Running

I've been running for the first time in my life.  As in for fun, not a forced thing to do before a sports practice.  It was a bit slow at first since I had really crappy shoes and I was pushing myself too hard.  My body protested, I shaped up, and we are on much better terms with each other.

I still can't get over the fact that I'm running.  I've always hated to run.  Something about this time is different.  Maybe it is that I'm running where there is no traffic and beautiful scenery.  I'm also really sick of being out of shape.  I don't have a job to whip me into shape now so I have to do it myself.  Plus, running is cheap.  I don't have to pay someone for facilities, I don't have to buy gas to drive to those facilities, and I don't need a bunch of gear.  I put on my shoes and I walk out the door and take off running.

I'm finding a couple of things. I'm noting this stuff more for myself than anyone else, just so you know.  The first half of my runs suck.  I don't care what the weather is or what the terrain is.  The first half just sucks.  Then all of a sudden I seem to hit my stride and the last half is nice.  I don't huff and puff as badly, my legs don't hurt, and I feel like I could just go.  I wonder if I start too fast...

I am going to have to get some running clothes.  I find I am out of clothes to run in before I catch up on the laundry.  Pants, shirt, socks, and a new set of running shoes.  Yep, that will be more expensive than free. :)  Oh well.  New shoes are coming up soon.  They are my present for running 6 weeks now and when I get them it will be more like 8 weeks straight.  Socks will probably come about the same time.  I'm thinking pants and shirt for my first race.  Okay, maybe not the first since I'm probably going to do a color run for my first race.  Which reminds me, I need to register for that.

I plan on doing 2 races this year.  One in August and one in October.  I'm pretty excited.  I've never been one for running so this is a new experience for me. 

I can see where a couple of things would be handy to have for running.  A phone holder so I can quit trying to tuck it places while I run since I use it for my timer/pacer.  A water bottle that is easier to hold or one of the hydration pack things would be nice.  I would love to get where I can run further than I do now.  Right now I'm at about 2 miles with my warm-up.  Not bad for a very much beginner but I want to be comfortable doing 5K as a shorter run.  I would love to eventually make it to running a marathon.  I'll give it a bit more time to get into shape though.  And in all reality, to wrap my head around that kind of mileage.

Kid stuff

We got curious and measured the kids the other day.  Mia is 36 inches and Bear is 46 inches tall.  Pretty tall kids.  I swear Bear will be taller than me by about the time he's 8.  That is only 3 years away.  Yikes!  Mia I can see being a little slower to catch me but we'll see.  They haven't increased weight much.  Bear is right around 48 pounds and Mia is right around 30 pounds.  Bear is so skinny that the other day he was wearing some of his 3T shorts.  Good thing they were shorts because if they would have been pants you could consider them shorts on him.  I think for length we are fully into a boys 7 pants.  They are a little big around but the skinny jeans are a blessing for Bear.

Mia on the other hand is not a petite girl.  She is in mostly 3T bottoms and 4T tops.  And she must be sweet.  Something keeps munching on the poor girl.  It wouldn't be so bad if I could find what it is but I haven't been able to.  Whatever it is gets her whether she is on her bed, on her floor, wearing jammies, or not.  Poor kid is so itchy.

Bear is trying to get a cold too.  Now that it is summer vacation he gets sick?  Why?  Oh well.  Colds never know what time of year it is.  At least he isn't getting munched as well.

I'd better go see what I can do about Miss Mia's bed and floor and see if I can track down whatever it is.  It may be mosquitoes too. 

Goings on

It is one of those days.  Things usually are pretty mellow around here but today well, rather the quiet time struggle has been more of a struggle than normal.  Bear has gotten used to not having naps despite needing them and Mia would love to give up on naps entirely despite also needing them.  When they both get that tired it hits the fan.  Whew.

And boy does Mia have a temper.  She sure can yell.  She doesn't seem to have the endurance Bear did though.  Thank goodness since she is louder.

We've had a bit of other craziness.  A window broke out of our Subaru the other day while Tom and Bear were in town so the glass guy was here this morning.  After two windshields, a windshield repair, and now this back window replacement I'm getting to know Steve rather well. :)  Thank goodness for good car insurance.

I keep trying to get some things done in the garden.  It  hasn't seemed to work this last week.  At least today we have some nice weather so I should manage to get a couple of things done out there.  The grass is finally getting long enough I should probably mow it.  Most of it has gone to seed which is good.  Hopefully that means we'll have a good grass crop next year.

