Weekend Workout & Recommendations!

Some weekends are made for play, others are made for getting down to it and facing up to the moth balls, paper piles, over-grown lawn, dirty windows and piles of laundry.

After all, we had enjoyed a beautiful Friday of sunshine – can’t be all play and no work!

For our children the weekend was one of mostly play though (but of a learning kind of their own choosing) – they were absorbed in board-games and matches of ‘Scrabble’ and ‘Hang Man’ (using the great ‘Words With Friends’ app) – leaving us old folk to attend to the chores (with little Alice *helping* in a just turned two kind of a way).

It was a weekend workout indeed (the kind that happens when you know people will be actually coming round to your home in the coming week – not that we feel obliged to *impress* – we just needed a little motivation to face up to the necessary chores!).

A transformed corner of the living room – a cosy reading ‘nook’ for the girls…

The results were worth it and Monday morning felt good; waking to a clean, organised home, a freshly cut lawn and swept back-yard. The fish tank even got a decent once over – much appreciated by the fish gasping for oxygen in their heavily toxic looking water!

There was some fun in between the heavy duty cleaning. We took a break on Saturday to pop out for Charlotte’s swim class and lunch at California Garden Centre afterwards (I drew the lucky straw and enjoyed a quiet coffee whilst Alice slept in the buggy and Dan played ball with Sophie, whilst Charlotte swam). We recommend the cafe there for chips and gravy! Superb! The bacon butties are just how we like them too 🙂

We picked up some $1 book bargains at the Mary Potter Hospice shop opposite – including ‘High School Musical’ (The Junior Novel), which Sophie got stuck straight into and then watched the movie later in the evening.

On Sunday we all escaped for a swim in the late afternoon. We went to Karori Pool for a change (so lucky to have such a great choice of pools in the Wellington region). The girls all had a blast whizzing down the hydro slide, playing on the large foam floats and wallowing in the spa afterwards. Alice even went on the slide – whizzing down on her Daddy’s lap several times! Definitely recommend it.

So plenty of exercise of the cleaning, family kind, but no paddle boarding or other excitement this weekend. It’s always around this time of year – as I notice the evenings slowly drawing in and the calendar turning to Autumn (even though the weather is usually great till the end of April) that I think, ‘I really should get out for a jog.’

I’ve notice a slight increase in my weight now that Alice is two years old and not feeding as frequently. I shan’t be able to get away with consuming as much chocolate as I do without working out to counterbalance the weight gain!

I’m motivated by friends to make time to workout too – amazing, inspiring women and mothers who have turned their lives around and exercise regularly – with fabulous, healthy results. Apps for the iPhone like Nike+ GPS sound like the perfect encouragement – a friend of mine uses this and every time I see her updates on Facebook I click ‘Like’ to cheer her on. Another friend tracks her runs and I wake up in the morning to often see she’s already run 10km before I’ve even had breakfast! It really is time I get myself some headphones and start pounding the pavements to some groovy beats. A discount on GroupOn’s Daily Deals of these environmentally-friendly earphones from Cheeky Buds (available at a 53% discount on GroupOn!) look like just what I need. I might have to also treat myself to the 50% discount, also running on GroupOn, for the Wellington Medi Spa too – can’t go running with hairy legs now (might slow me down!!).

I’ll try and get my arse in gear and report back next week on how my run (and wax – erm!) go.

Right now it’s Monday evening, the children are asleep and I’m going to try and write a poem for Latte Junkie’s ‘Lyrical Sunday’ prompt of ‘Lines’ this week.

It’s been a positive start to the week for us all. My work in reorganising the arts and crafts bits and bobs in our washroom has paid off. A little bit of jiggling and hey presto – lots of fun stuff for the children to make a mess with!