a life beyond running shoes.

yesterday was my birthday!!! we played at the park.....man, am i cute! i got lots of help with my candle and discovered i LOVE chocolate angel food cupcakes! my brother even helped mom cook. it was a GREAT day.

now while i sometimes feel i need to be institutionalized (especially after long days with these two crazies)..... this is in fact our apartment hallway. while it looks sterile..... it kind of is, but homey nonetheless. i think the wreath on our door helps here are the boys.....

from everyone. i notice it from my children.... BUT it flows from me on my morning runs. there is something about cold weather that just makes it run freely... more freely than my legs. i finally broke through the drudgery of running. november was a wash....i hardly count it... painful, discouraging, and slow. december has been much better. it was 6:45 and the sky was lightening... but the sun had not quite popped out. the snow from last night did not stick, and very little ice was left on the sidewalks. it was 35 degrees.... and i still broke a sweat. my legs finally felt good moving; my mind was able to think through the holidays; i finally found my rhythm. it was quite; i felt quite. (the cars are just white noise) four and half miles later i felt like a runner.

our first snow.... how they got to church.... (in the snow) nursing colds..... practicing indoor soccer.... decorating xmas tree.... killing time...... our first vegan rice krispie treats......

my book club met last night to discuss our reading of jhumpa lahiri's book the namesake . we ate samosa, rasgula (milk balls that are sweet & a dessert), and burfi. it was all very yummy & our discussion was interesting, diverse, and engaging. we all liked the book with mixed reviews of specific characters. we all found her to be a captivating writer with vivid descriptions of culture, food, and traditions. i think i enjoyed it so much because it was a different culture than i have read much about. i was captivated by this story of immigrant parents and their first born children particularly the main character, gogal, and his assimilation between two world. our october book was howard's end , which i did not finish, but has been a crowd favorite. i loved being in old england with ladies and gentlemen, but also the delicate topics of class & money, land & family. we also briefly discussed how on beauty echoes part of howard's end , yet with much dis...

both boys are under the weather. the older one getting over something; the younger just getting it... means yesterday was a tough day. i was showered with generosity. first act of generosity: my husband kicked me out of the house to go get a cup of coffee and read for an hour...away from the kids. i found a little bit of extra money in my pocket, so i opted for a glass of wine from our favorite new restaurant in our new neighborhood... the farm on adderly. well, that glass of wine ended up being their provencal martini -- lavender & rosemary infused. i read my book ( the omnivore's dilemma - which will take me until next summer to get through) and saw a couple from church that live near us. second act of generosity: that couple paid for my martini and gave me $20 to get some dessert & another drink. they were more than kind. it was a wonderful reprieve from fussy, sick children. i even got to talk to the owner & his sister about living here and some strange connect...

this is how i like my men..... for thanksgiving day, the boys made pumpkin scones. okay. not great. then on monday, the boys tried their hand at cinnamon scones. scrumptious!! i found a recipe that called for 2T of milk and sour cream.... and since we have an organic market in our neighborhood, i spotted tofutti sour cream. so with a bit of shortening, soy milk, and tofutti cream cheese.... we had scones that our first born could eat. and we enjoyed them as well. next time i think a few cinnamon chips would put them over the edge to being dynamite.

we had such a fun time. it was a bit chaotic trying to get all the side dishes heated, biscuits baked, and turkey sliced in a one-butt kitchen.... but it all worked out. we tried our hand at our first free-range turkey.... i think it would have been scrumptious if we had fried it. we pretty much eat the turkey to justify the sides..... which included: sweet potato souffle traditional dressing very fancy, yummy dressing green bean casserole baked acorn squash with maple glaze homemade cranberry sauce garlic, cheese biscuits pecan pie pumpkin pie apple pie AND a chocolate fountain with fruit (thus the chocolate face photo) and ample wine just so you don't think i pulled off this feast, it was a potluck with our small group. we even played a round of scene it (movie trivia game).

for those who have followed along, i have taken you on my journey of food. it started by simply going to the farmers' market on saturday and has become more of our way of life through some very minimal reading and other websites. this book has been part of the journey. i started it months ago and finally finished. i can't say i buy the whole thing, especially since they are philopophically in favor of veganism or in the least vegetarianism .... but there are aspects that propel me further down this path... however that path is to be defined. here are some things that struck me..... in the conclusion of the book they sum up their five ethical principles. here is what how it specifically challenges me regarding my food choices. 1. transparency: we have the right to know how our food is produced. challenge: i should care how my food is produced. 2. fairness: producing food should not impose cost to others. challenge: i should care more about how my food choices reflect the full...

