State of things around here

I know I have done a crummy job of blogging lately--the two posts that I've put up today are just kind of token "we did this" kind of posts. Not much is going up about my real life or my emotions or the day-to-day, which is what I really loved about blogging when I first started blogging. I've found lately that I am using Facebook and Instagram a lot more for that sort of thing (which is why I've added the Insta button to my sidebar, so follow me there if you want more regular posts!).

The real bottom line of it all is that I feel like I don't have much to offer these days. When I look at my life, I'm doing the exact same things I've been doing for years, and I doubt anyone wants to read an endless rehashing of the same things over and over, you know? If anything, I feel like I've become sort of a faded copy of the girl I was around 2010, which is when I felt like I was really enjoying this blog and having lots of interesting and fun things to say. I've been writing here for 9 years, since the fall Neil started grad school, and things are pretty much the same as they were then--just multiply the stress by 1000.

When I read through the posts I put up years ago, I wonder at how confident and assured and energetic I was. I feel much less sure about everything in my life these days, and I wish I could bottle the energy I had in my 20s!

So anyway...that's why I haven't been blogging much lately. Same old same old, just much more tired and more gray hair and less zest. But hopefully a little wiser in realizing how very little I know and how much I have to learn!!! So no more pontificating from me about how to be a good mother/wife/runner/teacher/cook/creator, although if you want to listen to me up on my soapbox you'll find lots in the archives. :-)

Camping trip as recorded by Abigail

Last weekend we packed ourselves up and went camping. I was so looking forward to this--it has been super stressful around here lately and I was really craving some intense time with just our family! (We definitely nailed the intense part--haha!)
It was a wonderful trip. We had an absolutely blissful evening with the kids, a horribly wretched night up with Nathan, and a good morning of hiking, so it all evened out as wonderful. :-) It's funny though because the last time we camped at this particular state park we barely got any sleep, and then this time we got even less! I told Neil it's on my blacklist...it's a beautiful place to hike but we never sleep here, so we'll drive a few minutes south and camp at the other park where the kids always zonk out and snooze contentedly all night long. It will totally work, right?
But the evening with the kids was so great! We got there early enough to not be rushed in set-up and dinner, which always makes a huge difference (I'm thinking of our May trip to the Smokies where we stayed at Dollywood until closing time, had kids throw up in the car twice on the way to the campground, got lost, and then had to set up in the dark by lantern light, and then our air pump drained the car battery and we ended up having to blow all the air mattresses up by mouth AND jump the car). The kids zipped through 4 packs of  "cold dogs" (none of those little weirdos like to roast them) and 2 bags of marshmallows (ugh...good thing they were running around like crazy to counterbalance all of that!), we went on lots of little walks, we checked out the moon, we whittled spears, and generally got totally filthy, stayed up way too late, and had an absolute blast.






One of my favorite bits of the trip was that Abigail was writing this long Post-It note missive to her best friend Amelia. Parts of it were in code, but the bits that weren't were so funny and sweet and gave such a fun perspective on our trip that I'm going to let her do the talking.

Hello Amelia, from goodness knows where! I'm sitting in the car between my two brothers, who talk all the time. Luckily, the trip is only an hour long. I'm about 10 minutes into the trip, so I still have 50 minutes to go. So far, my brothers have been talking nonstop. I'm taking a break from writing now, so bye!

Later...(big coded section that she didn't translate)
Stopped so Dad could take off our bumper because it was dragging on the ground. He put it in a trash can at the gas station. Mom took a picture. It looked halarious! [sic] 15 minutes left--bye for now!!!

Half hour left. Can't wait.

10 minutes. I am itching in anticipation! Literally. I have a mosquito bite I just can't reach.

5 minutes. Can't wait.

4 minutes. I'm wiggling in my seat. 3 minutes. 2 minutes. 1 minute. We're entering the campsite! I haven't been here for years. We're looking for a secluded campground. It's certainly shady here. Oh, I forgot, we're going to Shades. Our site is number 39. Aaannnd we're here! Bye!

This place is amazing. I've never been in a better site. We have our own paved path to the bathroom and guess what? On the bathroom wall, it says there's been sightings of...guess what...it's our mascot...a bobcat! Cool, right? Inside the bathrooms, it's super clean and there are screens on the windows! No moths in here, ha! I hate bugs in bathrooms in the morning. Once I stepped on a beetle. It looked like this--size and all. 

very detailed drawing of beetle

It started gushing green blood--yuck! I ran out screaming. Luckily I wasn't barefoot. That would have been awful. Anyway, Dad's building a fire and it's soooo loud, like if these were the sound waves of a shout, these would be of an ax.

