Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep, Habits

The sun came out this week! Also, these little daffodils came out this week.  This morning it was light while we were eating breakfast.  Spring is coming.

Last year Ezra* wrote the following poem

Spring is here
I can see new life
I can smell flowers

This week had many highlights.  Friends came to visit and we went to our local castle.  We took the babies out to lunch with friends (fun fact, when you have 4 kids and you meet a family of 4 suddenly there are 10 of you looking for a table).  I had moderately good days in work, although did not get as much done as I wanted.  I got a pedicure.  I did evening Pilates with a friend and morning gym with my gym buddy.  I took the babies to toddle around a museum on a super rainy Sunday and they had a great time.  I got to join a virtual Zoom about fitting adventures into one's life and realized that my life currently has a lot of adventure.  

Reading

I started The Dictionary Of Lost Words by Pip Williams.  It's not instantly pulling me in but I am enjoying it.  I think I expected something different and more like The Once And Future Witches, which it is not. I think I will get more into this book the more I read it.

I have a backlog of physical books to read (notably Meditations for Mortals) and I am just not reading physicals books.  Kindle is so easy.  Maybe I will make it a goal to read a physical book sometime soon.

Sports

• Monday
• 45 Minute 2010's pop Ride with Hannah Frankson
• 30 Minute Pop Punk Pilates with Kristin Mcgee (and also my evening workout buddy!)
• Tuesday
• 20 Minute Soundtrack Strength Club with Callie Gullickson
• Wednesday
• 30 Minute 2000's ride with Emma Lovewell
• Friday
• 1 hour gym workout with gym buddy
• Sunday
• 20 Minute Pop Punk ride with Ally Love
• 10 Minute Core Strength with Katie Wang

I was supposed to meet my colleague for the 20 minute Ally Love ride live on Thursday but missed it through a series of poor choices.  Then I didn't exercise at all on Thursday, which was also not ideal.

This week I am going to try and get up early to do exercise.  We only have 2 days of childcare and I am working 2.5 days so it's going to be hard to fit in sport, but many people don't have the luxury of lunch time sport so it's time for me to join the world of "many people" and do my exercise in the morning.  Hopefully. If everyone sleeps. 

Sleep

I have averaged 7.33 hours which is great.  I woke up before my 6am alarm this morning.  I am still randomly awake at night sometimes, which is annoying, but I am hoping more exercise will fix it.  The biggest great news is that Aubrey and Clara are somewhat reliably sleeping until 6am and sometimes even until 6:30.  I think better times are coming.

Habits

Why is a flossing habit so hard?  On the other hand, my fruit and veg habit is getting better.  And do I even want to be a meditating person?  Apparently not.  Maybe that will be a morning thing.

I have booked a dentist appointment for mid March so I need to keep up my flossing game.  When the dentist asks me how often I floss I consistently say "daily for a few weeks before every dentist appointment".  Or I say "not much" and then I have a unpleasant dentist visit.  

Have you had any adventures recently?  Do you eat fruit every day?

*I have decided to do the bloggy thing and use different names for the kids.  So if you thought my kids had different names before, then you are right.  I know it's a weird transition, but I am hoping to be a bloggy person for a long time and someday my kids may be less interested in all the stuff I've written about them.  So for now we will have Ezra, Lily, Clara and Aubrey.  I am also working on not using "the twins" or "the babies" as much because they are two people so it should be "Clara and Aubrey" going forward.

7 Food Things on a Friday

I've started tracking food, which is weird for me because I am generally awful at tracking what I eat.  It turns out the magic is in using excel (or google sheets) because I just love a color coded sheet.  I don't track my food particularly well (as in, calories, or portion sizes, or macros, or what "some sandwich and snacky bits" even means)

This Week

Last Week

7 things I have learned from tracking my food for a few weeks:

I love cakes and biscuits and I don't care.  A cup of tea and a biscuit is a great note on my time log

I have to remember to eat fruit.  But also, I eat much better in a day if I eat fruit.  I don't naturally reach for fruit when I'm hungry but I should.

