My Progression of Emotions Towards Running

Oh, so many emotions towards running. The funny thing is they change weekly.  So, I thought I'd elaborate and share with you the roller coaster of feelings these past 9 weeks.

To start, I decided to start running 10 weeks ago.  After hernia surgery in December, and quitting my gym membership (mom guilt), I had no exercise outlet.  So, I laced up my shoes and started running (let's be real, a jog).  I have no goal in mind.  I don't own a scale, so the only weigh-in I do is my yearly check-ups.  I have no desire to do a 5K, 10K, or half-marathon.  A reason I did start running was to maintain or even lose a little weight, and this is told by how my clothes fit and how I feel.  Let's get started:

Week 1:  Thoughts running through my head:  "I think I'm dying."  "Why would anyone do this for fun?"  How long do I have to be gone for Greg to come looking for me?"  "I'm pretty sure my  6 year old can run faster than me."  "I'm still dying."

Week represented through emojis:

Week 2:  Mallory joined me for the next few weeks.  I had to listen to her sweet voice tell me that she is faster than me and ask why I go so slow.  It was actually good bonding time, when I could breathe.  Thoughts:  "I might not be dying, but I still don't enjoy this."  "I still feel silly."

Week represented through emojis:

Weeks 3 & 4:  These weeks were where I wanted to quit.  I was running past some kids and thought they said something mean.  My feelings were hurt by a 12 year old.  That was pretty depressing, but Greg reminded me that I blow things out of proportion (only a few times) and it was probably all in my head.  So, I gave myself a pep-talk and kept going.  Thoughts:  "Middle schoolers are stupid."  "I can do this."  "I am officially not dying!!"

Week represented through emojis:

Week 5:  This week I started a longer run with a friend.  It was great conversation time, as well as an accountability person.  Thoughts:  " It's sort of nice to run with a friend."  "I might be enjoying running a teensy-weensy bit."  

Week represented through emojis:  

P.S.  We don't dress like this to run, but friend emojis are slim-pickings.

Weeks 6-7:  My goal at the beginning was to run atleast 2 times a week.  I am doing 3.  I am motivated to accomplish this number. I added more distance and am changing up my routes (I get bored very easily with exercising).  I have started timing my miles...which I will not be sharing because it is so sad.  Thoughts:  "Feeling stronger."  "I got this!"

Week represented through emojis:

Week 8:  VBS Week. Those two words should explain everything. It was a very LONG week. Only did one long run, and only one thought:  "So. Much. Sweat."  Welcome Summer, you are extremely hot!

Week represented through emojis:

Week 9:  I just finished my run and met two goals.  One:  I ran the WHOLE time!  Now, some of that running might have been very slow, but it still counted.  Two:  I met a time goal for my mile.  Was pretty happy since I went a little earlier than usual and could barely breathe, it was so hot and humid.  Thoughts:  "Getting faster!"  "Faster than my 6 year old!"  "Hard to breathe, but still doing it!"  "Just one more minute."

Week represented through emojis:  

Sort of looks like me, don't you think?? Except the smile, I am never smiling when running.  Haha.

So, there it is in a nutshell.  I will be finishing Week 9 on the beach.  I've never run on the sand, but we shall see.  

In the wise words of Dory, "Just keep swimming." ...but running in this case.  

Back Patio Re-Do!

Snazzy-ing up the back porch was pretty low on my "To-Do" list, but I got an itch to paint some furniture and I though the Adirondack chairs would be a perfect project.  

My dad had built the Adirondack chairs many years ago and had tried to paint them right after building them.  But since the pressure-treated wood was new, the paint just flaked off.  Frustrated, he never painted them again.  After they switched hands a few times, they ended up on our back porch screaming for a makeover.  

I started with the accent pillow.  I guess I should have taken a picture of the pillow, you can see a little of it in the picture below.  They are royal blue, with a row of brightly colored birds.  I first was going to paint them orange to go with the royal blue.  I headed to the big-chain store and picked up a can of spray paint + primer.  I asked the paint guy if this would cover pressure-treated wood and he said, "Yeah, sure."  I came home all excited and put the first coat on the underside of the chair to make sure I liked it and...womp womp.  It looked horrendous.  The orange wasn't soaking up, and stayed tacky.  It just looked BAD.

Plan B.  Go the long route of priming them with real paint.  Shortcuts went out the window.  I bought Zinnser primer (great stuff, by the way) and started painting. Instead of going with orange paint, I decided to go with Aqua blue exterior paint, and am in love with it! Greg had also picked up some benches that we used for a present and then one for our garden.  I decided to paint those as well.  I got one chair and one bench done, but the weather and some chair repairs put us on hold for a few weeks.

