Once again, she captured some great shots of the kids. If you are looking for family photos, she is worth checking out! If you book with her, please use my name as a reference!
It's the final countdown for summer. Regent’s exam week. Proctoring hell. I already finished my end of the year paperwork since today only had morning exams scheduled. It's going to be a long two weeks. I still have to create next year's student schedules but I can't even touch that until the master schedule is completed. I had my best running time for a four mile run (9:48 avg pace). I felt pretty good about that. I have a five mile run tomorrow and seven miles on Saturday, with some three milers sprinkled in between. Laurel is meeting me tomorrow morning for our five miles. All of this running for a 15k race I'm not even participating in. Laurel and I talked about moving ahead to a half marathon training plan after this. It's only a few more miles. There is a half marathon in Rochester in September, that both Laurel and Emily are urging me to do, but really, I'm not sure I could do it anxiety wise. I'm a freak, what can I say? There's also one in Lake Placid that seems MUCH more intriguing. What's not to like in Lake Placid, except for some hills? There's also a half marathon scheduled in Syracuse the same weekend...lots to think about. I'm considering it.
The end of the school year is near...just fifteen and a half days left! I end the year at noon on the 25th. Yes, I count the final days, just like the students. You must be kidding yourself if you don't think teachers are as excited for summer break as the students. Actually, I'm might even be more excited than some because I don't work during the summer. If you ask me what my summer plans are, I'll tell you, "Playing with my kids." Lydia will be going to her pre-k summer program for 3 half days, along with a week of vacation bible camp through our church, and a 4-day camping trip with mom at CampCasawaso! Jonny will have the excitement of hanging with mom all summer. My father is coming in for a visit in July and he'll be able to join us for the annual Fine camping trip our family takes with my brother's family. I'm really excited about that since dad is the reason we started taking that annual trip!
My running is going well. I started training for a 15k with my friend Laurel, even though I have no intention of running the Boilermaker Race with her. Actually, the race is the weekend I'll be out of town on our Fine camping trip. We should also quietly ignore the fact that I hate racing. I have terrible racing anxiety so it makes completing a race absolutely no fun at all. I should really try another race, just to see if I still have the anxiety. I did enlist my friend Emily (the PE teacher I run with a couple times a week) to run 15k with me. I still want to run the distance but I want someone with me so I don't crap out and walk some of it. It's so easy to do when running alone and no one is looking. I love my runs with Laurel and Emily. I'm glad I started the Learn to Run clinic with my mommy group because I would have never met my new running friends. Thanks Laurel, Cheryl, Mary, Kien, and Kiersten!
I have mastered the yogurt making but honestly haven't made the bread in a few weeks. I need to get another batch going. It made some fabulous naan bread for the chicken gyros I made a few weeks back. With our recent diet change, Pete has lost 18 pounds and he looks fantastic. Cutting out processed foods makes a huge difference.
Jonny update: He's working on his 8th tooth. I wish it would hurry up because it has made for some cranky nights and tired parents. The boy army crawls forward and backward, and scoots on his butt. He still won't crawl. His personality is coming out. I originally thought he was going to have a much calmer and quieter disposition than Lydia, but the more he expresses himself, the more like his sister he actually is! The other night he woke and just started babbling. I swear he was complaining about his tooth. I think he said, "Ma, I just wish this darn tooth would come in and stop bothering me. I want to sleep!" Lydia update: She LOVES her gymnastics class and has the body strength to actually do really well at it. The girl is so stinkin' strong. You should see her on a playground. She can pull herself right up to the top of a fireman's pole. She can hang with the best of them on the monkey bars or parallel bars. She is amazing. I am so excited to spend the summer with her. We're going to have a blast.
Pete update: He is attending his St. Bonaventure College reunion this weekend. He is really excited to see his friends again, especially his friend Nevin who is traveling from England for the reunion. He fishes when he can but I think the season is quieting down a bit for the summer. He loves to take Lydia fishing and they have been out as a twosome a few times this spring.
I'll end with a few recent photos~ Summertime is near!!
Right now Lydia has raised $305 in donations for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital! Check out her page. If you donated, you should see your name in the donation name scroll. It's not too late to donate! Thank you to all who have donated to such a great cause!
Oh, by the way, Petar also passed his second broker test! He is very relieved that it's done and out of the way now. I will admit that I thought he looked very cute being all studious when he was preparing for his test.
Today I made a sandwich on it. It was freaking good! I found the bread recipe on one of the many blogs I visit and ended up ordering this cookbook.
I couldn't believe how easy it was to make! I did the whole wheat recipe which, at first bite, Lyds rejected, but is now eating it since she has watched everyone else in the family, including Jonny, eat it. I think she figures, if it's good enough for Jonny, then it must be good enough for her! It's dense bread however, so I think I'm going to lighten up the next batch with some unbleached bread flour. I imagine that's why Lydia didn't care for it at first.
I am continuing with the yogurt making and added some dry milk to the skim milk to thicken it up a bit. It helps but it still isn't as smooth as Pete's mother's yogurt. I'm guessing that must be the difference between the skim and whole milk recipes. I'm going to make it with 2% milk tonight to see how that comes out...along with a new batch of bread dough! I'm really getting into this 'clean eating' and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I made some chocolate banana "ice cream" using frozen, sliced bananas, milk, and cocoa powder.
