Tag: lifestyle

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Monday Mash-Up!

Hello!  What a wonderful weekend and boy did we have great weather!  Friday afternoon Lauren and I took KJ to ride the Thomas Train in Flint at the Crossroads Village and Huckleberry Railroad. We had so much fun and KJ loved his train ride.  

We spent Friday night with Dave and Ann.  After having dinner at the Shamrock in Downtown Utica, we walked to the Jimmy Johns Ball Park for a baseball game.  Had so much fun talking that we hardly watched the game 🙁  Couldn’t even tell you who was playing or who won, but we did have fun!  We will go back there one day soon so we can actually watch a game.  They offered really good local craft beer and the restaurant looked like they had a great food selection. Next time!

Dave and Ann

Wild hair night 🙂

 

Who’s that on the ball field during the game??

Saturday morning we had a nice four mile run then went to see the family in Holly, MI, as they were all gathered for a camping weekend.  We only stayed into the evening- we wanted to sleep in our own bed.  But, I might have Dave actually thinking about buying a camper! Just a small one so we can do some road trips for biking and trail running.

 Liv gets married and promptly starts a family, their new dog Quinn.

Rock On KJ!

 

Sunday morning went for another 4 mile run and then sat by the pool at our local health spa. All in all, another fine weekend.

Miles ran this week: 18
Biked: 24

How was your weekend?

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New posts for Friday’s!

 Hello everyone!  I was so happy to post pictures of KJ on Wednesday to Instagram (daklivingblog).  Lauren had to work in her classroom so I was super excited to help out and take KJ off her hands. We went to the park and hung around there for quite a while.  He has this little green bike (a balance bike) that is for beginner bike riders.  He loves this bike and he is good at riding it.  At home he continually asks to ride his green bike.  If he is not riding it, he is asking where it is.  He’s obsessed 🙂  Anyway, he rode and I ran after him. Good thing I never changed out of my running clothes from the morning because I got good use out of them in the afternoon.  

He likes to walk underneath our arbor

Posing on the rocks 🙂

New Friday Posts- Since retirement I spend lots of time on the web.  I have discovered so many good blogs that I feel compelled to share with you.  So on Fridays, I will use this space to highlight these blogs that fill my head with ideas and laughter, recipes and book suggestions, home improvement recommendations and outfit tutorials, and I hope you click away and find some enjoyment from them too! 



A blog a week


Shut Up and Run Blog by Beth Risdon

This new post on Friday’s will include blogs that I am following, or have recently discovered. This first one is a blog that I have enjoyed for a few years now.  It’s titled Shut Up and Run.  http://www.shutupandrun.net   Beth Risdon is the blogger behind the blog and she is hilarious in her writings about running and life.  She is not afraid to tackle problems such as peeing while running, low to no motivation to run, eating well and sometimes not so well.  She is open and honest, and I think I would like to meet her. According to her bio, she began running only eight years ago and she went from 0 to 26 (miles) right from the word start. She had no experience in running- she just started it one day and got hooked. She trained slowly and now has finished Ironman races.  She doesn’t feel the need to win, she just wants to finish.  She is motivated and motivating. I have been running for forever and I feel the same way- just let me finish, don’t care about the time or medals-just trying to lose weight and keep my heart pumping.  
What I like about her blog is she tackles those issues that most people are afraid to discuss. She writes like she is your friend, like you are having a beer with her and she just decides to casually open up.  Some of my favorite posts on her blog are:
She has a large following and her posts generate hundreds of comments from followers. She has won awards for her blog- probably due to her honesty.  She has been blogging about her running/life journey since 2009.
If you like to read different (raw and edgy) writing styles, enjoy topics about running, meeting goals, traveling, marriage– and you like to laugh, then this blog is worth your time to check out. 
Here is Beth running a marathon in Paris.  

Here is a snippet of her writing style and how funny she is.  This section is located on her Q & A page:

How did you get those abs?

Oh good lord. It’s like you’ve never seen abs before. Didn’t you notice my small boobs or flat ass? That’s what I’m really proud of. I was a gymnast until the age of 17. I built a pretty strong core at an early age. Through the years I’ve tried to stay fit, be it with Jane Fonda’s workout in my 20’s or yoga. I cycled a ton in college and the years after. I eat well. I exercise. End of story.

 Do you have “real” job or do you just blog the day away?

I sit on my ass all day. Sometimes I throw a piece of raw chicken (with sea salt) at my children for dinner. If they interrupt me when I’m blogging I send them to clean the toilets with their toothbrushes. 

Yes, I have a “real” job. It’s called being a mother. I also have my MSW. I work with families who want to adopt or provide foster care to children who have been removed from their homes by social services. See? I do have a heart. Unlike the scarecrow or whoever.

