Shout out to Elisabeth for organizing a global effort to encourage intentional movement every day this month!
I’ve been pairing my walks with themes, just so I can practice the art of noticing. My theme this week was Little Free Libraries. There are so many Little Free Libraries both in my neighborhood and also where I work, so this week, I was on the look out for Little Free Libraries… and if I found a few books along the way, so much the better!
Thursday 10/8 Walked the kids to school and took the long way home, passing these two Little Free Libraries (LFL) along the way. They are on the same street about a block apart.
Friday 10/9 : -15 minutes yoga in the morning. – I biked with the kids to school and then biked to work. This LFL is on the way to work, on a uphill climb so I was walking my bike at this point:
Then at work we went for a site visit of the theatre. We took the metro, but the theatre was still about a mile from the Metro stop, so that was another 20 mins of walking to the theatre and then back. Along the way, we saw lions…
Saturday 10/10 -20 minutes of yoga in the morning. Then I was at work all day and didn’t manage anything else.
Sunday 10/11 =15 minute yoga in the morning. -2 hours at the pool with the kids. I thought I wasn’t going to get out for a walk today because it was a wet rainy day, so I’m glad our friends called and invited us to go to the pool with them and I got a lot of movement in that way.
Monday 10/12 -20 minutes yoga in the morning. -Walked the kids to school bus and then took the long way back home. Passed this LFL, chock full of books on the way home:
-Took a 15 minute walk on my lunch break. Saw this rainbow LFL:
-Evening tap dance class. I’m not very good at tap and I’m really uncomfortable seeing myself in the mirrors, but I’m really enjoying the mental and physical challenge of this tap class. I’m sad that this will be my last tap class for a while; I’ll be working evenings until the middle of November. Luckily the tap studio is pretty flexible and will let me make up the classesnext session.
Tuesday 10/13 -10 minute yoga in the morning. -Walked the kids to school bus and then again took the long way home. Passed three LFL, including this one that is specifically for children’s books. It is set lower to the ground so kids can browse easily. There also used to be some kid sized benches next to this one, but those are gone now:
And this one, which is half a block away is one of my favorites because there is usually something I want to pick up there:
I came home from that morning stroll with a stack of books and a science magazine for the kids:
Dungeon Crawler Carl wasn’t on my TBR list, but when I see a book that is hugely popular in a LFL, I’ll usually pick it up as a low stress way to check out what the buzz is about.
Wednesday 10/14 -10 minute yoga in the morning. -10 minute walk with the 9 year old while his sister was at piano lessons. There is a LFL at the nearby park – we like stopping at this one because it has a good mix of kids and grown up books.
-Then swap! I took a 15 minute walk with the 7 year old while her brother took his lesson. There is actually a LFL right in front of his piano teacher’s. There was a copy of The Husbands, which I grabbed. I’d read and loved the book and had given my copy away, so I figured it would be nice to have another copy. This one had a different cover than the first one I had.
That’s week two. Week 3 theme is Fall Colour!
Are there Little Free Libraries around you? Do you have a favorite?
Do you ever end the weekend more exhausted than you were on Friday? That’s where I am right now on a Sunday night. I’m just exhausted. Okay, this is not totally unexpected. Friday night I stayed up past 2am cutting the fabric for the kids’ Hallowe’en costumes. That was my own bad judgement, but I was in a flow state and didn’t want to stop.
Late night craft project. Those are my late mother in law’s straight pins and orange handle scissors.
Saturday, I did work from 10:30a to 6:30pm and ended up falling asleep on the couch at 9:30pm after dinner. Today’s flag football game was cancelled, but then we got invited to join some friends at the pool. The pool was fun and the perfect activity for a rainy rainy day, but it was not relaxing.
After the pool there was no small amount of mental and emotional energy expended to get the kids to take showers and then pick up around the house. Then dinner and then the entire day’s worth of dishes to do. And also laundry and prep for the week. And then the rainy rainy weather – so grey and somber. I think all that has contributed to a very low energy feeling. NOT how I want to go into the first week of rehearsal, but… oh well.
