Six Months

 It's January already!  How did that happen?  Seems like such a blur.  Moving from Oregon to Asheville, NC last March was probably the biggest adventure of our lives.  We just made a decision that life was short and we were ready to try something new for a year.  My husband's work allowed him to do this easily.  Well, is moving across the country with three young kids ever "easy"?  Ha!  But, in the big picture, making this big change flowed quite easily.  Moving costs were covered, it was easy to find renters for our house, we had a place to stay in Asheville until we found our perfect little house in this little town, and all the excitement that comes with discovering a new place was ours to enjoy day after day!

"For one year", we said.  We'd move for about a year and then come back so that our kids could be raised near family.  One. Year.  Seemed like a pretty awesome plan. No problem.  I just wasn't prepared to fall in love with a place like I have with HERE.  I wasn't prepared to have my breath taken away by the Blue Ridge Mountains day after day.  I wasn't expecting to have a feeling of "coming home" when we settled here. I didn't imagine that living in this small town with my front porch swing and walk to coffee and library life would still provide our family with so much. So much  community and charm but yet still so close to the funky, artistic, one of a kind city of Asheville. I never imagined that I'd have the perfect soft dirt/gravel path near Beaver Lake to run around day after day or trails at our finger tips for our dates (when we find a sitter).  I never imagined that once I got here, I wouldn't want to leave.

But we're sticking to the plan.
Six months left.
I've avoided thinking too much about this.  When I do, it puts a pit in my stomach and my heart hurts a little (or a lot if I was going to be my normal dramatic self).
I've been digging my heels in, dropping little hints about staying forever, wishing, hoping....But all along I know in my heart of hearts that raising our kids near their very loving and supportive Grandparents and extended family (who want nothing more than to be a part of their life as much as possible and create some lasting and loving memories) is a RICHNESS that can't be replaced with HERE.  I know that moving back is the right thing for us despite my desires to stay here (what feels like home) forever.

This morning, I woke up with the intention to snap out of this mindset of already missing something that I haven't even said goodbye to yet.  Instead of thinking of how much I don't want to go, I will be thinking of how much living I still have HERE.  I will think of all the things I still have to look forward to TODAY... the next six months.

In the next six months I will:

• Continue to run my favorite trail almost daily (and no, it doesn't get old even though it is only 2 miles for every loop).
• Keep exploring Asheville.
• Make new friends and develop the ones that I have made but been too scared (until now) to bond with too deeply.  
• Volunteer and stay involved with the Literacy Council
• Keep training for the Boston Marathon. Training has been so joyful! 
• Travel as much as we can on this side of the country.  A big trip coming up really soon that I'm super excited about...and way easier to fly to from here than Oregon.  YES to seeing the world!!  
• Take a road trip to Boston in April to stay with friends, run a marathon and show our kids a big part of history.  
• Enjoy 3 more seasons in these Blue Ridge Mountains that I love so much...the rest of winter, spring, and the beginning of summer. Oh glorious summer with fire flies, humid nights (yes, I love this), sitting on my porch with coffee while watching birds and the town streets filled with families taking evening strolls.  
• Continue watching my kids thrive!  They are all three doing so well right now.  My son (gosh, he's had a rough start here) has made tremendous strides this last month or so and I only see it getting better.  So proud of him! My mama heart is beaming right now. All the hard work of the last many months is paying off.  
• Keep being conscious of my goals for life, particularly the way I am as a mother.  This is the most important role to me out of all my roles I play in life. Patience. Love. Modeling. Presence. 
• Take part in the Asheville Marathon and Half Marathon as an ambassador and using the half as a training run.  
• Visit the Biltmore Estates as often as possible until we leave.  What beautiful and romantic grounds!  
• Be open to receiving fully whatever life has in store for us each and every day, including six months from now.  
• Love fully.  
• Live richly.
• Give myself.
• Reach out.
• Keep learning.  
• And a big one:  Keep getting rid of fear!  Fear of sharing myself (knowing I'll just be leaving).  Fear of change.  Fear of not knowing what life holds.  Goodbye fear.  Farewell.  I won't miss you.  

