You Don't See That Every Day

Swim lessons started this week for my two youngest. Little K was so excited after we bought her a new swimsuit! She and Squiggles were up before 7 am I htink, yesterday morning ,ready to go! Too bad we didnt leave for a few more hours. But it did mean an early sleep time for them last night. The first lesson for Little K - well, I wasn't sure she was going to make it. It rained on us. It was so cold, and her lips were blue, and she shivered the whole hour. She didn't want her face to get wet; she wouldn't blow her bubbles, or do her bobs. She came out crying at one point, but I was able to calm her down and she got back in. Thankfully ! today was a much better day. Two of the kids in the class moved up, leaving just two boys and K. I don't know if this was the reason, or just it being the second day, but today K put her face in the water! and blew bubbles. There was only one minor crying episode when the teacher and she went underwater together. Squiggles on the othe...

I told myself I would give it 2 weeks after the marathon until I ran again. I tried earlier than that and my body reminded me of my 2 week plan. The training book I followed suggested that the week after the marathon you should do nothing. Absolutely no exercise. And I kind of followed that, but not really. I went walking with my sister and then walking around the aquarium and then walking around the zoo. And pulled weeds at the farm. And oh, did my legs hurt last night. So as I laid in bed last night trying to sleep  I came up with some ideas of how I would do it differently next time, if there ever is a next time. 1 Don't rush the previous night's dinner. I would savor my pasta and not wolf it down. 2. (Goes with 1.) Get to town earlier, instead of an hour before bedtime. 3. (Goes with 2.) Stay 2 nights at the hotel instead of one. It felt like a lot to pay to use a hotel room for less than 12 hours, and mainly to sleep. 4. Train more. I tried to follow the plan, but ...

It has been a week since the marathon. I didn't move much last Sunday; by Monday I was walking better, once I got going. And by Tuesday I was pretty much back to normal. I even saw people running and thought, Oh I would like to go for a run. That thought hadn't crossed my mind since Saturday morning. So today since the Mr took the oldest two kids out to the farm, and because my pickup is older than his, and because it has a bed liner and his doesn't ... I was the one who went and got the load of gravel. We're fixing the non-existent front porch, and the next step was gravel. So I thankfully did not have to load it by hand! A nice man in a big tractor dumped it in there, and somehow I managed to get it home. And I spent part of the afternoon unloading it.I had a time crunch because I had to go get my 5th grader from her homeschool testing. And I didn't want that heavy load in there still.  First I threw 10 shovelfuls into the wheelbarrow - I figured out that was...

It has begun. The first day of weeding the garbanzo beans out at Grandpa's farm. While the older two kids finish up the school year this week, the younger 3 and I headed out to the farm for our first weeding. This is the second summer that Grandpa has planted g.beans for us to weed, harvest and then get paid for when they sell. Thankfully he and a cohort take care of the selling/marketing part of it! We just get to do the grunt work. It was a gorgeous morning out there, and we managed to get 6 rows down - of course Grandpa helped us get that far. The rows are about 300 feet long or so. I was a little concerned about how my tired legs would do - but they are so much better today! I don't feel like I am a little old lady anymore. Just a sore 40+ year old. And it was hand weeding today - so my legs got a rest ... my knees however ... no so much.

26.2 miles. Check. We did it. We really did it. My niece and I, along with 998 other people, ran the Newport marathon yesterday. And we finished! I am so proud of my 23 year old niece who ran basically the whole thing, just a few seconds-long walks towards the end. I would not have done this without her, or without knowing she was training too. So the first 14 miles felt great! The view was beautiful from the start and the weather was amazingly perfect for the coast. Even getting up at 5:15 am didn't affect me. I met up with another friend who was running too, and so our chat helped the miles go by quickly. But by mile 14 my legs were starting to hurt. There were some downhills that I guess I wasn't quite prepared for. Well, my knees weren't anyway. I tried to take them slowly, but I guess not enough. And the run was all on the road - which meant I was running a little crookedly. Roads are made to slant down from the middle, so water runs off and not necessarily for le...