Doing the Next Thing

Wisdom gleaned from Father Tim this morning. "Life" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in, A minute to smile and an hour to weep in, A pint of joy to a peck of trouble, And never a laugh but the moans come double. And that is life. A crust and a corner that love makes precious, With a smile to warm and tears to refresh us, And joy seems sweeter when cares come after, And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter. And that is life. Wisely paired (by Father Tim) with this quote from Samuel Rutherford : "Whenever I find myself in the cellar of affliction, I always look about for the wine."

A few weeks ago, I posed the question, "Am I a warrior? " I forgot to mention that yes, yes I am a Warrior! Back in May, my brother and I completed the Warrior Dash together. It was fun. It was hard. It challenged me in ways I didn't expect (like when I almost chickened out of going over the extremely vertical, quite daunting, 12-foot 'Warrior Wall' with nothing but a knotted rope to help me. I didn't let that wall win, though - on 'take two' I was up and over.) My bro and I had a great, sweaty, muddy day in the North Georgia Mountains. Here's the run down for this week. :) Monday : 1.5 miles w/ S (16). Like Kate , we keep going out too close to noon. It was hot and we struggled to catch our breath. Tuesday-Friday : life. Someone once said the hardest part of running is getting out the door. Definitely true this week. Focusing more on being a home-keeper than a runner. Saturday : 3.5 miles alone at the park. Did two miles on the hi...

So far summer break has been surprisingly busy. There seems to be no end to the duties required to wrap up the school year we just finished, as well as prepare for the one ahead. Yesterday was no exception - I put a lot of miles on the car, juggled many things, and fell in the bed exhausted. Definitely "must be Thursday." The turn-around time between things like VBS, summer trips, and summer visitors seems to be short - and makes me fiercely protect the quiet family times we have in the middle. By God's grace, this week we've found time to enjoy the pleasure of each other's company and even slow down a little bit. A (6) has become quite the reader, and I've had fun sitting down with him each afternoon with a pile of library books. We both were fascinated by Roly-Poly Pillbugs and had to go on a hunt around our woods to find some. The girls and I finally planted the impatiens that have been sitting on the deck since I bought them in May (and miraculousl...

Well, I recently said that I would like to build up my weekly mileage base and work on increasing my speed. But in the weeks since school let out, I've noticed that some of my kiddo's emotional tanks are running a wee bit low. So for now, I'm putting aside building mileage and instead I'm building relationships. I've been taking one child with me on my weekday runs, and have enjoyed the rare one-on-one time. This week is VBS week at our church, and my exercise routine is limited to marching like penguins with 4-year-olds while reciting memory verses. But here is how the new plan went last week: Monday - said 'Godspeed' to my sister and her family after a great weekend visit. Started reading Heidi with 12yo M. My heart has been burdened to find a way to build her up and enjoy her company. She looks up to me so much - even has her own matching pair of Nike Tempos . She was the inspiration for the new Mom Time Running Plan. Tuesday - 1.5 HOT miles ...

We had to say good-bye to a friend this week. We adopted Odysseus 3 1/2 years ago and he's been a good kitty. We all miss him very much.