I not only have a lot of physical training to do, I have a LOT of mental training to do. I mean, seriously. I can run just a little over a mile, and that not even consistently. I can psych myself out and talk myself into quitting like nobody’s business. Yet I still have to come up with some way to stretch my endurance by 12 miles in the next 5 months. Oh, sure, I can walk that no problem, but the whole point of running is to actually run.
Or maybe I should say “misadventure.” It often is a misadventure when I run. Like tripping on the sidewalk that one day at lunch when I was in a recovery walk and tried to cover with an immediate run. Pretty sure I flailed before the cover run which made it obvious that I am just clumsy. LOL
I forced myself out of the house Saturday evening for a run, and saw this right around the neighbor’s driveway:
Honey badger won't get stung by this cobra...
and sometimes I hit publish instead of preview
Yesterday I again forced myself to run, but ran a slightly different route because my normal route has the potential to run into people and have to chat, albeit briefly. I was not up for that because too many people had told me that it is not a good enough excuse to not run if you haven’t shaved your legs. So, I went the opposite direction, and saw more walkers & met more cars than I ever have either direction. *sigh* Lesson learned. 😉
1. How to know you are tired: Friday night I went to bed, and I remember lying down. The hubby was reading, and the next thing I knew, the alarm was going off. Not only do I not remember him turning the light off, I don’t remember him getting up and leaving around 4am-ish.
2. We saw The Avengers Saturday. Nearly everyone I know who had seen it already raved about it. I liked it a lot, but I don’t know that I could really rave about how good it was. I do recommend it, however. It was worth the admission price, and even worth having to sit right beside a total stranger. Yes, I was thinking, “With all the open seats in here, you have to sit right beside me?” I have issues. Anyway, my favorite line was “Clench it up, Legolas!” I was the only one of us who caught the Legolas reference. It probably wouldn’t have been quite so funny for me if I hadn’t been thinking the whole time that Loki looked like Grima Wormtongue. Second favorite line was from the Hulk. “Puny god.”
3. Introduced the hubby to Angelina’s Kitchen Saturday. He loved the Greek salad & falafel.
4. Attempted and failed to replace the deck belt on the mower. Though I guess I could technically consider removing the old one a success, but really, I just cut it and pulled it out. I guess it might have been easier if I had taken the deck off, but that was going to prove to be entirely too much effort. However, it may turn out to be unavoidable.
5. Ran again Saturday. I’ve been working on different form – trying to incorporate what my first TI tried to teach me, and lean forward. I seem to be able to run a little bit (just a little bit) faster, and a little bit farther. I could tell I was using different muscles and dealt with my left calf cramping Sunday & my right shin twinging today. I think both have calmed down enough to run this evening. I still have a love/hate relationship with running. I have to make myself do it, I hate it the whole time I am running, but I feel fantastic after…once I can breathe and am not puking… 😉 And maybe, just maybe, I will get built up enough to be able to run farther than a mile. lol
6. I feel so blessed to know 4 missionary couples, plus a young woman who fresh out of high school left for the mission field with one of those 4 couples. I could write a whole post on that, but not at work because I would end up crying. 😉 But I can’t tell you how hard it was to get up after hearing my friend Karyn speak about her call to the mission field and try to sing this:
I may or may not have almost broke down…multiple times… 😉
1. I am bipolar today. I woke up ready to kill the white cat. I’m not sure she will survive until I can get her spayed. But then as I was taking stuff out to the van, it was just so nice and peaceful out that I got instant good mood. But then I got to work. *sigh*
2. Remember when I said “Be real”? Yeah, I had to eat my words and be real this week. It really isn’t fun even when you know the response will be in love…and it was.
3. Had my 2nd follow up with the ENT this week, after totally forgetting about and missing the original appointment last week. Everything looks good and I don’t have to go back for 6 months.
4. Speaking of the ENT appointment, I figured since my lunch was heavy on onion & garlic and the doc would be up close & personal to my face, it would be kind to brush my teeth before I went. That’s one of the reasons I keep a toothbrush & toothpaste in my desk at work. That and in case I forget before I leave home. Yes, that has happened and is also why I have deodorant in my desk. Anyway, I haven’t used Colgate since like January? I’ve been using Tom’s flouride free which took some getting used to, and now I know why. The Colgate was like brushing my teeth with sugar. Seriously. I’m not a big fan of Tom’s either and may just go straight baking soda & peroxide when it’s empty.
5. I caved to a temptation a few weeks ago and bought a soda. It was not good, and so I didn’t drink it even though I used to love it.
