I’ve Gone Insane

Have I lost my mind?  Quite possibly some days.

Have I gone insane??  Definitely.

Welcome the newest challenge-

Oh yes.  I did it.  And I’m actually pretty excited about it! 

I know, I know…  Excited for a workout program to kick my butt and challenge me in a new and different way??  Yes, and it’s the NEW AND DIFFERENT that has me excited! 

I have been struggling with injuries due to treatment from my breast cancer and all the running that I love, love, love to do.  I have been so aggravated with my treatment-induced menopause and all the body issues that come with it…at age 34 mind you. 

SO, when a couple good friends of mine did the Insanity program, my interest was piqued.  I like that there is a program and a plan for each day, and the workout is all laid out for you.  I like that the workouts aren’t mega-long and drawn out…I don’t have time for that.  And I love that it is something new for me.  Hopefully something to challenge my body (and my mind) and get me out of the workout rut that I’ve been in for awhile. 

So yes, I’m excited!

Now I’m working on my hubby…I want him to do it with me!!!!  I think it would be fun, and we could push each other in the workouts!  Maybe he will…I’m still working on him though…

All that said, today was DAY ONE!

Day one is the Fit Test.  It is done every couple of weeks of the 60-day program.  I think it’s a neat idea to be able to repeat it and see my progress as I go along.  I also got on the treadmill for a 4 mile run.  Well, 3.5 mile run and .5 mile incline walk.  Holy sweat.  Endorphin city!

Here are my Fit Test Results for Day One-

Can’t wait to see all the improvements over the next few weeks!

In other news-

Today’s is the boys’ first Cross Country meet.  It is supposed to be extremely warm out.  Poor guys and gals running this afternoon.  Of course they run in the hottest part of the day.  AND my boys had baseball practice at 5am this morning!  They are going to be exhausted tonight.

The Proverbs study at shereadstruth.com continues!

DAY 23-

DAY 24-

Have a most marvelous day, guys.

xoxo

Usual Busy-ness

Well goodness, how’s it going.  Welcome Wednesday! 

It’s been a full week since I’ve updated.  Imagine that.

I honestly don’t even know where to start when I think about all that’s been going on around here!  Nothing major, just the usual busy-ness!

I’ll try to hit the high points.

We’ve had a couple of good baseball WINS! Mom-of-the-year here didn’t take any pictures, though, so you’ll just have to take my word for it-my boys were there, and they were awesome.

My friend, Jenna, from Eat, Live, Run had her first BOOK PUBLISHED and it came in the mail the other day!!  Of course, the first thing I did was read the whole thing cover to cover and then proceeded to make one of the recipes.  Delish!!  

 

I got to snuggle with this little Princess…daughter of my BFF.  She is perfect.  And whoever got her the UnderArmour outfit has GREAT taste.  

 

I’ve gotten a couple more days into the Proverbs study on #SheReadsTruth.  Love every verse and morsel of wisdom.

Day 19-

DAY 20-

DAY 21-

DAY 22-

 

I hit my post-injury distance high on Sunday morning before church!  10 MILES!!!!!  I am pumped!

 

I went with Tyler for my first OUTSIDE post-injury run!  My, how this boy loves to take pictures.  He has a beautiful smile, and it cost us a butt-load so he should show it once in awhile!  I had a great (and extremely sweaty) 5 mile run…it felt amazing!!

 

Zachary got a MUCH NEEDED haircut.  We seriously have not had one spare minute when the barber shop is open to get his hair cut.  Here’s proof of how bad he needed one!

 

Andddd, one more new development-I now have THREE kids running Cross Country!  Katie has started running in the morning with her brothers.  Yes, they start early.  Yes, this is my same daughter that absolutely HATES early mornings.  And now she has about 4 days/week of it.  It really does put things on a time crunch in the morning (mainly because she’d rather lay down and take a nap when get back home instead of showering and getting ready for school), but she does love it and it was all her idea…so okay!  And BTW-she’s pretty fast.  

And I’m pretty proud of my kiddos.

Have an awesome rest of your Wednesday!

xoxo

Our Strong Tower

Thought right at this second:

Does anything smell any better than a steaming hot cup of coffee sometimes?  I love the smell of coffee.  And I would also love if it would hurry and cool down so I could get some caffeine in my tired self.  I had a terrible night’s sleep [hate those].

But all will be looking up soon!

It seems like today is surgery day for several people: my second momma (the one I asked for prayers for the other day), my sister-in-law, and my friend’s Dad.  Gee whiz people!  As my Mom has always said, “We never run out of things to pray for.”  Indeed.