My ideal eating pattern would be morning coffee, 10am meal (like, spaghetti bolognaise or chili or an actual meal), 3pm meal, 6pm snack.  This is not a normal or socially acceptable way to eat, but I bet it would work well for my energy levels.

When I forget to eat breakfast by 11am everything goes downhill.  On Thursday I started work early and only had coffee, I was in calls from 9am to 11am and then went straight to a school meeting.  I had a banana on the way but when I finished the meeting I was so hungry that I didn't want to wait for the babies to finish lunch so I could eat (the babies get upset if I'm around right before nap, so it's easier to stay away).  So Andy and I went to a cafe for lunch, which was nice and delicious but also I missed a Peloton workout I had scheduled with a friend.  If I had eaten food at 10am I would have been able to think better at 12 and probably do my workout then get my lunch at 1.

Meals with lots of vegetables make me feel better and able to go through life better.  Meals that are made of cheese and bread are my go-to but I would like to be better about having a fridge of tasty veggie options rather than scavenging food.  

If I do exercise I want to eat more nutritious food.  If I eat more nutritious food I want to exercise more.  If I am hungry I don't want to exercise at all.

Blue cheese gives me weird dreams.  I still eat cheese before bed.

Have you ever tracked your food? Did you learn anything?  Do you get cheese dreams?

Thursday Thoughts: Communication & Connection vs. Control

The other week I was getting a pedicure across from a lovely older lady.  She and I were chatting about life and kids and living in Wales when her partner walked in and started talking loudly to the room (Me, her, the two ladies doing our nails).  He was telling us his theories about Trump and explaining geopolitics.  At one point I said something and he said "now let me explain this to you" which was especially annoying because he was explaining what it was like in america right now (as a 85 year old british pensioner I'm not sure why he felt the need to explain this to me).

The sad thing about this is that at no point did I (or anyone) say "Hey dude, we were all chatting and bonding and you walked in and started telling us stuff and we weren't just sitting here waiting for you to tell us things".   I have to assume he thought we were sitting waiting for him to tell us things?

I've started to wonder whether women use communication for connection and men use it for control. Or maybe control is not the right word, but something different the connection.

I know I've extrapolated my connection vs. control theory from a small weird interaction, but I have been seeing ways in which women use their voices in public space to connect people, while men sometimes use their voices in public to control people.  Obviously this is not always a bad thing - people need direction - but how much different would it be if male default communication was focused on connection as well?

I also think control has a quite negative implication here.  It might be the wrong word entirely.   My husband read one of my texts the other day and said "no wonder you need a smartphone, your texts are paragraphs!".  But they are! I know I'm nominally planning a meetup at a castle, but I am also trying to communicate with someone about my life and ask them about theirs.  And also meet in a castle.

Andy has a weekly run club.  He sends one text "run club tonight?" and then people come or don't. 

Do you use communication for connection?  A random question, but what is your favourite way of communicating and is it the same as your favourite way of connecting with people? Or am I reading way too much into an 85 year old ranting about America

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep, Habits

February is a very long very cold month.  Which is weird, because it's theoretically the shortest month, but maybe the cold makes it longer?  This about sums up my feelings towards February at this point: (Lilah and Nora's faces. Not smug Audrey who is just happy to be in a snow suit and also to be walking.  I should be more Audrey)

The family resemblance is strong.

This week included a two day and one night mom & daughter adventure to Bath, which was super fun for everyone. Also super tiring. 

Reading

I finally finished The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and it was cute.  I mean, not groundbreaking, but sweet and cute and sweet.  I do like it when Pandemic authors decide to write super cute stuff and it makes me think of how shitty pandemic times were and how nice it may have been to write an imaginary world when the real world was just a trash pit.

My Libby hold for The Dictionary of Lost Words came, but before I could start reading it I was at the hotel and I didn't have internet so I found a sample of Listen for the Lie which I must have downloaded sometime from kindle and so I read the sample and I got super sucked into it and then I ended up buying the book for £3.  I never buy kindle books! I guess this is why they do samples?

