Re-prioritizing

Every time I get pregnant I lose the desire to be productive. I could curl up on the couch and read books for nine months and be completely happy, while everything falls to pieces around me. Since that's not really feasible, instead I take a hard look at some of the things filling my time and suddenly find great ways to streamline or cull things out that aren't important to me anymore that hadn't even crossed my mind just weeks ago.

Such is happening at the moment. I've been in a DIY kick for several years now and have tried my hand at lots of different things. I've made my own hair and skin and cleaning products, baked many things from scratch, and generally just found tons of ways to avoid commercial products. I'm feeling that come full circle of late.

I've never really wanted to be a loud advocate of the stuff I'm doing like I see on some of the blogs out there where they post these lifestyle things, but I have really enjoyed it. In case I did ever come across as holier than thou, sorry friends. It was unintentional. I do like the idea of using less chemicals. I have a pretty bad family medical history that I feel some urgency to avoid increasing my own risk for developing those diseases. But I also try things out because I enjoy them. When that enjoyment disappears and it starts just being a burden, it's time to readjust and check the priorities.

So I cloth diapered for a long time, through three kids. It was economical and worked. I liked a lot of things about it. But it's not working so well anymore with the current washer and sensitive-skinned kid. And the quantity doubling next year when baby number four arrives further discourages my desire to continue. So out it goes! I've been fiddling with different DIY shampoo/conditioner options for years. I've never found something that I can really say I love long term. So bye bye to that for now! Some other things are staying. I like making my own soap. I like making my own face products and still enjoy the experimentation there. The results I've gotten have been way better than previous store bought products. So that stays. What it comes down to is if I don't love what I'm spending my time doing, I'm reevaluating and making changes, and it feels good.

The Race

There was a time in my life where I identified myself as a runner. I ran a lot of races. I started to pick up some speed. I actually won the age division or was in the top three in some races. The coolest award I got was when I finished first in my age division at the Top of Utah Marathon and got a trophy that looked like a moose. It was hilariously awful and I kept it around for quite a few years. I really loved running and actually feeling like I wasn't limited but my height, which was my struggle in several sports in high school.

Once I started having kids running petered out of my life. I'd run a little here and a little there, but I could never get the distance up enough to hit that point where I remembered running for miles feeling like I was just gliding along. It's a pretty amazing feeling, but it turns out it takes a lot of effort to get there.

Aaron's pregnancy particularly laid me out. I had a mix of symptoms that completely worked me over and by the time I had him I could barely walk down the sidewalk let alone think of exercising. But about six months after he was born, around Christmas time, I had a conversation with my brother Josh and we decided that we needed to make a goal to race a race together so that we could both kick the horrible fitness we both suffered from. He had been working on his PhD for upwards of eight years or more and it hadn't been nice to his body either.

So off we went to start training for a half marathon. Bill was on board as was my sister-in-law Kelly. We made this little Google spreadsheet to track our times and it was awesome to see all of us improving and adding on the miles. There were quite a few hiccups along the way, but we aimed for a fall race, so we had a lot of room for those errors.

Unfortunately, three weeks before the race Bill suffered a stress fracture, so he didn't run for those three weeks and managed just one run the week of the race, which made him pretty sore, so he wasn't confident how the race would go.

Josh finished his PhD literally six days before the race. He packed his apartment up and drove it all to my parent's house in Utah from Texas and then turned around and drove straight through to our place in South Carolina. Literally he got two hours and 45 minutes of sleep Friday night.

I hadn't announced it yet, but this month I also found out I am pregnant, and the initial pregnancy exhaustion hit on quite a few runs, so my times weren't nearly as great as in training.

