Running Friends...

I started a Facebook group, "Crazy Running Girls" or now known to us all as CRG... A lot of us participated in the local Hastings Summerfest Race this weekend. This new runner , yet old friend of mine, completed her first race... And she started a new blog! Maybe she'll inspire me to start blogging some more...


http://godsrunnergirl.blogspot.com/


Hope you enjoy her blog as well!

I miss blogging...

Not sure why I let time get away from me...

Oops... I took a wrong turn!

Life is busy, always busy. And there are times we stray off on our own, and then all of a sudden I realize that I really did take my own road. Instead of looking for guidance and asking for help, I tried to navigate murky waters and ended up stuck in quicksand and sinking fast... I was just thinking today that there are things that I just "don't know what to do" with... Then I read this blog from the Praise and Coffee site, as I drank my morning coffee today. It is so true, and I have to thank Angie there at Praise and Coffee for writing what it was that I needed to read...

Walking in the Dark

Frantic Morning

Saturday was another wrestling tournament for our team, and it was WAY over in Hillsdale (this is -according to mapquest -1hr and 37 minutes away). I got up early, got my husband's coaching clothes ironed, warmed up some breakfast for my son, and decided I was going back to bed. They were leaving our house at 5:20 am to make it to the school to catch the bus. But I didn't have to leave till 7, therefore, I should have time to sleep for another 45 minutes before this long long day ahead of me...

6:00 am - Get up, make more coffee, get in the shower and start some laundry.
6:20 am - getting out of the shower, two missed calls from the husband... uhoh...
6:21 am - digging through all our football paperwork looking for contact numbers for one of our wrestlers, the little 85lb kid that missed the bus, and the number my husband had didn't work.
6:25 am - found the number, called hubby back
6:30 am - hubby called back, needs me to get keys to the school, open the school and locker room for this kid, and then give the kid a ride to the tournament. Ok... only I AM STILL IN A TOWEL from my shower.
6:31 am - called my dad, to make sure I could get keys to the school.
6:33 am - called the kids dad, who missed the bus, made arrangements to meet him at the school.

So now I am freaking out... Not only am I now almost 15 minutes behind the schedule I had for myself, but I'm still in a towel, and now I have to stop and get keys and then drive 8 miles in the WRONG direction to unlock the school and pick this kid up, and then try to have him to the tournament in time...

So as I'm yelling at Robby (who I had forgotten about till this time) "Get up, Get up, Get dressed... Hurry we've got to go!!" I'm also pulling on my clothes, trying to at least put a little makeup on and pull my hair up, no time to dry and style, calling my friend who was supposed to meet me at my house to let her know plans have changed and now I will be running a tad bit late... and I am mentally cursing out everyone and everything that has thrown my morning into a tailspin, and I haven't even had a cup of coffee yet! I am mad at the kids' dad for not getting him there in time, mad at myself for going back to bed, venting that my husband won't just leave the kid behind (not that I really would even do that - but at the time it seemed like a viable option). And, this is the SECOND time going to this tournament across the state, that I've had to pick up a wrestler who has missed the bus.

7:02 - I'm out the door, calling the dad again and saying I'll be at the school in 10 minutes.
7:03 - getting the keys from my dad
7:05 - called my friend to tell her the new plan, then realized I DIDN'T BRUSH MY TEETH!
7:14 - unlocking the school and locker room
7:19 - on the road to pick up my friend since there's no point in her driving to my house now...
7:32 - picked up friend, and had to ask her to borrow a tooth brush since I forgot that little bit of importance during my morning rush!
7:37 - we are ON THE ROAD! Only 37 minutes behind schedule! Tournament starts at 9am... Cutting it close.

As I finally start to breath, I realize that maybe there was a reason for this whole fiasco. This kid, whose family obviously has needs bigger than mine, and who was so polite and apologetic the entire time, maybe he just needed to not be on the bus that day. Maybe he needed to be at the tournament and I was making a difference in some way. I started to realize that instead of venting and mentally screaming at everyone for ruining my morning, that maybe I should be grateful that I was able to provide safe transportation. I always believe there is a reason for everything. I may not ever know what that reason is, but there was a reason. Maybe it was just another one of God's ways of "thunking" me on the head with a nice little wake up call to show me that life isn't about me and that calm morning cup of coffee. It's about Him and helping others. We are put here for a reason and we have to allow him to show us what those reasons are, whether we ever understand them or not.

