Isolation notes

I'm sitting here watching the wind try to tear the washing off the clothesline.

We've been in isolation for the past week after B tested positive for covid last Monday night. We had been dreading that moment, but when it came we were actually excited. Well, I was. B was a shadow of himself, flat and tired and short of breath.  He slept most of Tuesday, and barely remembers that day at all.

I was secretly thrilled to see the two lines appear on the test. It's been a long school term, and I'd been yearning for a bit of a break from the hamster wheel. A week off from life was exactly what I wanted. And of course the girls were incandescent with joy at the thought.

It's been wonderful. And let me acknowledge right here the privilege in that fact. We are not worried about money, we have a pantry full of food, we are warm and safe and have been overwhelmed with help and support from friends and family. We are lucky, and I know that.

Honestly, I wish we didn't have to go back to the real world. Our world here at home, just us four, is perfect for me.

There's a jigsaw puzzle on the dining table (a lockdown tradition by now) which we all take turns to pause at and pore over.

B has taught the girls how to make friendship bracelets, and now J walks everywhere with embroidery floss pinned to the knee of her pants.

We've played card games ending in helpless laughter.

I've knitted a whole sleeve on A's pink cardigan. I should have got both sleeves finished really but alternating rounds of knit and purl are boring and tedious. Another pattern I probably won't revisit.

We've baked bread, of course.

A has learned how to swing herself at last, and now spends ages out there, one of the rare times she ever plays alone.

And, perhaps my favourite part, we eat every meal together. I haven't felt harassed by the thought of dinner, there's plenty of time to think about what we'll have and to get it ready in time. 

The only two things I've missed are barista coffee and being able to just nip to the shops for something we need.

We all, including B, tested negative yesterday evening so it's time to rejoin the world. Bugger it.

Half marathon training Week 5/21

I found this post still sitting as a draft, I must have forgotten to publish it. This is from the week commencing Monday 23 March. Lots has changed since then. This was the last run I did. Who know when I'll go out for a run again. I've resurrected my yoga practice since we've been in lockdown, and in fact we do lunchtime yoga all four of us together as a family which is frankly lovely. Running will be on the agenda again one day but my half-marathon goal might not be. Who can say?

Monday - Goal pace repeats
I switched Friday's goal pace repeats to today because I keep skipping them due to better offers. At least if I get them out of the way early in the week then it's done.

This was very bloody hard and I'm not entirely sure why. My watch was showing me terrible paces, over 9 min/km, which didn't seem right but I felt very puffed right from the start. I had to walk all but the gentlest hills. Then things seemed to improve and I found my pace, and it turned out that I'd managed negative splits - my last split was the fastest. Totally intentional.

I was supposed to do 6x 800m at goal pace but I only did five due to being totally wiped.

As I mentioned in my last post, NZ will be on full lockdown imminently, and I can't pretend I'm not looking forward to a bit of a break from training. Garmin continues to tell me that my training is unproductive which, although I try to ignore it, is frustrating and de-motivating.

When lockdown is over - whenever that may be - I'll be running for the fun of it for a while. I'm going to pause my training plan and remember why I started running in the first place and find those happy runs again.

Half marathon training Week 4/21

Monday - Hill Repeats

Having taken five days off I was looking forward to seeing how I did with this workout, especially after last week's "unproductive" debacle.

I was thrilled to find that not only did I thoroughly enjoy myself, but I have now popped back into "maintaining" status. I know I said that I wasn't going to take it all too seriously, but it is still nice to see Garmin accurately reflect how I felt after this run.

I made sure I drank plenty of water beforehand, and had a decent breakfast of sourdough and peanut butter. As usual I started off with some cadence and AG (acceleration-glider) work, then into the hill repeats. Fifteen seconds up, recover one minute, then fifteen seconds down. I had already decided that 15 seconds was a ludicrously short run so I was going to sprint these.

It was awesome! This week I had six repeats, so two more than last time, and I really gave it my all. My last split was also my fastest - 3:56/km! STOKED with that, needless to say.

3.44km avg pace 7:48/km, best pace 3:56/km!!

Wednesday - Long Easy Run
The plan has me down for a 14.48km run (what's with the random distances? My OCD can't take it), but I already decided last week to cut this down to 10 or 12km. I'm hoping that with good fueling, carrying water and snacks I can make this a good workout.

The best part about my short break is that I'm looking forward to my runs again. I wasn't dreading it, but I realise now that the last couple of runs I was just sort of doing it because I was supposed to, not because I actually wanted to. Whereas this week I've been looking forward to this run pretty much since Monday lunchtime.

