Ahh, Life . . .

It is amazing how quickly life gets away from you. I feel like I've been running for the past two weeks, more figuratively than literally, with nothing to show for it. We had family in town for my oldest's birthday last weekend, and we had a blast with them. But between the party prep and enjoying spending time with little seen loved ones, I was exhausted by Monday, I'd stopped tracking my PointsPlus values, and haven't run since the previous Wednesday. Then my best friend called, asking if she and her darling little boy could come for a visit this weekend (possibly tomorrow even), and there is no way I was going to say no to that!  Putting the phone down, the disaster that my house has become suddenly became VERY visible. It's amazing what you don't see when you don't want to . . .

So this week, I've been trying frantically to tick off all those little things on my to-do list while also finding a way to get myself back into the swing of the Weight Watcher's lifestyle. And truly, what do I have to show for it except a piece of paper with some things crossed off on it? I'd like to say that I've got a super clean home now, but honestly, I live with two mess making machines (also called my kiddos) and two stink makers (the cats). It feels like whatever I do cleaning-wise just gets undone or needs to be redone a few hours, maybe a few days, later. Makes a girl want to throw in the towel, if only it meant that she didn't have to pick it up again later. *sigh*

But at least I have one day of tracking (way over PointsPlus goal today) and I 'thought' about going for a run today (surprise wedding put the kibosh on that). I really want to earn the new jeans hanging in my kitchen by the time the hubbs and I head out on our sans-babies trip in three weeks. These jeans are an incentive gift from great-grandma for losing 20 pounds. Only 5 more to go, and while it might be a stretch to do it in the next 3 weeks, it's my goal. It's easy to think, "Well, I'll get back to tracking and exercising when we get back from our trip," but then those are another 3 weeks down the drain. There will never be a good time to start a diet, and life will always get in the way when you do. So whether I reach my short term goal of 5 pounds in the next three weeks or not, I am starting and working toward it, not letting life continue to dragging me along behind it.

If only I could figure out how to work in a run when I have non-runner guests staying at our house . . .

Week in the Life 2011

Currently, my best friend Joe (also known as my Nikon D5100) is down in the office putting all the lovely photos from the last week safely onto our computer. There are nearly 500 photos on there, but I found an even better source of photos for my Week in the Life project: Noah's camera. After a particularly successful playdate, my 4-year-old came home asking for a camera. Turns out, his buddy had one of those Fisher Price cameras made just for toddlers. With his birthday coming up, we seriously considered buying Noah one of these lovelies, but then we remembered the old digital camera we had hanging out under our bed. So for the past week, as I've been taking photos of everything, so has Noah. He hasn't yet let go of his camera long enough for me to hook it up to the computer, but it is next on the list. I can hardly wait to get my hands on all those photos!

I know that I didn't take as many photos as I did last year, but I think the photos tell a better story. I could have taken pictures of every meal and snack we ate over the 7 days, but instead I tried to really look at what we are doing this year, especially compared to last year. There aren't any diapers hanging on a line in the backyard, mostly because we have stopped cloth diapers after 4 years of poopy washes but also because we don't have a backyard anymore. But there are photos of lunches at McDonald's, a weekly must, and playdates in the park. New this year? Mommy running a 5K! I hadn't planned to have a race fall during a WITL week, but I am so glad that it happened to since running (or more accurately, trotting) has become a big part of my life. 

All in all, I think this project will turn out well, though I know with Noah's birthday party coming up this weekend, I won't have as much time to spend on it as I would like this week. But I can hardly wait to show off what I make.

I STINK!

 Okay, that's I literally stink. I got back from a run not that long ago, and as I realized I had a few things that MUST get done, I sat down and worked on the computer (read: played on the computer) and here I am, smelling my own stench. But it's a good kind of stench since I earned it with my run. I wasn't particularly fast, and I didn't go very far, but I went and that's what really mattered. Sunday I do my second 5K, and I will be ecstatic if I do it in 40 minutes. I'm sure the leader will probably be able to run the 5K almost two whole times in those same 40 minutes, but no more than 4 months ago, doing a 5K would have only been something someone else would have done. And I'm both excited and terrified.

A Week in the Life . . .

Last year I took Ali Edwards challenge and participated in the Week in the Life challenge. I took almost 200 pictures the first day, then struggled to get good ones the rest of the week. I still got a good number of photos and was able to complete an album with a little effort. I'm going to start again this week, and hopefully I'll be able to do a better job than last year. I hope to do more journaling and collect a bunch more ephemera from every day life. Let's see how it goes, shall we?

5K

Next weekend, I am participating in my second ever 5K. I did a test run today, after a week of not running, and I was able to shave 30 seconds off my previous time. Every day, I have to struggle with whether or not I should go out for a run, and frankly, since my last 5K, I haven't been that good at overcoming my own inertia. Bur I paid for the darned thing, so I'm going to do it. Besides, they're promising champagne and chocolate at the end. =-)

Yesterday, I was reading Run Like a Mother, and something in there really struck a chord with me: when I'm out for a run, it's me time. No one is screaming "Ma-ma!", there is no whining (except my own), and I get to feel like I'm completely alone in a way I haven't gotten to since my first baby was born. I mean, seriously, I haven't even gotten to go to the bathroom alone in so long I really have to think about closing the door when I'm at someone else's house, and that's just not right! 

I honestly don't know what the heck I was thinking when I signed on for this whole running thing, but about 20 minutes after I get back from a run, I notice that I feel this crazy calm feeling, something late in the day I am clawing for with both hands. And while I don't yet feel like I can honestly call myself a runner, I look forward to the day when the runs no longer seem like such a monumental task as they do now, and I can truthfully call myself a running mother.

Blog? What blog?

I am trying to decide exactly what I want my blog to be about. Should it be about my family? My craftiness? My running? My random ramblings? I've tried different things in the past. I started this one just to follow my running life (didn't go so well) and then continued it later to document my art journal (didn't work so well either.)

So I'm thinking that what will work best is if I just start writing about my life and everything in it. I did this previously in another blog, one my hubby said I used to get out of doing anything else. So here we go with a new blog style. EEK!!