Fruits of the Spirit

In the Bible study my friend Chandra and I are doing together (God's Wisdom for a Mother's Heart by Bobbie Wolgemuth), a recent day had us looking at Galatians 5:22-23 and the fruits of the spirit. The book suggested we look for these things in our kids and praise and affirm them when we see these qualities.

I decided to make them each a visual reminder of these traits. We've decided to make this an Easter project. Our goal is to learn about and demonstrate each of the 9 fruits of the spirit...love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control...before Easter.
The picture shows what it will look like when we are done. For now, they each have a little tree of their own that is blank. We'll add the fruits as I "catch" them showing one of the qualities. It's already led to some really good discussions with them about growing in Christ and how we show people these things.

Weekend run

This weekend's long run was moved back to Saturday because we wanted to go to the early service at church to see two sweet girls be baptized. Their parents are in our small group, and they are friends with our daughter. I'm glad we were able to go.

The run kicked off a busy weekend, but that's the best way, right?

Carrie and I met up for a planned 8. I told her when we started that I wasn't sure I could go that far. However, the run went by pretty quickly. It's amazing how that happens when you're running with someone. We had to walk once...blame that one on a cranky tummy...but it was a good run. I actually felt like my body...well, at least my legs...could have run a couple more. Love that feeling.

I'm counting this run as my Moms Run This Town February Fitness Challenge. I forgot to print my bib, so the picture of my sister and me will have to do.

I've got a couple more virtual runs planned for March, but my hubby and I are looking for another real race. We thought we had one picked, a local 5k, but then we realized that it was at the same time as our church's Easter egg drop. Back to looking again...

Mileage Report
Weekly: 24.7 miles
YTD: 136.5 miles

Three Thing Thursday

1. I decided kind of last minute to give up Facebook for Lent. This isn't really a part of our church's practices, but for the past couple of years, my hubby and I have given up something. I realized I spend way too much time doing absolutely nothing on Facebook. I have nothing against it and really do enjoy keeping up with friends on there, but feeling like I need to check it when I wake up, get to school, leave school, etc. wasn't good. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be, actually. It's such a habit to click on that app on my phone.

2. I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed right now. It's not that there's anything big looming over my head. It's just all the little things that feel like the tiny snowflakes that make up an avalanche. I have always been a very type A person, and I've somehow morphed into a very type B personality. I was always stressed like that, but this isn't any better. I need routine, crave it, really. I've got routine as far as each day, running, etc., but it's the other junk...the cleaning, meal planning, grocery shopping, work projects...that I need to fit into my schedule. And strength training. I have got to fit that it in.

3. On a different note, we're planning a Mother's Day run for our family. The details are still in the works, but it should be a lot of fun. All of us, including the little ones in strollers, running or walking together, followed by brunch.

Challenge 52-6

I'm going to work backwards here and give you a challenge based on something I've already done this week. If I'd been on top of things, I would have written this Monday morning and then completed the task Monday afternoon...and come out looking like a rockstar. Oh, well. Still trying to cut myself some slack.

Your challenge: try something new. It could be a new food, a new workout, a new haircut, a new style, a new route to work...whatever floats your boat.

For me, I stepped outside my comfort zone Monday when I was asked to go run The Monster, quite possibly the only parking garage in our town, after inservice Monday with some other teachers. First, I rarely run with others, so that was somewhat new. Second, fitting this into my schedule isn't easy. And third, it's running uphill for 8 stories and then back down.

I'm glad I went and gave this a try! I got to run with my sister again. Plus, it was an awesome workout. I didn't go as far as I wanted, but I was in a little of a time crunch. It all worked out.

Foggy fun

Last night, I got a text from my sister asking if I was going to run this morning. I was going to text her the same thing, so we made plans to run together this morning. I'm glad we did. I'm not sure I would have made myself get out of bed had she not been waiting for me!

But I'm so glad I did!