(drawing of sound waves emanating out from a fixed point)

Super loud. Anyway, Mom says I have to stop writing and enjoy the camping, so very reluctantly, I'll have to say bye. Bye! :-(

It's been so long since I last wrote to you. I miss you already even though I saw you 4.5 hours ago! I went on several walks to find wildflowers and I found at least 9 different types. It's still 2 more hours until nighty-night, but before then, I'll give you another update, but I'm not leaving yet--I'm still talking. Sorry, writing! Whoops. We're sleeping with our tent open to the stars. Here's a funny camping story--once, I roasted a marshmallow with a bubble that was bigger than the marshmallow itself. Cool, right? It looked like this:

(drawing of marshmallow on a stick with giant warty bubble on side)

Anyway, about Challenger, I'm so glad my badge won! I would have been even happier though if yours won. I can't wait for mission to the moon. It's sooo cool. If you are in space station first, when you are mission control, you get to try space food! Don't eat green beans though, they taste like rotting {code}. Yuck! Bye for now, I'm going to check out the tent. Dad's putting in mattresses.

much later

It's getting dark, so I'll close for today with a picture of my stick. And here it is. (the one I'm whittling)

Bye for today!

I'm writing this by lantern light. It's 9 pm. I've spent the last 2 hours whittling a spear. I've taken a break to write. Mom is going to take a picture of me doing this. She says I am a funny little cuteycake. I think that {code}. We had a huge fight over a flashlight. (Oh, and by the way, all the stuff I'm writing in code is stuff I don't want read.)

Day 2


Awful night. I went to sleep late, and Nathan, our baby, screamed all night. When I woke up, I couldn't go outside because Mom said people were trying to sleep, so I played a game called mealworms with Juliet, my sister.

The letter ends here--probably because we packed up to go hiking and she was totally worn out afterwards!
So anyway...some photos from our hike.

The end!

Steam & Power Show

 Way back in July we went to our local Steam & Power Show (I did not know this was a thing, but it is! It's been going for a gazillion years, apparently). Anyway, when I heard about it I knew it would be just the thing for our equipment-obsessed Nathan, whose mini bulldozer, dump truck, grader, backhoe, etc. are his favorite toys ever...they go everywhere with him and he sleeps with all of them clutched to his chest. With the big kids in school Nathan often asks if we can go for a run or bike ride to go watch construction equipment. It's his jam, apparently.

 So yeah, basically the Steam & Power show has a few really cool things about it:

1) Lots of old cars
2) Row after row after row of vintage farm equipment

3) A surprisingly good lunch (by donation)--it was a very Midwestern event with lots of home-canned pickles and the like. So fun!
4) A tractor pulling contest for the little folks 

5) A ride out to the hay fields to watch the harvester, combine, baler, and plough in action. I honestly think this was the most amazing thing that had ever happened in Nathan's life.

So apparently the tractor pull is a really big deal--a lot of the people around us were talking about having their kids practice in preparation. Good thing we just randomly showed up, right? (Our kids definitely were outclassed by the farm kids who knew what they were doing!!)

 Abigail could barely fit on but she was determined to try!

 Afterwards all of the kids got these awesome plaques that also had toy tractors affixed to them in such a way that you can take the tractor off, play with it, and then put it back on again.

 This was the tractor that pulled our little wagon out to the harvesting fields--my kids practically died of joy.



On the ride...Abigail wasn't as into it as the other kiddos were but she was a good sport. :-)

 And what felt like miles and miles of cool old tractors. Neil would have been happy to stay there all day, but it was getting hot so we headed on home for naptime. :-)

And this has nothing to do with the rest of this post, but I love Nathan's post-Harry-Potter-party-sugar-coma face here. One of the girls took this little gem and it was so funny to find it on my camera!

Eating a Frog: August Marathon Training Update

Another month down, which means I am only two months out from the race! Crazy how long this takes!

Mileage:
I ended August with 204 miles. Woo-hoo! It was so exciting to break 200!!! I actually missed my first run (5 miles recovery) last week--I drove from the NYC suburbs to southwest Michigan and there just wasn't time to fit in a run. This is the first run I've missed since December (when I had Influenza A) so I guess it's okay to take a day off every so often...right?

