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Super Sunday

No surprise here, but our Super Sunday was spent at the rink. This was definitely a source of angst when the schedule first came out. The Mayor had two make up games Sunday afternoon in Pines and Coral Springs. Originally, the games were supposed to be at home, but a fire at the rink derailed that plan. The first game was a biggie because if they won it, they’d make states. Spoiler alert, they won!

They played the Florida Warrior, who they hadn’t played previously. I thought we got off to a bit of a shaky start, but once the Mayor got the scoring started it was all over. The boys ended up winning 6-0 with goals from five different kids and tons of assists. That’s exactly what you want to see on the scoresheet. Admittedly, we were all a bit nervous because the kids hadn’t practiced for over a week. Thank god they weren’t too rusty.

Between games we headed to Publix to grab the Mayor a sub. They barely had any time between games, but he needed to eat something. The second game was a much harder contest against Goldenwolves Black. It was a good, fast-paced game with little drama, but in the end they lost 2-0. Honestly, they could have won the game, but couldn’t finish. The Mayor had a great opportunity, but his stick broke on the shot.

Naturally, like everyone else my age, I wanted to see the halftime show. The two things i was excited to watch were the Air Force Heritage Flight Flyover and the halftime time show. Fortunately, I was able to catch the flyover right before the Mayor’s game started. And as luck would have it, the game ended minutes before the show started. I was able to watch the halftime show with my fellow hockey mom and dads as we collectively reminisced over the music and artists performing. It was magical.

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

A happy Valentine’s Day poem courtesy of Lord Byron.

“She Walks In Beauty” Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

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Dinner Date

The hubby and I had a wonderful dinner date with my hubby tonight at the new Greek restaurant near us. Initially, we had planned to go Friday night, but he ended up working late, so we rescheduled to tonight. We both had to work this morning, so neither of us really wanted to be out late last night. And out course by late, I do mean like 8:30.

I’m had lamb chops and he had meatballs. Both were really tasty and my lamb chops were cooked perfectly. I also had a yummy drink with passion fruit and vodka. After we paid our tab, the bartender took a shot of Mastiha liquor with us. I’ll be buying some at Total Wine soon. It was sweet, but not too sweet and was really smooth.

Now we’re back home chilling on the couch watching the Minnesota Wild take on Carolina. The puppies are cuddling with as well even though hockey makes the Piggie nervous. She’s been quite the cuddle pig as of late, which is great. Athena is just the sweetest puppy. Anakin is watching the hockey game and keeping to himself. Usually at this point of the night, he’s trying to attack someone’s feet. Tomorrow night our dinner date will be at the rink.

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Relaxing

So after a bit of a hellish, I spent yesterday evening getting a very relaxing massage. It was just what the doctor ordered. Last night I had a new masseuse, who unsurprisingly was shocked at how tight my leg muscles are. I’ve heard that from every masseuse I’ve ever used and I swear I do stretch. Of course, the rest of my muscles were also super tight and I’m feeling it today. I had no idea you could get knots in your muscles over your ribs. Ouch!

My legs were pretty sore today, from both the massage and leg day, which made my run quite arduous. I also haven’t eaten much over the past few days on account of an questionable stomach. This definitely didn’t help make my run any easier. As I finished my run, I saw my masseuse’s face telling me to stretch more, so I did spend some time stretching during my phone calls. I’m loving my new wireless headset.

Speaking of relaxing, I haven’t been great at sticking to a good yoga practice. I definitely need it, but by the time I can actually practice I’m way too tired. Hopefully, I can get myself back into a regular routine of yoga and massages. If the way my muscles feel today is any indication, I need to be getting massages regularly or maybe every other day.

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Weight of the World

I took a few days off from blogging after feeling like the weight of the world has been on my shoulders. It was an emotional weekend as Goalielocks played his last youth hockey game. His hockey journey started over a decade ago and has been magnificent. Nevertheless, it’s end is quite bittersweet. While us team lost both games Saturday, both he and his goalie partner were absolutely outstanding.

Beyond the last hockey game, there’s just an awful lot going on in life right now. Some good and some terrible. The last couple of month have been truly been the most difficult of my life. We, more to the point I could definitely use some prayers. This spring will bring more changes as Goalielocks graduates high school .

