grateful friday

“…prodigal summer…It could wear out everything in its path with its passionate excesses, but nothing alive with wings or a heart or a seed curled into itself in the ground could resist welcoming it back when it came.”
-Barbara Kingsolver



I live in a place like this. Where after the cold takes the color away and urges us to retreat indoors, suddenly one day the grass starts to turn green. From silence the first buzzing sound emerges as a bee seeks out the first pollen of the season that has burst forth. I didn’t even know to look for it yet, but when I heard the buzz, I knew the crocuses must be up pleading for the sun to shine so they can open up and see the world.



Here we are with the smell of lilacs floating through the air and it seems like only a day or two later. Where does the time go?

bleeding hearts

You thought we'd be fine
All these years gone by

Now you're askin' me to listen
Well then tell me bout everything
No lies we're loosin time

'cause this is a battle
and its your final last call

it was a trial, you made a mistake, we know
but why aren't you sorry
why aren't you sorry
why?

this can be better
you used to be happy
try!


Battle (click to listen) by Colbie Caillat

Edited to add:
This is not a commentary on my personal life. This is a song I love that I wanted to share with my many blog friends and a picture I took of my lovely little bleeding hearts that my 4 yr old and I have been admiring in the back yard. They go together well, don't you think? There should be no further need to alert certain people I love, because this is about me, as it usually is on my own personal blog all about me. Now go listen to the song until you can sing it really loud and clear. It's beautiful. and fun to sing loud, too.

Big Lake 1/2 Marathon

The short version:

Yay! We did it! I did it! I finished a half marathon – I ran 13 miles and lived to tell about it!



The long version: (and I won’t be offended if you skip this—it’s mostly for myself to look back on in the future and track my many improvements:)



The good stuff:
-It was a beautiful run—winding along Lake Winnipesauke
-The weather was beautiful
-It was so cool to be one of over 1500 runners

The mistakes:
-I wore a long sleeved light weight capilene shirt and long pants (I thought it was going to be cold, raw and perhaps rainy but it cleared up and we had lots of sun and fair weather)
-I didn’t wear my fuel belt (I thought 8 drink stations would suffice)
-I didn’t train seriously enough

The stuff working against me:
-I was cursing my Reeve gene (the one that makes me sweat like a fat man in a sauna and makes my body temperature run hotter than most people at any given moment of the day or night.)
-The race was in the mountains, which means that I was running uphill at least half of the time
-I was running into the wind the first few miles and then the wind died leaving nothing to cool me off

The stuff I’m thanking the Maker for:
-Gu
-The people at mile 9 who lovingly gave me a 17 oz. bottle full of ice cold water and probably saved my sorry life
-That my sweet husband was there waiting for me at the end and somehow had the strength to let me lean on him while I walked

The stuff I learned:
-Wear as few clothes as possible. When we got there, I was all chilly and I was looking around at all these people in these tiny shorts and tank tops and I was wondering what the heck they were thinking. Somewhere along mile 3 I came to the understanding that they were much smarter than me.

-I dehydrate quickly. Even though I thought 8 drink stations would be plenty, now I know that I need to be sipping water the entire time. I couldn’t picture it before, because I had never been in a race, but now I know: you’re running and some people are gathered together with paper cups with about a half a cup of water in it. You grab it as you’re going by, take a mouthful and drop it in the trashcan and then you’re done for another mile and a half or so. It takes all of 10 seconds. That’s just not enough for this body.

-Runners apparently don’t care if they get their cups in the trash can. I was so surprised to see hundreds of cups all over the ground. I guess the volunteers are used to it and know that’s part of their job – to pick up all the cups littered on the run. I couldn’t do it. I had to carefully put it in to the proper receptacle. In fact, there were parts where the wind threatened to blow the cups into the Lake, so I was stepping on all the cups as I ran so they wouldn’t blow as easily. Silly, I know, but I couldn’t stop myself from caring.

-The people in the back (which is where I ended) are much nicer than the people in the front (which is where I started). Their goals are different: personal best/competitive vs. finish the race – just please let me finish! The people in the back were all congratulating each other and talking to each other even though we were strangers. “You’re doing a great job!” “this is farther than I’ve ever run before!” “Congratulations!”

-I would rather run the 13 miles again than be as sick as I was after the race was over. When we got on the bus that took us back to our cars, something snapped and my body revolted. For the next 3 hours I was wishing for unconsciousness. In these pictures you see here, I was pretending to be happy. Really I wanted to puke my insides out and die. I didn’t want Matt and Liz to worry about me, but I guess they worried anywayJ I knew Jake would worry enough, he knows the many flaws that my body has to work with all too well. History suggests that if something can go wrong, it probably will with me, so as I was catatonic on the bed in my sweaty clothes and salty body, he was surfing the net to see what he needed to do for me. So sad and embarrassing, but it is what it is. Sigh.



-I would do it again utilizing what I’ve learned and now I can cross something new off my life list/mondo beyondo list. Yay me!

grateful friday

Last night I took some pictures for my friend for a mother’s day gift. (I don’t think she reads my bloggie, so I’m posting some.) It felt so good to be at the beach. The weather was beautiful, the company was fun and energetic. I got to be creative. I love taking pictures!



I finished The Host late last night. I love a good book. I’ve been thinking about it all day. It was a great read, very thought provoking. (But don’t expect it to be like Twilight, it’s totally different.) I've decided that I think Stephenie must be a genius.



My awesome neighbor just dumped a bunch of 8-yr-old manure into my vegi garden. (she’s got 2 horses.) (and apparently lots of extra poop that she’s willing to share;)



New things are blooming every day.



I’m going to bed early tonight and Jake and I run our first half marathon in the morning! (with Matt & Liz, too) Wish us luck – I’m afraid we’ll need it, the forecast is for rain. (thanks for watching the wee ones, Jess!)

more perfect

I wouldn’t call Jake a big reader but one of his all time favorites is A River Runs Through It. He has the book, he has it on CD and of course we have the movie memorized. It gets turned on when we’re having a little down time every so often. There’s this one part when the author, a fly fisherman of course, is catching more fish than his brother for once and he’s feeling pretty good about himself. He says, “When I was young, a teacher had forbidden me to say ‘more perfect’ because she said if a thing is perfect it can’t be more so. But by now I had seen enough of life to have regained my confidence in it. Twenty minutes ago I had felt perfect, but by now my brother was taking off his hat and changing flies every few casts…Once in a while I looked back and smiled at the basket. I could hear it thumping on the rocks and falling on its side. However I may have violated grammar, I was feeling more perfect with every Rainbow.”

One night on a date things didn’t go quite how we planned and we ended up eating late at this delicious restaurant. We got some seafood chowder and split the seared tuna on a bed of greens and I swear it was the most delicious meal I had ever eaten. It tasted perfect and filled me up just right—you know when you’re satisfied but not so full that you feel sick. I can’t even really remember what else we did; I just remember that the meal and the company were as close to heaven as I could get and as we were walking down the street hand in hand I said “This was the perfect night.” He said, “No, it was more perfect.”

We have taken on that phrase now when things are going exceptionally well. And here I am ready to go to sleep for the night on our twelfth wedding anniversary and it’s all I can think about. How my marriage is more perfect.