New Blog

a mommy's running journey

Because you may not have noticed the new tab up top, I  wanted to share with you that I have started a new blog! You can click on the new 'a mommy's running journey' tab and it will bring up a link that will take you straight to it. I've asked my dear friend and running partner, Jenn, to contribute to it as well. The blog will be used to document our own personal running journey's, keep track of weekly runnning mileage, share techniques and races completed but will also be chock full of tips, tools and links to encourage and enable others to begin a marvelous journey of health and fitness all their own.

Random Thoughts Thursday

Okay, so it's not Thursday yet... close enough.
My eldest daughter had to miss her very first swimming lesson to learn a lesson. It was tough on our mommy and daddy hearts, but as all parents know, consistency doesn't disappoint. It turned out to be a profitable learning experience. She was overjoyed to get in the pool the next evening, and a bit wiser, too.

My son is doing awesome at his swimming lessons!  I am so proud of him. Though he turned 3 in March, we do a parent & tot class together because this is his first year swimming, beyond little blow up pools at Memaw's. After 2 days, he is already voluntarily dunking his whole head under water to grab a ring.  I'm amazed!  Is this the same fearful little boy who only weeks ago would scream his head off when getting his hair washed in the bath? 

Does anyone else have things that just really bug you?  Really, REALLY, REALLY{eyes wide open in amazement} bug you? Like the kind of "bug" that pretty much incapacitates you until it's taken care of? Dry hands and feet are just one of those things for me. It gives me the willies, as I shutter from discomfort until I can remedy the situation i.e. washing, applying lotion, etc.... Tsk. How lame am I really?  I can't stand it for long to be even a little bit uncomfortable. Lame. When I am out in the dust and sand, in flip flops as usual, away from my lotion bottle and bathtub, I understand completely why it was customary in Bible times for people to get their feet washed when coming into a household from a long trek through the dust in sandal clad feet.  Whew, would that drive me crazy! I would be hustling as fast as I could to get to the place I was going so I could have the wonderful blessing of getting my dry dirty feet wonderfully washed and cleaned.

My two oldest are spending the night at Memaw's tonight. We have swimming lessons in the morning and tomorrow night and the next morning and so on for another week and a half.  Bright side, I think I am getting skinny from being so busy! Won't hear a peep of complaining from me about that.

Today was a tough day to get through sane, I even wanted to sit down and cry at one point. Emotional? Yep. Hormonal? No doubt. Stressed? You got it. Tired? Definitely. Joyful? Absolutely!!

My son said to me today with great enthusiasm," I love you, momma, you're my BEST husband!"  And, "I'm a boy and you are a gil, momma?  I a boy, you a gil. Right?" {smile} Love that kid.

I will have run a total of over 19 miles this week. No, not consecutively. Though, someday I would like to run a marathon. Someday. Maybe. Hopefully. Can I get some good old friendly encouragement up in here? {grin}

My girls popped peas, picked from my grandmother's garden, today and we had crock potted(?) chicken, peas, carrots and Quinoa in Chicken stock. I added a little ginger, garlic, red pepper, black pepper, paprika, the whole spice rack and it was DELISH!  Now would you call that a stew or a soup???

Have I mentioned lately how much I love these girls?  They are such a support and awesome little helpers. A joy to have around.

I love to take in the colorful scene of my four oldest, of course paint shirt clad, paintbrushes in hand surrounded by papers, tubes, boxes and egg cartons scattered over our designated paint table cloth, hunched over their artwork intently creating. It's a colorful picture of joy and learning and it brings a smile to my face.

Looking forward to my friend Katie's wedding this weekend.  Such a lovely lady and sweet friend. She moved from here back to her home town a couple of hours away last month and I miss her!  I am happy that their special Day has finally arrived and she and her man will be married!

My husband and I just returned from a wonderful 6 mile bike ride this gorgeous evening with our two youngest hitched behind him.  I can't tell you how much I enjoy time spent with my husband. It doesn't happen often enough!! My little blessing was sound asleep when we got back. My son close behind. My husband is now, thankfully, working up in our attic, getting it closer and closer to finished!! I can't wait!! He likes to get up there and see progress getting made and I gladly send him up there because I LOVE seeing progress getting made. I usually spend the latter part of our evenings with the kids, putting them to bed and such when we're working on house projects like this one.  It's nothing in comparison to the year after we bought this house. My husband worked SO hard for a whole year on our house to get it remodeled before we moved into it. He was at work ALL day and then working on our house all evening until past midnight. It was a crazy good exciting chapter in our lives.  Hmmm, I might post some of our house's 'before and afters' on here just for fun!

