35 Task Report Card

24 out of 35 is not bad.  In fact, I did manage to get a lot done and had fun along the way; I think I just might do 36 for 2015.  So what were the 11 that did not get finished this year?

 

 

Blight Free Tomatoes (nature won again):
    There was a time in which I was able to grow wonderful tomatoes.  Our first apartment  had wonderful tomato plants on the deck that created a nice oasis for us.  Our second apartment; we participated in a local community garden for two years and had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with.  And then we moved to our house.  Every year I have fought blight.  I have tried three different garden beds, fertilizer and even pots.  Every year the blight comes back.  I am no longer growing beautiful tomatoes.
     As a result of the above dilemma, I decided to wage war on the blight this year.  I planted the tomatos in three different locations, bought an organic solution to spray on the plants, put plastic at the base to keep the mud from splashing on the plant, and planted banana peels at the base.  You name it, I did it. Yet, while we did have a much better tomato crop this year; the blight still came.  I lost the war.



 

 

2 Hill Workouts a Month (I lost this battle in January):

My intentions were so good with this one.  I had two mountain races scheduled for late spring and summer and I was going to do two significant hill workouts a month.  Not one of those 100 yard hills at race pace, but a hill/climb conisisting of a mile or less.  I had a million excuses in January, the ice, the cold, and the list goes on.  While I did get some great workouts in as the weather warmed up, I bailed on the winter months.  I am thinking about doing the racing circut below this summer (maybe that will motivate me). 

Summiting Mt. Mansfield (although several times I was close to the summit):

 The fact that I did not achive this one is actually quiet comical, given the number of times I was on this mountain and near the top.  Many of my training runs went right up the side of this mountain, in fact I ran a race up the mountain to a parking lot a quarter of a mile from the summit. Little Man and I spent the night in a hut a half mile from the summit.  Yet I never actually made it to the top of this mountain. Maybe next year. 

Separating Flowers:

 This really needs to be done still, however, most of my flowers are supposed to be separated in the fall.  Cross-country season is in the fall.  So for now my flowers will go on crowding each other.  I just really need a gardener for the month of September.  I can take care of the rest. 

 

1 Blog a Week:

 I realized that while I love cross-country season, my life really is not all that interesting during cross-country season.  Those who are not runners probably do not want to hear about coaching runners. 

Professional Development:

 I had two college classes that I was going to take in order to reach this goal canceled.  One in the spring and one in the summer.  I am currently enrolled and taking a class that should get me to where I want to be.  It just took a bit longer then expected. 

Ducklings:

 We learned some great lessons on this one. 1. When it is too cold, the ducklings will not make it and if you can get them inside to a brooder then their chance of survival goes up significantly.  2. Too many male ducks is a bad thing and can hamper the addition of baby ducks (there are now three males in the freezer).

Soap Making
    I actually tried pretty hard at this one.  To start off with, I looked up a milk soap recipe, not realizing it was from the UK.  When I could not find one of the ingrediants, we found an expensive substitute here in the US.  However, when I went to make it we were missing a key ingredient half way through the process, so I had to abandon all attempts.  Next I found a soap making kit at a craft store.  When we got home I opened it up just to find out it was not really a soap making kit.  Just a melt the soap down and mold it kit.  We did mold the soap and gave it away as gifts, but had yet to make any soap of our own.  Then I found out that there was a woman at the farmers market who teaches people how to make milk soap. When I talked to her, she gave me her card and told me to contact her late in the fall when Farmers Market Season was over.  I did just that, she told me we could do a class in November and then never contacted me again.  At that point it was a busy Christmas season so I abandoned the project all together. 

Lose the Last 15 pounds
    I lost 8 over the course of the year.  I have found the last few pounds seem to be the hardest to lose. Partly because people tell you how good you look, and you think, I am good, why do I need to keep losing?  I have 7 pounds to go, here's to 2015. 

Sub 8 Minute 5k
   While I came really close, I was never able to slide under the mark.  I almost had it in September, but my last mile squeaked over the 8 minute mark leaving me a bit short on my goal this year.  I did drop from the 27 minute range into the 24 minute range, so I guess I'll take what I can get. 

Oli Change
   I kinda forgot about this one until it got cold and then really did not want to go out with my amazing husband to change the oil when the temperatures were in the teens.  What can I say? I am a wimp. 

