F**K IT MILES, GIVE ME SOME PRIVACY

It's my last day. I just finished with my exercises, the steps came during the day without any effort. It seems I've finally learned to incorporate enough walking in my daily life without thinking about it too much. Yey, this month has truly taught me something! Walking the dog with Nate this afternoon in the sunshine. Today, as my last day of the 30 days flat abs challenge, my routine was supposed to be 22 times roll-ups, ankle reaches, leg lifts, reverse crunches and criss-crosses. I did most of it until my back started hurting again and replaced the remaining with planking and yoga. Although it didn't go exactly as planned, I can say I have achieved my goal! Mini-waves!! I bet you're wondering if I've lost weight, look fitter etc. Personally, I don't think so. But the shirt I wore yesterday didn't feel too tight as it has in the past, so one could say I'm moving in the right direction at least. I was also supposed to be drinking the minimum ...

For the longest time I have been afraid of dogs. Something went downhill when I was young, a dog bit me and knocked me down by jumping on me and ever since I've been very vary about dogs, especially big ones. We're currently dog sitting my sister-in-law's dog Morris . We are one of his regular holiday destinations and this is now possibly fifth or sixth time he's spending time in our house as a guest. He's the first dog I've ever let get so close to me and he has helped me tremendously to get over my fear. That, and the fact that these days I'm more assertive than before, which is something (at least some) dogs seem to respond to very well. That a light spring in his step is soooo adorable! I've noticed the moment Morris arrives to our house, it takes only a few hours and he'll start gravitating towards to me. I don't need to do anything special, he'll just follow me. If I'm doing something in the kitchen, he'll join me by...

Today started with a surprise phone call from Miles. "Hon, do you know anything about Nicky's birthday party today?" He had taken Filip to school and Nicky's mom said she had received no confirmation from our part about her daughter's party. We, on the other hand, hadn't even seen an invitation. I quickly contacted Nicky's mom and she told me where and when. To make matters a tad more complicated, Miles was supposed to bring Filip straight after school to his appointment to pick up his new passport. I was supposed to come home from school with our daughter and her friend, who had been planning this particular playdate for a week now. At school Miles got Filip and Viv told me she's going to play at her friend's Dolores' house instead. It was just me and Nate. When Nate realized at school Filip was going to party and Viv was going to spend an afternoon having a blast at someone else's house, the little fellow cried so hard people literally ...

Last time I wrote about having backaches during the exercising regime and it resulted in responses from several different sources. Some of the them have been doing similar exercises and they too have been experiencing similar symptoms. First of all, great to know people are following this challenge and taking it up on themselves as well! Second of all, I briefly decided to go looking for an answer after a few separate discussions on the issue. My personal belief is that there isn't a problem with the surface where I do the exercises on, but in fact I have completely failed at supporting my back muscles during this challenge and they are painfully reminding me of this misjudgment. However, not being an expert on the matter, this is all nothing but speculation. Today's walks were super casual. Here I'm returning from parent's information evening at school. Normally I'd take a bike, but the steps need to be gained, so I walked. At this point I feel like I shoul...

First things first: I haven't forgotten or stopped with my exercises and steps. I simply haven't had the chance to report about them. Yesterday grandma came over and she stayed home with the kids for a few hours (while they were already in bed), while husband and I went out for drinks in the evening. Today Miles and I took one of our kids with us and we visited the Dutch Comic Con in Utrecht. Needless to say, today I didn't have to work any extra steps. But there's a bit of an annoyance in the air: the exercising is hurting my back. I'm starting to wonder if I'm doing something wrong or if it only hurts because my back muscles aren't being exercised with similar volume. I use a camping sleeping mat to do my flat abs challenge exercises and it seems like the optimal surface; it's not too hard nor too soft, but I can't be sure about it. I might have to research the problem and see what's up with the muscle ache in my back during the exercisin...