Fitness:
I feel like I am making HUGE gains here. I had a 10-mile run in NY last week that was a little scary, so I was running faster just because of adrenaline, and when I checked my mileage later (since my Garmin quit on me) I was running 8:52 miles when I meant to be running 10-minute miles, and 7-minute miles when I meant to be running 8:50 miles. Fun to see that I am strong enough to not even notice (also--thanks adrenaline from deserted trails with emergency call boxes!!); I ran the second half 5 minutes faster than the first, so that was great. I also ran about 30 seconds per mile faster than I'd intended for my 20-miler last week, which I also didn't know until the end, thanks to that darn Garmin, but I didn't feel it physically.

Aches & Pains:
Plantar fasciitis is doing much better & my knee is also getting stronger! The strength-training is helping a lot. I'm not usually sore for very long after my long runs--I notice it most in my hip flexors, but it's usually gone pretty quickly. I had an AMAZING 90-minute massage last week after my 20-miler that left me feeling so great!

Nutrition/supplements:
After my eight-week challenge ended, I haven't been doing so hot at getting my fruits/veggies without any sugar! I'm restarting that today. Still taking iron, glucosamine, and using the chia water instead of gels. 

Affecting My Life: 
I feel like I'm getting more resilient with less fatigue. As always, sleep makes all the difference! I'm starting to notice, however, that I miss running just to run instead of training. Three double-digit runs a week is hard mentally--much more so than physically, especially when some of them are pretty darn long (like the 14 today!). Doing yoga and strength-training on my midweek rest day also leaves me feeling mentally like I'm not really getting a rest day (although I take Sundays completely off). I'm running more at night than I'd like to, but I just can't do a 3-hour run in the morning, get everyone off to school, and then be functional the rest of the day, so I am running once the kids go to bed (hello treadmill) so that I am present for my family the rest of the time. 

Morale:
The fitness gains I've seen have really made me feel good about where I'm at training-wise. Two weeks ago I ran 19 miles instead of my planned 18 and did about 6.5 miles in the middle at unplanned marathon pace, since I was running with a local training group and ended up going with the faster group. I had done speedwork the day before and I was worried about doing marathon-pace miles that weren't even on my schedule, but it was great, which left me really feeling good about my training!

This week's plan:
Monday: 6 miles (recovery)
Tuesday: 14 miles
Wednesday: 6 miles (recovery)
Thursday: strength/yoga
Friday: 6 miles with 6 x 100 strides
Saturday: 16 miles with 12 at marathon pace
Total: 48 (cutback week, praise the heavens!)

End of Summer, part I

We've had so much fun packed into the last bits of summer that it was impossible to keep up with it blogging-wise, so I'll just do a couple of big posts (this one is iPad pictures, the next one will be camera pictures).

First of all, with the openhouse for the Indianapolis temple, we were lucky enough to see lots of dear friends who came to the openhouse! We spent a couple of delightful days seeing beloved buddies that we hadn't seen since Thanksgiving (thank goodness for technology that keeps us connected!). 

We were all planning to get together at the same time, but circumstances worked out so that the visits were separated by a day or two, which just drew out the fun even longer!

Our first set of friends to visit--Jason & Melanie's family--came to stay with us overnight and then headed out early the next morning. Undeterred by the quick timeline, Melanie and I decided to make the most of it and stayed up until 3:30 AM talking (they were getting up at 6 to leave), as you may be able to see in my tired-no-makeup-but-happy face here!

They brought a 5-lb bag of gummy worms and the kids ran around until dark getting sticky and jumping on the trampoline while the adults talked as fast as we could catching up--I think the kids finally were in bed around 11 and we all were so sad to see the evening end!

A few days later, we met Tyler & Andrea's family at the temple, then went to the Children's Museum together. We didn't get nearly enough time talking in between chasing down kiddos, so they came over for a bit the next day after church and we chatted some more, but it made me realize how much we HAVE to get together with these dear friends for a much longer time--soon!

We got quite a few photos in front of the temple but for some reason I can look at the files that Tyler sent but the zip files won't upload, so we will settle for this one (of just our family) that we took in the reception tent.

And fun at the Children's Museum--boy oh boy was it hard to leave when the day was over! Poor Abigail was quite tearful--she and Elise have been friends since they were babies and every time they see each other they just pick right up where they left off. Same for Eva and Juliet.

I can't remember exactly when, but one weekend we went to this fun community BBQ held by the church that sponsors the vacation Bible school that my kids love so much. It was such a great event--everything was free and there were bounce houses, cotton candy, watermelon, elephant ears, all the BBQ food, pony rides, balloons, etc. The kids were in heaven!

