Zumba Day 1

What. Was. I. Thinking?!?

Okay, I did 30 minutes of Zumba this morning.

Cons:

• My chest feels like it's full of gunk - and subsequently, I can't stop coughing and I wheeze.
• I used to think I had rhythm but I have been disabused of that notion.
• Why is the music so fast?  Are those songs always so fast??
• I swear they're on trampolines, how do they do all those jumps? Am I really that incapable of moving my body off the ground?
• I found muscles that I didn't know I had.. or rather, I had forgotten I had.

Pros:

• Euphoria is running wild right now.  
• Energy - I can do ANYTHING
• Great music.
• The funny looks the dogs kept giving me as I foundered and tripped my way through.
• Knowing I'm doing something good for myself.
• That feeling of finally starting.

This is every other day for the foreseeable future.  It feels good to have finally started.

Seriously... Thoughts?

Zumba Madness - A New Year's Resolution

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to get myself moving more.  I know I know, it's already over half way through the month, but you know what? Better to start half way through the month instead of half way through the year!  And besides, I have to be organized before I start anything new, and these things take time.  Work with me people!

A friend of mine (For the sake of this blog we'll call her The Mighty Miss M. She's amazing and wonderful and smart and funny and gosh darn-it, I like her - I think she might even be my people even though we still have YET to hang out more than just at kid events.. If you're reading this Might Miss M - wanna go for coffee and talk about whatever for a few hours? Okay.. enough adoration.. back to the original sentence) teaches a Zumba class.  She's been asking me to come dance my bootie off with her for a couple of years now but her classes are at like 9AM.. you know, when I'm working.  Or Friday nights, when I'm usually at some sort of practice for one of The Tweedle's sports.  Needless to say, I haven't attended even once. But the idea of dancing for my exercise seems like something I could actually do and even enjoy

Now, I could do a super extroverted grown-up thing, and find a place that does Zumba at times that I could actually attend, but I have a few excuses for not doing that.

1. The Mighty Miss M is my FRIEND!  How dare you suggest I go do Zumba with anyone other than her! What kind of callous monster are you? 
2. INFJ - INTROVERTED.  If I don't actually have to leave my house to get something done, all the better.  Now I know this goes against my desires to make more friends - I'm a mushy bowl of contradiction, what can I say? 
3. I'm about 35 lbs overweight right now - the most I have ever weighed without growing a child inside of this body.  I know. I know.  I don't know how that happened either (yes I do). I found out yesterday afternoon at 2pm that Bug's first basketball practice was yesterday at 6pm prompting me to go out after school to buy a pair of jeans that actually fit - because all of mine are too small.  Nothing like 4 hours notice that you'll have to be in public with a bunch of parents who don't know you when you're fat and have nothing to wear.  Needless to say, I'm a bit self conscious right now.  And until I get myself down a size or two, I don't feel like putting on ANYTHING even remotely clingy - all exercise clothes ever - or worse too bulky making me seem even LARGER than I already am - or going out for extended periods of time around women who are probably more skinny, beautiful and coordinated than I am.  
4. I don't have to and you can't make me! (sticks my tongue out at you).

My TV like most new models, can connect directly to YouTube, so I went searching on for Zumba videos I could follow until I feel a bit more confident in myself.  Now, I only picked songs I knew and could sing along with and tried to find videos that were clear without TOO many people because I'm blonde and easily distracted and didn't want to get confused about who I was supposed to be watching.  I found this group of 3 ladies who did a series of videos that seemed to meet all of my requirements and who seemed fun and high energy.  I tried to find videos with them as often as I could.  And I  made three playlists of different music. Tah-Dah!  You're proud of me aren't you? Feel free to applaud.

One is POP with music from the 90s and 00s (is this how you write this?) and has song like:

• What Makes You Feel Beautiful - One Direction
• I'm Into You - J-Lo
• Uptown Funk - Bruno Mars
• Roar - Katy Perry
• Can't Stop the Feeling - Justin Timberlake
• Shake It Off - Taylor Swift
• Baby - Justin Beiber
• Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice
• Thriller - Michael Jackson

I'm eclectic, what can I say?  If you wanna maybe try some of these with me you can check out my complete Seriously.. Thoughts? Zumba Pop list.

The second one I made is a Country mix of songs like:

• We Are Never Getting Back Together - Taylor Swift
• Pontoon - Little Big Town
• Somethin' Bad - Miranda Lambert
• Country Girl - Luke Bryan
• Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy - Big N Rich
• River Bank - Brad Paisley
• Little Toy Guns - Carrie Underwood

It was harder to find country songs so this list is much smaller than the POP one and I couldn't find as many with the three girls I like, but should be good for about an hours worth of dancing.  If you wanna maybe try some of these with me, you can find my complete Seriously.. Thoughts? Zumba Country list.