Let's just say that when my dad built something, he built it to last...forever...and never be taken apart...not even by a hurricane.  Chair #2 had a rotten leg and needed to be replaced.  There was a large bolt, plus 4 screws (that I saw) holding the leg together.  Well, after removing the bolt that was paint encrusted, 8 rusted screws, and then finding out it had liquid nails on it, I ended just banging it with the hammer until the leg finally popped off.  Greg helped me cut the new leg and put in new screws and voila, the chair was ready to paint!  But the weather had a different idea.  It kept raining, and I needed a dry spell to paint.

I finally got that dry spell today.  After a little monsoon passing by us yesterday, everything started to dry out, and the sun finally came out!  I finished all the painting, finally swept the back porch and Greg helped me hang the lights that were 40% off at Michael's ( I love stuff on sale)! I am absolutely horrible of taking "Before" pictures, and not too great at taking "During" pictures, but here are some "After" pictures for your enjoyment:

From the kitchen door facing outward.  Loving the aqua blue I chose for the chairs!

Looking on to the back porch.  Love the new lights!

From the yard, the whole patio.  This is our new picnic table we got from Round Top.  Reminds us of Germany.

The new sod!

One of the benches

A week or so ago, I saw our neighbor laying sod in his yard.  He had a few pallets full of sod, and I mentioned that if he had any left over, I would pay him for it.  He let my buy 30 square feet, which didn't cover as much of the dead spot in the middle of the yard as I thought.  A few days later, he said he had more, and I could take 30 more square feet.  I happily took it, and covered more of our sad-looking yard.  The rain has been great for the St. Augustine grass to take root, but I probably need another 60 square feet to put a real dent in the bald spot.

That will be another project for another day. For now, I will eat a cookie and enjoy the back porch.

Painting a Piano!

I painted this piano a while ago, but am just getting around to writing (typing?) about it.  The piano was one of the first projects I used Annie Sloan chalk paint on.  I started with an end table first (forgot to take pictures of that project).  The top to the end table had come off, there were nicks and scratches on it, and I had accidentally spilled a bottle of pink nail polish on it.  Needless to say, it needed a new coat of paint.  So, for my birthday I asked for a quart of Annie Sloan paint in Provincial Blue.  I started with the end table first: glued the top back on, made sure to wipe and clean all surfaces and started painting!  It went really well and I was itching to paint something else, so the piano became my next project.

Picture #1:  We got this piano free from friends of a friend.  They were moving, and didn't want to move it.  So we got it, free of charge!  The kids like to play on it,  I got a few beginner books and it has been fun to play around on.  But it was a drab brown that blended in with the floor too much. Why not paint it blue?

 Picture #2:  This was after two coats of the Provincial Blue.  I kept it like this for a few weeks, but still felt that something was missing.  It was better than it was, but not its best.
 

Picture #3:  I decided to cover the bench with this fun arrow print.  I put some batting down as well to make it a little more comfortable.  I remember covering this in my closet during nap time.  I didn't want to wake up the smallest with all my nailing, so I hid in the closet covering a piano bench.

 Picture #4:  I decided to add some white accents!  Definitely gave the piano a little more oomph and pizzazz.  I really did want to paint behind the keys, but couldn't figure out how to get the keys to stay down, so that area stayed brown.

I think the only area that was a big oops was the varnish.  I did a light coat of Annie Sloan varnish on all the whole piano except the top.  I wanted to do something a little more water proof in case a drink was left there.  I had previously purchased some boat varnish (for a wooden sign for a garden that needed to withstand the weather) and decided if it was good enough to keep water off of a boat, it was good enough for the top of my piano.  Well, this varnish has a yellow tint to it and it left my white paint looking a little yellowish and discolored.  No one notices unless I point it out, and the top is covered with nick knacks anyways.

I enjoy this piece so much.  It ties my living room together because it shares its color with the end table.  Seems like it will be sticking around for quite a few years!

Tube TV turned bookshelves

This year will be the year of finishing projects.  I have so many half-projects or even ideas floating through my head, and it's time to complete them.  Of course, this will be the perfect place to record these projects.  

My project that has probably lasted the longest (almost 8 months) is the tube TV turned bookshelves.  Ever since I was a tween (forever ago) I would watch Caroline in the City.  Anyone else remember that show??  Anyways, she had an old TV turned fish tank and from that moment on I knew that I would do some kind of project involving some of those components.  

