Ten for ten!

I've blogged every day for the last ten days. I don't think that's happened since, well, ever. I realize that some of my posts haven't exactly been of the highest quality, but that's ok. And since I've been so diligent lately, I think it's time to take a break from it all. So I will. Tomorrow afternoon, Eddie and I will be taking our very first trip since our honeymoon that includes no kids, no medical conferences, and no relatives to visit on the other end. Am I excited? Are you really even asking me that?

It's a lot of work to leave four kids behind for a week. My mom flew in on Thursday, and I handed her a ten-page "bible" of instructions, with details ranging from what each kid eats at each of our town's fast food establishments to which classrooms in the church building they need to get picked up from when Primary ends. When my godmother flew in this afternoon, I sat them both down for an hour and drilled them on how to use each of our three tvs. After they got through the basics, I'd send them out of the room, mess up the tv and satellite, and make them come back and figure out what was wrong. I haven't had so much fun being sadistic since I quit teaching school. I have a feeling that they'll still be hopelessly stymied, but, as my mom said, they can always read books. Maybe this is just what I need to get Isaac to kick his Noggin habit.

I, on the other hand, plan to spend exactly zero of the next 10,080 minutes watching Noggin. I have my bag packed with a couple of bathing suits, my running shoes (yes, I am crazy), seven or eight books, and not much else. It's going to be pure bliss....

Mimi and Grannie, however, are going to be sorely in need of a vacation when we get back. We sent them out for a nice, kid-free dinner tonight, just so they can store up a little bit of peace and energy. They're definitely going to need it.

Present

That's all you're getting from me today. Smartmama challenged those of us in the CosaMOFstra Webring to post every day this week. My mom is in town and I've been running all day, so that's all you're getting from me. I have some booties to get into bed so Eddie and I can go see U2 in 3D tonight.

Take It and Run Thursday-- Strength and Flexibility

This is my first post with the Runner's Lounge weekly "Take It and Run Thursday."

Last fall, when I started training for my first marathon, I was going to do everything right. I had a very detailed schedule, which included four days of running, two days of cross training, and two days of abs classes to help with my core. As soon as my kids went back to school, I showed up at the gym every Tuesday and Thursday to pretend that I could keep up in an abs class before I headed down to the spinning bikes. It was great. I noticed that my sloshy tummy was getting firmer, and I loved the challenge of the spinning classes.

Then life intervened. In October, my three-year-old had a health crisis, and suddenly, my goal for the marathon was not to get a qualifying time for Boston, but instead just to make it to the finish line. I still ran four days a week, but my cross-training and strength training went right out the window.

A few weeks later, I got injured. It was a strained hamstring-- nothing too serious. Nothing I couldn't run through, at least. Then I ran the marathon. As I predicted, I finished, but I didn't do as well as I had hoped back when I set my original goal. My parents met me at the finish line and drove me home. When I got there, I could hardly walk. Once the inital soreness that every first-time marathoner goes through wore off, I realized that I had hurt my knee. For a couple of weeks I babied it, then I decided it was time to get back to my schedule (I had a goal to reach, after all, which meant another marathon, post haste!).

I've never been much of a strength-trainer. If I'm going to be in the gym, I want to be doing cardio. I want to be burning those calories, dangit! And frankly, the thought of going into the weight room really scares me. All of those muscle-bound guys who know what they're doing, and me, who has no clue. I've done quite a bit of yoga, but the kind of yoga I've done has usually been of the prenatal variety, and the strength and flexibility benefit of prenatal yoga is probably roughly equivalent to touching your toes two or three times and taking a walk around the block.

And let's not even talk about my core. For years, my midsection was the part of my body that I pretended did not exist. I was always fairly broad through the rib cage, and having four babies in quick succession didn't help matters much. I usually did my best to hide it under lots of layers in slimming black.

Then, as I was recovering from my injury, the February issue of Runner's World arrived in my mailbox, with that beautiful picture of Josh Cox on the cover. I read the cover story, and this paragraph hit me like a ton of bricks:

"A strong core also helps address overuse issues. "If we don't have a strong center, other muscles have to stabilize us," says Toni Dauwalter, a physical therapist whose clients include 2004 Olympic 1500-meter specialist Carrie Tollefson. Over time, the extra work can lead to injury. Mahon cites a litany of problems relating to the lack of that steadying hand: patella tendinitis, piriformis syndrome, sciatica pain."

