Thursday Thoughts

It's been a really busy week here on the family side of things. Molly started school last week and turned 5 years old on Monday. It has definitely been a transition going from full-time daycare in someone's home to a before/after school daycare centre + school all day. Not only is there the transition of two different daycare drop offs/pick ups (Lucy is still at the in-home daycare), I have to be much more organized with what Molly brings with her every day. Her school lunch requires a bit more thought (but I think I'm figuring it out!). We get handouts and important notices from her teacher every day that need to be read, signed, processed, and put in a safe place. We hear about her day, for which I am grateful, but we don't hear about all of it (that's life!). It has been an exciting, emotional time, but it has been wonderful too and I'm so happy that she is doing well and loving school.

That's the main "news" in our lives - Brian has also had an extremely busy week at work and we had a super busy weekend, so I'm playing catch-up this week. That being said, I am also taking a lot of downtime to read more and do yoga at home. My weekly yoga class with my amazing instructor didn't have a summer session but it started back up again on Monday and IT FELT FANTASTIC to be back in that room.

Source

At Beauty and the Beast at Neptune Theatre

I also took a longer lunch break yesterday to swim laps for the first time in a LONG time. It was tough!! I swam in a competitive club from age 11-16 and in my last year, I was swimming 6-7 times/week and for at least an hour (usually 2) each session. Yesterday, 15 years later, I swam for a half hour and it felt tiring and not good. Obviously my body is a different shape than it was then, and my endurance is nowhere near where it used to be, but I would like to get back into this and feel more comfortable in the pool again. It still felt very natural, but I am excited to get better at it and develop more endurance in the pool. I also have a bit of a cold and my lung capacity is a bit off this week, which didn't help my breathing while swimming (#excuses) ;). You could say I was a bit inspired by the Olympics to get back in the pool.

It's feeling a little bit like fall in Halifax. Even though it has still been mostly warm, the humidity has gone down and it reminded me that this is my favourite season for running. I have a 5K next weekend and I can't wait for it - apparently the route is gorgeous. We're also spending our Saturday doing one of my favourite fall activities: apple picking in the valley with my sister and her family. The girls LOVE it because we get to see some farm animals, go on a wagon ride, and eat apples all day. haha.

Speaking of fall, I made a delicious AND healthier broccoli + cheese + vegetable soup yesterday modified from this recipe. It was SO good that Brian (and Lucy) had second helpings last night and I can't WAIT for lunch time to enjoy some more of it at work. I'm hoping it also freezes well. I modified it by adding greek yogurt instead of milk, and greek yogurt cream cheese + 1 cup of extra old cheddar instead of the 2 cups of cheddar. I also added extra veggies, because they were all getting pureed anyway!

This month had a busy start, but halfway through it now, I am loving it. This is always my favourite month (+ October) in Halifax. Growing up, I never thought much of fall. In Calgary, the leaves just don't change colour like they do here on the east coast. There is something really special about this season here, and I'm excited to embrace it this year before we are buried under 6 feet of snow in January. :)

Linking up with Kristin for Stuff & Things and Amanda @ Running with Spoons for Thinking out Loud.