6 Miles!

Two weeks ago I set a goal of walking at least 12 miles that week. It was a lot colder last week, so I set my goal at 7 miles. I didn't walk at all on Thursday or Friday, but I logged about 5 1/2 miles on Saturday which put my total for the week at 9 miles. Yesterday I went on two separate walks - one with Nadia and Milo and a second with Oliver and Milo. Milo did fine with walking 5.5 miles yesterday when there was a break at home in the middle. I told Nadia yesterday that my goal was to walk at least 15 miles this week, but since I walked a little over 6 miles today, I'm changing my goal to 25 miles for the week; it's supposed to be in the 60's all week. Oliver was riding his bike when Milo and I were walking today. Oliver wanted us to walk at least 8 miles today, but Milo was very thirsty and tired. Prior to today's walk, I had wondered what his limit was because in every previous walk he had seemed like he could keep going. At two different points in today's walk he sprawled out on the road. I picked him up and carried him for part of the trip during two different instances. When I take Ian to the orthodontist tomorrow, I'm going to buy Milo a water bottle that has a bowl attached that he can use when we're taking a walk. I *think* if he had been able to drink during our walk he could have kept going. We shall see if he's up to an 8 mile walk later this week if we bring water for him. Oliver was convinced he couldn't ride his bike up one of the hills on our route. I offered him a Hershey bar if he could ride his bike up the hill without stopping. That was just the motivation he needed! I'll also be buying a Hershey bar tomorrow. 

Other highlights of the weekend would include:

1. I rented Samson from Sight and Sound this morning. We watched part of it. We saw the show in Lancaster five years ago, but naturally Oliver doesn't remember it. We have been reading the book of Judges lately and had been reading about Samson last week so I thought it was good timing. We'll finish watching it tomorrow as it is two hours long. We considered it to be our "first service" this morning as we are only attending one service at church due to COVID. 

2. We played Uno this afternoon (Nadia's choice). Paul won the first round, but we played four games. Oliver won the second, and I won the third and fourth, which meant I was the winner today. Paul had won every single game we played the last three weeks. His streak came to an end today. 

3. Nadia and I gave Milo a bath yesterday afternoon. We've been giving him a bath every two weeks, but this was the first time that after I blow dried his fur, we trimmed his fur. I used the clippers on him, and Nadia used the scissors on his face while I held him. It was quite a messy endeavor, but I think that considering we have no experience and he's not exactly cooperative (the groomer gave him a D last month), I think we did a pretty good job! If he is a part of our family for 12 years, we'll save about $6,000 if we do the grooming ourselves. (The pictures in this post were taken last week prior to when we groomed him.)

4. Yesterday morning I took Milo and the kids to an egg hunt. This church hasn't had an egg hunt the past 12.5 years we've lived here. If COVID hadn't ever happened, they would have had one last year, and I doubt that many people would have attended. Because there were zero egg hunts last year and there is only one "drive-thru" event egg hunt scheduled in our town this year, there were TONS of people at this egg hunt. They gave a gospel presentation first (read the story of the Lost Sheep and then went through the colors of the wordless book), had an egg hunt, and then gave out free hotdogs, bottled water, chips, and cookies to everyone in attendance. Almost everyone was wearing a mask or shield, but the 6 feet rule wasn't being followed. I was surprised that being in a crowd bothered me. It was the first time I had been in a crowd in a year, and it was a bit unnerving, which certainly never bothered me prior to COVID. I brought my good camera, but the battery was dead so I just took two pictures with my 8 year old phone. They had the youngest children (0-3) search for eggs on the playground and had a field roped off in two groups. My three were  in the same section as it was for ages 8-12. Ian and Nadia have sometimes been in the same age bracket for an egg hunt, but Oliver and Nadia have never been in the same bracket before. The kids picked up quite a few eggs, but they didn't get any prize eggs. Their eggs contained either little toys (erasers, tops, tiny slinkies, etc.) or small pieces of candy such as a tootsie roll or Starburst. Some of the candy (ex. Twizzlers) was as hard as a rock. I have a feeling they had these eggs prepared last spring. Milo was not happy that we were gone for 4+ hours on Friday (play date). He peed in his crate for the first time, and he's been with us for more than 3 months. That was part of the reason we took him to the egg hunt. He sticks to me like glue if he sees that I am putting on my shoes. He does NOT want me to leave the house without him.

5. Since Paul comes home from work earlier on Saturdays (5:30pm compared to 8:30pm M-F), I placed a small grocery order for him to pick up at Weis on his way home yesterday. Partially I was trying to get some things we need for our Passover seder this week (grape juice, Matzoh crackers, and horseradish), and I also was hoping to get some more of the Blueberry Crisp ice cream. The Weis closest to our home is small, and they don't carry that flavor. Paul could not believe how thrilled I was when he brought in the grocery bags and I saw that they had filled that part of my order. I was surprised because I had received an email saying a couple of items were unavailable and that had been one of them. I am telling you it is SUCH a delicious flavor of ice cream. YUM!