheet and found them a little awkward. They seemed kind of hard to peel and separate.

This morning I realized – DUH, I’m doing it wrong! They are meant to stay on the little black cardboard backing, and you just peel them off right from there. So much easier. And, as it was laying on my desk, next to my bookmark, I also realized…. oh, how about that! It’s just about the same size as a bookmark.

Hmm, maybe that’s because it’s probably meant to function as a bookmark, so that you always have the page flags with you when you read! Genius. 😅 (You can’t get anything past me…. lol.)

Oh, it’s the little things in life, isn’t it.. haha.

Then I cleaned my office today (aiming to do this once a month- ✅ for January!) and we also did a much-needed deeper clean of our bedroom.

Today was a “run” day (no strength), so I decided to push myself a little and set a (recent, not lifetime) distance PR- 4 miles! (This feels pathetic compared to others posting about casually running 13 miles on a weekday, but hey. Staying in my own lane, this feels like an accomplishment! It is strange though to think I once ran 26.2 miles and now I’m excited about running 4? 😆)

Charlie had a grooming appt this afternoon, so we dropped him off for that and then Asher, Ivan and I finally went for our Chipotle lunch. Ethan went bowling with some friends from his old school! I’m glad he did this.

Then Asher and I ran to TJMaxx and Target- he needed a couple misc. items and he had a little last minute “Christmas shopping” to finish up.

Now Ethan has a piano lesson soon and Asher has swim practice (feels weird, on a no school day, to still have activities tonight). I think Ivan and I are going to put a show or movie on and finish up wrapping some gifts for our upcoming Christmas with my parents.

A couple misc. weather related pictures:

And this made me laugh. Saw this online yesterday morning as we woke up to below zero temperatures, but full sunshine! And it’s true- the sun literally provided no warmth at all. lol.

Gah, I really wish I could just keep on weekending. This was all so nice.

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for the gym having a bunch of loaner pull-up bands for use. I used to have my own, but it broke a long time ago and I never replaced it.