Kyria has recommended mystery books before and it's not a genre I've been drawn to but this one is fun.  I have also never listened to a true crime podcast (it's based around a true crime podcast) but I can definitely see how one could get really into those as well.  It's currently 7:30 and I am hoping to be upstairs reading soon because there is a murder mystery to solve!

Sports

• Monday
• 30 Minute Pop Ride with Cody Rigsby
• 5 Minute Post Ride Stretch with Cody Rigsby (best line of this stretch - "if you ever called a phone number to order something off the TV then you are old and you need to stretch")
• Tuesday
• 60 Minute gym session with gym buddy
• 30 Minute Best Case of the Mondays ride with Ally Love
• 90 Minute Hot Yoga
• Wednesday
• 20 Minute 90s Ride with Bradley Rose
• Saturday
• 20 Minute Pick Me Up Ride with Hannah Corbin
• Sunday
• 30 Minute Full Body Strength with Rebecca Kennedy
• 20 Minute 90's Hip Hop Ride with Denis Morton

This week started with a bit of a bummer as I put my apple watch through the washing machine.   I use the apple watch primarily for a heart rate monitor during sports.  Somehow, miraculously, it survived! It was a cold and gentle cycle wash so maybe that helped?  Either way, well done apple!

Also, I decided to order myself a new set of dumbells.  I bought a set of 7kg (15lb) dumbbells last summer and it's not really heavy enough for deadlifts or squats.  I haven't spent all of my rachel hobbies budget this month (although it is only the 16th... so this may have been premature) and so I decided to go for a pair of 10kg (22lb) dumbbells for squats and floor press.  

Sleep
This week's average is 7.2 hours per night, but that includes one night which only had 5 hours of sleep due to random insomnia (I blame a full moon plus cycle-day 20 (TMI Apologies)

I have also had some 8 hour nights of sleep, and I'm still fairly sure my rolling average ideal is around 7.5 so I am getting close! The babies are generally sleeping until at least 5:30 now, and often staying in bed until 6am, which is amazing.  Maybe in the next few weeks I'll do morning exercise again.  Or morning anything.

Habits

It's been a decent week for habits.

As you can see, the guilt of flossing once in a week has carried me through to some flossing success this week.  Also, because I am a really exciting person, I was talking to my friend about dental hygiene and she said her dentist told her to consider separating flossing from teeth brushing.  I always brush my teeth, then floss, then use mouthwash.  Her dentist said flossing can be done in isolation and doesn't have to be done at the same time as teeth brushing.  My little mind is blown! Now I have floss at my desk in work and I just have to remember to use it once a day.

I am surprised how hard it is to remember to eat fruit.  I spend so much of my life chopping and prepping fruit for kids that I forget to eat it myself.  It's a good reminder to try and eat at least one piece of fruit a day.

As another aside, I once worked with (as in, professionally worked alongside, not hired) a sports physio who saw me eating a banana and said "you may as well be eating a chocolate bar - bananas have so much sugar".  When I eat fruit I often think of that line... and how crazy some sports physios are because I disagree strongly with that sentiment.  However, I do eat a lot of chocolate so I should probably eat more bananas.

Also, I just love daily planning.  Love love love it.  Love looking at old plans.  I haven't even started making prety daily plans.  Somehow writing out my day on paper, then having that paper next to me while I work, and also being able to write down random thought and tasks just makes my brain feel... good.  I am so enjoying my sprouted planner and I'll hopefully do a better update soon.

Have you read Listen for the Lie or The Dictionary of Lost Words?  Do you floss during teeth brushing time or at a different time?  Have you ever put a watch through the washing machine? Are you tired of February?

Friday Update: Bath Adventures!

Lilah I just returned from an overnight adventure in Bath. We took the train to Bath (1.5 hours) on Thursday and stayed overnight in a hotel and came home on Friday afternoon.  It was Lilah's first ever hotel stay.  We visited the hotel pool twice.  We ate dinner at Pizza express.  We watched TV in bed! We saw the Roman Baths.  We saw a play.  It was a BIG adventure.

