what comes AFTER the marathon

Over the past couple of months I've found myself saying one phrase over and over again.  When you're running 10 hours or more in an average week you begin to miss what you'd usually do with that extra time. (I know in the grand scheme of a full week, ten hours doesn't sound like a lot but trust me when I say that the biggest challenge of marathon training has not been the physical demands but rather the huge time suck.)  I've told many a running partner, "After this marathon I'm...." and my husband has heard, "I'll do that after this marathon training is over..." more than he'd like.

Sooooo I'm going to make a short little list of things I'd like to remember that I had a longing for while running more than a half marathon every weekend for several months. And no, I'm not going to put eating lots of doughnuts and bacon on the list despite the frequency of that thought popping into my brain during a long run. 

A list of things I'd like to do after the marathon:

• Read. A lot. 
• take the time to shave my legs. Ha!
• spend quality time with my family (I've missed so much of it lately)
• sleep late on Saturdays
• crochet a blanket
• finish some scrapbooks
• ride my bike (all other areas of recreation and fitness have fallen by the wayside)
• bake something delicious (and then eat it without worrying about how it will affect my run)
• go to the beach
• perhaps clean my house

how to wear this mama out

Tell her to do a long run, followed by a sprint triathlon on little sleep, then have her start a new job which immediately requires moving furniture and unpacking 25 new computers.  Tell her to work long hours including two nights of open houses while adjusting to 5am mid-week runs.  Then ask her to be ready to do it all again next week. At least flowers, coffee, and eggs courtesy of my husband helps.

I promise I will resume blogging.  It just won't be in the next day or so.

update on goals

How did it get to be mid-July already? Seriously. Where did the time go?

Since we're halfway through the year I figured it would be a good time to check on my 2013 goal progress.

Here's the goals I set:

• read 40 books
• get more involved at church
• run at least one half marathon and complete at least one triathlon
• take my kids to Disney World
• (re)read New Testament gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
• spend more time taking care of my physical living space
• sell a bunch of my crafting junk
• lose 15 more pounds and maintain that loss as well as the thirty I've already lost
• plan a couple of trips to states I've never visited (not necessarily go, but at least plan)

Here's where I stand currently:

• I'm only at 9 books when I should be at 20.
• Not really any more involved at church besides being in a small group again.
• I've done at least one half marathon and have already registered for 2 more, plus a triathlon.
• Disney trip is scheduled.
• Reading through the New Testament but I'll admit I'm wayyyy behind. I should be done by now but I'm still at the beginning of Luke.
• Have made no progress whatsoever on taking care of our living space.
• I've sold none of the crafty stuff.
• I've almost maintained the 30 lb loss, well I'm within 8 pounds of it... still a work-in-progress...
• We're going to Buffalo, New York later this month and while it's a state I've already been to I do think it will inspire some other travel ideas and maybe we'll get the itch to start planning.

Well!  That sure did get me a little discouraged, but also motivated.  Better go get something done!

How are you doing on your goals for this year? I’d love to have you share your progress on your goals in the comments. Let's encourage each other!

on goals

In this post I listed some goals for 2012.  Let's see how I did with those.

1. potty train my son (CHECK)
2. go on a rather expensive vacation with my hubs (sans kids) (CHECK) (sorry I still haven't done the Mexico post)
3. read 40 books (CHECK)
4. run a half marathon (CHECK and CHECK)
5. spend more time playing games with my kids (CHECK, etc)
6. lose some weight (I got to 30 pounds but I'm back to only 26 down since Thanksgiving but still, it's a CHECK)
7. get a new passport (CHECK) (I was too embarrased to show you that picture.)

Next week I'm going to post some goals for 2013.  I've got to start thinking about that, but in the meantime don't forget to enter this giveaway for my favorite John Green book.  It ends on Friday and your odds of winning are pretty good!

