You just do…

My friend Ellen sent me this link last night.

Jody’s words are an amazing reminder to me, after my last post, that you never know what is around the corner. And that you just have to savor life, live it, take it all in with all its craziness and enjoy those you love.

Because you really never know…

How do you live the cliché?

Last night after I had put the kids down, cleaned the kitchen and put all the kids’ toys away, I dropped down on the couch to relax and read in the blissful quiet.

Before I opened my book I found myself staring at the bookshelves with all the books and photos so randomly rearranged by my children. My first thought was to immediately get up and once again organize the shelves. Then it dawned on me…in the not so distant future there will be no undone bookshelves, there will be no small hand prints on the windows, there will be no screens ripped out of the door. Life will not be like living in a tornado of children forever.

They will all too quickly grow up. They will learn to “do” for themselves. And life will change, yet again.

How do I learn to savor this time?

How do I learn to embrace this craziness?

How do I learn to take each and every day and live it to the fullest with three kids that need so much, take so much and crave every single ounce of me?

Laying down the law

Over the past week, PJ has been taking the liberty of running away from me at the pool. Where does she run you ask? Anywhere the hell she wants, I answer. Ok, let’s see…she runs to the bathroom, to get her towel, to the sand, to the other end of the pool, to say hello to the lifeguards, to see floating discarded Band-Aids, get my drift?

Just so you know. Rule number one on our list of three pool rules is, “WE MUST ALL STICK TOGETHER and if you want to go somewhere else you MUST ask permission”.

This morning on the way into the pool I made it very clear to all three children that if anyone, including PJ, ran anywhere without permission we would pick up and leave immediately. Everyone knew what was at stake and on this 90 degree day we all were hoping for the best.

Suddenly, she turns to me and says she wants to go home. I look at the clock, it is only 12:15 and we usually don’t leave for a good hour or so. I tell her it is not time yet but we will leave soon. And then she does it, like a bolt of lightning…gone across the pool to places visually unattainable until I am running with child number three in my arms after her.

Once I nab her little arm, stop her and ask her what she’s doing, she looks me straight in the eye and says, “Well mom, you said we would have to leave if I ran away…so I did.”

AARRRRRRGGUH!!!!

Wondering why I did that

In the past five minutes I have done the following, in this order:
1. vacuumed the TV room
2. started a movie for the kids
3. gave the kids a bowl of popcorn

Does anyone else find that extremely stupid?

Kid quote of the day

Mom, there’s a bug trying to make a home in my nose.

Race Results

The race was GREAT!


My bike did not get stolen.

I did not defecate or urinate on myself.

And I finished a surprising 12th in my age group, with a finish time of 2 hours, 8 minutes and 6 seconds.

Just spurring me on for more…onward to the marathon in October!

My always helpful subconscious

Now that I have spent five months physically preparing and done everything in my power and ability to successfully complete the race tomorrow, my always helpful subconscious spun a wonderful tale in my dreamy head last night:

The plot…a girl going to compete in her first olympic distance triathlon.

The twist…her bike gets stolen out of the car the morning of the race.

The end…girl wakes up in bed, dripping with a cold sweat.

Last

Yesterday was my last workout before my big triathlon this weekend. It was a lake swim at 5:30 am. I stepped out of my car and immediately wished I had brought my camera.

The moon was almost full and still lingering heavy and bright in the sky. The dark was almost gone as the dawn was trying to break through. The lake was so eerily still, only when I stepped in was there a ripple.

As I swam, the sun began to show itself over the tree tops and with each passing lap more and more light reflected off the water I was rushing through. I couldn’t believe I was alone in this quiet world of water, where day was breaking and everything was waking, so peaceful and so beautiful.

As I got out of the water, I turned to look back at where I had been and thought, what a great way to end the season.

Duluth

Here you go.

Bastille Day

July 12…Adam’s birthday…cheers to 36!