This morning, driving to work in an empty car, without the sound of Little Man in the backseat going on about something, and with very few cars on the road, I had mixed emotions. Here I am, for the first time EVER, that I am working the day after Thanksgiving. I realize that there are LOTS of people who have to work, I just never expected that I would be one of those people. It's not that my job is particularly important, or that there is a lot going on, or even many people here, but unfortunately, I don't have the annual leave to take, to spend the day with my family. Most likely, I won't get a lot done today, and that's okay. Most likely, I will only see one other person in the building today, and that's okay.

Past Black Fridays have included HOURS of fighting the crowds shopping, or servers crashing. My house is a mess, and I left the guys at home, snuggled in their warm beds while I got up and left for work. The good thing is that because I come into work so early, I get to leave early afternoon.

We will still be able to keep some of our traiditions for this day. Paul and I will still watch Christmas Vacation, after Little Man goes to bed. We will still have leftovers, just for dinner rather than lunch. I will start to kick into high gear for Christmas preparations, trying to figure out the perfect present for each person, while staying within our set budget.

Today I am thankful that I have a warm place to work, to help support our family, even when it means having to be away from the house when I would rather be there. I am also thankful for the experiences I had teaching. Teaching is the hardest job I have had outside the home, and many days, especially early, I loved it, and many, many days, I hated it. One thing is true though, I never really appreciated the hidden perks of teaching. There was never any questions of whether or not I would be home for holidays, and the days surrounding them. I didn't have to hoard sick or personal days in order to spend that time with my family. I knew that we could get up and go at any point during the summer for a quick vacation. Sure, I had classes to take, and lessons to write, and curriculum to review and revamp, but a lot of that I could do at my own pace, on my terms, without the restriction of having to take vacation days to spend extra time with my family. These things did NOT make up for the stress I suffered, and the anxiety the plagued me, or the HOURS of sleep I lost due to worry, or the fact that my body decided that it would rebel against me so many times, forcing me to slow down. I don't regret the time I spent in the classroom, nor do I regret leaving it.

Summer Trio

Our CSA at Brad's Produce has officially begun, and we have started getting some of our favorites. Last summer, we were introduced to cucumber dip by the ladies at the farm, and it quickly became one of our favorites. We get so many cucumbers, we don't know what to do with them, so this is a nice way to use them. Unfortunately, it is not super low calorie, by any means, but we are working on making some small changes to help with that.

Cucumber Dip

8 oz cream cheese

1/3 cup mayo

1 medium cucumber, seeded and chopped

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dill

Combine cream cheese, mayo, garlic and dill until smooth. Add cucumber and stir until well mixed. Best if made day ahead.

This dip is so simple, and versatile. It is great on crackers, especially pita crackers, and we also find it nice on turkey sandwiches. We up the garlic, dill and cucumber, to make it crunchier, and we love the flavor of dill. Last night when I was making this, Paul said that he loves the flavor of dill and thinks that it is not in enough foods that we eat. This brought us to adding more and more dill to the dip, and talking about the fact that you can't have cream cheese and cucumber without dill, the perfect summer trio.

This week, instead of eating it as a dip, we are using it as the spread on our turkey sandwiches for lunch. It gives us the creaminess of mayo, and the crunchiness of the cucumbers, all in one. Now just to figure out a way to cut some of the calories. 

 In high school I was a middle-long distance runner who "specialized" in the 800m, mostly because I wouldn't be lapped and I wouldn't make a complete fool of myself. With all the miles I put in as a high school runner, I never ran any of the 5k races that were in the area, one of which I volunteered for on a few occasions. This past fall, as part of our "School Improvement Plan," a small group of teachers started training for a 5k a little later that fall, and they tried to get me run in the race, but I had an excuse. It was a good excuse, but an excuse nonetheless. Paul and I were going away that weekend for our anniversary, our first time away from Little Man together. With that excuse, it also gave me the excuse to only half attempt to put forth the effort to stick to a 5k training program. Paul and I talked, and agreed that a good goal for me would be to run in the annual town run in June, so I knew I had some time. Once or twice a week, when I "had time," I would strap on my running shoes and "wog" through Havre de Grace, most of the time worried I would see a student and they would think how ridiculous I looked and that I would embarrass myself. This led em to strap on my shoes even less, thinking, "I can go tomorrow," but when tomorrow came, it was always the same excuse. Then it got cold outside, another excuse. About 3 weeks ago I sat down, got a firm date for the town run I wanted to do, and made a calendar to map out my training. That day I realized that now was the time, and that day was the day I needed to start if I was going to be even remotely ready for the race the first weekend of June.

Today I started week 3 of a 10 week 5k training program. Over the past two weeks I have been really good at getting out there for the early part of the week. The program has me "running" three days a week right now, with rest days between. Mondays and Wednesdays I am ready to go as soon as I get home from school, ready to tackle the challenge laid out before me for that day, and try to get it done before Paul and Little Man get home, a challenge some days. But come Friday, the last thing I was to do is lace up the shoes and hit the pavement. Come Friday I am exhausted from school, and all I want to do is come home and relax. This is something I need to get over, and just do. I haven't quite figured out what will get me out of my "Friday funk," but it has to change.

