RUNNING...ONE YEAR LATER

Last year at this time I asked myself a question - "I wonder what it would be like if I decided to get really fit?" A simple question doesn't seem like it would hold a lot of motivational power, but for me it did. I looked at it as kind of an experiment. I started out hating to run, especially on a treadmill. But I stuck with it and actually started to like it. I entered some races never thinking I'd do anything longer than a 5K(3.1 miles). Then my competitive nature kicked in and I wanted to get better. So I found a running partner. We've been running together 2 days a week about 4 miles each time. About six months ago my husband finally succumbed and started running again. Tim used to be a serious runner. He ran cross country in college. Now, I have another running partner and a fellow running nerd who likes to talk mile splits and how fast Kara Goucher ran the recent New York Marathon.

One year later I find myself loving to run and signed up to do the 2010 Disney Half-Marathon. My husband and I love doing this together. Last weekend we did our church's annual Polar Bear Run. That was the first race I did in 2008 a couple weeks after starting to run. While I didn't make my time goal, I did set a new personal record and when I look back on last year's time it's cool to see that I ran this year's race 10 minutes faster than last year's.

I highly recommend running. It's hard to start and even now I don't like it until a couple miles in. But the long term results are great. And...you get to eat more!

THANK YOU PETER REINHART!

I've been making my own bread for almost five years I think. I started with Breadbecker's and I learned from watching my neighbor do it. Over the years I think I've had maybe 1 in 10 loaves come out the way I wanted them to. The dough was too sticky to knead and then they'd always fall after I put them in the often. I went to online forums and tried to fix my problems, but it never worked. A couple months ago I went to the library and a certain book caught my eye. It was a thick book on whole grain breads by Peter Reinhart. I was intrigued. Maybe this guy could help me. Well, it stayed in the library cart for several weeks until I got a chance to really look at it. It's a little intimidating at the beginning and there's a whole lot of information in there about the science of bread making that I didn't really want to know. I just wanted a good loaf of bread! I decided to slog through it though. This guy really knows bread and has gone through a lot of research and trial and error to perfect his recipe. So, after reading through the recipe and letting the book go overdue I finally decided to try it. I copied the recipe and returned the book. Then I got a chance to make it. It's so different from a Breadbecker recipe. He uses yogurt, doesn't add lecithin or gluten and lets it bake for 45 minutes! I was careful to make it to the letter of the recipe and slid it into the oven very carefully. After 20 minutes I peeked into the oven to check on it and saw that it had not fallen! Thank you God! After it was done I couldn't wait to slice into it. It was the best bread I had ever made! Yeah!!!

ANATOMY OF THE FIRST DAY BACK

You would think it wouldn't have taken me years to figure this out. Every Monday and any day back to school after a break will always be rough. I tried to fight it and be strict but I've realized that I just need to accept it and roll with it. It is what it is and it's not a reflection on me. I think that's really what it's been about. However my day went, I saw it as a grade on my performance, and ultimately a judgment on who I was. I've spent the last year working through that and weeding out the lies and meditating on the truth.

That doesn't mean that I'm not tempted to that line of thinking anymore. So today I reminded myself that the day would definitely not be perfect and at least one of my children would have some sort of meltdown. I was right. The youngest had a sour face this morning and the middle one cried during math for some unrelated reason. But I just kept praying for wisdom and rolled with whatever came at me and by lunchtime everyone was back in the swing of things.

Homeschooling is hard but you do learn a lot of lessons.