a week in retrospective

Kids are finally in bed. I survived yet another 4 days with hubby out of town. He should be arriving something around midnight later on tonight. He didn't really feel like going and said he won't be going again for a while. He was missing his family before he was even gone. And the kids were all missing him too, moreso than previous trips.

This was week #1 on my new road: seriously and powerfully committed in reaching a healthier level for myself. The new gym I joined finally opened its doors and I'm really loving it. I'm finally doing what I've been wanting to do since the twins started school. I think the group atmosphere is working for me now. Tired of doing things alone at home I guess. I'm patting myself on the back for actually making it there a total of 5 times this past week! Two sessions of Bodypump (a cardio-weight training group workout with great loud music), two sessions of weight training (one being an initial session with a trainer which was awesome, looking forward to the next ones and seeing my strength improve, been) and one hour of yoga which I really, really loved. Add to that 2 hours on the canal last Sunday and one hour toboganning and one hour skating in our backyard today and I've pretty much did some form of exercise daily. And it was actually fun! I am not doing this solely for weight loss (although I do hope all this effort will result in that eventually) but mostly in keeping my body strong, firm and flexible.

Of course, exercise is just one factor in the big equation. Diet is key too. And not diet in the context of a quick fix starve myself diet, but more of a mind-set where I make a conscious effort daily in eating healthy and in moderate amounts. And of course, the whole family benefits too. Not that we were ever that far from healthy eating so its really just some fine-tuning. This past week was pretty great in this area too. Strayed a bit off course when I went to Pizza Hut with the kids and another husband-out-of town mom and her 3 kids for supper one night and I had a beer but managed to have only one piece of pizza and loads of salad. And today I had a few Timbits when we went to a local arena to watch a friend's 8 year old play hockey ;)

On other news, my dad went to the hospital for a little dermatological procedure, again. He had this lesion on his ear and after tons of prompting and persuasion had it checked and it turned out to be squamous cell carcinoma. He had it excised two years ago and it came back. So off he went to get it removed again. He had the same thing on his leg a few years back. And this a man who has worked indoors all his life. Makes you think twice about the merit of sunscreen, which he hasn't used regularly, and more personally makes me wonder if I'll be predisposed to those types of lesions myself. For a 10 minute procedure done under local in a regular exam room, he was at the hospital for a total of 6 hours. He had been there waiting for 4 hours already when this other patient arrived: obviously a prisoner, with shackles and accompanied by 3 guards...he didn't have to wait, they brought him in right away...in and out in half an hour flat...and he didn't have to pay for parking either...my dad was ticked, especially since we had just finished talking about this story which I won't even comment on cause I don't have anything nice to say about it.

And big sis has simply been the best these past few days. No talking back, being responsible for herself and EVEN picking up her room with very little prompting. The twins went to a birthday party at the local YMCA last Saturday and she asked to go along with them. The birthday mom didn't mind the extra pair of hands with 10 5-6 year olds. And I got TWO full hours to myself (went shopping and got myself something for a change and went to the gym too). She did great there. She definitely has a natural knack to taking care of younger kids. She showed that ability again today when we babysat my godchild, the cutest 2 year old. She had all sorts of games and activities lined up for him and the twins. I was mostly relegated to the background preparing meals, cleaning up and managed to do all my laundry too!

Add to all that, mom's taxi service tos chool and back, dance lessons, badminton, greek school, gymnastics and a long overdue date with a friend for tea one evening (divorced, remarried, long story) and a parent teacher night another evening...so no wonder blogging took the back burner.

But I'm all set for another week :)