My relationship with running

Due to circumstances in my life right now, I am unable to go to the gym and haven't been for months. Fortunately, this is temporary. In the meantime, I need to get exercise, so I have been running. Micah reorganized the garage for me so I can get the jogging stroller in and out easily and I've managed a couple to a few runs per week.
Here's the hitch: I loathe running. I don't understand how people (like my dear husband) love it. I just force myself to do it because the sedentary alternative is not an option for me and its an activity that's easy to incorporate with little ones.
This morning, I finished another horrendous run and without knowing how I was kicking myself over iit, my mom sent me this screen grab.
How's that for perspective? I will keep this in mind on my next run.

Parenting Challenge

Something we have been in the throes of lately inspired me to reflect.....



Our children our so different!  And they are so different from us!  Personalities, work styles, temperaments  strengths, weaknesses, reason, paths to faith.....

We have been enjoying studying each of our children and learning what makes them tick and then tweaking our parenting of them to help them become more successful and productive people.

One may never leave our side, while another is more adventurous.
One may crumble under pressure, while another thrives under the same pressure.
One may process information and discern carefully, while another reacts impulsively.
One may panic while another remains cool, calm and collected.
One may be self motivated, while another needs a little help with motivation.
One may connect with God through active prayer while another may prefer quiet meditative prayer.
The list goes on infinitely.

We are challenged as parents to identify those traits and to help our children learn to work within their God-given gifts, talents and constraints in the best possible way for success.

Personally, I am enjoying this part of parenting at the moment because I love a good problem solving challenge and because it brings me great joy to know my children intimately and to see them succeed.
However, the harder part is not making them into something I want them to be simply because it is easier for me or make more sense to me.  I need to remember God made them as they are with a purpose and a plan in mind and it is simply my job to help them to learn to work with what they've got and temper themselves.

My hope is to eventually send each of my little ducklings out into the world with their own personalized skill set making them the best duck they can possibly be.

Spartan BC

Micah has been really into obstacle racing the past few years.  He loves running, but he finds the obstacle races more mentally challenging, more interesting, and more of a total body fitness challenge.  His current favorite race series is the Spartan.  The Spartan comes in four lengths - the Sprint (3+ miles/15+ obstacles), the Super (8+ miles/20+ obstacles), the Beast (12+ miles/25+ obstacles) and the Death Race (48 hours)
The obstacles include things like carrying sandbags, traverse wall, spear throwing, crawling in mud under barbed wire, rope climbing........and many more.  The course map is not revealed ahead of time, so you don't know what the obstacles are until you get there.  If you miss an obstacle, there are penalties.  For example, if you fall off the traverse wall, you may need to do 25 burpees.  You have to train and you have to be in shape to get through these races!
This past weekend, Micah went up to Vancouver, BC to participate in a Super Spartan Race with a group of guys (including my cousin, Matt).  I've been told it was a beautiful race with mountains, trees and rivers.

Here's the best part - Micah placed 23rd out of approximately 1000 people!!  That the top 2-3%!!
I'm proud!!  :-)  :-)

He trains for these events by incorporating workouts into his everyday life.  He wears a 40lb weight vest to mow the lawn or clean the garage.  He does push-ups with the girls on his back and he runs regularly.  These are just a few examples.  When he has specific workouts he needs to do, he heads to the backyard and all of the little ducklings follow.  They love to participate using modifications.  #1 likes to create obstacle courses in the backyard so all of them can participate.  #3 loves to do burpees, lunges and crunches so much she'll do them absolutely anywhere, even the grocery store!  It's fun to watch and hopefully these seeds of physical fitness will stay with them. 

Aside from including the children, my very favorite part of the way he does his workouts is that he gives all the glory to God and makes all of it a spiritual exercise.  He prays while he works, offers up his workouts for those who are unable to use their bodies as he can and he meditates on inspirational bible passages that parallel his physical work.  It's pretty amazing to watch this man tie it all together.  

Micah's next race is a Spartan Beast in Texas in early December.  

9th Anniversary

For our 9th wedding anniversary, Micah surprised me with a trip to Studio Vino. We sampled 10 wines, then chose one to make ourselves. You make the wine and the studio takes care of it for several months. In the meantime, you get to create your own label. Then, you go back to bottle it.
The studio is also a tasting room for Arizona wineries.
It was a very cool treat and we had a lot of fun together.

