Do you know what this means? It’s time for some Good Vibrations Gratitude!
Here are 5 things that I am grateful for this week.
1. Surviving the flash flood.
I was driving on a major road in Albany and out of nowhere, I massive thunderstorm hit. This major road was flooding. I have never seen anything like it. I admit, I see the flash flood alerts on my phone but never knew they actually happened. I have been driving since I was 16 (turning 40 later this summer) and have spent all my winters in Maine and Upstate New York. I have driven through blizzards and ice storms and I had never been so scared. For a minute, I thought my car was going to get stuck.
Luckily I made it to where I was supposed to be. I was on that same stretch a few hours later and all that water was gone. I will always heed those flash flood warnings from
2. That the heatwave finally broke.
3. 3rd/4th of July Fun
My daughter and I were lucky to spend the 3rd and 4th of July with close friends.
4. Those who continue to help me.
Widowhood doesn’t go away after one year. I am thankful for those who have stuck around and continue to help me whether it is putting in my A/C unit (I don’t know how I would have survived this week) to helping me sort out Bryon’s belongings and such. Thank you!
5. The spare key.
I locked myself out of the house but luckily there was a spare key. And for that I am thankful.
I realize that I probably oversold the topic. You probably read that and got very excited.
But I have nothing life changing to report.
I am still living in the same house with no plans to move.
I am still working my same “day ” job. (I have day in quotes because I work many of my hours after my daughter goes to bed.)
A Monday joke because it is Monday
And no, I am not dating. Not even close. And that is okay. I am focused on myself and my daughter at the moment anyway.
So I didn’t mean to get your hopes up on anything you could possibly gossip about me. Well, I did have a little bit of a wardrobe malfunction this weekend. Nothing scandalous, just annoying. But that happens a lot when you are…well…shaped like me. Whatever. Though I am a little pissy because I spent close to $100 bucks on alterations at David’s Bridal. Luckily Kimmy Gibbler had double sided tape. She’s amazing. She thinks of everything.
So nothing major. Same house. Same job. Same relationship status. Just taking a little time to re-center going from Spring (though really it has been more of a Sprinter this year) to Summer.
It has been a crazy 6 or 7 weeks. I would count but I am too lazy to at the moment.
Needless to say that I am tired and hopefully things will be slowing down here. I don’t mean that in a manner that I don’t appreciate the busyness of the past 7 weeks. It has been a fun and happy time. But it has been tiring.
As we enter into summer, I need to recenter and re-focus. I have a lot of housekeeping to do, literally and figuratively.
Around my house, I have been slowly cleaning out and donating items. Usually one or two bags or boxes a week. It still hasn’t made a dent but I refuse to let anything new enter the house. My new rule is, if it comes in a box, the box then has to be filled with items to donate. Even if the box came from Amazon with a birthday present for someone else’s kid and the original contents of the box won’t be staying in the house. The rule in the McKim house is that if something comes in, something has to go out.
I plan to stay closer to home this summer but I do have some traveling happening including a trip coming up on Memorial Day weekend as well as a trip to Boston in June for a Red Sox game. A college friend of mine has expressed interest in meeting up in Boston and I would love to see her so that may be happening. But my travel will be more spread out and casual in nature.
Staying close to home doesn’t mean boring. My daughters dance recital is coming up and I am keeping her in dance and gymnastics over the summer because she enjoys it so why not? I also have a few concerts to go to that I am really excited about.
I will be spending more time on my writing. I started writing a book and I hope to finish it before the end of summer. It isn’t the book I envisioned I would be writing first but I felt the inspiration to start it and went with that. I don’t think this will affect the frequency as to when I post on the blog. I will update you all when it is close to being finished.
I also have a few other ideas for projects but they are in the baby stages so I am going to refrain from sharing them. I want to see if they will take off before I share them.
I was supposed to go to Maine the last weekend in August but I needed to take my cat to the vet. I thought something was wrong with him. He wasn’t acting like himself and I was sure something was wrong with him. After paying my not insignificant vet bill, nothing was physically wrong him.
So now my cat is on prozac.
