Running and my dad

The only thing I know about my moms labor with me is that she got mad at my Dad because he was watching the summer Olympics at the hospital while she was having contractions. He was probably watching track. Most of my pajamas as a toddler were my dad’s running T-Shirts that he got from various races.  Dad now thinks of training for marathons as a hobby, some people build a new model air plane every few months, my dad runs a marathon every few months.

Whenever I got new shoes as a kid I was sure that they would help me run faster. In third grade we were timed running a mile. I ran it 7 minutes and 47 seconds. Which is pretty decent for an 8 year old. Of course my dad was excited that one of his five kids might like running too. Soon I was on the Baron Park Striders track team. From the very beginning of my running career I gravitated towards long distances. When I was 9 I talked the officials at the Hersey track meet into let me run in the mile even though you technically had to be 10 years old to qualify.

I did track all through middle school and added cross country in high school. I was never one of the fastest runners but I enjoyed myself and always did my best. Dad would take me to the track and time me running splits and talk racing strategy with me. He always picked a few meets each season and left work early so he could come cheer me on. That meant a lot to me.

As I got older and busier it became harder and harder to fit running into my day. Soon after Stephen was born I decided wanted to start running again. Dad said he would come to Utah and run a marathon with me if I wanted. So I began to train. The thing about training for a marathon when you have a little baby at home who doesn’t believe in sleeping for longer than 3 hours at a time is that you are exhausted at the beginning of your run as well as at the end. I somehow managed to run a marathon when Stephen was 8 months old. I hadn’t done nearly enough training but I finished, with my dad at my side.

Two kids later I was feeling flabbier than I ever had before and knew I wanted to get back in shape. After a few weeks of running I decided to run another marathon. I called Dad and he said he was in. So I began to train again. Saturday afternoons I would call dad and see how far he had ran that week and compare our training routines. I trained right this time and felt much more prepared for the race.

The middle of June came around and I was ready. We were running in the Utah Valley Marathon and it had a beautiful course that started way up Provo Canyon and ended about half a mile from my house. We got on the bus to take us to the start at about 4:30 a.m.

And then it started raining, and raining for about the first 13 miles of the race. And not a light trickily rain it was a pouring until your toes are squishing in the water in your shoes rain. My dad told me that out of the nearly 20 marathons he had run that one had the worst conditions. We finished though, and I was in better shape than I had been in years.

I had every intention of continuing to run after the marathon. It didn’t happen though. I blame it on baby number four who I was actually 6 weeks pregnant with when I ran the marathon. I was soon to tired to do anymore than keep up with 3 kids and running got dropped from my schedule.

William (baby number four) has easily taken the award for most needy baby. It seems like his goal for the first year of life was to prevent me from accomplishing anything other than taking care of him. It you want proof of this look at the dishes in my sink. Gratefully he is starting to grow out of this and I don’t feel completely exhausted at the end of every day. Enough so that I have began to exercise again.

I started out with exercise videos in my living room and since the weather outside has been better I have been walking, which can be quite the work out when you are trying to walk fast while pushing three kids in a stroller. Now that it is not dark when Michael gets home from work I might actually have some time to go out running.  And I am excited. I love the tingly exhausted feeling my muscles you get after a good run.

Running plays a different role in my life now than it did when I was a teenager but it is still important to me. It’s not about racing in a track meet or getting a personal best time anymore. It’s about getting out of the house, taking a break and doing something for me. And my Dad has been there with me no matter what my running goal has been.

My parents are visiting next week. I think I will ask my dad if he wants to go for a run.

Being tall doesn’t make you good at basketball

I enjoy running. I am a decent volleyball player. I am not a basketball player. Growing up I would occasionally play a game of HORSE with my brothers or dad. I played in PE when we had to. I like watching basketball if it is a team that I care about, but since we don’t have TV that doesn’t happen very much.

Despite my lack of basketball skills I joined our wards women’s basketball team. It gives me a chance to get out and socialize and we have a fun team. When I joined the team the other women assumed that I would be a good player. I think it is because at 5’ 10’’ I am the tallest lady on the team. It didn’t take long for everyone on my team to realize that height does not equal basketball skill. Fortunately they didn’t really care if I was any good and were all just playing to have a good time.

