Random thoughts Tuesday

I had a great weekend.  I hope all my favorite peeps had a great day on Sunday either celebrating being a mom or celebrating with their mom.  Ours was a great day: church, Sunday School (I walked to "Bucks" for coffee), home for quick bite to eat before heading over to our new community garden plot to work on getting the garden in, swim lessons (kids), pizza at Paglia's, tried getting cupcakes at Molly's but they were all sold out, so went to a frozen yogurt place where they were having a mother's day special- mom's eat free :).  What a nice day.

 

 

Today it was HOT out running and I continually am amazed how humbling running can be.  I ran after work today and it was HOT- did I say that yet.  My husband loves running in the heat, me not so much.  It took all my energy and two Nathan bottles (7 oz each) full of water to get me through the 4+ mile run.  I've not been following the AMR 1/2 "own it" plan since doing the 1/2 marathon two weeks ago.  My body just hasn't let me.  My left hami is continuing to say "ouch" but nothing major- so I have made adjustments and keep on keeping on. 


My youngest has had a blast doing dance.  I love it, because it is all about the kids, dancing and they have a live pianist who plays the music, so it reminds me of old school dance.   These were taken at my youngest dance class.  Yep- she loves that velour like unitard.  I really dislike it, but of course that is the one she wants to wear every Saturday to dance.  I'll remind her about that in about 10 years when she is accusing me of dressing her like that. 

 

 

Lastly, my son has had a great time this year in 2nd grade.  His teacher has really set the bar for teachers to come.  He has done all kinds of cool things this year and learned a whole lot more than I ever did in second grade.  However, one of my favorite things has been the recent science lesson on butterflies.  Each student received his own caterpillar to care of and then this caterpillar became a "painted lady" butterfly.  After several weeks of living at school "Iggy" the butterfly came home.  We have care for it for almost 5 days and today being a warm, sunny day my son stated that he wanted to let "Iggy" go.  It was beautiful.  So amazing what kids and adults can learn and be a part of. 

 

 

Well that is about as random as they get.  Hope everyone had a great Tuesday.  Good night. 

April Running

Well it was a busy April and the weather kept me thinking it was actually March.

I ended up with 87 miles. I did not meet my goal of running the AMR 1/2 marathon "own it" plan to a T because "coach" (aka hubby) pretty much told me I was CRAZY to run a 13 miler last weekend before my 1/2 this weekend. I also only ran 3 days this week instead of the 4 because of the 1/2 today. It was a good call on my "coach's" part.

I may never be ultra fast, but running without major injury is likely due to my not pushing the envelope. So this week I won't be following the "plan" to a T so I can have good recovery.

However, I will be adding in some weights to my routine. I feel like everywhere I turn I'm hearing about the importance of weight training/strength training for runners. Back in high-school I use to love weights- bench press, tri workout (aka dips). However, see a pattern - I've always loved arms but not as much of the lower half of me. So I'm on the hunt for a great 20-30 min strength training WO for female runners. Shout out if you have a good one.

Lastly, above pic is from today's Ronald McDonald House 1/2. I ran hard- I thought I was going to break 2 hrs, but alas the hills probably got me- actually I love running hills- one place I pass people, but after the hill I seem to always fall back so need to work on running through them. Official time 2:03:21. Congrats to all the runners who ran the race. Super fun to do a 1/2 in home town. No 3-4 hour car ride home following race, rest of day to laze around= priceless.
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April Reads

It was a nice month of reading.  I read a variety of books. 

The chapter book I read with the kids this month was "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  They both really enjoyed it and I enjoyed the peaceful, pleasant, non-violence wording that was heard when I read.   The book didn't "latch onto my heart" like it did when I was young, but I am older now so I think just being pleasantly happy with reading it a second time to my kids and them liking it was just as good.

Book club book: "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn.  Strange, Strange, Strange.  I didn't know anything about this book and I really didn't want to read the cover, because I wanted to be surprised.  Well- I was.  It was a interesting story, but I'm not sure I'll be reading any of her other work, because per two other highly credible "Bookies" (one read her first two, the other had to stop midway through one) they reported her earlier works were even darker.  Again, always amazed with people's ability to come up with story lines like these.

"The Silver Linings Playbook" by Matthew Quick was another surprise story read for me.  I had seen all the fun previous on the TV with the great song by the Lumineers playing in the background, but the story caught me off guard.  I just didn't know what it was about and so the previews for the movie had lead me to believe a different story line.  Anyways, it was good and I enjoyed it, but again I want to ask Matthew Quick does he personally know or has he personally gone through mental health issues, because I felt like he wrote about the mental health perspective of daily living pretty realistically.  However, unlike "Gone Girl" I will likely read another of his books again.  I will definitely be going to "Red Box" sometime soon to rent the movie. 

"Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith" by Anne Lamott was picked because I just so enjoyed that first book I read by her "Traveling Mercies...".  This one was just as good and had some great lines/quotes, but this month I took off from writing words from books down and just read for the sheer joy of reading.  Pick it up- it has some great views on religion in "real life" terms. 

Lastly, I read  "A Trick of Light" by Louise Penny.  This is the 7th in the Armande Gamache mysteries and I enjoyed it.  I always enjoy her Armande Gamache mysteries when they take place in this quaint town called "Three Pines".  It was totally enjoyable and she writes a non-gory mystery well. 

So off to another month- started the 8th in the Armande Gamache series, reading "The Doll People" to the kids which is great! and  my book club book is "A Fierce Radiance" by Lauren Belfer.  Can't wait to find out what else I read this month. 

Not that anyone has to respond, but do you have a favorite adult book? kid book?  Always, interested in what others find "the best".  Happy Reading!