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!  

Only a month behind :P

I got to dress up for church on Mother's Day as it wasn't my turn to snuggle babies in the nursery for the first time in what felt like forever. I do enjoy seeing them come in wearing their Easter, Christmas, and Mother's Day best, hehe. Anyway, I finally got to wear the dress that Dada had made for me during his trip in China. This dress was based off one I'd bought in State College to wear to Cammie and Jody's wedding (which was twenty years ago, just sayin') and had seen better days. Dada took the old one I'd fallen in love with to China and picked out the silk for the seamstresses there to make the new one. 

Because we are so classy, this picture was taken after church and before I changed in Bass Pro, which surprisingly has amazingly large and comfy dressing rooms. We had planned to hike in the quarry after church and I couldn't exactly hike in the dress and the "new young attitude shoes" as Mary Alice called them when we bought them, also for the wedding 20 years ago. They are the same shoes I wore for our wedding, and let me tell you, they have seen better days, too. But that's a post for another day. And I'm sinking in the mulch, above.

Anyway, Mother's Day was peaceful! We had church and a hike in the sunshine and once we got home everyone kinda peeled off to do whatever they wanted, so I got peace and a book and sunshine and perfection!

Thank you to my super hubby and my crazy kiddos for having me be the Mama of this family!

Easter on rewind

I was kidding with my sweet friend Janet yesterday about perpetually being behind on the blog and she answered, "I didn't even know you had a blog!" I mentioned I hadn't done the Easter post and she kidded me about how many weeks ago that was.

*sigh* I suppose I better do it. Since I am headed out of town for the weekend, naturally now would be the best time to procrastinate on packing and blog instead! *beam*

So here goes. Easter 2016. Grandmama and Pap were both here a few days before and overlapped with Hinrew and Muggin who stayed after. It was super to have family all over the place.

Before we headed out to church, the boys did their annual "find your clues to find your treats" escapade. I did five clues in groups of three pictures each for Damon, like an episode of Blue's Clues.

Pap took care of creating Liam's clues this year and sent him on a merry chase all over the place.

Carrie wanted really hard clues this year, and for some reason we got zero pictures of her during her hunt. I blame Deloris. Sorry, Carrie. We also teased her about ageing out since she's almost a teenager. She stuck her bottom lip out as us and knows as well as we do that Dada will still be sweating over her clues next Easter.

Here are obligatory pre-church Easter photos:

Damon changed his tie out for one that matched his Pap's. With a plaid shirt. With the same plaid shirt as his brother. With the same plaid shirt they are wearing in their Christmas service pictures. 

*sigh*

And Carrie was convinced (grudgingly) to remove her tie so that her sparkly shirt would show.

After a memorable Easter service, we came home and took more pictures before changing into our normal-looking selves.

Further proof that some of us are more normal-looking than others...

Girl shoes, vastly different. And yes, those are the very same shoes that I got married in. I think I've had them since Cammie and Jody's wedding which was in... 1997? I think?

We clean up okay, my man and I.

My man and his Dad. 

Have a great weekend!

Vacation roundup

Eggs Eggs Eggs Eggs Eggs Eggs Eggs Eggs

Okieeeeedokieeeee, where was I?  One of my Creative Writing professors in college suggested we write. Every day. Even if it was only what we'd eaten for breakfast. We were to keep a tiny notebook in our bag/purse/back pocket/somewhere on our person so that we could write every single day about something. She was firmly convinced that if we wrote every day, "something will break through the eggs. So do your eggs eggs eggseggseggs." I think of her often when I sit down to attempt to blog.

Right now, the problem isn't lack of material. The problem is that I don't have any idea where to start because we've been to the beach and back, school has begun, and we've bought a house.

Woah!

I know, right? Eep. You see my dilemma.