We had a great run together. We didn't really have any specific goals, pace or distance, in mind, so we took it easy, explored a new route and enjoyed the run.

We went down to the lake trail, and this is what we found:

We decided not to run the trail since we couldn't see anything, but we did enjoy stopping and enjoying the view. We headed back the direction we came and ran through a neighborhood we don't usually go through. Overall...a really great run!

Mileage:
Weekly: 10.7 miles (not counting today...I never know which way to put Sunday)
YTD: 111.8 miles

Family run

We had told the kids that we would take them on a run, a first for us, this weekend if it was nice. It wasn't. But that didn't stop us!

Notice her BondiBand, SPI Belt and running "tights" :)

It was cool and rainy, but we geared up and got the jogger out for our first family run. I love that we didn't let the weather stop us! We had so much fun together. SB ran the whole first mile and did awesome! Ryan, at just 4, handled a lot more than I thought he would. He hopped in and out of the jogger quite a bit, but that was what made this run so great...no set pace or distance, just us being active.

We actually ran to McDonald's (about 1.25 miles in about 20 minutes), had lunch, and ran/walked home (almost another mile in about 17 minutes). I stopped the watch if we were loading or unloading the jogger.

Yes, I know running to McDonald's might seem a little ironic, but the alternative was having Dad pick it up and eat it in front of the TV.

I have to say that this run ranks right up there with some of my best!

Weekend Recap

This was the weekend that just almost didn't happen. However, I'm so glad everything finally straightened out so we could enjoy our weekend away.

When we booked our hotel with Priceline, we were so excited when we got the Gaylord Texan at a decent rate! We decided to celebrate our 10th anniversary a little early and got another night.

We got an email overnight from the race directors advising those in the 15K that run slower than 12:00/miles to consider moving to the 5K to avoid hypothermia and excess exposure to the cold. Granted, it wasn't that cold, but by Texas standards, I guess it was. I know the race officials were worried people wouldn't dress appropriately for the weather since we're not used to it. I think it was 31 at race time with a colder wind chill.

We met up with my parents, my sister and her husband in the parking lot to get our bibs, including the ones we wore for the virtual run for Sherry Arnold. It was so cold that we didn't want to get out there any earlier than we had to.

We didn't hang around the start line long before it was time to go. The corral was really crowded, mainly because people kept joining us even if that wasn't their assigned corral. It worked out fine though. We ran the first mile without any walk breaks, and after that, our walk breaks were short and usually just for uphill sections. I was really proud of Chad! He did great!

We went and got our chocolate fix indoors (thank goodness!) before heading out to the finish line to watch my mom and sister finish. However, we didn't realize that there was a different finish line for the 15K...one about 1/3 of a mile away! Since Dad was walking with a walking stick and in one real shoe and one slide, I grabbed the camera and took off. I got there in time to see a couple of friends and my sister finish, but I totally missed Mom's finish. She was only about 3 minutes behind Carrie, but I never saw her. They did great! I wish I could run as fast as they do!

After they got their chocolate fondue fix, we headed out for brunch. We originally headed to Twisted Root, a burger place (yes, I know it's not really brunch, but it sounded good). However, it was closed "for deep cleaning." The nearest one wasn't open yet either. We found a pancake place, but the only parking was in a parking lot that had a sign saying "Manny's Parking Only: Towaway Zone." We decided we'd take our chances, but when we walked down the block, we realized that place was packed. Since we were already in Manny's parking lot, we decided to eat there. It's funny how things work out...we walked in thinking we'd be eating a Mexican food lunch, but the menu showed breakfast was served all day long...and it was awesome!

Chad and I were the only ones who were staying another night, so after brunch, we headed back to our hotel. We stopped at Grapevine Mills first and then Chick-Fil-A for lunch (yum!). The best thing about a weekend away...an uninterrupted nap! Well, it was uninterrupted for me. Apparently, I was so out of it that I never even heard housekeeping try to come in the room. We went out Saturday night as a Valentine's Day/anniversary celebration.