It was also Lilah's first ever hotel breakfast.  You know who loves a hotel breakfast?  Kids love a hotel breakfast:

Also I love a hotel breakfast.  Yes, I did eat eggs benedict and a croissant.  No Regrets.

The friday train home was medium busy.  I used to take this train for work often, and remember feeling like strangers were always sitting next to me.  This time, Lilah and I had a table seat, with two empty seats across.  It turns out, as much as people love a table seat, people hate sitting near children.  All seats around me were taken, the two across from us at the table were empty the whole time.

This weekend is a busy weekend - two play dates on Saturday and Andy is doing a 10k on Sunday.  We might all be leaving the house together on Sunday to visit family.  I am hoping to get a Peloton ride or two in, and I am seeing a friend for dinner on Saturday night as well.  

Do you love a hotel breakfast? Would you sit across from a child on a train or chose to sit next to someone else?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep

Here is a glimpse into twin toddler life at 8am on a Saturday
I just wanted to do the dishes.

This week felt scattered.  On Monday in work I thought "well it makes sense I feel so disjointed, I was off work last week!" but then I realized I was not off work last week. It's probably a bad sign when one feels disjoined from a week off one didn't have.  

I had family visiting last weekend, which meant days were busy and evenings were spent chatting and catching up, which is great but also I did not hit my 9:15 in bed goal on any weekend days.  

On the plus side, we visited our favourite local castle.  The ceiling is spectacular, and the kids enjoyed admiring it

Andy and I went to dinner at a friend house and had a grown up meal on Saturday! Do you know what is nice? Not shoving an entire meal down in 15 minutes while chaotically feeding babies at the same time and saying "Sit down Nora" every three seconds and having water dumped on you.  We started dinner at 7:15 and finished around 8:30 and it was glorious to talk and eat slowly.  However 2.5 glasses of wine and a 10pm arrival home made for a very tired Sunday.

Reading
There a chance that The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is a bit too twee.  I am not reading it as fast as I would normally read a book I'm into.  I am still enjoying it, but I'm not feeling drawn to read it.  It has a great premise and good characters and I wonder if a better editor would have made it into a 5* read?  

Sports

• Monday 
• 30 Minutes Upper Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 10 Minute Postnatal Core
• 10 Minute Yoga
  (all these workouts were at my house but with a friend who is doing The Stronger You programme and it was fun to workout with a friend but in my own home)

• Tuesday
• 30 Minutes Sundays with Love Peloton ride
• 10 Minute Stretch with Ally Love
• Wednesday
• 30 Minute Sundays with Love Peloton ride
• Thursday
• 30 Minute Peloton ride while watching Emily in Paris
• 10 Minute Core Strength with Rebecca Kennedy
• Friday
• 1 Hour Gym with Gym Buddy (upper)
• Saturday
• 20 Minute 2000's ride with Bradley Rose
• 5 Minute cool down ride with Ally Love
• 30 Minute full body strength with Tunde Oyeneyin
• 10 Minute Stretch with Ben Alldis (Taylor swift Stretch!)
• Sunday
• 30 Minute Sundays with Love ride
• 5 Minute cooldown ride
• 5 Minute post ride stretch

I've owned a Peloton for 3 months now and I am so enjoying it.  I was not sure if I would still enjoy it once I bought it and I do.  I think that Peloton solved my exactly fitness problem, which was that I basically only have 1 hour or less to exercise and it wasn't enough time to leave the house.  I can fit in a ride during lunch and be back at my home office 45 minutes later.  On Saturday I put the babies to sleep and saw there was a live ride in 4 minutes and got changed and rode 20 minutes and felt SO GOOD after.  I know i'm so twee but I'm having a lot of fun with the Peloton - possibly even more fun than I expected.

Sleep

I've averaged 7 hours a night this week.  I am trying to be in bed by 9:15.  It can't happen during evening workout days (once a week), but it is possible more than I actually do it.  10pm seems like such an adult "asleep" time... but I don't know where I get that number from?  