Oh, I'll hold on to THIS day always.  

So, here's to SIX MONTHS!  Amazing all that can happen in Six Months if we are present and willing enough to truly LIVE and make the most out of our life!  

Amanda 

I don't write here as often as I used to but you can also find Runninghood on:

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Trail Run Date in Pictures and Video

A day off for my husband today meant a small slice of alone time for us.  Getting open time like this where all three kids are in school/activities for at least 4 hours feels like a huge gift and we almost always choose to go on one of our favorite dates... 

A Trail Run Date! 

As many of you know, my husband is my favorite running partner.  We try to run together as often as we can and I've written about several of our trail run dates here on the Asheville trails in May and on the Wildwood Trail in Portland a couple of Octobers ago.  We've run many races together too.  One of our favorites was the Foot Traffic Flat marathon in 2011 (his first and my fourth) where we proved to make a great team and finish in a happy 3:24.  If I had to choose anyone in the world to run side by side with for always, it would be him.  

Living in Asheville, NC means plenty of beautiful trails to run on. And ever since my first 30k trail race back in May, I've craved as much of the forest running as I can get.  The trails here are different than those in Portland, Oregon.  I wouldn't say that I love one more than the other because they both have their unique beauty and I love my time running on both of them.  The one big difference about the forests in Asheville and Portland is that most of the trees here in Asheville are deciduous whereas so many of the trees in Portland are coniferous.  So, whereas Portland stays GREEN and lush year round, Asheville is approaching it's brown and bare season once winter comes.  We're taking every opportunity to hit the forests this autumn before winter sets in.  And what a perfect time of year it is for trail running!   

Today we tried a new trail in Bent Creek that led us up into some of the prettiest parts I've seen yet.  Some of the trail was quite STEEP and we did some quick walking rather than running.  It was good practice for the ultra my husband wants to do in the near future.  

Pretty sure this was my best Superwoman pose.  Yeah, not a good one.  Guess I'll consider other career options.  

Since moving to Asheville, our date life has dwindled just a bit.  That's what we get when we move to the complete opposite side of the country as the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  Not only did we leave family behind, we also left our babysitters.  Free babysitters at that!  We weren't about to just go home after our trail run.  We used our extra 1.5 kid-free hours to eat in Asheville at a new restaurant (for me).  By the way, if you ever visit Asheville, it is a great place to eat good food.  Lots of fun restaurants.  I'm not sure I'll get through them all before we have to leave.  But that will just be a reason to come back often to visit (while we leave the kids in Portland with their grandparents).

We chose a little spot called Salsas.  You wouldn't know it from first appearance but this place has some delicious delicious food.  Wow!  We had blackened salmon pilon and the best chicken burrito ever.  Oh, and some really yummy beer.  I don't usually drink beer before noon but today was considered vacation.  And something about running through the forest that makes me want to drink a nice cold beer afterwards.

I'm putting this Monday down in the books as one of my favorites.  Life just keeps getting better and I can't wait to see what else in in store.  For now, I'm enjoying the present...especially days like this where I'm reminded of so much that I love.

1. Do you run on trails?  Are their trails near where you live?  
2.  Do you run with your partner?  
3.  Don't forget to check out the Asheville Marathon as a possibility for a spring race.

Amanda 

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All Things Running

Beaver Lake, one of my favorite places to run

Dearest Running,

Welcome back, my friend.  Thank you for always being there when I'm ready to have more of you. Thank you for the joy you bring to my world no matter how long I go without you.  No matter how many months I've just left you on the side to wait.  You are still there to be whatever I need you to be.  I'm excited to spend so much MORE time with you over the next many months.  You add color and life to things that might otherwise go unnoticed.  Thank you. I love you. 

Love Always, 

Me

Not that anyone is really going to hold me to it or even remember that I said it, but I did promise that this next post would be all about running.  Not a bad morning to write all about running either.  Just such a GORGEOUS time of year to be returning to more consistent mileage.  I probably spent more time taking pictures and stretching my wonky hamstring today than I did actually running around Beaver Lake but I did fit in some joyful miles.