Little Man has a doctor's appointment this afternoon, and since I do not have my AP kids today, I decided to take the day, and spend it with him. Today is also a run day, and this means that either I was going to take Little Man out with me, or I would have to wait until after we did our errands this evening, likely after Little Man went to bed, and this just wouldn't happen. So, after Little Man had breakfast, I bundled him up some, and we went to get the bike cart/jogging stroller put together to go out for our training. It took me quite a while to figure out how the cart went together, but I finally managed to get it all together and Little Man strapped in, and off we went. I had these grand ideas that pushing Little Man around would be no harder than when I normally go out, but boy was I wrong. Was I able to jog the entire time indicated in my plan? Absolutely not, but I kept going. I  pushed him up and down hills, jogging when I could and pushing forward.

Snowy Days

January 3 - All three of us were able to stay home due to snow.  Paul actually had to go to work, only to find out that his workplace closed.  While Paul was gone, Little Man and I had to find something fun to do, and he found his xylophone.

Today we were able to spend another day as a family, being entertained by Little Man.  At Christmas, Grampa R gave Little Man a monkey hat.  It has made it's way through the family, and today we spent some time playing with it.

Brush teeth, brush toes

Tonight we are honoring teeth brushing time.  Now that Little Man has a mouthful of teeth, we are working on brushing them twice a day.  As you can tell, he also decided to brush his toes with his toothbrush too.  Oh to be 14 months and able to brush your toes and teeth at the same time.

 

New Year, New Beginnings

The other morning, Paul and I sat over breakfast and came up with some goals for 2014.  I don't want to say that they are resolutions, but definite goals.  It has always been important to me that we are on the same page with goals for us as a couple, and as a family, and it was nice to know that they two of us were actually on the same page.  Our goals are "simple."

The first is to read Scripture together as a family every day.  For a while we were doing really well, then life happened.  Having a small child at the table has severely impacted us reading together before going off to work.  There are some mornings that are better than others, but we are definitely going to work harder to make this happen.

The next two goals relate to our overall goal of healthy living and losing some weight.  We want to help James establish healthy habits in life, and we need to start that ourselves.  Before Little Man was even a thought, we had been walking 3-5 days a week together.  After Little Man came, we have been hit or miss with walking as a family, some months walking 3 times total.  2014 is going to change that.  Our goal is to walk together 3 days a week.  This is in addition to the jogging I will be starting in order to train for the town 5k run that is coming up.  Additionally we have been logging what we are eating, again pretty hit or miss.  Our goal is to log 6 days a week.  This gives us a "cheat" day once a week, most likely Sundays when we have NO CONTROL over what is being served.

Personally, I have decided that I want to try to document our life over the next year by taking at least one photo a day.  There is a popular website that serves as a host for this, but I have decided to keep it on a different platform.

Day 1

This is my Little Man, the reason that I get up and go to work every morning, which resumes tomorrow.  After a fairly large meltdown this morning, and some number crunching, we realized that me going to work is still a must.  There are still bills that need to be paid, debt that needs to be eliminated, and one salary is not quite enough to take care of that.  The good news is that the end is in sight.  I know that when the cards are paid off, I will be able to stay home.  In the meantime, I have to take teaching one day at a time, some days, one class at a time and one hour at a time.  It is really pushing me to find a new job, one where I don't have to worry about bringing work home (or not bringing work home), and one where I can go on vacation whenever I want, not when students are also on vacation.  This little guy keeps me going every day.  I have pictures of him all over my desk, reminding me why I am working.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

This year I have realized that I need to have priorities when it comes to Christmas and what gets done around the house.  Last year it seemed "easy" to get everything done because I was still home on maternity leave.  This meant that every day I could do a couple more things around the house to make it a little more Christmas-y, and I didn't feel like I was taking away from family time in the evenings.  Now that I am back to work and we have just a couple precious hours with Little Man before he goes to be at night, I have realized that there are some things that are just going to have to give this year.  I can do a lot of things, but I can't do everything.

Last weekend we were able to go out and get our tree before the great snow storm that arrived on Sunday, and boy am I glad we did.  It was a miserably cold day, but we managed to find a tree fairly quickly and get back home to the warmth pretty fast.  The snow allowed us to get lights on the tree Tuesday while all three of us were home due to the snow, and besides that, nothing has been done to the tree, and I'm okay with that.  We have a tree, we will be able to put presents AROUND the tree, and there are lights and the star on top.  If we don't get a single ornament on the tree this year it will be okay.

Yes, there is a part of me that wants to make this Christmas and every Christmas, perfect for Little Man, but I am realizing that with the perfection also comes disappointment and stress for me, and that's not worth it.  There were a few things that I decided were "musts" for Christmas this year.  Tree with lights AND the star, tree skirt around the tree, Nativity on the mantle with advent candles (which I must admit have NOT been lit this year), and stockings hung by the chimney with care.  Those things seemed like deal breakers to me.  It we didn't have them, it couldn't be Christmas.