Tomorrow I get to go pick up greens from a friend that is travelling.  Wonderful!  I'd be more than happy to use up some greens for her.  Soon we'll be getting our own greens both from our garden and from our CSA.  I'm excited.

I hope the garden doesn't cook while we are away this summer.  Oh well if it does I guess.  Not much I'll be able to do about it.  And speaking of our travel... I still haven't figured out my packing dilemmas.  I'm close but not quite there.  Soon.  I think I'm going to try to build myself a kitchen box/chuck box for all of our kitchen stuff.  It is a camp kitchen that is self-contained.  I remember we had one growing up.  They are quite handy to have since everything is in one place.

The thing that is giving me the most fits is the bedding.  Unfortunately bedding is bulky no matter how you pack it.

Okay enough of that. 

Bear graduated preschool yesterday.  Kind of a silly thing but it turned out to be more of an end of the year program than anything.  He is pretty sad today though because school is done for the summer.  Poor kid.  He has had a great class.  All the kids were so nice and the teachers were great.  I was very proud of Bear.  He has progressed through all the little progress reports with very high numbers and constant improvement.  Here he is with his serious face on:

Let's hope he continues to love school the way he does now.  He is excited to be going to Kindergarten in the Fall.  I swear I just brought him home from the hospital.

Packing frustrations

Argh!  My plans are not going as well as I had hoped.  It doesn't help that Tom and I don't own sleeping bags anymore and there are now four of us, five with the dog.  Okay, so the sleeping bag statement isn't quite true.  I still have my mummy bag I got from my parents one Christmas as a kid.  Great bag but my kids are going to use it for extra warmth.  It is down and I won't freak out about them being cold if they use that over the top of their little kid sleeping bags.  So, Tom and I are getting creative about bedding.  This is fine but it sure does take up space. 

The way I have things now sure takes up a lot of room.  And I don't even have clothing, the kitchen, the tent, the dog stuff, or the cooler.  Hmmmm...  It is a good thing our trip is a couple of weeks out yet so I can work on details and get us down to a more reasonable amount of stuff.  We would have a lot more space if we were going to stay in hotels but that costs money that we don't have.  I think the kids will have more fun camping too.  We can more or less camp for free.

I think we'll actually have room for everything even as it is right now but it is coming home I'm not sure about.  We always seem to collect stuff on trips.  I don't foresee this one being any different.

Camping!!

We are going camping this summer!  It will be car/tent camping along our route to go see family but it will be camping none-the-less.  I'm excited about it.  I love camping.  It was always something we did with my dad.  I love that I can pass that on to my kids. 

Now that I'm older and working off of a restricted budget I'm realizing a lot of the things my dad did wasn't because he didn't want to use something but that he probably couldn't afford it.  Thus, he made it into more of a comment on how one didn't know how to camp correctly if you needed all that stuff.  Which I'm sure some of it was that too but I can imagine he would have liked to have used a sleeping pad, but there were a couple of things holding him back.  They were too expensive for their budget and they were too bulky to carry on your back easily into the mountains.  He didn't like to camp close to people.  He was more of a backpacker and a little on the anti-social side.

At any rate, I'm finding myself drawing on those experiences.  I'm not too worried about bedding.  I know how to make a bow bed or straw/hay bed.  Packing our own food isn't a big deal.  Just takes lots of planning.  I'm remembering too that I enjoy camp cooking.  I don't like cooking at the house but give me a wood fire and very limited utensils and I have no problem.  Especially if you have a lot of people that need to eat. 

So far I'm planning on baking bread and making the stuffed buns.  I call them Bear Buns because the first time my mom did this we had bear meat to put in them.  The name stuck even though you can put whatever kind of meat you like into them.  I'll probably do a mix of cheese and broccoli, bbq burger, bbq or creamy chicken in them.  Breakfast will be mostly instant oatmeal.  It packs easily, is easy to prepare, and I have it in the pantry.  We'll take instant *gasp* coffee.  I've never done this before but there are a couple of companies doing some pretty good coffee that happens to be instant.  Again, easy to pack and prepare.  This way too the kids don't have to have water heated separately from the coffee for hot chocolate.

I'm still working out dinners.  I figure a mix of canned chili, hot dogs, and the Bear Buns along with some potatoes and onions and we'll be good.  We are still a month away so I'm not too worried about what to do for that yet.  I'll just keep an eye out for good sales and work our menu from there.  Of course at least one night we'll need s'mores so I'll make some graham crackers and maybe even the marshmallows just before we leave.  We'll see how ambitious I get.

