Sunday Sunday

HUGE storms are crashing in the skies above me, so since I won't be able to sleep until they calm down (the downside to 50 skylights running across the ceiling of your bedroom and a whole wall made of glass) I'm hoping I can get in a blog post before I pass out. Because you guys, I started yoga teacher training this week and it is A LOT.

Car selfie at 10:30 p.m. after the first class

Specifically the training is 3 hours of class from 7:15 p.m. - 10:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights for the next 8 weeks. Plus reading, homework, essays, and journaling. Plus attending 60 regular yoga classes during the 8 weeks (you could log 15 ahead of time, which I definitely did). So I get up and go to work early, stop at a yoga class for an hour on the way home, get home, make dinner, watch my loved ones eat it, and then leave at 7 for 3 hours of pretty intense physical, mental, and emotional training, come home and talk to James for a few minutes, take a warm bath, journaling the night's training while the tub fills, and cool down in the TV room with a foam roller and cup of sleepy time tea. I'm trying to set up a sustainable routine (so no TV or computer after class) and keep a close guard on the rest of my time with James and the kids.

I LOVE it.

On Friday I capped off my first week with a lunchtime class and an evening special Summer Solstice class of 108 sun salutations, which is maybe way more sun salutations than anyone should ever do in one sitting. I wore 9 pairs of yoga pants in 4 days and topped it all off with a frozen margarita with my loves at our favorite restaurant. It was a WEEK and I was basically high on all the knowledge and work and positivity of my teachers and fellow students.

I've wanted to do this for a long time and I'm forever grateful to James for secretly saving up the money to make me take the plunge and seamlessly taking on the additional load at home to make it possible for me to disappear three nights a week. It means so much to me. The training, his support, the kids seeing my passion and work towards this goal... I have a lot of feelings about it and I climb into bed, completely wrung out and exhausted at 10:45 p.m. and, half-asleep, he reaches out and pulls me into his arms to cuddle and I mentally talk myself through the Sun-A sequence while feeling so fiercely happy I almost can't stand it.

So it's a lot, but it's good. Seven weeks to go!

In other good things, a friend and fellow skin cancer survivor told me about Free Fly apparel and, always looking for cute, cool, not crazy expensive SPF protection, I immediately placed an order. I got the loose pants, two long sleeve tees, a long sleeve hoody, and a short sleeve tee. I loved all of them, but after much agonizing, decided to keep the long sleeve hoody and short sleeve t-shirt. (I already have 3 pairs of hiking pants and that's really all I need, though if I ever needed more I would re-order these immediately; same with this long-sleeve tee, though the other long-sleeve tee was too long on me.)

I think the hoody will be perfect to pull over a suit at the lake, pool, or beach, particularly now that I rarely wear a rashguard since I even more rarely actually get in the water, and I wore the short-sleeve all at our crazy hot swim meet on Saturday and it protected my skin 110%. Today you could can see the exact line where the shirt ended and my haphazard sunscreen reapplications began.

I really need a hat. Particularly if I'm going to be doing timing shifts directly under the glare of the sun. Usually I stick to dark and shaded areas like a vampire.

Saturday's meet went well. It was painful (literally, after those 108 Sun-A's the night before) to wake up at 5:10 a.m. to get ready to leave, but the kids did great and no one melted during the 6 hours we were there.

Cora earned her first-ever overall first place ribbon in the 25 free! I can't believe only 2 years ago she was the very tiniest of swimmers- the 3-year-old "6 & Under" taking well over a minute for her 25 free and now she's beating the whole pack! She is delighted by her every event and watching her is pure joy.

Clairebear won her 25 breast and made 3,000 rainbow loom bracelets between events.

James won everything and remains famous and much discussed in the stands, much to my general amusement. Towards the end of the meet he jokingly told Landon that if he could do a no-breather 50-free (that's 2 lengths of the pool, with a flipturn, without a SINGLE breath), he could earn back the 30 Fortnite minutes he lost for some poor behavior the day before. (He gets 60 minutes on Saturday and Sunday and he is like Gollum and his ring about them, which is as disturbing as it is genuinely useful when it comes to issuing consequences for tweenage asshattery.) I told James it was mean to dangle an impossible task out in front of him and James just laughed and said Landon wouldn't do it.

Except he did.

When he got halfway down the pool on the second lap we were both like "oh my god BREATHE!". But he didn't. And he didn't pass out either! He touched the wall and looked right at us in the stands, full of glee at his victory. So he got to play his game as soon as we got home. I still can't believe he did it. There will be no more dangling of faux Fortnite carrots. Oxygen is important.

Maggie worked hard while we were away and woke up a good 15 minutes after we got back home, thrilled to find us in the house again. We had a yummy, refreshing dinner of Greek Farro Salad with snow cones for dessert. Maggie went with us, of course. She really misses her regular car rides and we try to take her along whenever we can.

As it turns out Landon was the only one who got a snow cone.

Cora refuses to try them since she thinks they only taste like fruit and no amount of reading her other non-fruit flavors will convince her to attempt them. Claire had some issues earlier in the day with sibling kindness and being 9. Maggie gave her comfort and a bit of a smile.

Landon sharing his snow cone gave her more.

Today we slept in, I journaled and did some yoga reading while the kids lounged, and then we all went to Target for our urban suburban family field trip. I then headed to a yoga class (gotta fit them in!) while James and the kids continued to Costco (the field trip add-on bonus pack) and then I taught my barre class. I'm going to need more leggings, but in the meantime Target made me get this shirt.

(And also this one. You don't know what you need until Target tells you what you need and apparently I needed this.)

We went to an afternoon showing of Toy Story 4 and really enjoyed it. Super cute and touching and not at all repetitive of the stories before.

The kids loved it and I loved that they let James and I sit together after many years of needing us to sit between them.

Dinner was grilled trout, whole wheat orzo, and these amazing parmesan roasted Brussels sprouts. (Oh! I made these cookies with dark chocolate chips for Father's Day and they were INCREDIBLE. I also made the parmesan Brussels that night and it reminded me that everyone needs to go make both of those things.)

The storm has moved on (sorry to whoever is next in line, it was a doozy- at least two patio chairs are now at the bottom of our pool, which has never happened in 7 years of summer storms), so I'm headed to bed. I have a big week of a work and my second week of teacher training ahead of me! I wish you all a week at least as cool and fabulous as Maggie's every day: