Imaginary Play, Running With Kids, Normal Sex Drive, and Passed Out Two Year Olds

Motherhood/Imaginary Play
It's been a rough week for me as a mother. A week of fighting, whining, screaming, a chorus of "I'm bored, we want candy, can we call our friends?....", and just an overall feeling of needing some structure! I feel like I've had no focus.  Just when I get on track to do something or clean something up, there is a fight to break up.  Just when someone calls me on the phone, I'm needed IMMEDIATELY by all of my children at once and the person on the other end must think I have no control over my life. 


But right now, everything is perfect. IN fact, it is wonderful. Instead of bored kids, begging, whining, and looking for trouble, I'm hearing the sound of imaginary play!  Our neighbor boy is over and the living room is turned into a glorious kingdom of couch cushion forts, rivers of cars and blocks, and a fancy princess bed with a sick princess being covered in medicine (a.k.a baby wipes).  They are all lost in a magical world of imaginary play...an art that I don't seem enough of these days.  The art of creating your own fun, turning a box into ship or a secret cave, hanging blankets across chairs to make a castle, learning through "pretend play", eating invisible feasts, and imagining that you are someone completely different and living in an entirely new land!  Gosh, I miss this.  I think  imaginary play is one of the most important parts of childhood and such a big part of learning.  Kids shouldn't need every toy in the world, a t.v on all day, or all the latest video games to entertain them.  I've tried my hardest to make sure my kids learn to appreciate what they have and make their own fun without having to have a bunch of "stuff" and get sucked into television but these past few weeks of summer it has been really hard.  It seems like they fight with each other for most of the day and it has been rare that they play together for too long before asking for something or wanting a friend to come over.  I'm so happy to hear them all getting along!


Running
I'm still keeping running on the lighter side without putting too much focus on a specific plan.  I do have a half marathon in October but I think it will be for fun.  It is the Girlfriend's Half and I imagine it will be a fun race to go to with my girlfriend and meet up with a few blog friends. Hood to Coast is also coming up but that is for fun too. Although I'm not training too terribly hard, I do find that I need to run in order to afford my eating habits/large appetite and keep my spirits up.  I feel better when I'm exercising hard.  


On Sunday, my husband and I got away for a beautiful run.  He ran 22 at 7:40 average pace with his last 8 at around a 7 or under pace.  Really impressed with him.  I ran 10 and then biked 14 and took some pictures of him for fun.  

Mile 18.  He was at a really great pace!

This morning I had a plan to do 8 repeat 400's so I attempted it with my kids.  All three of them.  It actually worked out okay for the most part.  After every repeat, I could jog over to them and put out any fires before my 2-3 minutes of active recovery were up and I had to hit another one.  It was a lot of yelling at my six year old to come keep an eye on her brother (I try not to put her in charge very often..I do want her to want kids of her own someday), stopping for a minute to show my two year old how fun playing with his cars could be, and jogging around the play structure for my recovery.  I only made 7 of them (not because I was tired but because my kids needed me):  90, 88,88,88, 88, 92, 88.  I was trying to keep them right around 3k pace and focus on form...getting my knees up, leaning forward, increasing my cadence/turnover, and not over striding.  I also fit in a Jillian workout early this morning.  Yippie!  


Oh, and last night I went on a pretty solid base run of 7 miles at a sub 8 average.  My oldest daughter rode her bike the entire way.  Hills and all!  I was so impressed with her.  There was only one scary moment (or funny) when she went too fast down a hill and flipped her bike into a blackberry bush.  She was okay though.  No tears.  Just a little bum sticking up out of the dry brush.  At first I thought she was a doll and then I realized it was her.  Wave of emotions: confused, scared, laughing, scared, relieved, cracking up.  


Random

This is my husband stealing my compression tights (he wore them the right way), and compression socks after his 22 mile run.  Poor guy needs to get his own but didn't have anything.  He looked just a little silly.  

• I finished answering my questions in my last post for those of you that asked and are interested. Some of those were kind of hard to answer.
• Even though my husband has been SO busy lately with work, school and other business stuff, we have made time for a few dates!  This is so important for us.  Having time together really helps us stay strong in our marriage and be better parents.  

• I have mentioned sex a few times lately.  It appears that I'm coming across as if I have sex all the time and that I have an issue.  Ha!  For the record, I don't think I have sex any more than the average "in love" couple.  I think I just joked about it one too many times and people are beginning to think we are like one of those couples that gets it on multiple times every day.  Nope.  We have three kids.  We are tired.  Sleep is good.  
• Sleep is especially good after chasing my energetic two year old around all day.  This is what happens when he doesn't get a nap...he eventually runs himself ragged and passes out somewhere.  With a bowl on his head.  Not sure where the bowl came from or what he was doing with it but this is how we found him:

• Writer's Block.  Big time.  I keep feeling like I have something I want to get out...something big...but whenever I find a second to think about it and get it out, it is gone and the "mommy, mommy, mommy" chorus begins.  Gosh, this sucks for a someone that processes through writing!  Like right now.  

Imaginary play is up.  My time is up.  Oh well, it lasted at least an hour. 

1.  Mothers, are you finding that the end of summer at home with kids is rough?  Are you ready for a schedule, structure, and school to start or do you keep yourself plenty busy in the summer?  

2.  When you were a kid, did you use your imagination for hours on end?  We would pretend for hours!!  Granted, my brothers and I also fought something AWFUL!  I played better with my friends but I certainly wasn't allowed to watch t.v all day and I am grateful for that!

2.  Running.  Are you training for something right now or just enjoying running for fun?  

Amanda