Out to lunch

Sweet Daddy took the girls to Sweet Tomatoes to celebrate their first week of school.

First Day of School!!

I have two in school full-time now!  One in second grade and one in a full-time pre-k.  Both were so excited to go to school and I was excited to let them.  I told Micah that I felt like I was on vacation today.  We are looking forward to another year of amazing growth, learning and fun.

Homemade Raw Butter

I've been wanting to do this for a while, but we had to wait for what seemed like forever for our dairy to have cream available. I knew it would be easy, but I didn't realize just how easy. The girls say it's DELICIOUS!!

Living in a Fog

To say the last several months since #4 has been born have been busy would be an understatement.  Sometimes Micah and look at each other and our eyes seem to scream "We've lost all control!  Don't tell the kids!"

We've been barely keeping our heads above water with our main downfall being lack of organization.
Now that summer vacation is in full swing and we have returned from our only planned trip, we have no more excuses.  We plan to get ourselves back on track.

One of my biggest personal goals is to get all of my technology working for me to help make my life easier.  Like last summer, I plan to get the kids' calendars entered into my own e-calendar.  Getting that back up to date will help.  I have been using my Motivated Moms app sporadically, but with no where to go in the next couple of months, that will be a daily thing again.

I just installed the blogger app, which I hope will help with this since I barely have time to sit at my computer anymore.  I also found a reader app, so that I can get caught up on reading blogs I like - friends, family, personal interest and learning - I haven't read a blog post in months.

Our printer just died.  Today we got a super cool new wireless printer.  I can print from my phone or ipad, which means I can print from anywhere.  I'm sure that capability will come in handy sometime...if not a "need", definitely fun.  When technology makes this that easy, it's hard to resist using it to help you get on top of life.

And something that's been bothering me for a loooooong time.....the picture at the top of this blog is not current!  Of course, I try to change it, but my drop down menu of options is messed.  I currently have an email in to the "help" out there somewhere.  Look people, I'm trying to get it together here.  The least you could do is have my drop down menu fully functional.

Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to getting out from under myself and back up and running soon.

Nun Run 2012

A group of Poor Clares in Tonopah, AZ have been raising money to build their monastery. Three years ago, they started the Nun Run to help them with that goal. Due to scheduling conflicts we missed the first two, but were determined to make it this year.

What a fun event! A great community of people, beautiful weather and a fun course at Kiwanis Park made for a great time. We saw lots of people from school and church as well as priests and nuns from around the valley. And yes, the nuns run too....in their habits!

Micah ran the 10K while pushing #2 and #3 in a double jogging stroller. I ran the 5K while pushing #1 and #4. #1 jumped in and out of the stroller to alternate running along with me and resting while I pushed. I'm not a runner at all, so I was pleased that all my working out lately had paid off and I had a really nice run with not a lot of pain. I placed within the top 50% of my age group which is a pretty big deal for me.

We look forward to doing this event again.

Love Note

I know things will change as my kids age. However, today, if this is payment for:

- Sleepless nights

-Whining

- Disobedience

- Illness

- Endless worry

I'll gladly accept!! :-)

Everything about this job is completely worth it.

Princess 2.0

We have observed an interesting evolution in #1's personal development lately.

She has always loved princesses (they all do), but recently she's been telling us she's "grown out of them". I knew there was something deeper going on - As her parents, we can read her in a way no one else can and we knew she still liked princesses despite her protests to the contrary.

In the background, she began developing an intense interest in Star Wars. We own all six DVDs, so she's been asking to watch those. She's also been checking out Star Wars books at the library, pretending her cheese stick is a laser gun and commanding invisible armies from the perch on her swing set.

After discussing all of this with Micah, we think we finally figured it out. She appears to have outgrown the simple princesses and grown into the princesses that exhibit more of the characteristics she finds admirable. The princesses of Star Wars still have beautiful hair, makeup and clothes which she loves. They still have their love stories and get their man. But in Star Wars they also command armies, fight the bad guys themselves, shoot guns, fly ships, are in strong leadership roles, triumph over evil etc. etc.

Personally, I'm loving this! I laugh when people call me a girly girl because while I love clothes, shoes, hair and makeup, that's about where it ends. I'm far from demure and reserved. I've never been afraid to get dirty (see earlier posts about hiking, camping and fishing). My lack of constraint in standing up for my beliefs has ruffled feathers and I've never backed down in fighting for the Good.

