Resolutions Status

In my Happy New Year post I wrote about a few things that you could consider are my 'resolutions' for the year.   

Diet - As I started the year I decided not to focus on calories or protein content or anything specific, but instead just started eating less. I feel like I eat pretty well most of the time and I know what is important to consume, but I think it was really my portion size and frequency of eating that was getting me down. I was always afraid of being hungry so I would always make sure I had extra snacks or fill up during a meal. I have started eating smaller meals and if I do need to something to tide me over until a meal I will just have a few almonds or something instead of a substantial snack. Sometimes I am hungry before a meal, but it turns out I don't need to panic about that. 

Alcohol - Given my attempts at consuming less, then I am not inclined to drink alcohol throughout the week or even on weekends, with a couple of exceptions.  We went out to eat with ski friends and I had wine, and I met a former colleague for lunch last week and I had wine. I still like to have a drink but right now I am limiting it to social situations. 

Fitness - I have been very good at getting up to work out in the mornings. I have done weights workouts on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, a bike ride on Friday and on Sunday afternoon.  And we are skiing twice a week of course.  

Work - I have adopted two new habits to get away from using paper - making my daily notes in a Word document, and keeping track of my to-do list on Teams Planner. I have also started using Gemini as my AI platform of choice, I find the tone of the information is more conversational rather than robotic, if that makes sense.  I've looked up a few things for work and also for the trip we are planning. 

Parenting - This one is a work in progress, as it would be, but I have tried encouraging more helping with things (without yelling) and there have been some wins. 

Weekend Recap

Dave and I are very proud of ourselves as we were able to watch two full movies without having to split them up! On Friday night we watched One Battle After Another and on Saturday we watched The Rip. Both were very interesting and held my attention so I wasn’t even close to nodding off.  As a life long Leo fan, I very much enjoyed One Battle After Another.  The Rip was also entertaining.

We also had two great ski days.  This was a weekend where we drove back and forth on both Saturday and Sunday instead of spending the night up there.  We had some snow squalls on Saturday’s drives, both ways, and a tiny bit on Sunday morning but finally on Sunday we had a nice clear drive home, seriously the first time this ski season that has happened. 

On Saturday it was not too cold and the snow was pretty perfect. 

I love a freshly groomed trail, I feel like I’m a good skier on days like these.

Dave was spying on me when I was in line.

What was not perfect about this day was that one of the 6-person lifts shut down in the morning so that led to longer lines everywhere else. 

On Sunday it was colder but the snow conditions were still pretty great. It was a privilege to be in line for one of the first chairs up the hill, and we were the first ones down Adventure. We got home in good time to get everything tidied up, everyone cleaned up, and then settled in to watch the first couple episodes of Mr. Beast. 

Friday Favourites

The kids had a snow day yesterday and I decided to work from home as well, also Dave was trying to get back from Vegas and dealing with cancelled and delayed flights. This is kind of a "Day in the Life - Snow Day Edition".

I was up at 5:45, as I had planned, to do my workout. I scheduled an upper body workout which may have not been the best idea since there would be lots of shovelling later on, but I stuck to my plan. 

While doing my workout I got the message that school was cancelled and saw that the snow would be continuing most of the day.  I went up to turn the boys' alarms off and left these notes for them so they would know the good news when they got up. 

I did go out and did a bit of shovelling. Some would wait until the snow stopped by this is why I didn't wait: 1) I knew it would still be light and fluffy, 2) I wanted to clear the sidewalk, and 3) I knew I'd have to move the snow anyway so I might as get a headstart. 

I worked for about 45 minutes and got the sidewalk cleared and the front of the driveway.  

Then I took a mini-snow day break and read my book under the heated blanket for a little bit before I needed to get to work.  I’m really glad I took these few minutes when I had the chance since the rest of my day was pretty busy.

I had back to back meetings all morning but the kids went out and did some shoveling on their own.  After lunch I went back out.  E was going to a friend’s house but I made him help me for a few minutes before he left.

Q came out for a few minutes too before I went back in. There really was so much snow and we couldn’t do it all at once, plus it was still snowing!

I finished up my work and then went back out.  The plough had gone by so I had to do the end of the driveway and then I cleared the car and did a bit of tidying up.  There was one part between the cars that I just could not do. But we can do it tomorrow.

I had put together a lasagna and it was ready when I got back inside.

Dave eventually connected through Vancouver and got on a flight to Toronto off the stand-by list. 

Hope you have a great weekend, we are expecting more snow, which is great for skiing, not for shoveling.

