NaBloPoMo, Yoga, and the Iron Cowboy (What They Have in Common!)
You guys- it’s over. I just completed NaBloPoMo, publishing thirty blog in thirty days for the month of November. I also completed my own personal yoga challenge, which was to do a yoga class every day as well. When I set out to participate in NaBloPoMo, I literally had no idea what I was getting myself into. I only heard about the challenge from San about a week beforehand and thought, “Sure, why not?” I did not know what I was going to say for thirty days in a row. On October 31st I had a list of about ten ideas. Not ten posts written, just ten loose ideas. When the month started, I realized that the other NaBloPoMo participants seemed more like actual writers. Well, some of them are actually writers. I definitely had a touch of imposter syndrome, but I forged ahead. And I’m so glad I did. Getting a blog post written every day was hard at times, and it took up a lot of time. Writing the posts, commenting on the other blogs, and answering comments people (generously) left on my own blog kept me busy. My life was full, but in a good way. I met a whole new amazing group of bloggers that I love. I felt a camaraderie with my fellow NaBloPoMo-ers, most of whom were complete strangers to me prior to November. One interesting thing I hadn’t anticipated was that I felt completely immersed in every single day- I realized I usually kind of “bunch” my time into week segments- just get to the weekend, or everything revolves around the Sunday long run. Publishing a blog post every day made each day seem significant on its own, and it felt like time slowed down, in a good way. November is my favorite month and it usually rushes by much too fast. Yesterday I listened to Rich Roll podcast episode with the “Iron Cowboy,” aka James Lawrence. James’ most recent accomplishment was completing 100 Iron distance triathlons in 100 days. That’s a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run- every single day, for 100 days. That was his goal, and then on day 101 he got up and did it one last time, just to show that when you think you’ve given everything you have, there’s still a little bit more. Here’s my favorite quote from that podcast: “Nobody’s the expert at the beginning of their journey. You have to meet yourself where you’re at today.” I’m not comparing writing 30 blog posts in 30 days to completing 100 Iron distance triathlons in 100 days (no, I would say there’s a slight difference.) But the idea is the same. You can’t wait until you’re an expert (we would all be waiting a long, long time.) We have to start where we’re at. Not that I’ve become an expert these last 30 days, but I feel I’ve come a long way. As for the yoga… to be honest, that was a much easier challenge than the blog. I did a class every day on the Peloton app. How hard is it really to take a class in your own home? And they were all different lengths- I tried to do longer ones whenever possible, but there were definitely some fifteen minute classes sprinkled in there. This was a stress-free challenge because I never expected myself to do it perfectly. I know for sure that I can’t do all the poses- at least not as well as the instructors. My favorite instructor- Denis Morton- gives a little pep talk at the beginning of each class where he stresses that yoga is all about trying your best, and he gives modifications for poses as he goes along. I knew all I had to do every day was my best, and that took away any stress and made it fun. That got me to thinking- why can’t I apply that to every aspect of my life? What more can you really do other than show up every day and do your absolute best? Start where you are- show up every day- do your best. Thank you to everyone who read my posts and left comments. And to all my fellow NaBloPoMo-ers- Congratulations! We did it! We will meet again in November 2022. In the meantime, let’s keep in touch. I’m so glad I discovered your blogs, and I’ll continue to follow along. Namaste, everyone.