But let’s talk about energizing things! Like Elisabeth’s Cool Blogger’s Walking Club. Much as I find that the “Cool” in CBWC giving me imposter syndrome and bad high school flashbacks what with me never having been cool in my life, I do think it’s a lovely movement (pun!), and I’m here for it. I had a whole plan to have “themes” for each week, but October 1st snuck up on me. So I guess the theme for Week 1 is… just life. This is the movement I do without trying too hard, that usually would have happened anyway. Spoiler Alert – there isn’t a lot of walking. Here is my summary of the first week of Cool Blogger’s Walking Club:
Thursday 10/1 – 15 minute yoga 15 minutes of …. something??? All it says in my journal is “15 minutes” That was some bad habit tracking going on there. Wait, maybe this is walking the kids to the bus stop then back?
Friday 10/2: 15 minutes yoga in the morning. 20 min bike to school with the kids in the morning. 45 minute walk with my friend A mid afternoon. It was great to walk and chat and catch up. 45 mins Bike to pick up kids after school, stopping at a park on the way home.
Saturday 10/3: 15 minute yoga. It was a rainy rainy day, so I didn’t get outside. Though the 14 year old and I did go clothes shopping – so I’m sure there were many steps taken then.
Sunday 10/4: 15 minute yoga. Otherwise, not a lot of intentional movement today because I worked two job back to back starting at 10am, and I didn’t get home until 7pm. But I did take the Metro to both jobs, so I think all told that was 30 minutes of walking. Maybe it counts as intentional because I took the Metro instead of driving?
Monday 10/5: 15 minute yoga. Walk to take the kids to the bus – this was probably 20 minutes total. 15 minute walk at lunch around the neighborhood.
Tuesday 10/6: 15 minute yoga in the morning. 20 minute walk – after dropping the 6 year old at school following a Doctor’s appointment, I took the long way back to the car. 15 minute walk at lunch
Wednesday 10/7: 10 minute yoga. Then I literally wrote, “Lots of little walks” What does that even mean? Oh I remember, I met my friend A at a parking lot that was a little farther from school and we walked up together to pick up our kids from Dungeons and Dragon club. Now that I’m back at work full time, I don’t have much time to see friends, so I texted her an hour before pick up and asked if she wanted to go on a micro walking date with me to pick up our kids. It worked out well.
So that was the first week of Walking Club. I have got to take better notes for the rest of the month….
Grateful For:
-The kids’ bus driver. Okay, I might have a little inappropriate yet innocuous crush on the school bus driver. He’s young, kind of cute, and always patiently waits for the kids. He can pull of a three point turn in the bus! More than once we’ve been at least two blocks from the bus stop when he pulls up, and he always waits because he sees us. And the other day, when we were biking, and the bus drove past us, he gave the kids a little encouraging honk. All to say, I’m grateful that he gets the kids to school and back safely, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s cute.
-A UPS store near work, so I can return packages easily without having to drive somewhere else and park.
-Free Food! So bizarrely, I got free food twice this week. (Well, three times if you count when my boss bought the team lunch.) On Wednesday, I was sitting around waiting for rehearsal to start and a chorister came up to me and said she had ordered the three mushroom soup from the Thai place down the street, but they had misunderstood and gave her three (3) mushroom soups and would I like to have one. I do love mushrooms, so I happily took one off her hands. It was very tasty. Then on Friday, someone Door Dashed a Subway Tuna fish sandwich to our office for Wanda. Only there is no one in our office called Wanda. The folks at work called around the building to find Wanda, but couldn’t find Wanda. I felt really bad for Wanda. Anyhow, I put the sandwich in the fridge in case Wanda showed up. The next day, the sandwich was still in there and the guy in charge of facilities at work said I should either eat it or throw it out. Well, I wasn’t about to let a perfectly good tuna fish sandwich (with honey mustard sauce and jalapenos) go to waste, so I took option b and brought the sandwich home for dinner. Wanda, if you are reading this – thank you, and let me know your venmo handle. I love free food.
