7QT: Narnia, Vikings, Yosemite, Smoothies, and more!
A few quick takes to wrap up a busy week!
This is how we dooooo it, it's Friday niiiight, I feel alriiiiiiight... we're watching Vikings on the History Channel! (actually, on Hulu since we don't get the History Channel!)
(did you manage to sing that last sentence all as one musical phrase in your head? good for you!)
I just love this show. Not really sure why... it's sort of historically inaccurate, the script has some bad moments, the story alternates between being really compelling, hokey, and slow-moving, and sometimes it's unnecessarily violent (although I suppose that is pretty historically accurate!)... but I love it. It must be my Norwegian ancestry calling my name.
Maybe it's just that it always makes you ask the question, "Wow... was that guy a real guy?" or "Did the Vikings actually do that?" and then you google it. And you learn something. And learning is fun. And history is cool.
So there's my plug for Vikings. Watch it if you like history. And crazy burly dudes with long hair and beards and axes. And cool ships.
Did I ever make the official blog announcement about where we're going on our tenth anniversary trip later this year? I can't remember. Oh well, stop me if you've heard this one.
We're going to Yosemite!!!!! Awww yeah.
So excited!!!!!!! I just keep thinking about this and it's getting me through the winter.
I'm excited about hiking, but I'm a bit worried that I'll have to do some major conquering of my fear of heights. Even just watching this video about the Half Dome hike nearly gave me a panic attack. Look at those cables!! Yes, this is the most difficult hike in the entire park, so I don't think there's any way we'll be doing it. But I do wonder what kind of crazy un-railinged trails we'll find on other hikes. Or even just driving around on the roads. I'm sure M will hear me gasp in fear a few times as he drives me around curvy mountain roads, which I'm sure will bring back fond memories of our honeymoon in the Italian Alps. Don't get me wrong, I totally love the mountains. I just wish there were more railings sometimes.
Speaking of hiking, now that my youth orchestra commitment is pretty much over, I'm feeling okay about jumping back in to running after about a three week hiatus, and it would be cool to include some strength/cross training so that I'll be in decent shape by the time summer comes and we're doing these hikes. There's my usual pilates and crazy 8's workout but it would be fun to find some other ideas too... you know, just to spice things up.
I read on a blog the other day about a "drop and give me 20" workout that would be a fun way to build some strength on days when I'm short for time. (Fun? Maybe effective is a better word.)
But may I also recommend the Knees Up Mother Brown workout?
(Well I couldn't find the video of Raffi singing it, but this kid does a pretty good job showing you the moves!)
Doing all the "knees up" and hopping with your kids will have your heart rate sky high in no time. Believe me... I know.
So... funny story. The other morning we woke up and it felt a bit chilly in the house. I went to turn up the heat to our normal daytime temperature as I usually do when I wake up, and... nothing. No heat clicking on. I cranked it almost to 80 and still nothing. I told M that I thought our heat was broken. He tried for about 30 minutes to re-light our boiler and check different things and nothing seemed to be working. So we decided we'd have to call a service man to come and investigate.
So we called and waited for a guy to come. After getting N on the bus, I decided to check the temperature on the girls' alarm clock:
Yes, the 52 is *indoor* temperature. If we had the outdoor sensor hooked up, you would have seen that the outdoor temperature that morning was about 4.
Then I noticed that there was ice on the *inside* of our windows:
So eventually the guy came after I got home from dropping L off at preschool.
He came back upstairs after about five minutes and said, "Ummmm... did you know that your emergency shutoff switch in your stairwell was off?"
Ummm, no I did not know that.
"Well I turned that on and it fired right up!"
So long story short, we're not sure which one of the kids flipped that switch. We're even less sure why neither M nor I thought to check that before calling a service man. M even says he's pretty sure he checked it while he was doing all of his checking before we called. But it was about 5:30 AM, and obviously neither of us were thinking clearly, and maybe the cold was killing our brain cells.
But at least there wasn't anything wrong with our furnace! For that we can be thankful, right? And the nice service man didn't even charge us for the visit. All's well that ends well.
New Englanders, did you get outside today? M worked from home and went running on his lunch break. When he came back he had a silly grin on his face and practically poked me with a cattle prod to get me out the door for my own run while the girls were napping. Boy am I glad he did. The sun felt so different! It wasn't warm by any means... I think the high was around 40 today (admittedly, about 20 degrees higher than it has been lately) but the sun just felt... springy! Not slanted and winterish but strong and springy. Know what I'm sayin'?
I was almost blinded by that sun on the snow. I felt like Puddleglum returning to Narnia after his long stay in the Underworld, and finally being gratified in his insistence the whole time that the sun really did, in fact, exist. (The Silver Chair, anyone?)
Spring can't stay away much longer now!
I have been craving a creamy strawberry smoothie and trying to concoct one for a few days. I finally got it right, so now I have to write it down or I'll forget it:
1 cup silken tofu
3/4 cup coconut milk (or more for a thinner smoothie)
1 cup frozen strawberries (or fresh if you got 'em)
2 T strawberry jam
1 ripe banana
Pure yum right there.
A few pics from our preschool spaghetti supper that was tonight... L has been eagerly anticipating the day for weeks when we all got to "go to her school and have supper with her friends". So much fun!!
Springish weather, spaghetti supper (that I didn't have to cook), preschool friends, and Vikings.
A very good day.
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