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Home workout and PE ideas

 in Fitness / Home  tagged adidas / athleisure / fitness / fitness tips / home / outdoor fitness / spring 2020 / summer 2020 by

home PE ideas

Outfit details from left: blue tee / black sweatpants / running shoes / boys green jersey / boys black shorts / red long sleeve tee / black and gold sweatpants / white sneakers /

Can you believe schools have been closed for a month already? Time flies! With three kids at home, I have to get creative in order to ensure they are doing their required P.E. time everyday for school.

My kids are required to combine strength, stretching, and cardio, into a thirty-minute workout, five days per week. They have to keep a log of what they do for exercise, and then turn it in to their P.E. teachers every Friday. If they aren’t logging their exercise daily, they will lose precious points on their grade!

In order to ensure they are keeping their P.E. grades up, and to also stay fit, we have devised a weekly at-home P.E. plan! This has turned into a great workout for myself, and my husband too! After all, we are all sheltering-in-place at home right now, so of course the gyms are closed. This makes working out at home even more important. We have no other place to go!

There are three important concepts my kids are required to incorporate into their daily P.E. routine. They need to incorporate stretching, strength, and cardio. We always start our workouts out with strength, then we incorporate cardio, and finish with stretching.

Here is a sample workout of what we do each day for P.E. This is a great workout for adults too! It has turned into my home workout routine.

This can be done in the backyard, or on the floor inside a home or apartment.

  • 10 jumping jacks
  • Basic stretch routine: stretch legs, back, and arms.
  • 25 squats with feet positioned directly below shoulders, toes pointing straight ahead.
  • 25 squats with feet wide, and toes pointed 45 degrees outward.
  • Walking lunges: you can go around your yard, back and forth inside a room, or save these for an outside walk.
  • 10 push-ups
  • Plank: on elbows or raised on hands for 30 seconds.
  • 10 traditional sit-ups
  • 20 crunches
  • 60 seconds of ab work, your choice.
  • Gently stretch legs, core, and arms.
  • Go out your front door for a thirty minute walk. You can incorporate walking lunges! To mix things up, we run in a circle around any cul-de-sac we see. If you are in an urban setting without cul-de-sacs, try doing a sprint down the block after ten minutes of walking. Then repeat after twenty minutes of walking.
  • You can also substitute jogging, bike riding, riding a scooter, or roller skating for walking. It’s good to alternate your cardio each day.
  • When you return home, do a ten minute stretch routine starting with your legs, followed by arms, and ending with your core.

That’s it! This workout never seems to get boring since we do it as a family, and we mix up the cardio segment of the routine. I’m so thankful we have our fabulous adidas gear for these workouts. They look and feel amazing, so we can continue working out everyday with ease! Love that!

What have you been doing for your home fitness routines during this time? Feel free to share in the comments below!

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Cathy

*thank you to addias for sponsoring this post, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

The art of the written letter

 in Home  tagged lifestyle by

write letters

Pink rose stationary / pen (gift from my Grandmother in the 1980’s, also love this pen)

When was the last time you wrote a letter, on stationary, by hand? I know, it’s been a long time! I have to admit, I miss the days of shopping for pretty stationary, and then writing a meaningful letter to a friend or family member. Plus, it was always fun to find a letter from someone, to me, in my mailbox! After all, the only mail we get these days are bills and advertisements. There is never anything fun in my mailbox!

You may have heard the news about the post office having financial troubles. Of course, this news isn’t new. It just happens to pop up every few years when something financial is going on with the economy. The post office has been hurting since society switched over to email from written letters, as well as online billing instead of paper billing. Couple that with delivering packages for Internet companies for pennies on the dollar, and our post office isn’t running with healthy financial books!

Let’s bring back the written letter!

The written letter is something everyone can benefit from. We can enjoy writing something special to a friend or family member, they can receive our beautiful letters, and the post office gets $0.55 for each stamp we use. It’s win/win! If we do this together, we will receive letters back while helping the post office! Then it will be fun going to the mailbox again. Love that!

Are you wondering what to write about? When I was in college, I used to write letters to my friends from home. We used to write letters to each other once a week. The letters recapped my week, and weekend. I would ask questions about their activities, and answer questions they had about mine. Some letters would be front and back, while others would be front, back, and multiple pages! In some cases, a letter might need two stamps! It was always fun to receive letters like this too. I loved going to my mailbox and finding a letter from my friend. I would open it before I got back inside my dorm or apartment. I would start reading it immediately as I walked towards a chair to sit on. Letters were exciting, and a great way to stay connected to my friends and family members. After reading a letter, I would re-read some parts, and then immediately grab a piece of stationary and start writing back. I would literally drop everything I was doing to respond to a letter. It was fun and meaningful. I miss those days.

Yes, we can all continue to stay connected via social media, texting, and emails; but wouldn’t it be fun to add back written letters? Plus, we are all social distancing, and some of us are still sheltering-in-place. Writing a letter, is a great way to add a personal touch to staying connected right now. Let’s do this!

I just bought this stationary online to start writing letters to my friends and family members. Here are some more fabulous stationary kits online to get your letter writing started!

Do you plan to start writing letters again?

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Cathy

Five books to read while shelter in place

 in Entertaining / Home  tagged books / family / lifestyle by

5 books to read while sheltering in place

Do you always want to read a book, but find yourself complaining about not having the time to read one? Well guess what! Now you do! Since we are all staying home, social distancing, and sheltering-in-place, we have an increased amount of free time on our hands. Unless you are one of our community heroes at a grocery store, hospital, or other essential service. If you are an essential service employee, I salute you and I thank you for your dedication to the community. You are truly helping all of us get through this!

If you are like me, and are hunkered down at home, then you have time to read. After all, wouldn’t you like a reason to get off your screens? I would!

I am currently reading “Season of the Witch,” which is about how San Francisco shaped into the city it is today. As someone whose family has been in San Francisco since the gold rush, this is very interesting to me to read. While it’s opinion differs from those in my family who lived through it, it is an interesting read and perspective.

Another good read is “Modern Etiquette Made Easy.” This is a great book for seeing how etiquette plays out in our modern era. Many of us learned older versions of etiquette growing up, so this is a great way to see what’s new, and what’s still relevant. My teen girls really enjoy reading this book too. So if you have a teen, this is a great time to teach your teen modern etiquette through this book. even if you don’t have a teen, this is a fabulous read for any age. I believe it was written for adults like us. Love it!

Shop my favorite books to read while sheltering in place:

What are some of your favorite books to read right now?

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Cathy