Now That's Confidence!

My 4 yr old son has been obsessed with x-rays & bones for the last 6 months. A book on x-rays at a friends house (whose father is an orthopedic surgeon) sparked his interest and he has been enthralled ever since. His aunt got him a set of play x-rays for his birthday and he has LOVED them (below)! He has memorized most every bone in the human body and can put togther the full skeleton from all the different images.

Last night our friend John (the orthopedic surgeon) stopped by to drop off a bag for my youngest (my youngest and his oldest share the same name, so we have gotten many wonderful monogrammed hand-me-downs from them). John and his family were here for a year while he completed a 1-yr sports medicine fellowship. He was here for a few weeks finishing up his fellowship while his family was already back east (we miss them so much!!!).

Anyway, my son was thrilled to see him and wanted to show him all his x-rays. John was very patient and even taught my son a couple of new things. This morning when my son was blissfully remembering his x-ray filled evening with an expert, he turned to his daddy and said, "Daddy, me & Mr. John, we know everything about bones!". Now that's confidence! Only a 4-yr old could think that he and an orthopedic surgeon have them same knowledge about bones. Ha!

Re-Energized

Everyone knows what it's like to be in a slump whether it's in your personal life, Christian life, or, as it is in my case, my exercise life. In graduate school I was an avid runner. I would wake up at 4AM to get in a run before leaving home at 5:30am for the hospital while on rotations. I trained for half and full marathons in the smouldering summer heat and 100% humidity of North Carolina and loved every minute of it. It's the only time when I was happy to gain 5 pounds because it was due to the added muscle that came from distance running.

Something happened to my running enthusiasm after we finished school and moved. Maybe it was the difficulty of acclimating to running at altitude, or maybe I was just looking for a new challenge after 10 years of pounding the pavement. I found a new love in the tri-sport. I began training for and completing triathlons. This past summer I have enjoyed completing about 4 of them with my last one coming up in a couple of weeks. After that, I'm going to hang up my tri-suit until next February. I hope to pick it back up next year.

My friend recently loaned me a book called "Born to Run" and it has really re-energized my desire to run. You can see about it at the below link.

http://borntorun.org/

So, for the first time in almost a decade, I'm going to try distance running again. A marathon is a bit much for me right now b/c I frankly don't have the time for that kind of training, nor do I have the joints, but a 1/2 is a decent goal and there is one coming up in Oct (actually right around my birthday!). I found a good training schedule online and have tailored it to 3 runs/week rather than 4 (see below). Oddly enough, training for the 1/2 will be less time consuming than training for tri's and I'm looking forward to concentrating on one sport for a while. It will be fun!

http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/inter.htm

Mommies & Daughters

Below is a picture of my daughter. I love this particular picture of her because it captures her energy and sweetness in her bright eyes and big grin. A co-worker of mine is currently dealing with a newly teenage daughter and is struggling to be a good loving parent while her daughter is fighting for independence. The conversations my co-worker has had to have with her daughter concerning boys, Christianity, grades, attitude, boys, boys, & boys etc., has frankly scared me to death.

Right now, my sweet girl tells me everything and loves to be around me (and likewise - she's a lot of fun). I know her friends, who she likes to play with and who is sometimes not so nice. I hear her prayers and know her mind. I pray that when she is a teenager that she still trusts me and enjoys being around me enough to let me help her though the rough teenage years. And I pray that we will always enjoy each other through adolescence and adulthood. Love her so much!

Hospitality Kick -Off

I decided to kick off the hospitality challenge in an easy way and have over some close friends. So, our friends C&G and T&R came with their beautiful families for burgers & fixins. We hadn't seen either family in a while due to travel, schedules, etc. so it was WONDERFUL to see them and catch up. Both families are very dear to us.

The primary challenge that arose was thanks to the weather. Where we live it is sunny and dry about 90% of the year. Well, this weekend has been part of the other 10% and it has been rainy and humid. This put a damper on my initial plans to have everyone eat (and the kids play) outside. Instead, we had 6 adults and 8 kids (4 & under) all inside. Below is a picture of 4 of the 8.

Seating was easy - we have two kids tables that we set out for the kids and the adults ate in the dining room. Entertainment for the kids got a little hairy towards the end as it got close to bed time, but a little movie called "Up" came to the rescue and gave the kids a little down time for a while.

I did something a little different food-wise and instead of individual items (such as individual corn on the cobs, etc), I stuck more with larger casserole-type dishes. This made prep and cooking SO MUCH easier for a larger group - I did most of the prep on Friday evening & Sat morning and just popped everything in the oven an hour or so before it was time to eat. We had burgers & fixins, hot dogs for the kids, baked beans, hashbrown casserole, & slaw. Dessert was simple with brownies & rice krispie treats.

The best part was involving my kids in the process (they were happy to help with the brownies & rice krispie treats, not so much with picking up their room) and chatting with them about being a "host" and "hostess". We still need to tackle the concept of why it's not polite to come downstairs naked when you have guests - that happened a couple of times due to potty issues & the wardrobe changes, but hopefully they'll learn that soon. It was fun!!!

Next week will be more of a challenge b/c we're having our minister & his wife and one of our church elders & his wife over. I really hope my kids don't come downstairs naked when they are here!

Martha or Mary?

This week, my full time work schedule has been more stressful than last week. It came to my attention in a very harsh way that I am spread a little thin with committments - and that it would be best for my family and myself if I would learn to "Just Say No". The below link is to an intersting Christian perspective on over-activity.

http://www.actsweb.org/articles/article.php?i=124&d=1&c=6&p=1

I am far more like Martha than Mary. I completely understand and sympathaize with poor Martha who is working her tail off so that her household and appearances would be perfect. I understand being irritated when people are late (although I'd like to think I would have stopped short of rebuking Jesus) and resenting the fact that others can sit and do nothing while she works nonstop. I envy the "Mary's" out there who are truly untroubled by a messy house, who don't see it as a problem if her family eats Pizza Hut rather than an organic, balanced, from-scratch meal, and who puts little value on appearances and much value on relationships. I would like to be more like that.

This week, I started taking a look around to see how to make my life more "Mary-like". This is difficult and makes me very uncomfortable b/c I dislike idleness with a passion and equate it with laziness, and am a perfectionist to the core. For me, this is a discipline that I need to master. Hopefully, discipline in this area will open the door to a more "Mary-like" existence and one that I'd be proud for my children to follow.

Good Ole' Christian Hospitality

I don't normally post twice in one day, but while on the elliptical this morning I had an idea for a challenge. It is my opinion that hospitality is a dying grace. Our lives are busy and we see our homes and weekends as a refuge rather than an opportunity for service. I am as guilty of this as anyone and want to work to change this in my home.

As a child and adult there are many women I have admired for their hospitality and willingness to open their homes. My mother is the first - I remember her planning parties and having friends/co-workers over for dinner regularly...she made it look easy - the worst part was that I would have to pick up my room! As an adult, there are specifically two wonderful women who I admire for the ease, grace, and humility with which they entertain. I only hope to be half as gracious of a hostess as both Sheryl Blazer and Patty Pieper.

My husband and I have been thinking about hospitality and how it can be a vital part of a group of friends or a community of faith. Therefore, I am challenging us to open our home and have friends, neighbors, or members of our church family, over for a meal at least 3 times a month (ideally 4) for the next 6 months. Included in that is moving outside my comfort zone and inviting people of different ages & demographics who we do not know very well but would not usually think of to have over for dinner. Hopefully, the more we stretch outside our comforts, the more we will grow from this challenge. I'll definitely share what goes right and what goes wrong (hopefully more will go right then wrong - hopefully!)...it will be fun! I'm already wondering...what in the world am I going to fix for 18 dinners?!? My go-to company meal of lasagne is going to get old if we eat it every week! Yikes!

Operation Organization

Well, I'd like to say that I spent my weekend organizing my chore list & schedules and menu planning, but I sadly (well, not really sadly) did not. My husband & I took the kids out in the joggers (we have a double & a single) for a long run on Sat morning, then he & I had some time to ourselves that afternoon & early evening. Yesterday was church and then we had a good family day.

