Hello 3 day weekend! We started the weekend a little early. Thursday night we attended the Jimmy Buffett concert. So much fun! My parents were kind enough to treat us to the show. Thank you Mom and Dad! Christian and I attended with my parents and Christian’s dad. Christian’s mom, the biggest non-Jimmy Buffett fan, had a Cole date. The concert was the perfect kick off to the summer. We couldn’t have requested better weather. I even managed to run into everyone I was hoping to see at the concert.
The late night turned into a very early morning that turned into a very busy work day. A family friday night is exactly what I needed this evening. After a great nap on the couch, Christian cooked up a yummy dinner. Cole, Christian and I set up camp on the living room floor and watched Secretariat. (we aren’t the most up-to-date on our movie watching!) It was a great movie – if I looked to pull one piece of inspiration from the movie, I love the phone conversation the mom had with her daughter. She said something along the lines of this – “In life our political views constantly change. Our need to do what our heart feels is right, that’s what matter.”
So true. Even outside the hollywood set. Everything in life constantly changes. We change. The world around us changes. The relationships we have in our life change. If we do what our heart feels is right for us we won’t look back at life with regret. If we can eliminate all the “I wish I would haves” or “I should haves” from our life, we would all wake up more satisfied, more ambitious, more eager to tackle the life. This blog, my life plan, and my 40 day goals are my way of eliminating “wish I would haves” from my life.
Enjoy your weekend! Tomorrow I have a lunch date with two awesome ladies and one awesome little lady – Sara, Erin and Avery! Sara (my kick butt marathon running friend), Erin (my awesome high school friend who was with me when I broke my legs – and a kick butt triathlete and pregnant mama), and Avery (possibly the cutest little lady around). I can’t wait to enjoy my time with them. It’s long over due!
This was too good not to share. Cole comes home from school daily with a folder full of school work. He routinely writes sentences during class about a topic and draws a picture to go with it. The assignment he brought home today was about if he were flat. He wrote,
If I was flat I would slip through and go anywhere I want. I would go to my friend Ashton and go there every day. It would be lots of fun. I would slip under the door and hear the romantic stuff. That would be a lot of fun.
After he read it to me, he kindly informed me that the romantic stuff referred to me and Christian. Oh My Gosh! As a mom, what the heck do you say? Okay, but that is private. Ummm, what kind of romantic stuff are you talking about? Weird! Crazy! Embarrassing!
First let me say that I am incredibly thankful that we still have power at our house. We lost power for maybe 3 hours yesterday, but there are so many who still don’t have power. What a crazy storm we had! As I drove home from work, I saw the black clouds approaching. I also talked to Christian who was working the other side of the water, and he said the storm was crazy. As soon as I pulled into Cole’s school, I could feel the wind change. Cole and I rushed home as fast as we could, ran in the house between HUGE gusts of winds, and let Alex use the bathroom quickly. As soon as Alex was back inside, the rain started. The hail started. The wind was intense. We have a lot of old mature trees in our yard. I’m so thankful that none of the branches fell, and the trees all stayed rooted.
Everywhere I’ve gone today, people are talking about the crazy storm – where they were, what they were doing, where they got stuck. I am just incredibly grateful that I was home, safe, and we only lost power for a while. This storm was nothing compared to some of the tornadoes that have hit around our country. The inconvenience of losing power for a few hours and eating cereal for dinner (because all our food requires cooking, and all restaurants near us had no power) is nothing compared to the loss of homes and lives people are experiencing all around us.
Even without a tornado, tragedy struck with this quick storm that blew through. A wonderfully amazing guy that I went to high school with lost his life yesterday during the storm. He works at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. When the storm hit, the winds blew over a large crane onto his portable office building. It doesn’t matter where we were or what we were doing during the storm. We are safe. His life ended entirely too soon, and his family will always remember this storm. A year from now, we won’t be talking about the quick storm that blew through. The loss of his life is a tragedy. My heart goes out to his family.
I’ve talked about my thoughts before on nature appreciation after the earth quake in Japan. I truly believe that something is off-balance in our world. We take and we take and we take from our planet, and we never give anything in return. We are so oblivious to all the harm we cause to the planet that provides us with everything we could possibly ever need to live, and we don’t even give it our love in return. There are so many things we can do that would positively give back to our planet, yet we are to lazy, to unaware, to caught up in the hustle and bustle of daily life to take a moment and recognize what we are doing. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves about the things that are going on around us. It’s so easy to take your own grocery bags to the store. It’s so easy to stop buying bottled water. Drink tap water. It’s practically free! (Want to know why – watch the documentary Tapped. It will make you think twice about buying bottled water!) Walk or ride your bike when you go places. The average car ride is less than two miles in our country. Every morning, my neighbor drives her daughter to the bus stop and back home. She lives 5 houses from the bus stop, and she drives.
I wish I could remember the source, but about a month ago I heard one of the simplest thoughts ever, and it just makes sense. We teach are children to throw things away. We throw away so many things. It goes into the trash can. We put our trash cans and the curb. The trash truck comes. We never think about it again. BUT there is no “away”. When we throw things away, they go somewhere. Next time you put a piece of trash in a trash can, think about what you are sending away. Can it be recycled? composted? reused? Nothing goes away. It all goes somewhere.
I believe down to every cell in my body, that we are destroying our planet. How much abuse can anyone or anything take? At some point, that someone or something has to fight back or it dies. There has to be a balance. Go outside. Walk down your street. Walk along the beach. How much trash do you see? We all just walk by and pretend we didn’t notice. We put that trash there. We pollute and abuse our planet daily.