Overuse issues? That's exactly what I was suffering from (an IT band injury). The next morning, I was back at the gym, for the first time since October. Since that day, I've made it a priority to attend at least two abs classes a week. Some days, I can't get to the gym, and instead I'm doing pilates or yoga (not the goofy prenatal yoga) at home. Since I finally think I might be injury-free, it seems to be helping. And the side benefit? For the first time in memory, I have a decent-looking stomach. After years of hiding it under t-shirts at the beach, I think I might even show it off a little bit this summer.

Hear that?

Me neither. Doesn't it sound beautiful?

Last night, Eddie was subbing for a scout leader, and I, by some miracle, had all three of the younger kids in bed and asleep. I sat down on the couch with my book and a bowl of ice cream and realized that the house was totally and completely silent. Then I realized how rare and beautiful the sound of silence is for a stay-at-home mom like me.

Right now, at 9:17pm, I can hear the BYU basketball game playing on the computer in the family room, Bryce is talking to himself upstairs as he falls asleep, the dishwasher is running, and I'm typing. From the moment I wake up and flip on the news to check the weather report, to the moment I go to bed at night, to the sounds of Letterman or SportsCenter entertaining my hubby, it's never quiet. With four kids, someone is always talking/ laughing/ fighting/ crying/ squealing/taunting/ instructing/ lecturing/ whining. We tend to be overconsumers of media in all its forms, and I'll leave the radio on, tuned to NPR, all day long.

My brother and sister and I all grew up and moved away, my mom frequently complained to me that she found the house to be "too quiet." Right now, with lots of people constantly and loudly vying for my attention, I don't think there can be such a thing as too quiet.

Me: A to Z

A- Attached or Single? Very attached. As in five times over. A couple of months ago, a very sweet guy working a kiosk at the mall made a pass at me (probably trying to get me to buy his hand scrub) and I was thinking, "If you only knew, buddy, you'd stay far, far away."

B- Best Friend? smartmama, my mom and Eddie

C- Cake or Pie?

Most definitely cake. Preferably chocolate, made from scratch, with chocolate frosting and a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

D- Day of Choice? Friday. I think I like the anticipation of the weekend more than the actual weekend.

E- Essential Item?

F- Favorite Color? Red

G- Gummy Bears or Worms? I don't waste my calories on gummies. I go for the good stuff (see letter "D" above)

H- Hometown? currently Deep in the Heart of Texas, but I'm a New Englander at heart

I- Favorite Indulgence? sitting in my soaker tub filled with warm water and bubbles, eating a hot fudge sundae and reading

J- January or July? Here in Texas it's definitely January, but I think that even when I lived in the temperate zone I preferred January. My birthday is in January, and I prefer sweaters to shorts.

K- Kids?

Two matched sets. It would be the perfect family if I weren't pining for another...

L- Life isn't complete without?

a baby in the house

M- Marriage date? I'll celebrate anniversary #11 in April. But if you want to know how the old married folks like us get their jollies-- we like to pick a restaurant where we've never been before (here in Houston there are plenty of great options).

N- Number of brothers and sisters?

one brother, one sister, I'm the oldest (as if you couldn't have guessed that).

O--Oranges or Apples? In their whole fruit form, I prefer apples, especially Honeycrisps (I hate the white stuff inside of oranges). But I can't stand apple juice. Drinking it makes me feel like I'm three.

P- Phobias and Fears? I'm deathly afraid of vomiting. I've gotten mostly over my fear of other people's vomit. Unless, of course, dealing with their vomit might infect me. I'm also terrified of driving over bridges with my kids strapped into their car seats.

Q- Quote? I really like this one (stolen from my friend and idol, Jenn): "If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves." ~Thomas Edison

R- Reason to smile?

That I'll be here next week.

S- Season of choice? Fall and spring both feel like such a relief. I can't wait to get back to them!

T- Tag three people? If you've read this, consider yourself tagged.

U- Unknown fact about me?

I played Patty Simcox in Grease when I was in high school. Everyone said it was typecasting. For the record, I was not a cheerleader. Just annoying, I guess.

V- Vegetable? Sweet potatoes, because they're almost like dessert.

W- Worst Habit? Public flatulence. Just call me SBD.