It’s for the best.
And I missed my trip to Maine and my 20th high school reunion. I thought about trying to swinng it but I was too tired to do 16 hours of driving in a 60 hour period
So I wound up with an unexpected free weekend. My close friend loves Sunflowers and asked if I would be up for a drive downstate to a sunflower field. I am always ready for an adventure and I love road trips so I happily agreed.
I wish I had a selfie to share but not a single one looked good. For real. My daughter wouldn’t look at the camera and I had my hair in my face.
After we looked at the flowers, we went to a farm stand. It was crowded. My friend told me that she wasn’t expected it to be crowded because she has seen too many Hallmark movies. In Hallmark movies there is a ton of space. Hallmark movies have ruined her.
Though we both agreed that that won’t stop us from watching them this Christmas.
After the farm stand, we decided to drive into New Paltz and get some ice cream. We went to Hugeunot Creamery. The ice cream was delicious and the staff was very kind and friendly. The kids had ice cream cones with sprinkles. They wound up all over the floor. Part of me felt bad but part of me figured that it’s bound to happen in an ice cream shoppe. My friend had a creamsicle float and I had an old fashioned hot fudge sundae.
On the way back, we stopped at a Samuel’s Sweet Shop in Rhinebeck which is owned by Paul Rudd and Jeffrey Morgan. The kids had lollipops (though my daughter could only handle a few licks after eating ice cream) and I had a pretzel covered in Reese’s Pieces. My friend got chocolate covered oreos.
It was a great day. I am so glad my friend asked us to spend the day with her and it was fun to discover places in New York where I had never been. I can’t wait for some Fall adventures with my friends.
Do you like to go on day trips? Where do you like to go?
This weekend I did the first of my long runs for my half marathon training. My training cycle has gotten off to a slow but steady start. I have joined a new gym called Metabolic Meltdown and I do those workouts on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and I run on Tuesday, Thursdays and Sundays. I was having trouble motivating myself by just running and I need more strength so I hope this plan works. So far I have been enjoying it.
So on Sunday I took my daughter to the local university and did the 3 mile loop around campus, plus one extra mile.
It was the longest four mile run I have ever done.
First of all, since I have slacked off on my training, I gained weight and I was pushing a stroller with my almost 3 year old.
It was hot.
My daughter kept dropping things and I kept having to stop and pick them up.
I didn’t want my daughter to fall asleep on the run so I kept her entertained by singing Old MacDonald since we watch OutDaughtered all the time. OutDaughtered is the show about two year old Quintuplets. My daughter refers to the show as “Babies.” All I hear is “I want to watch Babies!” Anyway, there is an episode where they are singing, or supposed to be singing, Old MacDonald in a recital. So my daughter and I sang Old MacDonald and my daughter kept choosing “chicken” so this Old MacDonald had a farm full of chickens. Old MacDonald can thank for me sneaking in one cow and one cat.
My daughter saw one of the Albany city busses and kept saying ice cream truck. I told her it was a city bus, but she wouldn’t believe me. I told her she would disappointed if we went over and tried to order ice cream. But I made it through the run. I think when I reach the six mile mark on my long runs that I will need to get a babysitter. I can’t be pushing the stroller for 8 miles. I will go nuts.
I was really wanting to get an iced coffee but I decided to stop and let my daughter run around the fountains. She was so happy which made me happy. Life is about the little moments.
We are heading to the family cottage for the 4th. So excited to relax on the beach, celebrate the holiday, ride the boat and do water activities with my beautiful 4yr old daughter and her extended family.
Congratulations Autumn! Sounds like you and the other entrants have some great summer plans.
Please send your contact information to Kerryannmckim at gmail dot com so I can send you your prize.
Running Forward...My Way 
We are heading to the family cottage for the 4th. So excited to relax on the beach, celebrate the holiday, ride the boat and do water activities with my beautiful 4yr old daughter and her extended family.
Congratulations Autumn! Sounds like you and the other entrants have some great summer plans.
Please send your contact information to Kerryannmckim at gmail dot com so I can send you your prize.