Gates Pond Walk

After spending many years together living in Boston, Brian and I weren't sure how we would adjust to life in the suburbs living on a tiny, dead-end street. Would we miss the convenience of walking everywhere, our neighborhood green grocer or friends who were a few blocks or T-stop away? We did miss all of those things (and still do) and it took us a while to get used to the quiet and make some friends in town. But we found that our "downtown" was a short walk away and afforded us a few spots to grab dinner or a drink, a hardware store and gift shop and a rail trail and soon settled into our new neighborhood.

In the past 10 years our town has really evolved into a local restaurant hub, we have made some great friends and are becoming more active in our community. We have quick access to two cities and a Target within 5 minutes, but also to apple and horse farms, rivers, ponds that are only a few miles away. As our kids have gotten a bit older, we have really enjoyed taking advantage of the natural resources in the area to get out and be active with the kids.

One of our favorite activities is taking the kids for a hike around Gates Pond. The 2 mile loop around the pond has much to keep them occupied and interested including places to toss rocks in the pond, rocks to climb on and flat areas to let loose and run.

Our first full loop around Gates Pond - Fall 2014

When we began organizing activities for 2016 to build awareness and support the Boomer Esiason foundation, we thought it would be good to try something new. A local shop owner suggested a Painting Party, intrigued we looked into it a bit more. We learned that you arrive at the studio and after picking your easel, you enjoy wine, snacks and conversation you lean how to pain the chosen project. Well it sounded like a great idea to us! Once the date was booked all that was left to do was to pick out a project for the evening. We left that up to Colin and he chose a project called Gates Pond Walk. Perfect considering how much fun we have there as a family.

We hope you will consider coming out to join us on March 2, 2016!
Click here for more details and registration link.

Kicking off - Seven before 7

Happy New Year from Chasing Tomorrows!

Seven before 7 - Race 1: Freezer 5, Sterling, MA

Today, I completed the first event in my Seven before 7 series, the Freezer Five in Sterling, MA. This was supposed to be my first race of 2016, but instead because I am nursing a bit of tendinitis in my right foot, I was relegated to walking with a few run intervals thrown in to stay warm and a short jog to the finish. The enjoyable company provided by members of the local running club and two really nice people I met along the way, made the miles fly by. I am fortunate to be able to move my body and happy to have started off the New Year in a positive, healthy way.



Training and racing (regardless of pace) is hard work; honoring your body's needs and resting so you can keep moving towards even bigger goals can be even harder. I was happy to bring up the rear today and spend some time in the back of the pack. It really is more fun!

Unsuccessful a selfie with Mount Wachusett

Great turn out by the Highland City Striders

The next race on the schedule is the Old Fashioned 10 miler on February 21 in Foxboro, MA.

2016 Fitness Goals

During today's five miles I reflected on my fitness goals for 2016. Some of the goals are very specific and others are meant to reflect lifestyle improvements.

• Run with my heart and focus on the current mile
• Get outside more with my family to run and exercise
• Complete first Trail Half Marathon (signed up for the Cape Cod Trail Half on 4/10/16)
• Make strength training a priority - target 2x/week (in addition to my regular yoga practice)
• Complete at least 1 sprint triathlon

A bit less formal than the goals listed above, I also plan to continue my yoga practice, keep up with swimming and spend some time cycling (to meet goal 5). I hope this year that Brian and I can run a race together or even better - perhaps the four of us can cross a finish line together.

The medal and running gloves coordinate nicely with my Team Boomer toque, don't you think?

How did you start off 2016?

Kim

Spreading Kindness

A few years ago, we adopted a tradition that both Brian and I enjoyed growing up in the 70's and 80's - a felt Christmas Tree Advent Calendar complete with felt ornaments to add each day as we count down to the holiday. Aside from the occasional arguments over who hangs which ornament where, (sharing is hard when you are a kid) we have all really enjoyed our little felt tree.

Felt Advent Calendar

Taryn and Colin are now at the age where they really love getting presents and like many children, that has become a big focus of the holiday for them. Despite the fact that we lead a relatively secular life, I found myself wanting to shift their focus off of the material aspects of Christmas and instead channel some of their boundless energy in the direction of doing nice things for others.

Random Acts of Kindness

In late November, a few friends in my Facebook feed were sharing the Coffee Cups and Crayons Random Acts of Kindness calendar. After a bit of discussion with Brian and the kids, we reviewed the calendar and searched Pinterest for additional ideas and decided on 24 small acts of kindness we could do each day to spread joy in our community. Megan from Coffee Cups and Crayons offers a printable calendar on  her blog, but we decided I would write the activities on paper and tape them to a dollar store calendar we have hanging in our kitchen. That way, we can move the activities around if needed. It isn't fancy, but it is a start and next year we can always change the system around.

Our Not-so-fancy Kindness Calendar

Activities

One of the things I always worry about when taking on a new tradition is how much time it will take to prepare and execute. When choosing activities to do, we tried to balance the preparation time and complexity so we had some very simple tasks to execute as well as some that require a bit more planning and work to execute. We also tried to spread the more time consuming items around the calendar to allow for ample time to prepare.

Some examples of the simple tasks include: telling a joke, leaving a note for a friend, calling a loved one and smiling and greeting everyone we meet.

A few that need more preparation and coordination include: scheduling time to socialize the cats with the local rescue group, leaving kindness stones along our favorite trail, place pine cone bird feeders at the park and bringing cookies to the fire station.

Leaving Popcorn at RedBox

I am really looking forward to the activities where we get to prepare something together as a family - like the kindness stones or cookies and then have a little adventure to execute our act of kindness.

Does your family have a tradition that helps spread holiday joy?

Spreading kindness, Kim