Y- Your favorite food? If I could subsist on desserts alone, I think I would. I like other foods, but dessert makes the bran flakes worth eating.

Z- Zoo animal?

Mandrills. I love how colorful they are.

Book #16: The Audacity of Hope

Title: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
Author: Barack Obama

I'm about 50 pages from the end of this one, I'll update when I'm done.

Book #15: The Field Guide (Spiderwick Chronicles)

Title: The Field Guide (Spiderwick Chronicles)
Author: Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

Mallory, Simon and Jared Grace move from their city apartment to an old house in the country inhabited by fairies.

My kids saw a bunch of previews for The Spiderwick Chronicles movie when they were at the theater over Christmas break. I told them that if they wanted to see the movie, they had to read the book first. So we read the first book in the series, finishing on Wednesday night. It became pretty evident in the waning chapters of the book that the movie would have to include more material than what was written in those 100 pages. I did some research and discovered that the movie is based on all five books in the series. But a promise is a promise, and we went to the movie on Saturday. The material in the first book was covered in about five minutes, and the remaining 92 minutes were a lot scarier than I had anticipated (I was glad I didn't have Isaac with me). Bryce and Annie (when they weren't hiding their eyes) loved the movie, and have been fighting over who gets to read book 2 at bedtime. For me, the first book was enough. It's very cute and magical and all that, but I'd rather read books for grownups.

Book #14: The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story

Title: The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story
Author: Diane Ackerman

The story of Antonina Zabinski and her husband Jan, director of the Warsaw Zoo just prior to World War II, and how they saved the lives of hundreds of Jews by hiding them in the zoo during the war.

Antonina Zabinski's story is remarkable. She was a fairly average upper-middle class wife and mother, going about her life on the grounds of the Warsaw Zoo, taking care of her son and her animals. When Warsaw was bombed, the majority of the surviving animals were appropriated by various German zoos. That left a lot of empty cages, and a lot of hidden corridors. Jan, a leader in the Polish resistance, risked his life and his family to help save hundreds of Jews, and Antonina kept the home fires burning and tried to maintain morale. Even though the story is amazing, It seemed that Ackerman felt the need to put every bit of her research into the book. It would have been better if it were tighter and about 100 pages shorter.

Book #13: Here if You Need Me

Title: Here if You Need Me
Author: Kate Braestrup

When Kate Braestrup's husband, a Maine State Trooper, died in an on-the-job car accident, she fulfilled his dream of becoming a Unitarian Universalist minister, eventually working as a chaplain for the game wardens.

I loved this book! It's short and easy to read, but it shows how a woman and a family who are mourning the man they love (she writes so beautifully and painfully about losing her husband and the first days after his death), turn to helping others, and in the process, heal themselves. It's not cheesy at all, and her story is tragic enough that it definitely could have disintegrated into Velveeta pretty easily. Instead, Braestrup writes frankly and self-deprecatingly and intelligently about her work, her family, and her own spiritual conversion process. It would be a great book group book. I found myself putting myself in her shoes (she had four kids ages 9,7,5 and 3 when her husband died, so it wasn't too much of a stretch) and hoping that I'd be able to handle my trials with as much humor and grace as she does.

Book #12: Interred With Their Bones

Title: Interred With Their Bones
Author: Jennifer Lee Carrell

Shakespeare scholar and director Kate Stanley finds herself on a hunt for Shakespeare's lost play, Cardenio, and trying to stay alive in the process.

I think I expected too much of Interred With Their Bones. Since it was written by a Harvard scholar and a woman, I expected it to be a thinking woman's version of The DaVinci Code. But better, because it would be about Shakespeare. I loved the subject matter. I loved that a large portion of the book took place in the American Southwest, particularly at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, a place dear to my heart. But maybe my expectations were a little bit too high. Kate was awesome, but she still depended on guys to rescue her. Didn't Dan Brown already take us to the Poet's Corner? And did we ever figure out who Pearl was and how he found Kate in the first place? It's as good a read as DaVinci, but definitely in the same model, which made it feel somewhat less. Others compared it to The Thirteenth Tale, but if you had to read just one, I'd definitely go for The Thirteenth Tale. If you see it on the bargain table at Barnes and Noble and need a quick, interesting read for a vacation, I think it's worth it, but don't expect anything too groundbreaking.