I don't even want to go there

Here's what I've been posting on Instagram lately (@c525600).

good coffee and my favorite mug (gift from my MIL)

getting my room set up

good size watermelon that my husband grew

Josh thinks he can catch the dog with a butterfly net

waiting for the rain to let up at Ramblin' Rose

volunteering in the rain isn't too bad when you have a nice view - firemen helping with a bike chain at Ramblin' Rose

a visit to Polo Ralph Lauren for opening staff meetings - decals all over the place

getting ready to flash the "I love you" sign - I love the dimple in his chin

pretty good fetch partner

delicious dinner date night

the calm before the storm

School started for me today and I'm at a new school, teaching *relatively* new-to-me classes, and I'm swamped, stressed, missing my babies, and trying hard not to be overwhelmed.  I'm trying to stay positive which is why I don't even want to talk about it all.

I hope your week is off to a good start!

Remember, there are still four days left to enter my craft kit giveaway. Looks like you've got a pretty good shot if you're interested!

and it's only Tuesday

So far this week

• a student brought a bb gun to my classroom
• several students got me in trouble by being after school to "work on a project with Mrs. Tucker" and instead goofed off around the building
• my work laptop won't boot and needs system files repaired
• my cell phone stopped receiving texts

What's next?

On the other hand

• my son is pretty much daytime potty trained
• my parents voluntarily rescued me from a case of having-to-be-in-too-many-places-at-one-time
• I found out I will be observed in the next ten days but I already have my lesson plans done through the end of January
• I'm staying on track with my reading and running
• and I still know a secret and secrets can be fun!

How are you?

 

absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

Please tell me you've missed me.  Oh right, oh right, so you probably haven't really missed me too much.  But I've been here.  I'm OK.  We're still getting over sickness at our house and staying as busy as ever with life things, but I wanted to give you guys a heads up to stay tuned.  When I find a spare minute or two I've got several giveaways to post.  Coming your way I've got giveaways for more Van's products, a couple of toys, another food item or two, and a couple of book reviews planned for the next few weeks. Carry on.

on books and reading

One of my personal goals for this year was to read 40 books.  So far I've read 18 so I'm a little behind, but I'm pretty surprised at how close I'll be to actually achieving that goal since when I set the goal, I knew it would be challenging.  And since I haven't been sent any books from BlogHer Book Club lately, I've gotten to tackle some of the books that have been on my "To Read" list for a while now.  Anyway, here are some of my more recent reads and what I thought about them.

I finally got around to reading Pioneer Woman's "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" which I absolutely adored.  It's your basic love story, but there's just something so charming about that woman. As I was reading it I found myself not wanting it to end and because it's the story of her real life and how she met her husband you knew that it was going to have to end sometime.  Of course, we know from her blog that she has plenty more stories to tell and I can't wait for her to write another book and give us the next installment of her life.  Please, PW tell us about those babies!  Finish the story of how you came to know cooking so well and tell us what happens with your brother and parents.  Pretty please?

I also read the young adult book "I Am Number Four" by Pittacus Lore.  This was the book that was recently made into a movie released six months or so ago in theaters.  I'd had it on my "To Read" list for a long time.  I am a huge fan of YA series and was excited about this one.  Finding out the bit about this book being about aliens from another planet made me the slightest bit hesitant but I still wanted to give it a try and it certainly lived up to my expectations.  I will say that no, it's definitely not another Harry Potter series, but I do think it's up there on my list with The Hunger Games and Twilight books.  Like Twilight and HG, if you read it with an open mind, remembering the fact that it was written for teenagers and pre-teens then I think you will enjoy it.  As I get older I have started enjoying more sci-fi type reads as well which I never would have even considered reading when I was younger, but it's all good now. So I'm all excited about the movie and the fact that it's got Quinn from Glee in it makes it all that more exciting.  Have any of you seen it?

Little Bee was a book I kept noticing on blogs and recommendations on Facebook, etc. so I put it on my list.  Then the other day I decided to read the short Goodreads synopsis and I immediately knew what I wanted to read next.  Seriously, go read it.  Once you've read their teaser, you'll definitely want to read the book and I highly recommend doing that as well.  So hurry along folks!  Good reading awaits!


