Beach Trip

Taylor and I had fun digging and burying our feet and legs in the sand.

RP and E stayed in the water the whole time - pretty much 90 minutes x 2 days. E managed to stay pretty dry but RP was very wet and filthy by the time we were done. 

Taylor loved the water!! He darts right down to the water any chance he gets, keeping us on high alert. He would get pushed over easily by the waves so whenever one would come, we have to hold his shoulders. But he laughs and takes it all in! He could have stayed much longer.

Rychen stood in the water for quite some time, taking full advantage of nature's ice bath for athletic recovery.

Craziness & a Change in Plans

I've had a rough few months. Really, I've had a rough year...pretty much since Taylor started walking, my entire reality shifted.

Last year I had it all together. I was doing my business, homeschooling the kids on a good regular schedule, supervising piano practice and sports activities, various errands, as well as my 4-5 times weekly workouts. I didn't nap. I didn't mind being woken in the nighttime. I had great health. I seemed to be in great balance.

Then 2013 happened. It's been one thing after another in our family, and my body hasn't been able to keep up. You can tell with my workouts -- all year, I've been swinging back and forth between feeling good and falling apart. I think I made a big mistake doing a half marathon 3 weeks after my last full marathon, and never really taking time off from running. I had a baby at the end of 2011 and then I got back into running two weeks later, and I never took any breaks through the entire year of 2012! I felt amazing so I just kept going. I kept breaking records and surprising myself with my race times. I couldn't get enough. So naturally I signed up for more events for 2013 right? 

I am now regretting that. Tables have turned and I have had enough. I have a very, very busy toddler who does not sleep much and still wakes through the night, and requires supervision at every minute of the day. Either he is making a mess somewhere or he is climbing on me or fussing at me--either way I can't get anything done. Somehow I still do my business from home, shipping on average 25 packages per day, receiving multiple boxes of new inventory several times a week, organizing and cleaning my office. Then there is waking up as early as 5 or 6am with Taylor, spending my day cleaning up after the older kids who leave toys and food out all day long, and staying up til 10 waiting for the last one to go to bed.

I read a book and succumbed to high-mileage training. I thought it made sense. However, obviously this method was not written for moms with 24-hour-day stress loads. After 6 weeks of 43+ miles per week, my body crashed and refused to go any further. Then for the past 7 weeks I have been doing barely enough to squeeze by, jogging (significantly reduced speed) only on days I felt like it, and getting all the rest I could on days I felt tired. 20 miles per week roughly. 

I was feeling pretty good last week and decided to make a go for the sprint triathlon we were signed up for. With all my resting, I didn't get around to any training on the bike, or much swimming either. I didn't know what to expect and thought I'd just take it easy and try to enjoy it. So that's what I did last Saturday--it was OK. The swim was fairly strong, pretty close to my normal swim. I even beat Rychen! Then I meandered to the transition area and took a leisurely bike ride (can you say BORING??) - Unfortunately I think the lack of training made it more of a strain on my back and neck. By the end of my bike ride, I was ready to throw in the towel. But I found something within myself to give the 3 mile "run" a shot. Pretty soon I was fairly comfortable since I had been keeping my running up. 3 miles was pretty easy. I even did it faster than I expected to, although nowhere near my 5K best time. I sprinted to the finish, passing three other people in the last 200 yards, and feeling good.

The next day I was very sore on my neck, arms, and back. Something was bothering me on my back (which had happened on a long run 10 days prior), even though it didn't affect my triathlon it was making me nervous for Seattle, a race I was signed up for to run this weekend, so I went in to see a chiropractor (first time ever) on Monday. He proceeded to correct my spine and muscle tension but in the process did something to a nerve in the curve of my back! Now I have worse back problems, between the nerve and the overall tightness. The past few days I have been real lethargic and pretty depressed! But calling off the race made me feel huge relief. I am now resting for however long I feel like it, with no pressure and no expectations. I need to lose a few pounds which I haven't been able to do with all the hard work-outs (maybe I am just a wimp but I don't like exercising on a calorie deficit. I get weak and dizzy if I try that). I need to get back to yoga and some strength work for my overall well-being!! I feel ready to start anew. 

Piano Recital Videos!

Just some pictures of my beautiful children

 Rychen, almost 8..... Elisabeth, 4-1/2.... Taylor, 16 months

and here's my sexy husband. Don't want to leave him out! 

(I took this picture and I LOVE IT.  This guy never smiles nice for the camera. He always ends up with the same funny expression. but I got a good smile!! )

Headline: Elisabeth Finally Plays Piano in Public!

 Rychen's been taking piano lessons for a few years now. Ever since then, Elisabeth has been picking up some skills (starting with "finger numbers" and so on). Over the past year she has a brief lesson herself, but she refuses to play for her teacher. So a few months ago, I asked Rychen to be her teacher at home. She wasn't shy with him, and she learned quickly. She now knows several songs, but she has still been too shy to play for her teacher!

