Old Glory Run 5K

 Rain or Shine.  When I sign up for these events and see rain or shine on the form, I never even give it a second thought because, of course, it is going to be shine.  Well, joke was on me this morning, it was rain.  And not just sprinkles. It was heavy rain.  

It didn't stop us though. 

See, we are still smiling at the end!

Let The Sun Shine

As a family we did a run/walk for mental health.  Although this picture says run we are walkers.

We choose this one because it is only 2.2 miles instead of the usual 5K and a good way to get our feet wet in the spring for walking.

Dancer at the finish line.  There were well over a 1,500 people who completed the event. 

Dad and Spark finishing.  At the end you got a bottle of water and a huge chocolate chip cookie so any calories burned off we put right back on.

The Walking Humane Society

Most days we walk the dog around the yard 21 times for her, and our, exercise.  At least once during our walk Kacheekers will come and want to be part of our group.  He doesn't want to walk with us though, he wants Dancer to carry him around a few laps.  He meows almost the entire time like he is telling us all the news of the day and then he wants down and goes on his way.  Today I told Dancer she looked like a walking Humane Society of black and white animals.

Our Walk

Still plenty of snow in the woods, but now that it has been rained on it is more like a glacier than snow.

A quarter mile hill, our calves were burning by the top. 

The neighbors picture perfect farm.  The cows were out, a sure sign of spring.  It is a Kemp's Select farm so if you drink that milk it could have come from here.

Way down at the bottom is the school bus the kids don't ride.  Two buses went by us because we are right on the school district line and of the three houses on this road one family goes to one school and another goes to the other school even though they are neighbors.  Open enrollment is very popular here so both buses cover the same area.  The other house, the farm picture above, doesn't have kids, three bachelor brothers live there.

A field with corn stubble.  I always think fields look like they need a shave in the spring. 

We walk to the stop sign and turn around.  This is one mile away from our house so we get a two mile walk in.

The half mile hill.  Yes, it really is up hill both ways just like your grandparents use to say they walked to school.  On the flip side it is also down hill both ways.  This hill isn't as steep as the other one so it feels like we just zip right up it.

Here's looking at you.  Spark making an eye shadow, always makes me think of the CBS logo.

This pond usually has something wildlifey (yes, I made that word up) going on, be it tadpoles, water fowl or cows.

Another view, there are duck nesting platforms and houses but they don't show up in the picture very well.

The only green we saw, but it's a start!  A few more days and green should be abounding from everywhere.

Fall Walks

Being outdoors in the fall is such a treat for the eyes.  We were down by a river that still has a railroad bridge over it.  In our area there aren't a lot of railroad lines left as most have been made into walking/biking trails.  There was a lot of wildlife here to keep us entertained.  We watched an otter scamper on the other side of the river, he was checking out every tree and dipping in and out of the water.  He must have known we were of no threat on the opposite shore as he didn't even seem to look at us.  Even though he didn't act like it I assume he was well aware we were there.

Dancer took this picture of a shallow pool under the bridge, really liked her composition here.

Granite ghost.  Most of the rock here is granite and there are big quarries and there are chunks of granite everywhere - parks, businesses, road ways, parking lot dividers or just dumped by the river to protect the shore from erosion where someone put their artistic flare on it.

God must love the 70's, here he made outdoor shag carpet in the popular 70's color harvest gold.  When Dad and I bought our first house it had a harvest gold fridge and as a kid I had a harvest gold phone.  Wonder how long until that decorating color comes back, you know it will.

 

Heading back up over the railroad tracks.  I didn't even know Dancer had taken this picture until we got home and downloaded them.

Geocaching Bike Ride

A whole slew of new caches came up this week that were on a old Soo railroad line that is now a bike trail.  We loaded up our bikes and went out to find them.

The post in the middle is an old telegraph line with lines sagging almost down to the ground.  People climb up these and get the glass insulator off an sell them.  On this one the insulator was broken so it was still there it would have been gone years ago.

Spark was a long way down the bank to find this cache it wasn't even at this beacon.  It was close though so he didn't climb all the way down for nothing although when he couldn't find it Dad and I made the trek down as well. 

Clouds and corn fields, is there anything more beautiful?  Well, yes there is, but they rank right up there.

Humphrey with a cache.  He is one of our geocaching mascots, we haul about four of them around with us every time we go.

