Signs It's the First Week of Classes

1. No milk is in the house (until I manage to grab some today in-between picking kids up).

2. No cooking is going on in our house. That fact combined with baseball games, practices, and church has led us to eat way too much ball park food and "whatever you can find in the fridge".

3. My running is taking a hit. Funny how you can't run well when you ate nachos the night before for dinner.

4. My house is a mess even though we're not cooking. My favorite this afternoon was when L Child covered the entire living room and part of the dining room with his "lands" (aka blankets and pillows). He was jumping from Oklahoma City to Edmond to Chattanooga to Elgin to Japan to Guam. He may or may not have been watching his brother play a lot of Mario Brothers lately.

5. I am really proud of myself when I clean the kitchen (even though it's not that bad with the no cooking).

6. My fingers once again can fly across a keyboard in record time due to all the practice I'm getting responding to students' emails.

7. I'm exhausted and waiting for this weekend even though it's only Wednesday night.

8. I can't sleep though because I'm wired thinking about my To Do List.

9. My Netflix usage is down. That might not be a bad thing.

10. The words, "You have bedtime the next three nights by yourself" have already been directed at Josh. My boys like to ask some big questions at bedtime during our first week of me back full time at work. Maybe it's because of the chaos around the house as we are all adjusting again. Maybe they need to know it's still good to ask questions. Whatever the reason, big questions at 9 PM aren't my favorite, but I'm thankful they feel comfortable to ask. One of the boys began with "Why do you have to be married before you have kids?" and "Why did your one baby die in your tummy, but I lived?" Then they decided to tag team me and the other one asked, "So how does that baby get in a Mama's tummy?" He must've felt sorry for me because then he threw me a softball question, "So how much blood goes through your heart?" (I still didn't know the answer.)

Sassy Girl

Haddie has learned the word "no" and uses it quite a lot now. No shock there because she hears it enough with four other people in the household directing her.

Tonight I told her "No!" when she threw her cup down on the floor (like every night at dinner). She then picked up a piece of her food, looked at me and said, "No" as she dropped it on the floor.
Needless to say, she was done with dinner.

Tonight at bedtime, I read books to Haddie and Liam in her room. When it was time to rock her, I told Liam to go to the table and wait for me (we were going to play a game). Instead, Liam stood outside her door and peeked in through the cracked door. Haddie, sitting on my lap, leaned forward when she saw him and yelled, "Get back!" I shushed her and told Liam to go on; she needed to settle down for bedtime. Haddie yelled at Liam one more time, "No!"

I tell myself that I'll appreciate that sassy spirit when she starts dating.

My Running Journey Part 2

I had written previously about what's working in my running life. Here are a few more things since then that are helping me out, too.

#1 Eating well and adjusting my diet as needed
I've always said that I run so I can eat. This was especially true when I was losing my baby weight from Liam. This time around though, the weight is coming off slower, and I have diet restrictions since my gall bladder was removed. (There's a few things I can't eat at all and several things I have to keep at a minimum or I get sick.) The first time I ran the morning after a night of overeating unhealthy food was awful. I didn't last as long either. I realized I've got to eat well if I want to be able to run. I still have treats, but I'm motivated to keep them at a minimum and not to overeat.
About halfway through the summer, I started to feel sick more often. The heat was zapping me. I took more time off and hydrated more. I also realized I needed to up my protein. I'm eating tuna and Greek yogurt with almonds and drinking chocolate milk on running days. It's made a world of a difference.
Most importantly, I'm in a good cycle of eating and running. I eat well so I can run. I'm motivated to run because it's keeping my body in balance. I rarely get sick from food and feel healthier.

#2 Resting
I'm still working on this one, but I'm realizing I need to do it.
I didn't run while I was on vacation. I planned to run; I even took my running stuff. It just didn't happen. We did a lot of walking and swimming, but I was nervous when we got back, and I only had one week until my next race. It worked out just fine though. I think my body needed a running rest. I took another week off when I got dehydrated. I'm taking days off now when I can tell my body needs to recover.
I'm mostly an all or nothing girl. I like to do something 100% or not at all. I'm trying to accept the fact that rest is part of the running journey. To be a 100%, I've got to rest. Without it, I won't be able to sustain my running.