If I'm awake past 10pm I feel like it's a very late night.  Going to bed at 8:30 seems very early.  What time is adult bedtime? I do like to read for 30ish minutes, which I don't usually do if I get in bed at 9:15 because then it's already close to 10 and I ideally want to be asleep before 10 so I'll often give up reading at 9:30 and fall asleep.  I had a goal to be "in bed by 9" but I basically never succeeded (because obviously that means "on the way to bed by 8:45) whereas I've been a bit better at "in bed by 9:15" (because that means getting ready for bed at 9)

Habits

I have stolen Kae's habit template and I like tracking habits! I've also tracked food for a week or two now which is interesting because it turns out I don't eat enough fruit or vegetables.  I barely eat any fruit.  Fruit is probably good for me.

I also fell off the meditation bandwagon immediately upon tracking it.  And I am fairly sure I did more flossing than this but forgot to track it (sorry for the dental hygiene TMI)

Oh and in more exciting news - daily planning got checked today because I got my Sprouted Daily Planner!   I am so excited to have a daily planner again.  I'm not as instantly in love as I was with Erin Condren, and I am still sad to say bye to the Ashley Shelley Daily that was discontinued this year, but I am excited to see how this planner work for me. I am a simple person who apparently cannot do daily planning on anything but spiral bound.

Do people really floss every day? Do you track things? What time is your bedtime? What time do you think a normal adult bedtime is?  Do you think your bedtime is early or late or just right?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep

So many blog posts in a row! I got tired of being a once a week blogger but I promise I won't become a once a day blogger.  

This week we had no childcare at all and it wasn't the worst.  So that's good?  The weekend was full and fun with family visiting and a play date with friends from my pre-natal class with Isaac.  I planned the play date because I have too many kids to get invited anywhere.. we rented a hall (£36 for two hours!) and we ended up with 8 adults and 9 children (unfortunately two families dropped out last minute) but it was still a lot of fun.  

Also, one of my friend was here for a play date on Friday and saw my collection of cards and asked who turned 40.  So at the party this weekend I was presented with a cake! Honestly if I could have picked any party for my 40th I would probably have picked a play date in a scout hall so this was pretty much my dream.  Also, a chocolate cake! My third birthday cake this year. 

Reading

About 30% through this.  So cute

Sports

This week was a bit meh for sports.  I had two days off work to watch kids, which meant that I didn't have the flexibility to fit in a workout during the work day.  On days watching kids I also didn't have a chance to do any exercise.  I couldn't meet my gym buddy because we rely on morning childcare to make that happen.  I know everyone is super into swapping childcare with partners, but four young kids is a lot of young kids.  I lost my 30+ day Peloton streak, but I am not sure if I'm really into streaks anyways.  In good news,  I did my second in person Yoga class of the year (goal is 15).  90 minute hot yoga is hard.

• Monday
• 30 Minutes Peloton ride while watching Emily in Paris
• 10 Minute bodyweight strength
  
  
• Tuesday
• 90 Minute hot yoga
  
  
• Thursday
• 30 Minute pop ride with Ally Love
  
  
• Saturday
• 30 Minute 2000's ride with Hannah Frankson

Sleep

I'm still not getting enough sleep. I averaged 6.93 hours.  Maybe this week is the week that Audrey starts sleeping till 6am?? Or maybe, like every other week, I just have to realize that my day of parenting starts at 5am and even 5:15 is a 15 minute sleep gift.  

Goals Goals Goals! (2025 Personal Goals)

[I started this post then saved it and now I'm continuing it, but in the spirit of iteration I'll just cross out the pieces that have changed]

Soo I know it's the 18th of Jan 1st of Feb already, but I don't think I've done any goals posts yet.  And I have goals!

As mentioned, I am turning just turned the big 4-0 this year, so I've crammed in all the personal goals because hey, why not?

Personal Goals:

• Improve accessory situation. Wear earrings? 
  A long time ago I read Putting Me Together and I even bought a style guide and I sometimes looked put together.  I bought some necklaces and they really do make an outfit look awesome.  I have had my ears pierced and I always wear small gold balls.  I don't actually own any earrings at the moment.  This year I would like to start wearing earrings.  This is a bit tricky with babies around but I love how put together earrings make people, so I am on the hunt for earrings that I will actually wear.
  