However, I did figure out laundry and found that if I start it on either Friday or Sat evening, it is done within 24 hours (as long as I stay on top of it). I prefer to have 24 hrs of laundry to spreading it out over the entire week. I do have an awesome new detergent for workout clothes & towels that I'll share in another post - I'm going to start buying it in bulk. It's AWESOME!

Now for menu planning/dinners. I organized our meals & prep as below. The red beans & rice for today & Wed are already in the crockpot. Going to the grocery store on my way home from work was wonderful! I was in and out in less than 45 minutes!

Monday: red beans & rice (prep was soaking the beans, & chopping onions, etc). Now, the beans will cook all day and I'll fix rice when I get home (shouldn't take more than 30 minutes for me to get dinner on the table tonight)

Tuesday: this is a freebie this week b/c we're going out w/some friends who are moving.

Wednesday: leftovers from Monday - this will have to be quick b/c we have about an hour from the time we get home until we leave for church

Thursday: baked chicken & ceasar salad. I'll do all of my chicken prep before work (that should take about 20mins) so that all I have to do is put the chicken in the oven and make the salad while it's baking. This will be about 45 minutes from home to table b/c the chicken has to bake that long

Friday: pineapple baked ham steak & lemon sauteed green beans (both of these receipes are from the awesome Weight Watchers cookbook - love it!). I'll trim & cook the green beans while the ham steak is in the oven. Should take about 45 minutes from home to table.

Okay - so we'll see how meals for this week work out. My next task is to figure out a way to get in longer workouts in the morning before work. This is going to be tough but the answer is easy - get up earlier....sigh. I'll tackle that next week! ;)

A Swimsuit Snafu & Dinner Dilemmas

The transition to full time work has gone wonderfully. The kids, it seems, haven't even noticed. Now that I am at the office more, I no longer bring work home and feel more caught up. It has been great!

However, since I gave up the "catch-up" days that I used to get organized, prepare meals, do laundry, etc, it has been a new challenge to fit them in. In general, I like to do "chores" during the week so that our weekends are free and open for fun. Balancing the chores and keeping all our activities straight has definitely been more of a challenge.

The lack of organization manifested itself in a swimsuit snafu that yesterday when I mixed up the "water play" days of my older two kids' classes at school. My son was ready to spash and play (he was very excited), and my girl was dressed in school clothes. When dropping the kids off, my husband did some quick thinking when he realized my error and put my son's swim trunks & t-shirt on my daughter and dressed our son in the extra clothes he had brought (much to my son's disappointment - he was NOT happy). In the end all was well - my son had a great day and is back in his swimsuit this morning for water play, and my daughter participated in her first and ONLY wet t-shirt contest in a very cool dinosaur t-shirt and Lightening McQueen swim trunks.

Meal planning and dinner prep has become harder since my time to fix a meal in the evenings is more limited. In addition, our family doesn't eat out much and doesn't like frozen dinners (at least, my husband & I don't)...so most nights I cook from scratch. What seems to take the most time is the prep - chopping, measuring, etc, not the actual cooking.

My goal over the next couple of weeks is to come up with a regimen that works well for both meals and organization- I'm going to try the following to see what works:

• chopping & prepping on the weekends so that all I have to do is cook on the weekdays
• planning for more leftovers so that there are fewer days I need to cook
• finding some more good crockpot recipes
• consolidating all the different calendars into one calendar/planner - seems I have 2-3 different calendars going at once, my work one, home/school one, and workouts/training schedule - they all need to be consolidated so I can see all our activities on a given day at a glance. I'm not sure if a paper or electronic format would be better.

I'll never have everything perfect and will always have a frozen pizza in the freezer in case of emergency, but I hope to have to use it less and less. :) We'll see!

Relationships

Yesterday a man walked into a solar plant office building and shot 6 people before turning his semi-automatic hand gun on himself. Three are dead (including the shooter) and 4 are injured. The motive was a domestic dispute and the man went after his girlfriend and her friends/coworkers.