My camp kitchen is pretty well set up.  I don't need much.  A spoon/spatula, a good knife, a couple of pots, a frying pan, a cutting board, a dish towel, a dish rag, a pan for doing dishes, some sort of mixing bowl, and some plates and silverware.  I think for camp just the tent, sleeping arrangements, and some coloring books and crayons for the kids.  Oh, we'll bring the dog bed and his goodies too.  I might make our camp a little nicer too if I can either get my rag run finished (Ha!) or find and inexpensive rug someplace.  I find myself wanting a few niceties as I get older. 

Of course I'll have some standard camp supplies with me in addition to the above stuff.  When camping I always have some extra rope, waterproof matches, a large knife that goes on my belt, my multi-tool, some candles, sunscreen, and bug spray.  I usually make sure I have some sort of sewing kit too.  This works for tent repair, clothing repair, or stuffed toy repair which is what I find myself using my sewing stuff for more and more these days.

Interesting Reading

I read this article this morning: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/10/opinion/goldblum-diapers/?iref=obinsite

Probably the most interesting to me are the comments.  They usually are the most interesting of any article.  It is obvious to me that a lot of people feel rather strongly and hop onto the soap box quickly. I see it as getting there without necessarily doing their research.  Some do but they seem to be few and far between.

It is too bad our country can't figure out a method that works across the board for issues such as this.  Kids suffer because of the adults' political/religious/un-education/over-education (you pick you can stick something else in here) beliefs.  I don't care if it is diapers, money, school, or food that we are talking about.  It is our children that suffer.

It is too bad some of these folks don't seem to realize it really can be one catastrophe that sends a person to the "poor house."  It might be job loss, it might be a car accident, it might be the car breaks down.  A lot of times it doesn't have to include kids.  It is just more devastating when it does include kids.

I unfortunately do not have a solution.  I've been on both sides of the fence.  I work (well did until recently) and pay taxes but I grew up in a situation that most people would consider poor.  Well below the poverty level at any rate.  We didn't take the assistance that we could have but we certainly didn't have the luxuries of life.  T.V.?  Nope. Shoot, we didn't even have the appliances that most people consider standard.  No microwave or dishwasher.  They were too expensive to purchase in the first place and they were too expensive to operate.  I don't think in the long run we suffered at all, but I can't imagine that my folks had it very easy trying to tell their kids why we couldn't have any number of things.

It was little things that I remember.  I could have new tennis shoes or boots.  Not both, and they were from the second hand store a lot of the time.  Now I tell my own kids similar things.  Could I work and we would be better off?  Yes.  But the cost of childcare is insane.  We've done that too.  There comes a time when it costs you more to work than it does to stay home.  We were pushing $1000/month in part-time childcare at one point.  There are places that are even higher than that.  A part-time or minimum wage job just doesn't pay for that and the rest of your bills.  And sometimes that's all you've got at the time.

That is a big part of why we moved.  I had full-time work but my husband did not and although he was well educated he couldn't find anything more than part-time or minimum wage.  The job market stunk.  And to think, I had a job with no college degree that paid better than most of the degree-required jobs in that area.

There are so many issues surrounding the above topics.  Welfare, minimum wage, SNAP programs, education system, and basic work ethic.  I can only talk about what I know.  I've known people who've used the assistance programs and I've used the assistance programs.  I've never personally known any that liked it or lived well on it.  And the red tape that you have to go through in order to obtain those few dollars of assistance almost make it not worth it.  But it when comes down to whether or not to put food in the fridge you usually choose to put food in there.

It would be nice if they were as cushy as the opponents make them out to be but I've never known that to be the case.  It is hard to know that though unless you've been there.  And the funny part about that is that most people who are in a position of needing the assistance are usually too busy working to make ends meet to worry about the politics behind it all.

So, like I say, an interesting read for the morning.  It apparently got some random thoughts flowing on my end as well.  I wish I had solutions.  It would be better than just spouting off but right now all I have is the spout.

Ramblings...

I'm way behind on everything.  Probably partially due to the fact that I'm now maintaining four different blogs on top of everything else.  What was I thinking?  Oh, I like to talk and I like to talk to more than just a four-year old and two-year old.  I love them but they aren't always up to discussing the craziness going on in the world.

