Author: MRJ

Tonight was another night at the gym so when I got home I grabbed a snack from tube fridge

Yesterday marked a milestone of sorts for my little girl and I missed it. She turned 17 Months old. Where does the time go, it seems everyday she becoming more of a little girl and less of my baby girl.

Yesterday was Fathers day, and I spend it with my kids.  Of course posing for pictures as a group is not one of their strong suits. But I did manage to get a nice picture with each of them.  So I thought I’d share some of the pictures.

Continue reading “Fathers Day”

Today was fathers day so I thought I’d use a picture of the two bundles of joy that make me a father for my Picture of the day. It was an interesting fathers day, with the unexpected inclusion of a sick mommy. So after a nice breakfast as a family I wanted to let Melissa rest so I dusted off the bikes and trailer and took the kids out for a ride. It was great to get back out on the bike,I was just sad Melissa couldn’t join us. Maybe next weekend.

Today at breakfast Violet was being very grumpy and not letting me feed her. So I said fine do it yourself and handed her the spoon and watched what she’d do with it. She sure showed me. She went right at it and ate up her cereal using the spoon. She’s been feeding herself finger foods for a while and while she likes to try to use utensils she hadn’t really got it before. Usually she uses her hand, either to put it on the spoon or from the spoon to her mouth. This morning it was all spoon.

Continue reading “Project 365-167: Spooooon!”

Today I was out with the family and I got to see 2 different gadgets that I’ve wanted to see for a while. The first was the iPad, the second was the Kobo eReader. The iPad was what I expected a big iPod touch, and though I could see enjoying one I just can’t get by the price. I’ll wait to see what the Android Tablets are like. The Kobo eReader, pictured above,  on the other hand is very tempting. It does only one thing but it seems to do it well and at $150 it seems worth it. The one thing that struck me when I held it was how thin it was. What I’m not sure is if I really need a dedicated e-book reader when I can read books just fine one my phone.

Continue reading “Project 365-166: The Future is Now”

Today we found the whole family around at dinnertime so I fired up the grill and threw on some turkey sausages. Melissa threw together some veggies and we ate on the patio. I captured this moment of mommy and daughter after Jacob had headed back to the playground to play with his friends.

Today after skating I took the kids out to Ikea to get some swedish meatballs. It seems a strange place to go for dinner, but it was Jacobs choice. Of course I have been meaning to look for a new desk, didn’t find one tbough. In the picture Jacob and Violet play after dinner before we head into the showroom.

When Violet was diagnosed with her allergy to all nuts I decided that the best way to be sure that she doesn’t come into contact with nuts would be to stop eating them myself. This would keep the it in mind when I’m around her. So far I’ve only been semi successful at this. I don’t take enough interest when I’m out. One thing that’s hard is at work there are often bowls of nuts out. I used to snack on them throughout the day. Today I found myself reaching for an almond and realised that I need to refocus. I need to cut nuts out, all nuts. I can’t just let it slide when Violet isn’t around. It’s like swearing, if I don’t want my kids to swear then I can’t swear whether I’m with them or not, because if I let my mind go there when they aren’t around, it will go there when they are. I might not mean to but it will happen and with nuts that could kill violet.

So why I’m I writing this. Well as of today I’m going nut free. That means not nuts and no food that my have come into contact with nuts. I plan on living my life as if I had the allergy.

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to write about the changes our family is going through, from diet to exercise and a lot of things in between, but it seems that I can never find the words. So today I set aside what I’ve written and started fresh. I’ve taken a step forward instead of writing about all the changes I’m starting with becoming more active and joining the Gym. The rest will follow, there are a lot of changes in my life and I really want to share them.

Getting more active started with an App on my Milestone, Couch to 5K. Melissa found the program on the net (http://www.c25k.com/) and I found the Android app (http://sites.google.com/site/c25kapp/)and we decided to give it a try. It was hard going at first and I’m running a few weeks behind the 9 week program. Melissa started the program with me, but soon found it wasn’t for her(yet) and we looked to other solutions for working out. To that end in the middle of May we joined a Gym. Running is still something we both want to do, we just have different timetables. I’m planning to run the CIBC Run for the Cure while Melissa will just walk it this year. Next year we hope to run it together. What I’m not sure about is if I want to wait till October to do my first 5K Run. I might look at doing one in July or August.

We chose to join Goodlife Fitness because there is a location that’s close to us and we have access to a bunch of Gyms throughout the city. Joining a gym has been new experience for me, and at times seems overwhelming. With all the different machines and options at times I’m not sure what to do. We’ve been doing orientation classes to teach us how to use the different machines and they have helped. Mostly I’ve been using the treadmill to keep up with my C2K and the elliptical. We’ve tried to get out to the gym 3 or 4 times a week, and with the helps of our family we have managed it. The biggest surprise about the gym has been how much we enjoy our time at the gym.

Going forward the challenge is finding the time to get to the gym and still do some running on the street. I like the treadmill but it’s completely different they when I go for a run outside. Right now I’m getting to the gym 4 or 5 times a week and I’m lucky to get one run outside a week. I need to change that, specially if I am to run a 5k this summer.