All posts filed under: Active

Mishaps come in Threes (or Fours)!

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Blimey, today started as a drag and a chore and a moan. I intended to have a little lie in and go to the gym to run for an hour while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, most likely This American Life or Radio Lab.  Not a bad start to the day. I have decided that running inside is ok when it is humid and super hot outside. I am not a hot weather runner, no matter how much water I drink and how many hats I wear (usually one), I still end up with a head ache all day from being too hot whilst running first thing in the morning. So the treadmill it is then. Yes treadmills are boring, but to be honest I find running so boring anyway it really doesn’t matter to me, the inside of the YMCA is no less interesting than local sidewalks, roads and houses.  If I have something to listen to, I am usually ok, music for shorter jaunts and podcast or a book for longer running …

Weekly Photos 13/52

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This week saw a fifth grade field trip, new perfumes, cleaning up the local woods and park and a sunny hike on Sunday.  Not bad! 1. I helped out with the fifth grade field trip to ‘Junior Achievement BizTown’ on Monday.  The kids all had jobs and ran a ‘business’ for the day.  My team at Ameren/Peabody were great, they had a good day and worked hard. 2 & 3. I am working on some new scents for solid perfumes which is always super fun.  I really like the orange blossom and basil one. These solid scents are great to chuck in your gym bag for a quick uplift and they are perfect for travel because they are not liquid, and they are home made so I can mix up my own scent combination. 4. It was a lovely sunny morning on Saturday for the REI and Brentwood Parks annual clean up. We all got started with a coffee and a doughnut, grabbed a massive trash bag and off we went.  The woods and creek …

Running. Shall I, shan’t I?

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I used to run a lot and I managed a few half marathons and some 5 and 10k runs too.  Then I stopped, I didn’t stop exercising, just the running part. I haven’t run properly for over a year now and my friends asked if I wanted to start training with them for a half marathon in October. Where to start as a ‘previous runner’? Will my legs remember? Will I need a sit down after a few steps?  Do I need a couch to 5k type plan to re-start or can I leap into a half training plan which usually assume you can manage 3 miles? I thought I might cope with the couch part of the couch to 5k plan as a starting point… Then there is the consideration of how my year older body will cope, will bits stop working?  I have complaining hips and I don’t want to upset them too much, I mean they do hold me up in day to day life. Will anything fall off or come loose? …

May photo a day 2013

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May 2013 photo a day.  Here is my round up. We had birthdays, sun, storms, field day, yard sales galore and lots of growing which may be why there are so many green pictures this month. It was also the month that the A Beautiful Mess app was available, so I have had a little play with it in some of the daily photos. Day 1. I bought this!  Field trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens, I wrote a post with photos here. Day 2. Morning Ritual.  My gym bag waiting at the door. Day 3. This is really good!  A reflection on the fact that I made my first star rather than the wonky result! Day 4. In my cup. Day 5. Paper Day 6. Broken Day 7. Something beginning with f. Day 8. Shape Day 9. A snack Day 10. Stars.  Better stars this time! Day 11. A smile.  I smiled when I snagged these vintage spools at a yard sale. Day 12. Mother.  Me, my brother and Mum in the 70’s!  I …

April photo a day 2013

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I cannot believe it is May already!  The weather is behaving in the usual Mid West spring way – bonkers!  We have had torrential rain, tornado warnings, snow flurries, sunshine, hot and cold.  A typical April then! Of course I have been taking a photo (or a few) every day following the prompts supplied by the lovely Fat Mum Slim.  Here is April photo a day.  I hope you like them. All photos have been taken on my iPhone 4 and some have filters and messing about and some are filter free. Day 1. Play.  Seals at the St Louis Zoo. Day 2. Blue.  A Blue Jay feather. Day 3. Something beginning with A.  Thanks to Superman for lending his arm. Day 4. This happened today.  I moved all of my sewing box into a new home, a vintage biscuit tin. Day 5. Something good.  Blooming trees. Day 6. Air.   Day 7. Dreamy.  Marshmallows. Day 8. On your plate. Day 9. Tiny.  Day 10.  A place.  A place for the Box Turtle to hide. …