I've only been getting 6 hours of sleep every night at the most for the last week and a half so I suppose it is time to get off the computer, pry my fingers from the keyboard and read a few books to my son before bedtime, chow down on some oatmeal cookies, spend time with my dear hubby and then lights out early! Maybe. Hopefully. Ah, who am I kidding!? {sigh} Someday.

Wordless Wednesday

Aquarium

 

You are 100% correct Melissa, dear. This is a picture of my sweet children watching jellyfish when we visited the Aquarium on our recent beloved coastal vacation.  It's amazing to think about the fact that jellyfish are made up of up to 95% water!  And they do not have brains, they are completely run on electrical impulses or muscle contractions.  Hmmm, sounds similar to what being a mommy feels like on certain days... I can just imagine using the phrase,"Oh, I'm such a jelly today!"

Although it was a rainy day, we enjoyed walking outdoors, visiting the animals and Oooing and Ahhing.

This little guy was cozying up to the glass like he wanted to cuddle with the kids!  They loved it.  Even when they left this window and went to another, he followed them and started pressing his little face up to the glass once again with his eyes all squinted closed, a faint smile on his lips, if he had lips that is...  It almost  makes an animal lover want to jump right in with him... almost.

The 'touch' pool was fun, but honestly we had been to tide pools just as cool on the beach that were full of fun little creatures and they we're authentic wild little creatures! We touched the sea anemones, star fish, urchins, mussels, crabs, little fishies and many, many shells! We have jars full of shells as souvenirs.

Kids just love to touch. They'd touch everything all day long if permitted-and put it directly in their mouths, if you are my fifth blessing and 12 months old. Thus the reason we do not take our kids into china shops, down the wine isle or into antique stores... even with obedient children, it could become catastrophic.

The Aquarium has an amazing completely glass walled(and floored!) tunnel where we could walk through and feel as though we were under the ocean with the sharks, fish and rays. The kids were enamored!  Well, my little man was slightly worried about stepping onto a glass floor, so he made sure to gingerly walk around those.

Photo courtesy of OCA

We we're able to look at shells and things under a microscope at one point on our tour. It is always amazing to see the texture of something magnified. The intricacy and detail is incredible! We saw a lot of pictures magnified to 1000's of times their normal size. What a powerful God we serve!

We saw crabs that typically become as tall as men, penguins, eels, puffins and murres. We also saw snakes, frogs and fish that look like grass. GRASS.  In Hawaii, ages many years ago, my family and I snorkeled in the beautiful crystal clear ocean. It was a blast, but I could never get used to the beautifully colored fish constantly running into my legs, hands and even face!  They weren't afraid... what happened to the comforting "they are more afraid than you are" rule? Things rubbing up against my legs or sinking my feet into squishy muddy ground in the ocean or any body of water makes me nervous.  So now I'm freaked cautious. 

My little girl being her happy self, tucked into her carrier.

In front of a wetland of sorts, right off of the ocean.  We watched a little informational video on wetlands, what makes a wetland a wetland, and the variety and difference of them all.

The nice Aquarium lady had the kids come up to flap their arms like birds, a hummingbird to be exact!  Hummingbirds do not flap their wings typically like every other bird, up and down. They flap back and forth in a swinging motion! My kids even sat still for the entire 20 minutes of boring informational footage.

Speaking of educational videos, my kids, for some odd reason LOVE to watch this documentary video about Beavers that we have on our Netflix Instant Que- The Best Dam Movie Ever.  I know, I feel like a terrible mother. {snicker} But it's all in the name of education!!

The funny things kids say...

"Look(as he points to the sky and speaks in a completely and utterly honest little voice), a little tiny moon!" (The North Star) -mommy's little man

"Mommy, let me press (massage!) your back." -mommy's angel

"Mhmm, this is good food. It's good for my life." -mommy's little man

"I'd like Italad(italian and salad together) dressing please." -mommy's angel

"I ate all of my adivocatado." (avacado) -mommy's little man