Sweet Valentine

We enjoyed a sweet Valentine’s Day around here. I whipped up these peanut butter blossom cookies and used chocolate heart candies in place of kisses. (Dark for me. Milk for Brad.) Cute and fun. Plus, I’ve been on a diet for like EVER so it was nice to eat something other than fish and broccoli. I’ve decided that I need to create my own peanut butter cookie recipe. These were a little too sweet. But then again my taste could be skewed right now. Dirt would probably taste too sweet after being on a diet for so long. Once I perfect my recipe I’ll be sure to share. Of course cookies and weight loss don’t really jive so that won’t be happening until these blasted last few pounds come off. Diets make me miserable. Can you tell?

Brad surprised me with this necklace. I LOVE IT! He ordered it weeks ago and it’s been hiding in the  moving boxes in our living room all this time. Sneeky, sneeky.

Quirky Knitted Poufs

knitted pouf

knitted pouf

knitted pouf

knitted pouf

 

I never tire of a good knitted pouf and these fruit and veggie knitted poufs by Anne-Claire Petit have such personality! They’re organic, too. Isn’t that clever? I like the apple the best. Second place goes to the lemon only because it might not be easily recognizable for what it is if it’s sitting there by itself. Any of these would look super cute in an eclectic style kid’s room.

Available here.

A Mild Winter

magnolia blossom

magnolia blossom

To say it’s been a mild winter would be putting it, well, mildly. It’s January and the Magnolias are already in full bloom. I look forward to this time every year. For just a couple of weeks everything is pink and pretty. I love it!

I know I’m a wuss when it comes to winter. I don’t like being cold. (Is there anyone that does?) But wintertime helps me appreciate the nice weather we enjoy here the majority of the year. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. (Ecclesiates 3:1) That being said, I’m especially thankful for how temperate this winter has been and consider it a special blessing to our little family. We put all of our things in storage when we moved out last summer. We don’t have any of our winter coats or our winter blankets. Right now we’re using an old quilt and this blanket I picked up at Ikea. We would normally be freezing in this old house, but we’ve been just fine. Just one more thing I’m thankful for.

Because 26.3 would be crazy!

That’s what several of the signs said towards the end. The whole idea is certifiable if you ask me, but I did it. I ran my very first marathon!

Last November.

Here it is January and I’m just now blogging about it. I probably would have just let it go, but hardly a day goes by that Brad doesn’t give me a hard time about it. “You accomplished a HUGE goal!” he says. “You deserve to pat yourself on the back!”

He’s right. And I did pat myself on the back. I might not have talked a lot about it (I couldn’t. I just moaned in agony every time I moved), but I did wear my finishers medal around town for like a week. I let it do the talking for me.

We got back in town only a week before the race which means I trained for the whole thing on the road. Let me just say that I DO NOT recommend this! Traveling (especially with kids) is stressful enough on it’s own, but when you have to figure out where to get a 16 or 18 mile run in that just brings it to a whole new level. On the plus side, I trained in some incredibly beautiful places. I mean check this out:

Coincidentally, Dooce ran her first marathon the next day in New York. When I read about her experience I laughed so hard I cried. I felt the exact same way and spent the second half of the race debating which was more painful: the marathon or an unmedicated birth. The last 10 miles WOULD NOT END! I’m pretty sure I walked the last 6. Or crawled. I’m not sure. It was all a delirious, painful blur.

I sat next to a woman on the shuttle who had run 79 (!!!) marathons. She told me that once you cross that finish line you’ll know whether or not you’ll do it again.

Guess what. I’m going to do it again.

I’m crazy like that.

(BTW for those of you wondering, natural labor is FAR MORE PAINFUL, but the reward at the end is way better than any dinky little medal.)