Questions of the Day:


-What good books have you read lately?



-What's the deal with orange?  Why the heck do all three of these books I enjoyed have orange covers?

-I tried to read The Pillars of the Earth, but just couldn't get into it.  I'd say I was at least a quarter of the way in when I quit.  DI you read it? Should I give it another try?

-Next up I have A Prayer for Owen Meany, Crazy Love, gods in Alabama, Winter Garden, and Sarah's Key.  Which should I read first?


 

life in August

[Of course, by that I meant September.]

My house is a wreck.  My papers aren't graded.  My lunches aren't packed for tomorrow.  The pile of laundry is overtaking my bedroom.  I had Cold Stone today for an after school treat with Jules. My blog has been abandoned.  At least I've made it to the gym three times this week.  But the best is that for the first time ever, Josh cried when I picked him up from school yesterday.  He said, "No Mommy!  Josh stay at school! Go back in school!"

Makes me a wee bit sad, but makes me a great big bit happy.

by the end of this week

By the end of this week I will have

• finished a triathlon (16 minutes faster than last year)
• handled 4 nights and 4 days with two kids by myself
• gone to my own school's two open houses
• managed to get my daughter started in Kindergarten, yes Kindergarten 
• started my (almost... if you count part-time years) 9th year teaching 

That's a pretty impressive list in my opinion.

Also, you may not have noticed, but I am late writing Josh's 22 month letter.  Have no fear; I'm getting to it.

is it just me?

Do you ever feel like you are trying to do so many things at once that you can't possibly do anything well?  I've been having that feeling more and more lately.  Care to commiserate with me?  What's the best way out of this mess?

Let's look on the bright side, though.  At least I don't think a rhinoceros is a dinosaur like one of my sixth graders apparently does.  Really.

Every year around the holidays I struggle with the same dilemma. Like most families we have our standard Christmas events and celebrations that we try to go to: a visit with Santa at the mall, our small group church party, the Christmas program and choir party for Jonathan’s Grandmother’s church, watching certain Christmas shows on TV, sometimes a Christmas Love Feast, the Festival of Lights at Tanglewood, decorating a Gingerbread house, etc.


Then there are the other events going on in our town: various productions of A Christmas Carol, various Christmas Tree Lightings, holiday parades, holiday celebrations at local Museums, live nativity displays, choral concerts, special craft workshops, ice skating, newly released movies, downtown carriage rides, and holiday open houses. The list could go on but, quite frankly, my brain is fried already and it’s only December 3rd.

My trouble lies in choosing which traditional events to keep in the schedule and which new events to try out. How do you find balance between both when there’s simply not room?  It seems like you have to skip one of the traditions in order to try out something new.  When we have somewhere to be every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of December, I find it extremely hard to squeeze in anything but the same old things we do every year even though I hear about so many awesome things going on around my town.

What does your family do each year? Do you try to stick with the same traditional events or do you see what your city has to offer new each year? Do you try to do a mix of both and if so, how do you find the time?  And how do you decide what to do?  Take a minute to vote below and if you choose option three, please share with me in a comment.  I really have trouble making these kinds of decisions.

What kind of holiday events does your family attend each year?
	We try to stick with traditional events because those are the things that are most important to us.
	There are so many fun things to do at the holidays. We try to do something new each year.
	We try a mix of both.
pollcode.com free polls

whew

This week Jonathan has been in Chicago for work and I have had the kids by myself.  I do not stop until the kids are in bed at 9 pm and then I sit down to grade and do lesson plans.  Here's what we've been doing.

Monday Jules had her first gymnastics class.  She seemed to enjoy it.  Josh and I stayed the whole hour to watch but unfortunately they took the little kids all the way to the other side fo the gym so we really couldn't see much.  Josh really enjoyed watching all of the big kids flip around near up on the uneven bars and rings and Julianna was dissappointed when she found out that she didn't go back until next week.

