Run like the wind

This is why I never blog!  Every time I sit down at the computer someone joins me!  I really don't mind too much.  :)

So, I ran 7.6 miles yesterday.  I've run 5 and 6 miles before, but I ran a loop at the park or ran around a neighborhood.  This time I ran 3.5 miles out one busy street (with a sidewalk) and 3.5 miles back up another busy street, then around the hospital to get my last 1/2 mile in.  It was a little scary being out that far and knowing the only way back home was to keep running.

It was a nice chilly Saturday with lots of geese around the pond (and lots of goose poop to dodge on the sidewalk - that makes for an entertaining stride); fighter jets veering off left, right and straight up - so cool.  I waved at cars that honked and gave directions to one lady, and shied away from large men all bundled up out walking their huge dogs.

I'm following Jeff Galloway's run-walk training plan. I run three minutes, walk one minute.  I think I'll up it to 4 and 1 next week.  Since I got an iphone all things are possible.  I downloaded an app called Interval Timer.  I used it for HIIT training but I can set the intervals at any time I want.  So my phone beeps at me when it's time to walk or time to run.  I also got Runtastic Pro which maps my run, pace, distance, overall time, calories, heart rate, altitude, and reads minds.  Incredible.

Anyway, I haven't even looked at next weeks' run.  I'll plan some exciting route and fly.  It'll be great!  :)

Videos I finally uploaded to youtube

These are just some videos that my family members might enjoy.

Hudson's Presentation about Pike's Peak
Adelle talking about the friends and family she was looking at on facebook.
Adelle looking at her animal board on Pinterest.

This New Year - uncharted territory

Adelle will be 21 months old next month. I'm usually preparing to welcome another child into our family around this time. Instead, I'm training for a half marathon and still wearing my skinny jeans, with no plans to pull out my maternity clothes in the future. It's such a nice feeling! So far, I have no baby fever. Our family feels complete and I really like not gaining and having to lose baby weight for a fifth time. No babies in the house is uncharted territory for me. The kids are all getting bigger. I can actually send them outside to play without worrying about Adelle eating rocks (though the occasional mud pie is not unusual).

Hudson turned 7 in December. He is thriving with our new academic homeschool group, Classical Conversations. He gives a presentation every week and it's been so fun to watch his public speaking skills develop. Pierce is his toughest critic watching for good eye contact and poise.

Pierce is 5. He is learning to read and write and spell and add- all the fun stuff. He has a new bruise every day. He still doesn't say his "r"s so everything he says is cute and funny. Last week he asked me if I could speak "Bwitish.". :)

Alayna, is the same little princess she ever was. She's always in one costume or another. My mom gave her a purse-calendar and she loves to "take notes and make lists." She makes up songs daily. One of her most recent she titled, "I will pray for David.". :)

Adelle is our little comedian/monkey. Last night when we were getting ready for bed she grabbed Alayna's dress and pulled it on and started dancing around the room. We all laughed at her so she kept going. The she got on her hands and feet and bear crawled down the hallway. Her endless energy is exhausting, but she is constant joy.

David and I are just trying to keep up and soak in all the fun stuff along with disciplining, training, mess making and clean up. Kids don't come with an off switch or volume control (that's why God made Netflix! Haha, just kidding...sort of).

Catching Up

I'm playing catch-up a lot these days. Last night the boys were at a birthday party so David and I took the girls to IHOP and Petsmart. It was so much easier! We could each hold one and entertain one while we waited for our food. It was a breeze. So, four is work, but that's okay. Adele is work. Seriously, she just brought me the kitchen scissors and the pencil sharpener. Wow.

I have to go teach pilates now. I'll give you a more thorough update later. Now that I have blogger on my phone maybe I'll keep up with this better ... You know at red lights?! Yeah, probably not. :)

Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

School. It's what we do. I've developed the mentality that school, for us, is not an 8am-to-3 pm-sit-down-and-do-book-work event. It's an all-day, learn-from-everything event. Yes, we do book work, but we also talk and cook and clean and play. I answer question after question. If they're interested in something, we explore and investigate it. My kids are learning and bright and excited for school every day and I love that!

