Thursday, August 18, 2011

Three Things Thursday

Wow, it's Thursday already!  I thought I would blog more this week, but going back to work has thrown me off!

Running/Workouts:  I have been able to keep up with this aspect of my life this week!  I ran 3 miles Monday and 5 miles Wednesday finishing up both days by 6:45 am.  Monday, E and I went to yoga and Tuesday, I did the elllptical for 12 minutes (random time, I know) and lifted weights.  Today was a rest day because my legs were tired.  :)  Tomorrow will be elliptical, weights, and yoga and Saturday will be a 6 mile run.

Food:  We have been eating well this week.  I've made parmesan crusted chicken and risotto, mexican chicken spaghetti, and chicken salad.  There seems to be a chicken theme in our house this week!  Maybe we need some red meat next week.  ;-)

Faith:  I have been doing okay with my journaling.  I'm at least I'm catching up every couple of days. 

I started a new job in a new district this week even though it is not what I really want to be doing, but I felt as though the door was being opened and I should go through it whether or not I knew why.  Yesterday was the convocation for all district staff where everyone comes together to hear motivational speeches from various people.  When it was the superintendent's turn to speak, he opened with a prayer.  I've been in education for 22 years, worked in 6 different districts with more superintedents than I can remember and I've never seen that happen before yesterday.  I was amazed!  As he went on with his speech, he talked about his faith in God and how we must all do what we are led to do and how we impact the lives of others in ways we may never know.  As he spoke, I felt such a sense of peace and had the thought that "I am in the right place".  I may not know at this moment what God's plan for me is, other than He has one and I have to trust that all will be revealed in time and when He knows I'm ready. 

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to five you hope and a future".  Jeremiah 29:11

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Three Things Thursday

Work-I started back this week. Ish!  Ready to get back into a routine, but not ready for school to start! 

Reading-I've been doing lots of reading this summer!  I've probably read at least 15 books and am currently re-reading Gone With the Wind for the umpteenth time! I did some cleaning and organizing in E's room while she was in Destin and discovered several book we own that I want to read and have started a list of others too.  I may need to visit the library soon!

Workouts-I ran Monday and Wednesday and did elliptical intervals on Tuesday, so I took today as a rest day.  Tomorrow will be a bike/elliptical workout and Saturday will be a longer run.  I'm going to try to get to yoga tomorrow.  I know I need to be doing more stretching than I actually do! I had some tightness in my back and shoulders from sitting so much yesterday, so I did foam roll this morning.  Ahhhh.....

Hopefully, I will get into a routine next week and will be back with more pictures!  :)

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Triple Tuesday

1. My parents came in from Oklahoma yesterday so we are getting to spend some time with them before school starts.  We don't get to see them as often as we would like so it is nice when they can come down for a couple of days.

2.  N starts high school on the 22nd and E starts college on the 29th.  E and I went to buy her textbooks yesterday.  She got all but two and will get those as soon as they come in. I'm not sure I'm ready to have two freshman, but it's about to happen!

3.  After taking a week off, I ran 3 miles yesterday with no pain!  I iced when I got home and did some stretches, but so far, so good!  Today I did intervals on the elliptical.  Yikes! 
   
5 minute warm up
1 minute hard
I minute easy
2 minutes hard
1 minute easy
3 minutes hard
1 minute easy
4 minutes hard
1 minute easy
5 minutes hard
Repeat intervals
6 minute cool down


It's a great workout and keeps me out of the heat!  Thanks to Tina at faithfitnessfun.com for posting the workout and giving me something else to do on the elliptical (aka torture machine).  Tomorrow is a running day, hopefully, there will be NO pain in my shin! 

Friday, August 5, 2011

Fantastic Friday

My sweet beautiful E gets home from Destin tonight!  I cannot wait to see her and hear about all of her adventures including catching a shark while deep-sea fishing yesterday!

We did not have rolling blackouts yesterday after all.  Yay!  That would not have been fun during the 110 degree temps we had yesterday. 

In honor of E's trip to Florida, we are having crab legs for dinner tonight.  N is very excited and looking forward to dinner. 

I'm looking forward to running tomorrow morning and have great hopes that my shin will be back to normal.  Wish me luck!!

