Aw, gee shucks it really happened

I'm not sure if I mentioned among my many roles that I'm also a homeschool Mom to a 6th grade gal. The 3d grader is in school, the preschooler goes if he feels like it, and the 10 month old likes to go anywhere.

The 6th grader just finished her soccer season and since we homeschool it is important to us as a family that she get excercise every day. My husband suggested she run with me and I was sort of intrigued about how good of a run I would get in. We went during lunch on Friday and I lifted weights earlier just to ensure that I was getting a workout regardless of how the run went. We took off and I was so happy to tell her about warming up with a walk/gentle jog first. Show her my route and how I run across a railroad trestle that she should not. I chatted about form and not clenching your fists and keeping your shoulders back and down. She's a sweet girl and listened and smiled at me nicely. I told her about walk breaks that will keep you out there and enable you to make it entirely running after a while. In the middle of the run I explained what a fartlek is and what a great training tool it is. She suggested we run to a pole and we did. She seemed a bit faster than I expected, but I wasn't thinking too much of it. My husband and I always sprint the last straight away of every run and I told her we'd be doing this. We get to the end and the girl beat me fair and square. She is really faster than me. I've always been fast- sort of smugly so now that I think of it and my 11 almost 12 year old sprinted and I could not keep up. Wow, what a day. Love it. She is empowered too. This little one has been to way too many races watching Mommy run. She's come of age. Gosh, do you think periods could be next?

Adding Miles and Time: Tips Needed!

In my on-going quest to pace myself so that I can add mileage to my runs, I've decided to do two things: (1) add distance slowly to the middle of my runs, and (2) concentrate on time run rather than worrying so much about miles covered.
I decided to add a bit to the middle of my run because every time I would try to add to the end, I just couldn't do it. Psychologically, I couldn't make my brain agree with my legs and keep running past my house in order to get more time/mileage and physically, I was beat. My front door and the couch that I know sat just beyond it were just too tempting. Today, in the middle of my typical out and back route, I kept going at my usual turn around. This helped quite a bit. I wasn't totally fatigued like at the end of my run but I also wasn't gung-ho sprinter girl like at the beginning of my run so I was smart about how much distance I added. As for my second plan, adding time, by focusing on the minutes rather than miles, I have found that I am able to slow down. I have added time in small, 5 minute increments every other run so it's not that noticeable at the time, but is really adding up. I'm curious to hear if you guys have any tips for those of us trying to add distance to our runs.

ok. This has been everywhere already so

feel free to imagine me as that LAST PERSON climbing on to the bandwagon BUT it simply makes me laugh and I now think of it each time I wet a tissue via my MOUTH and use that to wipe the wriggling one's face.

(which Im sure was their plan)

anyone try it yet?

Im too cheap, err, frugal.

www.momspit.com

Inner Vixen

We all have her. She's how we really feel. To visit mine, visit The Dallas Morning News at the linking dots above.

Curse to All the Halloween Candy in this House

Holy cow! Who allowed these children to go trick-or-treating!?! Oh crap, that would be me.

Thing 2 (I have twin 4 year old girls) pooped out on us pretty early, but Thing 1 was like an Energizer bunny (dressed up like a Bengals football player - my dainty flower) and there was NO WAY she was going to stop. She made THREE - yes, 3 - trips to areas around our subdivision (properly supervised) for candy and now has a large pumpkin FULL of goodies. Nothing like a large orange ball full of temptation placed right smack in the middle of your kitchen table to make someone like me go nuts. I'm about to go all Michael Myers on that candy engorged pumpkin and take an ax to every last piece.

hmmm...that's a bit violent...but I am on steroids for bronchitis so I'll blame these emotional outbursts on the 'roids! Think I can use that excuse to get myself an hour or so of free time when the hubby gets home? Yep - gonna try it.

I just hope I'm over this soon so I can start running again and burn off that bloomin' (I'm from the South y'all) mini-Snickers (or two) I crammed in my mouth a few minutes ago.

Resuscitation

I hadn't run since last week after I made a lousy, half-ditched effort before throwing in the proverbial towel. Oh, what a wuss. I hated myself. But then again, I had a stomach bug, it was too cold to take the baby out--you name it, I had an excuse at the ready.

Since my normal tendency is to be manically busy, I naturally began an internal, verbally abusive conversation with myself. It went something like this:

"You think you're so good and really you're such a loser."

"Look at this house. Why can't you keep it clean. What's wrong with you?"

"Nobody likes you. Why would anybody like you?"

"Go ahead. Eat those Oreos."

Oh, I can be so mean to myself. Why? Why am I like that?

But today...today I did it. I went for a run.

And you know what? I am a pretty good person. I'm not a loser. And the house isn't as messy as I thought it was. And if people don't like me then that's fine. There are other people who do like me.

And the Oreos? I plead the fifth.

P.S. I had to look up Resuscitate in the dictionary and the dictionary naturally fell open to Runner which, for the record, is defined as one who runs :)

world run day 2007

I hadnt heard of this before--you?

(it's been happening since 1999. that should tel you precisely how running "with it" I am)

W.R.D. is a very cool idea that's about running (I know. shocking.) but also about giving charitably and uniting the running community (just like a web site I know :))

check em out:

http://www.runday.com

Warning: a rant

You know, it occurred to me yesterday that I'm so tired of everything being SO DIFFICULT. Not only have I been covering for my boss and assistant for the past two weeks on top of my own full-time job (which, for the record, was two full-time jobs), but I have to come home and try to have a semi-clean, or at least not embarrassing, home and happy healthy children. And try to take care of myself? It's a joke right now.

I ended up sobbing in my room yesterday after melting down in front of my dear family. My daughters are 2 and 3-1/2, and they are wonderful but just being their ages. I often feel like I'm working like mad to just get everyone where they need to be, get the to-do lists done, and try to grab time to launch my graphic design freelance business after everyone is in bed. The arguments about candy, lip gloss, videos, and blankets just puts me over the edge.

On a happy note, a walk saved the day. My older daughter Katie and I escaped for a walk with the dog and it truly made everything so much better. Now if I could find the time to do that every day...