Well, I'll be!

 

I'm not sure how the challenges work via an Apple Watch. Is it individual and random? Is it individual and based on previous totals? Is it the same for everyone who wears one? I haven't asked another real person, so your guess is as good as mine. Here was my December challenge (I know it's tiny, click on it so you can see it larger)- you can see I'm not quite there but I'm so very close. 

I know 2020 brought a lot of ridiculousness with it and I understand that that's putting it nicely for some of you who have suffered very real losses. I don't mean to downplay any of that. There were also opportunities, such as being home with our kiddos for pretty much nine months straight... 

Well, okay, that clearly falls under more than one category and it's not always "opportunity" and I feel perfectly justified in acknowledging that. I'm fairly sure anyone with children would admit that there are times when you absolutely need to get away from them and that does not indicate that you're a bad parent or that they're bad kids. It proves you have a healthy mental outlook, I think! Save our Sanity!

2020 provided me with the previously unthinkable: 

I became a runner. 

That is, in the sense that a runner = one who runs. 

I'm still staggered that I'm talking about me, the one who absolutely loves the 0.0 bumper stickers that proudly claim, "I don't run" in the face of all the just-as-proud 13.1 and 26.2 stickers. I'd wanted one of those stickers for Pepe but never got around to it and now I can't because this fall I started running.

Some of you who've known me forever are probably like, "shut the front door! What!? Since when? What changed!?"

I was thinking about that today on my walk in the 30 degree weather and I decided it was a combination of things.

One, the aforementioned many months in the house with These People that I Live With. It is nice to have an outlet that they're not terribly interested in.

Two, I figured since it's more of a "when I get covid" instead of an "if I get covid", I might as well have my lungs in the best possible shape going into it. I know exercise does good things in that department, and I really do feel like now my lungs are as strong as they were when Dada and I were training for the Bike to the Bay in 2017, pre-cancer. That's exciting and gratifying.

Three, I've always loved going for walks yet I haven't been a fan of running since I was a kid. I felt having to do laps in gym class and forced track and field days took the fun out of running for pleasure like on-the-spot races with friends. 

But I always liked the idea of being a runner. Except that meant I'd have to run. Ugh.

Four, I ran across an editorial about someone who'd declared she would never be a runner. Then she stopped to think about that and decided that she was limiting herself, boxing herself into a "never." The more I thought about it, the more I wondered why I (or anyone) would do that. It was kind of the kick in the pants I needed.

 I decided to try it. I thought I'd probably fall down dead in a ditch (there are LOTS of ditches in our neck of Ohio. TONS.) after just a little while. Sometimes Dada graciously went with me and sometimes I went alone. I bought new shoes. Now I had to do it, right? Spent the money, now just go do it. 

So I did. Sometimes it gets easier, though I haven't experienced that "runner's high" yet- pretty sure that's a myth or else I'm not running long enough. Sometimes it feels like someone is winding the sidewalk ever longer and that I will never, ever make it to that stop sign, but I can make it to that driveway or maybe even that fire hydrant or, now that it's Christmas, that blow up Buddy the Elf. Sometimes I can do a whole strip and sometimes I plan to die quietly on the golf cart trail so someone will find my body sooner rather than later. 

I've discovered that my legs seem to understand what's going on and for the most part they are very cooperative. They could keep on doing their thing without much input from me.

Which is great because sometimes the aforementioned lungs are like, "what the (insert pirate-y language here) does she think she is doing? This again? Oh for the love." 

You wouldn't think breathing would be the hard part. Sometimes I just feel like there's not enough air, which is ridiculous as I'm outside and you can't get any more air than that. Apparently there are things to learn about breathing, who knew? I'm eternally grateful that God created us with lungs which would breathe on their own when we forget to. Thank goodness. I'm still figuring out the whole breathe-in-for-this-count-hold-breathe-out-for-that-count thing. It'll take awhile. I now know why runners rarely look like they're having fun. They're busy trying to breathe, to not die, to remember where the mean dogs are, to watch for the slippery parts of sidewalks, to figure out where to cross the street. Clear your head, my foot! Again, good thing legs know what to do because if I had to tell them on top of everything else that poor Brain is attempting, we'd be stopped. 

