Updates and Exercise!

It's Sunday and I've worked for pretty much all of it, but am taking this moment to sit with the kids to watch the latest episode of the new Mighty Ducks TV show that we are enjoying IMMENSELY. Highly recommend.

Jumping back in time to my last update, we had a great Easter with my parents!

The kids found their eggs and baskets and Maggie found a new fireplace to attempt to enter.

We cooked and played yard games and took the trio of pups on walks to the park with the kids.

In addition to the photo of me and my mom, James caught a beautiful candid photo of me and my baby. 😂

And the kids decided moments before the Easter egg hunt was the perfect time to learn how to play chess on my grandparents' giant chess set. Landon was pretty into it, whereas I just felt motivated to rewatch The Queen's Gambit.

Speaking of Landon, he is playing football!

I'm finally learning a bit about this game I've never watched before and I flinch everytime he gets hit and bounces off the grass.

The girls got to come to his game last week and spent most of it playing underneath the bleachers, paying close attention on the inside.

Cora packs a bag anytime we go anywhere and you never know what she'll pull out of it on arrival. At his game, she unearthed a tiny notepad with a tiny pencil and drew a portrait of her still somewhat tiny brother.

Claire is on the bench, litrally and figuratively, due to a sprained angle she got at recess one day after one of her best friends did the same thing. She has one more week in the boot and is thoroughly over the novelty.

Speaking of novelties, I updated my shoe collection with a few new items that I realized later perfectly reflect my current place in life. These rainbow trail shoes make my heart flutter, when 10 years ago, it was these gorgeous rainbow stacked heels I now wouldn't have anywhere to wear. I also ordered two new pairs of TOMS in gold glitter and bright fuschia for no other reason than they made me smile, and I'm pretty sure fuschia can be a neutral when you work from home.

Though I did wear heels for about 90 minutes last week!

With both of us healthy and post-vaccine #2, we dressed up and headed to our favorite restaurant to celebrate the 8th anniversary of James's swim school and my belated birthday.

It was so nice. Delicious as always, but mostly just nice to be out, with each other, chatting our way through a lovely meal.

Thanks to blog reader Kimberly's youtube suggestion, I'm the last person on earth to discover youtube makup tutorials and I feel like I've learned a lot. The Sephora spring sale was very well (or perhaps very poorly?) timed.

Also last weekend, I decided to try one of my old barre classes!

"Mine" as in I was the teacher- it was a recording from a zoom class I taught last May, and it was impossible. I cannot tell you how bizarre it is to be sweating and cursing at a former version of yourself. I couldn't even lie and be like "oh, fitness is this instructor's whole life! she works out constantly! she shuns nachos and has never born children!" NO, it's ME. And I was cheerful and chatty and counting with great enthusiasm and always starting at numbers much higher than were necessary and jesus christ I made it through the first 17 minutes before turning me off and going to brunch with friends on the gorgeous outdoor patio at Joe T's where we waited in line for 90 minutes, drank a pitcher of margaritas, and ate ALL the food.

It's super weird that some of my old work clothes don't fit.

I did finish my workout the next day and have done one in full every day since. I'm coming back and it feels good.

And at 8:00 a.m. this morning I kicked it up a notch and went to my first heated yoga class in fourteen months.

And it was more wonderful than I can say- I floated home on a cloud of sweat and endorphins and would have hugged every member of my family if they would have let me get that close to them before taking a shower.

I have missed group fitness classes so so much. They recharge my internal battery- truly they filleth my very soul- and I have missed them more than anything else during the last year+. The music, the heat, the intensity, the energy that comes from a live instructor and a group of people with a common goal. It's just beautiful. And though my muscles were so tight and nearly atrophied from sitting 12+ hours a day at my bedroom desk, I hit a headstand with straight arms and felt like I was on top of the world. In a few months I think I'll be ready to get back to teaching and I'm really starting to miss it.

Alright, Maggie and I need to get back to work- Happy Sunday (and the last day of the Sephora sale) to all!