Basically all of us were a little shaky and uncertain but hopeful for a good race. And you know what? We did have a good race. A great race even. It was an interesting course that wound around some of the parks in downtown Greenville and felt a bit like in looping circles, but we never ran on the same trail more than once, so I was actually impressed with how they got the miles in. The race was the least supported long run I've ever done. It's only my second half, but I've done some marathons and I was surprised with how few water stations there were and I didn't see any bathrooms, but thankfully all of us did fine despite that. The stations they did have were great and the beginning and end of the race were really well supported, so I'm not too bothered. A gel would have been nice about halfway through, but we survived.

We were able to run together for the first eight miles before Bill slid back a bit. His three weeks off started to wear on his endurance. I was worried he'd hit a wall, but we found at at the end that he actually did pretty well, just had to slow his pace a bit, so that's great. Josh and I stuck together until mile 11 when he said we were at 1:43 and we might be able to finish under two hours. I pretty well took off at that point trying to attain that goal. I felt like this race I wanted to run together as long as it was feasible, so I hadn't run as fast as I might have earlier on, but I also didn't want to poop out in the last few miles, so I was very okay with the pace early on. However, when the opportunity arose to speed up, I found I had quite a bit of juice left, so it was fun to pick up the pace.

We finished the race by running a lap around the local baseball stadium. They announced our names as we came in, which was fun. I was in a bit of a dead spot, with no one around me, so I took the chance to really up my pace and try to catch the group ahead of me. It felt so good to finish fast. We didn't quite hit that two-hour mark, but I finished in 2:02, Josh in 2:04, and Bill in 2:15. Based off of the injuries, lack of sleep, and my pregnancy tiredness, all of us were super pleased.

They had tons of food and we all got medals and a mug and a shirt, so overall it was as fun race.

The week in pictures

 Some presents from Grandma Suzanne for Halloween.

 The kids all got capes and they love them.

 Sometimes going to bed in her real bed isn't nearly as nice as sleeping in a patch of sunshine.

 He just wanted to go running too.

 Look at that mop! I actually chopped his hair off this week.

 I still don't know what this actually is. I came upon him in the Botanical Garden running down the road. I first thought he was a dog since he was just moseying along down the road, then I got closer and realized no, definitely not a dog. It looked more like a fox, but gray and much bigger than I normally have seen. Didn't really look like a coyote except for the color, but who knows. He was not shy. He just hung around looking at me like he was wondering what I was doing there.

 Trying on costumes from the box we had in the attic. Genevieve is a butterfly, Spencer a bumblebee. Well, half a bumblebee. :)

This kid is serious about his pudding.

A rather uneventful week

It boggles my mind how expensive car repairs can be. The estimate for the repairs on what felt like a minor fender bender last weekend is $3000. That is crazy to me! The other guy's insurance will cover everything, plus two new carseats and a booster seat, plus a rental for the time it takes to fix it. Seriously, it's so much money. There are many forms of insurance I dislike, but car insurance is really making my life easier right now. We're just waiting for all the parts to come in to get the van in for repairs. 

This weekend we headed Greenville direction to do some shopping. We ended up at Steak 'n' Bake for dinner, which is not somewhere I would go again, but it was okay for one meal. Aaron was hilarious there. I find myself forgetting regularly that he's not a little baby lump anymore. He has opinions and wants to do everything everyone else is doing, and eats normal food like everyone else. This is him chowing through a grilled cheese sandwich and fries in comfort. lol. He is actually my biggest eater of the three. That kid can put down food like no other. He was all over playing with the cardboard truck they gave him and generally having a grand old time going out to eat, which we don't do very often. 

Aside from that, we haven't had much happening this last week. The lawnmower is on the fritz, so my lawn is half mowed from when it stopped in the middle of mowing, and looking like a jungle. My fingers are crossed that once we fix the mower we'll only have to mow one more time for the season, but no guarantee as it's supposed to be 79 degrees on Friday. The weather is being exceptionally fickle of late. I was a bit shocked by the 40ish degree nights the last few days, but I could be done with 80-degree temps too. I guess I'm like everyone else and just can't be satisfied with what the weather throws us, lol.  Good times.

