A Running Collection

There are thirteen Mondays from now until the Boston Marathon. It will be the third time I line up with herds of humans to run 26.2 of the most coveted miles on the planet. And this is the crazy thing. I'm a mom with four kids. I look like a skinny turtle-chicken when I run and I'm posting a picture to prove it. I don't train the right way because I don't like rules and I sort of just make up my plan as I go.  There are at least two marathons that I lined up for and I had only run 14 miles as my "distance training"-- but I was in my 20s and there wasn't a lot of easy to access information about the importance of training. But my body begs me for miles and I give in because I can and for that I am forever glad.                 For my entire life I've loved running. There are very few miles in the 1000s of miles I've pounded out that I did not want to be running and I probably found out the next day that I was pregnant. Yes, you now defi...

Who is your hero? I’ve had a pile of heros in my life. Women with "I can do anything" attitudes and men that were invincible -- Michelle Akers. Mia Hamm. Brandi Chastain. Runners. Eric Liddell. Paula Radcliff.   I can’t ice skate. It’s ugly and no one should ever see that happen ever, but Debbie Thomas -- I think she was every child’s hero during the 1988 olympics and we all wanted to ice skate. There are others. John Steinbeck. His cha racter and story development suck me into another world. Corrie ten Boom - she survived concentration camps with joy! They are my heroes. Heros are people that are not afraid and if they are they stare it down until it breaks to pieces. People that overcome hardship and rise above the world beating them down are heroes. People that seek truth and don’t stop till they have it. My hero.  I recently watched the documentary on Alex Honnold. He solo, free climbed El Capitan. A tremendous feat of will power, strength an...

 Moving means things are not where they should be. They are not what they should be. They are not when they should be. So meals and toys and tools are displaced and misplaced. So, when I heard her cry, I knew that it wasn't because someone had taken something from her or told her she couldn't do something or looked at her sideways. She was in pain. She was really in pain. We looked closely at the leg that had met the ground under the bar of a plow attachment. It wasn't swollen. It wasn't cut. So we waited to see if she would walk on it and she didn't. Off to Quick Care, then the Children's Hospital of Atlanta, and then the orthopedist. Because it was broken. It is broken. So slow down. Be still. Wait. Be a bridesmaid. And she is being so so brave. Not grumpy. Just finding new ways to play and participate. She is out of the cast and into a boot. She can take a bath and sleep without it and for that we are all so very glad.

First day of school photos and ideas roll me over. Capturing kids posed has never really worked well in our family. We would have to stop what we are doing and brush hair and change clothes or put on clothes. And as the heat pounded down and as we sorted supplies and set up shop, I couldn't capture a minute. I don't know that I wanted to. It didn't seem very romantic or real or realistic. Weeks have rolled by and we have found a groove. And we have also found some serious things that needed revisiting, revamping, reconsidering and so forth. We've explored Antarctica, Camels, Birds of Prey, Algebra, multiplication (William's crazy smile below captures the moment he discovered that skip counting is multiplication), the letter G, molecules, words, verses, poetry, art, acting, making google documents, making music, painting, baking, studying the seasons, learning how to tell time... And with that, I've collected some images and movement. If you were here, you wo...

What does it look like to get up early and run?  I set my alarm for 6 a.m. and then hit snooze at least three times.  Finally, I crawl out of bed and start the coffee.  I used to go without coffee, but after forty, I can't do that as easily. If George is awake, we chat and think about the day. If not, I stretch and catch up on the news, and social media and check the weather. Ask any runner - we check the weather like we are paid employees of the weather channel. Once I've finished my coffee, I get dressed.  I've started laying out my running clothes the night before.  Digging through drawers in the dark is just not acceptable at this time of day.  I've learned that good socks are crucial.  I wear Balega socks most days. But if those are dirty, some old Feetures work just fine. I never blister and my feet feel supported. I never get tired of putting on my shoes. It is the sweetest feeling to slip  into a pair of ...

These two sweet friends share birding, egg collecting, building structures, cooking over fires, identifying and eating edible plants, art, and matching dresses. Distance might be the only thing keeping them from building an entire village and living a self sustained life. They will be world changers -- as they are always thinking of their environment and how to use every piece of everything they see. Waste is not what they want. They want to create. Their minds and their voices don't rest  - even apart, they write letters full of questions and answers and ideas. They are a beautiful picture of friendship.

Summer time is hay time. Fields and fields of hay cover the country side — anytime we have left grandmother's to go anywhere— we have watched tractors cutting, fluffing, raking, baling, and collecting. It almost looks fun! And right here, in grandmother’s back yard, there was plenty of hay — as high as our chins — that needing cutting and fluffing and raking and baling.  I stayed on kitchen and laundry duty in the cool while George and willing children worked on the hay. Out there on the tractor, there is a lot of room to think and imagine. And the hay is right there looking available. Hay is definitely food for animals, but it has a few other uses too. I’ve certainly sat on one used as furniture at a wedding. I have picked pumpkins at the pumpkin patch off of hay bales, and I’ve been on hay rides… George has grand ideas for all things, even the lowly hay. He and the children gathered the bales that a friendly neighbor happily helped us bale, and set to building. Two d...