Life lately

What a difference a month can make.  What was my life a month ago, is just a faded memory at this point.  Summer was so relaxing and fun, I guess it’s only fitting that now I have to work my butt off.  It’s only fair.  And in this post, I’m not complaining.  I’m merely stating the difference in what was my life and what is my life now.

The same day as Emma’s first day of school, I started watching a 10 month old baby girl.  Her name is Nadia and she is adorable.  In a lot of ways, she reminds me of what Emma used to be like as a baby so it’s nice to have her around.  She is a sweet baby girl and I love having her around 3 days a week.  In fact, she’s so sweet and easy to handle that I almost feel guilty taking money for watching her.  Except at mealtime.  I actually  earn my money when I feed her.  She hates to eat and I have to trick her into eating the majority of bites at every meal.  Just one more thing she has in common with Emma LOL.  It’s been almost a month exactly since I started watching her regularly and I’ve grown very attached to her in that time.

The next baby to come into my daily life is my nephew, Rylan.  Of course, he’s been in my life before now but now I am watching him on the days that my sister in law works.  Rylan in so many ways reminds me of Gerrit and always has.  While being

Stop the madness

This is a letter from Ron Paul that my blogging buddy Fighting Windmills posted.  It was so well written and thought provoking that I wanted to share it with you all.  Normally, I don’t post about politics and such but today we are making an exception.  Enjoy!

 

Dear Friends:

The financial meltdown the economists of the Austrian School predicted has arrived.

We are in this crisis because of an excess of artificially created credit at the hands of the Federal Reserve System. The solution being proposed? More artificial credit by the Federal Reserve. No liquidation of bad debt and malinvestment is to be allowed. By doing more of the same, we will only continue and intensify the distortions in our economy – all the capital misallocation, all the malinvestment – and prevent the market’s attempt to re-establish rational pricing of houses and other assets.

Last night the president addressed the nation about the financial crisis. There is no point in going through his remarks line by line, since I’d only be repeating what I’ve been saying over and over – not just for the past several days, but for years and even decades.

Still, at least a few observations are necessary.

The president assures us that his administration “is working with Congress to address the root cause behind much of the instability in our markets.” Care to take a guess at whether the Federal Reserve and its money creation spree were even mentioned?

We are told that “low interest rates” led to excessive borrowing, but we are not told how these low interest rates came about. They were a deliberate policy of the Federal Reserve. As always, artificially low

The Bridge Run aka Cheri & Chris Rock

Map course

While training for the half marathon, I stumbled across the Bridge Run (10mile race).  It fit right in line with our training schedule so my friend Cheri & I decided to give it a go.  Technically, we were supposed to run 11 miles this Saturday with our schedule but we figured that the added bonus of getting a race under our belts would offset that 1 mile difference. 

The night before the race, I was really  nervous.  It surprised me just how nervous I was!  My belly was full of butterflies and I was stressing out a little.  I tried to drink a lot of fluids that night to make sure I was hydrated and eat a very simple, easy on the tummy dinner.  From what I had read online “there is no such thing as constipation for a runner on race day” and I was not going to take any risks.  Yikes!

I woke up Saturday morning

Gerrit’s first day of school

Gerrit started preschool last week and I handled it better than I thought I would.  As always, I dropped Emma off for school first and then we picked up Nadia.  We came home for 1/2 hr until it was time to bring Gerrit.  As we drove home from getting Nadia, it kind of hit me and I got my teary eyes out of the way then.

When we pulled up at his school, he was so excited.  He got his backpack on and looked like such a big boy.  We walked to the main door and I took a couple pictures.  He kept putting his shoulders up for some reason right when I was going to snap the picture.

  Looking at the letter G above the door

Learn me something

Gerrit started preschool this week and it’s been a harder transition on me than either of the kids.  Of course, us mommies tend to make things way more stressful than they need be and so I’ve done my best to make myself as crazed as possible. 

Since Emma’s school starts an hour earlier than Gerrit’s, I get them both up about 6:45am and get them dressed, teeth brushed, hair done and start breakfast.  If Emma wasn’t such an amazingly slow eater, she could sleep longer but that just ain’t gonna happen.  Gerrit eats round #1 breakfast with her and then we load up in the car to drop her off. 

Emma’s school actually prefers parents to drop their kids off in the circle drive rather than walking them in.  They have helpers out there to unload kids so starting Wednesday, I stopped walking her in and dropped her at the door.  The first time,

8 miles got nothing on me

Saturday was our 8 mile run.  We drove out to Megan’s house to run along the Thornapple River instead of trying to wind and weave thru residential streets.  We started out good with a plan.  We would run to the trail which was 0.7 miles from her driveway and then the trail was 3.6 miles.  We figured if we ran until Dan’s Garmin told us we had gone 4.25 miles and then turn around, we would be set.  There was a big hill at the beginning of the run that we wanted to work in.  Sounded good and we took off.

Our pace was strong and we were making our way to the end of the trail.  I told them when the Garmin said 4.20 and we turned around.  As we ran back, I noticed how quick

When I run, I have time to think… a lot

When I got the crazy notion in my head to do this half marathon, I didn’t realize all the benefits I would get.  What began as a question to myself has blossomed into something so much more.  I wasn’t expecting all the changes in me and they are the quiet surprises that make me smile while I’m icing down my ankle or knee.

At first, I needed to accomplish running 3 miles just to start the recommended training schedule.  The first time I went for it, I doubted myself.  It was hard to wrap my brain around that idea.  As silly as that seems to me now, it was a mental barrier that I had built for myself.  That first time I inched past 2.5 miles, I told myself ‘ok, just run to 2.6 miles, now 2.7 miles, now 2.8′.  Once I got there, I knew I could finish and so I did.  I was proud of myself for pushing my body and overcoming an obstacle (albeit mental one).  Now that I had done that, I could start the training schedule!

Megan and I found one that we felt comfortable with and seemed doable.  It has us running Mon/Wed/Thurs and then BIG run on Sat.  The first week was 3,3,3 and BIG run 4 for a total

I had a sad

Well, yesterday was Emma’s first day of school.  I was both excited for it to come and dreading it at the same time.  It saddens me some to see that my babies are no longer tiny little toddlers but it also makes me happy to see them having new adventures and experiences. 

I got her up at 6:45am and as she was brushing her teeth, she asked