I’m certainly not the only mom that feels like I’m balancing the weight of the world on my shoulders. Its a tough gig this motherhood gig. While you’re in the throes of it, time feels like it’s stood still. And then you blink and their adults. As a mother, you give them everything you have no matter on what’s happening in life.

Weight of the world


For women who are ‘difficult’ to love. By Warsan Sire

you are a horse running a lone

and he tries to tame you

compares you to an impossible highway

to a burning house

says you are blinding him

that he could never leave you

forget you

want anything but you

you dizzy him, you are unbearable

every woman before or after you

is doused in your name

you fill his mouth

his teeth ache with memory of taste

his body just a long shadow seeking yours

but you are always too intense

frightening in the way you want him

unashamed and sacrificial

he tells you that no man can live up to the one who

lives in your head

and you tried to change didn’t you?

closed your mouth more

tried to be softer

prettier

less volatile, less awake

but even when sleeping you could feel

him travelling away from you in his dreams

so what did you want to do, love

split his head open?

you can’t make homes out of human beings

someone should have already told you that

and if he wants to leave

then let him leave

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Preparation

Preparation is the key to success. During AEP, it meant working out before working and having my Dunkin’ in hand as the day started. These days it’s waking up with enough time to watch The Great British Bake-off as I wake up. Honestly, the Dunkin’ is key to my preparation for everyday. The flip side is when I’m not prepared for the day, my day tends to go side ways.

So why all the talk about preparation? Last night the Mayor’s team had a game against the first place team in their division. Thankfully, Duane and Michelle brought some apple pie (moonshine,) which made the game palatable. Anyway, there was a clear lack of preparation as evidenced by nine players on the team being without mouth guards. Spoiler alert, you can’t be on the ice without it. In fact, the ref could have given the team a bench minor for it.

Nonetheless, the mouth guard debacle was indicative of how the game went. Now to be fair, this wasn’t a bad game for them to lose. It would be a much sweeter win when we see them in March. The lesson is poor preparation be it physical or mental only sets you up for a poor result. It wasn’t until I got consistent in my preparation for work that my sales really accelerated.

In other news, Anakin got bored at work this morning. Clearly, his preparation for the day wasn’t sufficient. To cope with his boredom, I guess he decided that he should chew on the picture book I just made. Fortunately, I can order new one from Shutterfly. Unfortunately, I’ll have to spend $50 to replace it. Consequently, I moved all the books off the coffee table less Anakin should get bored again.

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New Day

It’s a new day and a new month. Today was a much better day in the office. I cleared 10K easy despite working an hour less. Coincidentally, that’s exactly the kind of day you hope for. It’s still our busy season, but this year’s OEP seems to be less busy than last year. Nevertheless, I’m primed for success and have great support from my leadership.

Naturally, the key to my success is my fabulous sales assistants. They were well behaved today , which is always a bonus. I love having them by my side as I work all day. In fact, they’re really a great selling tool. People don’t always like sales calls, but most people love animals. My puppies are pretty quiet, but when they do bark my clients love it. This opens up the door for them to talk about their furry kids. Happiness is sharing cute animal stories with your clients as they buy from you.

Speaking of a new day, I officially started the Calibrate program this afternoon. It’s a metabolic reset program that led by a MD and coaches. My endo encouraged me to give the program a try to help take off the remaining thyroid weight and normalize my cholesterol numbers. So far the hardest part has been having to give up the Splenda in my morning coffee. They start the program gradually as it promotes success. If you make too many dramatic changes immediately, it makes it hard to sustain.

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Palm Tree

So today’s prompt is to describe oneself as a tree, so I chose palm tree. First of all, the palm tree is happiness in a plant. Who can’t be happy while sitting near or beneath a beautiful palm? It usually means you’re somewhere tropical with a beautiful beach nearby. There also incredibly strong and built to survive hurricanes. Their shape is perfect as the wind whips around their trunk, while leaving the tree up right. Sure they’ll lose some fronds, but most palms survive the storm.