Joyful steps
Dirt under my feet
Fall colors peeking out from the green hills on the horizon
Smoky cool clouds rising above the water
Rays of sunshine shining down on my
     happy
smiling
      grateful
face.

Joyful.  That's how I'd describe my running lately.  The joy has returned to it and this has made all the difference.  After a summer of just a little bit of running here and there, I'm truly getting excited to be training for something again. As I build my base and dust off my running heart, I'm excited to see my paces pick up and to feel that tired happy focused feeling when I go to bed at night.  I still think I'm at a place in my life where I want my training/running to be a bit more low key than it has been before. Although I'm excited to train more and increase the mileage a tad, I'm at a different season in my life as far as goals relating to clock time, higher mileage, etc.  These things just aren't as important to me. And I'm pretty sure my body is on the same page as my heart and spirit here.  It just isn't 100% and it needs lots of loving care if I want to be running for LIFE.  I do admit that it is likely that my goals will change as training starts in late December.  Right now I might say clock time doesn't matter so much but this always seems to change as I start putting so much time and commitment into training.  Time goals have a way of creeping in there.

There were so many Running-Related things I wanted to write about this morning but I find myself out of time.  I have a beautiful boy waiting for me to pick him up from preschool.  And we just might have to head back to Beaver Lake for a picnic on the a hillside.  Just a few things I hope to get to on here soon and if I don't then I'll be posted about them on Facebook and Twitter:

• Active Release Therapy.  I'm looking into this as something that might help with my chronic left hamstring issue.  I posted on this earlier this morning on my Runninghood Facebook and got lots of positive comments.  Looks like so many of you have had success with this!  
• Boston Training Plans.  I have no idea what plan I will use for my Boston training.  I'm open to suggestions on this!  I guess I could make my own up but I really like having one to follow.  Recommendations?  I've used several different plans from books but I'm looking for something I haven't tried yet.  I'm also still thinking that it would be nice to have someone else just tell me what to do too...having a coach can be so nice!  Definitely takes the thinking out of it.
• Savannah Rock n' Roll.  As of now, all my previous plans for this half marathon have fallen through.  Savannah is on my list of places I want to visit before we move back to Portland for sure!  This half marathon is on my 35th birthday, only 4 hours away, and I'll be running it for free as a gift from being a Brooks runner. Why not?!  My family can't come because it conflicts with other plans.  So, there is a part of me that is feeling young and crazy enough to just get in my car at 2 a.m, drive down there for the race and head back up that evening.  Ha!  Or find a hotel but that's tricky this close to the race.  
• Asheville Marathon.  I'm really excited to have this as part of my spring training schedule.  It is March 16th and if my body cooperates, I'd like to do it and use it as a training run for Boston.  As many of you know, I've done this before and had success with it.  What a great experience too!  Running a marathon through the Biltmore Estate and seeing parts of it that are never opened to the public sounds pretty amazing in itself.  Not to mention that I don't have long here in gorgeous Asheville so I might as well make the most of it (just like Savannah).  I'd love if some of you signed on to this marathon with me.  I'd even be willing to run a different pace if one or a group of you would like someone to run with them or pace them towards a goal.  It is also a Boston Marathon qualifier.  Check it out for sure!  And if you register, click on the button on the top right of my blog and include Amanda@Runninghood in the referral box and you'll receive a running-related gift from one of the race sponsors.  Also, feel free to e-mail me if you have questions:  amanda.runninghood@gmail.com.  

• GOTR (Girls on the Run).  Yes, I wish I had time to rave about this!  So much to say.  In the meantime, just saying that I LOVE this program and I love what I'm seeing it do for my daughter.  I hope to get much much more involved in this soon.  

• Running Shoes.  More later on some shoes I'm loving lately and what I'd like to try. All Brooks of course.  Love my Brooks Running Shoes!  Thanks for making a great product again and again Brooks!  Honored to represent your company.  
• Training Races/Runs Coming Up! 

And I'm off!  I would love to hear from you if you have any information on Active Release Therapy, Suggestions for plans to use for Boston Training,  if you want to join me for the Asheville Marathon, etc.  Really, I'd love to hear from you...PERIOD!