  
• Paint my nails Monthly
  Last year my goal was to paint my nails more.  I painted my nails a few times.  I bought nail polish.  This year I am going to get my nails painted once a month by a trainee at the local nail place.  It's £10 and will mean that at least I'll have nice nails once a month.  Hopefully I will also learn to do my nails myself in between.
  
  
• Train for a half marathon 
  I entered the Cardiff Half in October and I am super excited.  But I will need to train.  My half marathon times are fairly consistant in the 2hr 25min to 2hr 35min.  Although my goal is to train for and run a half marathon, by secondary goal is to run it in 2hr 10 min or less.
  
  
• Strength train 100 times this year. 
  Right after I made this goal I listened to multiple podcasts where this was someone elses goal.  I guess it's a good goal?  I usually go to the gym once a week with my gym buddy (though we miss holiday and childcare-free weeks) SO with some focus I should be able to do twice a week.  
  
  
• Ride 50 Miles in one weekend.  
  This will probably be on Peloton.  There was a time I rode 50ish miles every Sunday.  That time is not now.
  
  
• Buy a blazer or a jacket to classy up work clothes
  Honestly I'm not super psyched about this goal BUT I think it would be good to own a nice blazer someday or a jacket.  I often put on a nice dress and then wear a Patagonia jacket over it.  Perhaps a blazer would be a better option?
  
  
• Take a skills class at Bike Park Wales
  I want to be a better mountain biker.
  
  
• Go To Paris
  I have been to paris a few times.  I have generlaly not enjoyed France.  my gym buddy loves Paris and he works in the travel industry and I think that I should give Paris one more chance with him.  Maybe being in Paris with a french speaker who loves Paris will make Paris better? Also, the logistics of this are BIG because I would need to go without any kids which feels... crazy
  
  
• Take a makeup course
  I am really interested in learning how to do my own makeup better.  Has anyone done this?  I think it would be so cool to have someone teach me how to do makeup
  
  
• Do 15 in person yoga classes
  I love working out at home but in person yoga is great because they actually fix my positions and I realize how not level any part of my body is all the time.  There are multiple good yoga studios by my house and 1+ times a month should be very doable
  
  
• Take a bread making course
  I think I'm just into paying people to teach me things this year! I would love to do a bread making course.  There are some interesting lamination courses here to make croissants and other delicious breads and rolls.  I would love to learn how to make Bagels if that was an option somewhere?   
  
  
• Learn how to style my hair, buy a new hairbrush and potentially new hair drier
  I don't know what to do with my hair.  Is it my cut? I have really thick wavy hair.  I'm already growing it out to brown (I dyed it red for 15 years) and seeing how grey it is.  So far, it's not as grey as I thought.  But the only thing I know how to do with my hair is dry it and straighten it.  My hairbrush is from a gift set my Grandma got me when I was 15 and it's missing half the bristles.  This year I want to learn how to blow dry my hair.  My hairdresser has offered to teach me - YAY!  I also need to buy a new brush.  But what brush?  how does one decide what hairbrush to buy? Hair is complicated

I realize lots of my goals are about paying people to teach me things or do things or acquire things, however I think this fits into a larger goal of "pay people (often women) for the rare and valuable skills they have acquired, even if those skills don't fit into society's standard of what is "valued".  

I know I could buy a new sofa from a department store (new sofa goal will make the list someday) but in the price of that sofa is every overhead cost of the department store, the wage of the CEO, the (probably male) executive board, and then the labourers etc.  While I feel like lots of things on this list should be "Free" I'm trying to be more attentive to when "free" means "as a woman you should just know this".  As a woman, I should just know how to do makeup and make bread and paint my nails?  

I'm looking forward to year of forty.  This is a fun and busy time in my family life, personal live & professional life.  I'm excited to add a more fun and adventure into this year, and lay the groundwork for more fun years ahead.

Have you ever taken a course for hair or makeup or bread?  What's the best course you've ever done?