I started my day with a bowl of porridge. I decided to let Garmin make a course for me (which I would come to regret - read on). I took 350ml water and half an OSM bar to snack on. I quickly realised that using courses and coach at the same time, my watch would only show me the map during my run, with a very quick pace update each km. Because of this I struggled to pace myself - once again setting out too fast and then flagging for the last few km.

I also quickly discovered that I should have paid closer attention to route Garmin created. I spent the first part running along the main highway into town with traffic roaring in my ears and fumes in my face. I then cut across to the beach and the second part was along the coastal path with never-ending little rolling hills. The whole run was on hard concrete paths. It was hard. I took lots of walk breaks. Once I got away from the rushing traffic I also quickly learned why runners like soft water bottles - the sloshing sound of the water in my belt was enough to drive me insane.

Overall it was a good run - although I don't think it fit the description long easy run. It was long and hard. Garmin agrees because it's dropped me back to "unproductive" again. I'm not going to worry about that though because I did managed to run right to the end and I wasn't totally exhausted. I also recorded my fastest 5km and 10km in this run which goes to show that I was going faster than I probably should have.

Bring on the goal pace repeats on Friday!

11.9km avg pace 7:41/km

Friday - walk

I have no good excuse really, except I felt far more like going for a walk than for a run. And it was beautiful.


And that was that for this week of training. It's a very strange time. As COVID-19 seeps into every facet of our lives, it feels like everything around us is shutting down. My race isn't until November and what a very different world it will be then.

As I write this, NZ will be in full lockdown within 48 hours. I'm not sure what that means for my running but I suspect things might have to go on hold for a while, and that's perfectly ok with me.

The trails aren't going anywhere.

Half marathon training - Week 3/21

Tuesday - Magic Mile
This was supposed to happen on Monday but since Monday was a public holiday with sideways rain, and we were helping my MIL settle into her newly built house, I rescheduled it to Tuesday. I definitely appreciate the flexibility of the Garmin coach program.

Anyway, this workout consisted of the usual cadence drills, acceleration-glider drills, followed by a one-mile run at a fast-ish pace, or as Jeff says more succinctly in the instructional video, slightly faster than you'd run on a good day.

I thought I did ok with this, it was a quick half-hour workout, but at the end my watch told me that my training was "unproductive"! The notes say that although my training load is good, my fitness is decreasing (!!), so I may need more rest or better nutrition.

I decided to see what it says after Wednesday's long run, and if still unproductive I will skip, reduce, or reschedule Friday's goal pace repeats. Might also be time for a steak dinner, as I don't eat a lot of meat and my iron levels are often low.

3.35km avg pace 7:51/km

Wednesday - Run Walk Run 8km
The idea of this workout is to take many short walk breaks throughout the run. The frequency of the walk breaks is dependent on your time goal, which for my half-marathon is 2 hours 40 minutes. Based on that, I should be aiming to run about a 12 minute mile. Based on that, Coach Jeff says I should be running 60 seconds then walking 30 seconds for the whole run.

BUGGER THAT. I can't think of a more annoying way to run. Yes, I probably should have given it a go because I can see how it would enable me to practise faster running speeds, and I promise I will do it properly in a future workout. But today I just set out at my happy pace (around 7:30/km) and ran the 8km with a few short walk breaks.

This confirmed for me that I must bring water and something sugary on these longer runs. Because I'm "only" doing 8km I tend to think I don't need anything, but at my pace 8km is over an hour's running and by the 45 minute mark I felt very depleted. I can almost feel the moment my body runs out of fuel and my legs become lead. My brain tries to tell me I'm running faster because it feels like more effort, but my watch tells me that I'm actually slowing down. By the end of today's run I even felt a little woozy. Not good.

Because of this I wasn't surprised to see that my training status is still "unproductive". I'm going to change my run day breakfast. I have been having cereal or a hot cross bun, but I'll be switching to porridge or toast with peanut butter and see if that helps.

8.7km avg pace 7:31/km

Friday - Goal Pace Repeats
I decided to give these a miss and start fresh next week. Having done this workout last week I know it's another hour at least and I thought it might be sensible to just give my body a rest.


I've since done some reading online about this "unproductive" training status and will probably not put too much stock in it. I did feel tired at the end of Wednesday's run, my mileage has increased sharply these past two weeks, and I knew I probably wasn't fuelling effectively.

