Couch to 5K

I feel like I can officially write about this since I’m in week 2 of my 9 week training program.  Before now I have never been a runner.  I’ve always said “I don’t run.  I walk.”.   I can walk/hike for miles, in fact I *love* hiking!

 

But I don’t run.

Until now.

 

When I say I’m not a runner, or that I *can’t* run, my sweet husband tells me that it’s all in my head (he says it sweetly!).  That I have to push past the pain.  I thought he was loony.  I mean, you are supposed to *stop* when something hurts, right?  Unfortunately, that’s what I’ve always done. 

But then, this past December, we went to watch several friends run in a marathon.  A marathon!  That’s 26.2 miles, and they ran!  It was inspiring.  Even more inspiring were the people we saw running with prosthetic legs.  We saw 2 or 3 adults running with TWO prosthetic legs.  I mean, what better excuse do you have for NOT running?  Yet, there they were.  I have been blessed with 2 legs that work just fine, so why can’t I do this? 

 

Because I haven’t tried.

 

Plus, I just watched my husband train for 6 months to get back in shape to join the Army.  He is my hero!  He got up early, worked out multiple times a week – hard!  He lost weight, gained strength, and focused on his goal.  He didn’t want to get up early, or go running, especially with a 50 pound rucksack on his back.  But he did.  Because he’s that kind of guy.

 

So, now I’m trying.  I’m going to start….and finish this!  I desperately want to accomplish this.  I want to run a 5K (that’s about 3 miles) without stopping.  Just because I can.  I’d love to do a marathon someday, but right now that’s too lofty a goal for me to focus on.  We’re going to start with a 5K.  Then, we’ll shoot for a 10K.  Baby steps.

 

I completed week 1, which consisted of 3 days of training.  Each time, I ran 1 minute, then walked 1.5 minutes.  I continued that cycle for 20 minutes (plus a 5 minute warm up, and another 5 minute cool down).

Then I had a setback of a couple weeks with an awful chest congestion, so I started over, and did week 1 again. 

Now, I’m in week 2.  Yesterday I completed Week 2 – Day 1.  Run 1.5 minutes, and walk 2 minutes.   Although, I forgot to look at my training program before I left the house, so I only walked for 1.5 minutes.  Guess I did better than I was “supposed” to :)

 

The first week was miserable.  For one thing, I didn’t stretch enough before/after and I ended up with awful shin splints that made me wonder if I had already broken something. 

Then, one day I ran/walked, it was the day after our area had record breaking snow!  It had started to melt, and I found myself running in crazy zig-zags to avoid the puddles.  My shoes have mesh on them, and every time I would step in a puddle, cold, wet water would seep in.   Burr! 

 

This week, I spent more time stretching, and it made all the difference in the world!  Yesterday when I ran, it was so cold out, that I kept changing my route so that I could stay in the sun.  It doesn’t really matter where I run, because right now I’m running for time, not distance, so I don’t measure out a certain path.  I just go.

It felt GREAT!  This week was easier than last week.  It was still hard, but it was easier than last week.  I hope that cycle continues because I really WANT to enjoy this.  Not just do it, but enjoy it.

Don’t sweat the small stuff…God already is

 

This past Saturday night, just before Bug went to bed, I was rocking her in the rocking chair.  I feel so incredibly blessed that she still lets me do this from time to time, even at 5 (and a half!).  

Suddenly, she burst into tears!  She said “I don’t want to grow up.  I want to stay a kid forever.”  I assured her that she had tons of time to enjoy being a kid, and when it was time for her to be a grownup, she would WANT to be a grownup!  She was worried about outgrowing her bunk bed (a twin!), so I told her about how I slept on a bed that size until I was a much older grownup and it fit just fine.

Then the conversation got around to us moving (ahhh! the real worry!).  We know that about a year from now our family will be moving.  We don’t know where yet.  Most of the time, Emily is super excited about it.  God blessed her with an amazing sense of adventure and curiosity.  She wants to visit more countries and states than I think I even knew existed at her age.

However, this time, she was bawling.  She was scared and worried about the move.  I held her close and told her she could ask me anything.  That Daddy and I had both moved many, many times in our life, so we could tell her all about it.   She’s moved before, but she was too young to remember it.  Now, she’s starting to process the concept of moving, and trying to figure it all out.  See, she’s a detail person and a planner.  That’s who she is.  So, rather than focusing on the adventure of it, right now she was focused on the little details.

What was she worried about? Well, here were a couple of her questions.

* What if my new bedroom doesn’t have a window?  I assured her that her bedroom, would in fact, have a window!  She loves to look out her bedroom window!

