The Things At Which I Used To Be Good

I was watching the Olympics with the little boys and they know that I used to figure skate when I was a kid, so they were asking me if I could still skate...could I skate backwards...could I do any jumps, etc.  It made me realize that they've never been ice-skating with me and we will have to try and fix that this winter.  It also made me sad to think about something that I used to have skill in, hours spent learning a sport or instrument or subject, at which now I would merely stumble around.  So without further ado, here is an incomplete list of THE THINGS AT WHICH I USED TO BE GOOD:

FIGURE SKATING

I took ice skating lessons from ages 6-11 I believe.  We would have a big show once a year and perform in a group number.  I loved ice skating, but what I really loved was skating fast and dangerous.  If there had been a Speed Skater group, I would have joined that instead of figure skating.

VIOLIN

In elementary school, we were able to have string instrument group lessons, so I chose violin.  When I went to a private school, the lessons stopped.  I played for about five years and picked it up easily.  I was a member of the Cape Cod Youth Symphony Orchestra and we would play in the mall at Christmas time and I thought that was a very big deal - ha!

CALCULUS

Guys, I was a math nerd.  When someone would ask me what I wanted to be, I would say "I just want to sit at a desk all day and do math" and voila! accounting! (sort of).  Numbers just make sense to me - black and white - no feelings or thoughts involved.  In high school, I took a summer math class voluntarily so that I could skip ahead and complete two full years of Calculus in high school.  The love I had for math was strong, so it makes me very saddened to realize that I couldn't do more than basic calculus problems right now.  I've still got a strong hold on Algebra though!

FRENCH

I took French as a subject from grades 8-12 and we were only allowed to speak French in the classroom starting in grade 11.  Although I was never able to speak it fluently, I was able to read and write French tres bien.  My name in French class was Annette, nicknamed "Anne" and I miss that jolie petite fille.

SKIING

Because we owned ice cream shops, we couldn't take summer vacations and used to go skiing in the winter instead.  I started skiing at age four and was a speed demon with no patience for going back and forth across a mountain, just straight down.  Now with the price of skiing and the size of our family, I haven't been since college, and I would probably fall and break a hip anyways.

I went looking for photos of me ice skating and playing violin, but came up with these for now.  I'm still searching!

Baby Colleen Margaret

I have 5 siblings, but most of my pictures are with my little sister because we were the last two.

One popsicle, why?

My little sister rode horses, I did it once at a camp and got thrown off.

I think this was in Colonial Williamsburg

How about you?  What old talents of yours do you miss most?

Week in Review: Olympic Excitement, Spectacular Sunsets, Family Togetherness, and Superbowl Sundae

 Happy February Friday!

This week brought the stomach bug to the parents in the Martin house, and while the male species got a mild case, the female didn't know if she was going to make it through the night.  But she did!  With the male's help, whatta guy.  He was also the cause of spread virus but still, it was as romantic as it gets nowadays.

I'm very excited for the Olympics to start and hoping the Opening Ceremony doesn't offend my faith this time.  

What were they thinking?

Let's just have a nice non-political celebration of these awesome individuals who make me cry because they are so talented and determined and strong, m'kay?  Also me:

Catholic Schools Week got split into two weeks due to snow days, and the only photos I got were of the "Parent Picnic" where Maggie got to appear as the third parent she's pretended to be all her life:

It was also crazy hair and wear your clothes backwards day, in case you think he always looks like this.

And the 100 Days of School, where Declan turned his favorite bball player into the number 100 and Brendan dressed as a centenarian who has fallen one too many times and now wears a life alert (he just wanted an excuse to wear Maggie's old boot):

Week in Review: Snow Globe, Prom Dress Stress, and a Fitness Faux Pas

 Happy last Friday in January!  Did y'all het hammered with snow and/or cold temps this past week?  We sure did!

JP's roommate digging out in Pittsburgh

Grandpa looking at the snow drift outside the window

Andrew's view of campus

Eamon + friends playing in the snow

Week in Review: Say it Ain't Snow, Skin and Bones, Tata Toys and Anyone Have a Meatball Recipe?