Linking up with Andrea  and Erika

Three Things

 

Three things going on with each of us at the moment:

Q

1. We took Q out of the YMCA after school care and he is walking home on his own now (well really with the multiple kids that head our way after school).  This has only been since school went back in January but it's a game changer.  Now I don't need to worry about getting home from downtown at a particular time to pick him up. A lot less stress, and also some savings, this is the first time since 2012 we haven't been paying for childcare of some sort.

2. He has been keeping up with off-season baseball training to get ready for tryouts at the end of next month. I don't doubt he'll have a spot in the house league (yes they have tryouts for house league since there are limited spots) but he also wants to make the rep team.  

3. He has been good at doing some math and spelling homework when he needs to, but still finds lots of time for the iPad *eyeroll*.

E

1. E is at the end of his first semester of high school.  Instead of exam for three of the four classes, they have culminating projects, so he has been working hard on getting those done.  He has one science exam next week. 

2. He grew a lot since last winter and needed new ski boots, skis (two sets), and snow pants.  Luckily we found his GS skis second hand and they are actually in pretty great shape.  E waxed and tuned them up himself last weekend (with a little guidance from Dave).

3. The kids got a 3D printer for Christmas and E has been great at finding cool stuff to print.  One of his friends wants a mask printed and E is hoping to start a little printing service. 

Dave

1. As I mentioned in my post yesterday about things we outsource, or in our case, don't outsource, Dave repositioned the drain so it goes into the ground instead of running down the middle of the driveway.  It made a big patch of ice and was always so dangerous. 

2. Golf trips aren't that far away.  He is booking one for May and perhaps one for June. 

3. Dave was in Vegas this week for work. He got to stay at the Venetian, which is where I stayed the last time I was there. I know work trips kind of suck but at least his room was nice! 

Me

1. Our focus is on getting our March Break ski trip organized. We are going to France to ski but also spending a few days in Brussels as well. We have booked mostly everything now but still need a hotel in Brussels. 

2. I have made a list of areas to declutter and have made some progress. I weeded out some old clothes from the boys' dressers, the Christmas wrapping paper, and our reusable shopping bag collection.

3. I'm making my way through Emily in Paris and the Taylor Swift documentary.  I like putting on these easy shows. 

Let's Look - Outsourcing

  

Linking up with Shay and Erika for Let's Look Wednesday.

I am looking forward to the various topics they have chosen for this year. Today we are talking about things we outsource without regret.  

Actually we do not do a lot of outsourcing here, Dave and I are usually of the philosophy that if we can do it ourselves, then we should do it. It's not always about saving money but it's also about pride of ownership of your home and belongings and taking responsibility for the choices you've made in your life. 

Common things that are "outsourced" that we do ourselves:

Cleaning - I'm happy that other people hire housekeepers, but I personally cannot do it. It means our house is never 100% clean at one time, but it works for us.  

Ski tuning - With the boys in ski racing it is best to tune and wax their skis every few weeks and certainly before a race.  Dave got all of the equipment and learned how to do it at home, and is teaching E now, and it save so much money. Each tune can be about $75 per pair of skis, and that would be a big expense if we outsourced it. 

Repairs (car, appliance, and home) - We are fortunate that Dave is handy and likes to figure out how to do things himself.  YouTube is an invaluable tool and he will do his research to troubleshoot a problem and has the confidence to fix it himself. He even fixed our friends' dishwasher when we were at their cottage, which was a real lifesaver with ten people in the house!

Car washing, lawn care/gardening, snow removal - This is part of the "pride of ownership" thing I'm talking about. It's our home and car and we want to take care of these things.  

Cooking/meal prep - Where cleaning is not really my thing, cooking and meal prep is. Occasionally I may buy a pre-made item to take to someone's house, and we do certainly order in food and go out to eat, but mostly we do home cooked meals. 

Travel planning - This is another thing I love to do. Once we used a travel agent to book our cruise back in 2011 when we went with my parents and grandparents, and my parents still use a travel agent for their cruises, but I like doing my own research and figuring it all out. Like cooking, I think this is strength of mine.

Tax filing - Our taxes are pretty straightforward, we only have our paycheques and a few investments, so it's easy for me to do this with the tax software. I like filling out forms and organizing papers, so although I stay far away from finance at work, I don't mind doing our simple taxes.  

However there are things that just make sense to have someone else do it for us:

Grocery Orders - Not every time we need groceries, but a couple of times a month, I will order our groceries from Loblaws for pick up. The cost ranges from $1 to $5 so it is certainly cost and time effective. 

Oil Change and Tire Change (for those not living in winter climates, we change our tires twice a year to put winter tires on in early winter and regular tires on in spring) - This is something that Dave used to do but we take it into the shop now. It is difficult to dispose of the old oil and if you don't have rims on the tires, it's impossible to change the tires on your own.

