The great exercise attempt

I honestly did not go looking for an eventful day, just so I could write about it on my blog post. That kind of a day just found me.........

In fact, the day started out quite perfect.......I was able to sleep in until 7 AM, which is a rare occurrence for me. Normally, I like to be up and ready for the day by the time the kids get up, so I usually get up around 5:30 or 6 AM. It was really a blessing to be able to get some extra sleep because I seem to be coming down with a nasty head cold. I was able to sleep in because we did not have our normal homeschool group on Tuesday due to the ice storm. We also had piano lessons postponed, which meant a whole day at home......our own pace.

To make the day even better, my husband decided he was going to work from home, which is also a rare occurrence. The kids were thrilled by the fact that Daddy would be so close, especially since he is working longer hours during tax season. We got to start the day together as a family with breakfast, eat lunch together, and the kids got to have Daddy hugs whenever they wanted throughout the day.

We did our semi normal routine for the day and felt blessed with getting some great school time in with the older two kids, while the youngest, Little A, took her morning nap. I was feeling very cheerful today, even in spite of the dreary, icy weather outside. We had some fun times of playing after lunch and read some great books. Little A has become particularly fond of books lately and it is always fun to let her choose books and cuddle up together on the couch.

Well, I hope this hasn't made any of you too bored yet so just hang with me if you are ready for a good laugh. I can't believe I am going to embarrass myself like this but maybe you will feel better about yourselves after reading this next paragraph......

By the late afternoon, we were starting to grow restless from being indoors all day with little physical activity. While the youngest was sleeping, W-man and K-lady agreed to exercise with me. I have really been struggling lately to make time to exercise. It is always really hard for me in the winter with the hours that my husband works and not being able to get outside as easily. Since we had some extra time today, we were going to break out an old Billy Blanks Tae-Bo video until I realized our DVD player was broken. Plan B: I had the bright idea to just make up some of our own exercises. This is when the day started to go south very quickly. After doing some lunges, mountain climbers, etc. I decided to do some "stair climbing" on our fire place ledge. K-lady and W-man were amused and trying to mimic what I was doing. We were all laughing and having a good time when I got a cramp in my foot. I grabbed onto the mantle ledge and was commenting how I needed to get my shoes on when.....CRASH.....the mantle ledge popped partly off and tipped forward. Thankfully the kids were completely unharmed, but a lot of other damage occurred. Everything on the ledge flew off and landed or shattered somewhere on the floor. You can imagine the sight of a large plant tipped upside down with soil all over the floor, ceramic figures busted, and picture frames bent up. The worst part of it all was a "snow globe" type thing. Not only was this very special to me (because it celebrates Little A's adoption finalization day) but it created a huge mess. I am so sorry, Mom, if you are reading this, because that was such a special gift from you. I am very sad that it got destroyed today by my clumsiness and ignorance. There were glass pieces, sparkles and water everywhere. My husband had been out in the garage when this all occurred, so you can imagine his shock to walk in and discover us in our exercise clothes with a MESS all over the place. Somehow I actually just laughed.....don't know how, but I did. I honestly didn't know that the mantle was just sitting up there unattached. It is a huge piece of some kind of wood and I always thought it was firmly adhered up there. I quickly wished that I would have just started dinner prep instead of attempting to exercise.

Well, you would think it ended there, but not quite yet. I wanted to fix a nice meal since my husband was home to eat it with us, and I started making a taco salad. I was even making my own taco seasoning instead of using a packet, so I was quite pleased with this. Well, just as my husband came out of the office area to check on us, I was opening a new bottle of cumin. Somehow the lid popped off in a very ungraceful way and half of the cumin went all over the front of me. I inhaled some of it and was coughing too. Nice!! I tried to joke that I was wearing a new perfume, but inside felt like a huge klutz. Well, the end result was worth it all........here is a picture of the salad. It was very yummy!! Here is the recipe I used:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Daisy-Brand-Taco-Salad/Detail.aspx

I think I will use black beans next time instead of pinto....otherwise it was a keeper!!

Hopefully, I will have some more uplifting and encouraging posts to come. Just sharing some reality too :)