A FEW PICTURES
I have taken quite a blogging break and it was all my camera's fault. There were things I wanted to post about, but wanted a picture to go with them.

Yesterday, my dear hubby supplied me with the cord I needed to import pictures directly from my camera to my Macbook (I was having to go about it in a quite complicated way before, involving multiple computers. No more!).

And, this morning, I FINALLY figured out how to turn the flash off on my camera. The manual is MIA, and I am not the most tech savvy. So, now that those obstacles are out of the way, I am looking forward to blogging again.

This is just a little trial run, to see if the pictures look any better without the flash, and to make sure that I can actually get them to upload!

Around my house this morning...

CHRISTMAS TREE: My tree won't be gracing the pages of Southern Living any time soon, but it makes me very happy. Both Matt's mom and mine gave us each an ornament every year when we were growing up, so all those are on our tree. We were married around Christmas time, so some ladies at our church threw us an ornament shower. Those are on there as well. This year, the tree was decorated almost completely by my husband and boys. I handed them ornaments and did other decorating around the room. I think they did a great job!

VIEW TO OUR BEDROOM: From the living room, through the foyer. I love this view.

MASTER BEDROOM: This is from the armchair in the corner of our bedroom where I sit to read. Our bedroom is the brightest room in the house, as well as the cleanest and the quietest (the children do not play in our room). The wall color is much lighter than this, closer to the color in the last picture.

CHILDREN'S TABLE: I love seeing little hints around the house that children live here, and I love this little spot of theirs. The artwork rotates. Three little chairs for three little boys.

OTHER SIGNS OF CHILDREN: Little shoes on the stair steps

THE BOYS ROOM: Seeing three little beds in a row (especially with little boys sleeping in them!) brings me immense amounts of mama happiness. I am hoping to get all the beds painted this month (pale blue) and coverlets made in January (natural cotton duck and ticking).

BOY'S TREE: Small tree in the boys room.

PEEK TO THE NURSERY: From the boy's bedroom door, down the small hallway. I love the "tucked under the eaves" feeling of the upstairs bedrooms. So cozy.

SEEING IMPROVEMENTS!

This morning I ran in my third 5K. It was through downtown Statesboro, which was fun. I really just wanted to run it to see how much my time has improved since the last 5K I did, about four weeks ago. Since that time, I have doubled my mileage, from three miles at a time, to six and hoped that I would see improvements in my time because of it.

My first 5K, March 29, 2008, I ran in 30:57.

My second 5K, Oct. 28th, 2008, I ran in 29:28.

My third 5K, Nov. 22, 2008 (this morning), I ran in 27:34.

My goal for this race was to run it in under 29 minutes, so I was elated to surpass that goal. I am looking forward to the Savannah River Bridge 10K Run on December 6th.

This book has done wonders for my running, in just the few weeks I have been using it. I highly recommend it.

My goal is to work up to running a 5K in 24 minutes. And of course, THE MARATHON in March!

SOME LINKS I WANT TO SHARE

A few links that I have read over the last few days that I thought some of you might find interesting as well.

Satisfaction in Him alone

How they live a debt-free life

On Chocolate and Clementines and Simple Pleasures, magnified

The Gospel is NOT...

COZY DAY (This picture really has nothing to do with this post. It was just the only picture I could find on my computer that really said "cozy" to me. I must figure out how to download pictures with my new camera!)


I have been refocusing my efforts on HOME this week. Deep cleaning, room by room, decluttering (toys, clothes, cleaning supplies and more), cooking, and just generally making the house cozy and homey and pleasant.

Monday was cool and rainy. The perfect day to spend at home. I spent the morning cleaning. With three small boys underfoot, my cleaning usually seems to be one step forward, three steps back. After several hours of steady work, with no visible progress, I decided it was time for a break.

I turned on a cartoon for the boys and headed into the kitchen for a few moments of mommy R & R. I pulled out my favorite cast iron skillet and a wooden spoon. Into the skillet went

new potatoes, from my grandparents garden
large pieces of fresh local carrots
whole cloves of garlic
wedges of onion
a handful of cherry tomatoes, from my garden
a few pieces of celery
a sprig of rosemary, from my yard
a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Sea Salt (I love the sensory pleasure of picking up the small olive wood bowl from the stove, filled with sea salt and taking a large pinch in my fingers, sprinkling it slowly over the food)
Several twists on the pepper mill

There is nothing like a bowl of roasted fall vegetables on a cold day. With the scents of rosemary and roasting garlic coming from the kitchen, I headed to the couch with hot apple cider (fresh from north GA apples this past week-end) for the boys in their cups...stainless steel sippy cup for Bauer, enamelware camp cups for Landing and Caed, my favorite pottery mug from an artist at Mom's gallery for me. I started a fire, just for the joy of it (it wasn't that cold) and snuggled in front of it on the couch with quilts, cider, boys, and books. Isn't reading in front of a fire one of life's most delicious pleasures?

I love days like this. After weeks of feeling frazzled and short tempered, it feels good to be here and at peace. It is going to be a top priority over these next few weeks to stay at home as much as possible and to make our little corner of the earth the happiest place to be. The holidays are quickly approaching and I want our time to be spent on nurturing our family connections, reading together, talking, making cookies, snuggling, dreaming, playing.

