a family journey

Hanging around in my hammock today.  Not doing too much except for the bike ride this morning.  Great to swing in the breeze and read.

Prayer

I say the Our Father or Hail Mary over Lily before I got to bed every night, and just hold my hand over her while I say it.  One night a while ago, she half woke up, saw my hand, gave me a high-five, and went back to sleep with a half smile on her face.

Bike and Breakfast

The bike ride was good and the breakfast tasted great.

Went for a great bike ride and breakfast this morning.  Drove to Tracadie and biked to Mount Stewart for breakfast, about 9km one way.  Very smooth trail and I'm impressed how well the entire trail system in PEI is maintained.  Lots of great scenery, farm fields, large round bales, country houses, .5 km through bull rushes on either side.  Great ride.

We did unfortunately run into a patch of mosquitoes about 1km from Mount Stewart.  We raced as fast as we could, but they covered us.  Poor Lily got scared, but was very brave in keeping on biking.  When we got to the restaurant a few people said they bike the trail a lot and that was the only place with any real mosquitoes. 

Stopped at Jewel's Country Market on the way back, by car, and picked up some new potatoes and yellow beans.  Good start to the day.

Chairs

I made a new type of chair.  The pink one, above, is made by cutting out four parts.  The parts fit together by slots and hooks cut into the chair.  There are no glue, nails, or screws.  It looks pretty comfortable as well.

I also made a folding Adirondack chair, yellow one below.  The folding part was so I could take it to Cape Breton.  I wouldn't make it folding again; it was fun but too much work for little gain.  I'd just make the pieces and assemble them in Cape Breton.  I'm going to make another Adirondack one for Louise; she liked it out on our deck early this summer.

CrossFit

Exercising is going well.  I didn't get there too much in July with a new job and lots going on, but I'll pick it up again in August quite seriously.  I do want to hit the CrossFit Masters (50+) in two years.  Should be fun and lots of work to get there.

Diet

I'm going to try the Paleo diet, and will post here extensively (in the exercise blog), to see how it goes.  I'm exercising a lot and am in fantastic shape, but eat too much and too much of the wrong things.  Pretty much like everyone else I guess.  :)

Cottage

Land is cleared at the cottage and I'm deciding what to do with it.  I'll create a 'small aboretum' plan and execute it over the next few years.  I have somewhat of a vision in my mind and it will be fun to bring it off.   I got a new battery-operated chainsaw last month, and will test it out with a new battery in August.

Trying to post from the iPad. It is a frustrating experience. Have to use an iPhone app; very small typing; won't be doing too often!!!

What a beautiful day today.

Just got back from a fantastic walk on the boardwalk in Charlottetown.  I see this view from my office.

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Loaded up a new video of Lily and her friend creating a school.  They are also writing a play for The Magic Tree House books.

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Great idea for funding ... well, basically anything.  I'll have to look for something like this in Canada.   Looks very interesting for smaller projects, 2K and up.

KickStarter

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Should get my iPad in a week or so.  Can't wait. 

Elements

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I really, really think the iPad is going to change my industry in a profound way.  I'm already thinking up some business ideas.  Ones that will not require large outlays of cash and staff to create, but can reach and help a wide variety of people - or just be fun. 

Alice in Wonderland

Great start to May.

Louise, Lily and I are starting off the spring and summer with a bang.  We decided to jump into May with gusto and enthusiam.  I'm focusing this month on getting 2-year fitness plan in place for 50+ CrossFit games in 2012, and work around the house and cottage.   Louise is focusing on fitness and other things I forget right now.

I'll write more as the month goes on.  It is looking like a great upcoming year!

We redid Lily's room.

Lily doesn't like change, and didn't want any part of doing away with anything in her room.  She must be growing up, 7 in June you know, because she agreed in the winter to have a room make over.

And make it over we did.  (Check out the Room Reveal photo gallery to the left.)  We revealed it to Lily on the weekend (see videos below) and she loved it.  She must have said a couple of dozen times how much she liked it, and was very excited to sleep in it that night.  She has to jump up to get in bed, but that's part of the fun.  She gets up early now to read, and will sit in her new reading chair for 1/2 an hour before calling us and saying she is up.

We did a lot of the work ourselves, everything except painting the walls and covering the reading chair. 

Louise designed the look of the room, picked all the colours and fabric.  I built the bed (Bed and room - before and Bed - Mar 21 photo galleries), Louise did the valances, painted both dressers, the quote boards, and the sign with Lily's fiddle song.

We had a ball!