This spring has been late in coming what with crazy spring snow storms so the garden is a bit behind.  Not to mention that I'm starting from scratch with this new place of ours.  I'm making good headway but I'm a terrible planner so things are a tad discombobulated out there.  It will take a few years to get it straightened out.  I have a huge to-do list for outside too.

Then there is the inside housework.  The stuff I really don't like doing.  Laundry, dishes, vacuuming, and that sort of thing.  The worst is when it is nice weather out and the house is a wreck.  Then I feel guilty either way.  Guilty if I'm outside and not cleaning the house and guilty if I'm inside cleaning and not enjoying the nice weather.  Dang!

Someday I'll get this figured out.  I'm better at it than I was 6 months ago.  Every little bit helps.  Slowly I'll get a routine worked out.  I spent so long in the outside work routine I had it takes awhile to break those habits. 

So now that I got totally sidetracked I can get back on track and update on what we have been up to.  The garden is finally mostly in.  I have a bit more to put in but I don't want to go too crazy.  We are going to buy a 1/2 share in one of our local CSA (community supported agriculture) farms.  With that and our garden we should be able to put up a good store of food for the winter months.  I'd love to be able to whack our grocery bill down.

Bear is almost done with school.  As is Tom.  Yippee!  Summer break.  Well, Tom is teaching summer school so he only gets a couple of weeks worth of summer break.  I'm looking forward to the summer with the kids playing in the garden.

I have decided I really don't like going to town.  I am so not a city person.  I know, we don't even live by a big city.  I still don't like dealing with the people even in a small town.  It isn't that I don't like people I just don't like the hustle and bustle.  I found a new grocery store though.  A little town near us has a great little grocery store that reminds me of our store in Montana.  I can't wait to do our shopping there.

I'd better get off my duff and get some things done around here.  It is supposed to be a beautiful day and I have a few more veggies to get in the garden.  And I need to figure out why our vacuum quit working the other day.  Brand new vacuum and it quit.  Grrrr!

Life

Life sure can get in the way of life.  Things get crazy while trying to do things with the two kids, two houses, two states, and everything else.  It would be a lot easier if I were a lot more on top of things.  Someday I'll become that super-mom or something.  If I could at least get a bit better about organizing things... 

Little by little I'm getting a system figured out.  Not that it would work for anyone else and Tom looks at my desk like it has the plague. :)  At least I know where things are.

This morning has been a catch up on bills and e-mails and blogs.  I need to plan out the week too but I'm not quite there.  One thing at a time.  I suppose I should figure out what we are taking for birthday treats to school on Friday.  Bear's birthday isn't until July but they are letting him bring treats so he can partake in that tradition as well.  I feel a little like I should provide something totally "crunchy" and healthy in keeping with the start we've gotten.  I guess I should give a little back ground.

The kids have been bringing in show-and-tell that goes with the letter of the week all year.  Little things like for "Y" Bear took yarn he had spun, and then for "Q" he took in breakfast quinoa.  No one knew what it was.  I think I may have officially turned into the crazy art lady that spins yarn and sends her kid to school in the homemade crocheted vest (yes he has done that) and sends funky food to school with him.  I'm okay with being that person and Bear seems to be okay with it too.  For now.  We'll see if it lasts.

I won't say I go too far with the organic, homemade, and all that but we certainly have a good dose of it.  I'd really like to do more but it can be a bit difficult around here and can get really expensive in a hurry.  But the whole point is that I feel like the treats should be something a little healthier but I kinda doubt they'll end up that way.  We'll see what is in the cupboard come Friday.  At least his school lets us do homemade so it can be done without buying something else.

I was reading through some older blog posts and saw one about the debates of breast feeding and cloth diapering.  I realized this was just before Mia was born.  It has been funny how different we've done things with the two kids.  Bear was a bit tougher I think just because we were brand new parents.  I had trouble breast feeding him since I just couldn't keep up with his appetite.  We used quite a bit of formula to supplement.  His sister was very different.  We couldn't use any formula with her.  She would spend the next 24 hours throwing up.  So not fun with a tiny baby.  So she was exclusively breast fed out of necessity.

I see debates on which is better, when to wean, when to add solid food, when to do everything it seems.  I suppose debate is a good thing when it all boils down.  It keeps societies looking for the best method possible.  It would be nice if the debates stayed debates and didn't turn into arguments where people get very judgemental. 