I had a situation recently that blew me away. I was teaching a water aerobics class. As I jump and jog and reach for my toes and yell, "harder! faster!" ever so often, one lady strikes up a conversation. We'll call her, Judy (we have to change the names, to protect the guilty in this case). Conversation is great. We love conversation in water aerobics. Class flies by when people are talking. However, this conversation in particular could not be over soon enough for me. Picture Edith from Archie Bunker, "So Alyson, are you still trying to homeschool your kids?" Are you kidding me?!

"Yes, Judy, I sure am." I smile.

"Well, how is that going for you?"

I make an effort to change the subject by saying, "Just great," and then tell a story about Adelle on the table during school (this occurs about 400 times a day). Judy was not deterred.

(Check out this video to see how that usually goes down: Adelle's new groove).

"Well, you know [our small town] public school has very capable teachers and ..." blah blah blah. I do know that. Thank you for that information. She goes on, "Do you have a degree in teaching?" Nope, sure don't. "Well maybe you should work on that and then think about teaching your kids." Really?! "What grades are your kids in this year?"

I explain with the intention of shutting this down, "Hudson is 6, but he's doing 2nd and 3rd grade work. Pierce is 5 and doing Kindergarten work. Alayna is 3 - she's doing pre-K stuff."

Judy smiles, "Well you're probably learning right along with them." Was that slam?

I smile in return, "Actually, I am smarter than a 5th grader, much less a 2nd grader, Kindergartener and pre-schooler." I laugh and smile and try to lighten the moment. I want to explain what my kids are learning right now. I want to put them on display so she can really see how awesome they are. Yes, I'm biased. I am the mom and the teacher. But, good grief, at this point I am feeling so belittled and wrongly judged, like I'm doing my children a disservice. While everyone else in class is looking a little nervous, Judy is absolutely clueless and keeps going. "What school would your kids go to? ... Oh! they team-teach there. That's a great school." blah, blah, blah.

Finally, I can take it no longer and try to shut her down, "Judy, you're not going to change my mind. I homeschool. It's achoice my husband and I made intentionally. My kids are smart and doing just fine. We're all fine." I say firmly, but with a smile. She smiles back at me and says, "Well, I just have a vested interest in the public school system." I respond, "Well, I just have a vested interest in my children."

I'm not a confrontational person. I hate being put in situations like this. I don't preach that homeschooling is the only way. Everybody do what's best for your family. I'm all for it! But don't shove it down people's throats like it's really your way or the highway. Man, that wears me out.

Okay, in other news...I turned 31. I'm IN my 30's now. Fun, huh? In better news, Pierce turned 5 and had the best weekend of his life including a campout party and a day at the fair to see Toby Mac (who is like a black/white guy, gangster/Christian, vest/skull cap - whatever, he's got a couple of good songs and Pierce LOVES him). Anyway, that was crazy fun (exhausting).

The birthday boy in the tent with his big brother.

Owl cupcakes

"At dawn we ride!" The chocolate-covered tornado.

Camp scene - roasting marshmallows for s'mores.

The girlies in their tent.

Here's Alayna explaining her drawing to me

Here's Alayna singing the timeline song

Someday I'll video the boys too :) Thanks for letting me vent.

