Oh Lord now THAT was a long break

and I didnt even THINK to blog. Life must be JUST that hectic; and Im out LIVING it!  Well at least that is how I see it in my head. I have a feeling I see a lot of things differently in my head than they are in reality.

I had the oddest dream last night.  My dd is hatching chickens as part of her Science Fair project.  I am losing sleep over this project; not because it is hard, but because if these eggs do not hatch, the science fair project is a bit of a failure since the actual experiment includes live chickens, and if they do not hatch, there is no experiment.  So I am getting a little more stressed as we approach the due date!  Last night I dreamed that not only were these eggs hatching, what came out looked more like ducks than chicks, one actually hatched a fullgrown DUCK while another hatched a rabbit (which makes perfect sense since rabbits lay eggs right?) but the lady who gave me the eggs promised me both a duck and a rabbit and she delivered!  anyway these eggs were hatching but the "chicks" were falling out of the incubator and the cats were biting and chasing them!  And then there were dogs, it was chaos. Eventually I woke but I could not sleep and lay in bed thinking about the chickens. Which reminds me I need to remember to tell Taylor I solved the problem of increasing the humidity in the incubators and she forgot to put the cheesecloth under the eggs the last time she rolled them. Remind me ok?

Sleeplessness is an ongoing issue that does not appear to be getting better. I skip caffeine after the afternoon; I go to bed tired; I fall asleep almost immediately; but I cannot stay asleep. it is made worse by snoring and kicking 9 year olds, but if I were sleeping well, neither of those things would bother me much. I am very tired.

I also exhibit pretty much every symptom of SAD.  I suspected it was so, but I can't really deny it. Looking into some ways to ease it; but Im already doing a lot of these things! I read an interesting article this morning about eating less carbs and more fat/tryptophan, so maybe I needs more turkey. LOL

Our weather certainly took a turn for the dirty this week, and unlike previous snows, this stayed!

This was my drive to hockey on Sunday; it was not very cold and the grass is still green in my yard!  NICE day for a run, too bad I didnt do any of that on the weekend. the wind made me whine, what a woos!

 It snowed on Monday (I think) and this was my drive to work on Tuesday.  It was so cold that the roads did not clear off; salt doesnt work well under -10 C.  They were not that bad; we kinda live on less than secondary roads anyway.

On Wednesday School was cancelled for the kids and the snow started in the morning; they changed the forecast from 6 inches to 4 and I am not sure when 4 inches becamse a school-cancelling storm, since that is just winter in NS normally, but by the time I went home, roads were not at all plowed and it was pretty slippery. I mean, I am thrilled that I did not have to take my kids to school, I just don't know when we got so scared to drive! 

We are having a good taste of winter now. There is enough snow for snowshoeing!  I might take a short go tonight around a loop by my house :) I meant to go at lunch but got sucked into conversation instead. It doesnt look nice out anyway :)

The rest of January was pretty struggling.  After the 4.8 km walkish on Tuesday of all the rain, I managed 8 km on Wednesday that included some trails in BH, which there was very little ice on.  Tuesday warmed up so much most anything melted away, and it was fun to trail run in January. 51:17 was the time for this leisurely run.  I felt fairly sluggish throughout.

Thursday was an early chilly run with a runner friend.  It was fun, nice to chat with someone over the miles, makes them go a bit faster. We did a loop that gave us 7.2 km in about 43minutes.  It was a very sunny and busy day, with meetings and work, then kid pick up, dental apopintments, hockey practice, and friends over.

The wheels fell off on Friday when we made it to hockey practice at 7 am, but school was cancelled and I was sucked into the black hole that is HOME, and struggled to get back out for work. The expected storm came later than expected, and although Im glad they cancelled school in case of bad roads, the kids would have been home before it snowed/rained.  I did not get out for a run, glad I skated in the morning.

Saturday hockey was at 7 am and it was good exercise.  There were just enough people there, we all got lots of ice time.  OMG I forgot to check the schedule and we were totally late for Annika's hockey game.  It was 25 minutes away and I remembered 15 minutes before ice time!  UGH we missed a little but she played most of it LOL!  It was Scott's birthday so I sort of spent the rest of the day making cake.  and icing said cake. Annika picked out a recipe and she helped make the cake; we made icing and she iced it and used her decorating kit to make it perfect!  And very pink lol.  More cake...good cake week!  A Bearcats hockey game rounded out the evening.

Sunday included hockey for me, then hockey for Holly and Annika, and soccer for me.  the girls had great games; I had fun games but they werent epic.  A good time, its great to get out and see people; wish sports were not so frustrating!

Monday came back around and I had not run since Thursday! There was no running on Monday or any sort of sport, so Tuesday I determined my way out the door after classes and did a quick (but not fast UGH) 5.25 km run.  Legs totally sluggish. Must be all that cake and cake-weight. 

Wednesday was a snow day and as much as I would have loved to run in the snow, work went long and it was tiring (lecturing is super exhausting LOL I know!) and when I went home with great intentions of snowshoeing I ended up just snuggling in with a few chores and knitted the rest of a hat :) Which I am currently wearing; new Fav hat!

Thursday morning was snowy and slushy and not at all cold; out for a run before work. After the kids left and I took care of some laundry of course.  I have so many chores waiting at home for me!  But I got the run in!  8.5 km around the loop!  My hips are pretty achy! It is a lot of work to run in the slippery slush and shifty snow; like running in sand but none of the happiness of running in the sand lol.  Valleydale had the worst amount of snow and I worried about a snowplow coming along as there are long stretches that have no sideroads or driveways and no place to get out of the way. There was a strip on the edge where the snow was scraped to gravel which was the best place to run but I could not see dips and places where it would drop off to 6 inches of slush or snow and I would swimg my arms to stay up; must have looked like I was taking flight. The road home was worst for slush; passing cars have the best aim; they hit that strip of slush in the middle of the lane to create the largest spray and fly past (crazy speeds), totally spraying dirty slush all over. And we wont mention the lumber truck; he did his best to pull out and was considerate but there was nothing he could do about the black mist of mud flying off his truck tires; I felt so Dirty when I got home! LOL

And here I sit, not snowshoeing but getting some work done.  In another hour or so I will trek home to take the middle child to hockey, and then we will be in for the night. I have the most awesome headlamp.  Snowshoes to get dusted off! Unless I finished shovelling the driveway instead....