ambitious

Exercise and remodelling. Getting in shape and landscaping. Planning Spring and summer visits and vacations and finishing up homeschooling. Blogging and reading more. Sleeping less and eating right...

Am I alone in my multi-tasking binges? Are my lofty intentions too high? Planning. Planning. Planning. Planning.

Spring brings on the go-&-get-em energy I suppose.

Here are a couple of our Spring caused aspirations:

We are planning on remodelling the front entry of our house along with updating the landscaping this Spring. We will keep looks in mind as we go about the process as our 1938 house is due for a more contemporary front entrance but the major factor behind this remodel is to keep water from invading our basement.

When it pours cats and dogs, I mean drenching rain, the kind of rain that comes down so hard on the windshield that you can't get the wipers to wipe fast enough to see through it kind of rain; the street drain just off the corner curb of our yard can't handle the huge amounts of water and it backs way up into our front yard, bubbling over, sending hoards of dirty H2O rushing towards our foundation, reeking havoc on our nerves and our house!

We are determined to come up with a solution, whether or not the city will help us out with the project. After all it is their drain, right?
This type of rainfall only happens once or so every twelve months if at all in any given year. But when it rains, it pours if you know what I mean.

I have also been running my Fanny off this spring! Starting in February my long-time friend, Jenn (fellow mother to many small children) and I decided to start the 'Couch to 5k' program and have made it feasible by coop-babysitting each other's kids. We have been meeting up twice a week for our running escapades. We take turns hauling our kids to each others house and then take turns once again running our program while the other watches ALL of the kiddos.

Kudos to my dear friend Jenn because hey, what's 3 more on top of my five for me to keep track of, BUT 5 more on top of her three? Well, amazingly she handles it like a pro!

We finished that program with flying colors in 10 weeks and have been training for an 8k since then. We have both conquered running 3 miles and running them faster than a 10 minute a mile pace. YAY! In fact just today I ran 3.5 miles in 30 minutes! That's a split time of 8 minutes and 30 seconds a mile!

I recently ran 4.5 miles in 40 minutes... STRAIGHT, BABY! Just to give you an idea of how out of running shape I was, I hadn't put on my dusty running shoes for any amount of dedicated time for, Oh... about 10 years or make that HIGH SCHOOL. I know. Too, too long. I've been pregnant, breastfeeding, overweight, depressed, busy, working, otherwise occupied, lacking prioritisation and many other excuses I'm not remembering at the moment. I look back to February of this year and think about how stinking hard it was to run for a minute straight and I am amazed at how quickly hard work and dedication pays off! We've been hurt, our knees have killed us periodically, we've been tired (as mothers often tend to be) we've been sick, our kids have been sick, it's been raining out and we have STILL pushed through and are better because of it. It just feels good to have something to be working towards.

Jenn and I are excited and nervous at the same time to be signed up for a 5k race this May. It's the shortest runner's race out there but it's a start and who knows... maybe a full blown marathon isn't that far out of our adventurous reach.

A heartfelt thank you to my dear running partner, fellow mother and sister in Christ, Jenn.

I couldn't have done it without you!