last night's grey's anatomy kind of messed with my head. it was all about how the hospital was really not any better (or more mature) than high school. i need to stop watching. it is weird; i think i have come so far, yet my struggles don't really seem to change. am i too loud, too quiet, on the "in crowd," authentic enough, too transparent, HOW obnoxious is my laugh, really...... all those insecurities that i think i have laid to rest slowly creep in every once in awhile no matter how much more i understand of myself or of how god created me. i even had an old friend in town a couple of weeks ago and could feel myself seeking approval....looking for validations on my weight loss, hair color, home decor, cooking, balance between funky diva & full-time mom.... anything to say that i am better or different (improved) from who i was then..... i got none. which i think is what i needed to be reminded that once again my fear of man can often times be larger than ...

i finally got my shoes laced up this morning. it has been over a week since i ran. it was brutal. i was not expecting anything less that that, but when it is upon you.... argh! i had to talk myself into every step i took. i couldn't get my pace consistent. my breathing was laborious. it was just a hard run..... but it guess getting back on the horse typically is. i have grand ideas of running the turkey trot thanksgiving morning..... i guess i'll have to see if i can back out there on saturday. i read articles all the time about running while sick.... i just can't do it. but i got back out there.

he is such a fan..... this is our friend beau.... he loves our kids. our kids love him & his wife. i think they hang out with us because of our kids.

our little one is in a hurry to keep up. he is finally cutting his first two teeth..... loves picking up books, bringing them to you, sits down in your lap, and waits for you to read it to him. we are also getting lots of really cute chattering. hope you can hear the babbles at the end of the clip.

this blog is for one person.... my brother. deployed sunday for his third tour with the marine corps.... second to the middle east. let us talk for a moment about our favorite movie characters. this happens to be one of mine: val kilmer as doc holliday in the movie tombstone . full of the best quotable quotes, sexy as all get out, and full of heart. we tivo'd the movie last weekend and watched it last night. i laughed out loud at some scenes because they are so familiar (having seen this movie a bazillion times) and new because it has been a while since viewing. it made me think of my brother almost the whole movie. perhaps the only other movies that might make me think of him as much are: navy seals , k2 , or dirty dancing . dirty dancing is the only movie on this list that does not include actor michael biehn..... hum?! we won't really comment on the nature of this movie, but it is hard being the baby of the family with two older sisters.... huh, bud?! anyway..... to my br...

how i wish a mommy could get sick days. if only i could have called in a sub for wednesday because after coming home from a week & a half in florida, we hosted three new york marathoners (my mother-in-law, father-in-law, & sister-in-law) plus one spectator for four nights.... i came down with the flu/cold yuckiness. luckily, my husband was all hands on deck and came home early wednesday to help with the boys, eat homemade chicken noodle soup, and make me hot tea. in the midst of being on the couch or in the toddler bed, i started reading this novel. i finished it last night (less than 48 hours from when i started). it is a tale of an incident resembling columbine i n small town new hampshire. it is also about how the various people cope, deal, instigate, cause, and heal from this horrific event. i was gripped... whether it was feeding on my own fears as a parent, as a parent of boys, my fear of parenting teenagers.... or what, but i HAD to finish. i was almost too engage...

and probably a dollar short..... but not short on cuteness..... the dragon & tigger (who was mistaken for a girl). our first trick-or-treat experience was way fun... especially since we got to meet some of our new neighbors. .... and to my dear brother who shipped out yesterday for some far off destination in the middle east.... i will think of you with every post!!!

as i ran with my mother-in-law's training group this morning, i got lots of tales from the strange universe that is polk county..... 1. police force honored for rescuing a man from an alligator....he lost an arm but was spared his life. 2. local football team was going for state record last night.... 53 consecutive wins. 3. marathon plans..... this is their fourth fall marathon. 4. the geese around the lake that scare the snot out of me. 5. the naked man that we saw about 3/4 of a mile into our run.... that gave us enough conversation for the first three miles. 6. the bunny we saw that we thought was fake..... that took up at least half a mile of conversation as they discussed all of the wild life spotted on 5:30am runs: opossums, raccons, ducks, geese, etc. 7. the 10th anniversary of parker street ministry (a local inner-city ministry). 8. the fact that i was able to keep up with this amazing group of ladies for their 9 mile run (i did 8.5 miles - my longest run yet).

