Farewell February

I can't believe March is upon us! Is it just me or is 2013 flying by already? I've been reflecting on the year so far and wanted to document some of my thoughts and goings on. My mind is all over the place lately and I'd like to be able to come back and read this post to remember what I was thinking and doing.  The new year started out on a sad note for us when my elderly father-in-law passed away in early January. Being the full time caregivers for an elderly parent in our home for the last six years was often very challenging, especially in the later years. While I do have some sense of relief of the burden and strain his care put on my husband and myself and even our daughters, I greatly underestimated the empty space in our home and in our hearts that his absence would create.

For the last three years or so, I started working out early mornings so that I could be home to care for my father-in-law when my husband left for work. Now that I no longer have that responsibility, I've been getting out of the house more during the day. I'm meeting friends for lunch or coffee, doing all kinds of errands that were a hardship before, and revisiting the later morning fitness classes I used to take at the gym. I hit several of those 9 am classes in the last couple of weeks instead of my customary 6 am ones. Would you believe I've decided that I actually prefer the 6 am classes?! Truly! Sometimes I go to both. Sometimes I just go for a short run around 8 or 9 am. Like on this day when the snow started coming down..

At the park on a short run in the snow
before the paths get too slippery.

This new-found freedom to be able to leave the house whenever I want comes with a cost, though. I've been spending less time reading or blogging. I'm already five books behind in my goodreads challenge to read 101 books in 2013. My favorite books so far this year? The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley and Sins & Needles by Karina Halle! I loved both of these books.

10" of snow

We got about 9 or 10" of snow when snowstorm Nemo blew through town in early February. Lots of hours spent outdoors shoveling, sledding and skiing, too! Someone in our neighborhood sculpted a huge snow sculpture of Nemo from Finding Nemo on his lawn--the namesake of the storm. Pretty awesome!

Nemo snow sculpture

I went skiing with my husband--without our kids--for the first time in almost two decades. I was flooded with memories from our dating years and at the same time reminded of my age--exhausted and a bit grateful to end the day at 4:30 pm instead of trying to squeeze as many runs in at the end as possible.

Hers & His skis
On the chairlift with my husband. :)

I'm still having tons of fun on Instagram. I was doing so well with my Project 365 but missed a day completely in November. It really bugged me so I'm attempting to complete 2013 with a photo every day. So far so good! Knock on wood!!!! The new instagram profiles online are really snazzy. Have you seen them? http://instagram.com/thehappilyeverafter I'm having fun doing the monthly photo-a-day challenges hosted by Australian blogger Fat Mum Slim. It encourages creative photo ops and I'm meeting cool people from all over the world.

I'm continuing with the #fmsphotoaday challenge in March and am also going to give a go with #EstellaGram -- a bookish photo-a-day challenge hosted by Estella Society. Fun stuff! Click the links for the daily photo prompts.

Are you on instagram? Let's follow each other there-- find me at thehappilyeverafter .

Last, but not least, a new friendship is blossoming between myself and another similarly minded reader-athlete-mother-wife-individual whom I met recently. We met the other day for coffee and it was the saving grace of my week. I was frazzled, if not utterly stressed by something going on in my world and she knew just what to say to help me let go of some of the worry and negative energy and focus on the things I have control over and the things that welcome happiness into my life. I'm already so appreciative of this friend.

Speaking of happiness... I hope you're finding happiness in your daily life, too! Scratch that! I hope you're making happiness happen in your daily life! What? .. Make happiness? Yes! Make happiness. More on that tomorrow..

March is upon us, my friends. I hope spring is right around the corner because I'm craving sunshine, long bike rides and growing things in my garden!

What has the new year brought you so far?

Big Bird and Black Swan

Happy Halloween!  I hope everyone had a fun and festive day today. I have to admit that the freak snow storm we had here on the east coast this past weekend has thrown us for a loop and Halloween wasn't as exciting or festive as it has been in the past.

Our town has an area of barely 5 square miles and we had 100 trees and over 240 power lines come down in roadways, creating hazardous conditions and knocking out power for many people. This snow storm wasn't particularly violent nor did it produce that much snow. We got maybe only 2-3" of snow, but it was very heavy and wet. Which again, isn't particularly noteworthy except for the fact that most of the trees still have most of their leaves, giving the snow a lot of surface area on which to fall and accumulate. The branches just couldn't bear that kind of weight and huge tree limbs were snapping everywhere. It was very dangerous out there!

Schools were closed today, bringing our total school closures for the 2011-12 school year to three and and it isn't even winter yet! [The first two were in September due to hurricane Irene]. Right now schools will have a delayed opening tomorrow, but there's a possibility it will turn into another closure by morning! Any more days off and they'll have to take days off our spring break in April. Ugh. :(

As for Halloween festivities, the girls went trick-or-treating today, so at least there was some Halloween spirit around here. And alas, now there's a ton of candy around here...

My youngest dressed up as Big Bird from Sesame Street this year. One of her friends went as Cookie Monster. You can't quite see it in the photo, but she has Big Bird eyes and a beak on her headband. Very cute.

My teenager dressed up as the Black Swan and her friend was the White Swan. They put the costumes together all on their own. They purchased one or two things and everything else was borrowed or from their own collection of dance wear. Very pretty!

Now my biggest challenge will be to ignore the presence of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in the house.

