I woke up suddenly at 2am and for once it wasn't because of Colton. As I laid there wondering what had startled me awake, I heard what must have been a second thump. And then half a minute later, another one.
Our bunny was being noisy.
We'd given her a new box to chew on, and in the process of trying to tear it to shreds, she was banging it against the floor. This was an easy fix, so once I'd determined that she wasn't likely to stop (and, therefore, was going to continue keeping me awake), I wandered down in the dark to take the box out of her cage. She was eager for some attention, so I patted her head and stroked her ears a bit. I realized that the last time she was this noisy, she was out of water, so I flipped on a light to check and sure enough, our poor bunny had no water. I grabbed a cup full to dump in the bowl, and then another. She surprised me by not seeming too interested in the water (usually she'll try to nose the cup as the water is flowing-- it makes me laugh).
As I turned back to the kitchen, I noticed a faint glow on the couch. I knew Bentley had left his laptop there, so I was expecting to see a small, sharp light. I looked closer and discovered that he'd somehow wrapped the laptop up in a blanket and left it plugged in. I pulled it out of the blanket and it was burning hot, with the fans whirring unable in vain to cool it down.
I quickly moved it to a flat surface and then meandered back to bed wondering if my bunny hadn't just saved our house from being burned down.
Good bunny, Oreo. That was a good reason to wake me up in the middle of the night.
Monday, February 12, 2018
Thursday, February 8, 2018
Getting Back Into the Swing of Things
I'm finally back to exercising again. Last spring (in preparation for my high school reunion) I finally got where I would do that 7-minute workout, but I'd do it like it was circuit training, so I'd do it three times (making it a 21-minute workout I guess?), and then try to do that three times a week. I felt like that was a pretty good routine and I was happy with it all until school got out and all my kids were home all the time.
Then it was impossible.
It's kind of amazing watching what happens if I tell the kids to not bug me for 21 minutes. They're starving. They're fighting. They're crawling over and under me (DO NOT CRAWL UNDER ME WHEN I'M TRYING TO DO WALL SITS!!!!). They need me to open this. They need me to go here or there with them. Someone hurt their feelings. They need a snack. They want me to invite a friend over. They want to go outside. They need another snack. They managed to touch my phone and pause it without me knowing so that I'm stuck doing what should be a 30 second circuit for 2-and-a-half minutes until I realize what's going on. Someone punched them. PLEASE DON'T SIT ON MOMMY WHILE SHE'S TRYING TO DO PUSH-UPS. They managed to make a chair fall over on top of them and now they're screaming in agony.... And trust me, ALL OF THIS has happened during those 21 minutes.
And I try to be fairly even tempered, but when all this happens while I'm trying to do push ups, suddenly I'm just screaming at everyone. BECAUSE THERE'S ONLY SO MUCH I CAN TAKE, OKAY???
Anyway, for everyone's sanity, I quit exercising during the summer. And I had every intention of starting up again as soon as they were back in getting back in school, but then that didn't happen until... January. Oops? (I guess I should thank Tracy for getting married and giving me a reason to finally set goals for myself and all that stuff.)
But now that I've built back up to being able to do it again, here are the things I like about exercising:
-I like that it warms me up. In the winter time when I feel like I'm cold all the time, this is a really good thing. I like not being freezing for a little bit of the day.
-I like that my body does pretty well with it. I tend to improve very quickly and noticeably, and that makes me happy. I'm very thankful for a healthy body that can do stuff like this. In my book club last night one of my friends was talking about how society teaches women to hate their bodies and I know she's right, but I've never felt quite that bad about my body. Sure-- I'm well aware when I should be trying to lose weight. I'm not immune to this stuff. But I've also usually been pretty happy with my body, flawed or not, and the many things it can do if I just try. Exercise is a good reminder of that fact.
-It's a good excuse to play some perky music really loud for a bit. I like loud music.
-I enjoy the sense of accomplishment I feel after exercising. Even if I didn't do anything else all day, I at least did one thing that pretty much everyone agrees is a good thing to do.