I even found a CHRISTMAS MUSIC LIST!!! (This is like GOLD people!)

• One More Sleep -  Leona Lewis
• Run Run Rudolph - Kelly Clarkson
• It's Christmas Time - KJ-52
• Santa Baby - Glee Cast
• Drummer Boy - Justin Beiber & Busta

Obviously, this list is MUCH smaller but soooooo worth it! These are on my Seriously.. Thoughts? Zumba Christmas list.

I'm starting on Monday after I get rid of The Hubs and The Tweedles so no one can watch me shake my uncoordinated bootie while loudly singing along.  Wish me luck!

** EDITED **
Monday is a holiday... so.. Tuesday it is!

Seriously... Thoughts?

INFJ - Personal Introspection

For the past year or so, I've been doing a lot of personal introspection.  Trying to work out why I do the things I do, make the choices I make, why I feel the way I feel about things and people.  Maybe that's not quite right.  It might be more direct (if a bit more dramatic and cliche) to say I'm really just trying to understand myself. Find myself?  No matter how you describe it, I'm finding more and more that figuring out who I am is becoming almost an obsession.  How can I teach Bunny and Bug how to be true to themselves, if I have no idea what that means?  How can I model it for them if I have no idea who I am?

A few years back (for reasons that now escape me) I took a Myers-Briggs personality test.  I immediately forgot the results right after taking the test and never looked back.  I didn't even think about it again.  I happened to be surfing the web a few weeks ago, and with all this introspection, I thought I'd take the test again and see what the results were.  Now, I'm not one to go in for things like this.  As Sheldon would say, it's all just a bunch of superstitious hokum.  But I have to say that I've found the results surprisingly accurate.

Per the Meyrs-Briggs website:

The purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung understandable and useful in people's lives. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.

The mother-daughter team broke behaviors down into 8 basic personality traits that are mixed and matched to create a complete personality profile represented by a 4 letter code.

Favorite world: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I).
Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N).
Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F).
Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).

While the results aren't ever likely to be 100% accurate, in my case, they're pretty damn close.  There are a ton of different sites online to take the test.  The test on the Meyrs-Briggs site isn't free, so I took this test.  Just to remove the hokum factor, I took a few different tests from other sites I found online, all with the same results.

My results: INFJ

I prefer to focus on my own inner world: Introversion (I).  I prefer to interpret and add meaning to information: Intuition (N). When making decisions, I tend to look at people and special circumstances over hard logic: Feeling (F). And when dealing with the outside world, I prefer to get things decided instead of staying open to new information and options.

According to the Myers-Briggs website INFJs are characterized as: Vision and meaning oriented. Quietly intense. Insightful. Creative. Sensitive.  Seeks harmony, growth. Serious. Loves language, symbols. Persevering. Inspiring.

And that's a lot of words that conceivably could describe a lot of different kinds of people. So I looked at the description from the website I used to take the test.:

The INFJ personality type is very rare, making up less than one percent of the population, but they nonetheless leave their mark on the world. As Diplomats, they have an inborn sense of idealism and morality, but what sets them apart is the accompanying Judging (J) trait – INFJs are not idle dreamers, but people capable of taking concrete steps to realize their goals and make a lasting positive impact. INFJs tend to see helping others as their purpose in life, but while people with this personality type can be found engaging rescue efforts and doing charity work, their real passion is to get to the heart of the issue so that people need not be rescued at all.

(You can read more about my personality type here iffin' you wanna.)

But it wasn't until I started looking on Pinterest (You know, the ultimate authority on everything!) that some things started to make sense. OH SO MUCH SENSE!

YES! Have you met me??

So Me.

Umm can we say this whole introspection thing trying to figure MYSELF out??

Every interaction I've had with another human - Ever.  And sometimes animals.

And you guys wonder why I have such a hard time forcing myself to go out and spend time with people!

Without a DOUBT.  I have felt this on SO many occasions, like I'm some sort of personality chameleon, which sounds cool but is mostly just confusing.

The list of meme's that really capture me to my deepest core are unlimited.  There are a few points that don't quite match up but everything else is so spot on, I can't deny the accuracy.  I challenged a few of my friends/family to take the test and see if the results matched up to who they think they are.  And pretty much everyone agreed with the overall results with some minor differences, but nothing that would put them in any of the other categories.  It really was interesting seeing what my friends and family results were in comparison to who I know them as.  I had only one friend take a guess about me, and she was DEAD ON. She's a teacher and her husband is a psychologist (psychiatrist?) so I'm really not surprised she was able to figure me out.  Now if only she could help ME figure  me out.. that would really be something!