 Happy Friday!  Winter has certainly arrived in Massachusetts, and driving home from watching the Patriots game at my brother's house was frightful.  I put the Rosary on and we prayed our way home.

But it was worth watching the Pats win and *most likely* go to the Superbowl.  My niece's boyfriend is working in construction on a house across the street from Drake Maye's house, and his wife Ann, who is famous for being the cutest baker, brought over cookies one day to the crew.  How sweet!

Phil made pigs-in-blankets and I made a Maple Dijon dipping sauce and those suckers got eaten up fast!

Week(s) in Review: Back to Ordinary Life

Happy Friday!  I'm looking forward to a three-day weekend as these five day workweeks after Christmas break have felt extra long.  Do you feel the same?

JP went back to Pittsburgh on Dec. 31 because he had to fly out to a wedding in Nebraska on Jan. 1 (he did a reading) and school started back up for him on Jan. 5.  He loves any chance he has to get back with his college buddies!

There was one night this week that I looked at the kids' locations and I saw JP and Andrew were 1 building away from each other in Pittsburgh.  Turns out JP was still at school studying and Andrew was at a Duquesne basketball game with friends.  So close!

Christmas Break 2025: Disney Springs, Aquatica, Celebration and New Year's in Maryland

On the day after Christmas (and a long park day at Busch Gardens) we stayed at the resort for the day.  The bigs played pickleball before swimming, and the littles just swam all day:

After showering and dinner, we surprised the kids with some Christmas gifts!  We had originally asked them if they would rather have gifts or a vacation for Christmas, and they chose a vacation unanimously.  But then JP mentioned wanting an instant pot for his apartment, and Eamon needed a winter coat, and my mother's heart couldn't only buy two kids gifts...so one purchase led to another, multiply by seven and carry a one to make it all "fair" and we ended up with some presents for everyone.  They really had no clue, so it was extra fun to give them gifts:

Christmas Break 2025: Florida and Christmas and Busch Gardens, Oh My!

We arrived in beautiful Davenport, FL (right outside of Orlando) on Tuesday, Dec. 23 "Christmas Adam" and drove straight to Publix, which is such a treat of a grocery store but the prices - oh my!  Next time we will just go to Walmart.  The Grinch happened to be passing out candy, and we split into three teams and divided the list into threes and off we went...

The weather for the week could NOT have been any better, it was sunny and 78 degrees every single day that we were there.  It was cool enough to run in the mornings too and this is why we dream of being snowbirds one day.

We settled into the rental house, which was really perfect except for a dirty rug and walls (why get a white rug in a rental?) and the handprints on the wall reminded me of home.  But a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom house feels LUXURIOUS to this family of nine, since we're used to living in a 4 bedroom, 2 bath home.  Oh my! I don't have a photo of the house, but I do have a photo from the front door looking out:

The house was part of a resort, so we could use the resort amenities which were really nice.  A huge pool, waterslide and lazy river gave us the perfect Christmas Eve day plans:

We also had a little pool back at the house that was used every night by all, and every morning by some.  When I asked for the pool to be heated, I was told it was broken and they couldn't heat it, but after lots of emails back and forth, they fixed it right before we arrived and it was steaming and sooooo relaxing.  The chemicals were super strong though, and Declan ended up with what appeared to be a chlorine allergy by the end of the trip (rashes and swollen lips).  Oh my!

We watched Man vs. Baby as a family - one episode per night - which was really fun to do around Christmastime.  I think the kids liked Man vs. Bee even better, but we are huge Rowan Atkinson fans.

2025 Workout Wrap-up

Back in 2024, I used to write weekly Workout Wednesday posts and then stopped when my Apple Watch went missing in the ocean.  Maybe I'll start those posts again so one can see how an average late 40-something mom of many works out...but maybe there would be no interest?  Personally, I love to see how others eat and exercise and gain their wisdom, but when I try to share I feel that I'm being annoying.  In any case, here's a post about my 2025 Workouts with data summarized by my new Apple Watch per month:

January was a mix of running, walking and elliptical plus weight/HIIT classes at the gym.  The focus was definitely on cardio after all the holiday indulging!