However, I do feel generally well and not exhausted (except at the end of a run) so I'll be continuing the plan, albeit cautiously. I see next week I'm supposed to do a 15km run which I will probably cut short to about 10km. Now that my half marathon isn't until July I don't have to rush myself, and I want to keep enjoying my running and I certainly don't want to get injured from pushing too hard too soon.

Half marathon training - Week 2/21

Ok so I've actually been running for four weeks (it was one month exactly on 4 March!), but in order not to confuse the hell out of myself I've called this post "week 2 of 21", because that's where I'm up to on my half-marathon training plan. Week 1 was last week in which I only did a benchmark run on the Saturday.

Make sense? Not really? Good. Let's move on.

So, let's just go back to the start of the HM training plan, which was sort of halfway through last week. As I explained in my previous post, I switched from the C25K plan to a Garmin coach training plan because I was starting to realise that I would need more than just run/walk intervals to do a half marathon later this year.  I'm also probably not aiming for the race in July anymore but we'll talk about that later.

So, once I switched on the Garmin training plan last week I had to do a quick benchmark run so the plan could calculate my workouts for this week.

Saturday - Benchmark run
I could have made this a lot easier on myself had I not decided to head out at 2pm. And decided to run on an asphalt path. It was hot. Thank god it was only 9 minutes long. I had thought I might carry on for a longer run but I canned it as soon as the benchmark part was done.  I did shave 25 seconds per km off my pace though, so can't be mad about that.

7:22/km

Monday - Hill repeats
I was a little nervous of this and had to ask a friend where to find a suitable hill. But actually I was pleasantly surprised how easy a workout it was.

I started with cadence drills to work on taking many small steps low to the ground - managed this quite well, followed by accelerator-glider drills which is about smoothly transitioning from a run to a walk and back again - found this quite tricky, and lastly the dreaded hill repeats.

I could have made the hills repeats easier for myself if I'd read my watch properly and seen that the running intervals weren't all uphill. I couldn't figure out why I kept running out of hill and it was only on the last two repeats that I realised every other run was downhill. That made a lot more sense than the way I was doing it. DUH PRUE.

3.8km avg pace 8:30/km (walk breaks)

Wednesday - Long run
The notes for this one say oh so casually, "Run 11.26km at an easy pace". That's great, Coach Jeff, but that's almost double how far I've ever run to date! I was nervous and also yep, a bit excited for the challenge of this one. I kept my expectations very low and planned to set out slow and run for as long as I could before I needed a walk break.



Well... I RAN 10KM. Yes I'm shouting. I've never even run 3km without a walk break. Apparently Coach Jeff does know what he's on about.

The best part is that this happened on my one month anniversary of starting running! Serendipitous.

I guess I found the perfect pace and I kept it up pretty consistently for (almost) the whole run. My mind played a few tricks on me, like at one point my legs felt like lead weights, then my knees hurt for a bit, then my ankles. Nothing persisted though so I just kept going. I definitely should have brought water though, and possibly something sugary because once I hit 10km I also hit an invisible wall and could barely get back to the car. I kept trying to run just a little longer but I was so tired I had nothing left, and I was RAVENOUS. I was also so thirsty I nearly asked a total stranger for a drink of water. I plodded the last 1.5km back to the car probably looking defeated and very red but actually feeling seriously pumped and amazed.

Suddenly the half marathon doesn't look so unachievable!

11.6km (!!) avg pace 8:04/km (no walk breaks!)

Friday - Goal pace repeats
Based on the epic (for me) length of Wednesday's long run, I thought this might be another short session like Monday's. But once I calculated how long it'd take me to do all the various repeats we're looking at about an hour here too.

The run started with some more of Jeff's beloved cadence and acceleration-glider drills before getting into the goal pace repeats. I definitely had some troubling finding and maintaining my goal pace. My watch was buzzing more or less constantly to tell me I was running too fast or slow. I sort of got the hang of it by the last couple of repeats. When I did find my pace I realised it's definitely a sort of sweet spot for me. Any slower and I feel tired and heavy, any faster and I get too puffed.

I did wonder though, whether my goal pace should feel more challenging at this stage of the training plan. I might be able to adjust my goal as the plan progresses, we'll see.

7.5km avg pace 8:19/km (walk breaks)


I mentioned earlier than I'm probably not going to enter the HM race in July. While it's very possible that I could finish the race, I don't want to feel overly pressured in my training to be ready in such a short space of time. Although I've made huge leaps this week, let's not forget I was doing literally no exercise a month ago.

There is a beautiful - and hilly, eek - race in Rotorua in November which looks really appealing, and it means my husband and kids could come too and be able to do some touristy activities in between supporting me at the race.