Amanda 

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Happy Intentions, Reality and Back to Happy

If I could freeze this moment...
Fall Morning
Blue Ridge Mountains
Sitting out on my porch
Small Mountain Town
Birds, Squirrels, Falling Walnuts
Coffee
   Color
Cool
   Crispness
Clear Skies
   Calendar Day Open
 Kid Giggles coming from inside,
   as they jump on couch cushions and eat pancakes on the side
Unmade beds
SUNSHINE
Happily sore legs from a week of solid running and fitness
This will be a day I come back to in my memories...

Cue the screeching car break sound.  Or finger nails on a chalk board......

We interrupt this short moment of bliss for a few moments of full blown four year old fit reality!  

Really?! 

Deep Breaths, tight chest, irrational logic from a four year old boy who insists that jumping off the couch towards cushions right up against a brick fire place is the BEST idea despite anything we say to convince him otherwise.  

Deep breaths.  

A few tears.  

Instead of carrying on with my immediate plans of finishing my coffee while writing a long Happiness List as a morning exercise of gratitude, I needed a few moments to get my hormonal 34 (35 in a month) year old self back to neutral.  Man! Tell me again how much I'll miss these sweet days when my kids are young? I know I will.  And remind me how strong will and feisty personalities are good traits to have for life. I know this too.

I took a few moments to sip my coffee and take in the beautiful morning thinking the worst was behind me.  Then another fight broke out.  And another. And, ready for it?  Another.  I guess my kids were clearly NOT on the same vision page as I was on this fine day.  In an attempt to reclaim my happy energy, I tried to sit in silence for a bit and read past posts on here and in my journals related to Happiness. This helped. It reminded me of how capable of sweetness and love my kids really were.   It also helped me reclaim my happy mojo to be reminded of just how many things there are to be happy about. One post in particular that  made me smile was one written almost exactly a year ago:

Things That Make Me Happy.. An Exercise in Happiness

Reading this post (along with the comments from you) made me smile.  All is calm again and I'm ready to add to my happiness list throughout this day 

Things that make me Happy Today:

• Beautiful morning
• Tracking friends at the Portland and Twin Cities Marathons.
• Seeing my daughter get better at riding her bike.
• Watching my husband be such a good father to our children. His patience is a gift to all of us. When I'm feeling more emotional than normal, he is so quick to step in and pick up the slack.   
• A family walk/bike ride to the local bakery where we ate some really great kale salad and shared a cookie.  
• Living in this beautiful place that I love so much.  I know it is short lived but when we say good bye in July, we get to go back to Portland, Oregon.  Not a bad place to live at all.  One of the coolest places I know actually.  
• The Jewel Fairy came today and brought Halloween Jewels.  
• Yoga with my sweet 6 year old daughter.  I could write an entirely separate post on just the different gifts that each of my children are.  So unique.  This little girl is my calm.  She always has been.  Sweet.  Happy.  JOYFUL.  Humble.  And Wise.  Having her next to me for the hour of yoga was such a sweet moment of life.  She kept turning to me on our shared mat and mouthing to me that she loved me and telling me how much fun she was having.  
• Finding my voice again.  Not that I lost it entirely.  It was just a little quieter than usual.  
• New opportunities.  They always come when we are willing to put ourselves out there and take more risks.  
• Trader Joe's came to Asheville!  Yippie!  Only thing is that everyone else is saying "Yippie!" too.  Gee, you'd think the circus was in town.  This place is crazy right now because EVERYONE in the general Asheville area wants a piece of it.  
• Excited about training for another marathon!  This DESIRE is KEY!  Yay for it coming back.  Now, let's see if my body agrees that it's a good idea.  I think there will need to be plenty of yoga and strength type stuff. 
• My friend Stephanie broke 3 hours in the marathon this weekend at St. George!  Such inspiration to me.  Thank you for this inspiration Steph, Soggy Runner Girl!  Write that race report as soon as you recover.  LOVE!  Incredible to watch you on your journey in finding your gifts.  I love you. And I miss running with you even though you are much faster than me. 