* What if we are driving to our new home and we have to stop, but we can’t sleep in the van….where will we sleep?  Obviously she had forgotten the many times we’ve slept in a hotel room on the way to a destination!  I reminded her of the hotel stops when we went to Florida this past year, and that settled her mind.

 

Last time she did this, she was concerned because she “would never get to go to the zoo again!”, but was fine once I showed her that there are zoos in or near most cities, and that she would definitely get to go to the zoo again!

She was also curious about having a yard to play in, and since I don’t know if we’ll be in a house or apartment at first, I couldn’t promise that.  But once I told her that apartments have swimming pools, she said she wanted us to live there!

Our sweet girl is not a big fan of change.  She likes to plan ahead and know what’s going to happen….exactly how it’s going to happen.  So this first move will be challenging for us.  We’ll have to give her lots of details, without giving her ones she doesn’t need to know at her age.

 

As she was worrying about whether or not her bedroom would have a window, I was reminded of Christ in Matthew 6:25-39.  He tells us not to worry because he will take care of us, even more than he does the birds and the flowers.  He’s already in the details.  He sees the big picture, when we only see what’s right in front of us.

Just the same, I can worry about where we are going to be stationed, what our house will look like, if it will have a microwave built in, whether I’ll have a bathtub or just a shower…..Or I can just relax, take it as it comes, and trust that God has it all planned out for us.

 

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-7)

Letter C week

I had more ideas than I had time to implement for this week!  

We studied Christopher Columbus (history), contentment (Bible), the calendar (math).  

In Science, we studied crabs, and did an experiment with celery.  You know the one where you put the celery in a glass of water with food coloring?  Then you get to see the food coloring moving up the stalk as the celery absorbs water.  Never gets old! 

 

We made cookies, chicken pot pie, and ate chocolate!  I altered the pot pie recipe a bit, and made my crust from scratch, but I’ll type that out later.

 

We had our dear friend “Aunt Chelle” over for dinner.  Not just because it was “C” week, but it worked out nicely! 

 

Bug clipped her fingernails for the first time all by herself! (No blood! Yay!)

 

She made a cat craft where the legs and tail were all made out of letter Cs.  I turned her loose with the glue on this one, and let’s just say that it’s a good thing that stuff comes cheap! Ha Ha!

 

 

She also decorated a letter C with cereal.  I was so proud when she said “Look Mommy! I made patterns!”. 

 

For sensory development, we played with clothespins, played catch with a ball, and made sensory balloons (I guess I should have done those on B week!)). 

I made 2 sets of sensory balloons filled with popcorn kernels, salt, birdseed, oatmeal, pinto beans, and lentils.   The idea was for Bug to simply feel the balloons and match one from the pink group to the same one from the orange group.  She amazed me by completing this in record time!  I don’t know why I was surprised.  This is the girl that notices every little detail, and can tell if there is a single stitch out of place inside her shoe.  Later, she used the balloons and an empty laundry basket to make a tossing game in the hall.  That was a little trickier, as motor skills were involved.  Great practice though!

 

 

Other snacks included crackers, cheese, oranges (citrus), & more chocolate!  Also pictured is the sewing card I made for the week.

 

 

I also bought a new set of cookie cutters!  101 of them, to be exact! They were at Walmart for only $10, and I’ve been eyeing them for a while.  If you follow that link, those are the same cutters, but my box did not have a see-through window, and I paid $10, not $14.99!

I have to say, I was super impressed with this set! I fully expected them to be teeny tiny cutters for the price, but I was surprised to see how large they were.  I wanted a set of alphabet cutters, so I was willing to deal with them being on the small side, but they are actually a good size.  Some of the cutters, like the gingerbread people and the pumpkin, are 4-5 inches.  There are several sizes of hearts and circles, and a great variety of other items.  I LOVE it!! Bug had a great time spreading them all out on the floor and playing too.

Let it snow! (Day 2)

Here is what we woke up to on Friday morning! It snowed the ENTIRE day on Thursday, and overnight covered up most of our tracks from the day before.

 

It even covered up our snowgirl we made the day before!  She’s got on a pink cowgirl hat, but you can’t tell!

 

We all (mostly my hubby!) worked hard in the front yard to built a snow fort.  The plan was to make it taller, but Bug and her friend from next door decided it should be a slide, so the plans got redrawn!

 

 

Bug had a blast with her good friend from next door.  We are blessed with some of the most wonderful next door neighbors!  This little girl is their granddaughter, and she and Bug just adore each other.  They played in the snow for hours before I finally lured them in to decorate cookies and warm up.

 

Finally, they wore out enough to sit still for a movie….for all of 30 minutes….before getting back up to play!

