7 Quick Takes for a summer afternoon

1) I had a great nutritional win yesterday.

For breakfast I had my used-to-be-favorite-meal-of-all-time-but-especially-for-breakfast meal.  That would be two pieces of homemade bread, toasted with natural peanut butter, jam, and two fried eggs on top.  However, since I've been eating this Whole 30 diet long enough, I was sadly disappointed with my meal and went in search of the veggies I was craving afterward.  Did you hear that?  I said I went LOOKING FOR VEGETABLES!!  This is huge people - the fact that I've gone from muscling down veggies (often the same ones - frozen peas, green beans, or corn) to CRAVING them! And craving not just those I listed, but craving the highly nutritious veggies like sweet potatoes, avocados, mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, peppers, etc.  (Now, I did not DISLIKE any of these before, but since I've been eating them more and more I just want more and more of them!)

2) Zipporah is finally almost crawling.

On two separate occassions for numerous witnesses she got in the proper postition and moved her arms correctly at least two times.  She is not crawling around the room yet, but we are anticipating it soon.  The sad part: I think I am going to miss her physical therapist - she has been great!  But I certainly will NOT miss the stress of trying to get Zipporah to want to move - silly little lady.  In any case, I'm glad she has decided to join the ranks of those who are able to locomote in some fashion.  She is also cruising some, so perhaps walking is not far behind.

3) Miriam has taken to "reading" her favorite books.

I remember doing this as a child - having a favorite book and having it read to me repeatedly until I could tell the story from memory while turning the pages.  I don't remember what the story I first memorized was, but I do recall that the book was pink and the story was about Care Bears.  This book is called "Brave Dragon" and Miriam got it for her birthday from her Uncle Luke and Aunt Kristy.  Click here if you want to hear Miriam "read" it to you.

4) I am 95% sure I broke my toe the other night.

It was doing better and then I bumped it just right and about collapsed in pain.  But after more ice and some rest it is feeling a bit better again (if I can just be careful to leave it alone and ram it AGAIN).

5) I am planning to run in my first race ever on Saturday.

This is huge and you probably would not get why, so I will tell you in a really really long story. . . back in high school when I played basketball I still remember my coach telling the team (as I was standing beside him), "Mary is going to do a lot of great things for us, but she is not going to set any land-speed records."  Now, he was telling me that I should not be running all over the court, but sprinting back and forth from the paint (aka the lane - the painted box under the basketball hoop) on one end of the court, directly to the paint on the other end and not messing around in-between.  And that is good advice and served me well in my years of basketball in high school and college.  

But. . . for some reason that quote has stuck with me, perhaps because I often feel inadequate and people are always telling me what I cannot do (not as in they will not let me, but as in I am not ABLE to do this) and that just pricks my nerves.  In this case, it took a while to brew, but in college, I started running because I was too chicken to go to the gym there (as a freshman at a college 17 hours from my home) and I could run outside, on my own.  First I just tried to run for 15 minutes and not stop.  I prayed the rosary to keep myself focused.  Then, as my stamina increased I would run further and maybe faster (although I never timed myself to check my speed - I would just run for a set amount of time, usually 45 minutes or an hour).  

Then something amazing happened while I was playing college basketball with Franciscan University.  It was our first practice back after Christmas Break.  We warmed up, stretched, and started doing some suicides (or winners, or zippers, or zombies, or whatever you want to call them).  In any case, for the first time in my life, I WAS THE FASTEST ONE IN THE GYM!!!  I had run over the break and apparently no one else had.  So here I was RUNNING FASTER than the point guard and everyone else.  It was a great moment for me.

I got married shortly after graduating college and kept running, but then I started having babies and could only run off and on in-between being very pregnant and recovering from having babies.  I still love the feeling of running, but now it is a lot harder on my body, so I do not do it as often.  In any case, I have a friend who runs marathons and I have been wondering if I might like to try that some day.  This measly little 5K (as I usually do five or six miles when I run) is the first step into my potential race-running hobby.  I'm curious to see how it goes and if I will "get bit by the racing bug" as some of my friends call it or just figure I ran my race, so now I can cross that off the list.

6) We finally finished up the "official" school work.

I put official in quotes because let's be honest, my kids are reading and learning ALL THE TIME.  But it is nice to know that they supposedly know everything they are supposed to know for their respective grades now.  And in about four weeks we get to start again - haha.

7) I miss my husband.

He is in the upcoming musical, "Legally Blonde" put on by the local community theater.  I'm sure he is going to be great, but it is rough to see him only a few minutes in the morning before work, maybe a few minutes after work (sometimes not at all if he runs errands before practice) and then maybe a few minutes in the evening (assuming he gets home before I fall sleep).  But I'm sure the musical will be great and worth the sacrifice.

P.S. Feel free to come support him and the rest of the cast.  Showtimes are July 23, 24, and 25th at 7pm at TMP here in Hays.