Survival of the Fittest

I joined the local YMCA a few months ago to help lose those last few pounds of baby weight (yeah, I know, my baby is 2.5). They just started a fun challenge called "Survivor", so I thought, what better way to help jump start a fitness routine? It started out innocently enough, being rewarded with points for working out and doing various challenges. Each week, the members with the lowest points are voted "off" Flagler Island. When I first started this challenge, my only goal was to not get voted off the first week.
Well, we have just started week 5 and Survivor has taken over my life. I almost have an anxiety attack if I can not get to the gym to work out and get some points for the week. Eat. Sleep. Earn points. Rinse and repeat.
I didn't think I would be playing so far into the challenge, but now that I am still among the survivors, I am prepared to vote my own mother off, if I have to.

So there it is. My dirty little secret. I am addicted to this Survivor challenge and I don't even know what we are playing for. Although I can not complain with the new set of calves I seem to have developed.

Singing in the rain

We play in puddles. A lot. It always rains here in the afternoon, which leaves me with an hour or two after dinner which I have to expend the extra energy from these 2 girlies (especially after being cooped up by the sub-tropical downpours all afternoon). We often go playing outside in puddle (as long as the lightening isn't too fatal). By "we" I mean Bryn and Ava. "We" get horribly wet and dirty...but it usually makes for a good photo opt and "we" go directly to the bath tub afterwards.
As we splash in the puddles, Ava stops to pick up every single worm- dead or alive. (that's a trait she did not inherit from me- I think worms have cooties, yuck)! She usually says something like "awwww..it's a baby worm. He's too dead" and moves him into the grass.


Bryn runs or skips the whole time. In fact, I don't think I have ever seen the girl walk. She gallops in her pink boots and sings while twirling around with her umbrella. (I wouldn't want it any other way).

By the end of our hour long walk (which should only take 20 minutes as we don't go very far), those girls are ready to drop. That makes it a successful day as a Mom. When your kids have fallen asleep before you tuck them into bed.

Like A Mermaid

Bryn is almost 4.5 years old now and she swims like a fish....I mean, a mermaid(she will appreciate the mermaid reference). Since my husband bought her this cute pink snorkel set, all the girl does is swim around the pool looking for things to pick up from the bottom. In fact, her swimming has improved so much, that I think the Red Cross should use a snorkel for swim training. Sometimes I even have to be sure she's actually alive with the terrifying length of time she can just float (with the snorkel) in the water.




Now Miss Ava on the other hand, thinks she can swim. She will plunge her little 2 year old self into the pool trusting that I will be there to catch her and keep her from drowning. Ava's method is a little less orthodox as she truly believes that she is just swimming underwater and not in fact mere seconds away from drowning. (I should also mention at this time that I think the stress of taking 2 small kids to a pool has taken about 5 years of my life).

The So Called Lazy Days of Summer

They say that summer is a time for some R&R. As a Stay at Home Mom, I find that we do anything but stay at home. Our days are full of a whole lot of nothing. I say "nothing" because it's not like we really have to do anything. Rather, we spend our time running from the air conditioned gym in the morning to the pool or to the ocean. This is one of the things I love the most about Florida. We can hop into our car and drive to the ocean. Where we find things like this:

And Bryn and Ava get to do things like this:

Of course, after a fun-filled hour or two at the beach (where it is hotter than Hades, I might add), I spend the next 2 days getting sand out if places where it does not belong. And my car always shows traces of sand hidden in the crevices, or the odd fishy smelling sea shell here and there.

But, I don't mind. Florida is darned hot. It's so hot and humid in the summer that we have to be indoors where its air conditioned or up to our ears in water to keep from withering up and dying. Seriously. I do not know how people lived (or even do live) here in the dog days without air conditioning. I turn ours on as soon as the heat hits about 70 degrees.

Yep, I enjoy the Florida style summertime, but life with 2 youngins' is anything but lazy!

Don't Get Yourself In A Fizz

I hear this from my dear husband all the time- "Don't get yourself in a fizz".
And although I am not sure what a "fizz" really is. I am pretty sure it is something like a "dither" or a "tizzy"; and those who know me well, know that I am always in one of those!

So, Hello internet! I thought perhaps it was time to join the big blogging world with chronicles of my life as the matriarch to the Mighty Bennett clan. I think it may also prove to be cheaper than therapy for me!

For those reading, don't expect too much. I am not a wordsmith (don't even try to figure out my unique use of grammar), nor do I have anything more exciting than trying to get gum out of hair happening in my daily life. But I may have an amusing anecdote once and awhile and I have a semi-entertaining suburban life with some larger than life kidlets.

Yep. My name is Jill and I am always in a fizz.