Me and My Boys: October 2013

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Half Marathon No. 6

This is my second time to run this particular race. I decided last minute to run it--6 weeks before the race--because I knew signing up for this would force me to be at the halfway point for a full marathon which a close friend convinced me to run with her. All the races I run are pretty flat, but this course is very hilly. I don't have hills around me to train on so both times I have gone into this race hoping for the best. 2 years ago when I ran it, I averaged 8:45 miles. This time I finished in 1:53:11 averaging 8:39 miles. Last time, I don't remember the hills bothering me too much except for one near the very end that was so steep and lengthy that I walked the last 1/3 of it. This time I was so annoyed with each and every hill...I like my flat ground! I started counting the hills, but after I ran up hill #5, it got too depressing. The course is a double loop of 6.55 miles so I knew that each hill I counted was really double. To sum it up, I didn't enjoy the run and won't be doing this one again! I was hoping to average 8:30 miles which I felt like I could have done except for all the hills.

At the start of the race. I'm waving to my family near the back of the picture.

The first of many, many hills. This one and another one near the end were the most brutal.

The boys cheering me on. It was 56 degrees during the run with a breeze which was a little chilly for the boys, but it felt good running!

Halfway point. I'm always SO grateful to see my family on the sidelines. I was not enjoying the run and seeing them put a smile on my face. Note to self: should have stuck with my original plan to wear a short-sleeve shirt. I appreciated the long sleeves prior to the race and maybe for the first 4 miles.

Fastest mile: mile 2 at 7:55. Slowest mile: mile 11 at 8:58 (second time up one of the brutal hills).
I was very grateful that I didn't have to stop during this race at all to use the bathroom which is a very unfortunate issue I have as a runner.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Soccer Season

We signed Caleb up for soccer this fall. His team name is Black Sharks. (When they were voting on a team name, Caleb suggested the name Black Widows. I like that so much better and think it fits their uniform perfectly!) They've played two games this season and are undefeated so far. Caleb has scored two goals both games.

Out on the field

Taking his turn as the goalie (all the kids hate this job)

All of his team members

Zoo Boo

Caleb had a half day of school on Friday, so we met Matt downtown at the zoo. The last couple weekends of October, the zoo does a Zoo Boo where the kids can walk around to several stations to trick-or-treat, play carnival games, or decorate a pumpkin.

Bryson and Daddy

Carter wore a firefighter costume and Caleb wore his Nate the Great attire since he wore it for school that day anyway.

Bryson's first carousel ride

Bryson really enjoyed crawling through this fish tunnel.

Character Parade

Caleb's elementary school had a Storybook Character Parade where all the kids chose a character from a book to dress up as, then paraded around the parking lot for parents. Caleb is Nate the Great; he's holding a magnifying glass as well as his Nate the Great book.

First Haircut

Bryson had his first hair cut about a week ago. His hair was getting pretty shaggy, and I don't have any sentiments about postponing that first hair cut to keep the "baby hair" as long as possible like some other mothers do. I think it's fun when my babies start looking like little boys.

And guess what Bryson learned how to do today? Climb down the stairs feet first. He did all the stairs today. Still not interested in walking yet...

Sunday, October 6, 2013

11 Months

In the last month, Bryson learned to crawl up the stairs. We're working on learning to slide down the stairs on his tummy.

I've cut out the mid-day nursing so now he's down to nursing when he wakes up and at night near the time he goes to bed. I'm already getting sad about quitting nursing; I love this time with my baby.

Bryson learned to flush the toilet a week ago. We have to keep all the toilet lids down because he loves to play in the toilet water.

He loves to "play" the piano.

He loves it when we brush his teeth.

He's still completely a Mama's boy. Sometimes we'll play games as a family where we put Bryson on one side of the room and the rest of us will sit on the other side of the room. Then we'll see whom he crawls towards. 95% of the time it's me.

Both my other boys started walking at 10 1/2 months. Bryson's content to get around by crawling still.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Reflections

As 12 months of Happiness Projects have come to a close, I can reflect back and see that I've made some "subtle but significant changes"in my life this last year. (Those that are LDS might recognize this as a quote from Elder Bednar's talk from Saturday morning General Conference.) It really is remarkable to set small goals to focus on throughout the year and then to look back and see how those small goals have led to something much bigger.

The goal that was the most important for me to change: making a conscientious effort not to yell at my kids--at all. Prior to that goal, I'd noticed that I was increasingly frustrated with their messes, their whining, their fighting and more and more often I was responding with losing my temper. I needed this goal to take a step back. To laugh more. And most especially to love more.

The goals that I loved the most: Without question my two favorite goals were the goals where I practiced the piano for an hour each day and when I read The Book of Mormon in a month. With the first goal, it reconfirmed to me just how passionate I am about music. I am ever grateful to a mother who pushed me to practice and develop this talent.

As I am now a couple months out from the goal of reading The Book of Mormon in 31 days, I can see now just how powerful and impactful this book is on my life and how there was an increase of the Holy Ghost that month as I devoted my extra time to reading in this book. It really was a different experience reading The Book of Mormon more quickly than I ever have before. It flowed differently rather than being a little disjointed with only doing a couple chapters per day. It gave me a different perspective and helped me link all the people and places together better. I'm excited to do this goal at least once per year.

The goal that provided the most peace: focusing on our food storage

The hardest goal: Sadly, not nagging my husband or saying anything negative for a whole month. I realized my positive to negative ratio was off and that I needed to put more effort into doing more of the little things--leaving notes in his car, sending him a random email mid-day to say "I love you," etc.

I made great strides and improvements throughout the year, but unfortunately old habits die hard. My goals of being more charitable, not judging, and being friendlier are probably areas I'll always have to work on improving.

Each month I also had the on-going goals to index 200 names, read a church book every other month, exercise regularly, and work on turning my blog into books by year.

-I am proud to say that I have now indexed over 2200 names since I started my Happiness Project!! (I missed a month of indexing when we moved. Too busy.)

-I ended up averaging reading a church book every 3 months...could have done better.

-I faithfully exercised most every day. I ran a half marathon 4 months out from having a baby, and I'm running another half marathon in a few weeks. This is a whole other blog post, but I've signed up for another marathon! After running the first one, I swore I'd never do that to myself again. Long story short: peer pressure from a friend. I'm just hoping to figure out some of the aches and pains that have been creeping up during and after my runs.

-Over the last year, I finished 3 blog books and am halfway through the 4th book. It's so fun to have a hard copy of "my journal" with lots of photos included!

Overall, my Happiness Project was a success. As the saying goes, "when Mom is happy, everyone is happy." While I worked on areas that I didn't like about myself or that I knew needed a little attention, I was able to more completely love me and feel happier. Most importantly, it was worthwhile to strive to reach the potential that my Father in Heaven sees in me. There's still lots to do in the refining process, but it was a neat experience to track some goals and, at the end of a year, look back and see the improvements.