Life After NaBloPoMo
Not publishing a blog post today felt really weird! December 1st was a Sunday, so I did my usual Weekly Rundown. Today- December 2nd- was the first time in 31 days I didn’t post It was definitely a relief not to worry about writing on Sunday… because that day was SO busy. I originally thought I would tackle the outdoor Christmas lights, but that was preposterous. Indoors, we had the tree up but other than that all the fall decor was still out. No, no, no! It’s December! The house must be Christmas-ed! It was a huge job, but that’s what happens when you’re a lunatic. I have… a lot of fall decorations. Including things like hand towels, pajamas, a shower curtain, napkins… all these things have to be washed before they can be put away. Then, the Christmas things! I finished the pet tree: Why, yes. We do have a little tree for the pets. And obviously Muffin and Charlotte have their own stockings. (The little critters also have stockings, but they’re much smaller and not monogrammed. I have to draw the line somewhere.) I got my daughter’s bathroom put together: And then there were the nutcrackers, nativity scenes, and all the rest. I don’t NEED anything new, but I did get a couple things at Target this year. I think calico cats must be a trending Christmas theme: Just as I’m allowed to get something new for Halloween if it has a black cat on it, I think I’m fully justified in buying any calico cat-Christmas decor. And like all that wasn’t enough, before my son left on Saturday he said “You know my birthday’s a week from tomorrow.” WHAT??? Well, this is what happens when Thanksgiving is so frickin late– I’m all confused. His birthday is December 8th, but I usually have a LITTLE more time after Thanksgiving to prepare. So, on Sunday I ran out to Barnes and Noble to get him a couple presents (I got him Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, which I’m hoping he’ll read, love, and bring home at Christmas so I can read it too) AND I made a batch of cinnamon rolls, from scratch. It’s a birthday tradition, and I’ve mailed him his rolls every year since he’s been in college. So… yes. I was happy not to have to worry about a blog post on top of everything else! Now all I have to do is buy and wrap all the presents, bake all the cookies, and put up the outdoor lights. Ack. Are you ready for December? If you celebrate Christmas, is your house decorated?
Weekly Rundown
What a week- it was a whirlwind! My son was home, which made it feel like one long party. A party where I had to cook, clean, and, oh yes, go to work. Let’s just say workouts weren’t the main focus of the week- but I did have some nice runs! Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Let’s just see how it all played out… Monday The week started out with a 3 mile run in BEAUTIFUL weather. Remember the rib injury? It’s so much better. When I’m running, the pain is more of a nuisance now than a limiting factor. But I still can’t find any core work I can comfortably do, which is a bummer. Still- I’m definitely getting there. Tuesday Leg day at home! Since I only had my dumbbells and not the heavier weights I use at the gym, I did a lot of single leg moves, like Bulgarian split squats. I haven’t done those in a while, and it was hard! Wednesday 3 mile run. Somehow I neglected to get a photo??? I don’t know how that happened, but my mind was probably elsewhere. We did a lot of cooking on this day, AND decorated our Christmas tree! Thursday Happy Thanksgiving! I started the day with a lovely 5 mile run. The rest of the day was all about cooking, eating, and watching football (OMG BEARS! Ugh, Dolphins.) It was a really, really nice day. Friday Day off. It was Black Friday, and the rest of my family spent the day at home, lounging around and eating leftovers while I went to work. I wanted a treat, so I slept in a little and then went to Starbucks before heading to work. I thought I would do some strength work later on, but that was clearly a ridiculous notion, because at night we had… …the high school football game! It was the regional championship game and we WON! Next week… state semi-finals. How exciting! Saturday Okay, seriously. Time to get back to real life. 4 mile run before work. It felt good and I even threw in some speed work. I KNOW! I’m tempting fate, but I have to do something- I’m tired of being the tortoise. Sunday Usually Sunday is my day off, but I’d like to do some upper body strength since that was completely lacking this week. I also have to get our outdoor Christmas lights up! My rib is better just in time- two weeks ago I couldn’t even imagine standing on a ladder and reaching above my head. How was your week? Were you able to focus on workouts, or were you distracted? If you decorate for Christmas- are your outdoor lights up?
NaBloPoMo Journey
I’m SO SAD NaBloPoMo is ending! I truly love this project, and it’s one of the reasons November is my favorite month. I always start out the month full of ambition, but by the end I’m barely hanging on. I try to have a meaningful theme, and end up with way too many photos of pie. NaBloPoMo is a spinoff of NaNoWriMo, where the challenge is to complete the first draft of a novel in the 30 days of November. After failing at NaNoWriMo (I WONDER WHY) Erin Kennedy launched NaBloPoMo in 2006. Several times during this month, I tried to imagine what it would be like if I were TRYING TO WRITE A NOVEL. I can picture my readers now: “This was pretty good, but I didn’t understand the ending. Why were they eating so much pie?” It feels like November flew by, but when I stop to think about everything that happened, it was quite an adventure. We started fresh from Halloween- then there was the election- lots of crying- I ran a race!- sustained a bizarre rib injury- our high school football team won the regional championship- our weather changed- my son came home!- we got our Christmas tree- and had an amazing Thanksgiving. Phew! I didn’t write a novel, but I feel like I lived one. I loved reading everyone’s posts! I wish NaBloPoMo could go on and on, but, well- we’d probably all go insane. December will be busy enough. A huge thank you, once again, to our fearless leader San. I wouldn’t be part of this amazing blogging community if it weren’t for her. And thank you to everyone who read along and supported us this month! Lastly, congratulations to all who participated. It’s a wrap!
Thankful
Ah… what a nice Thanksgiving! Because we did a LOT of cooking on Wednesday, today was completely sane. We managed to get dinner on the table by 4:45, which is a record for us. Yes, this is for four people! My son says he’s not bringing any clothes back to school with him- he’s just going to fill his backpack with leftovers. I wonder if the mashed potatoes will make it through security? Here’s my plate: And here’s my son’s: After he ate us out of house and home last summer, he went back to school and was too busy to eat all the time, so he lost 20 pounds. I think he gained half of it back today. After we ate we went for a walk. It used to be so exciting to see the very first Christmas lights go up on Thanksgiving… this time lights were up all over the neighborhood! That’s what happens when Thanksgiving is on November 28. Here’s our house- (JUST KIDDING. I wish this were our house because then our decorations would be up!) Putting up our outdoor lights will first involve a trip to Target, to replace the lights I took from the outdoor stash to put on our tree… I have no idea when this is all going to happen. But the tree is decorated! After our walk, we had pie. Here’s my sugar-free pie (sweetened with monkfruit.) It was pretty good! (Recipe adapted from Nora Cooks.) The other two pies were another pumpkin pie (with sugar) and an apple-cranberry pie. We watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and of course there was football! In the afternoon we watched the Bears lose (sigh- someone should put together a montage of all the weird ways the Bears have lost this season) and now I’m watching the Dolphins. It was such a nice day, I’m sad it’s over. I know not everyone was lucky enough to be surrounded by family today. Having my son home and the whole family together is a gift, and for that I’m truly thankful. If you celebrated, did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Are you shopping on Black Friday? Top photo by Preslie Hirsch on Unsplash