 

It was a wonderful day! We are very blessed!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! (Day 1)

For many of you, snow is just a given at this time of year.  However, for us in Texas, these past few days have been a real treat!  For an area that deals with temperatures in the 100’s for so many days in the summer, it’s nice to experience the colder side of things from time to time.

DFW just set a new record with over a foot of snow falling in 24 hours!  We built snowmen, ate snow ice cream, snow cones, went sledding, and just all around enjoyed it!

If you aren’t from Texas and you are wondering why we are so excited it’s because it is a RARE treat that we get real SNOW.  Usually it’s this icy, slushy, mixed with dirt stuff that Texans call snow.  But this was white, fluffy, powdery, genuine snow!

Here are some highlight pictures!

 
    

We’ve joined the Army!

The roller coaster ride has begun!

Hubby signed the papers yesterday to re-enlist in the Army! For the past 6 months he has been getting back in shape to join the Army, and now it’s time.  His MOS (job) will be 74D - Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Specialist.  Get ready to read lots of acronyms as I learn a whole new language!

A little background for anyone just jumping on the ride with us:

Hubby served in the Army for 7 years…and has been out for 13 years.   After he got out, he spent some time as a SCUBA instructor in the islands, then came back home to Texas to continue teaching at a shop here, where we met.  Later, he got into the IT field working with computers for the next several years with a small break while he worked as a manager for Starbucks.  During that time, we got married, had a baby, and moved a couple times locally.

A couple years ago, we considered him getting back into the Army, but we dismissed it without much thought.  However, the idea didn’t disappear as we assumed it would, and this past summer it came back with intensity!  This time, we prayed about it and spent a lot of time seeking God’s will.  After
many affirmations, we knew in our hearts that this was where we were going. 

It’s a huge change from the dream that we’ve always had for our life.  We met while SCUBA diving, and we both always wanted to own a dive shop together somewhere in the Caribbean.  We weren’t sure when, or how, we’d get there, but we wanted to get there.  A couple years ago, we gave that dream up to God.  We prayed about it and told God that if HE wanted us to do that, that we knew He would get us there, but in the meantime, we were willing to do what He wanted us to do.  It really changed our hearts, and opened our minds to a different path that might be in store for us.

I’ve never been an Army wife.  Bug has never been an Army kid.  Hubby has never been a married guy with dependents in the Army.  This is a whole new adventure for all of us! 

We are excited! We know this is where God wants us to go, and my husband is an amazing, patriotic man who loves to serve his country. I am so incredibly proud of him and proud to support him as he serves!


He will be leaving August 30 to start training for his new job.  He’ll be away from home for about 5 months.  We will have limited communication during that time.  Toward the end of that 5 months, we will find out where our duty station will be.  After his training is done, then we’ll figure out where we’re going, and when we will all be moving.  We know we’re moving, but no idea where.  With this job, he could be attached to just about any unit, which means we could end up at any Army post.   It’s all in God’s hands!

Life is a roller coaster ride

One of my closest friends put it this way, “It's like when the cart get's to the top of a rollercoaster isn't it? You know what is coming is scary and exciting but you have no idea what's coming. Just that it's about to start.”


That sums up our life right now just perfectly!  I am so thankful that God is in control!

Our family has some huge changes coming up soon.  Huge changes.  My husband is currently in the process of re-enlisting in the Army, after being out for 13 years.  I will, for the first time in my life, be an Army wife.  We will be moving away from our current home. Hubby has done that before since he served in the Army for 7 years, but I have never in my entire life lived more than 30 miles away from my family.  For the last 30 years, I’ve lived inside the same 30 mile radius.  I’ve always wanted to travel, to live somewhere else, but I haven’t yet.

We don’t know exactly when, or where yet.  Hopefully we will be finding out the *when* soon, ideally this week.  The *where* may not come for a while.

We feel 100% sure that this is a calling for us.  We’ve been praying about this for months and months now, and God has affirmed it for us over and over again.  We’ve been preparing for this for a long time, and the time has arrived.  This is a new adventure for our family.  A chance for us to let go of the reigns and let God use us for His glory.  A chance to serve our country.  To make friends with people we would have otherwise never met.  To see places we would have never seen.  To serve others in ways we don’t even know about yet.

We are excited! A little nervous about some things, sure, but excited! We are walking in faith, trusting Him to lead us and show us where to go, where He wants us.

A long time ago, Rob and I learned that the only way we can get through anything together is by having God as the 3rd strand in our marriage.  The 3rd strand of a rope is what holds it together.  The same is true in our marriage.  We’ve been through a lot together in our 8 years of marriage, and we’ve come out of each situation stronger together, by the grace of God.  We know that this next adventure will be no different!

