DIY Ice Skates

Caden has been begging me to take him ice skating.  I have no idea where he got this idea, but it got me thinking.  We can bring the ice skating inside!My friend, Laura used to let her kids skate on commercial grade carpet (the flat, no pad kind) with wax paper taped to their shoes.  We don't exactly have commercial grade carpet in our home, but we do have wood floors!

I didn't have any wax paper on hand so I used freezer paper.  Freezer paper has a glossy side and a matte side.  The matte side works the best on wood floors.  I put together some make-shift ice skates by punching a hole on top of the skates and stringing a little ribbon through.  (My son didn't like the tape because the skates kept falling off.  Making "ice skates" eliminated all frustrations).





My son absolutely loved skating on the wood floors and this will be a definite favorite on those days it's too cold to go outside.

Happy Dose: Workout

I'm no expert at working out, but I do love it.  It makes me feel good, strong and happy.   A couple of you have asked what we do during our bootcamp workout.  It's a mixture of cardio, toning and conditioning.  Here's a small sample of what we do...

We start our workout with a warm-up of running/jogging 1-2 miles.  Sometimes it's 4-8 times around a track.  Sometimes it's running around a big block that incorporates some goods hills.  Sometimes it's running up and down an 18% grade hill 6-10 times.  It just depends on the day.  Then we do some of the following (each day is different so this is just a sampling):

1. Run bleacher stairs (we usually run 5-20).


2. Dumbbells.  We use these throughout.  We do squats, work our arms with curls, bent rows, raises.


3. We also use the dumbbells to work our abs.  One of my favorites is pictured above.


4. Push-ups.  These are so hard!  I have been practicing them at home (on my knees) and I put my phone on the floor in front of me and have to touch my nose to my phone.  It's a great workout.


5. Balance ball.  We actually don't use this at bootcamp, but it's one of my favorite tools to use during a workout.  The knee tuck is awesome.

For instance, this was our one hour workout this morning:

• Run a 3 block radius 3 times (it had one really good hill)


• 20 lunges (each leg), 20 squats, 30 jumping jacks--- (2 sets of entire sequence)


• 20 curls (with weights), 20 bent rows (with weights), 20 lateral raises (with weights), 1 minute of burpees--- (2 sets of entire sequence)


• 20 push ups, 1 minute mountain climbers (2 sets of entire sequence)


• Situps-- crunches, 1 minute plank, side oblique raises, V Up Rolls, Scissors, etc.


• 1 minute squat raises


• Run 3 hills


• Stretch

What workout routines do you like? What motivates you?

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