At the end of the day, we made it there about 10 minutes late, but the wrestler had a bye first round and didn't miss any matches. He ended up taking a 3rd place, and he had a nice big medal to bring home. The team squeaked out a 1st place, just 8 points over the 2nd place team. This wrestler did make a difference in that aspect. We couldn't have snagged first without him. And most of all, I survived the frantic rush of it all. My son took 1st as well as the team. No one cared that my hair didn't get done, and I learned a lesson from it all... I would say that the frantic rush turned into a really good day!

12.x 12 Shadow Box

My mom gave me two pictures - of my dad and my brother some 27 years ago, and of my brother and my nephew last summer - a 12x12 shadow box and a phrase she wanted me to handwrite... It's for my brother's 30th birthday. She needs it tomorrow... I used the CTMH Wings paper. I actually tried stitching - first time ever. I almost feel like it's missing something but not sure what.

Some Scrappin' Time

I'm up to 26 double page layouts for the year! That's with onlyone all day crop in there, which accounted for 16 of them. That's good for me. I hardly ever find time - make time- to scrap when I'm not at a crop. It's hard to come up with "nice" pages. I'm always working on sports books, and right now I'm on my oldest boy's wrestling season, and it's hard to find anything to coordinate with that! The pictures aren't that good because I left them in the page protectors so I could show the use of the small flip-flaps, so there's a glare... But, here they are:

Then, I was also able to work on a couple Valentine's cards today as well... It's a tri-fold card pattern that I've used a few times before...

Down Time

I realized yesterday that my brain does not function when it is not in "rush rush let's go" mode. I had a half hour of down time yesterday. The kids were at practices, husband was at practice, work was done for the day and I didn't have to start my volunteer duty till 5:30. I had 30 minutes before I had to leave the house...

What to do, what to do?? Well I decided that since my sister had just loaned me a new book on her Kindle, so that I could try it out and decide if this ereader concept was for me, that I would read. So I did just that. I sat in complete silence and read for 30 minutes. I was feeling proud of myself for not rushing around and trying to do a quick clean, running to the store, or any of the other little things I could have found to cram into that 30 minutes. So then I packed her Kindle up, and headed into town to work the middle school concession stand, prior to my youngest son's wrestling meet later that night.

I get to town and I'm sitting in the truck listening to the end of the song, because again, I'm NOT RUSHED for a change. Then it HITS me... I forgot EVERYTHING important. My coffee, poured fresh and in a to go mug, sitting on the table, and my son's wrestling bag with everything he needs - shoes, headgear, UNIFORM... ugh! It was all ready. All I had to do was grab it on my way out the door, but NO, I was so relaxed from my 30 minutes of down time that I think the "To-Do" section in my brain froze up from shock of not being used.

So after calling and making sure the other mom could cover for me since I now was again in RUSH mode. I had to drive the 8 miles home, grab the stuff I forgot, drive the 8 miles back into town and then of course, I was almost 20 minutes late. And just when I thought I was doing so good... That is when I realized, that my brain does not know how to operate in non-rush mode. Or maybe non-rush mode is so out of practice that it doesn't know how to operate correctly anymore. I don't know, but feeling proud of myself for relaxing for 30 minutes - which I cannot even remember the last time that happened - was shortly lived as I was soon mad at myself for having to waste the gas to drive home and back, be late, and ruin that good feeling.

So maybe next time I'll just save the reading for my normal, few minutes before bed allotted time, and continue to use those spare 30 minutes to try and check of the remainder of my to do list. I could have - got gas, grabbed a few groceries, folded laundry, maybe scrapbooked a page or at least got a layout started, done abripperx (only takes 15 minutes), ran a few miles, etc... the list goes on. Or, if I want to try enjoying that gift of down time, maybe next time, you know - 5 years from now, when I get that 30 minutes of free time. Maybe I'll remember to sit in the car and read after I've safely loaded everything needed for when my 30 minutes is up!

Scrapbook LO Challenge

From the Heart 2 Heart Scrapbooking site... here is a layout challenge... I used all CTMH products to crop my son's Turkey Trot, 5k race. The letters were cut out using the cricut.

The camera flash washed out the gold letters in the circles... I might have to change them to Navy blue, but they show up well in real life, just not so good with the camera flash.

 The left side page, in the circles at the bottom is "2009", the gold didn't show up well with the flash.

The right side page, again in the circles it says, "5k Run"

What Makes You Tick?

Everything in life runs on fuel. Our cars, or gas guzzling SUV's, run on gasoline. Our bodies need energy from food. My laptop needs that electrical outlet or the battery will only last so long. My phone needs a new source of energy as the battery for that doesn't want to last long at all. I NEED that pot of coffee in the morning to get going. We all need that source of energy. But what really drives our lives, what fuels your fire?

