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Some Days Are Like That
Posted on: March 15, 2011
- In: Life
- 11 Comments
Some days don’t go according to plan. Some days you wish you had a restart button. Some days couldn’t end soon enough. Some days you think it’ll be a miracle if you make it through with a shred of sanity. Some days:
1. You wake up late
2. And feel rushed for time
3. Your kids are overly tired and cranky
4. You’re overly tired and cranky
5. Your to-do list keeps growing
6. But the time in your day doesn’t
7. You spend more time disciplining your kids
8. Than enjoying your kids
9. You scratch the grilled pork chops and potatoes planned for dinner and make spaghetti instead
10. And go to bed thankful that God’s grace is renewed in the morning
That was my Monday after daylight savings. Sigh. How was yours? Thankfully Tuesday has started off much better.
Visit Amanda at Oh Amanda for more Top Ten Tuesday.
It’s That Time of Year
Posted on: March 11, 2011
- In: Life
- 13 Comments
It’s that time of year, where the candy aisles across America are painted with pastels and bunnies. That time of year that signifies the end of winter and the coming of spring. That time of year when the Cadbury Egg makes it’s stunning debut.
Whether a lover or a hater of these creme filled eggs, you’ve got to hand it to Cadbury for their great American marketing skills. I go a little egg-crazy once these chocolate goodies hit the shelf. Last year, after Easter, I bought several dozen {because, that’s what normal people do, right?}. Every year, as the boxes inch up in price, I still buy them. Typically only the individuals, because I have to practice some sort of self control, and if I bought four at once, well, I’d be tempted to eat four at once {and trust me when I say, it has been done}.
My biggest goal this week has been to find amazing recipes that call for Cadbury eggs. Like these Cadbury Creme Filled Cookies from Marie at Make and Take. Mmmmmm….
What’s your favorite springtime candy?
- In: Life
- 2 Comments
This past Sunday, we spent the afternoon at Zilker Park enjoying the city’s annual kite festival. This year marked 83 years of Austin kite flying! The festival takes place on the first Sunday in March every year {with some changes made over the years due to weather}.
Getting the kite ready for air time
Hannah had a blast being part of the action
Poor Julia felt pretty crummy the whole time. This is the last photo Jon snapped before she laid down in the grass while we flew the kite.
Jon took the kite for a test flight and got it up much higher than me!
As we were leaving, we turned around and saw tons of kites in the sky. It was a very cool experience!
What fun outdoor activities are you do as spring approaches?
Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking is taking the week off Try New Adventures Thursday to enjoy spring break with her family. This post will be linked to her next week {3/17}.
Hydrating While Running
Posted on: March 9, 2011
- In: Life
- 6 Comments
I had so much fun with my half marathon series, that I’ve decided to start writing more about running. I don’t know how often I’ll do running focused posts, but hopefully once a week/every other week. As it progresses, I’d love to hear about what you want to know more about.
The Importance of Hydrating While Running
Ideally, you should hydrate every 15-20 minutes {or 2 miles}. And typically speaking, I do a poor job of hydrating. I’ve never taken water on a 3 mile run. And if I can be super honest, I’ve never taken water on a 5 mile run. Yikes! But I’m working on it and thought I’d pass along my tips.
Why Hydrate While Running:
1. Avoid Muscle Cramps – Your body needs hydration for your muscles to work properly. When you’re running {and sweating} you need to add back hydration.
2. Avoid Headaches – From experience, I can tell you that dehydration headaches are awful. Awful, awful.
3. Avoid Heat Exhaustion/Stroke – Adding hydration {in water or sport drink form} helps keep your body cool and lowers your risk of heat exhaustion/stroke.
How to Hydrate While Running:
1. Pre-run Drinks – I drink water like a fish, but I make sure to drink extra water before longer runs, to make sure my body is well hydrated before I ever start.
2. Run on a Treadmill – As boring as a treadmill can be, they do come in handy. You have your water bottle on hand and can easily stop to hydrate.
3. Carry Your Bottle – Find a good reusable, easy to carry water bottle. Or go a step further and get yourself a water pack. Amphipod makes some great products that fit most every runner’s needs {they are my current favorite}. I haven’t stepped up to a pack yet {though I’m saving my money for it}, so I carry a great bottle that has a hand grip.
4. Run with a Group – Group runs have water stations set up along the route, allowing you to take breaks throughout your run. In my experience, they were at 2m, 5m, 8m, etc.
Do you hydrate properly while running? How do you stay hydrated while running?
*Disclaimer: All tactics/tips are my own personal opinions and not medically backed. Please seek medical advice before starting any running program.
photo credit
Beating Night Time Insomnia
Posted on: March 8, 2011
- In: Life
- 6 Comments
In college I perfected my sleeping skills. After all, isn’t that what college is about? Learning to sleep in class? No? Well, all the same, I learned how to nap effectively, sleep anywhere and fall asleep fast.