In June 2015 (remember, I started 8 months ago), our church has a huge garage sale.  I saw this beauty for sale.  I totally took a gamble and DIDN'T buy it.  First, because I was cheap, second, because I was cheap.  Well lucky me, a few days later the garage sale was done and it was sadly sitting by the garbage bin waiting to be thrown away.  I got some tools and another handy person, and removed the gut of the TV.  Let me tell you, the project almost came to a halt when I found a live cockroach crawling on the inside.  I was about to scrap the whole idea, that's how much I hate those bugs.   

Picture #1:  June 2015.  TV is tubeless and ready to be carted home. 

 Picture #2:  Phase 2: The Shelves.  I have a handy friend who helped me out with the shelf building, probably on the promise of chocolate chip cookies that I never made.  This phase was completed in August of 2015...and then a lot of time passed.

Phase 3: The paint!  After a few weeks I finally got around to painting the shelves.  I painted the outside with white chalk paint generously given to me no charge by my sister who had some left over from a previous project.  I painted the inside shelves "Pure Silver".  It is actually our bathroom color, left over from that project.  Remember, I am cheap :).

Finished the paint in October 2015

 Original knobs glued and screwed in.

 Phase 4:  Finally convincing Greg to let me put it in the house!  After much discussion and garage cleaning, I finally brought it in to the house in January 2016

I ended up putting my mixer on top and stacking all my cookbooks underneath.  I thought it fit perfect under a little gallery of pictures we've collected over the years.  

Shortly after placing it in the kitchen, we ended up getting a new kitchen table that was MUCH larger than the old one.  The TV shelves no longer fit. :(  It is shortly going to a new home, a friend who will be using it as a night stand/bookshelves.  Nice to know that it will be going to a good home where it will be well taken care of .

My Life: Laundry and Food

First life category: Laundry

Laundry is a funny thing.  It has to be done, especially if you don't want to smell weird but it is so hard to accomplish.  It multiplies exponentially with every child.  It also doesn't matter how many clothes you or your children have, you always want the one thing that is dirty. Don't get me started on folding!  Why are there so many small-people clothes? Where do all those missing socks go?

Sometimes I gauge my life on how the laundry situation is going.  For example, if I stay on top of it and do a load every so often I feel on top of the world!  I feel like Wonder Mom!  There isn't a huge pile in the laundry room to be washed, no pile in the living room to be folded.  I feel like a well-adjusted, accomplished adult.  On the flip side, if I wait until it HAS to be done, I feel overwhelmed in ALL aspects of my life.  The laundry is bursting from hampers, no clean school uniforms for Nolan (it's okay, we wore the same uniform two days in a row), and the dreaded no clean towels has occurred.  At that point I just want to go buy new towels from Target and not do laundry ever again.  It's like some three headed beast that I'll never be able to tame, so why try?
And then I put on my big girl pants, do a marathon of washing, folding and putting away (for what seems like all weekend) and all is right with the world again.

You would think since I know how to conquer the evil laundry beast, I would be able to do a little every day.  But, as I type this, I am reminded of the load being washed, the two loads that are dry and waiting to be folded and the two loads that are folded in to nice piles but have yet to be put away.

Maybe next week :)

Second life category: Food

Food is another funny thing.  We all have to eat to survive, and a wide variety of food is always best for your health.  But heaven forbid you tell my children that.  If you ask them right now what they want to eat they will say:  pizza (frozen), carrots and ranch, macaroni and cheese or Chick-fil-A.  Makes me sound like I only feed my children the same four things for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

So, I was super excited when Nolan asked for Ants on a Log.  It's that healthy snack with celery, peanut butter smeared on top and raisins placed up and down the celery stalk.  I started washing celery, smearing peanut butter and placing raisins perfectly on the snack...this process took a lot longer than expected.  When served, Mallory asks,"The celery is the log, the raisins are ants, but what is the peanut butter?"  Hmmmm....I told her it was sap, which then turned in to a whole conversation of what sap was.  I'm pretty sure the peanut butter is just there for the yummy factor and to keep the ants from falling off, but I wasn't sure a 4 year old would understand that explanation.  Sadly, after all this hard work they picked up the raisins, licked off the peanut and then ate the celery separately.  At that point I'm thinking, "Whatever, it all ends up in the same place."

Baked Ziti was a hit, especially if containing a heart-stopping amount of cheese.

Ghiradelli Triple Chocolate Brownies.  A college student suggested these to Greg while he was shopping, so Greg listened and bought them.  Pretty darn good if I do say so myself, and the kids enjoy them.  Who wouldn't?

