Weekly Review through January 27

Another quick week flew by! After spending a long weekend and MLK day at the cabin, my normal four-day school week was shifted to a Tuesday-Friday week, followed by a short two-day weekend. I know that's what normal people have- a short two day weekend- but when you're used to having 3 days off, two days really does feel short! And, to be fair, my four days of work are really long. We leave the house around 6:30 a.m. and get home by 5:30 p.m. Bleh. Those three day weekends are WELL. DESERVED.

Anyway, here's the rundown on fitness, farm, and life for this past week!

Fitness:
Monday, January 21-  This was the day we drove home from the cabin, so I didn't get anything in for today.  THIS POST has a lot more about our trip to the cabin!
January 22-  Took Tuesday off as well.
January 23-  Short evening ride on our indoor cycling bike trainer, via Rouvy!

Post-ride on Wednesday!

January 24- Rest
January 25-  Woke up early for just an easy walk at a slow pace on the Treadmill. Nice to start the day with some steps!
January 26-  Stroller walk outside with Genevieve and Harvey.
January 27-  40 minutes of indoor cycling on Rouvy

Another post-ride pic!

I was pleased with myself for fitting in two Rouvy rides this week!  What is Rouvy, you ask?  Well, we bought a smart trainer that works with our bike so we can bike indoors. This was our Christmas present to ourselves this year. You can use an app like Rouvy or Zwift to communicate with the smart trainer via bluetooth and control the resistance it applies to the back tire of the bike. We decided, after trying both those apps, that we like Rouvy a little better, and it was less expensive of a paid subscription. With Rouvy, I can select a "ride" from a massive list available on their app and ride it virtually. This week, I rode in Phoenix, Arizona and a route called North  Applegate in California! It's really great.  I love it as an alternative to running, especially while my ankle and hip are continuing to rehab.

I like using Rouvy on the iPad and either playing music or watching TV while I ride.
This is what it looks like in-app on a Rouvy ride.

Farm
The biggest news on the farm this week was Jeff's attendance at the Montana Farmers Union Producer Conference in Havre. Jeff is now an elected Board Member for Montana Farmers Union. It's a great fit for him as he's very thoughtful about giving farmers voice and representation, and he's extremely knowledgeable on farm policy.  He's making a ton of connections across the state and even nationally as he gets involved in policy and procedures of MFU and more.  It sounds like some of the speakers at the Producer Conference were really great. I didn't attend because I had school on Friday, which was day one of the conference, and I chose to stay home with Genevieve on Saturday and catch up on laundry and housework. (What fun!)

Life
The biggest event of the week was Genevieve's transition from crib to toddler bed!  Luckily, our crib was convertible, so it was an easy switch--just changing the railings out. Jeff waited until Genevieve and I were home in the evening, so she could "help" with that. I also had her pick out a new sheet for her mattress and make her bed. We were hoping that if she felt involved in the process, she might be invested in staying in bed at bedtime. She actually seemed pretty excited about the change!  Of course, when it came time to actually lay down and go to sleep, we had many several encores of mom or dad going back into her bedroom to help get her settled.

How about this cute photo of our little girl in her toddler bed! From Jeff's insta.

At first, we were watching her on the monitor and going back into her room, picking her up every single time she climbed out, putting her back in her bed, and asking her to stay there. She clearly decided it was fun to get this sort of cause and effect reaction from mom and dad, and it wasn't productive for anyone. Now, we are trying a new tactic. We do our whole bedtime routine, encourage her to climb into bed on her own, say goodnight, leave, and shut the door completely.We are giving her about 20 minutes to do whatever in her dark bedroom, and then going in and putting her back in bed. So far, this seems to be working better as it's less of a game to her.  We're hoping that she'll get to a point where she'll realize that it's really not that exciting to play alone in her dark bedroom and she'll crawl back into bed on her own to go to sleep. So far, this approach is working better for everyone.

In other news...I've been reading some great books lately, and actually finishing up a blog post book review of sorts, so stay tuned for that really soon!  Also, this upcoming weekend we are headed to the exotic land of Canada for a weekend getaway to ski. I've never actually been to Canada, despite living only 10 miles from the border fence! I'm super excited for international travel!