I've only done a dozen runs in 2020. And see, that right there is what I'm up against- myself. Why did I write "only" when I should be proud that I've done a dozen of something I'd sworn I'd never do? Sometimes it's really hard to get out of your own head. Days when I can't run the same segment I'd done in a previous run are very irritating; "why is this so hard!? I did it last time!" My mom has called me the least competitive person she knows, and that's probably true when it comes to myself vs others. All my competition comes to a head with myself, just like all my self esteem issues stem from "will I measure up" and "will I be good enough" vs "do I look okay?" It's why breast cancer treatment wasn't as hard in a lot of ways as writing a book or painting would be. Hair comes and goes; I'm okay with or without. Same with boobs. I didn't mind mine until they started being sneaky, and I'm fine without them. Plus, there are two distinct benefits of running with a flat chest: no bounce and no under-boob sweat! 

I've discovered I'm also a fair-weather runner, which should surprise exactly none of you, and if it's below 50 degrees then a run ain't happenin' because I'll possibly be wearing leggings under my pants as it is. So I go for walks. I've figured out a relatively safe, slightly over two mile loop and now a three mile one as well. And yes, we have parks with trails, but I think I'll stick to sidewalks and streets first before I go crazy with the tree roots, walnuts, and wet leaves underfoot. 

All that to say this: try something new in 2021. I don't know that the weather will cooperate at all for me to run again until maybe March. Maybe. But I can walk. I was thinking today about how my Grammy loved tramping through the woods and fields, and here I am, rambling about, trying to get my miles in. I'm sure when warmer weather rolls around that I'll find many things I'd rather be doing than exercising (reading, for one), but maybe my watch or one of my apps will have a challenge that sounds doable that I won't hate doing. 

And who knows? Maybe I will learn to love it.

So tell me: what have you put off trying because 2020 has been a dumpster fire? What's holding you back? What are you waiting for? If you need permission, here's mine: 

Go try it. You're allowed to hate it. You're allowed to quit. But if you give it a shot, you might surprise yourself and everyone around you. And we all want someone to cheer on these days. So go for it! And tell me about it so I can check on you. 

Happy New Year!  

Christmas 2020

One of Thing One's Christmas presents was the piercing of ears, which happens at tattoo parlors around here, believe it or not. And not being 18, this was the second attempt getting them done as we didn't have the requisite birth certificate in hand the first time around.

 Apparently earring care has changed since I've had mine done a long, long time ago, and you're not supposed to turn the front one way while rotating the back the opposite direction twice a day or swabbing them with rubbing alcohol. The new thing is a container of "Wound Wash" which just leaves itself open to so many wrong avenues...

I know a lot of you got buttloads of Christmas snow. Thankfully we were not so "blessed", haha. We got a dusting and that counts as a white Christmas, thank you very much!

We also had a lovely sunset. The weather cooperated for Pap to get here from Uncle Kelly and Aunt Becky's, from which he left Christmas morning. We waited to open presents until he got here, which was much harder on some of us than on others. Overall, they did well, and he got here around 1:30 so they didn't have to wait forever regardless of what they'd tell you.

Liam had a moment of exasperation with Damon, who was dancing with glee, and commented, "Bro! Stop flossing and put these over there!" I don't remember what he was trying to hand over, but it cracked me up. Other things overheard:

YES! It's the GOOD paper! ~regarding a new sketchbook

YAY! Plain clothes! ~regarding new wardrobe additions

WAHOO! Gift cards!

There apparently was some good-natured ribbing from some online friends about still using a rainbow loom, to which was replied, "shut up and let me be fabulous!"

There were new games, art supplies, clothes, puzzle games, video games, books, lovely scented lotions, a fuzzy blanket, and even a lunch box in case we ever leave the house again. 

It was a pleasant, quiet, blessed Christmas that we spent in our warm, cozy home. Three kids, three dogs, three adults, far too much food, two Christmas trees, a partridge in a pear tree. 

We are thankful. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from us to all of you!