However, I never learned how to stay asleep. Which is fairly crucial, especially as a mom. But, I’m learning and thought I’d pass along my tips for middle of the night insomnia.
1o Ways to Battle Nighttime Insomnia
1. Stay in bed – Unless you just have to get up to pee, don’t get up. Getting up just makes you wake up even more.
2. Don’t look at the clock – During my pregnancy with Julia, my insomnia got so bad, I’d be awake for hours. I remember a co-worker telling me to turn the clock around, so that when I did wake up, I wouldn’t fixate on how much sleep I was loosing. It helped more than I expected.
3. Read – This is best done with an iPad or Kindle, so you can keep the lights to a minimum, but reading can help put your mind at ease and induce sleep {or just get you through a few more chapters!}.
4. Journal – A lot on your mind? Right them down to get them off your mind so you can rest again.
5. Watch T.V. – When I just can’t sleep, and reading doesn’t help, I slip downstairs and turn on some PBS. Snooze….
6. Drink some hot chocolate – Typically speaking, I avoid eating anything overnight, but drinking warm milk does wonders. It’s soothing and relaxing.
7. Warm shower/bath – The warm water is a lot like warm milk – soothing and relaxing.
8. Change locations – Moving to a spare room or the couch can help trick you mind into thinking it’s time to go back to sleep.
9. Embrace your “alone time” – Let’s face it, sometimes sleep just isn’t gonna happen. So do something. Clean. Prep for the day. Catch up on emails. And hope you can get a nap the next day.
10. Pray – Saturday night, I was up for 4 hours. I even took a crawesome 3 mile run at 2:30 am. None of my “tricks” for falling back asleep worked. In the end, I just prayed. And prayed a lot. I battled through some crazy fears and doubts. By the end, I fell asleep peacefully.
Do you battle with insomnia? What are your trick/tips?
Visit Amanda at Oh Amanda for more Top Ten Tuesday.
I Hope My iPad Makes Me Smarter
Posted on: March 3, 2011
- In: Life
- 9 Comments
Gone are the days that I can pour over a book for hours. Twenty minutes, sure. But hours? Never. Because of that, my reading has been limited to “easy reads”, which in my case tends to be anything more modern and non-classical. unfortunately, classics tend to be my favorites {or books written in classical form}. So I haven’t read a new-to-me classic since Julia was born {though, I have re-read a few favorites}.
Enter the Kindle for iPad:
About a month ago, I downloaded Kindle to my iPad, mostly because I needed to buy a book for church. Then I started browsing through Amazon’s Kindle collection and found a treasure mine full of free classics. I downloaded a handful with the hopes of one day reading them.
Earlier this week, I realized one day really just means never in mom world, and decided to start that day reading a new classic. Which classic did I choose?
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
According to the Kindle app, I’m only 4% through the book, but so far it is good! The app has the sentences and paragraphs broken up for “easy” reading and I can fly through a chapter in no time. It has an easy bookmark feature, taking me right back to the last page I read. Even better… if I have to quickly turn the app off, it still saves my page without my prompting! Honestly, between the girls, Jack, errands and chores, I use that last feature more than bookmarking the spot myself.
Here’s to delving back into good {but challenging} reads!
What have you read lately?
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday.
Visit Jill at Diaper Diaries for more Things I Love Thursday.
Our New House? Hope so!
Posted on: March 1, 2011
- In: Life
- 23 Comments
When we bought our last house, it dawned on us that we had inadvertently gotten into real estate – as that was our third property. It made sense, then, to buy again once we moved to Texas. However, there are a lot more options in Austin and narrowing down what/where we wanted proved to be a challenging task. So we made a list:
1. Good community
2. Good school district
3. Nearby park/pool
4. Close to downtown
5. Close to Jonathan’s work
6. Affordable – Turns out the houses closest to Jon’s work are not within our price range {by 300K’s+}.
7. Master bedroom on same level with kids’ room – Not something terribly common in homes here in Texas
8. Four bedrooms
9. Separate dining room
10. Decent size yard
It seemed that the more houses we looked at, the less we liked. Something was always off. Too much. Not enough. Needs repair. Too far away. The list went on. Then, last week, out of no where, Jon got an email from our realtor about a house. They set up a showing for the next day. Turns out, the house was in the neighborhood we wanted – but get this – down the street from two families we knew from our missional community! We looked back at our top ten list and realized that this house met every single need/want we had listed – plus some! The next day we put in an offer and the accepted it the next morning.
So…. if all goes as we are praying, come March 31st, this will be our new home:
Visit Amanda at Oh Amanda for more Top Ten Tuesday.
The Day a Mouse Drove Me Crazy
Posted on: February 28, 2011
- In: Life
- 5 Comments
When I was a child, my mom introduced me to Angelina Ballerina. The first book is Angelina and Alice; a precious story about two mice who are dancers and best friends. I remember loving it. A few weeks back, while at the library, I thought Julia might like Angelina and Alice, so we borrowed the book. Oh was I right.