Couch to half marathon - Week 3

It's interesting the stuff that motivates me to go for my runs. I had a dip in motivation to get out there on Monday morning this week, the new school plus kindy run takes more time and it was tempting to just head on home.

It made me realise that it's kind of perverse what gets me out there. All I had to think about is how I'd feel after the run is finished, and off I went.

Of note this week is that after my long run on Wednesday I decided to switch from the couch to 5km program I was following to one of the Garmin Coach half marathon training programs.

While I'm progressing well with the c25k, I'm a little dissatisfied with only doing run/walk intervals as my only training.  I'm sure that if I'm to run 21.1km in July, I need to mix it up and do speed drills, work on cadence, and so on.  Just run/walking is not going to get me there.

I've picked Coach Jeff Galloway since he does use a run/walk method as the basis of his training, so it's not a massive change from what I've been doing.  He is also the only coach who offers just three workouts per week, which suits me since I only have three days during the week on which I can run. Plus it means if I miss a workout during the week, there's a chance of making it up on the weekend.

I set my goal in the Garmin app for a half marathon in July, with a time goal of 2 hours 40 minutes. It's the longest time goal you can set within the program and it looks achievable but challenging for me.

Something that clicked for me this week as I increase my mileage is to sloowww down... Which sounds paradoxical when I'm talking about setting a time goal for my race.

But, as I wrote last week, comparison can get me in a low mood (see also lack of motivation above).  I need to find the pace that is comfortable for me right now, not what I think I should be doing.  Slowing down, and not caring what my watch tells me about my pace, has made such a difference. I can run comfortably for five minutes. I could definitely run for longer than that. It was an exciting realisation.

Monday
5km along local walkway. Average pace 7:48/km.

Wednesday
"Long" run.  I put long in inverted commas because for now "long" means only 5.69km.



Friday
Lake walk with friend. A very fast walking friend!! It was a truly stunning location (see photo at the top of this post), which made the sweaty toil easier to take and I'll definitely be back there for some runs.



Saturday
Quick benchmark run in the mid-afternoon, to set up the Garmin half-marathon program. Not my most brilliant idea running at that time of day, but I had to squeeze it into a busy day and even in the boiling sun I still managed to shave about 30 seconds/km off my pace from the last benchmark run I completed only two weeks ago. Definitely happy with that.



My next run is on Monday, and it's the first workout in my new Garmin program. I should be happy because, guess what, it's cadence drills and hill repeats! I'm a little nervous but also looking forward to the challenge...

Couch to half marathon - Week 2

Checking the calendar just now I realised I've been running not quite three weeks. That was the reality check I needed to calm down a bit regarding my progress.



The great thing about having a Garmin and apps like Strava is that you can track your progress to a breathtaking degree. The problem with having a Garmin and apps like Strava is that you can see everyone else's progress as well and get very discouraged by their speed and distance, conveniently forgetting that 99% of the people you're looking at have been running for months, if not years.

I don't need to be running a 5 minute kilometre less than three weeks in, and if I was I would probably be on track for an injury.

So how are things actually progressing then?

I've just completed Week 4 of my C25K Garmin app, with six weeks to go. Assuming I don't skip forward again, that has me running 5km in late March/early April. Then I have about fourteen weeks to get to the half marathon. Seems tight to me, but we'll see.



I have been lengthening the runs on the app, or adding in another one at the end of the session, so I'm probably further along than the app would say.  I can (somewhat...) comfortably run for 5 minutes at a time now, with a pace varying from about 6:30 to 7:00 minutes per kilometre. For the non-runners, that means I'm running at about 8kph.

This past week I had to skip Monday's run as one of my kids was home sick from kindy, so I only got in two runs. I also didn't do my long run on Sunday morning as me leaving the house seems to wake the kids and ruins my husband's sleep in! I wouldn't normally care but he has to get up early during the week for work, so I guess he deserves one lie in. I suppose.

Most people seem to do their long run on the weekend, but I may have to fit in my long run on a weekday when I have time after kindy and school drop off - yes, our now five year old started school today! - and then I can just do a short run on Saturday mornings before swimming.  I'm envious of runners who don't have to juggle their runs around family commitments.  Just lace up whenever and head home whenever! One day, one day.

I cracked 5km last Friday, still with run/walk intervals, but it was good to remind myself how far it is. I did another 5km this morning and I'll try to keep that up, time permitting, and just increase the amount of it I'm actually running as opposed to walking.

So, that's the update for this week!  Onwards...

