summertime – Running Forward…My Way

Today is Friday! You survived the week!

Do you know what this means? It’s time for some Good Vibrations Gratitude!

These are the 5 things I am grateful for this week-

A Day at the Farm
Last Saturday my daughter and I spent the day at a nearby farm in the Berkshires. It was lots of fun and I like to support area farmers.
Running Water
On Sunday night I went to give my daughter a bath and there was no water. I check the internet and there were no posts by the town. I went outside and my neighbors were in the yard and they knew of a broken water main. The water was back by the morning and this ordeal made me appreciate our town water supply.
Progress on my Book
I haven’t been writing my book as fast as I had hoped but that is okay. I would rather do it well. I am cognizant that I do not want it just be the blog in book form so I am working on writing new, original content. The chapter I just finished- it’s good.
EMT’s and all First Responders
This week one of the Common Councilors, Judy Doesschate publicly blasted some EMT’s who had double parked. She took pictures of the ambulances and the actual EMT workers and posted them on Facebook. Needless to say, she got raked through the coals. Yes, there is traffic but the EMT’s need to have access to their ambulances and be able to rush to an emergency at a moments notice.

She should have thanked them for their service instead. She still hasn’t apologized. Well, a real apology. All of her public apologies have been along the vein of “I am sorry everyone got mad.” Seriously Judy, my three-year-old does a better job at apologizing.

I am grateful for our EMTs who save lives.
This Moment- Sweet Summertime
My daughter spent a good portion of the evening playing with her water table. She was loving it.

She kept trying to convince to keep adding water. It was giving me flashback to my childhood. For awhile, we had a three foot above ground pool that ultimately came down and left a big, round sand pit. My brother and I would spend all day filling pails with sand, packing it down and then flipping them over to make sand pail buildings. We would make a big sand pail building town.

Then, inspired by the 1980’s Captain Crunch commercials, my brother would grab the garden house, turn on the water and say “The Soggies are coming!”

I would plead for him to stop by saying “Don’t! Mom’s gonna get mad.”

But that wouldn’t deter my brother. He’s lay the hose down and the Soggies (a.k.a. water) would take over and destroy our sand pail town.

And every single time, the “fun” would end with my mother coming out and yelling at my brother.

To be fair, our town often would have water conservation efforts where you were only supposed to use your water on even or odd calendar days based on your address. (For example, our house number was 53 so we were only supposed to use our outdoor water on odd numbered days.)

What are you grateful for this week?

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.