We rode over this long bridge that is right in front of a dam.  Wish we had brought with a better camera than just a little point and shoot but how much "stuff" do we really want to carry.  Not much.

Dad and

Mom on the bridge.  The kids had already rode on but since we stopped to take a picture of the water we did a little photo session as well since we rarely take our pictures and tons of the kids.  Don't want them to try and have to remember what we looked like.

Ahhh, it was good to get back to the truck and get a drink.  Love the color in this picture, it makes her look like she has an angelic glow.

And we had low carb trail mix - a can of mixed nuts with a couple handfuls of bacon thrown in.

Sunday Afternoon Walk

We have miles and miles of paved trail in our community, so nice for biking and walking.  That's barn gloves Dad has hanging out of his back pocket. 

Spark found some milk weed and ran waving it so that there will be more milk weed this summer.  Hmm, spreading weed seeds, only boys would think that is a cool idea.

King of the hill.  Dad says that Spark is like Nikki when we walk, he is here, then there, then looking at this, then he is way behind us, then way ahead of us.  He probably walks about three times as far as the rest of us by his zigzagging all over.  Every time he went somewhere he would yell, "Take my picture!"

Spark and Mom on this wooden train that was built to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the train coming through town.  It was built in 2009.  There is also a really nice bathroom picnic building here.  I commented that if the pioneers had come through and found a building with bathrooms, running water, electricity with a big covered picnic area they would have stopped right there and moved in.

Spark and his new Webkinz Humphrey ding, ding, dinging the bell.

In the summer this is a beautiful fountain, now it looks sort of like a space capsule.  We were pretending it was warm out.

Another spring want to be picture.

The only covered bridge that I know of in our area.  It has benches on the sides to sit and enjoy the river that runs under it.

This farm is right in town, not unusual in our neck of the woods.  They are right across from the grain elevator so how handy is that?

There is still plenty of snow.  We got this far on the trail and turned around because it was covered with snow that was about six inches thick in the middle part.  We couldn't see how far the snow went and it was slippery so we check in a few weeks to see if we can pass through.  There was a guy riding bike and he turned around too.

It will take more than a few weeks to melt this pile.  Uff, what a snowy winter we have had.

"Steppin" it up a notch

Doing the free step program on the Wii Fit has gotten really easy.  Don't get me wrong, I love easy but I also want to keep improving my endurance.  To make it harder, Dad got a board to put under the balance board.  It is only 3/4 of an inch higher but it really makes a difference.  When this gets to easy I will just get another board to put under it.  I saw that Sam's Club had legs that are made to go under the balance board but they were $16.00 and this solution is free. 

Wii will be fit update

January 7th was when we started our big Wii Fit workout plan and I tell you, I was hoping for big results but expecting what I usually accomplished when I start such things, nothing.  We all started out pretty good and then I dropped the bike riding part and the kids, for the most part, dropped the Wii Fit part.  All of us dropped the lifting weights part.  I did manage to loose, with my minimal effort, five pounds in January.  I think most of that came off from lack of Christmas goodies.  

Along came February and I decided kick the exercising back into gear and work on our diet.  I started burning off 400 calories a day, up from the 200 in January, on the Wii Fit using the free step game.  I like this game because you set it up on the Wii and then can turn back to the t.v. and do it in 30 minute sessions while watching t.v.  For a little over 400 calories I needed to do an hour and a half every day but I  watch at least an hour of news so it fit well into my schedule.  I also made sure that the kids were consistently riding the bike.  We were having great success the beginning of the month and then I needed to go into the doctor.  A doctor who had lost forty pounds.  Tell me your secrets I asked her.  She said a protein breakfast, no sugar and no snacking at night.  Sounded simple enough and she lost forty pounds, gee, I want to lose forty pounds.  Turns out she had great advice, I have now lost 18 pounds since January 7th, Dancer 6 pounds and Spark 2 pounds.  Dancer and Spark aren't near as strict with their diet as I am but they have cut way back on the sugar and are drinking a lot more water.  Dancer has also been sick the last week and so she hasn't been doing to much except blowing her nose.    One thing I realized was that we snacked a lot and not on good choices.  Also with Dad working nights, and being use to eating his lunch at about 2:00 a.m., that he is on a different eating schedule than we are.  The nights he was home I would snack with him again even later in the evening.  Actually, it wasn't usually a snack, it was more like a mini meal on my part.  The only sad part is I can really see that Dancer is firming up and her clothes fit differently, but me, can't tell I have lost a pound.  Well, except in my feet, but who looks at someones feet and says "Wow, your feet look great, have you lost weight?"  In real life no one ever sees my feet, it isn't even sandal weather for another three months. 