Last night’s baseball game didn’t go as planned…meaning: we didn’t win.   But the boys will be back on the mound tomorrow afternoon and hopefully bring home a winner!  I’ve always told them that you can sometimes learn more from the losses than the wins. 

Of course, who knows if tomorrow’s game will even happen now that we have Hurricane Isaac moving this direction.  We here in SE Missouri should catch the remnants of it and they are calling for quite a bit of rain here. I’m sending prayers to those on the coast and further inland who are dealing with MUCH more than rain right now.

On another note completely-check out what my little gymnast is up to now:

She was so pleased with herself that she figured out that she can use the footboard of her bed as a balance beam to practice.  Oh my word.  I don’t know how many times we have said the words, “Be careful, we don’t want to break something else!”  Clearly she’s listening.  Clearly. 

I can so relate to the commercial with gymnast Shawn Johnson and her Mom where her Mom says, “Our home is a training facility…”  Yes, I gotcha.  Here’s the commercial…this is what our house looks like constantly. 

Haha, I love it.

Here’s Day 18 from #SheReadsTruth-

Has anyone else ever pictured themselves full-on running into the arms of God to be protected and kept safe?  I know I have.  I don’t know how many times during diagnosis and treatment (and pretty much every time I still walk into Siteman), I would just bury myself in His Robe and would never have the courage to peek out.  And friends, that’s the beauty of God.  He is THERE with a love so grand we could never imagine.  He WANTS to be our protector and our guide.  I am so thankful.  There are no words.  He is truly my strong tower.

Love you guys.

xoxo

Weekend Catch-Up

Hey Monday!  Nice to see ya!  Eh, not really…trying to be positive here. 

Did you have a good weekend?  Do anything fun??

We didn’t have a whole lot planned, but somehow we were kept very busy.  

The boys had their first baseball game on Friday.  IT WAS A WINNER!!!  Tyler pitched the 23-0 blowout and Zach had timely hits and some amazing catches in the outfield.  So proud of my boys!  I love having them both on the same team. 

We had a family reunion planned for all day Saturday on the river, and it looked like it was going to be a nice day for it [according to the weather forecasts].  Turned out that we actually got rained out not even thirty minutes after getting there.  We waited it out as long as we could under the canopies in the boats but finally just called it quits and packed up and headed home. 

Yesterday morning I got in 8-miles before church.  It wasn’t fun.  I wasn’t really feeling it.  Nothing hurt, just lacking motivation I guess. 

Now THIS MORNING’S run was fabulous!  I put in another 8-miler…just because it felt AWESOME.  My times were close to the same, but today it just felt effortless where yesterday was clearly not.  It clearly shows in my heart rate charts-

 

Definitely could tell I was in the zone today.  That one dip just after 40 minutes was when my hubs called me, other than that it was pretty steady.  Average HR for Sunday was 166 and for Monday (today) was 170.

 

I have also got caught up on my #SheReadsTruth devotions from the Proverbs study-

DAY 16-

 

DAY 17-

Are you joining in?  I am not only reading some beautiful Scripture, but also finding verses that are ACTIVELY applying to me.  I love that. 

More baseball for us today!  Bring it, Bulldogs!

A very important person in my whole entire life is dealing with breast cancer and is scheduled to have her double mastectomy this Wednesday…would you please keep her in your prayers?  She has always been like a second mom to me, and now she is my sister.  Oh how I hate this disease. 

Please get your mammograms, do your breast self-exams, and be your own advocate.  Nobody knows your body better than you. 

Love you guys.

xoxo

Back On Schedule

Twas the first week of school and by Friday everybody looked like this-

Actually, this was taken Wednesday after the first day.  Little princess was completely wiped out!  She dozed off from the grocery store to home…which is about 5 minutes or less! 

The boys are no different, except they have to get up even earlier to get to the school for Cross Country practice.  You know they love that.  *insert LOTS of sarcasm here*  So they are extra tired. 

No rest for the weary around here, though!  The boys have their first fall season baseball game this afternoon, about an hour away.  And it’s back to being HOT outside.  Joy.  I actually really love watching my boys play ball on the same team, but I am not a fan of this ridiculous heat we have had this summer.  It was beautiful for a week or so, and now it’s back to 100 in the afternoons.  Blech. 

Bring.on.fall.

I surprised myself this morning during my workout and did 8 miles.  I had not intended to go that far, but it just felt good so I went with it.  I’ve been taking it pretty slow as I ease back into a running routine…but fast or slow, I don’t care.  Running is running.  And I love it.