Couch to half-marathon

Okay so after the revelation the other day that I'm going to try and run a half-marathon in six months' time, let's break this down a bit.

Maybe one day I can look back at how far I've come?!  ...Which means recording the ugly truth about where I am right now.

I've just turned 39 years old.  I'm what fitness apps like to call "essentially sedentary" - other than housework and lifting my kids occasionally, I do no physical activity whatsoever.  Occasionally I might go for a walk with a friend or my mum when she's here visiting.  Sometimes I ride my bike on the driveway with the kids.  I load firewood in winter.  That's it.  I suppose it's worth noting but of no relevance whatsoever that I am a "healthy" weight.  And that's hopefully the last time you'll hear me mention that topic.

My fitness history is patchy at best.  I'm no athlete.  I was never good at sports at school, although I did enjoy cross country despite never being the fastest or actually, you know, joining the team or anything.  Through my adult life I've had periods of time where I've been a committed gym member, and of course I did do that 5K back in 2013 as previous mentioned.  But for the past eight or so years I've done basically no exercise, and I wouldn't describe myself as a naturally active person at all.

So long story short, I am very definitely starting from zero.  The half-marathon is in July.

My goal is to finish.  To run 99% of it.

So that covers my history and my goal.  Where are we at today?

As of today, I've been running for basically two weeks.  I'm doing run/walk intervals to increase my endurance in the time-honoured C25K method.  Today I ran for five minutes to set a benchmark for my shiny new Garmin watch (it's a Forerunner 245 for those of you taking notes).  I ran a pace of 7:42/km, which means it's going to take me at least 2-3 hours to run the half-marathon... if my very poor maths hasn't failed me.

For the past two weeks I've been doing three runs per week but I'm hoping to increase it to four, running while my girls are at kindy/school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with a long run early on Sunday mornings.

At this early stage I really can't picture how I will achieve my goal.  I find running very hard.  There's no "easy conversational pace" for me, it's all just very hard work.  I'm motivated by the idea of achieving something that feels impossible right now.  Although it's difficult I do enjoy the challenge and of course it feels great knowing you're doing something good for your wellbeing.  On the days I run I get more stuff done, I eat better, and I drink more water.

I'll try to update here once a week or so.  Apologies to those of you who are here for the trees and the knitting posts.  It's going to be a lot about running for a while...

Running

In a totally unexpected turn of events, I seem to be training for a half marathon.

I haven't run more than ten steps since 2013 when I did The Color Run, a 5km race, back when we lived in Perth.  I trained for the race for about two or three months, enjoyed every moment, made plans for all these other events I was going to do that year... and then promptly lost all motivation after the race, and that was that.

Until now!

I have this friend who runs, like really runs.  I mean, she runs 25km at 5am.  On a Sunday.  I know.

Even though I think she's demented, I can't get enough of hearing about her running. I love everything about it.  Finally, last week she and her other demented runner friend gave me the perfectly timed prod I needed to just go for a run myself.

Very bloody dark

I downloaded a "couch to 5km" (C25K) app, and set off at 5.30am.  It was extremely bloody dark and I was packing my daks a bit, but I think that just made me run faster.  And I loved it.  By the afternoon I was already dying to go for my next run.

Less dark. More better

I knew I needed a goal though.  Since I'd already done a 5km race, I thought I'd aim a little higher and go for a 10K race. By my calculations I would be ready by about May, which it turns out is not a great time of year for races locally.  My friend recommended the Cape Egmont Half Marathon in July, which also has an option to run it as a team, taking half the distance each.  I could do that, she slyly pointed out, or I could go for the whole 21.1km.

Could I??

Is it really physically possible for a total non-athlete like me to go from essentially sedentary to running a half-marathon in barely six months?

I guess I'm about to find out...

The next stage

We sold A's cot last week.

We sold it mainly because she is - yep - still sleeping in our bed (judge away!), but also because if she ever returns to her own bed, she doesn't need a cot anymore.  She'll be sleeping in a big girl bed.

So that's that.  There is no cot in our house anymore and I don't expect there ever will be again.  I remember writing not that long ago of all the parenting milestones I couldn't wait to pass.  This was definitely one of them.

On that note, I took the pram out of my car a couple of months ago to fit something else in and I never got around to putting it back.  It hasn't mattered.  We don't need the pram anymore either.  That was another milestone that seemed so far in the future.