-Autumn skies in the morning, all pink and orange in the morning as I take my kids to their piano lessons before school.
-The county pool. I had never been to open swim at the county pool before and it was a really good time. The pool is nice and new with a couple different areas for kids to play in. And it was only $17 for me and the kids to go swimming. I mean how many ways can a family have fun for less than $20 these days?
-An inadvertent 45 mins at home. The day I was supposed to pick the 9 year old up from D&D club, I somehow did the time math wrong in my head. D&D pick up was at 5:15pm, which meant I should leave work at 4:45pm. But somehow, I left at 3:50pm, thinking that I was late for D&D pick up. oops. when I discovered I was early for pick up, I went home and had a nice 45 minutes with the 14 year old. Nothing elaborate, we just sat side by side and read/ scrolled. And then the Husband came home with the 7 year old and we all just sat in the living room and chatted until it was time to pick up the 9 year old. It was just so nice to be able to sit and chat during daylight hours. Sure I could have gotten some good work done if I had stayed until 4:45p, but this way, I got to see my family and have a relaxing late afternoon interlude before going back to work.
– My cousin J who was in Baltimore for work and came to visit even though it isn’t terribly convenient. I love that she always has such enthusiasm for the kids’ lives. She even went to Agility class to watch the 7 year old bounce on a trampoline.
-People who put art and beauty into the world. I was taking a walk around the neighborhood and I saw these painted rocks piled around the base of at tree and it really made my day.
Looking Forward To:
-Rehearsals starting, and seeing the director. I first met this director twenty three years ago when I was the intern and she was the Assistant Director at an opera company in San Diego. Now look at us all grown up.
-Speaking of which – I saw the rehearsal schedule and it looks like we are mostly rehearsing afternoons and evenings. So I am looking forward to some mornings free from paid work.
-Hallowe’en Costumes. I’m plugging away. Hopefully they will be done eventually. I suspect this is what I’ll be doing with a lot of those mornings off. I am super excited about how they are going to turn out!
-The Renwick Gallery. The Renwick is maybe my favorite museum in town. Their specialty is the art of craft – you know the kind of stuff people use to make as a hobby but which no one thought to pay them for? Anyhow, there museum is temporarily closed while they put up a new exhibit. The new exhibit, opening in November is called Handwork: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery.
-The last two weeks in October without piano lessons. Look, I’m very determined that my kids learn piano, but those early morning lessons are HARD. (The two younger kids go at 7:15am on Wednesday, and the 14 year old goes at 6:30am on Thursday.) Their teacher is going away the last two weeks of October and I’m really looking forward to a little reprieve from early morning piano lessons.
-Christmas…? Maybe? At least the kids are looking forward to it. The Amazon toy catalogue came in the mail last week, and the 7 and 9 year old immediately began to pore over it. The 7 year old started making her list. I didn’t know that she could write so much:
I’m actually impressed that a kid who can barely read can write such an extensive Christmas list.
-Reading this book for Engie’s Cool Blogger’s Book Club:
Not sure why the cover is cut off in Libby…?
What We Ate:
Monday: Some kind of noodle stir fry with eggplant and pork. The 14 year old made it and it was really tasty.
Tuesday: My cousin was in town so we took her to Thai for dinner.
Wednesday: Breakfast sandwiches. Wednesday is always our busiest day activities wise, so we need fast and filling for dinner.
Thursday: Oven baked Chicken drumsticks and broccoli. I prepped the drumsticks ahead of time and the Husband popped them into the oven at the end of his work day.
Friday: Pizza (take out) and The Great British Baking Show, a show that is new to us because we are new to Netflix. (I just discovered that the show is originally titled the Great British Bake Off but we can’t call it that in the United States because Pillsbury has the term “Bake Off” trademarked. What a silly thing!) It was a great show to watch with the family. Also – after the little kids went to bed, we watched an episode of Worth It, a show produced by Buzzfeed where the hosts compare very cheap versions of food to very expensive versions of food – this episode was the $0.50 dumpling vs. the $29 dumpling. And it was SET IN TAIWAN!!! AND the dumpling that won was from a dumpling place that my father took us to in Taipei. AND the $29 dumpling was from Din Tai Fung, which is this global phenomenon of a dumpling place where there is always a huge line (like sometimes over an hour), but where I feel the food just isn’t so good. So I felt very vindicated that the hosts did not pick the $29 dumpling as “worth it”.