A Liam in his native environment

 

Product placement notwithstanding, this is an everyday moment for this kid. And I do indeed mean every day. It's a good thing peanut butter exists because without it this child would not!

He was so pleased with his new vibrant hat, which just so happens to match a brand new hoodie and the sneakers he already owns. When I told him there's a glow in the dark mini golf course at the mall, he knew exactly what he will be wearing if we ever go.

Stunning sunrise

We had an absolutely gorgeous sunrise the other morning and I wanted to share it!

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We are not altogether ready, but we are getting there:

This is our first pre-lit tree and it's so pretty (and varies colors) that I don't even know that we'll decorate it. I'm kind of enjoying the simplicity. However, there are never enough Christmas lights, so I've strung three strands around the library in addition to the ones we have in the Old Lady Room and our bedroom year round. 

My Leon elves were on the very top of the one bin I did bring in from the attic, so they were popped up on the mantel posthaste. Currently they read, "LNOE" thanks to Thing 3. 

 

These are a few of my favorite things

I love finding smiley faces!

Dada's coffee impersonating a galaxy:

Humungous salads! I've been on quite the salad kick lately, perhaps to balance out all the meat we've been eating as Dada got a smoker for (early) Christmas. 

 

A glacier unaffected by climate change

 She looks tiny here, but Honey, our Great Pyrenees, unfailingly picks the worst possible spot in which to hang out. Here she's blocking the way from the fridge to the garage hall and the library behind her. Usually the baby gate is there to keep both dogs out of the kitchen. Then she decides she wants to be right beside the gate, until anyone makes any more towards it, potentially knocking it over with an almighty clatter that scares the almighty stuffing right out of everybody in the vicinity. Even though I have never whacked her with the gate, intentionally or otherwise, she jumps up like she's been shocked any time I am close enough to reach for it. Perhaps we should have changed her name to Skitter.

Another of her favorite spots is the walnut floor of the library, just inside the two steps down into the room. "Just inside" means, in this case, with her head on the bottom step and generally her body diagonally so that you have to step over her while holding food. Strategic, methinks...

Freezing Fog Advisory

Our area had a Freezing Fog Advisory today. Yes, that's a thing around here. We used to be known as the Great Black Swamp. Swamps are, shall we say, damp. Add in cold air and you get freezy trees, wheeee!

Some schools around us cancelled. Some were on a two hour fog delay. Not us. They actually posted, "Virtual Learning Thursday; No Transportation" for our district.

Well, duh. We've been remote learning this entire school year so far, and just like the rest of the country, we'd finished out the spring semester in the same way. Which means these children, These People, have been home for nine months. I could have had an entire pregnancy in the amount of time everyone's been home together. Yeeeeeesh.

We are hanging in there. Not much decking of the halls yet, as we are slogging, chugging, soldiering on through school, but we do actually have two Christmas trees up for the first time ever. And my Leon elves. There's been little time to bake or shop as I'm supervising a certain fifth grade student who makes it his personal mission in life to sneak into other screens the second he thinks his particular assignment is done. It's a lot of lassoing and reeling back in. He has made a lot of progress and gotten grades back up where they should be after quite a slump, so yay for progress!

Must get back to it, so stay warm, stay home, stay safe! 

 

November sunset

I love how it looks like the trees are afire. I'm glad they're NOT, especially with as many fires as there have been around the world in 2020, but the fiery red is certainly something you don't see every day. We've had several breathtaking sunsets in November. I can't comment on the sunrises as I haven't been paying attention; we were off school the entire week of Thanksgiving so we did our fair share of sleeping in. This morning it was super bright but that was because of the snow! 

Birds of a feather

I may or may not have had a little extra fun while baking our pumpkin pie. I cracked my second egg to discover twins!

I learned (again) that you can't count on generic pie crusts claiming to be deep dish to actually be deep dish and thus had to pour my extra into a container for tarts. Word online is that Marie Callendar is the way to go for frozen deep dish crusts. Next year!

Dada put his early Christmas present to good use and smoked our turkey in his new smoker. He picked a humungous bird and it was just We5, so yes, we have plenty of leftovers for omlettes and soup and everything yummy. For his first attempt, I'd give it 5 stars! 