We recently went for an overnight stay to B's dad's bach (holiday house) up the coast.  It was great.  The kids ran around on the beach picking up shells and splashing in the shallows.  Back at the house they played with their toys and read their books.  They ate fish and chips and sandwiches and fruit.  It was easy and fun.  Last time we stayed overnight at the bach was six months ago and it was hell.  A grizzled constantly, she wouldn't put her feet on the sand or the grass or in the water, she wanted to be carried the whole time, and I couldn't wait to get home.  That's behind us now too.

There might be a place for A at kindy in a few weeks.  Oh how I have dreamed of that day.  And, of course, now that it's imminent, I feel suddenly unsure and unready.  I know she'll be fine and she'll love it, but it's such a change.  She's almost never spent time in anyone's care except mine.



When we lived in Perth and B worked FIFO (fly in, fly out) I had dear Nanny P who took J a couple of times a week from when J was only about five months old, so the jump to daycare and then kindy never felt so momentous.  Not to mention that by the time J started daycare in Perth I already had five-month-old A, so it's not like I dropped J off and then had the day to myself anyway.

Then - due to the move to NZ combined with other factors - we never arranged daycare or a babysitter for A, so kindy will be her and my first real separation.  It's weird.  It's going to be great, obviously.  But I'm still a tangle of emotions at the thought of it.



It's just...   I didn't get a lot of joy from parenting poor A for a long time.  She was so miserable.  Everything was a struggle, for her and therefore for me - food, sleep, her mobility issues.  In the end none of it was very serious for which I'm so thankful but that doesn't make it any less hard when you're in the midst of it and it feels endless.  Now we're out the other side without me even noticing and into the next stage, which I have to tell you, seems to be a whole heap of fun.



The other way I know how much things have changed is that I've been reading- make that devouring - books again.  I don't think I've read a book since before A was born.  I'm back!!



Speaking of which, in my apparently never-ending quest for new hobbies, I've started learning to play the ukelele.  Pretty random, I know.  But I'd heard it was quite easy to learn, and of course it's such a fun and portable instrument.  I can already play piano and read music so I thought I might be ahead of the game but I can now confirm that the piano has nothing in common with a stringed instrument.  Oh my poor fingers.

I'm having a lot of fun though and, as is my way, have commenced a 30-day Learn the Ukulele challenge.  Look, I'm not actually expecting to become proficient in thirty days.  But each day's lesson is a management bite-sized chunk of skills so that even after a week I can see major improvement.  Some lessons I skip through quickly and some I take several days to master.

The teacher I'm using is on YouTube and she does great tutorials and her lessons are free, yes: free: Bernadette Teaches Music.

Check out this ham!  As I said to a friend, it's the Matterhorn of hams.

B's dad raises pigs which means we get an endless supply of pork.  It's probably the best pork you'll ever eat but it's still... pork.  Meh.  Until we had the brilliant idea to have our last beast turned into mince, ham, and bacon!  I know.  Genius.  The butcher cured the ham for us and then it was up to me to bake it.  It turned out ok, not amazing, but luckily I have many more opportunities to perfect the art.

The vegetable garden is in full swing of prep and planting.  We're trying to be way more organised and methodical this year.  I even drew a diagram of the garden so we could map out where to plant everything.  I know.  So professional.  So far we have kale (for the chooks), lettuces, zucchini, squash, rocket, tomatoes, corn, various onions, spinach, various beans and peas.  Oh and strawberries.  And the ubiquitous rhubarb and herbs.  I'm feeling optimistic for bumper crops.

I haven't baked a loaf of sourdough for a few weeks but I can turn out a decent loaf fairly reliably.  They're still a bit flat and dense but they do have that lovely sourdough taste and chew.  After an unenthusiastic start even J is now a huge fan.  A, not so much.  Shocking, I know.

My 12-week fitness challenge ends this week.  Safe to say I fell off the wagon somewhat with the exercise, but my eating habits have changed significantly for the better.  I'm a few kilos down and have shed some major centimetres.  I didn't take measurements but my clothes tell me everything I need to know. 

Although I didn't exactly finish strong, the challenge gave me the motivation and support I needed to make some positive changes.  I still highly recommend it, although be warned the recipes are CRAP.  The program I did was The Bod.  I participated in a "Restart", which basically means that everyone everywhere starts the program at the same time, but you can buy it and start it anytime you like.  I'll definitely be referring back to the exercise program if I feel like I need another boot up the bum.

I'm trying to think what else I need to catch up on...

I made a flying visit home to Adelaide a few weeks ago.  I was only there for three days but got my fill of family time and ate and drank myself stupid.  Cried my eyes out flying out over the Adelaide Hills.  This visit was incredibly brief but even if I was there a month it would never be long enough.  I adore NZ but it is bloody hard sometimes being away from my family.