But, I've learned a few important things, too...
-I have to exercise in the morning, before I shower. Once I've showered, exercising is not gonna happen. (I can't even tell you how many times I've thought, I'll just do it tonight! Nope. Never. Don't even think it.)
-I do actually like to challenge myself by making things a tiny bit harder, like for example, I usually add weights to some of the exercises (like lunges or squats). But I have to be really careful because it also makes things exponentially more challenging with kids around. They're ability to walk into my swinging weight is matched only by how often they'll steal and then fight over my weights (or try to drop them on top of my phone) or other things that can have disastrous results. Exercising with even just two kids around is NOT for the feint of heart.
-All this to say, I've started daydreaming about going running once they're all in school in a couple years. That's pretty weird, coming from me, but I guess it's good to have some hobbies planned for when that day arrives... right?
Then it was impossible.
It's kind of amazing watching what happens if I tell the kids to not bug me for 21 minutes. They're starving. They're fighting. They're crawling over and under me (DO NOT CRAWL UNDER ME WHEN I'M TRYING TO DO WALL SITS!!!!). They need me to open this. They need me to go here or there with them. Someone hurt their feelings. They need a snack. They want me to invite a friend over. They want to go outside. They need another snack. They managed to touch my phone and pause it without me knowing so that I'm stuck doing what should be a 30 second circuit for 2-and-a-half minutes until I realize what's going on. Someone punched them. PLEASE DON'T SIT ON MOMMY WHILE SHE'S TRYING TO DO PUSH-UPS. They managed to make a chair fall over on top of them and now they're screaming in agony.... And trust me, ALL OF THIS has happened during those 21 minutes.
And I try to be fairly even tempered, but when all this happens while I'm trying to do push ups, suddenly I'm just screaming at everyone. BECAUSE THERE'S ONLY SO MUCH I CAN TAKE, OKAY???
Anyway, for everyone's sanity, I quit exercising during the summer. And I had every intention of starting up again as soon as they were back in getting back in school, but then that didn't happen until... January. Oops? (I guess I should thank Tracy for getting married and giving me a reason to finally set goals for myself and all that stuff.)
But now that I've built back up to being able to do it again, here are the things I like about exercising:
-I like that it warms me up. In the winter time when I feel like I'm cold all the time, this is a really good thing. I like not being freezing for a little bit of the day.
-I like that my body does pretty well with it. I tend to improve very quickly and noticeably, and that makes me happy. I'm very thankful for a healthy body that can do stuff like this. In my book club last night one of my friends was talking about how society teaches women to hate their bodies and I know she's right, but I've never felt quite that bad about my body. Sure-- I'm well aware when I should be trying to lose weight. I'm not immune to this stuff. But I've also usually been pretty happy with my body, flawed or not, and the many things it can do if I just try. Exercise is a good reminder of that fact.
-It's a good excuse to play some perky music really loud for a bit. I like loud music.
-I enjoy the sense of accomplishment I feel after exercising. Even if I didn't do anything else all day, I at least did one thing that pretty much everyone agrees is a good thing to do.
But, I've learned a few important things, too...
-I have to exercise in the morning, before I shower. Once I've showered, exercising is not gonna happen. (I can't even tell you how many times I've thought, I'll just do it tonight! Nope. Never. Don't even think it.)
-I do actually like to challenge myself by making things a tiny bit harder, like for example, I usually add weights to some of the exercises (like lunges or squats). But I have to be really careful because it also makes things exponentially more challenging with kids around. They're ability to walk into my swinging weight is matched only by how often they'll steal and then fight over my weights (or try to drop them on top of my phone) or other things that can have disastrous results. Exercising with even just two kids around is NOT for the feint of heart.
-All this to say, I've started daydreaming about going running once they're all in school in a couple years. That's pretty weird, coming from me, but I guess it's good to have some hobbies planned for when that day arrives... right?
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