I can’t scientifically prove that all these storms are the earths way of fighting back. I probably can’t even come up with an argument that would hold any validity in a debate. I can prove that we don’t take care of our planet. I can prove that the health our planet is worth fighting for. We just need to be more aware of ourselves. We need to be personally accountable for the damage we do every day to our planet. We need to be thankful for everything our planet provides us, and we need to give back. It may or may not effect future natural disasters, but I think it’s worth the effort. It never hurts to try.
Definitely worth fightingGreat Falls, VAHarpers Ferry, WV
I’d be lying if I said I’m feeling 100% like me lately. It’s okay though. I’ve got lots of good reasons for feeling slightly off lately. With that said, feeling not quite like me has made me look at things a little different. I normally find my happy moments in running, in yoga, in cooking healthy meals. All 3 have been off lately. Since I’m not consistently doing any of 3, I’m finding tiny moments of happy throughout each day.
My #1 happy moment for the week (possibly a top 10 for the year) – Cole drew the cutest picture for me on Sunday night. Below is Cole’s one of a kind art work. Have you ever seen a pig practicing yoga? You can now say Yes! You have! I love my little artist, and I love that he knows that a pig doing yoga would make me smile from ear to ear.
Happy Moment #2 – Cole had swim lessons on Monday. Due to construction in the lobby of the Rec Center, the viewing area is closed. I grabbed my latest stack of magazines to reread for the 100th time while he swam for an hour. I seriously have read these magazines over and over again. Today I noticed something new in Women’s Runner. I noticed ME! I am in Women’s Runner. Well, okay, let’s be real…my name and music suggestion is listed in the magazine, but I’ll take it. It’s as close to being in a running magazine as I will ever get. How did I miss this all the other times I read the magazine? (I’m the 3rd one from the bottom – my favorite run song: Don’t Slow Down by Matt & Kim. Add it to your playlist. Seriously!)
Happy Moment #3 – I wandered on to the pool deck for the last ten minutes of Cole’s swim lesson just in time to see…….Cole swam the entire length of the pool doing the freestyle stroke! I cried! If you have kids, you get it. If you know Cole, you really get it. He’s so hard on himself. I love seeing him enjoying these moments. The smile on his face told me how proud of himself he was at that moment. Way to Go Cole! (I so wish I had my camera or phone handy to snap a picture of the moment.)
Happy Moment #4 – This beautiful woodpecker decided to claim the fence right outside our bedroom window. Fortunately it was late in the morning, so his loud pecking didn’t wake us up. It was so cool to see him up close. His mohawk was impressive!
Sometimes breaking routine and stopping normal life patterns can be a great thing. Slowing down is good. It has allowed me to rest. It has allowed me to find little things that make me smile. And trust me, I’m not stuck. I’m still running. I’m still practicing yoga. I’m still eating healthy. I’ve just changed my daily thought process for right now. It may last a few days, a week, a month. It will last as long as I need it. I’m just not obsessing about making sure those things are happening religiously right now. It’s nice to let go every now and then. The things that are falling back in place are things I value and need/want in my life. The things that are disappearing won’t be forgotten.
Another weekend that went nothing as planned. The plan was to lay low this weekend, clean house, and organize! The actual agenda – quick trip to Richmond on Saturday and lots of couch time on Sunday.
Friday afternoon, Christian received a call from his boss. He wanted him to come up Saturday morning for an interview for a big promotion at work. Since I love Richmond, Cole and I decided to tag along. Christian dropped us off at a mall right down the street from his office. Cole and I discovered the new lululemon store at Short Pump. I add a few essentials to my summer wardrobe. We also stuck our head in Nordstrom to replace Cole’s old worn out vans. Now that he can tie his shoes, he wants laces. We both loved the same pair – mission accomplished. (I love the picture I took of his feet when we got home that night. I feels like a little glimpse of teenage Cole. His feet look huge in the picture. They really are tiny!).
While Christian interviewed, I was reminded of what a No-Nonsense shopper I am. I bought two new pairs of pants from lululemon and Cole’s shoes in less than twenty minutes. Fortunately Short Pump is a great outdoor mall with a lot of cool fountains to keep Cole entertained while we waited for Christian.
After Christian’s interview and our quick shopping trip, we were able to have lunch with my great friend Sara and her precious daughter Avery. Sara lives in a dream-like neighborhood. Old beautiful houses just blocks from the James River Park System. Tons of Trails. Tons of places to splash in the river. And a great little sandwich/coffee/ice cream place right at the end of their street. We all walked to lunch, went exploring on the trails, and watched her dog Mighty swim in the lake.
Sunday was a super lazy day for me. Christian was up and out early to play golf. I stayed in PJs all day! In spite of my laziness, I did manage to clean upstairs and finished all of our laundry. It feels good to make house progress. It also feels wonderful to do nothing.
Back to the normal work routine. It’s going to be another crazy one. Christian’s getting more tattoo work done tonight, Cole has swim on Monday and Wednesday, Jimmy Buffett on Thursday, and I’ve got to find time to run and practice yoga. Thank goodness next weekend is a 3 day weekend! (and I’ve given up on planning – we will see what the week unfolds for us!)
Sara's sweet baby Avery! She is the cutest happiest baby ever!
Hello 3 day weekend! We started the weekend a little early. Thursday night we attended the Jimmy Buffett concert. So much fun! My parents were kind enough to treat us to the show. Thank you Mom and Dad! Christian and I attended with my parents and Christian’s dad. Christian’s mom, the biggest non-Jimmy Buffett fan, had a Cole date. The concert was the perfect kick off to the summer. We couldn’t have requested better weather. I even managed to run into everyone I was hoping to see at the concert.
Kristy Maute 