Our sweet Espn went to the doggie spa today and poor Drago looked for her all morning.  He would search the house and whine to me with a sad look on his face.  He was quite happy to see her when she got home and she does look fabulous!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Three Things Thursday

1.  This is our  "week off" from eating healthy dinners every night.  We only do this about once a year and I'm actually glad it is almost over!  N, on the other hand, has been very happy. 
Since these were on the menu last night, it's a good thing I did a killer 50 minute interval workout on the elliptical yesterday morning!

2.  We are experiencing record breaking temperatures in Texas the last few weeks with highs being 105+ and lows only in the mid 80s, along with drought conditions.  We are on mandatory water conservation and it looks as though we will having rolling blackouts in the next few hours.  I had never experienced rolling blackouts until February when we were having record lows.  Ahh, the extremes of NE Texas.  Even the dogs are feeling the heat and staying indoors almost 24 hours a day!  Poor little Espen was exhausted by 10 o'clock today. 


She  did bounce out of that chair amazingly quickly when the A/C repairman showed up!  Yes, in the midst of the heatwave, the capacitor on one of our A/C units went out last night.  Fortunately, we have 2 units, so we slept on the couch.  All is well this afternoon, if we can only make it through the rolling blackouts!

3.  My favorite part of summer is all of the fresh fruits and  vegetables that are readily available!  I visit the Farmer's Market every Saturday and plan meals around the fresh produce.  One of my favorite treats are cherries! Yummy!!

Aren't those absolutely gorgeous?!?!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Terrific Tuesday

Today was house-cleaning day!  Woo Hoo!  Parts of the house are done and the rest will come later.

I subscribe to http://www.proverbs31.org/ for a daily devotional and sometimes I read the blogs of the contributors  Yesterday, I just happened to read the blog of the contributor, http://www.marybethwhalen.com/  who was beginning a new activity for the month of August.  Each day she will post a question, quote, or verse to challenge us to journal our response.  I have never really been good at journaling.  I can't even blog every day!  But, I am giving it a try.  Today's question was "where do you want to be in 10 years?"  I responded where I want to be spiritually, physically, professionally, and socially.  I challenge each of you to look at Mary Beth's website and try journaling yourself.

Last night, I made chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes, and cream gravy for dinner.  N was in heaven!  It's been at least 5 years since I made chicken-fried steak.  I didn't even have a cast-iron skillet last time, but I did yesterday!  There's not much you can do to make something deep fried healthier, but I did use the Pioneer brand gravy mix that's fat free and I used fat-free half and half to make the potatoes.  I have to say it was delicious!

E is having a fabuous time in Destin.  She texted today that she had seen 3 baby sharks that were about 6 inches long.  I told her to look out for the mama shark!  Check her blog to see pics she has posted.  It's under blogs I follow and is A Guide to Emily's Life. 

Monday, August 1, 2011

Monday Musings

This past weekend was great!  We did lots of nothing and got some much needed rest!  I made it to the Farmer's Market on Saturday, was lucky enough to purchase tomatoes, cataloupe, local honey, and win a very cool mini greenhouse!  As soon as I figure out how to put it together, there will be pictures!

On Saturday, while C was mowing the yard, Drago and Espn decided to make a break for it!  Espn went from the backyard to the front door, but Drago took off for a trip around the neighborhood.  Here's what he looked like afterwards.

He was blowing bubbles in the water to splash it on his face!


I think this look says "maybe it wasn't so smart to go for a run when it's 105 outside".

I used the last of the bread dough to make these for breakfast on Sunday before we went to church.  Everyone was quite happy!



I got up at 4:15 this morning to drop E off at the church to go on Senior Trip with the kids from our youth group.  There were 6 kids and 5 adults going on the trip to Destin, FL for the week.  They shoud have a blast!  I sent 2 loaves of banana bread and 6 dozen butter cookies with them so we know they'll eat something besides seafood!

When I got home, I got in a 3 mile run before it was miserably hot!  I guess that is relative, because at 6:30 it was 82 degrees and the humidity was 81%.  I had some twinges in my shin so I came home and iced and stretched.  I guess I'll have to see how this all goes and take it easy for a few more days.  :-/