I'd be very curious to see if anyone takes the test and has results that are absolutely not how they see themselves.  And someone I know suggested the idea that just because you're this specific personality type NOW, doesn't mean you might not be something different as you grow and change over the years.  That kinda surprised me too.  I even suggested to one of my friends who's known me since high school that I would LOVE to see what he thought my results might be just to compare how he saw me then, to who I am now.  But alas (what a great word alas!), he didn't take a guess, so now we'll never know.

I think the one the struck me the most was this one:

Honestly, if I never have small talk again, how happy would I be? I just want to know people, to find the connection between us.  I have plenty of 'acquaintances' from the kids' schools, activities and my job, and being the emotional chameleon that I am, I'm certainly capable of functioning perfectly in these surface social interactions.  But it isn't what I crave.  It's not what makes me happy.  And I would gladly take a handful of really good friends who I've found a close connection with through REAL conversations over being 'popular'.  I'm just not sure how to get it.  Must be an INFJ thing.  

Seriously... Thoughts?

PS. Anyone want to get a coffee and talk about whatever for a few hours? 

Instant Pot: Peer Pressure Cooker

This box has been mocking me from the corner of my kitchen for just over three weeks. I'd heard all the peoples talking about how amazing it was, once you start you'll never go back, how wonderful and magical it was. Frankly, I've been told it will change my life. So when it showed up on sale for almost half off on Amazon, I gave into the peer pressure (and late night shopping from my phone) and hit the Buy Now button. 

And like magic, two days later (thank you Amazon Prime) it showed up on my door step and has mocked me ever since.

Now, I could tell you I was too busy with the onslaught of holiday cheer and merriment and bringing the magic of the holidays to my family to open up the package and try it out. I could tell you I had already ordered a lovely Prime Rib feast from Dickey's BBQ Pit so there was really no need to try to test it out for Xmas Eve dinner. I could also say that in the post holiday fugue there was simply no ambition on my part to cook anything much less try out something new. And all of those things would be true, but the truth is, it was a little intimidating.

Now, I hear you wondering how could a kitchen gadget be intimidating? Well, the Instant Pot while lovely (and Canadian!) is still a pressure cooker. You know, those things were used in the Boston Marathon bombing. You know the one where 3 people were killed and 264 people were injured??? The idea of using something like that in my house where my family lives was a bit disconcerting.

And still, the box has mocked me. Daring me daily to give it a whirl. All the other kids are using it. C'mon.. you know you want to. 

And honestly, who am I to fight peer pressure from a box? So tonight, I opened up the box, and found a prettier box. 

And when I opened up that box, I found this shiny beauty.

And for my first trick.. I'm making this pot roast recipe I found via Pinterest. I figure I have about a 50/50 chance of either enjoying a wonderful pot roast dinner in about a half hour, or I'll blow up my house. Care to take bets?

Seriously... Thoughts?

Update: 

No houses were blown down in the making of this amazing looking dinner.  

I will say I really loved the ability to sear the meat right there inside the instant pot instead of having to use up a separate pan.  Can't wait to figure out what I'll make next!

PS - don't judge my paper plate - just don't.

I'm Resolute

It's the time of year for resolutions! I know many of you think they're silly and most resolutions are broken within the first month. But, if you know me, I'll grab onto any excuse to make a list! Bring on the bullets, the indents, the ability to cross things off even if I completed them before I even made my list! And don't look at me like that. You know you do it too just to make yourself feel like you've accomplished more than just making the list itself!

My fanatical list making needs aside, I do try to keep mine realistic and I definitely think of them more as guidelines for the new year as opposed to hard and fast rules. I guess I look at them more as goals for changes I'd like to see in my life and the new year is as good of an excuse as any to start making changes. Everyone's got to start some time.

My list inevitably includes having more patience for my family. In fact, it typically tops the list. I'm what you might call a type A personality. (I know you're shocked! It was the list making that gave it away, wasn't it?) And that isn't usually as conducive to the calm, zen parenting style I'd like to be known for.  On the other hand, my kids aren't likely to miss as many assignments or meetings or events and their activities rarely lack for a team parent or girl scout cookie chair, so you know, it's a balancing act.

I will of course, have the obligatory weight loss / get into better shape resolution. Nothing to aggressive so you won't see work out 7 days a week or go vegetarian on my list. You will find something along the lines of exercise for a half hour 3 days a week, walk the dogs for goodness sake you horrible pet owner, a stern reminder that veggies are my friend and not the enemy and maybe some trash talk about chocolate to break us up.

