Pancakes for breakfast,
New Outfit for the girls,
My first time packing her official school lunch,
Notes in with her sandwich baggie,
Meeting the teacher,
Walking to School,
And Making Her Feel SO Special and happy!
I hope her day is everything she had hoped it would be. It is certainly calm and quiet around here with only my two youngest. Really, it is a win win win situation. She gets to go to school and be with friends and use her brain! I get to give more attention to the younger kids, and they get to play together without a third party! So far, no fighting and lots of playing, art time, picnic on the trampoline and now quiet time!
Running
Yesterday I gave a recap of my summer running. I did end up doing my 14 miles and it was way harder than it would have been if I had been training consistently. Amazing how quickly we lose our fitness level when we don't keep it up. I can't expect to be in peak marathon or half marathon shape but I am happy with what I did considering my lack of training.
14 miles total.
12 miles attempted progression and 2 miles cool down.
7:52 avg.
First mile was supposed to be recovery pace but it was more like 8:20.
Last mile was 7:09 and it KICKED my bootay!! I was shooting for sub 7 but I was happy with the low 7!
A few of you gave really good advice in saying that I shouldn't increase my miles too quickly if I'm trying to just jump into half marathon training at the end of the plan. Thank you for this reminder. Better to run a slower half marathon than be injured leading up to Boston training.
Speaking of Boston, Thanks to Miss Zippy for the reminder that registrations opens up REALLY SOON! And go check out her new site if you haven't yet! It is so awesome!
Creative Time
After I dropped off my oldest daughter at school, we came home and did some "Clay Play". I figured that if I was asking you guys to get creative and let your guard down and have some fun with art then I would try it too. My daughter had so much fun learning to make little clay people. And truthfully, I had so much fun too!! Not only did I enjoy some quality time with my kiddo, but I felt kind of refreshed afterwards...in a cool kind of way.
Here's what we came up with (SUAR, sorry that I totally made your green bikini look lame but I did give you a good sized rack! The top one is my daughter's.):
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| The top one is my daughter's person. |
Now my normal style of creative expression would have been to choose option 2 of my contest and do a collage or write a poem or something like this:
Or maybe something like my mom did:
But it was fun to play with clay and not be so serious like I had to be a professional clay sculptor. Ha!
This morning, Chris from C2Iowa sent me a picture he had sketched in the waiting room of the doctor's office. I love it! And it actually moved me to look at his picture and listen to the song Fields of Gold by Sting, which is where the words at the bottom of his picture are from. For those of you that know Chris, you know that it hasn't been long since he had surgery and was unable to run. He has reinjured his knee since his surgery but is still holding on to his dream and passion for running and what it adds to his life. His post this morning is worth checking out...brought tears to my eyes to read about his time with his son this weekend. So special. Thanks for sharing Chris! And thanks for sharing your art.
Here's what he said about his art: "I was sitting in the doctors office the other day bored - you know how it is - and I just started to doodle and remembered that you wanted some pics. So, here it is. I am not very good at it, but that is pretty much how I see myself running every morning along the fields. Kinda fun."
Thank you for sharing Chris! Your blog post, art and the Sting song were a great part of my day!
Did someone in your family have their first day of school today?
Amanda
I hope the first day was fabulous! You certainly held up your end of the bargain. Love the creative clay!
ReplyDeleteHere we started week 3 of school today. Time flies.
2:30am??!!!??? THAT is some new school year excitement! My kiddos were pretty excited, too.
ReplyDeleteLove the clay artwork and your mom is hilarious!
Chris' picture is beautiful.
That's a pretty solid start to the art contest. I think I am going to have to work within my age group or something. ;) That is a beautiful song too.
ReplyDeleteI hope your daughter loves her first day back!
Oh my gosh--the clay figures are SO funny! And thank you for the shoutout. And your new header is fabulous--you look like a model. And holy early a.m. batman! Glad my kiddos don't get so excited about the first day!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a perfect first day! I love the clay art and the drawing! It would take me a while before I reached any cornfields on a run! :)
ReplyDeleteYou look like such a hottie/bad ass in your header picture!
First day of kindergarten on Monday next week! So excited and nervous:)
ReplyDeleteLove the clay figures, so creative!
Awesome job on the 14 miler!
Hey I'll trade in a bikini for a good rack anyday!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the first day of school!! I love new beginnings (although 2:30 am may be a bit much for a new beginning...but cute she is that excited!!)
First day-SO fun!!! You're such a good mommy!! We had pancakes here too-the Swedish variety-because I'm Swedish....or not.... but I put my hair in braids and pretended.... Wait-maybe that's Swiss?? Whatever.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh at your FB status. Darn pickle juice and pudding and sugar loving moms-ha!
Great job on the run of course!!! How are the legs feeling today?
OK-one of your clay figures looks like she has her hands down her pants-ha!
Hope you're having a great night!!
At first, I thought you were talking about me... I am from Iowa you know. But then I realized I still don't have any Crayons nor Playdough... *sigh*.
ReplyDeleteI hope your daughter has an excellent year at school...those 2:30am wake-ups are going to have to stop though, she's going to be wiped out by noon! My daugher usually goes to bed about 2:30am...oh how times change!!
Hope you had a fantastic run girl!!
It's late and I gotta get up really early so sorry for the short, and lame comment...but I am mastering my plan for artwork...can't wait for my supplies to arrive!
xo
Everything is already hanging out.. HAHA!!!!! My oldest goes to school now. He was a pain in the ...... The other 4 are still homeschooled.
ReplyDeleteFunny clay cartoon :) her leg positioning is interesting... Not sure how effective that will be for running form.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Good luck to your daughter. Great job on the 14-miler and I am loving all of the creativity. Love it! I need to work on my picture this week. It has been such a busy week so it will be a great way for me to relax.
ReplyDeleteLOVE the creative clay play, so funny! What a fun milestone for your daughter, sounds like she was very excited.
ReplyDeleteWe have our official "Not back to school" celebration at the beach with our homeschool group next week, and this week is all about settling into fall routines - dance, karate, robotics, etc. all starts up with the school calendar.
I'm a bit behind in my reading so your daughter's first day will already be over. I loved the first days for my kids. There was so much that was a mystery, so much potential and so much fun. Things to learn and people to meet. And I clearly remember Josh's second day when he told me that he'd already been and he had learnt enough.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy this time.