When I first started this 30 day challenge in a month with 31 days, I knew there might be a day I feel like skipping it. I have felt the pull to give up many day before, but yesterday after having two naps before bedtime thanks to allergies, I decided to try again tomorrow. Today I bought allergy medicine and the effect was surprisingly quick, so I had no trouble finishing my daily goal. That's the good news. The crappy news is that now I have used my one extra day and I didn't even plan it - it just happened. At least pollen is frigging beautiful. Steps: 13 209

With exercising On this World Poetry Day I almost gave up It was eleven I had not done anything I thought I'll skip it Then I remembered What I wrote sometime ago Sometimes it just sucks Yet... Giving up sucks more Jacket, shoes, scarf, mittens, hat Out the door I went Almost no people Streets were extremely quiet Darkness and street lights Suddenly, chatter Students cycling home from school Instantly felt old At ten to midnight I was done with everything No skipping today Steps: 13 152 #haiku

The last few days for some reason I've gotten random questions popping in my mind about the International Space Station. Curious as anybody, I went to search answers to my questions and learned a great deal about the ISS. Image: pixabay.com So far I've learned the following: 1. The temperature in the International Space Station is a challenging thing to balance. The side facing the Sun is boiling (121C / Finnish sauna competition) while the side away from the Sun is freezing with -157C / -250F. Inside the station temperature is around 24C / 75F and the design for insulation bearing things such as radiation in mind is a complicated process. Read more here . 2. There is a webpage with information about the people that currently are in space. At the moment there are six people at the International Space Station: Peggy Whitson (US), Oleg Novitskiy (Russia), Thomas Pesquet (France), Andrei Borisenko (Russia), Sergei Ryzhikov (Russia) and Shane Kimbrough (US). In a decade ...

This month was about an abs challenge, but I've been blogging more about reaching my steps. The good news is that I've done all my exercises every day, but the bad news is that they aren't much fun to talk about. Maybe if I was seeing some actual results with my eyes, it would be better, but so far the only result that I have is the fact that I'm able to do exercises that I probably could not have done on the first day. The program, as all these types of exercising programs, is designed so that you do every day a little bit extra, so you build up your muscles and you never really think about it as a challenge, because the day before you were able to do it as well and it was only a few less than today. However, I must say, now on day 20 I've come a long way already. On the first day I did this: 5 x roll-ups 5 x ankle reaches 5 x leg lifts Now, on day 20 I'm doing this: 12 x roll-ups 12 x ankle reaches 12 x leg lifts 12 x reverse crunches 12 x cris...

How did it come to this? It's nearly 2am and I'm only starting to write my update. Let's see: it was a busy day at the indoor playground, cycling to the center for an ice cream, cycling to the center yet again to buy some shoes for my son(s)... which means we found shoes Filip loves (Skechers that have blinking lights), but not shoes that Nate would love. Nate also wanted "lamp shoes" as he referred to them, but unfortunately they didn't make them in his size. Any shoe after that was ultimately boring. In the evening I had to do a small lap around the town to reach my steps. No strange encounters this time. I realized I still had some music stored on the memory card from my previous phone from two years ago, so I listened to a bunch of semi-old hit songs during my walk and a whole lot of Lauryn Hill, which seemed to be responsible for a half playlist. Not complaining at all though. I really love her music. Image: pixabay.com But yes, it's now 2 ...

I went out in the rain for a walk today to finish my steps. I walked to the center, went a little bit window shopping and then started to walk back home again. Midway to home I was just walking down from a bridge when two young people were standing at the side of the road. They didn't immediately see me, but I saw them coming from above and a little bit side of them. They were both around my height, possibly siblings, but most likely a girlfriend with a boyfriend. Both in their early or mid 20's. The man grabbed the woman's arm and asked her in English "What the fuck where you thinking?" "Uh-oh," I thought instantly. How much easier it would be to pretend I didn't just hear and see that and walk by. If only they were exchanging words, but the submissive grabbing of her upper arm had already been registered in my brain. In three steps I was next to them and didn't think much when stopping. "Is everything good?" I asked them. The man se...

It's the flu time of the year. My husband took a rare day off from work. He has fever for the first time ever since we've been together. Not bad to have fever only once in ten years, I'd say. Anyway, I obviously have also taken care of his part of house duties today, which means it's not even 9pm as I write this, but I've already reached my goal and gone way overboard without having to go for a walk. On top of the walking, I have been responsible with getting kids to school and back and all that comes with it. On normal days his job is to get the kids to school in the morning. Image: pixabay.com At 8:00 I cycled to school with all three kids. Dropped two off there. At 8:30 I cycled to playschool with my youngest. Dropped him off there. At 8:45 Going to the supermarket and buy medicine for husband. At 9:30 I was back home. Quickly cleaning the kitchen, putting some laundry on, wiping the tables, folding laundry. At 11:00 Going to pick up my son from pla...

