.Productive

Due to the unseasonably warm weather and the snow melting, the spring running bug has caught me a little earlier than normal this year. It's still too icy for my wimpy self to get out there quite yet, but every time I'm driving I think about getting back into it. I need to pick myself up a membership to a gym with an indoor track in the next week so I can start prepping for my first MEC race on March 6th! It's only 5K but it will be nice to get the legs in gear!

Kendrick starts daycare in three weeks and I head back to work! Like I mentioned last blog, I'm feeling very mixed about everything. One thing that I'm trying to figure out is balance. I'm quite enjoying working out twice a week at Blitz Conditioning as a "Morning Warrior," and it allows me to get my work out in before the little dude wakes up. However, when Kendrick starts daycare if I go work out in the morning it means that my hubby will be the one taking him to daycare and I'll miss seeing him in the morning. If I work out after work, there's a chance I may not make it home to see him before I go to bed. This bothers me! But at the same time, since I've started working out regularly I've been feeling really good and don't want to stop. I'm hoping this will get easier once I settle into working 9-5 again and Kendrick has spent some time at daycare. It's just hard for me to imagine going from seeing him pretty much 24/7 to only seeing him for an hour some days!

I'm also quite proud to say I've almost got nap time down to a science! For the first 10 months of Kendrick's life we didn't really have a scheduled nap time. We'd be out and about and he'd nap in the car or sometimes at home and life was good! Then at 10 months I decided to see if I could try and get him down to one nap a day so that he could start to prep for daycare. It took almost the whole month (as he did NOT like going down for naps in the crib), but for the last little while he's been going down like a champ and sleeping for two to three hours! This being said if he has a busy morning and falls asleep in the car at some point, I usually drive around for a bit to let him get at least an hour of steady nap, but for the most part I've just been planning my activities in the morning and late afternoon so we can be home around lunch time and he can go down for his nap. I know this type of thing might not work for everyone, but it's really worked for us! I wouldn't change the first 10 months for the world, as we were able to do a lot of things and I definitely made the most of my maternity leave! I'm very thankful we live in a country that gives us moms a year off after the baby comes!

There's a lot happening this month! In the next 31 days Kendrick turns 11 months, I turn 34, hubby and I celebrate our second wedding anniversary, we're going on a small mini family vacation before I go back to work, and then Kendrick turns 1. ONE! We decided to do a cake smash photo shoot with him in a few weeks and I am uber excited for it! We also decided we didn't want to rent a big space for Kendrick's birthday but had a lot of people special to him we wanted to invite! So he's having 3 three mini parties instead - one for family, one for friends, and one playdate with his baby friends before most of us go back to work. I bought some AMAZING decorations from a shop on Etsy so it just means that I get to use them three times! I know he won't remember his first birthday but we all will, so I'm hoping we can videotape some memories (like Ross & Rachel did on Friends) to show him on his 18th birthday.

xo,

-Dianne

PS: This week I'm going to start prepping for meal planning! I'm going to look at the week ahead, make a grocery list of what we need, and try to go shopping on Sunday. While I'm still home, I'm going to also try utilizing my slow cooker more often so it's less prep work later on in the day. I'm looking forward to this! Hubby and I are both making an effort to work out more so it will be great to compliment that with healthy eating.

PPS: So I'll share with you a little secret... I may be opening up an Etsy shop! I found a decoration I wanted to use for Kendrick's cake smash that was going to cost me $100+ to get it here, so I decided I may try making them myself. I'm going to keep the details sparse for now as I'm not 100% sure how this new adventure is going to go, but I'm excited nonetheless! The picture below is a hint. :)

.Planning

I miss running.

I really need a winter activity! Every year I say that, and every year I don't find one. I guess this year is a little different because my little man is keeping me pretty busy!

I've recently starting going to Blitz Conditioning for their early morning 6AM HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) work outs and they have been great! I've gone once a week three weeks in a row now and this week I stepped it up a notch and went twice. I'm scheduled to go twice next week too! I'm thankful to have my cousin Adriana who's been coming with me in the mornings and motivating me to show up (because my goodness is it hard to get up at 4:50AM!)

It occurred to me the other day that my first run of the year is on March 6. That's like... six weeks away. AH! Since I'm a whimp and don't run in the snow, I'm going to have to find an indoor running track in the next week or two. Thankfully this one is a 5K so I'm going to slowly start back into training again in early February.

I've recently started taking Kendrick to gymnastics drop in at North Edmonton Gymnastics Club and he is loving it! He likes to hang on the bars, jump with Mommy into the foam pit, bounce on the trampoline, and pretty much climb anything he can. I've actually had to barricade my fireplace off because he's a climbing machine! He figured out stairs last month too. I can't wait to enroll him in classes when he's 18 months old!

My maternity leave is over in five weeks. I am feeling very conflicted! On one hand I am excited to go back to work and catch up on what I've missed this past year. I've brought Kendrick to visit my co-workers quite a few times this year, but I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again on a regular basis. I'm also excited to wear all the new work clothes I bought on Boxing Day! :) On the other hand, I am going to miss seeing Kendrick all day, every day! Maternity leave has been an absolute blast! I've made new mommy friends (which is pretty awesome considering I'm one of those girls that doesn't have a ton of close female friends) and Kendrick and I have gone on quite a few adventures! Most weeks we are out and about doing something fun at least 4-5 times and I'm loving every minute of it! Even though I know it means life is going to change drastically, I'm silently hoping that he takes his first steps before I go back so I don't feel like I missed out on that milestone. He's pretty close right now as he cruises along the furniture, so you never know!