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. ~ Ecc 4:12


I will be updating here as I know more.  For now, I ask for your prayers as we embark on this new journey together as a family.

Letter B week

Letter B week was so much fun!  We learned about the Tower of Babel for our Bible story.  We sang songs about a black sheep and a dog named Bingo, and played with our sand blocks while listening to music.  We snacked on bread & butter, blueberries, and peanut butter balls.

 

Here are some of the pictures from the week!

 

We made a bird feeder!  We spread peanut butter all over a pinecone, and then covered it with birdseed and hung it in the tree.  The birds (and some squirrels!) loved it!

 

We made a school bus craft with Mommy’s Cricut paper cutter!

 

Practicing my handwriting!  Big line, little curve, little curve!

 

Then we baked bread in the form of pretzels! Yummy!

 

Emily spent time building blocks, and balancing them!

 

Decorated the letter B with buttons!

 

Then we ended the week with a special trip to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, courtesy of Bug’s grandparents, to see some Bull Riding and Barrel Racing!

Letter A week

We’ve changed curriculum a bit in homeschooling.  The one we were using was only frustrating both Emily and myself, so I made some changes for this second semester.  We are now working through the alphabet with a Letter of the Week program I’ve put together.  It’s a compilation of ideas and tools from different sources.  We absolutely LOVE it!  Emily loves coming up with new ways to incorporate our weekly letter, and I love having a “theme” to work around.

 

I didn’t get many pictures during “A” week, but I hope to for future weeks.  We learned about Abraham, being attentive, airplanes, angels and alligators.  We ate apples, applesauce, & “ants on a log”.

 

We had a paper airplane making contest!

Practice makes perfect

The other day my daughter was practicing riding her bike.  She was working on her turns and making figure eights without turning too much and falling over.  I told her “Practice makes perfect!”, and she told me “No it doesn’t, Mommy! No one is perfect except God.”
How right she is!

If only practice made perfect, then maybe I could have hopes of being a perfect mother one day, but alas, it doesn’t….and I can’t.  Lately, I find myself making mistake after mistake after mistake.  I lose my temper, or get upset about something I shouldn’t, and I end up having to go once again and apologize to my 5 year old for getting too mad, or yelling, or not listening well enough.  It’s humbling.  Even more humbling when she practically interrupts me to quickly say, “it’s ok Mommy, I forgive you!”. 

I am finding that the more that I acknowledge that God is growing me in an area, the more I struggle with it.  Also, I and realizing that I tend to be harder on Emily in the areas that I myself need the most work in. 

For just one example - she gets upset because she’s not getting her way about something and gets grumpy with me.  DUH, right? She’s a kid!  But when she does this, I get upset with her because she’s upset, instead of just letting her be upset.  I accuse her of being selfish and getting upset just because she doesn’t get her way.  Wait – aren’t *I* upset because I’m not getting MY way? I’m not getting a nice, perfectly obedient child every minute of the day, so I get upset because it’s inconvenient for me to stop and discipline her, or teach her at this very moment.  Now who is being selfish?   I’m expecting her to have adult level behavior for issues that took me years as an adult to learn….and that I’m still learning.  Why are my expectations so high (too high) of her sometimes?

I’ve heard a saying about how when you point a finger at someone, there are 3 more fingers pointing right back at yourself (try it, you’ll see). 

I find that SO often when I am saying something to Emily out of frustration or anger, it’s like God was saying them to ME instead.  “You need to get in control.”,   “You need to listen to me”, “You aren’t paying attention to what I’m saying.”,  “Are you thinking of yourself or others?”, “Are you being a blessing to others right now?”.    OUCH.

So, I’ll keep practicing.  Every day for the rest of my life.  I’ll never be perfect, but I do hope to become more and more Christ-like.  In the meantime, I surrender all to Him!

“He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.” ~ Proverbs 21:21

Having fun, fun, fun with school!

We’ve had so much fun this past month with school! I am truly blessed to be able to homeschool Bug.  I adore seeing her excited about learning new things, and I have a blast learning along with her.
Here are some of the highlights!

Science projects


Making crafts and trying them on the cat
 

Making a city out of recyclables




We started a new program using a “Letter of the Week”, and I am LOVING it!! I’m pulling from a few different sources, but basically I am putting together a curriculum centered around one letter each week.  Bible stories, Handwriting, Read Alouds, Science, History/Geography, Math, Snacks/Cooking, Crafts, & Physical Activities – are all so fun to plan around a letter!

I’ll post about the letter weeks in separate posts.