Like the palm tree, I’m able to survive’s life’s worst storms. Thankfully, my parents raised me to be confident, strong and full of faith. My life is filled with incredible people that have supported me and my family through thick and thin. I’m forever grateful for the strong support system in my life. These past couple of months they have been absolutely incredible.

Fortunately, this weekend I was able to get out and see some of my non-hockey friends. It’s nearly impossible to do anything social during hockey season, so this weekend was a treat. Yesterday I met my friend Stacy for drinks at Batch. I haven’t seen her since before I got laid off. God, I’ve missed that woman. We had the best time.

Today I made a Swiss cake roll in the morning. While that baked, I took care of the laundry, the dishes and the floors. Afterwards, I headed to Boca to spend the afternoon with my dear friend Terri, who just happens to be Jake’s girlfriend’s mom. I always have a fabulous time with her and today was no exception. We had tried a couple of weekends ago, but Covid and Flu exposure put a damper on those plans. Thankfully, we were able to get together today.

It was quite cold this morning, but we didn’t see any frost. Even if we did, the palm trees would be fine. After all, like me, they’re quite resilient. I was a little worried, however, that the passion fruit tree wouldn’t weather the cold. Fortunately or unfortunately, it still looks quite robust. It had literally taken over the entirety of our back garden. We’ll have to trim it back and train it on a trellis or it will cover everything.

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Whoops

Whoops, so apparently playlist is today’s prompt for bloganuary. I was a day early for the prompt. Oh well, music was in my mind yesterday, so the prompt worked well. Tomorrow, I’ll rejoin the challenge with the right prompt in the right day. Speaking of playlists, I added some Oasis to my 90s playlist today. Wonderwall was the perfect song to cool down to and finish my workout.

It’s Friday, but this week it doesn’t mean the end of the work week for me. I’ll be working tomorrow albeit not a full day. Two more days to finish the month strong, so hopefully tomorrow is a good day. Saturdays can be hit and miss. I do like that Saturday don’t start until 10:00, so I have a lot of fine do get stuff down before work starts.

Meanwhile, we are expecting some seriously cold temperatures, by South Florida standards, this weekend. In fact, we could see low temperatures in the 30s, which is crazy. Nevertheless, we probably still won’t turn the heat on. We’ve used it so infrequently that it smells terrible when you first turn it on. Honestly, we’ve probably used it twice in the sixteen years that we’ve lived here. Thankfully, we have plenty of blankets and hoodies to keep us warm.

This week I got back on track with my BBG workouts and running. I just finished the third strength training workout and have two more runs on the week. Next week I’ll start BBG 2.0. This is the second time I’ve finished BBG 1.0. Albeit it was structured differently this time, which was nice. Today’s run absolutely kicked my butt. Hopefully, it will be easier next week. Anyway, tomorrow I’ll rectify my whoops by posting the right prompt for the day.

Lastly, one of the members of our hockey family needs our help. Coach F, who. Goalielocks has played for, is a wonderful hockey dad and coach. Unfortunately, they just lost their home to a fire. Please consider donating to this wonderful family and help them rebuild their home. You can donate here.

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Playlist

In my mind, the perfect playlist is essential for every occasion. Particularly, I love my workout playlists. It’s another tool in the chest that helps me stick to my routine and keep my pace if I’m running. My go to music for my running playlist has been Metallica, The Offspring, Green Day, God Smack and Bush. The opening rif to For Whom The Bell Tolls is perfect pushing through a difficult run. I love it!

When I strength train there’s still plenty of Metallica and company, but it’s a broader playlist. Lately, I’ve been listening to a 90’s playlist that Apple Music built based on our music library. It’s a great collection of music albeit not all of the songs work well for working out. I don’t know about you, but REM’s Everybody Hurts isn’t my favorite hype song. Obviously I love the song, but it doesn’t work in the gym.

The largest collection music on my phone is my hockey playlist. After ten years of playing music at the boys’ hockey games, I’ve got over 300 songs on there. Clearly, there’s a lot of overlap between my lists, but the hockey one is quite diverse. I got everything from the Beatles to Britney Spears and Rammstein to Daddy Yankee. Anyway, music makes my world go round. It brings joy and color to life and keeps me focused on my runs, which is not an easy feat. What’s your go to pump up song? Let me know in the comments.