Today, she was invited to a "Glama Jama" party (ie-she had her hair, nails and makeup done), but the whole way there, she discussed the details of Star Wars IV with her father. If you want to call her a girly girl, you'd be accurate to some extent, but that hardly encapsulates her and certainly pigeonholes her. She is every bit our daughter and we couldn't be more proud.

Norwex

My friend Julie got me on the Norwex bandwagon and I have been using their microfiber antibacterial cleaning cloths for a few weeks now. Such a cool cleaning tool! The cloths contain silver particles making them effective germ killers without the use of any cleaners or chemicals - just water. This video demonstrates how the cloth kills all of the germs from wiping chicken on the kitchen counter through the use of a test.

The microfiber also makes the cleaning much easier. The grime wipes up without a lot of work which is really nice.

I bought the travel pack which comes with four small cloths. I keep one in the kitchen and one in each of my three bathrooms. I wipe my bathroom sinks down daily with the cloth and I wipe the toilets down every Monday. That's when I wash the cloths (no bleach or fabric softener). I must say things look very clean and it goes so quickly. I'm also no longer running through vinegar at an alarming rate. I'm thinking about getting some more to have on hand for some of my other cleaning tasks.

Thanks Julie!

House Cleaning Gift

After having my 4th daughter, some family members were unsure of what sort of gift to get for us. They figured we already had enough toys and clothes, etc. My grandmother, a mother of five, came up with the idea.....a gift certificate for a house cleaning service!

Some aunts, uncles and my grandmother all pitched in. One of Micah's grandmother's had also given me some money to use in whatever way would be most helpful, so I added that to the pot too. I had exactly enough for two complete cleanings.

I just had the first done. I'm so glad I waited until after Christmas because now I have nothing to do but sit back and enjoy it. My house is so clean and sparkling that I can't wipe the smile from my face.

What a tremendous gift and blessing!!!

Arnold Fashion House

One of the best "toys" I ever bought were a few yards of fabric in various colors on the clearance rack at the fabric store. The girls have spent countless hours creating fashions for the other - wrapping the different pieces every which way to create a new look every time.

#1 got a book on the history of fashion from one of her grandmothers for Christmas this year. Now, they have started working on the fine art of recreating the fashions from the days of yore.

Here, #1 has worked her magic to turn #2 into an Egyptian Queen circa 1800 BC

My wonderfully crazy last few months....

I am behind on everything in every aspect of my life. You name it, I'm behind on it. Why? We welcomed our fourth baby into our lives about 2 months ago. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of love, sleeplessness, new adjustments, dirty diapers and did I mention love?

Her three big sisters absolutely adore her. I'm fortunate to have not had to deal with any jealousy from any of the girls as each new sibling has come into the picture. With the birth of each new sister, they continue to think it's the greatest thing ever. The result is fighting over who gets to hold the baby, constantly kissing her and petting her - especially when she's sound asleep - and lots of singing to her.

I'm tired. Very very tired. Every time I sit down, I nod off, so sometimes it's better to not sit down. 4 kids threw me for a loop. I had no trouble adjusting to 3, so I thought it would be no problem. Not so. I have my theories as to why, but who knows.

For the first few weeks, I stayed very close to home. The baby wanted to be held all of the time and screamed for the duration of every car ride. My potty-training, not quite two year old is the most active child I've ever had (and that's saying A LOT) and frankly, I just didn't have enough hands.

However, Christmas break came at the PERFECT time and everything is getting easier. Micah took a week off and we could work as a team. Not having a firm schedule was wonderful. Most importantly, #4 "aged" a just enough to make things more manageable. Car rides are much easier and I don't have to hold her 24/7. I've had a chance to get my bearings and things are looking up. We also got to do fun things like visit the Children's Museum and take a family hike - Micah had #3 in a backpack and I had #4 strapped to my front. The big girls hiked the 3.5 miles all by themselves without complaint! We were quite the site on the mountain and I laughed at the guy who stopped to count.

Today was the first day back to school for the two older ones and I'm feeling refreshed and capable again. I'm still behind on everything, but at least I can start catching up.

We are so incredibly blessed and filled with wonder and awe at the gifts we've been given. Thank you God!