So fun to go and see so many friends from school--I always leave things like this realizing just how deeply we've sunk our roots here and how hard it really will be to go.

Best picture of the summer--Luke's exuberant trip down one of the bounce house slides! Hah!



Juliet turned 8...

...which meant that it was time for her wonderful baptism day!

We were so grateful for all of the people who made a real effort to be there for her baptism--my parents came from Michigan, along with my grandparents; my sister Mary Beth came from Chicago, and Neil's parents flew in from Utah. It was a wonderful day!

And of course we had some wonderful food. :-)

One of my favorite pictures from the weekend--all my kids mobbing Mary Beth for stories. I love how even the older kids, who can totally read by themselves, magically zoom in if there's a chance they can cuddle up for a story!

We also started back to school...we had a fun little feast (the kiddos picked the berries for the raspberry lemonade and were super excited about it!). I don't even remember what we had but I remember how fun it was to sit around talking about our goals for the year. Sometimes family dinners are crazy but sometimes they are just these wonderful shining moments of teaching and learning and sharing, and those are the ones that make me keep plugging away during the not-so-good ones!

First day of school photo for Juliet and Isaac. Abigail was gone on the bus before the photo...I was just getting ready to take her picture when somebody yelled that the bus was at the corner (ten minutes early!) and so I dropped the camera and we SPRINTED to the corner and I banged on the bus doors and got her on! Not the most auspicious start, but she is absolutely loving her new school and I am sooo grateful we decided to switch (I think I was much more nervous about it than she was!). She told me that she said so many prayers of gratitude the first couple of days for her wonderful new teacher and friends. I'm so excited that she won't have to repeat the misery of last year with the teacher she would have had if we had stayed at the same school (the high-ability classes are a two-year sequence). I'm so proud of how insanely hard she worked for that teacher last year--she finished the year with straight A's, but it came at such a high cost to her and I am just beyond grateful that this year she has a new teacher.

Just realized that I have no first-day-of-school photo for Abigail, but I do have one of the owl shirt I made for her to wear on her first day! Hah!

My book came in the mail one day, which was a super fun surprise! It sold out within two weeks and we are in the process of doing a second printing. :-) We have been getting really awesome reviews and I have loved hearing from so many people about how it has touched their minds and hearts. It's sparked some good discussions for Neil & me as well!

Luke & I celebrated the first day of school by going out to lunch with Neil and then taking a long luxurious nap together. It was awesome. :-)



Then he and Nathan ran around half-naked feeding grass to the chickens.



This is totally out of order, but on July 31st we had our third annual Harry Potter party! My kids look forward to this SO MUCH.



The girls took care of all the decorations while the boys helped me make the food. I love all the little touches in the vignettes they set up...this one (below) was my favorite, mostly because they made sure each owl was carrying something for the Owl Post.

This year we had actual Chocolate Frog molds (I bought one and then the kiddos' awesome teacher from school loaned us another), and I bought a ton of Bertie Bott's and the kids had a taste-testing festival that was the highlight of the party. I kept finding soap-flavored beans in couch cushions for weeks! (I also ate soap/vomit/dirt/earthworm flavored beans, which made my kids deliriously happy and almost--almost--made up for the wretched taste.) It was also the first year that Isaac was really immersed in Pottermania--he's currently reading Prisoner of Azkaban--so it was extra fun seeing his delight at all the little touches that he now actually "got."

Once they were in bed, I added my own decoration to their bathroom mirror (Moaning Myrtle), which scared the bejabbers out of them in the middle of the night when they got up to use the bathroom...but of course it ended up being their favorite thing about the party and we left it up for a couple of weeks until the next round of houseguests arrived!

And as always, once all our guests go home, we eat all the goodies while we watch one of the Harry Potter movies. Super fun. :-)

And to take us out, I really love this photo with Luke. Neil took it at the end of the day a few days ago...I wasn't wearing any makeup and the lack of sleep is evident, but I love the mother-joy that I can see in this photo. Luke had been feeling a little grumpy and a little lonely, and really wanted to be snuggled but I also needed to finish a few things, so I put him in the Moby Wrap and he just was so delighted! So many giggles, so much joy. I love that sunshiny little face and cherished the opportunity to keep pressing kisses onto his curly head while I finished up dishes and packing lunches and whatnot. One of those moments I don't want to forget.