I could go on and on with this list.  Making a list like this has left me smiling. Similar to listing gratitude...such a powerful exercise in helping us change our perspective on things...or just saying THANK YOU for all that we have that is GOOD.  And when we recognize these things with gratitude and love, we almost always get more of them.

I would love to hear a few things that you love...first few things that just pop into your head when you comment (IF you comment...I know, I know, I've been so so bad at commenting back lately so I'm surprised that anyone still reads this thing).  Love and Happiness are contagious...I love reading what people are thankful for, what makes them happy or what they love.  So, in either a comment or a post of your own.....TAG, you're it!

And Just because the pictures from my post from my Friday's Post make me HAPPY, I'm including them again!

It's a boots, long socks, dress, sunshine, crisp fall kind of day! Love my Keen Bern Baby Bern

What a perfectly wonderful message from the universe for this little boy on this beautiful morning: "You are LOVED!" I love that my 4 year old noticed this "heart" on the walk into preschool, a sign clearly meant for him! What a gift of a day! #love

Oh, and the next post will be all RUNNING!  I promise.  I know, I don't need to write about running but this used to be kind of a running blog, right?  I want to ask about marathon training plans, talk about favorite shoes, Savannah Half-Marathon (yes, I switched to the half), Girls on the Run (LOVE this program and want to be more involved soon!), The Asheville Marathon, and a few other running-related things.  

What makes you Happy??  First 5 things that come to your mind.
Who raced this weekend??!  Portland Marathon?  Twin Cities Marathon?  What else?  

Run Happy Friends,

Amanda 

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Loaded Post: Life Realizations, Random Facial Hair, and Intentions on a Gift of a Friday

It's a boots, long socks, dress, sunshine, crisp fall kind of day! Love my Keen Bern Baby Bern Boots!

Hello Beautiful Day! I'm not sure a day could get much prettier. On all levels.  A Friday with blue skies, a fall crispness, positive energy, warm sunshine, flowing inspiration, seemingly endless patience and strong running legs.  A day of "I've Got This!" and "Wow, so many possibilities!"  I like this feeling.

It was one of the first days in a long time where I've had to grab a pen and notebook to keep up with and capture all my flowing thoughts.  Good thoughts.  Ideas.  Inspiration.  Small steps to take to get to where I'm going.  But first thing was first... I needed to get a to-do list going for my morning before I could act on any of the other things:

1. Tweeze the heck out of my eye brows.
2. Wax my upper lip.
3. Pluck random 2 or 3 chin and face hairs.  

Okay, so this wasn't on my to-do list but it should have been.  I mean, good grief!  Nobody told me that once I start getting closer to my mid 30's, I'd honestly be able use the phrase "Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin." No, I'm not talking beard by any means but I really hope that these random hairs that I keep finding are as bad as it gets.  Someone tell me I'm not turning into a man. Ha! And if you're a true blonde, yeah yeah, you just don't understand.  And if you're my husband, you're embarrassed that I just wrote any of this because he is convinced that most women don't have to tweeze, pluck or wax...it's clearly just me.  What? Seriously honey? You really think I'm the only woman that buys the random box of lip wax/bleach?  Or has tweezers as her favorite beauty tool?  Nope.

Some real goals today:

1. Kick some ass today. Period. 
2. Be intentional about patience and self control when responding to kids.  
3. Be intentional about the positive messages I'm sending to my kids (especially my son who is dealing with some strong emotions lately).  I specifically want to model for him:  Self love and compassion, facing fears, and dealing with anger in ways that are helpful not harmful.  
4. Order some more parenting books and do a more research/reading on teaching kids emotional intelligence.  
5. Run.  
6. Continue to get involved with volunteer opportunities.  
7. Do the Jewel Fairy Dance for my kids. The Halloween Jewel Fairy is supposed to deliver some Halloween jewels today.

It wasn't hard to make today great.  I woke up happy and in love with where I'm at and the people in my life.  I had every intention of making great things happen today and I was excited to make it happen.  And gosh, when I'm feeling this way and making efforts to change things for the better, my entire family follows.  We all benefit.