Happiness

My sister, Amanda, just read The Happiness Project (I haven't read it but I like her insights). She says, "It's an encouraging little book with practical tips that really do work. One of the things I see myself constantly failing at is her practice of 'act the way you want to feel.' Apparently, if you feel irritated and then you express that irritation, it doesn't relieve your irritated-ness. Looking back over motherhood, I see how true that is. But, oh the strength one must have to push that irritated feeling down into yourself, just absorb it, and gush out some sweetness and exercise patience and love. The outcome is that you will feel more patience and love and your irritation will lessen. So that's my happiness project for the week. Not so much for the purpose of me being happier, but I see the gospel in it, and my goodness gracious, it would just be really nice of me to be Christ to my kids, absorb their stuff, swallow my angry words, and decide to act gently and graciously towards them. But the motivation of, "so I can feel happier" isn't the best motivation, but happiness is nice." :)

Well, I just love my sister and her precious, crazy girls. I relate so well to her experience with my own children. Amanda and I took turns having babies. We shared maternity clothes and after-pregnancy clothes and, between the two of us, my parents have eight grandchildren under the age of 7! We love and discipline and train our children, but every mother knows there are those moments. They usually happen when dinner is on the stove, I'm on the phone, Adelle is climbing on the table, Hudson is trying to get her down while she screams, Pierce is kung-fooing Alayna while she's trying to twirl and sing. I hang up the phone, scream for everyone to just stop, and turn on a movie. (But Amanda's kids play "cooking" and mix cereal with dominoes and beads. Ah, such creativity!). There are those moments.

I don't think this is a fake-it-til-you-make-it mentality. I think it's grace, self-control, living TRUTH, and being Christ for my kids. Don't worry, be happy :) Here's some happy things ...

Little bitty piggy-tails! She looks like such a big girl, and her cheeks look extra chubby with her hair back. What mommy doesn't love smoochin' on some chubby baby cheeks?!

A little sister love. Adelle calls Alayna, "Nuh," just the end of her name. It's cute.

Guitar banana, singing the states and capitals song as loud as possible. I believe this shot was, "Baton Rouge, LouisianAAAAAAAH!"

Hudson was drumming, Pierce was strumming - Homeschooling at it's best!

Let me tell you a story. I get up every morning at 4:30 to have a cup of coffee and do my Bible study before I go train at 5:15. This morning I was extra tired. I got the coffee maker ready and started. Got dressed and tied my shoes and came back in the kitchen to coffee grounds and brown water dripping off the counter and running everywhere. I didn't get the pot pushed back in all the way. So I cleaned up the mess and went out the door without any coffee. When I came back in at 6:20 I made a fresh pot and now I have a smile on my face - happy things. :)

One more happy thing. One of my other sisters, Amanda's twin - Angela, got engaged to Bob this week! We're so excited for her! I'm corny and love saying, Bob's your uncle. Anyway, Yea Ange!!!

Fall Handprint Trees

It's FALL!!!  We're just a little bit excited.  Sooooo, we decided to do a fall project for our bulletin board (that I haven't changed since the beginning of July! So now that it's the middle of September...sigh).  Tempera paint was on sale at Hobby Lobby.  It was meant to be.  Admittedly, paint stresses me out a little.  We took all the precautions but, never fail, a handprint usually ends up somewhere that it shouldn't.  Today, however, was a success!

Apron clad children (one mad because I made her stand still - how dare I!).

Painting the hand and arm brown.  Hudson said, "I can't believe you're actually doing this to me!" Neither can I, son.  Neither can I.

Finger painting the falling leaves.

 The finished product!  So individually unique.

This is me after cleaning up Adelle and the rest of the mess - happy we did a project and happy it's all over!  

In other news, school is going great.  We're doing Classical Conversations this year and we love it.  We're all learning a lot and enjoying getting to know other home-schooling families with the same goals and like-minded teaching style.

I'm still training every morning and a couple nights a week as well as teaching at the Y.  Never thought I would see my alarm consistently set to 4:30 AM!!! But it is and I'm enjoying it ... and drinking lots of coffee.

The boys just started playing soccer at the Y and they are in their element.  Alayna would love to be in ballet but we'll probably wait until she's 4.  I think Adelle would probably love to be rock climbing.  That child's favorite spot is in the middle of my kitchen table.  I think this precious toddler has cured me of baby fever - I have my hands full!  And I love it :)