ONE Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
115 calories [calories I burn running 1.3 miles]
7.5g fat
        2.3g saturated fat
11.5g carbs
        10g sugar
3g protein
70mg sodium

A Slush Run

Sounds like a post about an impulsive run to the local quickmart to get a slushy drink, doesn't it? ;)

It's actually in reference to a really great run I had the other day at the park after we had that snowstorm last week. Since we can't leave my father-in-law home alone anymore, I had asked my husband to come home two hours early the other day to watch over his dad so I could get the girls to a 5 pm appointment, and he surprised me by coming home even earlier than I asked so I had a few extra hours to myself. Awesome! So what did I do with that time? Go running, of course!

I headed to my favorite running spot to check out the trails, not sure what condition they'd be in only a short day or two after the snowstorm. This is what I found:



A lot of the paved trail is covered with soft packed snow or slush and a few patches of ice.

Sounds crazy to run on, I know, but wow was that fun!

I started out walking cautiously on the hard packed or icy spots, but found that it was actually really fun to run on the soft packed stuff. Almost like running on sand, which is more work than running on pavement, that's for sure.

My pace turned out to be pretty slow. I ran 4 miles in 51 minutes. Ugh. I probably shouldn't even admit that in a public place!

I'm sure I was so slow because of the extra caution I was taking on the mixed conditions, but it was almost like interval training, in a way, as I frequently changed my pace depending on the conditions underfoot. Either way, fast or slow, it felt so good to be out there. The temperature was in the mid 30s (around 0 C), the sun was shining, the sky was so blue, and I was loving it! The run was both exhilarating and relaxing. And what pretty views, too.

Speaking of pretty views, here are a few photos I took of the yard during last week's snowstorm.

This is the side yard where my feathered friends dine on berries and hide from the mean hawks. This was taken a few hours into last Wednesday's snowstorm. Six inches down, eleven more to go.

This photo was taken maybe two hours after having just shoveled the first 6 inches off the cars, driveway and sidewalks and it was still coming down strong.

The next morning, my husband took this photo of yours truly, finishing up the third shoveling in under 24 hours. I love the smell of the air and the clear blue, sunny skies the day after a snow storm.

It was snowing again last night into this morning. I took this is a photo the backyard this morning when I ventured out to the compost pile with an overflowing bucket of a week's worth of kitchen scraps. You'll see and read more about my compost pile in the coming weeks and months because I started an experiment this morning. I'm sure you're all dying to know more about it. ;p

The house looks a lot different now compared to back then, huh? Or even then? Or wow... way back then!?

I mentioned the other day in my Snow Day Chili post how much I love snowstorms and snow days. How magical it is to watch the landscape outside turn into a glittering winter wonderland. Well, just so you know, that prettiness lasts about two days, if you're lucky. Soon all those piles of snow along the streets and sidewalks become so dirty from mud, pebbles, street grime, piddled yellow from dog pee and children's snow sculptures start to keel over, and it all looks like such a big ugly mess. Lucky for us, though, it snowed another 2 inches last night to cover all that ugliness with a fresh, clean white coating. The beauty of it is that this snow isn't sticking to the pavement. Except by some cruel intervention by mother nature, because our driveway is the only one in the whole neighborhood on which the snow stuck! As I drove my youngest to school... NOT ONE other driveway or sidewalk in our neighborhood had snow stuck to it! What the heck is up with that? Even my neighbor called out to me as I was shoveling and said, "Hey, looks like it only snowed over your house last night." Followed by a laugh! What the HECK? I know I said I actually enjoyed shoveling the snow, but COME ON!

Anyway, while I'm on the subject of fun in the snow.... are you watching the Olympics? I love watching the Olympics, both summer and winter, but I think the winter games are my favorite. Maybe because my husband and I were big time skiers back in the day B.C. (before children). Now we are lucky if we go once or twice a season. Or at all. :(

My husband and I vacationed at Whistler Blackcomb ski area back in 1993. I know that sounds like a long time ago, but it feels like just yesterday for me. Anyway, such a beautiful place with some really great skiing.

So we've been watching the games every day and night. When I was a little girl, I absolutely loved the figure skating. Now I enjoy watching it, but it's not my favorite. My favorite events are all of the ski and snowboard events. The freestyle ski and snowboard events are so fun to watch, as are the cross country events, the combined events, and the races. Oh, and I like to watch the speed skating. Curling is an interesting event, too. I'm going to try to catch some of those events on t.v., too.

What's your favorite event?

One more thing. If you have an iPhone and you're into following the Olympic games, you need to download the free NBC Olympics app. It gives you access to just about anything you want to know about the games including the daily schedule of events, what's going to be broad casted on television or online and when, the medal counts, stats about the athletes and countries, news stories, and so much more.

I think that's all the snow talk I have for now. I hope you're enjoying whatever kind of weather is in your corner of the world. :)

Meet Lulu

She's a snow-girl that my youngest daughter and I made last Friday afternoon.



I suppose it's old news by now, but the NY metro area had a little snow-rain-ice storm late last week. The roads were a slippery mess before noon on Friday and consequently, the kids were dismissed from school at 12:30 pm. And what's a snow day without a little romp in the snow, so Anna and I got busy rolling, packing and piling snow to build a snow-girl. We brought her to life with eyes, a nose, mouth, hair, buttons down her front, and even earrings! We stepped back to admire her and my daughter said, "Her name is Lulu." And that was that. :)