Snowball fight workout

Last week I was pretty good about getting to the gym most days. On Sunday, I had to forgo my morning gym visit since I was visiting a bunch of folks. First up was swinging by my god children's house.  Maggie's learned how to use a sewing machine so we made some "decorative" pillows. Aka accent pillows. And then I got a slice of suburban mom life and went to Cameron's basketball game. I realized, sitting in the bleachers, I had never watched a basketball game with such small players. They were so cute and you had everything from the kid that kind of paid attention but would dawdle with his hands in his pockets, to some kids who had mad skills and would sprint back and forth across the court. 

When we got back, we had a pretty long snow ball fight. We had teams and each had territories with the sidewalk to the front door being the river you couldn't step in. So basically dodge ball but with snowballs. It was me and Maggie against Cameron and a friend of his. Except Maggie didn't like playing so she was my assistance and would just make me snowballs and it was me against the two boys. It was a ton of fun and we made sure no one was aiming for the head. 

Then I headed off before the Sunday football game celebrations, up to Nh to dads. It wasn't until the next day I felt the good ache in my muscles, like from a proper workout. My forearm and biceps in my throwing arm and interestingly my inner thighs from shuffling side to side and twisting to dodge snow balls. My hands where still black from my black suede gloves I was wearing. They are finally clean and back to normal. So anyways, nice surprise I got my work out in after all by way of a fun snow ball fight on a warm sunny winter day. 

Also, I have to say I'm really getting into finishing things up.  There is something about buying something new, unpacking it when you get home and enjoying the newness of the thing. But since I've really cut back on any discretionary spending, I'm finally finding a similar quasi high when I purposefully finish something. I've been trying to use up products from around the house that I had decluttered from my day to day but hate to throw out. Like cleaning products or face lotions. Also, this year I'm focusing on my recreational "hobbies" and it felt so good to clean out my playlist on Netflix and other streaming devices. Yes, the shows all sound interesting and I can still watch them, but if I have too many in a list, I never find anything I'm interested in watching at that moment. Often the novelty has worn off. I took stock of what kind of shows I feel good about watching and now have been working through my abridged list. I watch documentaries in the morning while working in the kitchen and just finished one on the roosevelts. Felt good taking it off the list. And I just finished another book last night. I really need to put a dent in my library of unread or unfinished books. 

This last weekend, my step mother was picking out a new sweater pattern to knit and I was checking out all my favorites I had saved on ravelry over the years. I had over 500 and mixed in with patterns I still liked were old ones where my style preference had changed or I had learned what looks good on me, and what doesn't. I cleaned out the list over a few days and am now down to half the number and it feels so good. I'm sure I can get the number down even further, but it was a good first pass. 

Basically, I'm surprised that I was able to rewire my brain to get the little dopamine hits from finishing and using what I already have, instead of finding and buying new stuff. I think I've gotten more creative too as I try to find new ways to use things I have but don't really have a use for - like an extra lamp. Or for figuring out projects to use up hobby collections. Like my huge fabric stash. It takes up so much room and isn't easy to find a good home. So I've been trying to use up the fabric. I've also discovered I can kind of sew but it's not a favorite hobby of mine, more like a useful skill. There have definitely been studies about the positive impact on mood when finishing a project and now I've turned a bunch of stuff into projects and try to finish one every day or so. Tasks don't seem to do the same job - like doing your dishes every day. Well, back to work on a project so I can try to get it done today.