Christmas Fun
Hello, and welcome to Day TWENTY NINE of NaBloPoMo! Whoa… we’re almost done. Last week was a super fun and busy week. I love the transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and we started to transform the house on Friday. All the fall decorations are put away and Christmas is up! You know those posts where someone gives you a “home tour” of all their Christmas decorations, and it’s really elegant and color coordinated? Well, this is not one of those posts. I’m severely challenged when it comes to decorating, and our Christmas style could be characterized as “haphazardly fun.” Here’s our tree: Under the tree is the official “first present of Christmas,” – by the time this is published, that present will be at the post office, being whisked to my Secret Santa recipient. How exciting! The cats have their own tree because… well. Not sure if there’s any reason I could give that would actually make sense. But here it is: If you look closely, you can see they have their Trader Joe’s advent calendar- we’ll start it on Wednesday! For the picture, Charlotte and Muffin’s stockings were laid by the tree… but actually right now they’re hung near the rest of the stockings. Now, in case you’re starting to think, “This woman is crazy! Why all the fuss about her cats?” I’ll show you the bathroom: The living room shelves hold a holiday mishmosh of Lego gingerbread houses, photos of the kids with Santa, nutcrackers, and here’s the oldest thing I own: My mom put up this little wax Nativity scene as far back as I can remember- so I would guess it’s from the 1960s. Unfortunately Joseph melted a little- again, as far back as I can remember he was like that- so he has to lean against something. Given that Joseph has been partially melted for fifty years, it’s incredible that the rest of the pieces are intact. I haven’t put up the outdoor lights yet, and there are still some indoor decorations to put up. Every year I make a Christmas card display, using Command hooks to string lights on one wall, and clipping cards to the lights. No need to put that up yet, because so far we only have one card. I’ll continue to decorate as the month goes on. I love how pretty and bright the house looks with the decorations up! Do you decorate for Christmas? How do you feel about outdoor lights and decorations? – I don’t enjoy putting them up, but I love how they look once I do it!
Weekly Rundown- Yoga, Turkey Trot and Pie
Well, it was quite a week. I love the week of Thanksgiving, and this year was extra special because my son was home after being away for three months at school. Workouts were… well, you’ll see! Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown, and to San for hosting NaBloPoMo- we’re in the home stretch! Here’s how the week went. Monday While I was thrilled to have my son home, it did mean that I lost my “yoga studio.” Everyone else in my family was off the whole week, but I had to work on Monday. My husband was trying to luxuriate in bed, but sadly I had to kick him out so I could do yoga. Sorry, but I’m doing my November yoga challenge! After I got my husband out of the bedroom, I did a 45 minute yoga flow. Last week I did all power yoga classes, and ended up with a sore hip flexor. I didn’t want anything to go wrong for my turkey trot on Thursday, so I did all regular flows this week. All classes were on the Peloton app with Denis Morton as always! Tuesday Started the day with a three mile run! To be honest, Tuesday feels like a lifetime ago and I literally can’t remember anything about this run. I know I ran, and my phone tells me this was Tuesday, so… yeah. I look happy though! Followed this with a 20 minute yoga flow. The rest of this day was NUTS! It was our prep day for the prep day. In other words, I did a whole bunch of stuff that needed to be done before Wednesday. I made the cornbread for our stuffing, made the dough for four pie crusts, cleaned the kitchen, and rearranged the living room furniture. I had to make room for the Christmas tree! Oh yes, and in the middle of the day my son and I went to Starbucks to get festive drinks for everyone. Super fun day. Wednesday As soon as I woke up I did a 45 minute yoga flow. Then… so much to do! We did lots of cooking prep and got our Christmas tree! We didn’t decorate it- just set it up in the living room. So exciting. At night my son and I watched the first Harry Potter movie. We decided we’ll watch the rest of them when he’s home for Christmas. Thursday Thanksgiving! My husband and I were up super early for our Turkey Trot. It was around 64 degrees, which was perfect. Not so perfect if you were shooting for a PR, but perfect for just hanging out and having fun. I ran a mile to warm up, and then the 5k race. It was really fun and I’m so glad I did it. I did have a little pang when I saw people doing a serious warmup, and I missed that feeling. I missed speedwork and I even missed the nervousness of being at a race and hoping to run a PR. I really want to get back there, and I’m going to have a little talk with my doctor when I go