#3 Taking care of those feet
I'm finding that my feet need support when I'm not running. If I'm doing housework or on my feet a lot, I really should wear my tennis shoes. If my feet hurt before I even start running, it's not going to be a good long run.

#4 Speed(ing) work (still)
Trying new speed work activities and running with fast people is what's helping me get quicker.

#5 Keeping at it
Rough runs are going to happen even on race days. My last race didn't set a PR, and it was pretty awful. I guess that's part of running though. Not every race can be record-setting. I've also been told by seasoned runners that training through the summer is going to pay off in the fall. I'm looking forward to that magical fast run in the fall weather!

#6 Looking for signs
Every time I reach a milestone on this running journey, I joke, "Another sign I'm a real runner now." It's encouraging when I'm sore and tired. Some signs for me: getting up at 5 AM to run isn't horrible (just hard now), running in the heat, keeping running clothes with me in case I get a block of time to run spontaneously, stress making me want to run, and getting excited about new speed work. What are some of yours?

It Might Be a Long Year

The boys started school last week, and I went back to work. Or attempted to work. It's almost been two weeks, but I'm still trying to get in the groove. Dishes are piled in the kitchen and there's piles of laundry. I managed to cook twice this week (crock pot counts!)  though so I'm really proud of myself.

But, I'm like Dug at work.

I'm still in summer land - that magical place where I can watch Netflix and nap almost daily.

One minute I'm writing an experiment, the next? I see someone walk by reminding me that there's probably coffee in the front office. I really should get up and get some coffee. Ten minutes later I'm wondering what I was doing before the coffee break.

Last Thursday, Casen's teacher sent home a poster with directions. He had to make a poster about himself by Monday. Three days away.
No problem.
I ordered a few pictures of C that night for pick-up at CVS. I figured it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and get that part done.
I fell asleep that night and forgot about the poster.
So did C. Until Saturday when we were right in the middle of something. I told him to remind me Sunday afternoon.
Sunday was a busy day; we had planned too many things including a rocket launch in the evening. It was after our failed rocket launch (I'm sure I'll blog about that soon), and we were back at Mom and Dad's, I suddenly thought, OH NO! Casen's poster!
It was 9 PM Sunday night.
I felt like Worst End of School Year Mom Ever, except that it was the beginning of the school year.

Sometime around 11 PM, it was mostly done.

Oh, and L Child stayed up to work on his "project", too. 

Monday morning was loads of fun.

Morning Time at the Nichols

I'm not a morning person. When I was little, I wouldn't talk to anybody until I had eaten my cereal. Right after Josh and I got married, he would wake me up in the morning (when I didn't need to get up early) to ask me where something was located. I told Josh he wasn't allowed to wake me up in the morning if he couldn't find something. I like to sleep. I still don't want to talk for awhile in the morning. 

Then I had Casen who is like his Daddy in the morning. Way too talkative. This morning, Casen crawled into our bed (we all slept in later than usual), and I could hear Josh and him discuss some deep philosophies of life. Sigh. Way to early for this woman.

H was sick this day (I figured out a little after this picture).  Casen felt fantastic like he does every morning so he was ready for a photo shoot!

Not to worry though. Though Liam looks just like Josh, he does take after me in the mornings. He has to have some quiet time to wake up. He doesn't want to talk or play. A boy I like to hang out with in the mornings.

A year or so ago, Josh talked to Casen about proper treatment of Liam and Mama in the mornings. It went something like this:

"You don't talk to them in the mornings. They don't like to talk like we do. You just leave them alone and give them time to wake up."

The system has worked well, but now we have another morning person.

 Sigh. In another year or so, I'm sure Josh will give her the morning talk as well.