After putting Kendrick to bed at 7:15PM tonight, I did some cleaning and straightening out of my house. Usually I put away all the toys (as usually my living room looks like a toy tornado hit it during the day) and get some cleaning done before I relax and de-stress before heading to bed. I realized today though when I go back to work, that doesn't leave me a lot of time with the little guy between the time I get home from work and the time he goes to bed! So I've decided to really start looking into meal planning. It may be time to start a new Pinterest board! I want to plan my meals for the week in advance, get the groceries each weekend, and then get them ready in freezer bags so that when I get home from work, it's as easy as putting everything in a pot or taking it out of the slow cooker! This will allow more family time and some healthier meals too! Although it doesn't seem like a tough task, it does seem a little daunting to be that organized every week. Does anyone out there meal plan and have any tips?

xo

-Dianne

PS: Stella & Dot is giving us Stylists a chance to earn a trip to Costa Rica! Considering we don't have a big vacation planned this year, I'd really LOVE to go! You can help me get there by shopping my website, hosting a trunk show, or joining my team and becoming a Stylist! Feel free to comment below or tweet me if any of these interest you! :)

PPS: I'm starting to make a dent on some of my 2016 goals! My new hobby is HIIT training, and I'm quite enjoying it! I haven't really made a dent on my debt yet, but will start that as soon as I start making a regular pay cheque again back at work! We did do a date night this January while Kendrick had a sleepover, and have one planned for February already which is exciting! I'm also 24 days in to #365DaysOfGratitude, and it's also going well! I'm not sure if I'll get to blog three times this month, but I shall certainly strive for February! Overall, I think it's a good start!

.Back In

It's been a long few weeks but after heading to physiotherapy on Thursday last week, I was able to get the all-clear to start running again! YAY! Turns out I have agitated/pulled my sartorius muscle, which actually goes all the way up from your knee to just under your abs.  I had no idea it went all the way down to my knee until the physiotherapist starting pressing on it and I felt pain! I'm still not exactly sure how I did it; I know I tweaked it during ball hockey three weeks ago but I can't pinpoint what exactly I did. Thankfully, she gave me the green light to run as long as I wasn't feeling major pain (minor discomfort is OK) so I am quite relieved! I went for my first run this past Sunday since I've been injured, and although I felt tired and sluggish (which could have partially had something to do with the beers I consumed at the Backstreet Boys concert the night before, which was AWESOME by the way) my time wasn't too bad. I made it just over two miles before I decided to walk the rest of the way home. I did feel some discomfort in my left leg, but not enough to stop the fun. I ran again with my hubby on Monday and this time we covered just over 5K, and I felt no pain or discomfort during the run and I was much closer to my normal tempo for time trials, so I felt a lot better! I'm still feeling fatigued and I can tell my endurance has suffered, but I'll get that back. I'm going to arrive early to work tomorrow or Friday and do a run in the river valley to start my day, and maybe try to do that one more time this week, so I'm hoping by the weekend I'll be back up to close to my normal pace!

I went back to physio this morning and let her know about my runs this week, and she said I'm making great progress! I made a follow-up appointment for next week, however she said that if I can continue to run and work out with no major pain, I should be good to go! I still have some sort of joint issue in my right ankle that hasn't completely gone away, so I might keep the appointment if that stays the same. Essentially running and walking don't hurt, but standing on the ball of my foot does. It looks like I'll be wearing flats for another week!

I also did another class of Yin Yoga this past Saturday at Lotus Soul Yoga and what a difference this instructor made! I enjoyed it about 10 times more than I did the other instructor, which I found interesting because in hot yoga I didn't find it really mattered what instructor I had. I'm going to try and go back during the times that Joe is instructing because that class was amazing!

Since I've stopped taking the vitamin with soybean oil, I've started feeling a little bit better, but my stomach has still been a little uneasy. I'm looking forward to meeting with the naturopath again next week to see if we can find out what's bothering me and I can go back to feeling normal again! I know sometimes it can take more than a week for soy to leave the body so hopefully by the time I go see her I'll be feeling better already!

The next few months are so busy with school! Currently I'm taking part time classes to eventually complete my Marketing degree, and I am about a year and a half away from finally graduating. If there's one thing I'm going to tell my future kids, it's going to be to finish school before they get into the work force! I've found it to be quite challenging to work an eight hour day and then sit through three hours of class. I didn't want to take a summer class this term, however I only ended up taking one class during the winter because of the wedding, so I had to catch up this summer. Usually I take two classes per term in the fall and winter and take the summer off. Thankfully this class is only until late June so I'll have the rest of the summer to enjoy! We've got a camping trip planned, and hopefully a trip to Florida, along with some slo-pitch games and training for the big Dragon Boat race at the end of the August. 

I LOVE the Edmonton weather right now! Feel free to comment and share your plans for the summer; I'd love to read them!

xo

-Dianne