Embracing the Mess

We left for Christmas with our house looking like this...

Why? Well, we had a little roof problem, which resulted in a leak down the wall (drywall damage) and into the wood floor. That resulted in a little mildew, requiring new wood floor and complete sanding and re-staining to match the rest of the house. When we got home from our Christmas in Louisiana, I began to feel a little panicky with this view. I told myself, "Take deep breaths, Kat. This is no big deal! Ok, don't take deep breaths because the stain is probably toxic. Ok, so go outside and take deep breaths. Oh wait, it's 20 degrees... Don't go outside."

In case you can't see the layer of grime covering our den and kitchen, here's a close-up.

Two days of sanding and three days of staining down. Most everything has been scrubbed clean. But we can't walk on the floor quite yet. So furniture is still stacked into our guest bedrooms. Oh well, just living the life. Embracing the mess. (At least, that's my mantra.)


On a more exciting note, our garage gym was delivered on Wednesday! By an 18 wheeler. Over 1,400 lbs of equipment and weights. Serious business.

I'm already dreaming of some pallet craft projects. Know of any good ones?? 

The finished product! It's game time.

Meeting a fellow blogger...

While I was in Pineville last weekend, guess who I got to meet??

Kathryn, who blogs at Fit Paleo Mom!

She and her husband are avid crossfitters and paleo-enthusiasts. My Uncle David works with Kathryn's husband, Sam. So when Uncle David asked if I wanted to meet her, I jumped at the chance!

So we drove out to the Inglewood Farm market in Alexandria on Saturday morning. 

 Kathryn had a booth where she was selling grain free chocolate chips cookies that looked amazing! It was fun to meet someone whose recipes we make often! My favorite recipe of hers are the Coconut Apple Muffins!

Check out her blog if you're looking for some motivation or good recipes. She cooks for a family of 5!

At-home Crossfit Workout

Billie and I did this workout several days ago:

You do the workout as quickly as you can for time.
Billie did kettle bell swings and jump-rope double unders instead of air squats and sit-ups. 

Double-under action shot

Here's my action shot. ha

I haven't done Crossfit workouts consistently, but I've done a few since my triathlon in June (in addition to tri training.) So I am excited to see if it makes a difference in my tri performance tomorrow. Wish we luck!

Also, I've been wanting a kettle bell my size... and Billie surprised me with one this weekend! After the triathlon is over, I am planning to hit the kettle bell workouts hard. I can't wait! I've been finding lots of kettle bell workouts online. Apparently, you can do a lot more than kettle bell swings with these babies.

Crossfit

First week of Crossfit=complete. I am so incredibly sore. Everywhere. I can't move in my sleep without waking up. Feel sorry for me.

My first class was one-on-one training of the 9 fundamental crossfit movements: air squat, front squat, overhead squat, sumo deadlift high pull, medicine ball cleans, shoulder press, push press, push jerk, and deadlift. (If that means anything to you?!?) The coach had me complete 10-15 of each perfectly. I was so sweaty and out of breath by the time I left. And I haven't been able to walk normally for the past 4 days. You should see me try to sit down.

Second class was one-on-one intro to the gymnastics aspects: burpees, box jumps, ring dips, hand stand pushups, pull ups, double unders (jump rope.) So now, not only can I not walk normally, I can barely lift my arms. You should see my try to brush my hair.

Third class was a 2-hour group "fundamentals" class. The instructor decided to focus on those 3 fundamental squat moves. After we practiced good form for a while, then we did a timed WOD ("workout of the day"). The WOD was:

25 air squats
20 front squats (with a 25lb bar)
10 overhead squats (25lb bar)
*three rounds of this as fast as you can, for time.

I finished last. Haha

I typically am not motivated by the competitive, yelling, high intensity stuff. And it hurts my pride to be so bad at all these new moves. I thought "maybe this Crossfit thing is not for me" about 10 times this week. But I'm hoping that crossfit will improve my cardio ability. It's high intensity workouts with constantly varied, functional movements. And crossfitters are known for excellent endurance. So I'm gonna stick with it for a bit.

Case in point: Billie's resting heart rate is 42. He is so strong, but on top of that, he can handle the cardio piece like a champ. He consistently has the highest scores at this crossfit gym.

I think my only redeeming quality at this point (as far as crossfit goes) is that I'm Billie's wife!