With all the school-stuff happening on Wednesday, I forgot to share with you my #SheReadsTruth journal for the day.  Well here is DAY 15-

Proverbs is SO FULL of wisdom.  It’s little bits and pieces of good advice and lessons.  I find something every day to make me think, pray about, and store in my heart. 

I am not getting my quiet time in the morning like I was during the summer since the kids are all getting up earlier, so I've gotten just a day or so behind.  But I’m catching up as soon as this post goes up.  It just took me a couple days to figure out how our mornings are going to go around here!  But I’m on it now!

Have a most fabulous Friday everyone!

xoxo

First Day of School ~ Twenty Twelve

Well, it’s here…

Another FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.  <----- I really tried to type that sentence with an exclamation point but it just didn’t feel right.  I’m not a fan of sending my kids back to school…I like them here.  With me.  All the time.  Forever and ever.

Well, ok, maybe not forever and ever [a Momma needs her quiet time, too], but MOST of the time yes.  This Momma bird likes all her chicks in the nest.  I know it won’t stay this way forever and the kids going back to school is another stark reminder of that. 

Tyler is a junior.  Let me repeat, A JUNIOR.
Zach is a freshman.  A FRESHMAN.
Katie is in third grade.  THIRD GR-ok, ok, you get the point…  Third grade’s not so bad.

My boys are in High School.  Where I was, just yesterday!  Man, when my mom said that time goes by so quickly once they start school she wasn’t kidding.  It.is.flying.

I remember saying that a kid’s junior year in high school is like their last “good” year (for the parents).  Because after this, it will be “Oh, this is the last ___________.”  Welp, here we are!

I’m trying to be a big girl here, so just bear with me.

SO, what does every parent do on the first day of school??  Yes, we take pictures.  I mean, my parents did it to me so now I HAVE to do it to my children.  That’s just the way the world works.

Katie is happy to oblige…of course.  The boys, well, not so much.  Check this out:  
 

The caption for the photo could be:

“And Miss Katie is happily sending her two big brothers off to prison for the rest of their lives.”

Seriously!

Good grief.  Again, I had to threaten to follow them into the school to get their first-day-of-school pictures if they didn’t take them for me at the house.  Needless to say, they opted to take them at home.

I kept snapping, hoping to get one of the boys to crack a smile.  I even told them that I wouldn’t put them on Facebook-which I totally did.  Should’ve smiled boys!

Nope.  Nothing.

Humph.

So I just took more pictures of Katie  

Just before we all got in our separate cars (first time for THAT on the first day of school-wahhhh!), they felt sorry enough for me that I finally got smiles from my sweet, sweet boys.

I am so proud of this picture that I may just put it on the school website and blow it up poster-size and hang it around the house. 

Have an awesome day, guys.

And go ahead and smile!

xoxo

Spending Our Time

Almost a week has gone by since I’ve updated…imagine that.

Sometimes I wish I had more time for blogging; more time to spend writing posts with great links to articles I read regarding breast cancer and workouts I find, more time to share with you the different ways I feel God’s presence in my life on a daily basis, and more time to show you the ins-and-outs of the new recipes I find and how my family likes them (or not, haha!).

But there really isn’t any TIME for that…you want to know why?  Because I am out LIVING.  Praise God!  I am out spending my time with my kids and my handsome husband.  I am trying to spend my 86,400 seconds in each day wisely and with the people I love.

That is something that us cancer survivors face on a daily basis.  The uncertainty of not knowing exactly what our futures look like.  Will I still be here next month?  Next year??  I honestly don’t know.  But I want to tell you TWO THINGS that snap me out of this way of thinking (mostly) when I am consumed by these thoughts:

1. NOT ONE of us knows what the future holds.  Tomorrow is not promised to ANY of us.  Not just cancer patients, but everybody. 
2. I KNOW who holds the future.  I rest in knowing that my Jesus is alive and is still in the business of performing miracles.  He is still the same as yesterday, today, and will be TOMORROW.  He is not startled by anything and already knows what our future holds, and I rest in that.

So while I don’t have any links to the [few] articles I’ve read this week about different advancements in breast cancer, or any of the new recipes I’ve tried (thank you Pinterest), I DO have some great pics of us from the past week [Hello Cardinals game!!!] and of course, my #SheReadsTruth journals to share. 

 

Scary headline: Attempted kidnapping of a local runner.

 

Working on it: !!!!!

She Reads Truth PROVERBS STUDY:

DAY 11-

DAY 12-

DAY 13-

DAY 14-

 

School starts tomorrow.  Tears of sorrow for summer ending and my “babies” getting so much bigger.  But smiles abound for the people they are becoming.  May God watch over and protect all the students and teachers returning to school here tomorrow.

Love y’all!

xoxo