Fat to Fit Friday

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Nov 302012
 

So I guess I have this new habit of signing up for races and then not training for them. First it was Wine at the Line, and on Thanksgiving morning Andy and I did the Drumstick Dash.

We woke up early and headed to Broad Ripple for a 4.6-mile run/walk, something that does not sound fun when you’re anticipating a day of mashed potatoes and stuffing and fat pants.

In car, on way to race
ANDY: I’m glad we could do this, this is a fun thing to be able to do together.
JENNIFER: “…even though you’ve been bitching about it all morning.” That’s the second part of your sentence, right?
ANDY: Well, yeah.

True love, people. TRUE. LOVE.

Actually, Andy was right, it WAS a fun thing to do together. We got there early enough where we had time to hang out with each other and do some pre-race stuff, like eat bananas and browse sponsor booths and take pictures with turkeys.

The race went well for both of us. Andy ran, I walked. I left my phone at the gear check-in, so no pictures, but Andy and I were nice enough to re-enact it for you.

We both did pretty well, for two people that had Achilles problems (Andy) and didn’t train (me).

I even ran little bits here and there, like the last quarter-mile. I was proud that, compared to my first race, I went over a mile further AND knocked 24 seconds off my pace. Go me!

The “being sore for two or three days afterwards” part wasn’t fun, but we had a good enough time that Andy somehow convinced me to sign up today for next May’s Mini half-marathon. 13.1 miles…I’ll probably have to train for THAT one, won’t I? At least I’ll have Friday blog fodder for the next five months or so.

Thirty posts? Check. (Almost, anyway)

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Nov 292012
 

I know NaBloPoMo isn’t officially over until tomorrow, but tomorrow’s a Fat to Fit Friday post, so I’m celebrating tonight. Yay! I did it even thought most of them were filler posts!

And now I’m off to do a victory lap. And by victory lap, I mean head to bed with my Nook and try to actually get to sleep before midnight. There might even be Snuggies involved. We’re living large over here, people.

Butterfly in the skyyyyyyyy……

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Nov 282012
 

Now that I have the Reading Rainbow theme stuck in your head, let’s talk about books, shall we?

Or rather, the fact that I don’t read nearly as many of them as I would like to. Or used to.

I trace it all back to when we lost Sam and Emilie. I wasn’t expecting there to be physical aspects of grief, and thought I was going crazy when I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I didn’t read anything longer than a magazine article for well over a year afterwards.

I kept expecting my concentration to come back, but it never really has. For a number of reasons, I suppose. The physical, mental, and emotional stress of fertility treatments. A stressful and scary twin pregnancy. Newborn twins. Having to be “on” 24/7 as a stay-at-home-mom, and never feeling like I can shut it off and ignore all the work to be done around the house.

I read this post by Snickollet earlier this month and it’s stuck with me. There’s a lot I could relate to, the concentration issues, missing an activity I love and wanting to encourage it in my kids.

If you’d ask me to list my interests and hobbies, “reading” would be near the top of the list. Yet until this week I hadn’t read a book since the last week of August. I’ve read maybe five or six books this year, all but one read during our week at the lake and my two trips to Carterville this summer. This makes me kinda sad.

This blog seems to be turning into Things I Need to Do Better, isn’t it? (See also: get in shape, print out photos.) But I’ve mentioned before my struggle to take time out and time for myself, and reading for pleasure is encompassed in that.

So I’m trying to work on it. I bought a Nook as a great Black Friday deal and have spent time this week placing various e-books on hold at the library. I joined GoodReads and browsed book reviews. I even downloaded and read a book! The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which had been on my “must read” list for over a year.

As Henry and Eleanor are learning to read, I want them to see me reading and enjoying a love of books. Hopefully I’m on the way back.

Read anything good lately? Hit me up with some recommendations!

Thanksgiving Leftovers

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Nov 272012
 

I didn’t post much of substance last week, was too busy with Thanksgiving prep and celebrating. So why don’t I go back and tell you what I did?

Thanksgiving prep was a couple days of cleaning, which is boring to tell you about. I scrubbed my kitchen floor on my hands and knees! I think I just won a blogging award for that story!

My parents and aunt and uncle came to Indy for the holiday, which was great. Having them around bumped me down to “kid” level, which means my contribution to the Thanksgiving meal was a veggie tray. Score!

The long weekend was packed and went by quickly. Thanksgiving morning Andy and I did the Drumstick Dash (more on that Friday). That afternoon, the whole family ate ourselves silly at my cousin’s house. I wasn’t going to do much shopping, but somehow found myself at Target late Thursday night, and out at Macy’s and Kohl’s and the mall for most of the day Friday. On Friday night Andy and I took advantage of free babysitting and snuck out for dinner and a movie. Saturday entailed one last round of shopping while Andy and my dad worked on stuff around the house. So in a nutshell, Thanksgiving = eat + shop.