Does anyone read your blog? Do you let your children see it?

I know my dad reads it. And my daughter’s teacher. Other than that, not sure. Hell no, my children don’t read my blog. I work for social services, remember? I’d have to remove them from my home.


Anything I didn’t answer? Email me at beth@shutupandrun.net and I might just post your question.

Let me know if you visit her blog and your thoughts.  I love to hear comments. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!  See you back here on Monday for our Monday Mash-Up. 🙂

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Why it’s important to spend time with friends and family

On Monday I had the pleasure of spending time with my friend Ann.  I love spending one on one time with her.  We have so much in common.  We both retired the same year from the same school district.  We actually met in college, lost contact with one another, and then discovered each other at a conference we attended and found out we worked in the same district. 🙂  It’s funny where life leads you. We also spend lots of couple time together as we are part of the same friends group. You see her and her husband Dave numerous times on our blog, we have traveled with them, we go to concerts with them, and out to dinner with them often.

We set up our “friend date” weeks ago and I wrote it immediately in my calendar.  Time with family and friends is precious to me so I make sure to schedule that time monthly.  We decided to spend our day on our bikes.  We road our hybrid bikes on the Paint Creek Trail into Lake Orion, lunched at Sagebrush Cantina, guacamole and margaritas, and walked around the town to look at stores.  We found a wonderful rustic store that sold signs, furniture, plank walls, and nick knacks.  We also found a second-hand store that had great merchandise.  I purchased a blue jean dress which was originally sold at the Black and White Store and a purse, a Ann picked up a purse as well.  We made plans to go back soon – friendship and shopping feed the soul.  We actually laughed about how much shopping we do now that we are retired. 🙂

Michigan has great biking and running trails!
Click to see their beautiful store 🙂

Could be a project with our wine corks- easy and provides a nice display and a conversation piece.  Wine corks are simply glued on wood and hung.

I would love to incorporate this wood wall in our house.  They custom stain the wood to match your color scheme and they install it too!
These maps are mounted on wood.  You can custom order any map of any size.  I will need to call them to see if they have a map of the world they can mount for our study.  


We biked 24 miles and worked up a sweat.  We ate and drank and conversed and laughed. We had a wonderful “friend date” and I look forward to many more!

I found this article that tells the importance of spending time with friends and family- thought you might enjoy it.

28 MAY 2015

Why It’s Important to Spend More Time with Friends and Family

While alone time is important for creativity and inspiration, spending quality time with friends and family is just as important.
Research shows that spending time with friends and family makes a big difference when it comes to happiness. Social time is especially important for happiness –even for introverts. Studies have proven that the amount of time spent with friends and family –goes a long way towards boosting happiness –even more so than an increased income!
As Harvard happiness expert, Daniel Gilbert explains: “We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends.”
So while money can’t buy you happiness, spending time with the ones you love, is always a good investment!
Family
Spending time with family is one of the best ways to create memorable experiences. Nothing can replace the time you spend with your family. This is especially true if you have children. With younger children, there’s a good chance that you already spend a lot of time with them, with older children and teenagers though, who may prefer to spend time with their friends, it can be more difficult to carve out family time.
If you don’t know where to start, consider starting small: dinner at the table, a board game in the evening. If games aren’t your family’s idea of a good time, try outside activities -perhaps a walk to the park. Even projects around the house can be a great way to get everyone involved and working towards a goal. Encourage your family to spend time together by looking out for opportunities to do things that everyone would be interested in. It may be a challenge at first, but soon it will become second nature.
Friends
As we get older, and life gets faster – the time we once had for our friends, seems to diminish. You might not notice it at first, but soon your coffee dates are being replaced by school meetings. Your carefree mornings are busy and rushed, and the phone calls you used to make daily to chat with your best friend are slowly turning into every other week (or month!) catch up calls. Fitting in time for friends is sadly one of the first things to go when life gets busy, and before you know it – you hardly know the person you used to call your best friend.
This fact is though, that while this is tragic, it’s also preventable! Spending time with friends is one of the few pleasures in life that can cost you very little, but reward you substantially. It is also proven to be one of the best ways to combat stress. Spending time with your friends can help melt away the cares of the world, and leave you a better person all around.
Carve out time for your friends, by scheduling it in. One way to do this successfully, is to find common goals you both might have, and spend your time together working on reaching those goals –accomplishing two things at the same time, and making it easier to find time to spend with friends. An example would be working out together, walking the pets together, trying new things together, or scheduling the kids’ play dates with each other. You could also look out for special occasions to spend time with each other –these events don’t have to be huge social events, it could be as simple as inviting friends over to watch the Super Bowl or having your spouse look after the kids so you can go out for coffee.
Spending more time with your friends and family is beneficial to your mental well-being, as well as your relationships. With friends and family your good times are better, and your sorrows are shared –so don’t overlook this important area in life!
by Whitney English | Oct 22, 2014 | Productivity & Time Management

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Monday Mash-Up!