In February we started a 10 week Epic III program by Caroline Girvan (for FREE on YouTube) and woke up early before work to fit them in together.  Then I would shower, go to work, and walk 3 miles on my lunch break.  Because it was winter, I didn't feel the need to shower after my walk and so this plan worked out wonderfully for the cold months.  It did make me burn less calories because of the focus on strength training over cardio, but I felt really strong and accomplished during those 10 weeks.

March was a continuation of February's plan - Epic III + walking - but with lots of rainy weather, I ended up having to change some outside walks to treadmill runs and got more time and calories burned.

April brought a road trip and Easter, which always changes up the workout routine but it looks like we kept pretty steady by adding in more walks with the dog after work, now that the weather was nicer and the sun was out for longer.

May was the star of the months, workout wise!  I tried to look back and see why, and I think it was a resurgence of running + gym classes after all 10 weeks of strength training focus.  I'm a fair weather runner, in the sense that I won't run outside when it's hot so June-September are treadmill running months for me.  But May is a beautiful running month!

When school gets out in June, our summer routine starts.  We wake up at 6am and walk the dog four miles wearing weighted vests (get one that's 1/10 of your body weight) and then do a strength training program at home (this time it was using the Ladder app) before showering and heading off to work.  There's no kids to drop off at school + I start work an hour later, so that makes getting in the morning exercise feasible during the summer months.

Same as June :)

At the end of August, we brought Eamon out to college and then school starts for everyone at home and a new workout routine is needed once again.  But for most of August, it was the same walking with weighted vests + strength training.

September is school and fall sports (four kids at home = four completely different sports) so I'm not surprised that I fit in MORE workouts that were LESS time per workout.  I am a big believer in squeezing the steps in whenever I can, be it walking at soccer practice or working out at he gym during swim practice.  It all adds up!

October begins the prefect running outdoor weather months where I realize I don't hate running, I just hate running in the heat.  Due to my gender and age, I don't prefer to run outside by myself anymore, so most long runs are done on the weekend with Phil and the other runs are on a treadmill during my lunch break.  My love for the treadmill has grown leaps and bounds for safety reasons (I've fallen a few times outside) + a bathroom nearby + I can watch a good show.

November's workouts were mostly a lunch-time run or elliptical plus walking the dog after work.  Early mornings haven't been a thing since school started, and I'm loving it.  I so very much admire people who workout early in the morning, but unless the sun is shining and it's relatively warm, I have such a hard time getting up any earlier than 7am.

On December 1, we started a 12 week training plan for a half-marathon.  Phil and I bought each other new sneakers for Christmas!  I have a lot less workouts in December because it's too dark to walk the dog long in the evenings, and too cold to get my tush out of bed in the mornings.  Plus holidays + travelling, but we did pretty good for the month.

Overall 2025 was a nice, healthy, and active year.  I completed 714 workouts, which is almost exactly 2 per day and spent 538 hours this year on my fitness, or about an hour and a half each day.  That may sound like a lot but considering we get 24 hours each day, that's only 7% of my time spent working out!  I try to do a "real" workout every day, by which I mean a run or class at the gym or strength training session or elliptical, and also a walk every day.  My walks from work are spent listening to audio books (a twofer) and my walks from home include the dog and hubby and kids who are willing (family time).  My goal is to hit 800 Move Calories on my watch, and at least 10,000 steps but I don't mind when I fall short.    

As much as I love to reap the physical benefits of exercise, I mostly do it for my mental health.  I feel less stressed, more relaxed and more accomplished when I move a lot.  Sleep is better, relationships are better, and it makes me grateful to be able to use this God-given body like I should.  I know that when we are healthy, we want many other things, but when we are not healthy, we only want one thing.  So I'm just over here trying my best to stay as healthy as I can :)  How did you do in 2025?