She seems harmless, but she's not...*
From their first introduction, all Julia talks about is Angelina. All she wants to listen to is ballet music and dance “like Angelina”. All she wants to read is Angelina. All she wants to watch is Angelina {thanks PBS!}. Angelina. Angelina. Angelina.
One day last week we read through our 9 Angelina books 4 different times. Doesn’t seem too bad, right? But these aren’t small books. And typically Julia asks questions about each page {“Why is Angelina wearing a purple dress?” “Why is Angelina sad?” “Why is Angelina’s bike red?”}. So each session lasted about 30 minutes. Times four. That’s a lot of Angelina. Even for an avid reader like me. By the last reading session I had to put my foot down. Angelina was literally driving my crazy. I would read no more. Poor Julia was a bit heartbroken, but I made it up to her by letting her watch an episode of Angelina while I made dinner {told you she was obsessed}.
Since then, I’ve made an effort to set some reading rules. We can read all the books twice – once in the morning and once on the afternoon. Any other time, Julia can choose one or two, no more. Angelina is still driving me a bit crazy {mostly because it’d be nice to read any other book} but at least I’m not reading for two hours.
Maybe it’s time to look into audiobooks.
Wanna Bag ‘O Grace?
Posted on: February 24, 2011
- In: Life
- 17 Comments
If you drive through any major intersection in Austin you will notice one thing: homeless people. Standing along the road with signs, begging for food or money. Rain or shine, they are always there. In fact, one of the best know Austinites is homeless – his name is Leslie. He’s even run for mayor. The homeless roam the streets, and the ones near the University have earned less-than-kind nicknames. I remember in college buying bags of candy to hand out while I walked down “The Drag“.
Six years later and I’m still handing out bags to the homeless. Only these have more purpose.
Our missional community {i.e. small group} banded together to make Bags ‘O Grace – large bags filled with water, crackers, canned goods, etc., to hand out when we pass by the homeless. In each bag there is a small note that simply says: Christ Loves You. No tracks. No come-to-our-service invites. Just simply a bag full of grace.
I, personally, haven’t seen any homeless come to Christ because of the bags. But I’ve seen some incredible changes – in my life. And in my kids’ lives. At every intersection, Julia says “Mom, does that man/woman need a bag? Mom give them a bag.” It isn’t always possible – the light changes too soon, or we are too far away. But each time, it opens up conversation. Each time it allows my kids to see a glimpse of grace – giving love when love isn’t earned. It forces me out of my comfort zone to acknowledge the hurting world around me and too find ways {even small} to reach out to them.
What is your bag ‘o grace?
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday.
- In: Life
- 10 Comments
While I originally only planned for my series to be three parts, I thought you’d all like to know how my half marathon went last weekend. In a nut shell it was awesome.
Before arriving, I was so incredibly nervous I thought for sure I was going to loose my breakfast. I was snapping at Jonathan while he was driving and was just getting overly annoyed and anxious. Everything was going completely opposite of how I’d planned {and specifically how we’d prayed the night before}. However, as soon as I stepped out of the car {with plenty of time to spare thanks to my wonderful husband} I felt a flood of relief. Just like a switch, my nervousness was gone and I felt total peace {thanks God!}.
Half Marathon Training {The Finish}
1. Prepare to be overwhelmed – The most amount of people I’ve ever run with was 30. Sunday I ran with 20,000. Yeah, that’s a lot of folks. And at times it was a bit overwhelming to keep my eye out for people passing me and me passing people. Not to mention the bum rush to water stations and bathrooms.
2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate – When I ran my half last spring I didn’t hydrate well enough. And I paid dearly for it by the end. This time around, I’ve trained with hydration breaks and made sure to stop at every water station I came to. At one point I was tempted to pass the last few by {because of the crowd} but then I remembered “HYDRATE!”.
3. Don’t give up – Somewhere around the 8 mile marker, I was done. My feet were hurting, my time was off and I was ready to lay in the grass and wait for the “dropped runner” cart to pick me up. I started using every metal trick in my book. I made up games. I gave myself a pep talk. I counted how many people I saw in certain colored shirts. Whatever it took to keep me focused {and running} I did it. Running a half marathon is tough, but don’t give up. You can do this. You can do this.
4. Enjoy your victory – My time was off what I expected and half way through I was really beating myself up for it. But once I crossed that finish line I thought “I don’t want time to steal my victory”. And so I didn’t. And I won’t. I ran my race, I did it well, and I succeeded.
Standing outside P.Terry's waiting for my burger and chocolate shake
5. Reward yourself – As a little extra motivation, promise yourself a reward once you complete your run. Maybe a nice night out. Maybe a massage. Or maybe those running shoes you’ve been eyeing for the last year:
*happy sigh*
For Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this series, click here {Part 1 – The Physical and Part 2 – The Mental and Part 3 – The Emotional}.
*Disclaimer: All tactics/tips are my own personal opinions and not medically backed. Please seek medical advice before starting any running program.
A Wife Loved Like The Church 
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