Oh, I did run 11 miles Saturday morning. The half marathon is in two weeks. Bill is still uncertain whether he can run it. Fingers crossed on that, but I'm not thinking about it too hard. I've found that it doesn't matter how many times I train for long races like a half marathon, any time I run more than 10 miles in a training run, it is grueling mentally. Often physically too, but definitely mentally. It still just seems like a long time. Of course it is, but when you run lots of miles, sometimes your perspective gets distorted. So yeah, 11 miles is a LONG run! It's a big accomplishment. Go me. lol. My brother is driving in to run the race with me and hopefully Bill, so that's going to be awesome.

A little of this, a little of that

 I got to go with Spencer's preschool class to a farm nearby called Denver Downs. It's pretty pricey for normal entrance, so I jumped at the chance. We had a great time. He picked his own pumpkin and jumped around in a hayloft and played in a corn kernal pit and slid down a big slide and generally had a great time.

Aaron is a food lover and it makes my heart happy. He is as messy as they come when he eats, but he just delights in it, so we go with it.

Here's a bit of a peak at Genevieve's new bed. She adores it. I have more work to do on Spencer's before I take real pictures, but the kids are really happy that I built this for them.

 It was pretty rainy yesterday and Bill was out with the boys running an errand when a guy coming to the Clemson game slid into the back of him on the slick roads as he was coming to a stop. It wasn't a huge accident. The slick roads helped the impact as our van just slid too instead of rebounding really hard. But there's a good amount of damage. We have an appointment tomorrow to get it inspected.

Running Update

Bill and I started running at the beginning of this year. It's been a great change. We've both lost some weight and generally gotten in better shape, we feel way better, and it's been fun to train the last few months for the half marathon we're running on Halloween.

Bill just ran into a hiccup. Whoops, no pun intended, lol. He thinks he sprained his ankle on his Thursday run and, not realizing that, ran again yesterday and totally aggravated it. So now he's hobbling around hardly able to walk and hopefully we can get him healed soon. Such a bummer.

Hurricane Joaquin didn't make landfall this week like some expected, but it did contribute to a crazy rainstorm that we've been in for the last three days. We're basically floating away. Our yard and carport are under inches of water. Thankfully it rains a lot here, so everything we have outside is pretty well rainproofed. I haven't had to move much of anything to keep it from getting soaked.

Despite the rain, I had a nine-mile run scheduled yesterday. It has only been in the 60s, so the rain is way colder, but I got myself out and going in between conference sessions yesterday. It happened to be a Clemson game day as well, so despite the crazy rainstorms the tailgaters were out in force. I generally run around the university because it has the best roads and trails, so I wound my way through all the revelers, got a few high fives and shout outs along the way, and got my run done in about a nine-minute mile.

Bill and I have seen our mile times significantly decrease in the last month. We found a multivitamin that has made a huge difference, and we're in such better shape after nine months of running, so that was actually a slow run for me, which was nice. I didn't want to be fighting my lungs and exhausted legs at the same time as dealing with all the rain, so I took it slow. Nine miles still feels like a long distance, so I was a bit worried. I can't describe how nice it feels to be back feeling like I can actually run fast. I haven't been at that place since before we got married, so it feels amazing to finish runs closer to eight-minute miles than nine and some even faster. The last half marathon I ran was in 2008 and I ran it in 1:39, which is sub-eight minute pace. After so many years of pretty weak efforts at running, due to a combination of grad school and three kids, it feels amazing that I can imagine getting back to that kind of pace again. I had wondered if I just had gotten past my prime for those kinds of times. Turns out that's totally  not the case and with a combination of a serious training program, better nutrition, quality supplements, and efforts to get decent sleep (haha!), the speed is coming back.

And just for kicks and giggles, here's what I looked like after my run yesterday. I was completely soaked.

It's one of those good phases

We had an excellent weekend. It feels like we've hit one of those good phases in child rearing. This of course means that something huge will come up like next week, but for now, today, this weekend, it feels a lot more smooth.