It’s a good thing everyone on our team has that attitude because the only game we won was the one where the other team had to forfeit because they didn’t have enough players. Officially they forfeited the game but we scrimmaged against them just for fun. They still won even though they were playing with only four people and we had a full team with a few extras to sub in.

When I first started playing with the the ward I was pretty clueless about the finer points of the game. Basically I knew you tried to get baskets and you can’t double dribble. But the details like, not staying three seconds in the key, what a jump ball is and the various ways you could foul someone were a mystery. Often players from the opposing team would give me pointers. I think they figured they didn’t have to worry much when they were twenty points ahead. I have learned most of the rules out but I still don’t always know what is going on.

The hardest thing for me in basketball is being aggressive. I am just not really a in your face kind of person. Cross-country and track aren’t really the most aggressive sports. I must have made some progress in being aggressive though because I actually got a foul called on me in our last game. I’m not sure what I did.

Last night was our stake tournament. Since we were seeded last we played the teamed that had the best record. Which meant we didn’t really have a chance. It was a fun game though. The final score was 18-48. And amazingly enough 8 of those 18 points were scored by me. Maybe being tall does have some benefits.

Bread and computers

I have been thinking about some things that were a treats or luxury to my parents generation that are taken for granted now, like baby wipes and computers.  There are so many things now that make my life easier and help me save time; microwaves, Easy Mac, email, onsies, Wikepedia, Wal Mart, disposable diapers, cell phones, vacuums, Google Maps, Magic Erasers, really the list could go on and on. Yet even with all these helpful, time savings devices I am still always busy and barely able to keep up with things.

I have also been thinking about things that my parents had that my generation and my children’s generation would consider treats now. Homemade bread topped with home made blackberry jam. Being able to let kids wander around the neighborhood with out worrying about them. No lines to go through security at an airport. Chicken soup with homemade noodles. Being able to put a significant amount of gas in your car with the change found in your pocket. Receiving a hand written letter in your mailbox. These are things that some of my generation and eve more of my children’s generation have never experienced.

The tricky thing about all the wonderful time savings inventions and technology is if they are not used wisely they can suck up our time and make life less enjoyable. Smucker’s will never taste as good as home made blackberry-peach jam made from berries you picked yourself. It is much faster to research and write a paper on a computer, but countless hours can be wasted on the internet. Watching Diego won’t ever be as fun as building a blanket fort or playing hide and go seek in the dark. It is all about balance. There has to be a way to use technology to make life easier without being consumed by it.

To help find this balance I started making my own bread last month. It is the perfect balance of technology and simplicity. I use my fancy new Bosch to knead the bread in just a few minutes, instead of having to crank a bread bucket for what seemed like forever as a kid. But I use my great grandpa’s recipe that has only 6 ingredients in it. My family has been using this recipe for over 100 years. I shape the loaves myself and about once a week my kids get to smell the aroma of fresh bread wafting through the house. They eat peanut sandwiches on slightly uneven slices of bread, and every once in a while we can have scones for dinner.

My great grandpa Wight who used this whole wheat recipe his whole life.

Hopefully my kids will learn that the best food isn’t bought in stores, and the best memories aren’t made from playing a computer game. I know it will take some work but I want my house to be more unplugged, for me and my kids. I want to take advantage of technology and use it to enrich my life and simplify it. So here is to more puppet shows and less Netflix re-runs. More red light green light and less video games. More books and less flash games.

How do you balance technology in your life?

Goodreads

I have known about Goodreads for a long time. I like the idea of keeping track of books you have read and getting recommendations based on what you have already read and what your friends like. I have been relunctant because like facebook, and pinterest, it is one more than that become a time sucker. However I have been getting a lot of recommendations from friends of books to read lately and I couldn't remember them all. So I decided to try it and got an account today. After spending about 15 minutes putting books that I have read in and setting my preferences I already have 22 books on my to-read list. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

I love reading and I do a lot of it. I read to gain learn things and just for entertainment. I would rather read a really good book than watch a really good movie. But that doesn't mean that I can't waste time by reading. It is important to be able to put a book down and do things like, cleaning the kitchen and playing pillow plop with kids.

