Project 52 Week 3

It can be difficult to get some outdoor adventures during the witner months so Noah and I hit the wall...rock climbing wall.

  

We are never without a project here at the Schoeck Household. This week we have been working on a project that Steven has been brewing for a while. I was excited to help him as much as I could because it required a trip to IKEA and some reorganizing the living room. 

As Steven and I assembled our new IKEA furniture Noah slept. In fact he slept right through us moving the couch into place. He was knocked out after coming home from an overnight youth group event.


We concluded the week with some festivities. We celebrated Chip's Birthday with his favorite, chocolate. Mmmm

Project 52 Week 2

The basketball theme continues. Sunday Noah had a basketball game. There was some good competition between the teams and all the players played hard.

Taking a rest during his basketball game. 

Noah doesn't get sick often. In fact I think his last sick day might have been in 5th grade. But this week he was a little under the weather. He took the day off from school but not school work. Skippyjon was keeping an eye on him making sure Noah got all his work done before he returned back to school.

For Christmas Santa gave Noah tickets to a basketball game. Not just any basketball game but his favorite team, The Miami Heat! This turned into a weekend adventure to Philadelphia and Delaware. 

Project 52 Week 1

Helen Keller wrote "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all."
I have always loved that quote. It inspires me to take chances and live life to the fullest. I've also read

"It's all the little moments that make life a VERY BIG adventure."

I agree. There is more to life than waiting for the next big vacation or the momentous milestones we commonly celebrate. Life is also all the little things that happen in between. So as we begin 2014 I want to recognize all the little moments that make up our adventurous life.

Sunday we celebrated Osana's graduation from nursing school. It is always fun visiting friends. 

Wednesday was the RHAM Middle School Winter Concert. Steven recorded the 7th grade band play so we can play back and listen to Noah's solo once we got home.

A trip to the Basketball Hall of Fame with a friend on a rainy Saturday. 

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

-Robert Brault

Renewed Spirit of Adventure

We are starting of the new year with the spirit of Adventure and Spontaneity. 

We would never have planned a cold winter 5K road race if we had enough time to think it through. But, to borrow the phrase from Nike, early Wednesday morning on New Year Day we decided to JUST DO IT!!

18 degrees didn't feel as bad as we had expected it to be. 

Bonus: we finished with a better time than we expected considering neither one of us have been running regularly lately. 

We are looking forward to a fantastic 2014. May it be filled with Love, Laughter and Adventure. 

Change is Good

Nothing stays the same forever. Change is inevitable. So, you might as well make it worth while.
I made a big change this week. I cut my hair short. This is something I have been thinking about for a little while now. And if I was going to make such a big change I figured I would make it worth while. So I donated my hair to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths. My cut hair, usually swept up as trash at the salon, will now go towards making a wig for a cancer patient.
It will take some time to get use to this but so far I like it.

Climb For Air

We did it! We climbed 32 flights of stairs in gear! 

The Climb for Air is a fundraiser for American Lung Association's research, education and advocacy. Our team raised nearly $2,500. The event raised about $25,000. 

It was originally scheduled for Saturday Feb. 9 but it was postponed due to the weather. Remember the snowstorm? Well, it was rescheduled for Saturday Feb. 23. Steven finished in 7 minutes and I finished in 8:30. Those times were OK. I was amazed at other people's times. The fastest time went to a 52 year old gentleman (NOT in gear) who finished in 2:30! WOW! It was a great event for a great cause. We are looking forward to doing it again next year and hoping to do beat our times. 

The Team 

Standing: Brenden Noonan, Kevin Donovan, Steven Schoeck, Joe Amento

Kneeling: Cristina Schoeck, Al Barns

Once we caught our breath and rehydrate with water we went over to O'Tooles for the after party and the awards ceremony. I won fastest female firefighter.

Our Team Page

End Of Another Season

We had a fantastic sugaring season! Best we ever had!

The sap flowed freely. So much so that after we made six gallons of maple syrup we decided we didn't need to make anymore and pulled the taps. 

