Bucket List Scorecard

We'll call it a Staycation kind of summer. (beach at Lumberman's Arch)

Thought I'd go back & look at our Bucket List for this past summer to see how we did now that the season is pretty much over. Not terribly impressed with our results, notes added in italics to the original list. Here they are:

1. Travel (via transit, as usual) to Victoria to visit friends. Nope.
2. Edit: Whoops! Forgot #2... Heh. Did a lot of forgetting of things. I blame baby-brain.
3. Go camping: probably tent camping with a car at a provincial park--nothing too strenuous. Didn't get to this one either.
4. Stay on at least one of the Gulf Islands for a weekend or more. Still nope.
5. Go hiking: likely not anywhere too ambitious--given my 'delicate condition'--maybe a quick one to Quarry Rock or something? Again, nope.
6. Visit Spanish Banks at low tide & play on the sand bars. We did make it to Spanish Banks but not at low tide.
7. Go to the Vancouver International Children's Festival at least once. YES, we did this twice! & it was awesome, as always!
   
8. Have a picnic dinner in a park somewhere. Brought Hawkers Delight takeout to VanDusen Gardens. Sadly, they forgot to include the rice with our order & some of the food included a piece of packaging in it, but we picnicked, yes we did.
9. Host a barbeque with friends. We had people over for food, but I think we didn't actually use the barbeque to do it. We'll still count it.
10. Make popsicles! I keep seeing great recipes for interesting & healthy versions online that I need to try. Inspired by the 50 pounds of plums, pears & apples we got from our Tinka Orchards CSA, I whizzed up some plums in the blender with cinnamon & a little cane sugar.
11. Go swimming in an outdoor pool like Kits or New Brighton. Done! We swam at New Brighton one very warm evening.
12. Visit the PNE. Should be fun this year with a rambunctious three-year-old & me at about 38 weeks pregnant. Gulp. We went on Vancity Member Day, August 29th. I waddled around with my 38-weeks-four-days-pregnant belly & it was a blast. Well, okay, Sprout had fun & we ate mini donuts. :)
13. See some outdoor movies. It was so much fun last year seeing The Princess Bride in David Lam Park, Monty Python & The Holy Grail & Labyrinth in Ceperley Meadows. I definitely want to do it again! Getting to these events is best done by transit plus a bit of a walk, or biking. Most of the movies happened once I'd gotten too pregnant to comfortably use either combination of transportation, so we just didn't go. :( Sprout & Oli did make it to a movie in the park near our house, but I was so tired that night that I stayed on the couch. Maybe I'll give us a half point for that one.

Hooo, 8.5/13? Not a brilliant score, probably would get us a grade of C. There's always next summer, I guess.

Did you write a bucket list for this summer? How did you do at ticking off the items? Care to share your 'score' below?

Follow Spokesmama here too:

Exercise Challenge: Month 7, Week 2

My trusty steed, with its new more swept-back handlebars

Sunday I biked up to Hillcrest for deep water Aquafit first thing in the morning. Much less busy than the weeknights. 80 minutes of exercise total.
Monday we biked to Southlands Pumpkin Patch with a slight detour n the way home to the top of Little Mountain in QE Park for ice cream. Round trip was about 90 minutes.
Tuesday I biked up to Hillcrest & back for a swim playdate with a couple of friends & their toddlers. I think our three kids as The Little Boys With Big Names: Linnaeus, Tycho & Trajan. 20 minutes of cycling.
Wednesday we didn't really go anywhere. Zero exercise.
Thursday I biked Sprout over to Buddings, then rode to Yaletown for an appointment. Total riding: 40 minutes.
Friday I went to Fitcamp, which I'm finding slightly less of a struggle each time. 75 minutes of exercise. Later that evening I biked to my sister's & back to borrow some clothes--20 more minutes of soggy cycling.
Saturday we had every intention of cycling down to our photo session in Gastown, but with the torrential downpour in the morning, we thought we'd end up with a series of photos of the drowned rat family, so we bussed there. We did get in a nice walk to the toddler birthday party that we attended in the afternoon, however. About 30 minutes of walking, all told.

Weekly Total: 355 minutes of exercise. 75 minutes over my goal of 280 minutes a week. :)

----------
What is this Exercise Challenge, you ask? Read my post on Day One for details & how you can get involved too.

Exercise Challenge: Month 6, Week 4

Would you be a dear & click on the badge to the left here, then click 'vote' for The Sprog on Circle of Moms Top 25 Canadian Bloggers? You can vote every 24 hours. Thanks!

& back to our regular programming... ;)

Sunday we all biked over to the food cart fest & then took the scenic route home via Pedal Depot to get me some new handle bars. About 45 minutes of riding.
Monday I ran a couple of errands--25 minutes of walking.
Tuesday I took Sprout swimming--though I can't count floating around in the pool as exercise, the bike ride was about 20 minutes worth.
Wednesday I finally made it to the deep water aquafit class at Hillcrest. With the bike ride there & back, it amounted to 80 minutes of exercise. Bought myself a 10-visit card to save a little money on admission. Depending on how fast I use it up, I might get myself an actual membership.
Thursday we speedwalked down the hill to see the groundbreaking (they dropped a red truck off a crane) at the new site of Red Truck Brewing. I'm sure all the free beer we drank completely cancelled out the beneficial effects of the walk to & fro, which was 35 minutes.
Friday I went to Fitcamp again, with the bike ride & the class: 85 minutes of exercise.
Saturday we all biked to Granville Island for a historical walking tour, Siegel's stuffed bagels & a whole lot of fun in the playground. The ride to & fro is about 40 minutes.