The last of the things on my list are more about being creative and finding more me time. I joined a book club mid 2015. I think I made 1 or 2 (am I just being optimistic here?) for all of 2016. And that was pretty much the only "me" activity I had going outside of hanging with the other moms at whatever event the kids had going on. And I really don't think that counts.  So I want to try to do things this year that make me happy and make me feel like a complete person outside of my kids. In the last two years I've really come to appreciate how important that is.

Which brings me to my complete lack of social life. This will be the hard one for me to change. Somewhere along the line I turned into a hermit. I don't know how that happened. I know as you get older it's harder to make friends. And since my core group of friends are scattered across the country finding alternate ways of really connecting with people on your own is hard. Like, really really hard. And even harder when you regularly convince yourself that staying home is a better plan.

And with that, I present my 2017 New Year's Resolutions.

1. Have more patience for my family and myself.

• I don't have to be perfect.
• The kids don't have to be perfect.
• My way isn't the only way (even if it is the best way!)
• Failure is how people learn. It's okay to let the kids fail - it's not the same as letting them down.

2. Lose weight / get more active.

• Workout 3 days a week for at least a half hour.
• Get back to walking the dogs twice a day.
• More greens / less carbs.
• I'm not going to say break up with chocolate, but maybe it's time to see chocolate less. Get some space and perspective on the relationship.

3. Get the blog back up and going. 

• Make a new post at least once a week - just keepin' it real folks.

4. Get back into your photography.

• Post a new photo at least once a week (see how I killed two birds with one stone - realistic goals folks. That's how it's done!)

5. Be more social.

• Make plans with my local friends and keep them.
• Go to the book club meetings.
• Meet ups? Do regular over 40 people do those?
• Maybe start up a regular mom's get together and just invite everyone and see who shows up? And then even if no one comes I have a nice time out alone. Right?
• Join a photography class or an exercise group? (There are those pesky two birds again).

And that's it. I may add to the list as the year wears on.. but that's my core resolution for this year. Stick around and we'll see how 2017 goes.

Seriously... Thoughts?

New Year 2017: Let's Catch Up

So, I made one whole post in 2015 and nothing in 2016. I have to tell you I've missed my blog. So, with the new year comes a new commitment to my blog and maybe vicariously, myself.

And while I have a TON of things swimming around in this little head of mine to talk about, I think I'll start with an update since it has been 2 years since I wrote anything.

LW: What do I say about my little Lone Wolf (who as a reminder can't do anything alone)? She's still plugging away at her undergrad degree. She's only take one or two classes a semester because she's working almost full time at a swim lesson company as tech support. She moved out of her grandmother's and moved in with her boyfriend at his parent's house. They hope to move out into their own place soon.

GG: My sweet Glamour Girl is about to start her LAST semester of her under grad degree. When LW moved out of their grandmother's house, GG moved in. She has two new kitties and is happily single and having fun with her friends.  Last I heard she planned to work for a year before going back for her Masters.

The Hubs: He completed not only his undergrad, but just wrapped up his graduate degree. His biggest issue now is having  no clue what he wants to do it all of his new found spare time after 6 years of schooling.

Bunny:  My girl is 11 now. And a 6th grader. Can you believe that?? Not to sound like the proverbial old woman, but when did that happen???? And where was I??? Okay, back to Bunny. 6th grade in a new school where she didn't really know anyone with 7 different classes and teachers and teaching styles and expectations has been an adjustment. Throw in all of her classes are honors and it has been not just an adjustment but a challenge.  She and I are working through studying and organizational skills.  She's also did soccer in the fall, she's a girl scout, and in choir and youth group at our church not to mention socializing with her friends. She's a very busy kid that's for sure.

Bug: My boy is 9 years old now and in the 3rd grade. He's a soccer playing superstar and is about to try his hands basketball in the Spring. He did baseball last Spring but decided it wasn't his thing. He's had exactly one scrimmage for basketball and loved it. As a girl who grew up on basketball, this mama couldn't be more proud. I just hope his games don't interfere with March Madness! He's also in his 3rd year of boy scouts, and in choir at our church.

And Me: I'm 42 now. 42. Most of my life right now is kid centric (can you say driving the kids across all God's creation All. Of. The. Time) I think this year will be more about my own journey.  So if you're interested in reading about how this middle aged caterpillar transforms into a middle aged butterfly..you're welcome to come along for the ride.

Seriously.. Thought?

PS Happy New Year Everyone!