As I looked back through  a lot of my old blog posts, on top of reading all the other blogs in my roll, I realized that my desires and goals I have change - constantly. My blog is like ADD on hyper-caffeinated coffee... I've blogged about running, scrapbooking, writing, working, being a mom, being a wife, trying to organize a lot of things (usually unsucessfully), about volunteering and running our youth football league. It all sort of started feeling like there were bits of "me" in a lot of areas, which I don't deny. I do love to do a lot of different stuff. Do I spread myself to thin? Probably. Would I get more scrapbooking done if I quit reading in the evening? Most likely. Would my house be more organized if I gave up volunteering? Definitely. And the list goes on.

But however I decide to focus my energy, I need that fuel, that ambition to conquer the feat at hand. I trained for a 1/2 marathon and survived. I set a goal of scrapbooking 100 double page layouts this year... while also still training for another 1/2 marathon. I have a new job, with more work, but for a much better company. I have three kids in 8 sports combined, and a husband that coaches 2 of them. I am on the boards of two youth football leagues and volunteer for many a middle school concession stand, dance, or field trip... Busy isn't even close to describing our lives at times, but where is that fuel?

How in the world do I keep motivated in so many areas all at one time? Maybe it's the changing scenery, the lack of boredom that allows me to keep going. I don't know what to do when I'm bored, other than read, and I'm not ever bored, because I read in those 5 minutes of down time. My book goes with me everywhere, I squeeze in a few pages while doing the pickup line at school. A few pages while making dinner. Why is it that I feel I must multi task, constantly... I think I may add boredom to my "to do" list... It's a test, just to see if I can sit still for 5 minutes and just be. Just quiet, just alone, just me... Maybe then I'll find what it is that motivates me.

Grandma's Euology

I lost one of the most treasured people in my life this past fall. Grandma Bessie, as she was known to just about everyone, was 93 - almost 94 - when she passed away this last September. I had the honor of trying to speak at her funeral service, which was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. She lived with us from the time I was 8 years old. She was my great Grandma, and was she ever "great"... Looking back after a few months, I can see how even in her death, she worked magic in the souls of her family.

Who was Grandma Bessie?

In the early days, she was a care giver: she would leave snacks for after school-homemade pudding in fancy glass bowls or snickers candy bars cut perfectly into portions; then, as we grew older, she would smuggle laundry for certain teenage girls who were supposed todo their own; next, she became daycare provider to our children, and began entertaining a whole other generation with her stories and humor.

She was a teacher; she taught us about history-her history and our own. Most people here have heard her stories of what school lunches were like during the depression, how sleigh rides took them to school in the really bad snow, how to get home from school after the teacher locks you in and leaves you, and how kids really did walk miles to school up hill, in the sun, rain and snow.

We learned about the games they played on the farm, the chores they had, and the family that shared it all. We heard fishing stories, pool hall and gas station stories, as well as war stories, like the time she helped smuggle a puppy to a young German prisoner of war for his birthday. There was the dog wit rabies, the wife with the frying pan, and the big strong husband who had to have his wife gut a deer for him.

She was fun with a great sense of humor. She told jokes, made faces, taught us covered wagon and card games, and played practical jokes - ask the son-in-law who was trapped in the chicken coop... She loved to play canasta, and claimed she never cheated. She was always up for games or adventure.

She was strong - she may have been little and generally quiet - but she was a force to be reckoned with if you crossed her family. Just ask the boyfriend who saw the wrong side of the broom, the grandson who was too stubborn to go to the doctor, or the husband who had one too many drinks.

She was a model of Faith. She faced tragedy, and buried not only her parents and her husband, but her daughter and then her grandchildren, yet she had contant Faith through it all. She rarely had a bad word to say, and when she did you know you deserved it.

She had more stories and life experience than any of us could imagine. She lived through the horse-and-buggy and depression era, working day after day on thefarm. She witnessed the emergence of the car and ran a gas station. She worked in a facotry. She was a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and even a great, and great-great grandmother. She was a source of inspiration for us all. People think that we took care of her, but she was the one who took care of us all these years. When I consider all the role models one could have, I would choose none other than her.

Hope

"Once you choose Hope, anything's possible."

~Christopher Reeve~

Hope: (n) the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best; (v) to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence...

Where would we be without Hope? I think I would be lost. Lost in my dark daydreams and fearing for the worse. I would worry too much, pray too little. I would fret and fear and fill my days with anxiety, and not see past the now to tomorrow's possibilities.