6. I ran at lunch today and now I hurt.
7. Needs/Wants the time & motivation to fix my sewing machine and then the time & motivation to actually sew. I’m also thinking about trying (again) to learn how to crochet. Opal inspires me.
8. My mom turns 80 next month. 80. That’s old. She is the second oldest in her family now with one cousin older than her.
9. I keep wondering when/how/if I got glutened since the Andy’s incident over 3 weeks ago. Either I have been glutened since (despite being careful) or I have been paying for that one big time…and long time…
10. I need a vacation. A real vacation. It doesn’t have to be very long. Just a weekend would do the trick.
You know what sucks? Trying new recipes. I truly love moussaka. Could eat my weight in it. So when I found a recipe for it, I was all kinds of excited, and couldn’t wait to make it. My first indication it would be a mistake was when the recipe called for panko. After looking up what that is (it’s a flaky breadcrumb), I realized that it was going to be a problem finding a gluten-free version. Let me state for the record that crushed up rice chex is NOT a good substitute. Had no trouble getting it to stick to my fingers, but would not stick to the eggplant. Also, the total time for the recipe was 2 hours 40 minutes. I should have doubled that. As I told Petra when she asked why I was making that at 10pm, there is a reason I work in IT and not as a chef. The kicker? It wasn’t even good. After all that work, it just doesn’t taste that good, and not at all like any moussaka I’ve ever had. Epic fail. Yes, I am eating it anyway. I will say this though, the initial sauce (ground beef/lamb/bison, onion, garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper, red wine) smelled absolutely wonderful! I’m sure it was the garlic. I have developed an almost weird (or maybe full-on weird) craving for garlic. Anyway, will never attempt moussaka again. That was a waste of a Friday night.
Speaking of Friday night, I got a little something in my head Friday:
Petra got me & Molly with that on Facebook one morning. We probably deserved it, but still. Anyway, I popped it onto her Facebook wall Friday, and she kept refusing to watch it and claimed that she had it blocked from her head. Me being me, I saw her post that she was taking a nap, and proceeded to text “Pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows” to her so she would see that as soon as she woke up. She claimed that didn’t work either so I decided that if I had to go into Sanford for any reason, I was going by her house and singing it to her. Normally, I would be pissed that I had to go get milk, but not that night. I headed right over to her house, and she was not kidding about having 1,000 cats. I rang the doorbell, and got covered in kittens. And no one came to the door. So I’m thinking they are either out back or otherwise can’t hear the doorbell because the door was open. So I texted her again to let her know I was on her front porch, and by this time, one of the kittens was parked on my lap like that was where it belonged. Jamie couldn’t take it anymore and had joined me, and decided she was taking one of the black kittens. An uncomfortable amount of time had passed by this time, and I had decided that there was something going on that wasn’t going to be interrupted, and we left once I made Jamie put the cat back. Petra didn’t get my text until about an hour later, and begged me to come back and get a cat. LOL
I volunteered to help man one of the rest stations for the CARA Ride for their Lives race Saturday morning. Naturally I was all kinds of tired after being up late the night before with the epic fail moussaka. But, I had prepared, and had my directions and stuff all printed out, and on the directions I hand wrote “Don’t forget chair.” The chair was on the front porch right by the steps ready for me to pick up and throw in the van on my way out. Yeah, that was a fail too. I forgot my chair. Thankfully, the gentleman from Performance Cycles brought 2, so I didn’t have to stand like a dummy the whole time. I did a lot of standing, but there was no other way to get around it while making 2.5 loaves worth of pb&j. I was on the first shift which ended at 11, but the last riders came through before Alex & I left the parking lot. LOL Oh, well.
I went to a mother-daughter tea party at church that afternoon with my daughter who didn’t want to be there. I think she was less than impressed with my top hat. Haha She wouldn’t let me continue to wear it in the van after we left and headed to Target. Hahaha
Target. That was a fun trip. To sum it up, the cashier asked me as she was ringing me up if I found everything ok. My answer? “I have no idea. I don’t remember what we came to get.” But we got a honey badger t-shirt…
Not the actual t-shirt...because none of us wears a XXL...but that is what it looks like.
Oh, yeah, the tea party? It was decided that the women would wear their hats to church for Mother’s Day. Yes, I totally wore a top hat to church. It think it inspired me to really belt out Sing Sing Sing. Hahahaha! I did almost crack up singing it because I could see movement from the youth out of the corner of my eye, and was sure they were doing the hand motions.