Raindrops on market and wash shrunk my mittens It all doesn't matter, had a great talk with a Brit and Drank coffee in the Sun, heerlijke ding These are a few of my favorite things Black-colored Sony and warm cup of noodles Son in the bakfiets pretends he's a poodle Wild pants that blind you with their pattering These are a few of my favorite things Kids smiling, lunch time and no one is flashing Boat stops our way home, we wait of its passing Birds chirping in the trees, I want to sing These are a few of my favorite things Steps: 14 734

The Sun was up already in the morning and it never hid during the day, granting the most wonderful spring day one could ever wish for. When I was cycling back home from school with all kids on my bike (yes, they are back at school, but even my oldest one didn't want to cycle yet, so I was the carpool), I was looking at the fresh daffodils framing the bike roads and thinking one can't understand the beauty and marvelousness of the Netherlands until they have experienced just that; the Sun, the flowers, the warm breeze, the birds, the smiles. In the evening when I went out for a walk, I realized this simple step and ab exercises were teaching me something very precious. This challenge is teaching it's important to keep on putting one leg in front of the other, not thinking too much about where it will lead, but simply being grateful for the present improvement and trusting that it'll lead to better things. What the improvement will be, I don't want to guess. I rathe...

I have grown accustomed to take one of my kids with me for an evening walk, but today it was already past their bedtime, so I put on my sneakers and hopped out the door. I was listening to a very motivating speech the entire way I was walking and by the time I was turning back home, I saw a woman running on the other side of the street. Instant motivation. I stopped myself to think about the choice further and simply started running. The headphones in my ears I was still concentrating on the talk. I did not think about the fact that I was running. The moment I started to pay attention, I realized I was getting out of breath. But the masochist that I am, I chose the next lamppost where I needed to get before allowing myself to stop. Even though when choosing the lamppost, I knew I was lying to myself, because at the back of my mind I knew I was going to change the goal to the next lamppost and then to the next and next, until I just couldn't run further. That's e...

I finally figured out why I've been feeling so out of balance the last few days. Today two out of three kids stayed home from school with a list of complaints ranging from belly ache to headache and unfortunately I joined their whiny choir. As I woke up, I was already feeling pretty sick, but since Miles took Nate to playschool, I told Viv and Filip to take it easy for an hour while I tried to sleep off my feeling. It only made matters worse and I woke up from my nap feeling even sicker. But somehow gradually it then started to get less and less and by the time it was afternoon, I was able to stand up and function almost normally. I had been mentally preparing myself for having to skip the steps today, but when it was eight in the evening and I was still missing 9000 steps from my goal (because I had been basically just trying to find a horizontal position that would not make matters worse), I decided I was feeling good enough to go for a quick walk. And I got to my target ...

It's one of those days. Everyone else went to bed relatively early, so I figured I'd have all the time in the world. I ended up contemplating the meaning of life, until I couldn't procrastinate any longer. Ten minutes to midnight I finally decided to begin my exercises. Thankfully I'm a little bit more calculative with the steps, so I don't need to go running around in the middle of the night. I'm currently feeling really silly about this challenge. So far four of my friends have told me face to face they've been following my progress on social media. Some of them have been measuring their steps beforehand, some have been inspired to start measuring more now, but everyone finds my target easy to reach without having to work on it in particular. It's true I get there sometimes as well without extra efforts, but most days I need to make a conscious decision of going out for a walk. To me all of this just translates as once again I've found somethin...

Today I napped for two hours with my 3-year-old, Nate, and freaked out in the evening for not having walked enough. Because I took my daughter, Viv, for a walk last week, it was my middle one's, Filip's, turn this time. He took his step scooter with him to make it more worthwhile and we walked/scooted all the way to the center of our city together. Photographed this today during our evening walk. I have about seven photos of my Filip posing in different places in the city center, but unfortunately couldn't use any of them on this blog for his anonymity. When we reached the center, he complained about hunger just around the corner of the grocery store (not calculative move at all says the gullible mom) and I was weak enough to agree to Filip's wishes as he was having an awesome evening out with mommy. So I took him to the store, bought him a piece of chocolate he requested, sat on the bench for an eternity while Filip was nibbling on it and walked back home. ...