Okay, beach it is, I guess. We packed up our beach stuff (and may I just toot my own horn here and say we packed MUCH less than in previous years, yay us) and began our multiple hour trip to the ocean. We left on a Thursday evening and dropped off Triskal (no beach for you) at the farm. She's still there with Grandma Barb and Pap. Anyway, we continued on into Pittsburgh to stay the night with Aunt Jana, Neva and Noah. We headed out in the morning the same time they took off for a trip to Kennywood. It was fun to give some love to everyone and earn small smiles from little Noah. He's almost two already! *sigh*

We sat in traffic for what felt like half of our natural lives once we were south of DC. Yes, it was a Friday. The interesting thing was that we noticed on the way home (also on a Friday) that they were sittingsittingsitting in the exact same place a week later. Horrors, to think that some people sit there every single Friday! Eek.

Once past that mess, we made it down to the OBX (Outer Banks, NC, for those of you scratching your heads) relatively smoothly. I had to endure comments from the back seat like, "what would happen if the ocean started leaking into here" as we tunneled under the water on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Those of you who know me very well know that I'm not a big fan of depths, and I really don't like the idea of being under water with idiot human drivers with a huge possibility of error to cause a disastrous accident. It gives me the shivers. Since I can suck it up with the best of them, that's what I did, gritting my teeth and taking big breaths once we got out of the tunnel.

Once at the OBX, we took over my aunt and uncle's house and got everyone settled. The kids were thrilled to see Dutch, their Elkhound, and Annie, their German Shepherd. Dutchie is pretty old and we weren't sure he'd still be there to greet us. His left hip is in pretty bad shape, and while we were there Annie really favored her left hip and leg, so that really put a crimp in her ball playing that she so loves. Poor Annie. She'd bring us her football with so much hope in her sweet face, but it just hurt our hearts to see her gimping after a few tosses. She'd play until her legs all fell off if you'd keep throwing that football. Such sweet dogs.

We spent most of our time at the ocean. We didn't go to the Sound this year, as there had been a 12 foot alligator killed in that general area soon before we arrived. Apparently he'd been run over, doing axle damage- naturally, by someone who hadn't known he'd been around for 50-80 years and was often seen in the area. Poor old thing. Just the same, aunt Lainie was not big on the idea of letting us loose over there just yet. The ocean was very cooperative, as the weather was, and it was only stormy one morning before we went. We did a good job this year of just taking it easy, waking when we woke, not really planning anything, just doings things as they came. Carrie got brave on a boogie board, even Liam and Damon tried them out with Dada, nobody got burnt, and Muggin and I collected seashells and sunbeams to our hearts' content. It was a blissful week of sun and sand and smiles.

David, my cousin, joined us for mini golf one evening, and the kids just loved that. We had a great time laughing at each other and cheering or crying out in dismay over the putts. We even ate our fair share of Booty Treats, which featured shaved ice and mini melts (think Dippin' Dots) and ice cream. The kids can never get enough.

On the way back home, we spent a night at Uncle Rob's new house in Maryland. Now that he's an official Navy Sea Chanter, they'll all be relocating. I believe we may have been his very first house guests. It was great to check out their new place and go to breakfast at a fun diner close by. I'm glad we could keep him company while his family was still in Pittsburgh, even if it was only for a night and a breakfast.

We made it home and have worked our way through the sandy laundry, the new swimsuits from the Swimsuit Magpie Aunt Lainie, and the stay quiet in the car toys, but haven't sorted out our seashells yet.

School started yesterday and both big kids had terrific days. So far they like their teachers and seeing their friends. Carrie spent a few times running around through her schedule at the junior high and practicing opening her locker before schools started, so she was pretty confident on the first day. She even made a new friend who'd dropped his colored pencils all over the stairwell, much to his mortification. I love that girl's helpful heart.

Liam will be home any minute from Day 2, so I'll have to leave house news for another post. Perhaps tomorrow. Damon is missing the big kids while they're gone. I'm trying to keep him busy. He just about talked my ears off today. Tonight is karate and shoe shopping since Liam's outgrown his tennies. Have a great night!

Old shoes, new shoes, silly faces

Damon's adorable giraffe shoes are finally too small. So sad. =( Now he has a heavy pair of new blue shoes, and a soft pair of new blue shoes. And new blue snow boots. Hoping we don't need them for many more weeks! *shiver*