a life beyond running shoes.

if you have three minutes..... check out this video . it gets me so excited about the half-marathon i am training for. i teared up thinking that because of amazing people, i have reached 30% of my goal. thanks for participating!!! thanks for helping the world. thanks for being supportive of my training by giving financially. i am thrilled to be doing this. it is a great motivator. i get excited about getting out there and running hard and training hard. thank you!!!!

my friend ( behind the gate ) read this and inspired me to follow suit. so, this was my first read of the new year..... how to make christmas more christmas and not more shopping. as we dialogue with friends about the days following christmas and having the 12 days leading to epiphany to spread out the christmas loot and struggling with breading in our children more selfishness and consumerism... this little book struck me with simplicity and honesty. it is not just about not spending... but the manner in which we spend. these are the questions that it raised for me: is the nature in which i celebrate this time of year one that teaches my children to be generous? am i in fact trying to find ways & places to be generous in my own celebration of advent? am i more concerned with giving the perfect gift for an individual OR spending time on a gift to show someone that they are significant.... (i have struggled with feeling lame about presenting hand-made gifts in the past when in fa...

asher woke at 2.... then at 6 but went back to sleep until 7. micah woke at 7:05. my birthday came a month early in the form of a nano!!!! it was incentive to get me off the treadmill and onto the pavement. so, i went..... my first run in the park. it was 62 degrees, sunny, no humidity, and spectacular. 2 miles. it was hard, but felt good....not quite like putting on old, comfy shoes, but close. i have missed the park and look forward to making it all the way around the loop soon. breakfast: scrambled eggs with chorizo sausage. YUM!!! picnic in the park. soccer ball, sandwiches, chips, shade. tonight, we are going to our first movie in over a year.... popcorn, entertainment, sticky floors. today is almost a perfect day!

we had six two year olds over plus some parents, one grandmother (not our own), and one dad in training over on saturday for some cake & hotdogs. of course, snow flurries in the am greatly deterred the use of backyard space..... significantly changing the craziness of it all. it was wild particularly because one two year old in particular was so excited about his party that a nap was completely out of the question..... big lesson for mom: don't tell him about the party before the nap..... we almost stopped celebrating his birthday and turned it into his wake....he was really whiny & obstinate.... especially when he saw the cake and he couldn't eat it RIGHT NOW!!! we are really loved.... a dear friend decorated this cake for us. she loves me and love my kid! dsb, you rock!