Cookie Butter.  I new product of HEB.  I jar of heavenly deliciousness.  Very good on bread with bananas sliced on top.  A new fave for Nolan's lunches.

Slowly expanding their pallet is hard, especially since their taste buds seem to change from week to week, and they rarely like the same thing at the same time.  But we always have frozen pizza and mac and cheese to fall back on!

The Crafting Game-Changer

I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again, Pinterest is horrible sometimes!  All of the crafts look so easy.  You see tags like:
"No-Sew Blankets in 30 Minutes!"
"5 Easy Steps to a Clean House"
or the worst...
"3-ingredient dessert for only 200 calories!"  (But it's never 200 calories, and always has a few more ingredients.

But, of course I still look on Pinterest, pinning crafts, quilts and food with the greatest of intentions of  doing them ALL. 

And sometimes, my job requires me to look on Pinterest ( I know, dream come true).  I have recently taken up the position of Coordinator for the night time MOPS and once a month we get to make a craft.  Where is the perfect place to look for crafts?  Pinterest of course!

I decided to choose a pretty intense craft.  Blocks of wood painted with fall colors and lettering on one side, and winter colors and more lettering on the other side.  The only dilemma being, I am not so great at painting letters.  They always look  a little crooked and seem  to be too thick in some areas and too thin in other areas.  And then my boss said the most amazing thing, "Let's get a Cricut!"

We would not only be using the Cricut on this craft, but on many others.  An investment.  I was ecstatic.  It was a crafting game-changer!  When it was delivered I immediately set it up, and started fiddling around with fonts and clip art.  We purchased the Cricut Explore, which hooks straight to your computer with a USB instead of using cartridges.  So font and clipart options were endless. 

The blocks that I cut for the project

So, I started cutting out all the letters that we'll be needing for our craft and it looks so professional!  No more fat/skinny letters!  I made one craft project to make sure it looked okay, and I think it turned out pretty decent.  The cost wasn't too bad either, especially with things at Hobby Lobby always seeming like they are 50% off.

Happy Fall!

We'll be making around 20 over the next 3 weeks, here's to hoping everything goes very smoothly!

The (Unspoken) Rules of Large Trash Pick-Up Day

I have guilt.  I feel guilty every time I throw away a piece of trash that I know will be loaded up in to my large trash can, then dumped in to a larger trash compactor, to finally end up in a huge landfill.  My guilt has led me to recycle, but living in Bryan, you can only recycle #1 and #2 items.  What about all the #5's??  That drives me crazy for some reason.

 I buy large containers of applesauce instead of individual containers.

We have been composting for the past 6 months.  It was absolutely amazing how much food items we were throwing away.  Of course, I avoid composting meat, milk products or anything fatty (mainly grease).

But none of this guilt compares to the HUGE guilt of Large Trash Pick-Up Day

It is one day a week (Friday) where we can put anything by our curb and they will come pick it up. The rules are different for different places.  My parents in Austin have it every two weeks, and they won't pick up huge items, like couches.  Of course, they don't pick up anything toxic, like tires or paint.  We have a Toxic Recycling Day twice a year to recycle those items when needed.

Driving around the neighborhoods on Fridays, you will see TV's, couches, mattresses, washer and dryers, moldy things, broken things...the list could go on forever.  And all of these things will end up in a landfill, being buried in our Earth.  Sort of makes me sad when I think about it too much.

BUT...There is a silver lining!!

There are many people (myself included sometimes) who drive around and collect these items to be re-used, re-purposed, or recycled.  I found a brand-new stainless steel trash bin one time.  Just sitting there on the curb one time.  So shiny and new.  I left it there, thinking it must be a horrible mistake, because who would want to throw away such a nice looking trash can?  I have friends who found a washer and dryer (still working) on the curb, dressers, toys from garage sales that didn't get sold.

So, last night (Thursday) I dragged items to my curb.  The old owners had left a plethora of things just shoved in to a corner of the back yard.  So, 6 months later I decided to finally get rid of the items.  There were pots, pot stands, some old chicken wiring, netting and an old bouncy chair that the baby had grown out of.

I went to bed crossing my fingers, hoping that most of it would be gone by morning.

And it was!!

I spied my front curb loading the kids up in to the car, and what to my wondering eyes did appear?  An empty curb!  They had taken all the pots, pot stands, bouncy chair, metal items but had left the netting.  The pile had considerably shrunk.

And with my pile shrinking, so did my guilt.

That is of course until next Friday...