Tonight I just didn't feel like doing the free step on the Wii so I pulled out this DVD.

We got this last summer and when I tried it I couldn't even get through the five minute warm up.  Yes, pathetic I know.   I just wanted to see after all the stepping I have been doing if it has made any difference.  Tonight I made it through not only the warm up but also the first 20 minute workout and the cool down.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do the weights very long before my muscles were screaming out "What are you thinking!!!!" and I dropped them like hot rocks.  Spark did it with me but he was able to do the whole workout last summer.  All that stepping on the Wii Fit has paid off. 

I see this is a six week program so I hope to be able to use the weights the whole time, add in the other 35 minutes of the workout and get Spark to do it with me everyday, maybe even Dancer, by the time six weeks are up.   I plan to add this most days and keep up 200 calories burned on the Wii Fit.  All this while crossing my fingers the scale keeps moving the right direction.  Maybe I can even be like the lady that lost 80 pounds.  

Battle of the Bulge

...or  maybe the War of the Winter Wasteline.  We have all been struggling with trying to be active and eat healthy during these winter doldrums.  Many times when you hear us Upper Midwesterners complain about winter we are weary of the length of the season more than the cold.

Sure it gets cold, like 30 below zero, but how long winter lasts is what gets to me.  The snow that covered the yard in November is still all there and it will be through March.  The driveway and walks keep getting narrower, but not me. 

It's hard to exercise in the winter.  I am too cheap to pay for gym membership or to drive into town to the gym.  Our normal activities include mainly outdoor activities.  There are outdoor winter activities but they aren't things you do on the spur of the moment.  Some of the most popular winter activities aren't even close to exercise.  Things like the snowmobile and ice fishing.  Even activities like snowshoeing are more difficult because it's cold out and dark so early.

Another issue we have is how nice it is to snuggle in the house with some comfort foods.  Most of these foods, for us, are carbs.   Hot cocoa, cookies, cinnamon rolls, crackers, chips, etc.  Tonight we had another discussion with Spark about why you can't scarf down carbs all day.  Topics like the lack of nutrition, unhealthy co-ingredients like fat and salt, and mainly how they don't actually fill you up, rather they make you crave more snacky carbs. 

Tomorrow we are going to all make food diaries to make it easier to see how often and what we eat.  The diary also helps to put in perspective "Do I want to walk on the treadmill for 45 minutes just to eat that?"  Hopefully a little extra attention will mean less seasonal padding.

This just in, 4 to 8 inches of (more) snow by dinner time Monday. 

Wii Fit?

Our local newspaper ran an article about a woman who lost 80 pounds in the last year by using a Wii Fit for an hour a day thus burning around 200 calories.  Inspiring.  So inspiring in fact that we have taken up that challenge.

Using Biggest Looser as our other inspiration, we also added in riding five miles on the bike, doing three reps of ten exercises with a five pound weight, 25 sit ups and five push ups per day.  I am always so pumped at the beginning of the Biggest Looser season and by the end when the contestants all look fabulous and I don't, I end up eating during the show.  Hopefully that will not be the case this season.

We have found that it takes a huge effort to get this all done.  To make it easier, I have decided that the kids physical health is just as important as their mental health so we have been taking the time to get the bulk of it done before we start school.

How successful have we been?  Well, Dancer got everything done yesterday and Spark did today.  I have yet to get it all in.  The important thing is that we are trying.  We are not going to have our spirits dampened if we don't reach perfection. 

The road block that we keep hitting is that it takes a huge amount of time for all of us to use the bike and Wii Fit.  The bike is pretty easy, it takes us about 20 to 25 minutes to ride five miles.  The hard part comes in when we can only do it one at a time so it really takes us an hour and half.  I have found I can get the five miles in if I start the kids on some school work, jump on the bike for a mile or two, run back to help them with the next thing, jump on again and so on.  It may take all afternoon but I have gotten the bike part in every day.   It takes about an hour to reach 200 calorie burn on the Wii Fit.  Choosing Island Run, cycling and hula hoop racks the calories up faster but it still takes about 45 minutes.  We did find today though that two people can do the Island Run at the same time and then the second person can add the calories on to their fit credits so that should shorten our time needed to get this done.  Shows how much we have used the Wii Fit before this that we just figured this feature out.  We got it last Christmas and Dancer and I have logged on ten hours so far after three days of our new challenge.  You don't see any results with seven hours a play time a year.  Funny how that works!

