Well ... I ended the month higher than I started. End weight and average was up. Exercise has been been pretty standard. I tried to go back to tracking the eating ... I'd have a few days where I'd really try to keep calories in check, then days I'd go uber over, and days I didn't even bother to add them up.
Like February of last year, there was a big snow, enough that they cancelled school. So #3 and #5 had the day off, but #4 in online school was still able to do his work per usual. We had Valentine's Day this month, as well President's Day (no school) and a birthday for #2.
#1 and his wife (and #4) had gone to a lot of movies the past year, so they watched The Oscars and made predictions. I was gifted a "free box" from HelloFresh and tried making those meals, but schedules are so crazy here it was actually hard to even fit in a time when #3 could partake (and he wanted to help with the making of it, testing his cooking skills).
There were some game nights. "The Great Dalmudi" made a comeback (and I did quite well), Monopoly and SET. Hubs took #4 shooting BB Guns in the backyard and stepped up the shooting with #1 at TNT. We moved the basketball hoop set we got for Christmas from the garage to the basement, so it is getting a little more use (had to fold up the ping pong table, but it had been a while since anyone used it. It could be brought out with minimal rearranging if anyone wanted to play). #5 has had a bit of basketball, wrapping up the season with his Jags, and then his "wolfpack" will get back together for Spring&Summer. Hubs had a weekend getaway with the guys in St. George riding Rzrs.
Zumba ... it's more than just exercise for me. It gets me out of the house and keeps me from being a complete homebody. 18 official classes. I've been doing a little better with the treadmill than the elliptical. The treadmill takes a little less effort. Just walking. I was on it 23 days this month, and did double duty four days. I was on the elliptical 19 days, but only achieved my hour eight of those days. I got on the bike once. No Pickleball or Ping Pong ... #4 has not been interested. Three weight workouts. I always mean to do more ...
Several basketball games with #5. Family time, helping #1 move into his house. A doctor visit for #4 and a dinner date with Hubs. For Valentines.
What I was Watching ...
My movies were mainly on Disney+ still, while we have it. I had planned on canceling after one month (that was really all I needed to watch what I wanted) but then Hubs and I started The Mandalorian and hadn't quite wrapped it up. So, a second month of Disney+, and a few more movies. ToyStory4 was a new addition. I hadn't seen it in theaters. All the others were older films ... I mean "Willow" released in 1988! I was still in high school! It was interesting how much of it I remembered though. I still enjoyed it, even today. Some sentimentality may have played into that. "Dan in Real Life" was also a rewatch. I think I'd seen Secretariat before, but I'm not sure. Funny ... I kept waiting for Toby McGuire to show up (wrong horse movie that starts with "S" ... Seabiscuit). Quite the coincidence, "Queen of Katwe" and "Red Tails" had the same leading man. I didn't recognize him right off though, as a number of years passed between the productions, and his characters were very different. "The Greatest Game Ever Played" ... I liked it. They made a movie about golf interesting. "A Ring Of Endless Light" was a pretty typical made-for-Disney movie.
Two series ... one up with Hubs, catching an episode before bed some nights. The Mandelorian ... I didn't love it, although "Baby Yoda" was cute. After my little Marvel Marathon last month, I decided to give "The Runaways" a try. I liked it initially, but then it got pretty silly. I finished the first season just to have a sense of closure (even though there was no closure. Cliffhanger ending). There are a couple more seasons on Disney+ but ... eh.
I grabbed a couple DVDs from the library too. Helping my son with his English, we'd had some excerpts from "Into Thin Air" written by Jon Krakauer, as well as Hillary and Norgay's account from their climb of Everest. It got me interested in seeing the movie accounting "Everest" (Krakauer's trip). I also reread a book (see below, "Peak") that was fiction but also covered the climb. Then I checked out "Child44" ... I'd read that book a while back and just wasn't at all sure how they would make it into a movie. Even having read the book, I thought the movie was confusing. Not good. And they totally left out the main twist of the book! I had to get the book out of the library again to review it after watching the movie.
February Reads - #JenBsBooks
As mentioned above, Peak and Child44 were rereads for me. I'd "read" Peak before, and went with audio this second go-round, and the opposite with Child44 ... I'd listened to it the first time, and checked out the Kindle copy (and I admit, it was more of a skim than a complete read). Call it Courage is one I've read multiple times. It came back on my radar after a unit on the Polynesian people in #4's World Civ class. I discovered my library had the audiobook, I'd always just read it before. Not as many books for the month as usual, but The Way Of Kings was long, the longest single book I've ever read. Over 1000+ pages. The Children of Blood and Bone has had a lot of buzz, and I liked it a lot too. Marking Time was also quite good ... I started a 2-month Audible Escape trial for free, and it was available on that.
So that was February ... even had an extra day (leap year) and palindrome day 02022020.
