7 Quick Takes Sunday

I'm loving these quick takes lately.  Perfect opportunity for a busy Mama to (quickly) sum up a busy week.  That's my style of blogging these days, I guess!

(Sooo many posts in my drafts right now on various things... checkups, future plans, recipes, school, reflections on life, etc.  You will get to read my ramblings when I finish those drafts at some point... perhaps when I'm more into the groove of online teaching and I've figured out a way for it to take less time.  Wishful thinking?)

--- 1 ---

M has been nursing a foot injury back to health and is taking a bit of a breather from running.  He has graciously given me the "morning shift" of running for the time being (he's usually a run-before-work kind of guy and I squeeze my runs in either on the treadmill during baby naps or outside after he gets home from work.)  I've sooooo enjoyed my peaceful morning runs past the farm up to the mountain vista.  It makes me really thankful that we live in this beautiful place.

Yes, it's pretty hard getting myself out of bed at 5 AM... but SO worth it.

--- 2 ---

The downside to running at 5:15 AM?  Sometimes, you're a bit sleepy and klutzy.  And sometimes, you trip and fall into a roadside patch of poison ivy.

That teensy tiny red spot that you can juuuust baaaarely see in this pic just below my knee?  Only the beginning.  It spread down most of my left calf and across both knees, up and down my left hand and arm, and I'm still finding little spots in weird places.  I've tried every single remedy and nothing seems to completely take away that undercurrent of annoying itch that will make a person extremely irritable.

Anyway, I apologize to any of you who have come into contact with this demon in our yard.  Ironically, this wasn't where I picked it up.  But nevertheless, M and I are now seriously considering hiring some goats to come and decimate this infestation in our yard.  Seriously.  No foolin'.  Our one attempt at spraying chemicals did nothing.

I sent the pic of my leg above to M at work when it first became apparent that I had fallen into a poison ivy patch, just to whine and complain a little, ya know?  When L saw me doing it she insisted on taking a picture of her foot to send to Daddy:

And N too:

Their feet are way cuter than mine, no?  Thankfully, none of my babies have gotten any poison ivy rash.  But I'm just waiting for the day.

--- 3 ---

L's new favorite activity:

Barbie baths in the sink.  Hours of entertainment.  HOURS.

--- 4 ---

Ice cream social at the end of VBS last week.  N performed her Bible songs with all of her new friends and it. was. adorable.  I was smiling from ear to ear, and of course completely forgot the video camera.  Epic Mommy Fail.

--- 5 ---

Our local playground is SO awesome.  Mamas, have you ever wondered at what genius decided to build super tall playground structures 15 feet off the ground, and include huge gaps in the railings between which kids could easily throw themselves to their deaths?  I know, I know, these are the playgrounds that are recommended for "5 and up" but I'm even nervous for my five-year-old on things like that.  Anyway, no such thing on our little playground here... obviously designed more for the 1-5 year age bracket, which means it's perfect for us.  Nothing is more than five feet off the ground, and any opening that's not a slide is very securely railing-ed.

Here's C's routine at the park:  She climbs up those stairs slowly, holding the railing, and counts the steps, "One, teooo, five, second".  She reaches the top, plops down, and slides down the slide, saying "Weeeeeeeee" and "diddit" when she reaches the bottom.  Rinse. Repeat.

(Maybe a brief swing break every five or six times down the slide.  But mostly it's slide.)

--- 6 ---

Since I'm training (in the most loose sense of the word) for my 10 K coming up in October, I've been searching for 10 K routes around here.  Just the other day it dawned on me that the trail near our house is 3-ish miles, so if I run it twice that's roughly 10 K.

And then I had the bright idea to run it on a Saturday morning, and I figured the fam could come along to be my cheerleading squad as they biked and strolled the trail themselves.  So yesterday, "WE DIDDIT"!

It was a great way for the whole family to get some exercise all at once.  We had a great time.

(By the way, I have an unspoken time goal for this race, but I'm not even going to publish it here because I think it's highly unlikely I'll achieve it, given the time constraints on my training schedule.  If I do achieve it, I'll let you know what it was after the race!  How's that? :)

--- 7 ---

We had such a great time on our family run that we repeated the process this morning when M decided to do the 10 K (we had the week off from church).  I walked with C in the stroller.  The two bigger girls were inspired to run themselves, especially after N opened her birthday present from Grandma yesterday (a "running outfit" as she called it):

I was SO impressed by the amount of running N and L actually did.  They kept up with Daddy for about 1/4 mile!  And he's pretty fast!  C walked (and ran) a good portion of the trail too.  She would periodically stop and count herself off: "one, teeooo, five, second... RUN!" and then take off full tilt.  C also greeted all the other runners, walkers, and bikers we met on the trail with a cheerful, "Morning!!"

When the girls got tired, we just took breaks on the trail

and/or they piled on top of each other in the stroller and I pushed/carried them.

The weather has been amazing these past two weeks, and I'm so glad we enjoyed some outside time this weekend amidst all the busy schedules.

Happy week, everybody!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!