Spencer and Genevieve are so fun these days. I had a girl's night Friday night and decided to take Genevieve along. She charmed everyone there and when we tried on all the clothes (it was a Lularoe party), she tried on her own little dresses and twirled in them and just had a delightful time. She even got to bring one home, so that was cool. Afterward she was so happy and told me, "Mommy, that was a really fun party." Just having my little girl be old enough to express that kind of thought to me makes me so happy. I foresee lots more awesome girl's nights out with her when we leave the boys to their devices. :) She is really great to have one-on-one. So well behaved, such a lover of life, interested in everything around her. It's awesome.

Spencer is also amazing one-on-one. He's in preschool now and completely flourishing. He skips his way out every day to tell me what a great time he had. He loves his teachers and he tells me about his friends, and about what he did at his stations and how they do all these cool things. I'm so, so glad we decided to put him in preschool. I knew he would love it, but seeing it play out makes it that much better.

And then we've got Aaron. I don't think I can ever even do justice to what a perfect addition he has always been to our family. He is the sunniest little guy. He is walking everywhere, exploring like crazy. He could spend all day puttering around the yard and be happy as can be. He eats like a champ. Literally, at dinner tonight we had pork chops and a cauliflower mash thing like mashed potatoes. Amazing, btw, but Aaron just dug in and ate an entire pork chop on his own. He's 14 months old. This kind of blows me away. It is so easy to make him laugh. We hardly have to do anything to get him to giggle at us and he definitely inherited Bill's ability to do something funny at just the right instant to make everyone laugh. He's already got that perfect sense of comedic timing.

We went to Stumphouse Tunnel yesterday, which is an unfinished train tunnel turned outdoor monument. All the kids, Aaron included, were so excited to walk all the way to the end of the tunnel. It is amazing to have three independent kids able to walk wherever they want. We've spent so many years carrying babies, and I'm sure we'll do more of that, but for now our three are at a perfect point and I just love it.

When a need becomes a hobby and then more

Back in the day when Bill and I were early on married and we had no furniture and were moving to an unfurnished apartment and I had time and a bit of extra money on my hands and decided to learn to build furniture because it filled the need, yeah, back then I had no idea where that would go. It became a hobby. Then it became a way of life. Now it's almost an art form and a creative outlet. I can't imagine going to a furniture store to buy anything. I might go for inspiration. I'll look around and think, I could build that and it would cost a fraction of what they're charging.

I learned how to build furniture. I learned about different kinds of screws and what works for what. I learned how to pick wood that isn't bowed or corkscrewed. I learned about saws and drills and sanders and how to finish a piece and what the best stain is, or maybe that it doesn't matter so much to me as that I like the color. I learned about finishes. I tried a bunch of different kinds and liked some and not so much others. I learned to refinish furniture. I accumulated a bunch of tools over the years.

I learned over time that some of the methods of joining furniture I had use early on didn't really last that many years. So I did more research and am still researching and it turns out there are better methods that don't even use screws or nails and are stronger. Turns out they require more tools, which is both fun, annoying when I don't have money right now to get them, and exciting because for instance, I always wanted a table saw and now I have a genuine reason to save for one. The other day I learned the difference between a planer and a jointer. Did you know you want to run wood through a jointer before a planer? Yeah, me neither, but I do now and maybe someday I'll own those tools and do something about it.

Nowadays my home is full of things I've built. There isn't a room in the house that doesn't include my work. It's really cool to see the process of learning played out in my home. It's satisfying. Some pieces are higher quality than others. All were built to fill a need, and they've all done that. Nowadays I look around and wonder what I'll build next. Right now it's a new bunk bed for the kids. Why? Because I feel like it and what I'm building will fit the need better than the current one. Plus, I like it. I like building. I like seeing it come together. I'm using different methods to join the pieces together this time and I can't wait to see how they work out. Genevieve picked the color for her bed and it's going to be hot pink and how awesome is that?! lol.