I am just about finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It's a great book. It's well written and quite intriguing. I learned about her book from Michael Pollan's, In Defense of Food. As I'm reading these books, I'm learning about other books on similar topics. It's been a nice cycle of self-learning.
One of the best results of our new eating habits is Pete losing 15 pounds! He decided to make his change after watching the Food Inc documentary with me. He looks fantastic!
Lydia is participating in a Trike-A-Thon on May 22nd to raise money to help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital find new treatments for cancer, sickle cell and other diseases. You too can help St. Jude continue its life-saving work against pediatric diseases with your donation. Check back often and see her progress. Thanks for helping her reach her goal for the kids of St. Jude!
I went for a nice neighborhood run on Sunday. It made me feel like I'm getting my running groove back. I was a little worried it wasn't going to come back after the pregnancy.
Jonny is mad teething again, which makes for sleepless nights. Apparently, I didn't even realize I was hitting the 4am snooze until 5am....thanks Jonny. Since I have found my running groove, I am not complaining of my missed morning workout. I'll just have to get a quick run in at 3pm. Hopefully, I can dodge the rain that the sky looks to be promising at some point today.
We had a really nice family day yesterday...a picnic in the park, some pond fishing, and a walk along an Erie Canal trail. We finished with a stop for ice cream on the way home.
I made an attempt to make my own yogurt. It didn't come out too badly. It doesn't look as smooth as a store yogurt, but it does taste just as good as the store bought plain yogurt. I brought some with sliced strawberries for lunch today. I make mine with skim milk and I read that adding some dry milk to it, helps with consistency. I'm going to pick some up today and try it with the next batch I make. I don't sweeten mine but you can. I just do the plain because I like to use it to cut the mayo when I make salads, or as a sour cream, or even just sweeten the plain a little with sugar and vanilla to add as a topping to a fruit crumble. I have found so many amazing ways to use Greek yogurt that it really makes sense to start making my own. The store bought variety is expensive! I'm going to try making some yogurt cheese next.
Ah, the nice weather! It snowed on Wednesday. Granted it was only for a few minutes, but it snowed! Today we were close to 80.
This morning I had a lovely run along OnondagaLakePark trail. Afterward, I hit the Regional Farmer's Market for our weekly produce supply. I also bought some more meat from Sweet Grass Farm. We are set for groceries for the week, minus a few miscellaneous items I'll need to get at the grocery store.
We went to our neighbor Andy's (and Melanie) surprise 30th birthday party. Lyds had a blast playing with all the kids. It was a great day for an outdoor party.
Tomorrow I'm going to get in a neighborhood run instead of heading to the gym. I want to enjoy the nice day, ignoring the chance of rain in the forecast. If the rain holds off, we'll probably head to the park after church. Lydia was a little perturbed we didn't go to the park after the birthday party, even though she just finished swinging and playing with kids for two hours. Is it even possible to satisfy a 4 year old's need to play?
That's my teaching assistant. We celebrated her 60th birthday earlier this April. I made her wear a red hat for the "Red Hat Society." I've been working with her since February 1998. She certainly earned the surprise party I planned for her. I invited her husband, which she didn't expect. Nancy was truly surprised!
Jonny is now the proud owner of six teeth! WOW! His two eyeteeth have finally broken through and have given him some relief from the teething pain. Lydia is testing some new limits and has seemed to enter the dramatic temper tantrum stage. The drama from last night could have earned her an Academy Award! Perhaps I should have signed her up for drama instead of tumbling!
We had a nice Easter weekend. I'm really enjoy the holidays and love being able to experience them through a 4 year old's eyes. It's magical. I made homemade pierogis and bought some real kielbasa from Park Ave. There is nothing like good kielbasa. Actually, between then and now, Pete found a local deli that sells the same exact kielbasa right up the road from us! It will be easier to get than I thought!
After that nice bout of warm weather in early April, it's been a whirlwind of weather ever since. Warm days, cold days, windy days, rainy days. It even snowed for a few minutes on Wednesday this week! It's been crazy weather!
I'm hosting a Couch to 5k meetup with my mommy group. We're meeting twice a week. It's very similar to the Learn to Run clinic that I took a couple years ago using run/walk intervals and gradually building up the running interval, until you are able to run for 30 minutes. The girls seem to be enjoying it thus far and it's nice to get out and run with them a couple times a week. I also just started running with a PE teacher I work with. She has a small group of girls that run after school twice a week. They're not very fast, which is perfect for my turtle running pace and it was nice to run the whole time, minus the big hill that's on their route.
My diet has changed significantly in the past few weeks. I've been doing some reading and information gathering on "Clean Eating." I also watched the documentary Food Inc. that has forever changed the way that I view the meat industry. It's amazing and if you haven't watched it yet, you should. I have some books from the library on clean eating, as well as some more books on our food system (how it's processed, factory farming, etc.). The librarian must think I'm a nut, or possibly studying extensively to be some sort of nutritionist! If I ever decided to change professions, I'm sure it wouldn't surprise anyone that I would pick something in nutrition or fitness.
Pete has been studying for the past few weeks to for his Federal and State Mortgage Broker tests. They have established new guidelines and now the brokers must take and pass these exams to maintain their license. He has one test tomorrow and the other next week. Good luck honey!
