Catch Up

Wow.

I have pictures to post,

kid updates to write,

thoughts in my head.

I feel like I am always playing catch up.  I want to do better at blogging, just like I want to do better at staying organized, keeping my house clean, eating healthy and "playing" more.

I am sad when I look back for birthday pictures/updates and see that I never managed to write them, and I am going to try to prioritize my blog at a higher level.  We'll see.

but for now, here are some quick goal updates.  Hopefully I will get the kid updates/current pictures out as the week goes on...

Social: This fall I started meeting with 2 friends to work through a Beth Moore Study.  We do the daily lessons on our own and then meet once a week (late at night after kids are in bed) to watch the DVD lesson together.  It is very informal.  We watch the DVD and then we just catch up on life.  It is a nice "adult" break in my week.  The study is really good too, and is challenging me in a lot of ways.  I was skeptical of Beth Moore for a long time, until I did one of her studies- now I want to go through them all.

Marriage: Life's been busy.  I am all about date nights being raking leaves and heating up leftover pizza, but Noah likes to do more formal (and less productive :) dates, and we need to work a little harder on that.  I have friends with relationship drama and I was thinking how nice it is not to have that...of course we have conflicts, and we need to work on things and we can always do better, but it is good.

Kids: School, play, changing diapers, helping with conflicts- it is my daily life, my daily joy, my daily struggle and my daily calling.  I love my kids.  People wonder why I have so many children, I wonder why they don't have as many children.  They are each different, and each very fascinating.  I love to analyze and watch people, and I have 5 charming little subjects, right in my own home.  After a full day of being a mom, I need my break at night.  I am trying to figure out how to get everyone in bed by 8, so that I have  a little time to do other things and still go to bed at an ok time.  This may require eating without Noah etc, so it requires some thought.

Exercise: My long runs were killing me, because I never got them done.  I was always having some other problem or situation coming up and they would get pushed off.  This fall I enrolled the kids in some classes at the Y, and now I have a set schedule of my exercise.  On Tuesdays I run as far as I can at a sub 8 min mile pace and then slow down until I get to 3 miles.  So far I can pretty consistently do 1.5 miles in just under 12 minutes.  Last time I was able to go back to 8 min mile pace after a short break.  My goal is 3 miles in 24 minutes by Christmas.  I also do strength training on Tuesdays.  On Wednesdays I swim laps.  On Thursdays  I run 3 miles as fast as I can.  My last time was 25 minutes and 40 seconds.  I also do strength training on Thursdays.  Noah and I do push ups on MWF.  I would tell you more about that, but we are in training for a casual competition,and I don't want to give away our status.  I am supposed to fit in a long run on the weekend, but that is very difficult to get done.

Yard: We are mostly done cutting down trees and last weekend we rented a woodchipper and chipped up all the branches and extraneous wood we had laying around.  The lot looks much neater and bigger.

House: The domestic chores are still a struggle, and I think they always will be.  We have a lot of people in a small space.  We are here a lot, and we have lots hobbies, activities to keep track of.  All that generates a lot of stuff.  I want to go through things and purge again, but that takes a lot of time and effort.  The boys are helping more, and I am going to increase that even more (slowly though, so they don't notice).

Homeschool: It is good.  I like it. It is a lot of work, but it is  rewarding and I feel very strongly that it is the right thing for our family.

Well, I have a whole day packed full of stuff tomorrow, better try to get some sleep!