I always like personal improvement, and it turns out there is lots of room for improvement in this craft. I find myself unsatisfied with the status quo of what I've done before and looking to try new things. Back when I was in school I always enjoyed the challenge of learning new things. Turns out that process still provides me a lot of satisfaction. So onward and upward. I've got plans, dreams, future things I want to do. And who knows, maybe there will be a little bit of a business in this too. Turns out I kind of liked that the last few months as I built some pieces for others. That's it's own type of fun.

My happy moment of the day

I'm pretty sure that it takes a year to recover from moving to a new house. At least that's what it has felt like each time we moved in the last few years, and since that has been a lot of times, it feels like a good reference point.

I've been working a bit more the last month than I had the previous six, so the funds are flowing a bit more. Today I shrunk my grocery list of non food items, whatever you call that, I call it my Everything Else list, to less than ten items. It made it up into the 40s and maybe even 50 at one point when we first moved to this house in January. It might take a bit longer to knock off those last nine items, but it's surprisingly pleasing to get all those things. It's kind of funny because they're things like sheets and mattress covers and a firesafe box and canning jars and a diffuser, so by no means all that interesting of stuff, but there you have it, the things that make me happy in any given day.

Also, I think I've finally gotten to a place where I like how my working hours go. It's only taken nearly seven years to figure it out, but hey, I'm trying not to count. I used to work only in the mornings, but the kids kept getting up earlier and earlier and I just didn't get the time I needed before they were up and making it take twice as long if not longer, so now I work from 9-10PM during the week, and focus on only work so I get the maximum amount done. Then I wake up at 5:30AM and work from then until I'm done, which with that quality hour the night before means that I'm often done by 7-8AM. It had gotten to where I was taking all morning to get done and that was just unacceptable, so this is a fantastic change. Here's to the goal of someday not working at all, or at least not my current employment, but for now during these grad school years, it is a huge blessing in our lives that I have a flexible job that allows us to be more financially independent. It makes being on a grad school income not seem like such a sacrifice when we aren't piling up loans semester upon semester. And the tradeoff in stress with that is very worth it.

Three

Genevieve turned three on Friday and boy howdy, is she excited about it. We had a low key day mostly involving eating copious amounts of foods she loves. We had our classic german pancakes for breakfast. That was a hit, as always, which is why we have it for every birthday. Lunch we had Costco muffins. The kids picked chocolate and vanilla chocolate chip, so needless to say, it was not hard to get them to eat. Then for dinner Bill made homemade pizza. That worked so well and the kids didn't complain about that either. It was awesome.

I asked Genevieve what kind of cake she wanted and she was all about strawberry, but Spencer kept popping into the conversations and advocating for chocolate, so Genevieve, being the sweet girl she is, decided she wanted chocolate cake with strawberry frosting. It turned out great. She loved it. We have been snacking on it for two days.

We went to the Botanical Garden in the evening and went on a little hike. That went over well. The kids have really started to love hiking, which makes my heart happy. Aaron, our new little walker, walked half the hike. That kid is impressive. Genevieve and Spencer buzzed all over the place, loving it. They brought their scooters and used them for part of it, but Bill ended up being the pack camel for them later on. Ah well. That's not uncommon.

We're so happy to finally have our three year-old. It has felt like Genevieve is three for months. She is a smart little girl and so very sassy. She's also very sweet. She doesn't appreciate when Spencer grabs stuff from her, but if he asks nicely, she'll give him anything. She's so generous in her sharing.

Today I asked her to keep her smoothie in the kitchen while she ate it so it didn't make a mess anywhere else. This is how she dealt with that request. Basically I just shook my head and wondered what she'll be like as a teenager. Lol. She's a thinker. She always comes up with a twist on what we ask to suit her fancy. I have hope that will be a good trait as she gets older. She's definitely creative.

