Category: rambling

Coffee Break

I love the blog posts I’ve seen others do that are written as if we’re sitting and having coffee today. I’ve had all sorts of random thoughts floating through my head, so it’s time for a coffee date!

Coffee, water, and half a doughnut

Today over coffee, I’d tell you …

Time flies when you’re not looking. I know many moms of young children (myself included) wish some of the endless witching hours would go away. We hate it when people say, “Treasure these times! They go so fast!” because they feel interminable when things are not going well, aren’t fun, and are fraught with stress about discipline, illness, and other “are we making the right call?” choices.

My littlest moved into his big boy bed the other night. My daughter had a father-daughter dance this weekend and looked too grown-up in some of her pictures. I went with my oldest on a field trip to the zoo and he wrote a narrative zoo journal about his trip.

My catalogue of tiny baby memories for each of them is growing the tiniest bit slimmer every day, but I’m adding to their bigger kid catalogues. It’s wonderful and bittersweet. Time does fly, at least outside of those crazy times.

Did you hear that Iran wants to start promoting their country as a tourist destination? I would love to someday visit Iran as a tourist. Yes, really. There’s so much history and so many beautiful places to experience. But seriously … The risks of traveling there seem to far outweigh the non-risks. I’ll content myself for now with dreaming of a someday trip to Cuba. Maybe one day more “forbidden” places will be safe and open for travel.

It’s almost time to start my Hypnobabies again. Except I seem to have misplaced my workbook … Ugh. Hypnobabies is a self-hypnosis, guided meditation and relaxation way of prepping for labor and delivery … And the last trimester of pregnancy, and the early postpartum days too, in my opinion. I know, I know – how crunchy.

I started HB during my pregnancy with Nora as a way to last longer before the epidural. (You can read more about her birth here.) I used it again, although not as diligently, when pregnant with Jude. (His story here.) Even if I still end up the epidural route, HB helps so much in the mental processes around pregnancy, labor, and delivery that I still think it’s worthwhile. It’d be nice to NOT have the epidural (and the possibility of a spinal headache, the epidural shakes and chills, the dropping blood pressure), but I’m not going to presume anything. I’ll aim for a positive experience in whatever way that comes to me and this baby.

And HB helps me sleep better. I can definitely use some of that!

My job is … Fine. I’m not in a super-excited place about it, but I’m not super-negative about it. Maybe it’s contentment? That’s at least something to aim for. And super excitement isn’t something I necessarily want leading up to maternity leave. This may be a good time for exploration within the job and the possibilities I’ve been too busy to examine during other periods.

I think this baby likes yoga. I haven’t been as good about getting a short practice or two in during the week. I did 20 minutes tonight, and I could really tell the (tight) difference in my hips and legs. After even just those 20 minutes, the baby started moving around and kicking more than I’d felt other evenings. I think s/he appreciates the room around their room now!

One of these days I’m going to leave an entry exactly as typed and auto-corrected to see if it makes any sense at all. The iPad just changed “baby started” to “baby’s tatted” in the last paragraph. I mean, come on.

Relaxed and happy

We had a fabulous Independence Day weekend. My sister and her fiancé came to visit for a few days, and it was awesome. We went dress shopping for her wedding dress, shopped our hearts out at the local outlet mall, and had fun at the kids’ swim lessons. Yesterday we spent the morning at the beach and then came home to smoke ribs (Will did, anyway) and celebrate the day. Such a great relaxing weekend!

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This next week is the start of a new, official training season for me! I signed up for the Another Mother Runner 13.FUN challenge/training plan. I’m doing the run/walk option because the last thing I want is to get injured and/or lose more motivation. I’m excited to see how it goes!

Things I’ve Learned (So Far) As a Mom

Things I’ve learned as a Mom:

  • There are never, ever enough AAA or AA batteries in the house.
  • There will be too many of the WRONG kind of batteries in the house when your child clamors for the other kind.
  • Always keep a Philips screwdriver in the kitchen drawer.
  • Nature’s Miracle is handy for pet messes and for a light spray-down of a potty-training kid’s mattress.
  • Check your own pockets for tissues and chapstick before doing the laundry.
  • Diaper rash ointment can be handy for Mom’s running problems as well as baby’s bottom
  • Every work of art is precious
  • But take a picture of it and get rid of it or it will BREED LIKE RABBITS
  • Only get rid of it when the kids aren’t looking
  • Or teach the kids the value of recycling early in their lives
  • Also: “This is how we make room for MORE art!”
  • Keep an extra storage tote handy for dropping in seasonal decor that didn’t quite make the Easter clean-up of Christmas decorations (what, is it just me?)
  • Sometimes a ten-minute timer makes cleaning into a game or a race, especially if there’s a prize at the end
  • That works on kids too
  • Throw the laundry detergent cup into the load after you add the soap. No more sticky residue!
  • Also: keep the extra ones when you buy new detergent.
  • Also: remember to get it out of the washer before you transfer the load to the dryer. Ha!
  • Finally … three hours of kid-free cleaning while at home and sick still accomplishes the same as two weeks worth of cleaning while the kids are around.

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I’m trying a Summer Blog Project to get myself to write more regularly. The project is – wait for it – blogging during the summer. I know! You can follow along by liking the Treacle.Net Facebook page!

 

It’s been a while, right?

So …

How’s it going, folks?

I’ve been thinking of reasons to re-invigorate this blog, what I would say, etc. I think I need it for the accountability in running and workouts, as well as just allowing for a creative outlet.

It’s just been so stinking busy lately!

I’ve been organizing my first virtual race – the Have a Gray Run race weekend this week! It’s not that complicated of an event, but it’s still time-consuming. I love it, and I love that we may be able to help our friends in some small way.

Then there’s the usual mom thing, the usual work thing, and the usual wife thing. Except none of those stay very usual for long, right? We’ve had an ER trip and overnight at the hospital for our daughter (nothing long-lasting, just a temporary illness gone bad), big changes at my job, and trying to keep my husband my number one priority in the middle of it all (and with his own growing business). So there’s that.

I’ve slacked off on running training because a) I don’t have a race and b) we’re already getting well into the “Houston running weather sucks” time of year. Ever since the time change to Daylight Savings Time, I’ve been exhausted and irritable. I can’t get back into a good routine, and I haven’t found the motivation to make it happen.

So all that in mind is why I’m trying to find little ways – like blogging – to get me back into routines.The jury is still out on what that will look like — Mommy Monday? Training Tuesday? Some other set of weekday themes to prompt me to write, build some posts that I can write when I feel creative and schedule to be out in the world more regularly?

As far as training, here you go: I want to do another half marathon or two. I want to run more for it and actually, really train. I decided to pull the Disneyland Half Marathon training plan into my calendars (work, phone, etc.) so I can use it as a guide. I’m not running that particular race, but it will help me prep without feeling too pressured.

The other training I want to do is a bit more specific, but it starts in October. I want to find a way to do the Disney Princess Half Marathon next year, but I want to do the Glass Slipper Challenge. Some friends from work are seriously talking about doing it, and I think we would have an absolute blast together.

That’s the plan. Check in with me to see how it goes in reality. 😉

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