Saturday: Take out Chinese. We had some friends over to hang out. I’m honestly not a huge fan of take out Chinese from most places, but the food was waiting for me when I got home after a long day at work, so I think that counts for something there.
Sunday: Acorn Squash with Black Bean Sauce, and Skillet Gnocchi with Miso Butter from NY Times Cooking. We had some Acorn Squash to use up and I had seen this recipe years a go in one of Hetty Lui McKinnon’s cookbooks, I can’t remember which one. McKinnon does wonderful things with vegetables. Basically the recipe calls for roasting and mashing the squash and then making a sauce from garlic and fermented black beans and soy sauce. It was really delicious. The original recipe calls for kabocha squash, which I think would have been even better. For the squash averse, I made the gnocchi. I added mushrooms and used broccoli instead of asparagus. Some members of the family thought the miso taste was too pronounced, but the other folks liked it. We’ve now filed this recipe under “Make when the oldest goes to college.”
Well that’s it for last week. This week I will be plunging into rehearsals so it will be an adjustment for sure.
Are you participating in Cool Blogger’s Walking Club? How do you track your activity? Do you still get innocuous crushes? Weekends – energy replenisher or energy suck?Any free food in your life lately? have you ever seen a restaurant you’ve been to on TV?
Thanks again to Elisabeth for this community movement activity! Last week’s colour was red. This week, I noticed ORANGE. Orange does not occur as naturally in nature as red, at least not in Spring. Yet, if I took the effort to notice, I found some orange in surprising places.
Monday 4/6: Hike with the kids at Blockhouse Point Trail. These leaves are orange-ish:
I found there was a fine line between brown and orange…
And this Cadbury Mini Egg:
Because sometimes you bribe, um… reward, your kids for hiking with chocolate.
And a view of the Potomac – not orange, but still beautiful:
Tuesday 4/7: Ran around the track at the middle school after dropping the kids in the morning. There were orange pylons:
Do you call them pylons? I find most people in my area call them safety cones.
And the orange chest of a Robin:
Also- Kwanza cherry blossoms are in full bloom:
Wednesday 4/8: 10 minute walk in park while the 14 year old is at her morning piano lessons. Spotted these orange poop bags:
I think that orange bag is actually one of those bags the Washington Post comes in; the neighbors stock this poop bag stand. Funny story – we were at this park one time when the middle child was 3 or so. He was getting pretty close to being toilet trained, so I didn’t bring a diaper bag with me. Well, he ended up having an enormous poop at the playground. I didn’t have anything on me, so i pulled a couple poop bags from this box, took off his pants and underwear, and wrapped a plastic bag around him and put the dirty clothes in another bag. It was probably one of my most AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! moments of young motherhood.
Thursday 4/9: Walk to the Co-op on my lunch break to pick up some groceries for dinner. Saw so many flashes orange on my way.
These cute decorative banner:
This house’s fence is decorated with many fun DC-centric banners.
Safety visibility flags, for people to wave as they cross the street.
Rainbow crosswalk – same crosswalk as last week, just moved down one stripe:
Random sign:
Not at all sure what it means, but it seems pretty on point for the crunchy area of town I work in.
Evening- went contra- dancing with the family and mu skirt was orange:
Friday 4/10: Walked the kids to school and took the long way back to the car, through the woods. Saw various utility company markings, spray painted in orange.
Saturday 4/11: I didn’t get a walk in this day because I went from Service to work to B’not Mitzvah party: But I did do 15 minutes of yoga and 10 minutes with the dumbells.