Top of the morning to you!  Another beautiful day in Michigan after a wonderful weekend. The weather has been just perfect!  We started the weekend having dinner and drinks in downtown Mt. Clemens.  The Bath City Bistro has always been a favorite for people around here and I can see why.  Their menu offers amazing selections and they have a nice variety of craft beer. They offer feather bowling which is very popular too.  I settled on the almond crusted perch and a Rochester Mills Brewing Company Rochester Red-very good.  Dave enjoyed a salad with salmon on top and a Rochester Red as well.The reason we were in Mt. Clemens was for a free concert.  We arranged to meet up with friends to enjoy the songs of the 70’s from the band the Magic Bus. The band was so entertaining that we are probably going to a Halloween party they will be playing at.  We did lots of dancing and singing!

Cute shop near the restaurant!
On Saturday, after lots of coffee, we decided to run at least 4 miles.  We have been drinking too much beer and haven’t been splitting meals like we usually do, so we thought a good run would help us.  We ended up running 4.5 miles and felt pretty good.  We had a wedding in the early afternoon and celebrated with the couple at their reception.  I have never heard a couple write and recite their own wedding vows so when this young couple decided to, I was very interested.  I can’t express to you how heartfelt and warm their vows were.  We all cried in the audience.  They are such a beautiful couple with so much love for one another.  I think even the Pastor was blown away by their words.   
Closer look at hair and makeup.
I have been getting lots of use out of these shoes; they are so comfortable and look great with jeans too! black sandals

We had a great time with family and friends.  Nothing like a family wedding!

Sunday morning, after a 3.5 mile run, we biked around a local park.  We rode only 14 miles, but it felt good and the weather was so wonderful.  The rest of the afternoon we spent leisurely enjoying a warm and sunny Michigan Sunday afternoon.  

We have another busy work week ahead of us, but today I get to spend time with a girlfriend as we bike the Clinton-Macomb Bike trail.  I’ll see you back here on Wednesday!

How was your weekend?

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Monday Mash-UP!

Another wonderful weekend folks!  We enjoyed the beautiful setting of River Ridge Resort in Stanwood, Michigan.  It was our annual “Beast of a Ride” bike ride and we were really looking forward to biking with friends.  We arrived on Friday afternoon and set up camp.  One of the riders, Mike, has a RV that is called the “beast” because it’s so big, I mean huge! His Sanibel camper is a fifth wheeler and is takes camping to the next level. Total luxury.

In the evening we had dinner at our favorite Antlers Fireside Grill in Canadian Lakes and enjoyed great beer and food.  We split the tower of onion rings as a beginning to our weekend.
Tropy Room - 14.jpg

We choose this trailer park because of its majestic views and close proximity to the White Pine Trail. The RV park is the cleanest I have ever camped in.  The pool is heated with wonderful views of the Muskegon River.  They have kayaks and pontoon boats for rent. They have full laundry services and a complete workout facility.  Tennis courts, volleyball, and basketball.  We don’t camp often, but this RV park makes me think that maybe we should 🙂

 Wonderful playground for the children.

Muskegon River

On Saturday we had a hardy breakfast and headed to Sand Lake to jump on the White Pine Trail.  We biked to Rockford where we shopped and drank a beer at the Green Well Gastro Pub.

Next, we headed to one of our favorite breweries in Michigan, Cedar Springs Brewing Company.  They are famous for their Bavarian menu and German style craft beer, and best of all they are on the White Pine Trail.   We always order a plate of brussels spouts- they are the best we have ever tasted!  We all enjoyed the Kusterer Salzburger Marzen– a Salzburg Style Pale Amber Lager. SCHMECKT GUT!

Saturday night found us by a campfire with marshmallows and good story telling.  Overall, our ride was good this year, we biked 25 miles on the White Pine Trail and enjoyed some great craft beer and of course- enjoyed time with friends.  Looking forward to our next ride together 🙂 We should probably refer to this ride as the Beast and Brew Ride since this year we drank so much craft beer!  

How as your weekend?

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Olivia and Zach’s wedding!

What a wonderful weekend and wedding.  Grand Rapids was the perfect venue and the weather was superb.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story.
Rehearsal night

Zach walking me down the isle

Ring bearer KJ

Wedding morning at the salon

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Random Batman jumped into the picture 🙂
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Being the only girl in the family has some advantages, I love my brothers!
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Now on their honeymoon, they checked in and are already relaxing and having fun 🙂  so much love at their wedding, they are truly in love and extremely grateful for family and friends.