Bad News Good News

Bad News

The Pelicans have lost 26-0 to the 14th Century Lawyers, or whatever they are called.
We'll get em next year!

Good News

We DID make it to the Belmont Abbey Fun Run. I did jog the whole mile- actually at a faster pace I think than I usually run!
A gaggle of college guys took off ahead of the rest of us and after them was a young mother pushing her baby in what looked like a Bugaboo running stroller. She was first and I was second after those college "dudes". I asked her later how old she was and all, and she was only 26 and had been training for a marathon with her husband before getting pregnant. (She could have run the 5k with that stroller, easy.) My daughter Sophia was behind me, and bringing up the far rear was my husband with a baby on his back, pushing the stroller with the twins in it at an airborne shuffle.

We had fun and we want to go back next year and do the 5k! I hope we can take a whole crowd from our homeschool run walk club. It was a fun event. They had face painting and games for kids, and doughnuts, fruit and water after the run. They gave the kids who ran in the fun run teddy bears until they ran out, and we now have three of those. This year the fun run part was free but the 5k was about $30. After the run they had a soccer game. The Abbey is lovely at this time of year, too. It was a beautiful, relatively cool but not cold morning. Perfect!

(That is me with the shirt I bought as a reward!)

I am going to now go get in the bathtub with these bath salts that I bought yesterday at Earthfare for the occasion. The name is kind of scandalous, but they smell really good!

a journey of a thousand miles...

I have been up since 3 am. I should have prayed the rosary instead of wandering the internet reading the news and secretly wondering if I am going to make it to the Belmont Abbey fun run this morning.

It is only a mile for Pete's sake, but I am petrified. It's a walk run, for crying out loud. I can walk, I think my whole family will walk, except me. In fact, after breaking my ankle on a hike in New Hampshire a couple of years ago and having to be hauled down a mountain by a bunch of amazing volunteers, and doped up on serious amounts of morphine with a surgery to follow I am very lucky to be able to walk at all. Let alone jog. My problem is that I think I should be at least 20 lbs lighter and able to do the 5k, and I am at least another year away from that possibility. That depresses me and makes me anxious. You will note that I am not talking about something meaningful here- this is about a hobby. I am stressed out about how I can't get it together for a little showtime with a hobby, at which I am a perpetual beginner.

Maybe I think if I had this one thing 'right', the rest of the important stuff would line up. It is made more difficult for me when both my sisters are training for the actual 5k and can run it, while I am limping along at the not quite 2k level. I am trying to catch up with them- they have both had happenin' hair for thirty plus years, good figures for at least ten, clear skin, and baccalaureate educations. One has two under grad degrees and the other has a master's degree. They are both tall, thin, popular and funny. (I think I was adopted.)

Before I got pregnant with Fiona, I bought myself a ring with an inscription on it:
"the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step..."
I feel like I have been taking the same one step for so many years and like I 'm in a low rent version of Ground Hog Day.

So what to do now?

Get that coffee brewing and go find those workout clothes, and charge the battery on the camera because here we go again!

Saw this over at Gae's place...

and you know I had to try it!
( Tangle is so right!)

Your fairy is called Tangle Rainbowwitch

She is a fortune bringer.

She lives at the bottom of tangled gardens and in hedgerows.

She is only seen in the enchanted moment between sleep and waking.

She wears tangled dresses of multicoloured petals. She has multicoloured wings like a butterfly.

Get your free fairy name here!

About the blowing of my own horn...

I wrote this as a response to some of the comments folks left about the last post and I think its important for everyone to see!

Anyone who knows me knows I have a much longer laundry list of why none of those good things matter in light of the negative I am guilty of or associated with, and that is something I have to learn to actively combat- more than anything because the black hole of negativity is more of a vacuum of convoluted pride and self-centeredness than being straight up clear about the good.
I know that everyone who reads this blog has immeasurably and uniquely beautiful aspects of their lives and character that are a gift to all of humanity. We are the glory of one another- so I can blow my own horn and feel a little better about myself for awhile when on paper it looks kind of impressive- but the real delight is in seeing that same giftedness and blessing in everyone around me as well!

My EBENEZER... (or blowing my own horn...)

1. I graduated in top five in my high school class.
2. I received an appointment to West Point, an appointment to the Coast Guard Academy, a four year Air Force ROTC scholarship for astronautical engineering and a four year Army ROTC scholarship.
3. I chose West Point, but when I gave my life to Christ, I gave up my scholarship to marry my husband, because I believed that I should be a wife first and foremost.
4. I have lived in 8 states and on both coasts.
5. I have travelled to: Germany, England Ireland, France, Luxemburg, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and Saudi Arabia with children.
6. I have lived in Germany and Switzerland in addition to the US.
7. I have had babies in the US, Germany and Switzerland.
8. I have home schooled all of my children at various points in their education and four are currently independent adults:
One attended Catholic college on scholarship and graduated at the top of her class. She is now working for a Catholic publishing company.
One is a brother in a religious order pursuing the priesthood where he is also a seminary professor (at age 21).
One is attending another Catholic college as a sophomore on scholarship, currently near the top of his class.
One is in a year of preparatory school before attending West Point, class of 2014, (hopefully to graduate exactly thirty years after his father).
9. I have been married to the same man for 25 years.
10. I have had 13 healthy babies, all normal deliveries, and I nursed all of them through the first year.
11. My husband left a successful Army career and we sold all of our household goods (twice!) to follow Christ into seminary and then into ministry.
12. We left seminary, and all of our friends, family traditions, and job security to become Catholic.
13. I have been asked to speak on courage for Pure Fashion programs twice.
14. I am currently paid to write for an online blog for moms for the local newspaper.
15. I have a spectrum of knowledge and experience in nursing babies, whole foods nutrition for families, and the benefits of herbs for health.
16. I walked the Avon three-day sixty mile walk for breast cancer in 2002, while I was pregnant.
17. I have taught Faith Formation for two years.
18. I am a good cook and I have good taste in home decor.
19. I can change a flat tire alone if I have to.
20. I persevere even when I would prefer to quit, in most things essential.

( Why the heck can't I get my house clean?)

Ok, well, that was harder than I thought it would be. You know the whole time I was thinking about all the "...yeah, but..." parts of each of those things. Sometimes our accomplishments should stand alone, like the stones of a memorial by which we testify to the good God has accomplished through us.

Today it is ok to go over in your mind the many wonderful things you have accomplished because of Christ in your life! Go ahead and record or link them here as comments- as many as you want- if you are short on time then give us your top three, five, or ten!

(We used to say at the Academy-"... pop it up, big bites, good boodle, white trou!" when someone was entitled to bask in the glory of their success. Maybe I will explain all of that later with photographic evidence that I really was a West Point cadet, even if only for two years and three summers. Hard to imagine, I know...)