Sunday 4/12: Neighborhood walk with the 14 year old. We walked the path she takes to school and she gave us her inner monologue commentary all the way there. It was such a nice walk for the time we got to spend together and also for the insights into her thoughts. She’s walked this path almost every school day for the past three years and I’m kind of sad it’s coming to an end.
Saw this bush with oramge flowers:
These orange plyons:
And this vintage car. I actually have seen this car several times, so I made sure to circle back here to look for it for CBWC orange week.
Then after dinner, I took an evening walk with the 6 and 9 year olds while the Husband took the 14 year old to swimming. It was getting dark so not a lot of orange spotting, but the warm glow of this street lamp was orange to me:
That’s week two! Next week’s post will be all about YELLOW!
Elisabeth is once again organizing Cool Blogger’s Walking Club. Yay for intentional movement! You don’t have to be a blogger, or, I would argue, “cool” to participate. (I certainly don’t think I’m “cool”)
I always like starting things on a Monday, so my version of walking club is Monday to Sunday and not strictly per the day of the month.
Last Fall, for CBWC, I chose something to look for on my walks each week- Hallowe’en Decorations, flowers, foliage…
This time around, I’m choosing a colour to look for every week. To make it easy, I thought I’d go in rainbow order, so the first week was RED! Which is, also, incidentally, my favorite colour.
So RED things I saw on last week’s walks:
Monday 3/30: We went down to the National Mall to see cherry blossoms. It was a few days past peak bloom, but there were still lots of blooms to be seen. (I have a feeling that there will still be lots of blooms to be seen all month, so there might be lots of blossom pictures even if they aren’t strictly in the colour of the month.) Red things we saw:
Red Line Train.
Red kite stuck in the tree. The National Kite Festival was the weekend prior, and you can always see the aftermath of the Festival in the lost kites festooning the trees.
Red (white and blue) Flag (next to the Washington Monument):
It’s not red, but I had to include a shot of cherry blossoms since that is why we were down at the Mall in the first place:
Tuesday 3/31: Went on a bike/run with the 6 year old and 9 year old. A bike/run is when they ride their bikes and I run. They bike faster than I run, but they are good about stopping and waiting for me to catch up. We stopped at the playground where there was this red lady bug:
And on the way home, red folliage:
Wednesday 4/1: Walked though Costco for an hour. (Does that count?) Then in the afternoon, went for a walk to the park with the kids. Saw this red azaelea bush, buds still furled tight:
Thursday 4/2: Went on another bike/run with the kids. This time, I noticed that the 9 year old’s bike has red accents and he is wearing red shoes:
Also this redbud tree, which technically isn’t red, but it has “red” in its name:
And the red stems on these blossoms:
Friday 4/3: Went skating with the kids. (Even the 14 year old came!) I noticed the red markings on the ice:
Saturday 4/4: Went on a bike ride with the Husband and the 6 year old and 9 year old. My bike is red!
Sunday 4/5: Easter Sunday. Went on a walk after dinner. Noticed a red umbrella sitting next to our red door:
Red Tulips in a neighbor’s front yard:
The sunset wasn’t strictly red, but it was beautiful:
And that’s week one. Next week’s colour will be ORANGE!
Rounding out Cool Blogger’s Walking Club – thanks again to Elisabeth for organizing this community effort.
I’ve been picking something to notice on my walks – past weeks, I’ve notice Hallowe’en decorations, and flowers. This week I picked fall foliage. End of October is peak fall foliage time here in Maryland. There seemed, though, to be a variety of foliage from some trees still being mostly green, to brilliant oranges, yellows, and reds, to some trees already all bare.
Monday 10/27: -15 min yoga -Walk kids to school from the parking lot on the path. Take a loop through the woods on the way back to the car. Took this picture:
It’s a picture of a leaf on my windshield, but I love how it looks like i was able to capture a leaf mid fall.
Tuesday 10/28: -15 mins yoga -Walk kids to school from the parking lot on the path. Take a loop through the woods on the way back to the car. -Walk at lunch time. Saw some beautiful mottled leaves.