for the next shockwave treatment on Tuesday. Meanwhile… I was thankful for being able to run at all. I know it could easily not have been the case, but I was there. The rest of the day was a whirlwind of cooking and eating. We finished our (large) dinner, went for a walk, and then ate pie. I cleaned the kitchen, threw in a load of laundry… notice anything missing? My yoga challenge! I hadn’t done yoga. I resigned myself to missing a day, but then thought… I could do a quick class. So I did a 15 minute hamstring focus flow. I’ll be honest. I don’t think I got much out of this class. I tried, but yoga doesn’t feel good with a stomach full of pie. Oh well! Friday Another confession. I was pretty cranky about the fact that I had to work on Friday. Everyone else in my family was lounging at home eating leftovers. Because I was feeling rebellious, I slept in until about thirty minutes before I had to go to work. And it felt good! As soon as I got home from work, we started decorating the Christmas tree. This isn’t simply a matter of taking out a box of ornaments and quickly hanging them- no, no, no! We decorate the whole house. We really wanted to do it this day because my son went back to school on Saturday. It also entailed getting all the fall stuff put away… it was a lot. Luckily we had a crap ton of leftovers, so no one had to cook, phew. I was well aware that I still needed to do yoga! It clearly wasn’t my main focus though, and I decided to just do the same 15 minute hamstring focus flow that I did the day before- I figured that class definitely needed a do-over. Yep, all I did this day was a 15 minute yoga class. What can I say… it’s the holidays. Saturday Boo hoo! My son left. So hard to say goodbye- does it ever get easier? I did a 30 minute yoga flow class and left for work (my husband drove my son to the airport.) My son was also sad to leave- we really had a nice week. But he said “the good thing is I really love school.” WELL! What more could I hope for? He can’t live at home forever, and if he’s happy, that’s the most important thing. After work my daughter went ice skating with friends which required a bunch of car pooling. And for the rest of the day and evening I vegged out on the couch, reading blogs and watching Holiday Baking Championship on Food Network. It was a mental mini-vacation. Sunday Okay, let’s get back to real life! Our temperatures dipped down into the 50s
Christmas Mugs AND Secret Santa Gift!!!
Here we are on Day 27 of NaBloPoMo! Thanksgiving is over, and the Christmas decorations are out! I’m doing Part 2 of my mug tour, because the Christmas mugs needed their own post. But before we get started… Imagine my excitement when a mysterious package arrived for me last week! It turned out to be TWO incredible mugs from my Secret Santa, aka Erin (IG @erinollila.) She totally nailed it. Here’s the first mug: It’s a RUNNING CHRISTMAS TREE! Nothing could be more perfect than that, right? But here’s the second mug: I love it so, so much- its a Baylor Mom mug. What I love most about it is, after Christmas is all over, all the pretty mugs are put away, and I’m missing my son because he’s back at school, I can pull out this mug. I usually hate drinking out of my “normal” mugs again after the holidays, but this time I’ll be looking forward to it. THANK YOU ERIN! And thank you to San for organizing #SecretSantaMugSwap2021 . Moving right along! Here’s a couple of my pretty Christmas mugs… I love those mugs, but sometimes I’m in the mood for a big, chunky mug, so I’m also loving this one: Here’s a mug I pull out every year but rarely drink out of. It’s pretty, but it’s kind of a weird shape- taller and skinny. I’m giving it one more Christmas, and if I don’t drink out of it, I’m donating it! I need the cabinet space. Now- it never snows in South Florida. But we have some “chilly” nights where it gets down to the 50s. On those mornings I take out this mug: The “Let it Snow” mug has the dubious honor of being the one that burned my hand horribly. On the bottom is says it’s not microwave safe, but last year I ignored that and used it to microwave my tea. When I reached in to take it out, the handle was so hot it burned my hand. I mean, really burned it. People were asking me what happened to my hand- that’s how bad it looked (and felt.). So, if something is not microwave safe, they really mean it! Don’t do what I did. Here’s one more mug! Last year one of my coworkers gave me a Starbucks gift card. Instead of using it for the same old tea I get all the time, I used it for this travel mug- something I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. There you have it! You can see why I get sad when January rolls around and I have to put these away! Luckily this time I’ll have my Baylor Mom mug to cheer me up. Now, since I’m a mug fanatic, I have a few questions: Do you like to drink out of special mugs for holidays? If so, how many holiday mugs is too many?- I can’t help myself- I’m always on the lookout for more mugs. Which of my mugs is your favorite? Should I get rid of the skinny one?