I have a lot of fun goals for 2015, stay tuned!

 

 

 

 



One Final Push

When I had Little Man I mananged to get myself severely behind in my scrapbooking.  This year I made it a goal to try and somewhat keep up.  Since prior to having Little Man I had started each book at our anniversary, I decided to start there.  I almost did not make it on time, but I did manage to finish scrapbooking from our 10th anniversary to our 11th---New Years Eve.  Here are some of the highlights to the year. 

 

We started with out first vacation away wihout Little Man to Virginia Wine Country for our 10th anniversary; it was amazing!

We did a lot of hiking!

We discovered that we could make cider from the apples on the tree in front of our house.  It was amazing! Too bad this year the late spring meant no apples, we were ready for them:(

It was an amazing running year.

 Little Man tried a lot of new activies, and really has developed his own identity - for better or worse. 

We discovered some really cool new places like the skate trail on Lake Morey. 

 There were bonfires all year round.

We did A Lot of snowshoeing.

 I truly fell in love with mountain running.

We discovered Ottowa and fell in love

 We visited a lot of vinyards!

 Little Man learned how to ride a bike.

 

Felted Purse

A little over 4 years ago I started a felted purse.  It was my first knitting project, and I was told it would be an easy task.  After tearing it apart several times, needing to stop several times and seek advice because I was unsure what the next direction was telling me to do, and completely stopping and putting it aside for extended periods of time.  It is finally finished!

Christmas

My husband and mother-in-law know me well!

Snow

The one thing I missed when I lived outside of New England was the beautiful snow.  Not that we never had snow where I lived, but it just was not the same, it wasn't a constant, and the backdrop was not quite right.  I love it so much that I have come to realize most of my bucket list locations are about as far away from the sunshine and sandy beaches as it gets (Iceland, Alaska, Quebec City, Sweden, Patagonia and the list goes on).  Actually I do not do well with extended periods on the beach; I really don't like heat. Give me a freezing ice castle any day. 

 

I realized this to be particularly true most recently, when the first real hardy snow came along.  All I wanted to do was go sledding, snowshoing and for a run down a snow covered road.  Don't get me wrong, I love sitting about as close to a crackling fire as humanly possible when I am done.  Also these excursions are typically followed by hot chocolate or hot elderberry cider.  But there is just something about snow. I actually went into a small depression at the end of the week when the rain and a spike in the temperature washed away my beautiful snow. 

 

I mean,really,what's not to love?...

 

Sledding by a beautiful historic round church with the sunset in the background.

 Taking off through the woods behind our house after a freshly fallen snow.

 The conversations with a snowman.

Oh and there is so much more......

Ducks

Last year the ducks were afraid to set foot out in the snow.  This year they love it!

First Farmers Market of Winter

We were a little delayed on our first trip to the winter farmers market, but once again it did not disappoint.  Little Man was able to secure a samosa, we warmed up with some elderberry ginger hot cider and did some Christmas shopping. 

 In addition to all this, I learned all about how to make ice cider.  Given the amount of apples needed for this small bottle, I do not think we will be making ice cider any time soon.

Laughing Moon

Little Man has gotten to the point where I ask him which holiday activities he would like to participate in each year.  One of his favorites happens to be making candy canes at Laughing Moon Chocolates in Stowe.  So every year, we treck to Stowe to pile into a crowded chocolate shop to watch Little Man make a candy cane.  Except, this year, it was not crowded.  The roads getting there were a little snow covered, and the shop had several cancelations for the day.  Not only was it not crowded, but we actually knew some of the other people making candy canes with us.  In fact, Levi knew half of the other kids on the bench with him, and they were having a great time.  It made braving the snow covered road worth it. 

 Due to the lack of people in the shop, there was not a long line of children waiting which gave the parents the opportunity to participate in a friendly compitition of shape the candy cane.  I'll admit, I had help from the candy cane lady, and mine was the best. 

 Our family candy canes.

Amazing Husband

I have an amazing husband, and every now and then I need to brag about him so that he knows it. 

 

For Thanksgiving this year he made an incredible meal for my family.

 He cares about the details and the little things.  While I was away at bible study this week, he spent two hours in the cold and dark putting up the Christmas lights, so I would see them as I drove home. 