Wednesday 10/29: -Ten minute yoga -Walk at park during the 13 year old’s piano lesson. Saw this beautiful orange tree:
-Walk kids to school from the parking lot on the path. Take a loop through the woods on the way back to the car.
Thursday 10/30: -10 min yoga -Walk kids to school from the parking lot on the path. Take a loop through the woods on the way back to the car. It was a soggy day, making the colour of the leaves really pop.
-Walk in the neighborhood around work on my dinner break.
Friday 10/31: -Yoga 20 mins -Walked to pick up kids from the school bus. The late afternoon light through the trees was stunning, setting the leaves ablaze:
-Hallowe’en! Trick or treating for two hours.
Takeways from CBWC Fall 2025:
Walking, getting out, moving – I can choose to do those things. I don’t have to get out for miles and miles, but when I have a free space of time, a ten minute walk rejuvenates me more than if I had spent those ten minutes scrolling. I need to especially remember this when I get really swamped and can’t find the time to go for a run and start feeling sluggish. I can make the choice to move.
On the subject of choice- I feel so grateful that I have a variety of options on how I commute and travel. I can drive, take the Metro, or bike. So days when my schedule is a little more flexible, I can choose to take metro or bike instead of driving. It is a bit of a luxury, I realize, because not everyone has all those options. If my car breaks down I can still get to work. If I miss the bus, I can still get in my car.
I had a lot of fun choosing something to notice every week. Being on the look out for Halloween decorations really made the lead up to Halloween fun. Looking for flowers when the world was starting to go dormant brought little flashes of colour to a grey world. And I’m glad I took time to look for leaves because often fall is a very busy time for me at work, and I don’t get to go leaf peaking. I sometimes get to winter and realize I’ve missed the wonderful colours of fall, so I’m glad I took time to find the pops of fall that I could see this week.
Thanks again to Elisabeth for rallying us walkers together!
I’ve been choosing something to notice on my walks. Last week was Hallowe’en decorations. This week, I decided to look for flowers on my walk. Not an easy thing because we are definitely in the part of fall where things begin to go dormant, but there were still some fall flowers to be seen in the yards I passed on my neighborhood walks:
Monday 10/20: -Took the metro to work and then home. (24 minutes for the round trip, punctuated by a metro ride in the middle.) -30 minute walk around the neighborhood on my lunch break, looking for flowers.
Tuesday 10/21: -My step count notes a walk between 10am-11am. I’m not quite sure what this was… -30 minute walk on my lunch break, looking for flowers.
Wednesday 10/22: -Walked kids to school from the parking lot by the trail and then spent another thirty minutes walking the trail, taking the long way loop back to the car. Did not see any flowers. Makes sense since I was tromping through the woodsy part of the trail. -30 minute walk on my lunch break. Saw this flower:
Still counts as a flower sighting, right?
Thursday 10/23: My day off work. -apparently I took 2700 steps at Target in the morning. Does that count for CBWC??? I mean I spent a hour wandering around – it’s a lot of exercise looking for what you need and not finding it. -mowed the grass (20 minutes). I’m counting this because it does involve walking and being outdoors. -the evening we did family photos and essentially spent an hour and a half walking around downtown.
Dahlias in our garden that I saw while mowing.
Friday 10/24: -Walk kids to school from the parking lot by the trail today, and then spent another thirty minutes walking the trail, taking the long way loop back to the car in the parking lot. This time I did manage to see some flowers:
Saturday 10/25: -Walk with the 6 year old to pick up breakfast sandwiches while the 13 year old was in her voice lessons. -30 minute walk on my dinner break. I walked to the co-op to pick up some shampoo. But they were out of the shampoo I wanted, so I bought peanut butter, pita, and some olives instead.
Sunday 10/26: -I worked most of the day, but managed to squeeze in a walk to coffee, which turnes out to be twice as long as I intended because the first coffee place was closed so I walked to another one. (20 mins)
Thanks again to Elisabeth for organizing Cool Blogger’s Walking Club.
We’re over half way through October! I started back working full time this week, so I did not have as much time for running or biking, but I did get walks in when I could. A lot of walks this week were trying to just incorporate walking into every day life.