I am a "cup half full" person, and I don't like being pessimistic. I could not survive without hope. Hope for my children's future; Hope for the sick and injured; Hope that I will make it past the daily "junk" that wants to bring me down.

What is hard is to see the lack of Hope in those around us. Facebook posts full of mood shattering statements that reflect the worry, sorrow and despair of the world around us. I realized today, that there are many kids that already show no signs of Hope. How is it that someone so young has given up Hope already, that they can't see past the todays and into tomorrow?

I "Hope" that in all my parenting skills that if I can't make a perfect kid, that I at least instill Hope into them. That they will be able to believe in themselves, in others and in general in the goodness of the world around them. I "Hope" that they will be able to see past the dark days, evil people and horrors of society, to see that underneath it all is goodness waiting to be had. We all have a choice, do you hold "Hope" for your tomorrows, or have you given up?

When the world says, "Give Up," Hope whispers, "Try it one more time..."

Blogs...

I forgot how addicting reading and surfing through all these blogs can be. I've been able to laugh at/with Denise and her 4 boys, see a far away friend's snow day down South, and I've picked up some good ideas on organization, crockpot recipes, challenges, scrapbooking, running plans, diets, and writing. I've also shared my morning coffee with the Internet Cafe, which filled my morning with some much needed lessons on "Love"... and the list goes on. It seems that each blog has a link to something new and exciting... What will I find next!

I think I may make a "Blog Wish List"... I've added containers from the Container Store, Scrapbook paper files from someones office - not sure where to find them but they sure looked good in the pictures... I'm going to become a wood plaque maker, thanks to the blog showing the wood plaques my friend Jamie made. I might have to give my self a chance to try Studio J digital layouts after looking at the pictures of those. A bigger or second crockpot will soon be added as I realized mine is not quite big enough for everything that can possibly be cooked in one of those things! And challenges... oh there are so many scrapbook challenges, where will I find the time?? Off I go... time to get some work done, to make time to read, so I can add more things to the list of things to take up my time. Happy Blogging!

Happy Birthday...

It's my youngest's birthday today, and he's home sick with me... which makes two days in a row. Poor guy has a strep infection, which also led to a strep rash that covered his poor body. It seems as if the fever has passed for the day as he is up and running around now. It's been tough nights and slow mornings for him the past couple of days though. He was upset yesterday morning because it meant no perfect attendance award, and this morning after I said I thought he should stay home again he was upset because, "I know I'll have a lot of work on my desk." He sounds like me! But hopefully after two days of antibiotics and he will be back to school tomorrow! Although it's been interesting having him home while I'm working...


While I haven't posted any pics yet, I did get to scrapbook 2 weekends in a row! With a possible opportunity to go again this weekend? My kids will think I've fallen off the edge of the world... I'm keeping track though and I'm at a total of 38 pages and 18 double pg layouts, 2 cover pages. I have my daughter's cover page to do yet. Now if I could just find more time during the week to keep going on this. I would like to try and do a page a day, but I think this year I'll try to finish the 100 double page layouts and see how that goes.
 
Now if I can add cleaning and organizing my house, running and working out to that list, I'll feel like a "well-rounded" person, busy, but rounded!

Scrapbook Flip Flaps

So I finally got some scrapbooking done over the weekend. I did a total of 21 pages! 10 double page layouts and an individual layout... I got my daughter's sport book caught up using the new CTMH Flip Flaps! I turned a double page layout into 6 pages! I did this for her soccer and volleyball for this year. I love these things! I also "signed up" for a 100 LO challenge... can I finish 100 double page layouts in 2011?? Well I have 10 down and just 90 to go....

 Above: this is the double page layout without the flip flaps opened.... 

 This is the first page with the flip flaps opened to reveal pg 2 & 3...

 and this is the 2nd pg of the double page layout with the flip flaps opened...

 Above - set number two: Double page layout without the flip flaps opened...

 with the flip flaps opened on the first page...

and, with the flip flaps opened on the 2nd page...

It didn't take as long as I thought either, to figure out how to cut the papers, etc.... I did use a separate table so I could lay it all out so it made sense to me though. 

Yikes... Did it again!

I apparently have been to busy with life lately to blog... But today, while watching the snow fall and day dreaming of all the "stuff" that I want to do in the new year, I opened up my blog to see where I left off... So now there are quite a few things I need to do more often this year: write/blog, run, scrapbook, and slowly organize my house - room by room - or maybe I'll start drawer by drawer... It's neverending, but will so be worthwhile in the long run...

And my quote for the day - ‎"It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.”


I'll be back - sooner rather than later!