Day 107: I'm a lover...

... not a fighter.  CLEARLY.  But MMX was on my agenda yesterday.  My family laughs at my spazticity (yep, that's a word) when I'm doing this workout, but I love it.  Even if the kicking bits look more Rockette than street fighter.  And the punching bits look like they couldn't take out a 3rd grader.  At the beginning of the video, Tony says that the tip of the day is to "commit to the intensity".  And that part, my friends, I promise you I can do!

It starts off with little punchy parts like so...

progresses like so...

and by the end there are several rounds of kicking and punching burpees and I feel like PaRappa The Rapper on crack.  Yep bringing it waaay back.  Does anyone else remember that game?

Day 95: Pay it Forward

Yesterday someone held the door open for me.  A small gesture, but still one of the things in life that makes me happy on the inside.  I try to teach my boys to hold doors open for anyone and everyone who is coming or going.  One of them is better at it than the other, but we're working on it.  But it brought me back to a couple of my favorite good deed memories that I thought I would share.

Once, when I was a young mommy carrying a baby in one arm and pushing a Target cart with a toddler in it with the other, a woman about my age came up to me in the parking lot and said this, "I just want you to know that you look great today.  I'm not sure that we moms ever get enough credit for anything, but I just wanted you to know that you look really nice."  I had probably made an effort that morning to not appear rumpled and exhausted, and she noticed.  And that stuck with me.  One comment from one random person, years ago.  You never know how the the things you say will affect someone's life.  I always do my best to try to look nice in public.  I think that when people make the effort it expresses that they care about the world around them and that they are happy to be here.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not judging anyone for running to Walmart in sweats, or standing at the bus stop in jammies.  I've been known to do that too.  :)

This next story brought tears to my eyes.  Still does, actually.  I was largely pregnant and standing in line at a coffee shop with my toddler who was having the patience of a saint while the man in a business suit in front of us ordered his fancy latte.  My child, eyes and hands pressed up against the glass, was desperate for his cookie and was being very vocal about it. "mom, I want THAT one".  "mom, is it our turn yet?" "mom, can I have the cookie now?"  etc etc.  Finally the coffee girl comes back with the man's complicated latte and he orders a cookie as well.  I think nothing of it.  He pays.  The he turns to my child, holds out the cookie and says, "This is for you.  For waiting so nicely to have your cookie."  He disappeared so quickly that I barely had time to thank him properly and the poor coffee girl was left to deal with my blubbering. Again - such a small gesture.  But totally unexpected and from a person who just by the looks of him could be easily misjudged.  You never know someone's whole story just by looking at them.

We have all had our share of bad stories too.  The person who yells at us for something, someone who cuts us off in traffic, the rude employee whom we just want to spank.  But I like to remember these stories instead.  And know that most people really are good deep inside.  On my journey to forty, I can only hope that I have affected a few people in ways that I will never know about.  Just like these two kind people did for me. And I hope that I can continue to do so.  So go about your day today everyone... and be nice.