Next week I see a new challenge for us, one of our other activities starts up again.  At least it is phy. ed. at the YMCA so the kids will get a little movement in but I don't think it is anything too major.  And, of course, I sit in the lobby the whole time gabbing with the other parents so that does my back side no good.  This week the kids only had AWANA which is in the evening so we had five full days at home.  Next week will be four and the week after that will be three when we start bowling. 

We are not going to let time be our excuse though and we will keep at this.  Once it is spring we can do more outside at the same time and getting exercise in will be much easier.  I know by then we will all be ready to be riding bike outside and not in the basement.

Wii will be fit!!!

18% Heart Attack

Dad read yesterday that for every hour of t.v. you watch, or computer time, per day on average your heart attack rate goes up 18%.  What a crappy statistic, we don't watch a lot of t.v. but we do spend a lot of time on the computer and playing video games.   We decided we need to make a few changes in our lifestyle.

First on the agenda was to get our cheerful little cherubs up this morning bright and early.  Well, early is a relative term so it was like 9:00 a.m., but that is early for us/them.   After a quick breakfast we were out in the barn cleaning out a goat stall.  Nothing gets your blood pumping like shoveling poo.  Or, if that doesn't sound convincing I throw out the "it builds character" line.  Next, we played a game of whiffle ball with these curved throwing things that have been in the shed but have only surfaced one other time.  Whiffle ball isn't really our strong suit but, with a little practice, we could perhaps start to look beginners.

After lunch it was off to the beach.  The kids swam and we sat in lawn chairs on the shore but, since we weren't watching t.v., I am almost certain that it didn't count as an 18% increase.  I am telling myself that anyway.  What could give me a heart attack is the people at the beach.  I can't believe more kids don't drown from misuse of their floating toys.  There was one boy there with a huge butterfly strapped on his back with his legs in two other holes, if he got out over his head and flipped over he would have been toast.  He made me so tense I could hardly watch.  Another family had a baby who could stand but not walk yet.  They had a harness on him with a really long tether, the ones people use so their kids don't run off at the mall, and most of the time he was screaming because he was scared.  When my kids were that age, I had two hands on them at all times if they were in the water, even the bathtub.  A man who looked he might perhaps be his grandpa, did finally put a life jacket on him but then he wanted him to lay in the water on his back while he sat in a lawn chair.  It was all I could do to stay in my seat.  There was police officer down there today because it was a holiday and he didn't say anything.  I guess he only gives tickets for breaking the beach rules not for being stupid and careless with your kids.

We got home and Spark wanted to play the whiffle ball thing again and Dancer rode bike.  Now I am sending them off to bed so we can get up early again tomorrow morning and shave another 18% off our heart attack rate.

Tennis anyone?

We tried our hand, or should I say racket, at tennis today. In the pictures we don't look half bad. In actuality, we managed to lob it back and forth three times in a row. Anyone vying for Wimbledon does not have to worry about us. Dancer really enjoyed it so I am sure we will improve over the summer.

Spark had a few good shots. We did get our fair share of exercise chasing after the ball.

One of our problems was that the court has standing puddles on it. If the ball went in the puddle then it was super heavy and it hardly bounced. We spent a lot of the time bouncing it up and down to get the water to spray off.

This is the church steeple across from the tennis courts. I love old church buildings with bell towers. The new modern design of churches doesn't do much for me.

After playing the kids played on the play ground a little bit. They had a bunch of big tires buried in the sand, this one was big enough that Spark could stand up in it. While we were playing tennis there were some older kids over there on bikes. The first thing we think when we older kids during the day is that they must be homeschool. I don't know that they were for sure as we were too far away to see who they were. For all I know there wasn't even any school today.

The kids really loved this thing. They were tethered to the ground so when the kids hung on to them they would whip around and around. Dancer talked about how she wants to go back and play on these some more too. They made a little obstacle course and timed who could complete different feats the fastest.