when running in florida, in 100% humidity, at 5:30 in the morning, in the dark, in heat that is OPPRESSIVE, on a 4 mile hill workout...... don't try and keep up with your sister-in-law who ran track in college and is training for the new york marathon and plans on keeping pace with your husband's cousin's wife who is training to run a 3:40 marathon in order to qualify for boston. that is what i call a bad idea. and just down right impossible. but i did the workout!!! can i do 5:30 again tomorrow? not sure..... but i did get to see a movie today. gone baby gone . intense. really intense. and visit with some of our favorite friends. encouraging. simply encouraging.

about my fist interval training run this morning.....but i won't. it was hard and no fun....especially with a jog stroller. so, i will share about my first home baked apple pie.....done twice. this first one looks so much prettier than the second one ..... too bad it wasn't edible. i read the recipe wrong.... what might you say would indicate that...... the smoke alarm? that perhaps might indicate recipe gone bad! so we tried round two..... yum! fresh picked apples from our fall retreat..... homemade crust..... even tastier with caramel swirled ice cream. it was such a shame that neither of my children really liked it. more for me!

browsing around through the nikeplus website & my itunes, i found some cool mixes especially created for workouts.... some even include voice overs from coaches. okay, so i downloaded one and have yet to try this "increase your endurance" workout. the nano & nikeplus have the setting called "powersong" that can be accessed at anytime during a run....for instance, at the end of a run or up a hill or at a moment when one would need an extra push. my personal powersong reminds me that i have an affinity for all things juvenile: fall out boy's "thnks fr th mmrs." it always helps me finish my runs with that extra UMPF! but, i spent about an hour working on my running playlist. downloading a few new songs, rearranging the order, deleting some that fail to inspire, etc. then, i hit the pavement...... i think i smiled for at least the first half hour of my run. i was flat out enjoying myself. delighted with good, grooving music. good beats that kept...

he will be 10 months on saturday.... that is correct. he is only 9 1/2 months old. we talked about how he didn't really have permission to walk yet..... his obedience bodes well for the teenage years.

this is what we do for fun.... we make up songs... (he is saying "bless you.") here are our costumes. we wore them to the playground. why not get more than just one day of trick or treating out of them. thank you aunt laurie & uncle dre for such cute outfits!!

it was still dark at 6:30 this morning when i laced up my shoes. i hadn't run in a week and a half due to coming home from california with a head cold. i was not looking forward to it. i had already lost the challenge and my motivation had waned. should i do the short loop twice or meet my friend the hill? i decided to just face the hill. i was dreading it. everyone was passing me. i felt sluggish, yet i felt i had started too fast and was going to have nothing left in my legs for the way home. at a nice, steady pace it is a 5 minute hill. thanks to some good music, i clocked 4:30 on that hill. i thought i was struggling with each step i pounded.... yet the hill was telling me otherwise. my body was moving with memory and ignoring my head that was trying to get in the way. i found a rhythm that was steady yet arguably difficult as i could not get my own voice to be quiet long enough to enjoy the downhill portion of my run..... three blocks to go. i wanted to quit so badly. the tra...

could this really be the beginning of a new world order? yup..... later (after this clip) he took 4 full steps then sat down.

A is my serious child....he only breaks a smile when he has food or is being tickled. my siblings & spouses ...... of course i think my kids are the cutest around...... he was on a mission for bread thus the smile!

my dad got married in napa valley, ca this past weekend. black tie.... very fancy. vineyards.... yummy wine. siblings.... lots of laughing. more pictures to come.

i saw him last night. (ALL of him for that matter) ian mckellen as king lear. oh my gracious!!! i have never seen such amazing performances. the entire cast was outrageously awesome. it is what real talent looks like, with real theater, and real performances. i am spoiled now. it is such a performance that i will still be telling my kids about it 10 years from now.... because i was there AND stayed awake the whole time.

finally!!! i got to run with my running partner. it is amazing how quickly 3 miles can go when there is conversation, laughter, and motivation..... it was wonderful. i think we are both in pretty good shape.... and even discussed a potential race. it was so nice to catch up with her semester, family, work, training, etc. the best part was realizing that when we met our old friend the hill, it was done easily and without hitting the pause button on our chat. it took so much less effort than my encounter with the hill the day before. amazing how a little bit of company can make something difficult seem less torturous. i assume that is the metaphor for struggle in life, or life in general. when we live our lives with other people, the load is less burdensome. but it is hard to get past the idea that we have to manage it all by ourselves. i am a prideful creation who does not like to ask for help, yet i physically feel the benefit of running with a partner. i may not get there as ...