Tuesday I had a staff meeting after school that seemed like it would never end.  It went on for hours and I found out the day before that I had won tickets to the championship Dash baseball game that night.  So after I picked up the kids we headed out to the ballpark after grabbing a quick drivethrough dinner.  We had a lot of fun watching the players and the entertainment between innings. 

Wednesday we made a quick Target run to get some Halloween candy for a project Jules and I have been working on.  I'll show you pictures later.  It's so cute.  After that we headed straight to the school stadium to watch part of our Middle School football game.  I don't know about you but we've had beautiful football weather.

Today I have an appointment to get a physical exam right after school.  We've never had a family doctor/general practicioner since we've been married and with Jonathan's new job and new insurance and all we figured it would be a good time to get one.  I have to have a TB test for school and I am pushing it to get the paperwork done on time.  Fortunately they were able to work me in this week.

Tonight I have to meet with some family for dinner to do some baby shower planning for this weekend.  I'll have to go straight after the doctor's office.  Luckily, Jonathan gets home sometime tonight.  I'm counting the hours.

What have you been up to?

by the numbers

My last two weekends, by the numbers:

loads of laundry washed, folded, and put away: 8
number of mornings I left the house at 7 am: 2
dollars made at the consignment sale: $41
small group meetings for church: 3
dollars spent at Lowe's on home improvement junk: over 200
dollars spent at the grocery store: $260.74
trips to Wal-Mart: 4
hours spent cleaning the house: must be at least 40,000
triathlons finished: 1
lesson plans completed: 2
posters created: 2
books finished: 2
movies watched: 2

= exhausted x 150,387

stuff

It kills me to not be blogging more, but I just can't come up with the time for it this week.  I already had one job interview and have another tomorrow.  School starts SOON and it would be nice to have one of these full-time technology jobs but if it's not in the cards then I certainly won't mind subbing again.  Plus, the triathlon is this weekend and I have totally neglected training for it.  Go me!  (I am however still losing weight little by little. Yay!) The boy is cutting more teeth IN PLACE OF SLEEPING AT NIGHT and we've had haircuts, fantasy football drafts, meetings at church, etc, etc.  Life goes on.  I'll be back as soon as I can.

i’ve been meaning to update you on this for a long time now

My dry erase board To Do List is working out pretty well. In case you were wondering.

I've made a few modifications.

There are only two columns now for things to do. A PRIORITY column and a SOMETIME column.

Right now those look like this:

PRIORITY: finish sewing crayon pouch, make fabric swatch ring, send Claire K birthday card, vacuum all floors, wrap K’s present, order shower cake, Craigslist postings, order frozen meal for J, call Vonage

SOMETIME: paint J's new room, take A's stuff back to her, clean out closet, sort through magazines, etc

It really helps me see that if one particular item from the PRIORITY column is still left to do at the end of the week then it probably wasn’t in the right list to begin with. I try to move that item over to the next column. It also helps me add things to one central list as I think of them (even craft projects, etc that aren’t high priority).

The system isn’t perfect, but I think it’s helped me get a little better organized and less stressed out over my five on-going lists.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Another thing I added to the board was a list of weekly household cleaning chores. It looks like this:

MONDAY:
bathrooms
general pick up

TUESDAY:
paperwork/bills
clean out/wipe down fridge

WEDNESDAY:
plan meals
groceries

THURSDAY:
vacuum
dust

FRIDAY:
mop kitchen
trash

SATURDAY:
laundry
change beds

What I've been trying to do with this list is complete the chore every day. It's hard getting going the first week, but once you've completed a week, the next is a lot easier. I try to do it early in the day, but I tell myself that if I don't complete the chore then I can't have an evening snack until it's done. That usually works.

todo

I may have mentioned before that I love making lists. I often have so many lists going at once that I lose track of what I'm suposed to be doing and then I inevitably leave one or two items on one list and move on to the next list leaving those few "undone" things forgotten. It's frustrating because I seem to go in circles, never getting anything done.