Some things I realized today as I stepped back and looked at my life with such contentment and joy: 

• Sometimes things get harder before they get easier.
• The little things really do add up to big things!  Start with something small today.  It makes the big picture look a little less scary.  
• Thanks for this quote Women's Running Magazine:  "Challenges are what makes life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful." --Joshua J. Marine
• Letting go of fear and embracing vulnerability is a real freaking big deal, it truly means something to me, and it isn't easy these days but gosh, life is better this way.
• When one door closes, another almost always OPENS.  Or many.  
• The things that matter most to us are sometimes the things we tend to take for granted and work the least on.
• Some pains, heartaches, and deep rooted longings will always be a part of us and that's okay.  They makes us who we are.  Acknowledging and accepting them, practicing lots of self love, and looking forward to the possibilities are key here.  
• We all have a story to tell that will make a difference to someone else.  Tell your story. 
• We don't have to do it all at once. Start small.  I know I said it again but this one is huge for me right now.  What's the worst that can happen?  We apply for something, reach out to someone, send an e-mail, make a connection, sign up for a new opportunity...these things almost always lead to something new...they get things in motion and start making our dreams a reality.  Thankful for a good friend who reminded me of this recently (thanks AM). 
• Sometimes it takes letting go of something we love because we love something else more. Life is full of decisions.  What matters most? 
• We never really lose ourselves.  Sometimes it feels like it.  But really, we are finding new parts of us that we didn't know we had.  
• I'm so glad to be who I am right now and wouldn't go back to who I was one, two, three or any years ago...not for all the money in the world.  This is a good place to be.  I know that life will only continue to bring layers of wisdom, love, lessons.... Bring it! Change is good even if the process of stretching is painful at times.  
• I am so incredibly thankful for the love of my life and best friend who is willing to continually grow and learn with me.  And love me unconditionally.  He's my rocking chair partner when I'm in my 100's sitting by a fire and thinking about the many happy years we've had together. Couldn't have chosen a better partner to share love and life with.  And raise these beautiful kids of ours! 
• I love living in Asheville.  More than any other place I've ever lived before (Oregon, Colorado, Iowa).  But family is important and unfortunately they live on the west coast.  Leaving in July to go back to Portland will be bittersweet.  For now, I intend on soaking up every last bit of this place I am so in love with.  
•  Woooo Weee Parenting is never a dull moment!
• We get back what we put into things.  Especially when it comes to LOVE.
• I may keep my circle of closest friends small but Wow, I have some pretty special people in my life.  Some friends that don't come around too often.  I feel blessed beyond measure here.  Two of my closest friends are actually women I originally met through the running blog world several years ago.  Our friendship eventually turned to e-mail and now I enjoy visiting them as often as I can. They've come to be beyond special.  This is just another message to me in the value of putting ourselves out there.  And the truth in things unfolding as they are meant to unfold.  
• Raising kids is the most challenging, beautiful, rewarding, and joyful experience of my life.  
• Running.  What a gift!  It's been a constant in my life for over 20 years now.  That's pretty incredible if I really think about it.  It's provided joy, drive, focus, therapy, calm, spiritual connection and clarity, moments of reflection and processing.... oh SO MUCH.  Forever THANKFUL for the gift of RUNNING!  
• We are LOVED. To love and be loved...isn't this the greatest gift we have?    

What a perfectly wonderful message from the universe for this little boy on this beautiful morning: "You are LOVED!" I love that my 4 year old noticed this "heart" on the walk into preschool, a sign clearly meant for him! What a gift of a day! #love

More on this later, but I'm excited to have been chosen to be an Ambassador for the Asheville Marathon at Biltmore Estates (I've written about this most beautiful and historical place before). Last year was the first year for this destination marathon and it sold out three weeks early.  I have no doubts it will sell out fast again and I hope that some of you will think about adding it for a spring marathon.  I'd love to get a group together to meet up that weekend! I plan on using it as a training run for Boston.  Your can read about it and register by clicking the button on the top right hand corner of my blog. Let me know if you're thinking of it and I can answer questions.   

Amanda 

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