I’ve decided that each week for the remainder of CBWC, I’m going to pick one element to look for on my walks. (H/t to Rob Walker’s book The Art of Noticing – this is one of the exercises he recommends to flex noticing muscles.)
This week, I decided to look for Hallowe’en decorations on my walks. We don’t decorate for Hallowe’en – our street is very quiet on Hallowe’en; we’re in a weird location that doesn’t get much traffic and we trick or treat with our friends in another neighborhood. Also – I’ve just never really been into seasonal decorating – the thought of putting something up just to have to take it down seems like a lot of work. We do put up lights at Christmas, and I do like the cozy look of that, but the rest of the holidays don’t really make me want to decorate. The children might change my mind some day, but for now, I prefer enjoying other people’s Hallowe’en displays.
Here are some of my favorites that I saw this week:
I saw so many delightful decorations that I made a picture collage.
I enjoy the irony of the Orkin truck in the background,
Now onto what I actually did:
Monday 10/13 15 minutes yoga. Walked to lunch and back (10 minutes each way.)
Tuesday 10/14: 15 minute yoga 30 minute walk on lunch break
Wednesday 10/15: 10 minute yoga Walk kids to school along trail from parking lot. I had to park in a farther than usual because there was construction along the parkway that parallels the path. (20 minutes)
Thursday 10/16: 15 minute yoga 20 minute walk at lunch break
Friday 10/17: 20 minutes yoga 2 mile run/bike/ scooter with the 8 year old and 6 year old. (This took an hour because twice we serendipitously met friends along the way and stopped to chat.) Walk to Metro/ to Work. And then walk to metro/ to home. (24 mins)
Saturday 10/18: 20 minute walk while waiting for the the 13 year old who was at her voice lesson. 45 minute tap dance lesson – parent child class with the 6 year old. 15 minute evening yoga.
Sunday 10/19: 15 minute yoga. 60 minutes ice skating 20 minute walk on trail next to the ice arena – I hadn’t dressed warmly enough to skate for the whole time the kids were in lessons, so I went on a beautiful fall walk. 20 minute walk with Husband mid afternoon.
And I’ll leave you with more Hallowe’en decorations:
This neighborhood really leaned into the skeleton scenes.
I don’t even know what these skeletons are up to…
This house always has the best skeleton scenes.
What are your feelings about decorating for Hallowe’en? Do you prefer Hallowe’en decorations to be festive or macabre? Or maybe it’s both when Hallowe’en is concerned???
Not a lot of strictly walking this week, but there was movement….
Monday 10/6- -20 minutes yoga -Walk kids from parking lot on the trail to school, then ran six times around the middle school track and then to my car. I’m trying a new running plan on my Runkeeper app. Pretty sure it’s AI generated.
Tuesday 10/7: -20 minute Yoga -bike to meet a friend for lunch (15 minutes each way). I’d never biked to that part of town before. It was a lot more uphill than I had expected. But then the downhills were exhilarating. -Walked from home to pick up kids from bus stop. Let them play by the creek before walking home.
really, I let them play at the creek so I can read my book for twenty minutes uninterrupted.
Wednesday 10/8: -20 min yoga – Bike to run errands (15 mins either way). There are no pictures of me biking because it is hard to take pictures while riding a bike. -Walk to pick up the kids from the bus stop, 15 minutes at the park, then walk home.
Thursday10/9 – -20 min yoga -30 minute run after dropping the kids at the school bus. It was chilly, but got it done. The leaves are starting to change colour and I love it. It seems the world is supersaturated with colour this week.
Trees along the trail. The leaves are starting to turn here!
-Walk to metro to go to work, then the reverse. I debated as to whether to count this or not because it’s really a short walk on either end. Moreso since I discovered that if I cut through two parking lots to get to work, it takes me just five minutes to walk from the Metro to my office. Home to the metro is about 7 minutes (more, if the traffic light is being slow). So all told, the commute to work is 12 minutes of walking, broken up by a 5 minute metro ride. So I guess that’s 24 minutes of walking total when I commute via metro. So I’m counting it.