Also in a nutshell, Thanksgiving = I didn’t really need to be there, when my kids and my parents are together they don’t need anyone else. I love the Constant Admiration Society the four of them have formed. As my parents packed up to leave, it dawned on me that we took zero pictures of their entire visit. I think that’s a first for my family. I quickly moved a stool out into my garage, threw a black sheet at Andy and instructed him to “go stand back there and hold this up,” and snapped a few photos before my parents left. So no action shots of Thanksgiving, but that’s okay, it’s the people we celebrated with that are important. And these four are really important to me.

This is my worst NaBloPoMo ever, sorry about that

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Nov 262012
 

You know those posts that you throw up at 11:00 at night because it’s been a long day and you very much want to go to bed, and you very much don’t feel like posting, but you haven’t missed a November NaBloPoMo post in four years, so you write down the first shit that pops into your head and hit Publish?

Yeah, this is one of those. To make it up to you, here’s a picture of my cat under the Christmas tree.

(You know those photos that you snap at 11:00 at night because it’s been a long day and you very much want to go to bed, and you very much don’t feel like thinking of a clever way to end your post, but you haven’t missed a November NaBloPoMo post in four years, so you take a picture of the first cat that pops into your living room? Yeah, this is one of those.)

HOO HOO HOO MERRY CHRISTMAS

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Nov 252012
 

We ended our whirlwind Thanksgiving weekend tonight with segueing right into Christmas. The tree went up, the stockings went up, too.

It’s SO FUN to see the kids so excited for everything. Henry and Eleanor could barely stand waiting for Mom and Dad to get the tree set up and ready for decorating. They hung most of the ornaments themselves this year. Eleanor in particular flitted about, wanting to get out every! single! thing! in the storage containers and talk about where it should go and place it there herself. There’s a reindeer candelabra on top of their play kitchen, and a stuffed snowman perched *thisclose* to the edge on the top of their dresser, but that’s where she wanted them so that’s where they’ll stay. She even drew a picture to add to the decorations, complete with Santa’s HO HO HO, that she wrote without any help.

Maybe Santa’s an owl? It’s the cutest thing ever, so nobody tell her it’s wrong.

After decorating, we had hot chocolate and cookies while we played games and talked about our Christmas lists. Henry and Eleanor were so fired up, over the hot chocolate, over the toys they want for Christmas.

Since Henry and Eleanor’s toddlerhood, every holiday season I start out feeling Scrooge-like and then they get all excited which makes ME excited. I can’t wait to plan a fun month for these two.

Weekend Haiku

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Nov 242012
 

I have good parents,
sad they had to leave today,
wish I lived closer

I am excited
to have new drinking glasses
when did I get old?

got to have a date
with husband: dinner, movie
(mac & cheese, Skyfall)

Eleanor’s new boots
sparkle but her happiness
sparkles even more

Sunday, put up tree
out with Thanksgiving and in
with Christmas good cheer

Thankful

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Nov 222012
 

2012, for our family, is going to go down in the record books as Epically Shitty. My grandpa died (which I never blogged about, did I? so yeah, that happened in May), my father-in-law died, my dog died. All mixed in with other random lesser things, like surprise car repairs or being sick for basically all of Fall.

I have Officially Given Up on any chance of 2012 swinging back over to the “good” column; I’m instead just biding my time until my calendar flips over to 2013 and a fresh start. It’s hard to realize that there were some nuggets of good over the past eleven months, but they’re there. So here’s me sitting and forcing myself to remember the things I still have to be thankful for:

a loving family
a kick-ass husband
healthy, smart children
two entertaining cats
a fun family trip to Chicago
the best week I ever had at the lake
fun visits to out-of-state family
Henry and Eleanor’s great experience so far in kindergarten
watching the kids learn how to read
my health and ability to work on getting healthier
opportunities I’ve been able to give my family through this blog
friends that are awesome whose kids are just as awesome

So the good IS there this year, even if I have to look a little harder to find it. It will be 2013 eventually, right?

Yep, more pre-Thanksgiving filler posts.

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Nov 212012
 

We were watching Phineas & Ferb today, like we often are, and the episode was a clip show. And I thought, hey, my blog needs a clip show. So please to enjoy some Flesworthy favorites from past years’ NaBloPoMo (what’s the plural of that? NaBloPoMoes? NaBloPoMi?):

Things I Thought I’d Never Say And Then I Had Kids

Let The Record Show

A long time ago, in a living room far, far away…

Please make your check or money order out to “Flesworthy”

I might be an idiot, but I’m a warm idiot

Budding artistes

Aftermath

Bear

The twin bond: still going strong

 

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