We even got a run accomplished while the turkey did its thing in the smoker. Yes, you read that right. As of two days ago, I have run 9 times in 2020. So of course the December challenge through my fitness tracker app is like 150 miles for the month, and yesterday it snowed. Did I mention we have no treadmill? So if you see me running around like Mr. Bird, above, with my head cut off, just muse, "oh yes, she's getting her steps in," and carry on.

PS Feel free to send yummy smoked meat recipes our way!

 

An end of an era

Two years sounds like a long time. Two years is a long time to try to behave yourself when you are forbidden from many of the foods you love because they'll mess with your orthodontia. 

So this kid got his braces off in time for Thanksgiving!

He naturally requested Twix and bubble gum and 100 Grand bars. Somebody is super delighted to be able to partake in all the sticky and crunchy and gooey treats guilt-free! Maybe now we can fatten this Groot up a little bit. Cheers!

 

How does YOUR belly button smell?

 I feel like I may have already talked about this, and I also feel like it should have a may-not-be-suitable-for-adults rating, but my mother is a fan especially of parenting tales, so here goes.

Thing 3, who is ten years old (so tuck that away for future reference), was goofing around at the dinner table. He's developed a habit of holding on to his feet and then smelling his hands, especially while watching TV. Naturally, we correct him when he's doing this and yes, my mind also immediately went to the SNL skit with Mary Katherine Gallagher putting her hands in her armpits when she's nervous and then sniffing them. I keep telling this kid that they're not going to smell any different from the last five minutes (or five times he's tried it). He begs to differ. I don't want to know.

Anyway, he informed our dinner table, "did you know that when you stick your finger in your belly button and smoosh it around and smell it that it smells like poop?"

Some of us at the table thanked our lucky stars that we didn't have company and considered moving to the Yukon. Or Dubai. Or anywhere other than with present company. 

Another of us, who shall remain nameless, thought about it for a moment, checked their own belly button, and then stated, "I have to disagree with that."

So Mom, aren't you so glad you asked?

Please, all of you, send us better conversation topics than "what does your belly button smell like?" Send help!

The great outdoors around Lalaith Havens

 We've had some nights dipping down close to or below freezing, so Dada and I had to hightail it to the garden and rescue everybody who looked like they had potential:

I love this creamy mum out front!

Liam's yellow tree, in morning light.

Zinnias and marigolds. They're very brown and crispy and sad now. I did snip some to dry out and save seeds, though. I noticed at least one bumblethunderbeast who preferred the deepest dark pink ones. I wonder how that works; do they have daily assignments? Do they have favorites? Do they just land on whatever is close? I'm very intrigued. The cute little white butterflies liked the marigolds. These plants are supposed to deter critters from the actual garden plants, but the tomatoes all grew like blazes while these flowers took their sweet old time coming up and took forever to open. I only saw toads and one chipmunk in the garden this year, though we did have a banana thief. Did I already talk about that? We read somewhere that butterflies like ripe bananas, so Dada made me a wire banana hanger and Damon and I hung it on the corner of the garden. We keep an eye out but saw zero butterflies on the banana. Then one day the banana completely disappeared. No peel, no nothing. We repeated the experiment several times throughout the summer and many bananas disappeared. Now I want a trail camera because we either have a team of incredibly buff, nocturnal butterflies who work together to spirit it away, or a raccoon or a weasel is shimmying up the pole and stealing our bananas. Either way I want to see it!

My one lonely bell pepper. All the rest of them had big rotten spots on them. Our jalapeños did very well, but not these guys. You can see how petite he is!

I did see my very first coyote trotting along in this field in the middle of an afternoon (not in this picture). We've heard them, but I'd never spotted any in the "wild", haha, and I was pretty excited to see one!

Okay, you guys, when I go seed-crazy roundabouts February, remind me that I don't need any more than two red currant plants! These guys are so prolific I can't keep up. I had four this year. They're adorable and yummy and cheerful and there's gazillions of them but they are labor intensive to pick and the majority of them rotted on the vines because I couldn't get to them in time, despite eating bajillions!