It was a busy day filled with friends for all ages. In the morning I visited my friend, Kate, who's due at the end of the month with her second child. The moment she saw me, she said she has been following my progress and that I looked slimmer than before. I told her "I don't think so, but thank you", just because I'm honest with my answers - a Finnish thing I don't seem to be able to switch off, haha. To be honest I haven't even measured myself on the scale in months and I'm not planning to. Previously I've become so obsessed about reaching a certain number that the moment I get stuck somewhere and it seems to be impossible to go over a hump, I give up. Right now I'm not trying to lose weight, I'm just trying to do one healthier choice at a time. After school my middle one went to play with his friend, Sadie, whom he supposedly told straight to her face AND in front her mother that he loves her. To me he said afterwards he loves Sadie,...

I left Finland more than ten years ago. In a way it was a sudden decision, although the need for me to leave had been bubbling up for years prior to the actual moment. I spent my 17th birthday in Italy as an exchange student and ever since that year abroad I had been longing to go on another adventure. The chance presented itself in a form of a lovely Dutch man when I was in my 20's and without hesitating, I took it. Back then my friends and even total strangers that found out about me leaving told me I was being very brave. They all comforted me with the words "at least you're trying and you know you can always come back to Finland". I took these words with me as a safety net, never really weighing them until the moment I really wanted to go back. The first time I felt like returning to Finland was only a year or two after my initial arrival. As one that has been through an official program of exchange students, I have had to attend teaching seminars of what it m...

Thursdays are my lazy mornings. My youngest one doesn't go to playschool and the other two need to be picked up only in the afternoon. Daughter has a dance class later in the evening, but ever since she moved to the group of advanced breakdancers, her lesson starts late enough to take it easy. Because it was turning out to be a very relaxed day, I decided to add some action to the morning. My son was helping me with cleaning up the master bedroom and together with me he moved the bed under the ceiling window (he sat on the bed while yelling commands at me). This activity alone, cleaning up, vacuuming, moving books and toys around, was enough to grant me a lot of steps. By the time I brought my daughter to her dance lesson, I still needed to gain some, so I decided to use the hour of freedom to walk around the beautiful city center. I walked along the Prinsenhof, which is a historical site in Delft. I strolled through the small arcs of the Old Church and when I was pas...

The morning was very rainy. So rainy, actually, that when I cycled to school to pick up my kids, the rain literally soaked through my rain pants. Kids were loving the weather and the puddles, but I was cold and soaked by the time it was noon. A change of clothing and lunch later we traveled to our dentist for a check-up. It was the first time since my pregnancies that my dentist said I was being a boring patient since he could not complain about anything. I had my boys very close to each other (17 months) and this period of my life was very hard on my gums, as it sometimes happens. Now that my youngest is nearly four, I have officially kicked those troubles buh-bye. It was the best teeth-related news I could've asked for. After the appointment we went to the dentist's house, which also happens to be the home of my sister-in-law and we had dinner with them. The evening went on and by the time we were getting back home, it was already nearly nine o'clock. The kids were ov...

It is the first day of March when the kids are going normally to school and I'm doing my regular pick-ups and anything that it includes. Today was also the first day since I started this challenge that I reached my step count without any extra effort. I was already at my goal before I went for the last meeting of the day at eight in the evening, so I gave myself a gift by choosing the bike this time. During my exercises I noticed something strange. I had learned the rhythm, finally . It went really smooth and this time I even remembered to do it earlier than before bedtime. Such a contrast to yesterday. It was definitely worth struggling through yesterday when reaching the goal today was so effortless. Best thing about today though? For once I'm tired at a reasonable hour. I'm done with what I set out to do today and it's great to be able to choose to go to bed at this hour for once... Steps: 14 382 Distance: school - home - school - hardware store - library ...

Today I've felt more uninspired by this whole flat abs challenge and a step challenge than any other day. I had to force myself out the door and I had to do my exercises five minutes to midnight, because I nearly managed to forget about them. It was a busy day. Kids went back to school today and my mom flew back to Finland today. Once we got my mom to the airport and got ourselves back home, I was already ready to crawl into bed. Somehow though, as usual, a lot of things happened in the evening and I only got around to my exercising time just before actually going to bed. The uninspiring days really measure how serious I am with these challenges. But at the same time giving up now, seeing how far I've come, doing something pre-planned EVERY.DAY.THIS.YEAR has been exceptional for me, so in that light giving up felt really silly. The subject might be something that just doesn't speak to me enough. Ever since I've become a mom, I've had hard time figuring out ho...