Spring is here although we're having a bit of a cold snap at the moment.  I'm really trying not to light the fire but the past few mornings have been cold so it's still in use occasionally.  You can tell I took this photo below a while ago because that tree is now covered in new leaves, and so the cycle starts again.  

I love the seasons here. 

Can you believe two years ago we were still living in Perth without even a moving date set??  It feels like we've been here forever already.

This and that and everything else

I'd better write this before I put it off again and it all becomes irrelevant.

So, what's been going on around here?

One of our cows had a calf.  One of our sheep had twin lambs (yes, another set of twins).  My daphne is flowering and smells glorious.

After I foolishly wrote a post about A's sleep, it all went seriously haywire and now she sleeps in our bed.  Every nap.  And every night.  I kind of care, in that I'd prefer to have the bed to myself and B, but mostly I don't care.  It won't be forever.  I hope.

We're considering putting her and J in a room together as I've heard that sharing a room can quite often resolve whatever abandonment issues are keeping them from sleeping alone.  Anyone done this?  Tell me your tales!

Look at those big fatties! The sheep I'm talking about.  Those are the original twin lambs, Emily and Jack.  They're so big and cute and fat.  And pushy.

My health and fitness regime is going well.  I'm now into Week 5 of the program and it's nice to not be DYING halfway through the warm up anymore. 

I'm also eating nutritious food at least 80% of the time.  This is no thanks to the recipes provided with the program, which I've finally come to the conclusion are useless.  At first I thought it was just me cooking with unfamiliar ingredients (coconut oil, oat flour, etc), but seeing the feedback from everyone else doing the program we're all having the same trouble.  The recipes are rubbish, which is a bit disappointing.  I'm back to cooking my own creations and just keeping track of the nutrients.

Honestly, so far I don't feel much different - no more energy or better sleep or anything like that - but I do feel good about making good choices.  I enjoy my treats now without fretting about what I should or shouldn't have eaten.  If I have a really indulgent meal or even whole day (weekends are my downfall every time), I just start again the next day with the good choices.  That's a huge change of mindset for me, whereas previously I would have used a blowout as an excuse to give up: "I've failed now anyway..."

I finally made a decent loaf of sourdough!  Now this is exciting.  After those first few attempts, I just kind of gave up and put the starter in the fridge.  The loaves weren't turning out very nice, the kids wouldn't eat it, so I didn't feed my starter or even touch it for weeks. 

Then last week B urged me to have another go, selling me on the idea we could have it for breakfast on the weekend.  I got the starter out first thing Friday morning, poured some off and fed it.  To begin with it was very thin and lifeless but sure enough by Friday evening it was active and fragrant and ready.

I baked the loaf on Saturday and it was as good as any you would buy, if I do say so myself.  Sour, chewy, so good!  Even J rolled about three slices for her lunch.  So apparently neglect is the key to good sourdough.  Who knew?

In craft news, which I know fascinates everyone no end, I'm doggedly working my way through the last of my works-in-progress - that bloody Sauvie vest, and A's baby blanket which considering she's turning two this month is AHEM somewhat overdue.  After that, J has made several very specific requests for garments for her dolls and she likes to check back in with me about them several times a week so I'd better get cracking.

And that brings us pretty well up-to-date.

Don't forget to tell me your experiences of kids sharing bedrooms!  Or, for that matter, any other zero-effort zero-crying ways to get an extremely stubborn kid out of your bed...

Catch up on all the things

Hello my dear friends!  You'll be amazed to learn that we got through the gastro with no other casualties in the family.  I know.  I could hardly believe it myself.  I nailed that hand hygiene I tell you.

As threatened promised, here comes a big catch-up on all the things.  Are you seated?  Got some sustenance to see you through?  Let's get started, as ever, with my sweet little J.

J has been doing kindy three days a week since late last year and is loving every moment.  After easter we went through a time of tears at drop-off because she didn't want me to leave, and then further tears at pick-up time when she didn't want to go home.  That seems to have passed now.



Having been wearing undies for several months she's gone back to nappies again most of the time.  She'll often pull her nappy down to use the toilet anyway, so I am wondering whether I need to provide some motivation (read: m&m's) to get her back into undies full time.

She's still seriously obsessed with puzzles and I need to get her some more challenging ones as the ones for her age range are becoming too easy.