Weekly Total: 330 minutes of exercise. Another week that I've surpassed my goal! :D Maybe it's time to set a new one?

----------
What is this Exercise Challenge, you ask? Read my post on Day One for details & how you can get involved too.

Exercise Challenge: Month 2, Week 3

In case you hadn't noticed, I've decided to stop posting my exercise challenge 'confessions' on a daily basis. I'll see if a weekly post keeps me accountable just as well. This past week was all about the cycling--I hardly walked anywhere.

So, on to the details. Sunday & Monday my only exercise was assembling Sprout's activity centre in the back yard. The pushing, pulling & hammering has to count for some exercise. I was even a bit sore the next day, actually. I didn't keep track of the time at all, so I'll call it a half hour total.

Tuesday we were back on track with a bike ride to do some errands. I planned it so that I wouldn't even have to get off my bike for some of the stops: using the book drop outside Mount Pleasant Branch Library & the ATM at Centrepoint Mall. For the Whole Foods leg of the trip we had to get off & lock up, but I've got the hang of balancing Sprout in the iBert while I lock up the bike. If I let him out first, he tends to run around--the intersection at 8th Ave & Cambie isn't really somewhere I want him to be loose when I'm busy! The ride amounted to 26 minutes.

Wednesday we biked to Hillcrest Pool for a swim. The ride was about 20 minutes, round trip. I tried to do some swimming--pushing Sprout around on a float--but he didn't last long enough for it to count, really.

Thursday not a lot of exercising was done. However, Friday we biked to the Aquarium to see the new penguins. The round trip was about 75 minutes.

Saturday we spent most of the day at the Bike Show & Shine at the River Market, volunteering for Modo. While I did get to ride a pennyfarthing for a few minutes, we didn't actually bike to the event--we got a ride. Later that evening we biked to a party & back again. That was 50 minutes total.

 Weekly total: 201 minutes. Nine minutes short of the goal of three & a half hours.

Exercise Challenge: Days 23 & 24

Whoops! Forgot to post on Sunday. A bit of walking to & fro added up to just over 20 minutes, all of which were very brisk, I assure you. As much as I hate walking up that steep hill from the foot of Fraser Street, I know it's good for me. :P

Today was the official I'll-start-my-diet-Monday Monday: My exams, term papers & all that stuff are finished. My schedule has opened up completely & I'm ready for some aquafit! Except the pool closest to us is closed for maintenance! Argh. Bizarrely, they seem to have closed their online schedule for maintenance too. (Huh?) Why can't they just put up the damn schedule for a pool that's supposed to open in six days?

Harrumph. Anyway, not too much exercise to speak of today. Walked to the park & back, which hardly qualifies as exercise. However, the time that I really want to be out doing something in the spring weather (inching closer to room temperature out there, OMG) is when Sprout is sleeping. I'm stuck at home catching up on writing work while he snoozes three hours.

In terms of effects, I'm starting to notice my appetite is increasing a little & I'm not getting the afternoon snoozies as much the last week or so. I can only assume that this is due to the increased activity level ramping up my metabolism a little. So not an entirely bad couple of days. :)


----------
What is this Exercise Challenge, you ask? Read my post on Day One for details & how you can get involved too.

List #19: Things I love about my neighbourhood

Walking home from Tea Swamp Park

Lest you think I'm a whiner, after my previous list, I'll add in a list of things in my 'hood that I like to brag about. Check out my list after the jump!

In my natural habitat

We went swimming at Kits Pool last night. I have to say, I'm really feeling like a cetacean these days: floating in water is the only place where I don't feel unwieldy. When I get out of the pool, however, all that gravity coming back is jarring. I have a good idea how beached whales feel. I tend to prefer pools where I can walk out gradually with stairs or a beach-style edge, rather than having to haul myself up a ladder. 

It felt really good to get some exercise & the cool water was perfect after a few days of slightly-warmer-than-I'd-like temperatures. I did a few laps of aquajogging sitting on my fancy new pool noodle. It looks ridiculous: imagine me vertical in the water, pumping my arms & legs, moving much more slowly than the swimmers, with a pool noodle 'tail' sticking out of the water behind me. But the thing keeps my head out of the water & I get lots of good resistance training in without gasping for breath as I would be if I were doing front crawl or something.

Maybe I'll go one more time this week, since there's no Friday night Prenatal Aquafit class downtown, due to the holiday weekend. I think I'm addicted to aquafit! I was going twice a week until my neighbourhood pool closed before the new one opened to replace it.

I hope Sprout likes swimming when he's old enough to go... I'm really looking forward to getting him into a swim diaper & doing Mom & Baby Aquafit classes.