It's the last full day that my mom's staying with us, as tomorrow in the afternoon she'll start her journey back to Finland. Because I won't be seeing her possibly before summer, I decided to treat her to a Mother's Day lunch now that I had the chance. Around noon we walked to Leonidas in the center for high tea, which was a brand new experience for my mom. They served a small cup of warm tomato soup, a mini slice of vegetable quiche, a mini shrimp croquet, crispbread with tuna mousse, a mini sausage pastry, a smoked salmon sandwich, strawberry mousse with cream and chocolate, a slice of brownie, a coffee bread with raisins, a scone with cream cheese and black currant jam, a small lemony cream puff and a piece of handmade milk chocolate. All of this was accompanied by two pans of wonderful tea. Once we had eaten our bellies extremely full of wonderful stuff we walked back home through some stores. Steps at 23 o'clock: 14 682 Roll-Ups: 9 Ankle Reaches...

13 649 is the number of steps today. The best thing about this number though? It's a prime number! To be honest it didn't just happen. I was stuck at 13 641 steps for a while trying to add the necessary extra eight steps to it to get to the closest prime number. (Why though? For no reason.) When I walked around and around and managed to add zero numbers I realized my tracker sucks. Only when I exaggerated my moves in the living room, it picked them up. My mom also has a step counter. Hers was over 13 000 in the afternoon and we walked more or less the same distance today. At that point mine was at 8000 steps, so it's apparently perfectly possible my step counter only records two thirds of the steps I take. Either that or my mom's watch is overly sensitive. Hers is much cooler though, so I do think it's more accurate than mine. Today we had a somewhat touristic day. The kids wanted to show their grandma our botanical garden, so walked there, walked around...

By the time I sit down to write this, I've done my ab exercises and I've done my steps, 17 155 of them to be exact. Again I was risking of falling short in the evening, although I spent the day mostly in the center with my mom and my daughter. But we went there by bike and it took a lion's share of what could've been the steps needed to fulfill my 13 000 daily step goal. My legs are starting to remind me of their existence, so I definitely feel their presence now better than before. Abs are feeling about the same. They are not aching, but simply telling me they have acknowledged I have remembered them after such a long time of ignoring them. After the day my mom, who is currently visiting us, was tired from walking so much and my kids wanted to stick around the house as well, so I asked my husband, Miles, to join me for an evening walk. At that point I was about 3500 steps short of my goal. To my surprise he agreed. We set a destination in the center and wal...

Today I started deliberately changing some of my habits to avoid the whole having to walk circles in the evening. My mom arrived from Finland and my husband and kids took the train to pick her up from the airport. I stayed home to make dinner ready and to give the floor one last vacuum. Once I was done, I put shoes on and walked out the door. Normally I would just hop on my bike and cycle whenever I could, but this time I was determined to get the steps done. Because I had plenty of time to reach the station before my family would arrive there from another direction, I took the scenic center route. I kept track on my steps and made sure not to take every shortcut I'd normally do. By the time I had picked up my family and my mom from the station on foot and walked back home, I was already way past my goal. In the end at ten o'clock in the evening my step counter had a good amount: 16 865 steps. Delft station. The flat abs exercises I did already at noon. My kids we...

So it's March and a time for me to dive into the first physical challenge of the year. I found a list of exercises on Pinterest to get flat abs . I am aware I won't automatically have a flat stomach at the end of this, but all little bits help to start gaining back the control over my own body. Because the exercising time is only a few minutes a day, I am also aiming to do a minimum of 13 000 steps a day and I'm drinking a minimum of two liters of water a day. Today's flat abs exercises were: 5 x Roll-Ups 5 x Ankle Reaches 5 x Leg Lifts It took me a minute, but even though the first day was easy, I know at one point of the month pain might be present. Drinking water was the easy part today and steps was the hard part. My husband had a regular day at work today and I was home with the kid as they have a spring holiday week from school. I cycled about six kilometers with my kids in the morning and by the time we got home around 2 pm, I had done around 3000 step...