It is kinda funny how as a new parent all of the debates and advice seem like you should be reading all of it and trying to implement a bunch of it.  As you go along in parenthood you start to realize that everyone has their own way of doing things and you just need to find your own groove.  You really don't have to do what everyone else is doing.  And you realize that you will be judged by people and get random critical comments when you are out and about.  You learn to placate those folks with a smile, a nod, and to move on with your life.  Granted sometimes that is easier said than done but it does get a lot easier as you move out of that baby-daze of the first year.

That's something no one can really tell you about.  The baby-daze.  That half sleep almost zombie state we walk around in for the first year.  You think you are fine and you are functioning for the most part.  And then the kid hits about two and all of a sudden you realize you are a functioning part of society again.  You can actually remember what happened last week, you can find your keys, and you can sometimes carry on a conversation about something other than milk, baby food, or diapers and their contents.  When did that happen?!  That is when you realize how sleep deprived and hormonal you were.  When it is all said and done.  In the midst of it I think you are too sleep deprived and hormonal to realize much of anything.  This is probably a good state to be in during this time because it means you pretty much eat, sleep, and breath baby.

And my random rant has been de-railed.  I got a call about the car I'm selling and my thought train is way off the tracks now.  Oh well.  That is how it goes.  I suppose I should get back to real life and get ready for school, planting potatoes, and figuring out what is for dinner for the week.

And I'm off...

Our news of late

More snow despite the fact that it is May.  Goofy weather.  At least it means good news for the drought situation.  Although now that the weather has delayed planting farmers are starting to voice concerns there too.  Mother Nature never does seem to cooperate.

I don't have a lot of what I normally would in the garden either.  Every time I think I'll get going we get hit with another snow storm.  Huh.  Oh well I suppose.  Not much I can do about it.

Today makes for a good day to catch up on things.  Tom and I went to baking last night.  I hadn't baked bread in awhile and we were out so I got busy and made 4 regular loaves and 2 cinnamon loaves.  That should hold us for a week or so.  Maybe.  Tom made snickerdoodles.  Dang it!  Now I eat them.  I'm going to have to make him take them to school so they'll eat them.

Let's see what else have we been up to.  House in Montana is in limbo as you may have read in the last post.  Not a whole lot we can do about it but we are doing what we can.  Besides that Bear is almost done with school. Three weeks left and Tom only has a hair more than two weeks.  Time flies.  Mia is progressing nicely with potty training so long as I remember that she needs reminders to use the toilet.  She gets to playing and doesn't realize she needs to go until it is too late.  Good thing we have plans of changing carpets someday.  I think we'll get a puppy before we do that.  That way we don't panic when the puppy messes up the carpet.

On the new house front things are going well.  Since the weather is providing some moisture we are greening up pretty nicely.  We might even have a yard someday.  We continue to find little projects to take care of on the nice days.  Weed pick up and fence mending is right at the top of the list.

I have started a couple of new ventures.  I'm working on starting my own hand spun yarn business.  I'm building the web page/blog along with a Facebook page and I have a few bits of yarn on consignment at a local store.  At the moment not much is happening but that will come.  I still need to officially register my name and I'm in the process of filling out paperwork and gathering the fees that go with that.  Once that is done I can say I'm officially launched.

My other venture is that I have started to run.  I have never run in my life.  Well, not when I'm not being forced.  I ran for awhile in high school as part of volleyball practice and hated every moment of the running.  I never have cared for it so I've been pleasantly surprised by enjoying it this round.  I had a round of very sore/swollen heels.  Probably due to the horribly cheap shoes I have paired with my high arches.  A pair of gel heel inserts and a switch to my better shoes has enabled me to get out again yesterday.  That was the first time in probably two weeks.  I felt a lot better yesterday.  I also took Bear with me.  He was a good pace setter and made me take it a bit slower than I probably would have gone by myself but still made me run.  We had fun racing, doing zig-zags, and running backwards.  He stuck with me for the whole 1.25 mile distance too.  It was a lot better than the last time we tried to run together.  That time he didn't want to run and decided he wanted to go home about a minute into it.  He probably won't go with me every time but it will be nice if he comes along once in awhile.  The dog on the other hand has decided he isn't going with me anymore.  He quit one day when it was raining and now he'll only go about half-way down the driveway with me before he stops and looks at me like I'm crazy.  I'll call him and he turns around and heads back to the house.  I swear I can see him shake his head and mumble something about the crazy human.  I guess it is time he finally slowed down.  He's only 12.

Now you have it.  All the news that is the news here.