When he knows that I am having a bad day, he brings me flowers to make me smile.

Snow

Grandma gave him new snowshoes, and our neighbor has told us that we can use the field behind our house for snowshoeing (we have never been in the field before).  Little Man has new places to explore, and nothing is going to stop him. 

Annual Christmas Tree

Each year our family heads to one of the local tree farms to pick out our Christmas Tree.  Every other year this ritual is done in the dark, and to be quite honest takes a lot less time.  I have found our family can be quite picky when choosing the right Christmas Tree. 

 

So off we go, sled and saw in hand to find the perfect tree. 

 As always, a perfect winter wonderland awaits. 

 After shaking the snow off several trees, Little Man finally locates the perfect one.

Holiday Running Streak

Several of my running friends participate in a holiday running streak ritual from Thanksgiving Day to New Years Day.  The idea; run at least a mile every day from Thanksgiving to New Years.  Last year I did it, and it provided a pretty good spring board into winter running. 

 

So here goes, my ice bug webs strapped on.

 My foam roller ready to go.

 My back up plan on days when I can not motivate myself out into the cold.

November Cairn Box

Happiness is a box of goodies in the mail every month.  OK, so there may be other things that make me happy, but I love my Cairn Boxes. 

This months box included Injinji Toe Socks, a Vapur Anti-Bottle Wine carrier, Ranchline Natural Lamb Jerky and Laughing Giraffe Snackaroons.  The last two were my lunch the day after I received the box.  While not the most nutritious of lunches, it was pretty good.  I have yet to use the wine carrier because it is not picnic in the park season.

 

I still love my box.  

Task 22: Year 4

Long ago I had this dream of scrapbooking my life.  This past year I realized I was about 7 years behind.  In response to that I decided to go back print up the pictures from previous years and just make sure they made it into photo albums.  Since I have been scrapbooking from our anniversary (of maybe only the first four years) I decided to start from there.  As of last night I actually have year four labeled and in a photo album. 

 

The year started off with an awesome 182 mile bike ride on the C&O canal and just took off from there since right around that time I got pregnant with Little Man (now you know why I have not scrap booked in several years). 

 

We spent a big chunk of that summer at a near by community garden that I could bike to as long as I was not carrying back too many vegetables.  The master gardener who was on site a few times a week was great and we learned a lot about organic gardening that year.  We also had a ton of vegetables to show for it.  Everything except for the spinach did well (I still can not grow spinich).

We also volunteered helping a family through Vermont Refugee Resettlement.  Technically I volunteered, but Andy was along for the ride as well.  We spent the year helping them adjust to life in The Unitied States and also Winter.  We also made some wonderful friends along the way.

Sadly this was also the year my grandfather passed away and I spent much of the fall taking pictures of the farm to savor every memory made there. 

 Then along came Little Man, who completely changed everything. 

 Although going back and looking at the pictures he spent most of his time sleeping.  I think 75-80% of the pictures of him were of him sleeping.  I miss those days. 

 We also had many opportunites to take in the great landscape of Vermont.

 From the top of Camel's Hump

Task 21: Educational Stuff

I am getting down to some of the more tedious, it was going to take more then a day to complete tasks.  Basically, the things that went on my list because they were things I was avoiding doing.

 

As I have watched older teachers retire; I have noticed that all of them unload bins of old educational materials on the newer teachers.  Stuff from when they first began and probably have not used in over twenty years.  In addition to this, I was able to recognize the two bins of educational material in the crawl space that was collecting dust.  I decided it was time to clean and organize. 

 

As I went through everything, I cleaned out materials from my undergrad studies that I saved just in case I would ever happen to need them, descriptions of tests and behavioral modifications I could do in my sleep, and notes that I am never really going to go back and look at.  As a result, two bins turned into 5 binders of stuff that is organized in a way that they might actually get used for instructional purposes.  Now, if I can just remember to do this again in another 15 years I will hopefully not unload on some poor, unsuspecting new teacher.

 



Darth Vader Black Scarf

Little Man wanted a Darth Vader black scarf last year after stealing my scarf all winter long.  I did in fact manage to finish it in time for winter.  Now maybe I will be able to keep warm this winter.