Well, sometime this past weekend I decided that I wanted to try to become more organized. I think that if I start with all of my lists I will become, in general, a better person. I want to eat less, exercise more, be more productive, spend less, etc. I realized that I needed a system to get rid of all my lists. So I bought a big dry erase board and I'm going to hang it up somewhere that I will see it everyday. (I haven't decided where yet - any suggestions?) On the board I put three sections. One is for a list of things I must get done that day. The second section is for the list of things that I need to get done soon (as in a few days or one week). The third section is for the things that I want to get done but are not high priority. I hope this helps me get my lists under control and get more things done.

Anyway, here's a peak at what's on my "soon" list this week.

• sweep the kitchen


• vacuum the den


• do some laundry


• begin this month's book club book


• put Julianna's too-small clothes away


• start wrapping Christmas gifts


• go through and throw out old magazines

Also, I am pondering how the English words "to" and "do" run together to make the Spanish word "todo" which means all or everything. Am I the only one who finds this sadly amusing?

got on the scale today for the first time in a looonnnnggggg time

It wasn't pretty.

I think a diet is in order.

Plus some exercise.

Maybe after Christmas.

I need to etch the date in my brain calendar and start saving up my willpower.

I am at my highest non-pregnant weight ever.

And approaching my highest weight ever period.

It is super depressing.

I haven't exercised in many, many weeks.

I will soon.

Care to encourage me?

I could really use it.

Saw this meme over at Zoot's. I'm bored. So I decided to do it.

Man oh man was it discouraging! I love to read. My parents read; my sister reads; I read whenever I can. I want to teach my daughter to love to read. I guess I'm not leading by example very well these days.

Here's the meme:
Bold those you’ve read.
Italicize books you have started but couldn’t finish.
Add an asterisk* to those you have read more than once.
Underline those on your To Be Read list.




Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: A Novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveller’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers



Instead, these are the books I've read since school got out in May. Quite the different list, no?

Three by Ted Dekker
Showdown by Ted Dekker
The Quickie by James Patterson
Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult
Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge

verbs (present participle to be exact)

Thinking:
I ordered some adorbale new family pictures to hang on the wall in our living room. Some are black and white and some are color. An even number of 8x10s and 5x7s. Hubby started hanging them last night. I sit here and look at them and they make me happy. Look at me trying to be all artistic and really just being sentimental and stuff. Yeah. I love my girl. She's very photogenic.

Planning:
My menus for the next week. Someone in my mom's group started a thread on the message boards titled "what did you have for dinner?" It has inspired me to plan the next round of meals at our house. So far I'm thinking:

1. pork tenderloin, roasted carrots and potatoes, sauteed garlic asparagus and mushrooms


2. BBQ pork chops, mashed potatoes, green peas


3. chicken salad crescent rolls and homemade potato soup


4. homemade chicken strips, tater tots, and asparagus bacon bundles


5. bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, and biscuits

What sounds good to you?

Working:
I've been trying to get caught up on work that I've been behind on since the summer. Working on an investment presentation with my dad. I've been going to a place with free WIFI (usually Panera) while the girl goes to preschool so I can get more done than when I go all the way home in between. It seems to be getting me caught up.

Eating:
Unfortunately, lots of Halloween candy. I always buy it early and then eat tons of it. Shame on me! Jules is going to be a sheep for Halloween and I've gradually been working on her costume. Hot-gluing hundreds of cotton balls to a pink sweatsuit from Target. Fun. I already bought the s'mores for our weenie roast/marshmallow roast on Halloween night.

Reading:
I'm slowly working my way through Captivating for my sorority alumni Bible Study group. Making progress on Every Man's Battle. Also reading, Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult just for fun. It's way too hard to have three books going at the same time. I think I am gonig to put down the last one for a while until I finish the others.

Avoiding:
Exercising. Especially running. A little burnt out at the moment. Will get started again soon. I promise.

Needing:
To get the oil changed in my car. To get the brakes checked and the battery checked as well. The other car needs the AC fixed. Also needing to get back to work.