The last 2-ish months captured in 8 rather hastily-selected photos from my phone:
As I write this post, the sun is shining in my window which is a welcome sight after 3 solid days of drenching rain, and the temperatures are mild again after last week’s hard freeze. The backyard has suffered its now annual death — or at least death of the foliage above ground. As much as I’d like all of these stupid tropical plants to go away, it never quite gets cold enough to kill the roots so no doubt the mess will all be back by June.
So anyway, the holidays! They were great! Jose’s family — mom, brother, sister-in-law, and 3 boys — all came to visit for Thanksgiving for the second year in a row. I’m really hoping this is a new tradition because 1) I like not traveling anywhere for the short holiday and 2) I like hosting! We made essentially the same meal as last year and it was great.
Jose’s mom came back a few weeks later and was with us at Christmas, and then my parents and brother came over New Years. We didn’t go anywhere, but had lots of visitors and together time, and it was all just really nice and relaxing.
On New Year’s Eve, Jose took my dad and brother to the final Texans home game of the season. As a symptom of baseball withdrawal combined with the Texans actually being decent this year, we have gotten into watching the NFL. Other than going to most of the Georgia Tech football games in college — which honestly was driven more by the social aspect — I’ve never watched much football, but it’s been fun. (I’ve come to realize that I can get into most sports if I take the time to learn a bit about them. Formula 1 is a recent example, and now, apparently, football.)
We slow rolled the start of January since the girls didn’t go back to school until the 9th, but we’re well back into the routine now. Charlotte is playing basketball this winter, on an all-girl team with most of the same crew she played soccer with in the fall. She’s one of the tallest on the team, which is definitely helpful! Emma decided to take a break from swimming this month — she only went to practice a couple times in December due to other commitments and homework. With February around the corner, I guess we need to reassess whether to pick that back up or wait till summer swim starts in May.
My major 2024 personal goal is to close the exercise ring on my Apple watch 4 times a week. I have it set for 30 minutes, so that means 30 total minutes over the course of the day. Given my lack of any real fitness activity over the last several years, 4 times a week is an aggressive goal — BUT it’s also purposefully vague. I could close my ring with a tough Peloton ride…but I could also close it with 20 minutes of yoga and 10 minutes of stretching.
The real goal is just MORE MOVEMENT, and 4 weeks into the year I’m happy to report that I’m on track so far. My activities have included walking, Peloton (cycling, but also yoga, strength, pilates, and stretching), and a fun afternoon playing tennis and soccer at the park as a family. Today at lunchtime, Jose and I walked from our house to the pharmacy for my covid + flu vaccines, then to the grocery store to grab sushi for lunch, and then back home — about 2 miles in total, and it was great! Now that the weather seems to have moved past being either 30 degrees or pouring rain, I plan to add outdoor bike rides to the mix.
Last weekend was the Houston marathon, and I did have some hare-brained thoughts of starting to run again. For context in case you’re new around here — I ran pretty regularly from ~2002-2020 but basically quit cold turkey in mid-2020. There wasn’t any real rhyme or reason, it was just covid times and the summer heat arrived and before I knew it a couple weeks and then months and now years have passed. Running was never particularly easy for me, and I don’t find that I miss it much — except on marathon weekend when I see other people out there running, I guess!
I digress. I guess my point it — my running days are on pause at best, but MORE MOVEMENT is needed. I’m already thinking ahead to the next two months, when I’ll be doing some traveling, and planning how to get my movement in.
Till next time….
Working from home, if I don’t exercise, it’s amazing how little I move. And I can feel how bad it is for me. Since my knee has been preventing me from running, it has been such a mental struggle to get exercise in. I actually think exercising 4x per week is easier than 2x or 3x because it becomes a normal part of your day instead of a really hard thing you do on some days. You get in the habit of waking up and thinking, how am I going to get my exercise in today?
Totally agree! I don’t work from home every day, but I do at least 2-3 days per week and will find that it’s 4 pm and I’ve taken 1,500 steps the entire day. So much inactivity!