"Only take what you need"

Every year we learn a little bit more. Last year we marked the Sugar Maple Trees just before the leaves fell with ribbons that didn't last through the winter very well. This year we marked the trees that we tapped with more permanent markers. We got this idea from a trail we walk on with the Anderson Family at Welch Island, NH. 

And now onto our next hobby adventure. Stay tuned.

More Syrup Is A Good Thing

It has been an incredible year of sap. So much so that we recruited the help of these two young strong men, Jonathan and Christopher.










Of course, it was a beautiful warm sunny day. They would have preferred to have a snowball fight. In fact they were teaming up against their cousin Noah.

Meanwhile back inside the Schoeck Sugar Shack (AKA Cristina's Garden Shed) Steven was instructing them on the art and science of sugaring.

 The newcomers were very interested.

Supervising.

Once the majority of the water has boiled off we move the operation indoors where we keep a very close eye on the process. This is where it can get tricky.









As the water content decreases and the sugar content increases the rate of boiling off the water goes faster. We have to test it often with the hydrometer to check for the right consistency. 

 And in the end we have MORE maple syrup. And more maple syrup is always a good thing.

Music to My Ears...Kind of

Somewhere between school, scouts, sports, band, jazz band and hang out with friends Noah has decided to learn to play the Ukulele. There is a Ukulele Club at school.

Tap Tap Tap

It's that time of year again. Cold nights below freezing and warm days. The sap is starting to flow and we are ready too.












So we invited a few friends to help us tap the trees. Of course our experienced tapper Kevin was back this year.


















New to our team this year is James.














Sugaring is often more about the fun with friends than just the end product. Everything is better when shared with friends.

Walk in the Park

What's better than a walk in the park on a warm sunny winter day?

Spending the day with family you have not seen in a while. 

We have come together under sad circumstances we are 

enjoying our time together. 

 The Schoeck Family

Is that Don Schoeck or James Bond?

Playing in the snow  making a snowman.

Eating the snow??

          

Mother and daughter

Sharing memories.

Yummy Chocolate

 Happy Valentine Day!

Chocolate is a favorite treat in our house and Valentine's Day is a perfect excuse to buy chocolate.

Or if you are lucky, a good friend will send you chocolate covered strawberries for no other reason than "just because."

Photo Book

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Mini Home Gym Progress

It's all coming together now.

First we sectioned off a small area of the unfinished basement to convert into what would be the mini home gym. Steven framed it out and the father and son team put up the Sheetrock. There was several days of taping, applying joint compound and sanding, applying joint compound and sanding...before I could prime the walls. But then things starting coming together fast and it really started to look like a room.





The walls were painted. The room was wired for electricity. The ceiling went up and the lighting installed. After the floor went down we moved treadmill in and installed the TV and DVD player. So much progress!

It is exciting to see it start to look like what we had envisioned. We created our vision of the gym based on pictures of other home gyms we found on the Internet and in magazines. It is not done yet but it is close. Next week we will install the molding and add the last of the finishing touches.

View From the Kitchen

We have dogs.
We have a cat.
We have birds.

Well, they are not exactly our birds. They are the birds that visit the bird feeder right outside the sliding glass doors in our kitchen. We placed the feeder there so we can enjoy the continuous flow of activity while we gather in the kitchen. Winter can be harsh for our local wildlife so we help them out by providing them with a free meal. Speaking of free, we fill the feeder with seeds harvested from the sunflowers we grew in our garden during the summer.




The other day there was such a flutter of activity during breakfast that I decided to grab the camera and capture the moment. It was not easy to snap a decent shot. These little guys fly in and out faster than I can focus on them. The few pictures I did get unfortunately had an unsightly glare from the glass doors. Although I did get one nice picture of a Dark eyed Junco sitting still on our deck and a chickadee landing on the feeder.


Feeding and watching our winged visitors helps us  remember to slow down, look around and enjoy the simple things in life. It reminds us that there is beauty all around us.  The only thing left to do is convince Skippyjon that we did NOT set up the feeder as a bait station for his hunting pleasure.