This incident happened a stone's throw from my kids' preschool. Thankfully they were at home yesterday and were not impacted by the tragedy. The school deserves kudos for the quick and efficient way they locked down and secured the school and got the kids out as quickly as possible. My husband was out of town yesterday and his absence combined with the incident really got me thinking. What would I have done if one or more of my kids had been affected or injured? Who could I have called? And on the other note (being that I teach at a university where crazy stuff happens more often than I would like) what if something like that happened here?

Although we love where we live, we definitely experience those moments of stress that comes from not having a great support system. Mostly it occurs when a child is sick or a car is in the shop. But it also occurs when we would love to share our joy. For my husband and I, it was very lonely after the birth of our first son when we were so excited and proud of our sweet baby boy and had few to share him with until my family arrived a few days later.

When tragedies happen, and I think that could have been me or my family, my thoughts go to the relationships I have with people: my husband, my kids, family, and friends. In the end it will probably be those relationships that we think of right before Jesus calls us home.

Craig's List

Recently, I discovered the gold mine that is Craig's List (I know - I'm WAY behind the curve). We knew it was time to start piano lessons with our oldest but did NOT want to spend a lot of money on the instrument given that 3 rough kids will be banging on it over the next few years and that all 3 may decide that they loathe it. After searching around town for used pianos and coming up short, I tried Craig's List. The first time I looked, bam - a used upright piano being sold for $400. I went and saw it that day and it was in our house the next. My son had his first lesson 2 weeks later. VERY gratifying!

After the piano luck, I started browsing for dining room furniture since we wanted some eventually but were expecting it to be a while. After scrolling through the newer posts, I found an old one advertising a Thomasville dining room table & 6 chairs for $675 or best offer. Thankfully, the owner had been out of town for a few weeks and had gotten no bites until our call a few weeks after she posted it. Needless to say, I hastened to see it and snapped it up for less than the asking price. I absolutely love it and love that since it wasn't too $$$ I don't mind my kids being messy kids around it. It will be used!

Now, with Craig's List, there are a few things I have learned.

1. Only look for what you need - if you regularly browse you will inevitably start buying things you don't need just because they are such a DEAL! 2. Shop local - that's my conservative opinion b/c we have several friends who were scammed when buying from other locations. 3. Go see each item in person - pictures only tell you so much. 4. Be conservative in your product/$$ exchange. We were really old fashioned and handed the sellers cash after the item was safely in our home or on it's way to our home.

You better believe the next time we are looking for anything, I'll probably check Craig's List first. Happy Hunting!

Changes and New Challenges

This week is technically my first week to be working full time. Since having kids, I have either worked from home or part-time. Initially, my plan was to start working full time next year when my oldest started kidnergarten; however, several changes at the College made the time increase necessary this year. Needless to say, I am nervous!

Thankfully, I have a flexible job (that I love!) and also have the option of staying home. I truly admire all the SAHM's out there b/c I tried it the year after my first was born and had a really hard time. I became a better mom, wife, etc, when I started working outside the home (I'm sure that sounds crazy to some of you). This is one ball that I choose to juggle even though it's weight is about to get a bit heavier. Below is a picture of some of my fellow junior faculty members and I at graduation this year. We love what we do. Here's hoping that the changes and challenges ahead will lead to good things.

A Home Arrival, Visit, and Race

My sister came into town from LA last Wed, and my husband arrived home from work travel on Thursday. We all had a great time with my sister - she is so great with the kids and is such a fun gal. Since we both love to run, we always do a race together when she comes to town and this visit we ran a 4th of July 4-miler. It was a great race! I placed 4th in my age group (don't be impressed - it was a very small race) and ran a 9:15 pace coming in at 36:59. I actually was pretty disappointed when I saw my time as I was hoping to break or get close to 36 minutes. Oh well - next time! The fun over the last few days more than made up for the sickness of the previous week. So thankful for good health and great family! Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Keeping Our Heads Above Water

My goal for the summer is to have both of my older kids swimming independently. My son is making fantastic progress and even swam back and forth between my sister and I today. His sister, not so much. She can't seem to conquer her fears enough to let go and learn. Regardless, we are enjoying spending lots of time in the pool. No better way to beat the heat!