Morning smoothie and Grandma’s Biscuit Cake

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Somewhere in the recesses of my brain, I remember that protein is an ideal post workout foodstuff. With that in mind I often make a yum scrum smoothie after a kickboxing or spin or weights or cardio class.  Want to try it?  I have finished mine, so I can’t share, but here is the vague recipe. Post Workout Smoothie Half cup milk 2-3 dessertspoons yogurt 1 big dessertspoon almond or peanut butter 1 dessertspoon Nutella or drinking chocolate power I banana Whiz it all up with a hand blender or in a blender of your choosing. Confession time.  I had almost finished this before I remembered to photo it!! Ha. So here is a glass nice and full. This is my favourite glass and it used to be my Grandma’s. It is a teeny tiny glass which stands about two inches high and I think she drank Sherry in it!  I finished the last of my smoothie in it today.  Cheers Grandma! Appropriate then that I am also making and sharing Grandma’s Biscuit Cake recipe …

Sunshine, Peas, Cookies and Coffee!

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Yesterday was a tired, get nothing done kind of day. A day where I almost put a dirty glass in the freezer to wash it.  I am sure I will find the butter in the cupboard and the Marmite in the fridge!!  You know the kind of day. A pretty useless one. Today however is a different day altogether. I am feeling good, the sun is shining so I am wearing these I did a great class at the gym where I could hardly drink my water and breathe at the same time.  Lots of running, jumping and breathing. In my book that’s a good one!  The down side is walking to Michael’s and Whole Foods glowing red in the face! I  bought this massive crochet hook which is the size of a baseball bat and the brand ‘Crochet Dude’ cracked me up!!  Now I can embark on my maiden crochet project voyage – a nice chunky cowl scraf thingy.  Don’t worry that summer is hurtling towards us, it will probably take me until November …

Hearts, Owls and Clouds.

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I thought today was going to be a non starter. I didn’t go to the gym this morning as I usually do. I had big plans to use the extra time wisely and get a feeling of work well done by 11am. When I got home from school, I wasn’t feeling it, I almost wished I had just gone to the YMCA and done a class to get me started. I thought it would be a treat not to go, but at 8am, I was feeling a little lost. You know, the rabbit in headlights feeling, what to do, where, how? A bit like when I get to the Y and my locker is being used by someone else, a momentary and mild panic, something is wrong, all is not as it should be. It techically isn’t ‘my’ locker of course, just the one I usually use. If I use another, heck, I might not find my non gym clothes, and I have a strict rule about wearing gym clothes outside said gym.  I don’t. …

Brain melt and ten on the 10th. December 2012

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What a strange day today has been. Too grey to tell what time it is, felt like 4pm all day. Cold to the bone cold, cold legs through jeans, make your eyes run and cheeks freeze cold. A lots to do and nothing done day, my list remains complete with no crossings out. I have done lots I needed to but also not done lots I wanted to. I found a present bought about September, for Christmas. A bargain of bargains. And forgotten. I nearly bought another one!  Maybe being organised for Christmas early is not such a good idea for me!                                                                                                                         I did manage to take ten photos on the 10th though! YMCA for …

Kickboxing, zombie fighting, cookie baking ninja

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This morning I did my kickboxing/ninja/zombie defense class at the Y and I have to say, it totally flew by. I can’t believe how fast the time went. No doubt sore arms and legs tomorrow, but I love that!  Really, I do, I think it confirms I worked hard, I firmed up some wobbly bits  and now I can make and eat some cookies! Did someone say cookies? Look at what heavenly beast I found in Trader Joe’s this morning.  I only wonder why I didn’t buy a cart full. These should come with a stern warning along the lines of… ‘Do not open until you intend to bake with them. Not even just to try them. You will nibble and nibble and they will all be gone – forever. No cookies.’ They are so good straight out of the packet, forget fancy Christmas M&M’s, just get bags of these for everyone who needs sweets! Job done. You’re welcome. Leave some for me though. I just used all mine in cookies….and nibbling… I am going …