I feel a bit guilty because I'm wracking my brain here for more things to say about her, especially as I have heaps to talk about on the topic of A, but I guess it's just one of those things as they get older.  There's less developmental stuff to worry about, hence less to talk about.  She eats well, sleeps well, still naps for a couple of hours on her days at home (no nap on kindy days though), runs, jumps, helps, sings, collects "treasures" (read: gravel from the driveway), just all that joyful three year old stuff.

She talks clearly and emphatically now, lots of "actually..." and "unfortunately...", but still gets some words and phrases adorably wrong.  Most notable recently was when she was referring to her heartbeat as her "love beat", and she calls Winnie the Pooh "Wendy the Pork".



A is a busy little bee these days.  Having rapidly mastered walking, she goes everywhere now at a trot.  I find myself grinning listening to the patter of her feet to and fro.  So, so busy.  She sleeps well at the moment too - I'm certain that it's due to being physically tired at last.  She goes to bed about 6pm and usually stirs around 4-5am for a bottle.  Then (hopefully!!) back to sleep to start the day around 6.30-7am.

Her picky eating is still unbelievably picky.  She tries lots of stuff but there's not much she likes.  She recently added Laughing Cow cheese to the list.  Insert muppet arms here.  I'm still giving her formula per the nurse's advice all those months ago, still offering everything I can think of, and still trying not to fret about it.  I'm reminding myself of how I worried about J's eating a year or two ago, and now J eats almost anything I put in front of her.  Neither one of them will touch vegetables though, no matter what I try.  Like I really can't think of the last time they ate a vegetable that wasn't a hot chip... should I be admitting this?



Anyway!

A talks very well for her age - at least I think so.  I only have J to compare her to though, who barely said any words until well after the age of two.  A uses plenty of words, although her firm favourite is "no".  I get a lot of "No, Mum!  Mum - no.  No." every day.  It's cute and scary at the same time.  There have already been some mild tantrums.

She goes through some unknowable emotional trauma at about 4.30pm each day and she cries and grizzles and wants to be held for the rest of the day.  Some days she's like that all day, although it happens less the older she gets.



She knows what works on me when she really wants something (usually a cracker) and she gives me her best chubby cheeked smiles and damp little kisses.  "Kees [please], Mum.  Cacker.  Kees".  She tucks her cheek into her shoulder and I'm powerless.

Sometimes I do have to say no, though, and oh the heartbreak.  She gets so upset when she's told off, too.  But all in all, she's heavenly.  Cute and sweet and silly and sassy.  Obsessed with putting her babies to bed.  They all get solemn cuddles and kisses and then tenderly tucked into the cradle.  It's just too much.



What else?

Oh yeah.  So I'm back fasting two days a week.  The trick now is to keep it up instead of getting relaxed and skipping a few fast days until I'm not doing it at all.  I'm long past the excuses of pregnancy, small babies, sleep deprivation, or moving internationally as reasons for not taking care of myself.  I'm getting older.  I want to make healthy behaviours my default habits.  Got to start now!

So: no coca cola in the house.  No more getting sucked into the 18-pack on sale and telling myself that I'll only have one a week.  I'll still have the odd one with takeaway but the consumption is way down.

As for exercise, my friend and I are going to sign up for yoga.  Before you think I'm deluding myself, it's a vinyasa flow.  For the uninitiated, trust me, it's a serious workout.  I can't wait!  I've only done a couple of classes since I had kids and I used to go several times a week so I'm really excited.



You might remember I had pulled everything out of the vegetable garden a few weeks ago and B buried a whole lot of fish guts and skeletons to feed the soil.  Apparently he didn't bury it deep enough because the chooks have made it their mission to dig it all up each day.  It smells even more delightful than you might be thinking.



The good news is that through their efforts the chickens have tilled the soil to an amazing fluffy softness, perfect for planting into.  I've put in our winter veg: onions, spring onions, shallots, brassicas, beetroot, spinach.  Actually now I write this I remember I still need to plant some garlic.

Unfortunately the chooks' dedication to digging for fish guts isn't such good news for my new plantings.  Enter: bird netting.



So far it seems to do the trick, and once the plants are big enough to withstand the chooks I'll take it away.

I did save my tomato plants like I talked about, and hung them on the back verandah like some weird pagan offering, and the tomatoes did indeed ripen that way.  Sweet!  I've just roasted the last of them per my previous method and they're probably a bit more tart than the others were, but I'm calling it a success.

I'll leave you with this photo of the chooks from the other day.  The sun had come out for the first time in a while and they were out there sunning themselves in all kinds of contorted positions like a couple of teenagers on the beach.  Love 'em!