I drove the swim team carpool this week and decided to take advantage of the exercise room while the team practiced. I didn’t get up early enough to get my cardio or weights in before breakfast. After getting the children off to school, I barely had time to do my physical therapy exercises before the two-year-old and I took Red Dragon Codex posters around to the area elementary schools. (The author Rebecca Shelley is coming in January.)

I was pretty proud of my time-efficient plan. What I didn’t realize is that 5:00 PM is a pretty busy time in the weight room at a junior college. And though I’d left two children at piano lessons to be picked up by their father, that still left the two littlest boys with me.

Yep. In the weight room. With fifteen 18 and 19-year-olds pumping iron, running on treadmills, biking on stationary bikes. And me. And two little boys with toy tractors and semi trucks and kindergarten homework. Cause you know–he can read to me while I lift. Or rest. Or walk on the treadmill because those girls must be biking ten miles.

Do you ever feel out of place like when an almost 20-year old alternates stares between you and the two little boys busily pulling the weight pins in and out of the leg machine?

I’m pretty sure he was eyeing my paper bracelet. That’s gotta be it. It had nothing to do with the two-year-old jumping on me whenever I sat down to stretch. Or the toys, backpack, and papers the student had to step over and around to get to his weight machine. It was that bracelet I had to pay $3 for since I don’t have a student activity card. That’s totally it.

LOVE THIS IDEA. Check it out for a fabulous Christmas tradition. Now you know what I’ll be doing tomorrow with the help of this little kindergartner. I think he’ll do a great job at making number cards. Thanks Jenni!

(I think you could even use library books if you don’t have enough. Just number them so they will be read first.)

I love these shoes. Whew–it’s been an odd running year. When I started this blog, I thought I’d do a regular running post. However, my running life has been crazy this year. I was halfway through typing this post when I realized I should rename it The Running Epistle: Yeah, It’s That Long. Then I decided to just give you the highlights and spare you the details.

Roadblocks:

1.Pregnancy-Stopped running.

2. Miscarriage-Longer recovery than expected.

3.Back and Leg Pain-Eventually stopped running.

4. No $ for new Running Shoes for three months-Led to some Aha Experiences.

Aha Experiences:

1. Listened to Interview with author of Born to Run Christopher McDougall.

2. Discovered if I lifted weights I could make it through the day without so much pain. Increased weight lifting to four times a week.

2. Fitted for New Running Shoes-Discovered I have terrible running posture and they were out of shoes in my size. Learned all the clerks run barefoot or in Vibram FiveFingers. Hmm…thinking more about that book now. Maybe I should move Born to Run up on my “to read” list.

3. Tried running barefoot one minute sprints on the treadmill during my 30 minutes of daily walking using the posture and footfall techniques the running store clerk showed me. It really works! It causes no more pain than I already experience daily.

Other:

1. My husband made me go to the doctor to get a physical therapy prescription.

2. Physical Therapist said no more running and asked me what my goals were for physcial therapy. I said to be able to perform my household responsibilities pain free and run a half marathon.

3. Physical therapy exercises are amazing. The pain is tolerable throughout the ominous 4-bedtime hours, and I wake up without pain now if I do my exercises twice a day.

4. I’m halfway through Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. I think I’ll post a review here when I’m done.

5. Still thinking about that half marathon. Is there enough time left this year to get it in? (Shh … don’t tell my physical therapist.)

The most disturbing part of the entire scenario is that my computer refuses to turn on. Remember my book? Well it’s on there. I have a backup on a jump drive but it’s not as current as it should be. When these realizations hit me, I nearly started to hyperventilate. That is until I remembered I had emailed my book to my sister for further critiques. Thank goodness, or I might be passed out on the floor instead of using my husband’s laptop to make this post.

Since I’m still conscious and I know how to retrieve my manuscript if my husband can’t get the computer functioning again, I’ll post a few pictures of my garden. I’ve been wanting to brag about it for some time because it’s so exciting to see things growing like I’ve seen in other people’s gardens. I have to take a deep breath and stand in awe each time I go down there.

Pretty exciting, huh? Pretend…just for me, please?

Here’s an up close shot. I thought I planted a lot of broccoli, but guess what? We eat it as fast as the plants produce it. I was hoping to freeze some. Oh well.

Technically these are not considered garden produce, but look how big they’re getting. We’re expecting to find eggs any day now. These chickens serve an important function in our garden: Eating every last earwig! At least I hope they eat every last one. I’m looking forward to the day I bring lettuce or cabbage into the house sans earwigs.

Monday evening my husband decided to move the pest control, aka the chickens, into the raspberries and strawberries. Later that night he took the children with him to help relocate the chickens back inside the electric fence for the night. It’s their protection against critters like coyotes and racoons…and yes even our dog. Although, he must have gotten a pretty good shock from the fence because he won’t even follow us to the garden area anymore.

Anyway, Nate handed a chicken to my son who headed to the garden with it. Then Nate handed another chicken to my daughter. Just before she reached the garden, my son let go of his chicken. Not into the pen he was standing next to, but into the garden with the renegade chicken who had escaped when Nate moved the chickens to the berrries in the first place. My daughter suddenly couldn’t keep ahold of her chicken either. And you guessed it. There were now three chickens loose in the garden with the sun sinking behind the mountains.

I like to be helpful so I took the baby inside and gave him a bath and put him to bed while Nate and the children participated in a circus round up of chickens.

There was a second benefit to being able to complete three miles nonstop. It gave me ample time to think and mull over the suggestions I received on my manuscript today. A week and a half ago I submitted the first ten pages of my manuscript to Precision Editing Group and have anxiously awaited their editor’s analysis. It was hard to see all the mistakes pointed out and, of course, I felt misunderstood, etc., etc. During my run I was able to gain some perspective and actually work through some solutions for the highlighted areas of concern. In the end there are only two out of the thirty-one comments  that I completely disagree with. So back to work on the remaining twenty-nine!