Beginning of Summer 2021

 If you've read this blog before you know I LOVE SUMMER SO MUCH!!!!!

We finally finished up with school.  Sort of.  The kids went over to school on the last day to pickup their report cards and anything left in their desks.

I looked into it and the kids are allowed to do their HS PE credit over the summer. This July it looked like it would be our last chance to do the credit virtually.  C did his a few years ago and was glad he did it but it was hot and structured. A bus picked him up at the elementary school next door and took him off to run and play sports in the sun for 4 weeks to get his credit finished up.  Being as H is not so great with team sports but is fairly decent at athletics, we decided this was a great opportunity to do PE in a way that would fit him.

He did so great. Every day they built up their walk/jog/run distance from 2km the first day to 5km the last day.  Besides that he had to do a physical activity for 2-3 hours a day, read health information and do quizzes regarding what he'd learned and a culminating project where he researched 3 sports he might want to participate in and find out where and how much the equipment was, membership fees, etc.

He got a 98%!!!  Many days he did more than the minimum and some days it was HOT!  Each morning he'd get up at 6:30 to walk with my regular walking group. He'd walk with us 1/2 the distance he needed then turn back. He biked a ton, we rollerbladed a few times, we used the fact that the boat rentals are free for 12 and under to kayak, canoe, paddleboard and discovered the joys of swimming in the recreational canal (many times V would join us for anything water related).  V took a week of swim lessons so we'd put her in the pool and either bike for H and run for me or play tennis next to the pool or climb trees and play on the equipment.

V had her birthday! We have 3 families that each have 2 kids to send over, so we did an outside birthday-ran in the sprinklers, water balloon fight and they decorated single pinatas and ate donuts and broke the pinatas

I got to go to an in-person race, with medals!  Running partner and I ran a 1/2 marathon trail race while 2 of our friends did the 15 km course (we did 3 loops of 7.5km they did 2)

I can't even tell you how exciting it was to have a real, live race after so much planning for races in 2020 only to have them all cancelled one right after another! Running partner and I got 2nd and 3rd females for our age division (out of 6).

2 weeks later 5 of us did a relay race.  A 3.8km course that we took turns running for the length of the solstice (15 1/2 hours).  Unfortunately because of restrictions in June when it should have taken place, we ran it at the end of July for the same amount of time and it was a little darker for the first and last laps than it should have been.  Our team got 100 miles altogether (160km)!! So proud of us! Each of us would run 20 minutes or so then would have an hour and 20 minutes off while other team members ran.  We each ended up with 30-35kms for the day (18-21 miles).   Our medals are sun catchers.

Spring 2021

 Around Easter every year two things happen.  C's birthday and it snows one last time.

We've started serving donuts instead of birthday cake for birthdays-then you only spit on your own cake item when you blow out your candles.

We had THREE sets of dove twins in our gazebo this year. The first set was right before this snow.  Husband took quite a shine to the happy couple and ruminated if we should put some food or heat out for momma bird.  

The snow finally melted and the trails turned muddy but the waterways were again rushing with the soothing creek sounds on runs.

I start cleaning up the flower gardens each spring-I've got one in the back near our hot tub and some in front as well as one at the end of our cul de sac.  I add some annuals in hanging baskets off the back gazebo and under my front windows and this year decided I wanted some pots in front of my garage, but they are so expensive! I had two pallets I'd gotten for free behind Restore a year or two ago and took them apart and made some pot holders.  I was quite pleased with how they turned out.

If you are wondering how to get flower pots to hang on your front windows (the long, rectangle ones) when you have siding, I swapped out the plastic ones I used previously that worked but kept falling down for metal ones this year an they've done much better:  https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07V7T855Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I divided the entire pack between my 4 pots.

With everyone home, I feel like I grocery shop and cook a lot.

I was so pleased when Covid numbers started going down towards May/June and we could get out and run again with groups.  I was able to go back up to another group I occasionally join that is a further drive but I get to see new places like this fairy/gnome village in Bronte Conservation area.  There's a whole row of contributions!

I got to run with my regular group along the first Welland Canal.  Note the Canada graffiti:

After husband and I got our vaccines in March and April, C was able to get his 1st when 16 year olds were eligible and he got his 2nd when his brother got his 1st done when the age went down to 12.  After H's 2nd dose we grabbed some ice cream at one of the 3 new places for ice cream that popped up in town this summer.

H made a video to tell how easy it was to get the vaccine. Luckily most of his friends followed suit as soon as they could.

Our cherry trees loaded up a bit earlier than previous years due to some good weather-I got two bowls like this, pitted and froze them to enjoy in the summer and fall.

Winter 2020/Covid and lockdowns

 Way overdue!  December 2020 was busy helping Running Partner get things figured out after the fire, getting ready for Christmas and dealing with Covid.  Because of all the travel restrictions we decided to go against tradition of spending even number years on the west coast with my family.  

Numbers increased of Covid cases and without a vaccination yet we went into lockdown in January-this also meant the kids went back online for school.  March Break was moved back to April break and sure enough, after we celebrated going back to class in February, we spent February, March and part of April back on campus for school, but with masks now required outside.  C continued to go to class 50% of the time and 50% online.  After April break they were back to online for the rest of the year after cases spiked from Easter get togethers.  Luckily the 4 of us over the age of 12 were able to all get fully vaccinated by the time school was done for the year!

I continued to run this winter for the 2nd winter in a row.  I'm still on my 5km+ a day run streak and we were very lucky this winter was comparably mild to some of the other Canadian winters we've had so running all winter wasn't too bad. Our local run club kept us motivated even though we couldn't meet up for group runs by running virtual runs for us to follow and see everyone else's results and photos online.

My shoes on the lake to lake run caused blisters which meant I changed my gait and ended up injured December and January and ran only minimums. By February I felt much better and started increasing mileage again.

Other than that we pretty much hunkered down and made our way through online schooling. Since this was our second go at it, the school implemented some changes that made things go a lot more smoothly than last year.