Each season brings its own gifts. I plan to fully embrace and celebrate the wonders of Autumn. And the pleasures of family.

NEW LOOK

I normally don't post pictures of myself on here but I got a haircut today that I am pretty excited about. I have been feeling super frumpy and wanted to do something DIFFERENT. Something that would make me look like I had a little bit of style, even in jeans and a ponytail. Hubby hasn't seen it yet and I am a little nervous! I hope he likes my new look. These were taken from my phone, so the quality isn't great, but maybe you can get the idea. I don't know why I am always in the car when I decide to take my picture. Maybe because that is the only time I don't have a child hanging on to me!
BEFORE


AFTER

UNIQUE NAME?Ever wondered how many people in the United States share your name?

I was surprised to discover that I am the only person in the U.S.A. with my moniker. Likewise, my children are all unique when it comes to their names. Huh. Only the hubby shares his name with anyone else in the U.S., and even then, it is only with 33 other people.

Go to this site to see where you stand in the rankings, then come back and let me know, OK? Because it is awfully interesting.

That, and I just really don't want to vacuum.


*Creative Commons image from Jack Dorsey on flickr.com

TODAY'S RACE

Just wanted to pop in to say that I ran the 5K today in the rain and it was lovely. It was about 60 degrees outside, with a light drizzle. I ran with about 200 other people. A very sweet friend who is a much better runner than me, ran with me today to keep the pace and to encourage me. It was very kind of her and it helped me immensely. I struggled for the last half mile, but only walked about 5 steps of the race, which was a vast improvement over the last run I did.

I finished the race at 29:28, so that is my new personal record. As I got close to the end, I could see the clock counting up the minutes, and picked up the pace to finish under the 30 minute mark. I would like to be able to run a 5k in the 25-26 minute range and hope to work up to that soon. For now though, I have this race in my sights.

I think I am hooked on running.

Right Now, I am:

feeling...surprised and impressed. Mom is giving me the quilt!

enjoying...the early mornings. I have started getting up before the children to pray, read, and run.

wondering...about the complexities of a mother's love. I am over-the-moon for these three little boys, yet, I am struggling to even speak a sentence kindly. How can it be so overwhelmingly wonderful and hard at the same time?

listening...to my children jumping on the couch and yelling.

drinking...H2O. Letting the ice melt to just the right consistency, then crunching away. Ever crunched on melting ice in a hot shower? Bliss.

wanting...to be productive today, but in a calm, happy way. I want to putter around the house, making a pot of vegetable soup, getting things done, reading to the boys, giggling and laughing and being content.

loving...This season of Project Runway. Finale tonight!

looking...forward to this afternoon when my mom keeps the boys for three hours and I can do whatever I wish. Today: catching up on work, cleaning, errands. It will be nice to do the necessary surrounded by quiet.

Thanks, Soulemama, for the inspiration.

RUNNING AND A WAY OF THINKINGI am running my second 5K this Saturday (you may remember that I ran my first race this March). I am really looking forward to it. After the race in March, I pretty much completely stopped running until the middle of August. I started back in the middle of my training program and have been trying to work my way back up ever since. It has been a really frustrating thing for me. This time, I haven't had anyone training with me (Amanda had knee surgery in the summer) and so my motivation has been a little lacking. For WEEKS I tried to do the 20 minute run, unsuccessfully. I knew that I was physically capable of it. I would get within just a few yards of being done, and would quit. It was crazy! And very frustrating.

Then, I ordered (and read) The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer. It deals with the mental aspect of training just as much as the physical component. I realized that the negative messages that I was sending to myself the whole time I was running had been keeping me from success. Usually, something like this might be going through my head "If I can just get to that stop sign, then I can stop running. I think I can do it. I just have to get to that stop sign. Man, that stop sign is really far away...."

This week, I have been consciously replacing those thoughts with positive messages like these "I can easily get to that stop sign. No problem. I can keep running after that, if I want to. I feel amazing. I love to run. This feels incredible. I am getting faster and faster."
At first, I felt a little silly. But, I did it anyway. And, when I looked down at my watch, I realized that I had been running for 22 minutes. And it was easy. I felt like I really could have kept running! I couldn't believe how much the mental and physical affect each other.

So, the last day or so, I have been paying more attention to the messages that I tell myself in regards to other areas of my life. And it is really helping! It is almost like a self-fulfilling prophesy. If I believe that I can't run two miles, then I am unable to do it. If I believe that it is going to be an awful day, boom, it is. Because my mental attitude shapes a lot of my reality. Obviously, there will always be outside forces that I can't control. And, there are things that will never be possible, no matter what my internal dialogue says. I will never win the Tour De France. So telling myself that I can would just be kind of lame.

But there are plenty of other things that I can control, just by my attitude and the way that I choose to perceive my current situation. I would consider myself a generally positive person, but as with most aspects of life, there is always room for improvement. I am feeling the affects of being more positive in regards to running and I am working to be more aware of what I think and say to myself during other times too.
It requires continually practicing contentment, gratefulness, and thankfulness.

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" -Hebrews 12:1

*Creative commons image from tangywolf on flickr.com

NEW CHALLENGE!

This isn't the challenge I was talking about yesterday (more on that one later!) but I just found out about THIS one from Andrea at The Flourishing Mother (thank you, Andrea!). I am so, so in! I think this will be incredible!

Anyone else on board?