Friday 10/10 -10 minute yoga -30 minute run/bike/scooter with the two little kids in the morning before school. The kids pointed out the very visible moon to me on the way home:
-Walk with friend along trail- we walked from the bus stop to breakfast and then back. (15 minutes each way)
-Walk them metro to work and back home again after work. The sky and clouds were amazing as I was leaving my office:
Saturday 10/11: -45 minute tap dance class with the 6 year old.
Sunday 10/12: -15 minute yoga in the morning -45 minutes ice skating. Went to public skate with the kids. The rink was having an open house for various skating activities, and I tried to convince them to try speedskating, but they were uninterested. -20 minute yoga in the evening. I did two yoga sessions today because I missed yesterday.
That’s week two! Hope everyone is having good bouts of meaningful movement.
How is your commute? What colours are you seeing on your walks?
Thanks to Elisabeth for organizing another round of the Cool Blogger’s Walking Club this October! I started walking club early because doesn’t everything start on Monday? Besides which, the weather here has been perfect for kicking off CBWC!
Monday 9/29: -2o minute yoga video – walked kids to school (I park on the trail next to the school and walk them up, which takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes depending on who I run into on the way. Some days many parents coincide on the trial at the same time and we stop to chat. Monday it became quite a lengthy stand and sigh session since so many folks work for the federal government and were affected by the shutdown.) -1.3 mile run after school drop off. I ran five laps around the middle school track next to the elementary school, and then back to my car.
On the way to school. Sometimes they are at each other’s throats. And sometimes they are like this.
Tuesday 9/30: -20 minute yoga video -walked to metro station/ then at the other end from the metro station to work (15 mins) -biked home from work (5 miles – 35 mins). Actually I biked to pick up the kids from the bus stop and then we walked home from there.
Waiting for the kids at the bus stop.
Wednesday 10/1: -20 minute yoga video -walked kids to school from the parking lot on the trail, then went with the youngest kid to the nearby park to kill some time before her doctor’s appointment.
Walking with the 6 year old. She found leaves, which she declared were perfect.
-biked to work (25 mins) -biked to bus stop (30 mins), picked up the kids, then walked home (10 mins) -30 minute evening walk with Husband after dinner, while the kids cleaned the kitchen.
Thursday 10/2: -15 minute yoga -Walk to park with the kids to meet up with some friends for a playdate. The sun is blazing hot still, but there is a fall crisp in the air.
Friday 10/3: -15 minutes yoga -30 minute run/bike with kids. We’ve started going for a bike ride (the 8 year old)/scooter (the 6 year old)/run (me) on Friday mornings at 7/7:30am, before school starts. The kids get up at 6:30am and don’t go to school until 9:00am, and there is a lot of restless energy some days, so I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone and get my run in early while letting the kids expend some energy. I like that I get my run out of the way; they like that they get to bike/scooter and have some outside time before school starts.
Morning run/ bike/ scooter.
-Biked to lunch with friends (15 mins) -Biked to bus stop (15 mins) then walked home with 13 year old (10 mins)
Saturday 10/4: – 10 mins yoga -walked to metro station from 13 year old’s voice lesson, (metro to shopping area), walked to Michael’s to buy some stuff for Hallowe’en, then walked back to metro station, (metro back one stop), walked to tap class (which is in the same building as the voice lesson) – about 30 mins walking total. -Hike at Yankeur Nature Preserve in Shepherdstown, WV. The loop is bout 1 mile, but we took an hour to do it with time to rest, snack, and look at the Potomac River
Potomac river.
-Contradance in Shepherdstown, WV. We didn’t stay for the whole dance, but danced for about 2.5 hours.
Sibling waltz, or something like it.
Sunday 10/5: -10 mins yoga – skating- 45 mins public skate while the kids were in lessons.
And that was week one! I guess only about half of that was strictly walking, but I feel like everything I did was all in the spirit of the exercise. (pun!)
Are you participating in Cool Blogger’s Walking Club too?