my run on saturday made me acutely aware of the fact that i run in shorts. running down ocean parkway (envisioned by architect olmsted in 1866, this path connects prospect park to coney island) at 7:30 am means i come face to face with different groups of folks walking to shabbat service dressed in long black skirts, wigs, hats, black suits, kippots (or yarmulke), and tzitzit (tassels). i on the other hand am in a tank & shorts bobbing along listening to postal service & feist trying to get in my 5 miles. i am aware of the uniqueness of new york where cultures really do collide. case and point, i turn off ocean parkway and passed a woman in a full burqa. i often see arabic woman wearing head scarves (especially in our new neighborhood), but this was the first time i had personally seen the full burqa. then take my walk to lunch with my friend on sunday after church..... we come across a block party of high end sports cars..... lamborghini, porshe, ferrari, etc. that was...

tee, hee..... right?! well, sometimes i think i'm not.... like when hanging around john's family where EVERYONE is competitive (almost). but... the reality is that i am. i can just choose when to tap in to it. like with my new nike+ sport pedometer. i go out and jog, it records my time & distance, it links it to a website. on this website you can start challenges or join a challenge. i challenged one of the other pastors that my husband knows to see who could run the most miles in 30 days. i figured we could both use the motivation. a little competition never hurt anyone, right?! but now i want to win. like on tuesday... out for a run with the jog stroller in the middle of a great pace around the full loop, feeling good, thinking about trying for another half loop..... increase the mileage. and the nine month old starts falling a part. like he is hungry or something because the bottle he had an hour ago is not still sustaining him. kids can be so demanding! i resig...

i can honestly say that i have failed to fully appreciate the fact that we get the new york times . mostly because i would rather watch what not to wear , read other people's blogs, or whatever novel i am engaged with. but this morning, after my run outside.... i sat on the floor to stretch with the book review section. the essay this week was about allan bloom's book and the debate that has continued to ensue regarding the famous love of mine.... the literary canon. his book (published in 1988) claims "that abandoning the Western canon had dumbed down universities, while the 'relativism' that had replaced it had 'extinguished the real motive of education, the search for a good life....that many earlier contributions were just watered-down versions of Heidegger, Nietzsche, Weber, Freud, and other Continental thinkers.'" what is interesting is to know that this debate continues. as an english teacher by trade (yes, one that fails to use capital letters...

one thought i had for our meal week is to do homemade pizza on friday nights. in our old neighborhood, i could find pizza dough for $2.50. in our new neighborhood, rent may be cheaper but the pizza dough ain't. SO.....i made my own. it actually got twice as big as this. we made BBQ chicken pizza (without cheese for our older son). his cheese allergy is what prompted this "at home pizza." we can't do take out pizza on a whim. that has its perks & pitfalls. one - it is easy for a meal. the other hand - it saves me from greasy pizza which helps the waist line. anyway.... we had pasture raised chicken roasted from monday night left over, so we smothered it in bbq sauce with red onions & cheese...yummy! this morning we hit the farmers market again. the egg lady was not there nor was the milk guy. argh! i did pick up a flyer about pasture-raised dairy & meat... here are some fun facts: pasture-raised beef are grown in less crowded & stressful condition...

since trekking into the farmer's market via the subway weekly, i have become a bit more adventurous with our activities in new york mostly because we are no longer limited to where we can walk to..... (almost 9 months) so, today the boys and i ventured down to coney island with some friends. we basically just played in the sand for two hours, dodged pieces of glass, and ate lunch around 10am. it was a great way to spend $4 on the subway! (especially since the 87% humidity is gone and it was a lovely 74 degrees & partly cloudy - perfect beach weather for this fair mom) (almost 2 and a half)

so, where did i go? i'm not really sure. it isn't like i have been idle. we are pretty much settled into the new apartment.... our pretty new chairs for our living room (which was painted since this pic). we didn't have enough seating and had to get some more cool place for people to put their rumps when they come to visit. our foyer.... i have a foyer. i have a place to put & display all of my great photos & my hutch with my china. and my pretty new bedroom. i have been reading a ton..... this was our most recent book club book. we met about three weeks ago and had a great discussion. i just checked out the follow-up book to this from the library. i met with three women to dialogue about this book. it is all about chastity.... from a christian perspective. it is about the best book i have read on christian living. i am in the middle of this and just working through it slowly. it is overwhelming and challenging all at the same time. i wrestle with what does it ...