This girl of mine knows how to enjoy life. I've been making this quilt for her all summer. She has been so excited about it. I finished the binding last night and she discovered it this morning. She usually wakes up about 6:30AM, much before her siblings most of the time. So she gets up, finds the quilt, spreads it out on the living room floor and curls up happy as can be on it. She's in heaven.

So there you have it. Happy birthday, my little princess.

Leaps and bounds

Aaron is hitting milestones like crazy these days. Maybe a week ago he started walking and now he wanders through the house just to enjoy walking.

He's started talking. All of my kids have done that really young, and he is proving similar. He also is shockingly capable at getting his point across without words. I don't remember the older two being so capable of expressing what they did not want so very young. Basically he points until we take him somewhere, grins maniacally if he gets what he wants, or shoves stuff away from him with a horrible how-could-you-possibly-offer-that-to-me look on his face. I've gotta say, I actually appreciate it. Having opinions is cool, especially if he's willing to share them.

He eats like a boss. He has mastered using a fork in a way that I'm pretty sure the other two didn't do for at least six months.

He climbs like crazy. His favorite things to climb currently are the couch, which he gets on by climbing on our mini recliners and then climbing over the arm of the couch, and the staircase up to Spencer's bunkbed. He does both of those things on repeat all day. Surprisingly, for as much as he climbs, he doesn't fall that often either, though the staircase is still tricky. If I could keep him off it, I totally would, but no such luck.

He roughhouses with both kids all the time and holds his own surprisingly well. Plus, he has a shriek that scares them off pretty quickly if he gets tired. Or really it brings me running to see who is killing him and then to break up the brawl, lol.

He went from having none but his bottom two teeth when we came home from Utah to having all four top teeth and a bottom one or two coming in.

He learned to give real kisses. He puckers up his lips and everything. This never gets old.

They love baths, despite the looks on all three faces.

 He likes to bonk things with his head. Kind of weird, and shocking and painful when he picks my head as a target, but whatevs. We're managing. Basically, he seems less and less like a baby and more and more like a toddler and it's kind of mindblowing. Time flies.

What we've done lately in pictures

 I've been refinishing some furniture this last week and finished it all on Wednesday. I'm kind of failing on taking final pictures, which I really shouldn't since I think I want to start doing more of this, but here's a few mediocre shots of some beautiful furniture.

Footboard I refinished for a friend.

Matching headboard. This bed was in incredible condition. It's probably 75 years old and not but maybe one crack in the wood. It was so fun to refinish it. I'm totally hooked. 

This is the matching vanity. I totally forgot to take a finished picture of it, but you can see the drawers in the background and it looked amazing when I put them back in.

The mirror that fits into the middle of the vanity.

And the other refinishing project I did. Again, the quality here is incomparable. This table is I'm guessing 45 years old and in pristine condition. The stain was all chipped and peeling, but it was so easy to strip and refinish. I was bummed that I had to give it back. 

Totally engrossed in their books on the way to church. 

Aaron loves this little chair. He can climb up himself and he finds all kinds of comfy ways to chill on it. 

We've had some crazy thunderstorms this week and the kids just love them. They get all decked out in their boots and jump in the puddles until they're absolutely soaked. I just sit on the porch swing and swing away and enjoy the storm. It's awesome. 

The pigtails! She had very particular directions for how she wanted her hair done that day. It makes me smile that she's finally interested in letting me do it instead of just pulling it right out.

This kid starts preschool in three and a half weeks. I'm simultaneously so excited for him and wondering how he could be at this point already. Time is a 'flyin.

I chopped my hair off last month and I'm totally in love with it. The ease of doing it just cannot be beat. I have no plans to go back ever. :) No more headaches from ponytails, taking the time to style it every day, figuring out what to do with it when I run, or generally worrying about it all. I'm a little weirded out about how much straighter it was when I first got it cut. It's grown out a bunch already and is curling in the back again. And when I wake up in the morning I have the most amazing bedhead ever.