I am hoping that having an actual list of books that I want to read will be a good thing. Theoretically ( it took me a few minutes to decide if I spelled that right, it still looks funny to me) I can spend time reading only books that I really want to instead of just what happens to be in at the library. Or I could spend all my time trying to read all the books on my never ending list and not get other important things done.

Here's hoping that I use my list wisely and that goodreads turns out to be a time saver and not a time sucker.

And if you want you can be my friend on goodreads.

Exciting things in my life lately

1. I successfully made rolls with my new Bosch mixer. They were a big hit.

2. My freezer’s ice machine no longer spits out blue gogurt chunks when you put ice in your cup.

3. I got to watch Stephen win his first grade spelling bee. The winning word was sparkle.

4. I put batteries in the clock in the hutch in my living room that has not been working in several years. It is no longer always 11:30.

5. I made delicious brown cow drinks in my ice cream machine.

6. I think I have settled on colors for the new king size quilt I am going to commission my mother-in-law to make for my bed. I want a quilt that is big enough to hang over the sides of my king size bed.

7. William actual sat on my lap long enough to to fall asleep today. He never does this and I love holding sleeping babies.

8. I am about half way through naming and organizing all the pictures on my computer.

9. I got to touch a really big alive snake at the Monte L. Bean Museum.

10. I discovered the Marketfresh green beans Wal Mart sells in there produce section. They come in a bag and are fresh and taste so good.

11. I made an impressive (at least impressive to a 3 year old) Lightning McQueen birthday cake as well as a chocolate cake with a picture of an apple on it.

12. I have gotten back into the groove of personal scripture study.

13. I got my annual hair cut and realized again that I should probably get haircuts more often.

14. I discovered kettle bells and have began working out regularly.

15. I read Darcy’s most updated version of her book and can’t wait to see how it all ties together.

It has been a good few weeks. What have you done that was cool lately?

Say Lettuce

I don’t have very many good picture of Michael and I. Mom took this one of us while we were visiting for Christmas. I really like it so I thought I would share.

I just realized that I can make pictures bigger after I put them in the post. Cool.

Organization bug

I really like to organize and put things in order. Whenever I go to my mom’s house she has me organize the canned food in her pantry. I am not however, especially good at keeping things organized. So I go through cycles. Organize, slowly build up clutter and get unorganized and then purge and reorganization.

The last few months I was in the build up clutter and get unorganized part of the cycle. I knew something was going to have to be done about it especially after trying to find homes for new Christmas presents.

So when we got home from Moses Lake for Christmas I went on an organization and stuff purging binge. I started with the game cupboard and got rid of a big box full of games and puzzles we never used anymore to make room for a few new games we got for Christmas.

I also cleaned out my bedroom closet, Kathryn’s closet, the dining room closet (which I suppose is a weird place for a closet) and most notably the kitchen. Instead of watching TV or reading after we put the kids to bed I have been cleaning things out (Michael has been helping too.) I have a few areas I want to clean out but I think so far I have been very successful.

Here is one example. It would be much more impressive if I had remembered to take a before picture. You will just have to trust me that it is a vast improvement.

This is the area above my cupboards in my kitchen. It used to be full of stuff; vases, Halloween candy pails, otter pops, big bowls, ice cube trays, etc. I was able to get rid of a enough stuff and move things around enough to get everything off the top of my cupboards except for my biggest stainless steel bowl and a breakfast tray that won’t fit in my cupboards. Having all the empty space up there makes my kitchen look very white. I think I am going to but something decorative up there.

Last night I brought six boxes of stuff, a TV and a computer monitor to our Relief Societies bring and take table. All of it came from reorganizing my house. The best part was that anything nobody wanted got taken to the DI, so I don’t have to have it around anymore.