Well, over Mother's Day we were visiting Great-Grandparents. Grandma Huxford played an organ recital for us. Then Rychen took a turn playing on the piano. Well Elisabeth wasn't about to be left out!! So she jumped up there and played a song. Back to Rychen... and then Elisabeth wanted to play more! They kept alternating until she played every song she knows. (I really don't think the rest of the company understood how amazing and significant this was!!)

We told her teacher and there just so happens to be a recital coming up Saturday. She asked Elisabeth to play for the recital. We're taking bets... will she chicken out or will she rise to the occasion??

(my money's on the chicken)

Lion's New Pillow & Rychen's Orange Mustache

 Here's Lion on his new pilllow.  Rychen wanted to sew Lion a pillow. He cut out fabric to spell "LAZY LION" and asked me to sew all the letters on the main fabric. Then we sewed and stuffed the pillow. (He didn't ask permission to use my fabric and actually cut apart Elisabeth's dress in progress. Oh well. I obviously wasn't getting around to finishing it, was I?)

This is Lion's quit that Grandma Jones made a while ago. How many Grandma's make quilts for their great-grand-animals? Come on, that's just awesome. (Rychen says I am Lion's grandma, so I am calling her great-grandma)

By the way, this is Rychen's perpetual orange mustache, these days. He refuses to eat vegetables other than salad. But he loves carrot juice. So I started buying big bags of carrots and we make carrot juice as often as we remember. He makes it himself and loves it! Lately Elisabeth has gotten jealous, so she started asking for it too.

Rychen's "book"

Without Rychen knowing, I am stealing this draft-in-process so I can show you all :)
Yesterday I was at the computer for the better part of 6 hours, working on a booklet of fitness information for a R.S. class I will be teaching soon. At dinner, he said "I want to write a book too!" So he sat down at the computer and began to type... He has come back to it a few times (a paragraph this size takes hours for him, you have to understand). This is what he has so far. I didn't help him at all. (I think it's so cute how he has little chapter headings)
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playing Me and my sister, Elisabeth like to play. We play a lot. I like making up games. I made up this one game called “ship”. What you do in ship is… my room is the ship and we fly a lot. Then we land, get out, and fight made up bad guys. we also like couch cushens. we like takeing the cushens off the couch, then we like... stack them or jump on them and other stuf like that. I like to play hide and seek. We both like to play sorry, trouble, and lots of other games. computer We also like to play computer games. We really like this game called “Mario bike”. We also like this snake game. I am only seven years old, and I have my very own email account Seasons  I really like the summer and summer is coming up in a few months. Elisabeth likes summer and winter. (I like snow too.) i like throwing snow balls at her. Rychen you know my age, 7, and I still sleep with my stuffed animal lion, (wich I had for about 4 years.) i also have meny other stufed anamals.my favorit food is pasta last Sunday I counted all the way from 0 to 1,700, high huh. before that, the highest i ever counted was about 200, but last sunday i counted to 1,700! my favorite coler is green we also have to school (i do home school) we do a lot in the winter, les in the summer so that we can play outside. i really like playing outside. elisabeth likes to play outside too. my faveret book is "direy of a wimpy kid" elisabeth elisabeth's favorite coler pink her favorite game is sorry. her favorite video game is super mario bros. her favorite food is fruit saled. family we got a new home about a year ago, me, elisabeth, dad all have the there own room. my mom and dad share a room. we also have a deck,seperet playroom and seperet schoolroom. i really like  our new home. i am 7. my sister, elisabeth is 4. my brother, taylor is 1. my mom is 29. my dad is 30, he is turning 31 soon. i am haveing a birthday soon too. i am turning 8. i can't wait for my birthday! i am haveing a star wars birthday party! my birthday is 7/1/5. my dad's is {apparently a secret}

"Hello? Goodbye!"

Ever since Easter, plastic eggs have been a favorite toy around here (I hate it, because I have to clean up all the halves all over the place). We finally put them away but Taylor found a half left. It's now one of his most prized possessions.

One of his games he plays with it, is using it as a phone. I found him holding it up to his ear one day, so I played with something else and we "called each other" repeatedly. Now he does it all by himself and I will find him holding it up to his ear, talking to his imaginary friend on the other line.

He actually doesn't say words very often but I got him doing this cute game yesterday, it was awesome! "Hello? Ba-bye!" over and over, as we hang up and pick back up.

I just think it's so funny ... of course kids have been playing phone for ages. But in this generation, now when nobody talks on the phone anymore, and they still love this game!! Does he really understand?? How often has he seen anybody talking on a phone, now really?? I call my family once or twice a month and other than that I am rarely on my phone. And no, I haven't seen any toddlers pretending to text, but eventually I'm sure that will be the new game.