Haircuts - I was able to cut everyone's hair during the pandemic with varying degrees of success, but this is definitely something we don't mind paying someone else to do.

Drywall - Now, this doesn't come up very often, but those times that Dave did some home renovations, it was better to bring in the professional drywallers for the big jobs. They are so good and efficient at mudding and sanding. 

I can't really think of anything else we outsource. Maybe when I read through others' posts I will be reminded of other things we get people to do for us.

Weekend Recap

I went to the office on Friday. I had stayed home on Thursday and didn’t feel very productive so I wanted a change of scenery and went downtown instead.  I did much better there on Friday. We had some brief periods of blue sky and this view of the Canada Life building was framed by the pretty sky.

I got home in time to do a workout before dinner.  We decided to keep it simple and walk up to Kinton Ramen for dinner. 

Q enjoyed his bowl.

And so did E.

We got everything ready for skiing when we got home, which always takes longer than you think it will, but finally Dave and I were able to start the movie Jay Kelly. 

We got up to the ski hill on Saturday morning. They had had some rain the day before but the conditions weren’t bad. I ran into Q on one of my trips up the chairlift.

We did a couple of runs with the kids after their training was over but then hit the road.

We had leftover chili for dinner and then we watched the rest of Jay Kelly. 

Dave was off to Vegas for a work trip the next day so it was just me and the boys skiing. 

It was colder that day and of course we ran into snow on the way up, starting in Barrie. 

Snow was great though!

Q had a practice race along with the rest of the U10s and U8s.  He was pleased with his run and came 8th for the U10 Boys (out of 21).  One of our friends in U8 got 3rd place, not bad for her first race!!

I skied by myself for the afternoon with a goal of doing all of the runs on the Moonstone side.  Then I stopped to see E’s group on the terrain park and found out that one of his teammates had fallen on the jumps and was waiting for the ski patrol to take him down in the sled.  Unfortunately he had to go to hospital with a broken leg. Season over for him, which is too bad, and E will miss his friend. 

We drove through snow again but it was fine. After we got everything put away, I decided to do a bike. Like basketball and hockey players preparing for playoffs and jumping on the bike after a game, I need to prepare for our ski trip so even after skiing all day, I wanted to do more exercise. It was a tough ride but I did it!

Then we ordered pizza for dinner and settled in to watch the Golden Globes. 

I need to see more movies, but I enjoyed the awards show, like usual.  I am always happy to see all of the celebs. 

Meanwhile Dave was in Vegas, he got a few photos from his plane.

 

Sharing Our Lives - Staying Warm

Happy Monday! I am linking up with my blog friends today for the Sharing Our Lives series.  I was a host of this for the past two years but decided to just join as a guest this year.  I was excited to see their list of topics for the year.

To begin for January, we are sharing how we stay warm. I hate being cold so this is perfect for me. I am often concerned with staying warm.  

A few things I like to stay warm:

- Uniqlo base layers with HeatTech.  I mostly wear these for skiing but I will also add them as a layer under my pants when I am going out for a walk.  One layer isn’t always enough. 

- Hand and foot warmers for skiing. But then I realized I could use them off the hill too.  I have worn them with my regular boots when watching a ski race or being outside for long periods of time. 

- Super Puff mittens from Aritizia.

- Space heater under my desk at work.

- Electric blanket.  I especially love to pre-heat my side of the bed with it and then I will turn it off for sleeping.  There are usually a couple of really cold weeks during our winters when I spoil myself with it. 

- Lots of other blankets.  We have lots of blankets on the couches where we watch TV and read. I have a firm belief it is not possible to take a little nap without being covered with something. 

- Fireplace.  We have two nice natural gas fireplaces that come on with a flick of a switch. They warm up the main floor very quickly. 

- Heated floors. Our basement has heated floors and that is where I work from home and my feet stay nice and warm. 

-  A hot drink. Sometimes I make a tea just so I can hold something warm, and drinking the warm liquid helps too. 

- Always being prepared.  There is no bad weather, only bad clothing. I always like to know what the temperature is or what it could be and dress appropriately. I find you’re more likely to end up being cold in spring and fall when you think the weather is warmer than it is, and being caught without enough layers. 

I feel lucky that we live in Canada where although our weather is cold, our buildings are built for it, and we have good windows, insulation, and decent heating systems. I know when other parts of the world experience cold weather, their houses aren’t really equipped for it and it can be hard to get warm at home.

  

Linking up with  Adrienne, Dara, Jen, and Joanne.