Loving Life

We went to the library this morning for the preschool story hour.  Abby was the only preschooler there.  Ana was very delighted to join Abby for story hour and have another opportunity to do crafts. David did school work at a table with me at the library, however couldn't help laughing at the silly stories being read to his sisters.  Stories > Algebra. Books were brought home from the library Rule of "Do not walk while you read" was inforced on the way home Now it's quiet this afternoon as the kids are engrossed in their respective books. I love libraries.

We went on a field trip yesterday.  It was a learn to canoe field trip for David's age group.  Ana's age group had indoor activities at the nature center and Abby stayed with a friend.  The weather was fine all morning until about 15 minutes before we arrived at the destination.  It decided to start raining.  By the time we were ready to canoe (after watching two snakes eat some mice in the conservation center), the rain had become an annoying cold drizzle.  We survived and David learned to steer a little bit better.  Ana had fun indoors staying warm and toasty.  David and I were cold and wet and ready to get warm by the end.  Before heading home, we stopped by Walmart for a few necessities.  We scored a few more things than I was planning on getting.  Score #1 - Half price Easter candy!  I hadn't gotten the kids their usual chocolate Easter bunny from me because the few times I looked prior to Easter, they only had the ginor...

First of all, I want to say a big thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who left a comment on my last post or sent me an email.  They gave me piles of warm fuzzies.  I didn't write my feelings out to get back pats, but mainly because I was tired of feeling bad and listening to the whiny voice inside my head.  So I thought if I wrote my thoughts out it would help me with my whininess and aid in promoting an internal change for me.  And I ended up getting bonus back patting too.  : ) So, that aside, let's get on to my favorite topic... food!  Strawberries are starting to get cheaper in the stores and less green looking, so I bought some at our local grocery store (actually I got them for free since I was able to redeem them using my "points"!).  I told Aaron I wanted to make some strawberry shortcake with them.  I was appalled when he was indifferent to that idea and then had the audacity to say that he doesn't really like strawberry ...

Don't you wish you could spend your days snoozing on top of a pillow?  Me too! Oh well, I would miss out on much of life if I slept as much as Joey.  So I will be content with my non-snoozy-pillowless-days. So I've been doing lots of thinking, praying, etc. the past while about my life and the way I live it.  For the past I don't know how long, but for too long, I've felt like I've just been hanging on by the seat of my pants as I try my best to survive each day.  Not getting done what I want to do with schooling stresses me out, having a messy house stresses me out, unfinished projects stresses me out, dealing with a bum foot stresses me out, feeling like I'm falling way short of the super high expectations I put on me stresses me out.  The past month has been rough and full of stresses I've put upon myself.  I don't want to live my life that way.  It's silly that I have a huge amount of grace for the people around me, but a zero tolerance level fo...

Ana had her first official sleepover at our house this weekend.  Of course, being the good mother that I am, I did not take any pictures of the time.  Oops.  She invited over one of her friends who is also a homeschooler.  The last few hours before she arrived passed agonizingly slow for Ana.  But once she arrived, all the past angst immediately disappeared.  They spent the evening playing with their magic fairy wands that Ana had made for each of them, casting magic spells to make things happen - they pretty much made supper as they ordered everything I did as I prepared things ("Now, I will make water cups appear on the table!").  It was pretty cute.  They turned in their fairy wands in exchange for wooden swords and spears after awhile.  It was time to defeat some nasty foe (which was me, apparently, as I happened to walk by at the wrong time).  Easter egg dyeing was also in the mix, along with drawing on the whiteboard....

Aaron and I are raising animals!  In a good sense.  Sometimes we go to the track as a family so Aaron and I can do a workout together.  The kids like to play there.  Sometimes they like to run there while we run too.  Last week, the kids went with Aaron and ended up running a mile and a half there (David and Ana).  That was the farthest they had ever gone before without stopping.  This week, we were all there again on Monday.  Aaron said that if anyone of them could run two whole miles without stopping that we would go to our local diner for supper (yes, he's forever the coach).  Well, that was all the motivation they needed.  They promptly trotted their required two miles.  I ran the second part of it with Ana.  We finished and cheered David on who wasn't much behind us.  When he got to the two mile mark, he kept going.  He had decided, unbeknownst to me, that he wanted to see if he could go a full 5K (3.1 miles...

Hi again!  I had a super busy weekend.  I was going to try to post on Saturday, but ran out of time.  So here's a quick post for you to enjoy.  I went on a 9 mile run on Saturday.  I haven't run that far since my marathon last October.  It felt nice, but somewhere in the midst of it, my mind left good, sound reasoning and I decided that it would be good to take an ice bath once I got home to help my legs not get sore or injured.  I have heard the wonders of what an ice bath will do for you after a long or hard run.  So, I got everything ready once I arrived home (cup of hot tea, portable heater in the bathroom cranking, tub filled with cold water and ice cubes).  Here's proof: My goal was to make it 10 minutes.  However, I was a super huge pansy and couldn't make it more than one at a time.  So I would sit in it for about half a minute, get out and let the pain from coldness subside for half a minute and submerge again.  ...