A few things

What a crazy few weeks we've had! Shortly after my last post, we loaded up the kids and headed out West for a week-long reunion with Jared's parents, siblings, and nephews. It was the first time we've all been together in about 2 1/2 years, and we had a great time. We all stayed at Jared's parents' home in Fraser, CO, just outside of Winter Park. There were 16 of us under one roof for the whole week and it was busy! Our days were filled with playing, swimming, riding bikes, hiking, and chasing kiddos around. The kids were sufficiently worn out by the end of each day and usually went to bed without any complaining. We arrived home Saturday at midnight and have been trying to catch up on things here. It's good to be home.




I've continued to feel pretty good emotionally. God is continuing to work in my heart and make me more dependent on Him. I've had a few lonely days this week, and each time I felt down, He would send someone to encourage me with a phone call or Facebook message. Today I received a package in the mail - a devotional book called "Divine Design" by Sharla Fritz. I won it in a giveaway hosted by my blog friend Cindy Bultema at "She Sparkles". What perfect timing! I can't wait to dig in and start reading. Thanks, Cindy!


Most of you know I started a running program earlier this summer. It's the Couch to 5k program, and I LOVE it! I have never been a runner before. I hated it. When we had to do a mile run around the track in high school PE, I almost passed out. It was torture. And I was 'in shape' then! :) I started week 5 when we left for Colorado, and I was worried about not being able to run out there. I did try, but the altitude made it impossible for me. I decided to jump back in when we got home, and I did day 2 of week 5 on Wednesday. I knew I'd head over to the gym again today to do day 3, but I had NO idea what the workout was going to be. It's usually an alternation of walking/running for a few minutes at a time. The most I've done is 8 minutes of running, and that was just this week. Imagine my surprise when I hopped on the treadmill and loaded the C25k app on my iPod and saw today's workout: 5 minute warm-up walk, 20 minute run, 5 minute cool-down walk. Twenty minutes of running?!?!? With NO walking breaks?!?!? I felt so defeated right away, thinking "there is NO way I can do this". But guess what? I DID IT!!! It was tough, and a few times I could hear myself say "take a break", but I would NOT give in. As the voice prompt on the app gave me my 'how many minutes left' updates, I kept pushing myself. "You are halfway done...10 minutes left", "Five minutes left", "Three minutes left", and finally, "One minute left"...I felt so empowered! As the voice told me "cool-down", there were tears welling up in my eyes. I felt like I had crossed this imaginary finish line and it was exhilarating. Now I know there's still a ways to go in my training. A 5k will take longer than 20 minutes. But I did it...and I am very proud of that fact!