Hi, my friends! How are you? How was your week?

My week was good! My mom was here, which was really nice. I taught my regular five classes, went to a tennis clinic, worked, took Brady to swimming, and we got to see my future brother-in-law, James, who is marrying Dave’s younger sister, Gwena, later this year. He was in town (from San Francisco) for a fencing tournament, so he came over to our house for dinner. We hadn’t seen him since the day before we left California in January 2021, so it was great to catch up. Also, I can’t neglect to mention that my mom came to my barre class this week, and she did great!

This weekend, Dave is off on a golf trip with some of his best friends, so I’ll be hanging out with my mom and Brady. We don’t have any big plans, but we’ll figure out how to fill the days.

Something else somewhat exciting happened this week: I finally signed Dave up for his membership at Life Time. I’m coming up on a whole year of working at Life Time, and I’m now teaching enough classes to get a family membership, so Dave can come with me as more than just a guest from time to time. He probably won’t come all that often, but still, I feel like this is a big step. Speaking of Life Time …

Fundraising request!

Every year, Life Time raises money for the Children’s Miracle Network through the Life Time Foundation, and we each have a unique fundraising link. If you are feeling generous and would like to donate anything at all through me for my fundraising campaign, here’s my link. I will be doing a “Ride of a Life Time” at the end of the month, which is a cycle event that coincides with this fundraising campaign. Thank you for considering and for your support of me, as always, my friends!

Now for the current faves of the week …

Current faves of the week

Fun

All about our Easter weekend 2022

I made a little video on Instagram about our weekend, so you can watch that here!

Let’s chat about it! My mom arrived on Friday of last week, so we had the whole weekend together, and this is her first visit of the year, yay!

Easter Saturday

On Saturday morning, we went to our neighborhood country club for an Easter egg hunt, and it was so well done. There was a reptile petting zoo (I did NOT touch any reptiles, but Brady did), and then the kids took turns doing an egg hunt with others around their age. It was a madhouse, and all the eggs were gone quickly (with parents following behind their kids with phones recording it all, of course).

Brady filled his basket up, and he was so pumped to see that there were little toys in each of the eggs. He was also pumped to meet the Easter bunny for the first time, and he was not scared of him, like he was scared of Santa just five months ago.

After the hunt, we went inside and had brunch with some friends, so it was a great little festive outing. And the weather was perfect. Initially it was supposed to rain, but the skies cleared just in time for the event. Also, I love to see people in their Easter outfits. You know?

(Here’s my blue wrap dress, and I’m wearing a small. And here’s my purse.)

Easter Sunday

Then on Sunday, we ventured out to Anne Springs Close Greenway, which is a big green nature preserve in South Carolina that we’d heard good things about. It was actually a lot cooler than I expected, and there was a restaurant, a picnic area, lots of trails, a nature center and a big lake to walk around. Fun fact: Anne Springs Close Greenway has almost two times more acreage than Central Park in NYC, so it’s big. (Also, happy Earth Day today!)

We were there about two hours, so we felt like we got our admission fee’s worth (it’s $12 per person for people over five, so Brady was free). I’d love to go back and explore more. We stayed on the family friendly path around the lake that was super flat (Haigler Loop), but I’d like to see the more hilly terrain on my next visit. We brought a picnic lunch from Sprouts with us in a cooler backpack, so we ate that at a sunny picnic table before heading home.

After some naps and showers (and work for me), we did another Easter egg hunt for Brady outside of our house, and he loved it. From there, we had a nice Easter feast in the dining room. We wanted to keep it easy, so we bought a ham, my mom made roasted sweet potatoes, and we had veggies, salad and of course, Hawaiian rolls, with Publix carrot cake for dessert. It was Easter-meal perfection. And once the table was cleared, we took a family walk with the dogs (my mom brings her dog, Bentley, when she visits).

(Here’s my green dress, and I’m wearing a small.)

We’re so happy my mom was around to spend the holiday with us, and we had a great one! But we were all tuckered out on Sunday night after a busy weekend.

Pre-Easter weekend wine tasting 

One more fun thing that we did — even before my mom arrived — is that Dave and I went to a wine-tasting social at our country club last Thursday night. I miss going to wine country in California, and although we’ve been told there are wineries here in North Carolina, we haven’t tried any of them out yet. This activity wasn’t quite the same (okay, it was FAR from the same), but at least we got to dress up and have wine in an adult setting.

(Here’s my dress, and I’m wearing an extra small. And here are my sandals.)

This little happy hour was fun, and we ran into some neighbors there that we chatted with. We never do social stuff during the week, and it was a nice kick-off to a holiday weekend. 

And that concludes the favorites for today — all of which were experiences, none of which were stuff — and I like it when that happens. Lots of chances to dress up, hang out and spend time with my special people.

Workouts

My workouts from last week

Here’s where I share a recap of my previous week of workouts. I share this to show you how I try to get diversity in my week, and how I always take a rest day (almost always). But remember, I do a little bit more than the average person, because I’m a group fitness instructor. 

Workouts from the week of 4/11

• Monday: Taught 1-hour barbell class at Life Time, 9:45 a.m.
• Tuesday: Taught 1-hour barre class with light weights at Life Time, 9:30 a.m.
• Wednesday: Taught 45-minute barre class with light weights at Life Time, 5:30 p.m.
• Thursday: Taught 45-minute combo class at Life Time, 9:45 a.m.
• Friday: Taught 45-minute barbell class at Life Time, 11:30 a.m.
• Saturday: 15-minute yoga via Les Mills+, 9 a.m., 15-minute full-body weights at home, 6 p.m.
• Sunday: Rest day

This past week was a good one! I taught my regular classes, took a full day off, and even spent a little time working on some strength movements I want to improve on at home, as well as did a short yoga session for some recovery. I’d be happy to repeat this exact week, because it had just about everything (except for tennis, but that was back this week).

Best read of the week …

Here’s an article I read this week that I felt like sharing with you:

Body image in kids. What we say to people about their bodies matters. Now, I’m not raising a girl, but I still think about this issue sometimes when it relates to kids too. People sure don’t mind commenting on pretty much anything about kids’ appearances and even their bodies. And while I know people don’t have bad intentions, and it’s typically harmless, I do think there needs to be some sort of filter for this moving forward. This article is all about how and why to stop talking about the size of bodies, as well as how to promote a positive body image in your children. 

Quote of the week …

Here’s a quote from a recent meditation that spoke to me:

Blog archives of the week …

There are so many posts on the blog worth revisiting, so let’s look back at two good ones (one recent, one older) …

Fitness. I wrote this post based on things I’ve learned from talking to and working with hundreds of people in the gym over the years … “Five common fitness mistakes I see people making.”

Routines. I love routines, how about you? I’m sharing some of ours in this post … “These are some of our regular daily and weekly routines.”

Thanks for stopping by the blog today, my friends. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Stay hydrated, stay moving, and see you back here soon! 🙂 

Questions of the day for YOU …

How was your week?

What are you up to this weekend?

What’s one good thing you did for yourself this week?