And because we had the white trash yard again because everyone around us had mowed, I started mowing shortly after we got home from church – and after I put the belt back on the blade pulleys. It was cutting like crap too. Not like dull blade crap, but no power crap. The belt came off again about halfway, and got up underneath one of the pulleys that has a cover over it. I couldn’t get the belt back up onto the pulley (wondering the whole time how it came off), and finally had to go get tools and take the cover over. When I swung back around, I stopped the blades, and just put the mower in park (still running) while I put the tools back on the porch. The hubbster said, “Oh, that’s bad,” and I turned to see smoke coming out from under the mower. The pulley had seized up even though the blades were disengaged, and was burning up. So, I was done with the riding mower at that point. There just wasn’t enough time to run to Lowe’s to get a new belt before the rain hit. So I proceeded to push mow. Pushing wasn’t near as bad as it used to be, and I can only assume that is because I am running now? Anyway, it was taking FOREVER, and finally the hubbster came over and said he couldn’t sit and watch me push mowing on Mother’s Day. So he finished the yard, while I did laundry – half of which is still in the dryer.
1. Cats in heat are so gross. I just cannot stress that enough. All the bawling and rolling around and sticking her butt up in the air. Ugh! She is so getting spayed…
2. Finding a mouse nest is gross. Finding one with mummified baby mice is completely disgusting.
3. Maggots are gross too.
4. I got the master bathroom (mostly) cleaned up and turned over to the hubbster. Since he works nights and is in bed asleep during my awake time, that needs to be his area. He’ll get the bedroom too (that’s a major mess), but that isn’t a high priority. But when he saw I was cleaning the bathroom he said, “I was going to get around to that in a few months…” hahaha
5. I cleaned out and organized the kitchen pantry. I even threw stuff away. 🙂 I’m really kind of amazed at the number of appliances we have. Yeah, that is mostly what’s in the pantry. Appliances, the big stock pot, dutch oven, & pressure cooker.
6. I had my first bison burger. I didn’t notice a huge difference between it and ground beef. Neither did the hubby. The daughter thought it was great.
7. I bought quail and cooked them. That may not ever happen again. It tastes fine, just looks a little creepy. I guess because they are so much smaller than the Cornish game hens.
8. Finally ordered a new bucket assembly for the carpet cleaner. *sigh* That’s all I have to say about that.
9. The filter in one of my vacuums is so bad, it won’t suck. The other vacuum smells like dog.
10. I really don’t have anything else for the list, but 10 just feels more complete than 9. 😉
This has been one of those days. I’ve been up since 3:30am (this morning – hahaha) because I just could not go back to sleep. My nose & throat were both irritated, and in retrospect I maybe should have taken some more NyQuil (as I WILL do tonight). Now everything was going fine until I actually left the house. I got mad, I didn’t restrain my potty mouth, and I wanted to punch someone in the ear the majority of the morning. As I calmed down, I saw that I shouldn’t even have gotten mad to begin with.
Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut. Proverbs 10:19 NLT
We talked about that verse just last night in Bible study. It took me almost no time at all to blow it. sigh At least I took my own advice and confessed my fail to the other ladies from that Bible study. Progress. 😉
So I was thinking on the way to work this morning about a question I answered last night (which is the title of this post) about spreading yourself too thin. My job is a 40 hour a week job, but with an hour lunch and 1.5 to 2 hour round trip commute. Now that the hubby is working a 40 hour week also, and on an opposite shift, I am back in the hotseat for cooking & cleaning. That’s on top of yardwork, and half the grocery shopping. Add in a couple of Bible studies during the week, and a couple of runs, and I find myself low on time. Plus, we have a bunch of half-done projects, plus a ton that need to be done. Oh, and I want a garden and some chickens, and with our land layout and a boggy yard, I’m looking at raised beds, and chickens need a coop. I have a BUNCH of stuff I need to clean out and throw away. Oh, yeah, and I still have to spend time with my husband and my kids, and pay our bills on time (I had a fail last month and forgot one), and pay my mom’s bills on time. And laundry…always laundry…
I can’t do it all. I’ve tried, and I am steadily getting more overwhelmed and more exhausted. Not so much physically exhausted, but mentally and emotionally I’m struggling.
But I have a plan.
My house is cluttered and nasty. Whenever I start thinking about cleaning, I get overwhelmed with where to start, and end up just keeping the dishes, countertops, stovetop clean. But mainly the dishes and countertops. Since I am already doing that, that’s the room I am going to start with and give it a good top to bottom and in the cabinets and corners cleaning. Then the bathrooms, and just go room by room until it’s maintainable. Unfortunately for the kids, they are going to get some additional chores….inside and out.
And this all may fail and I’ll just have a nasty house and trashy yard. lol
…in my mind. In reality, I was sucking wind. I ran the Rabbit Run 5K this past Saturday. By run, I mean I ran just a little over a mile until I was about to puke and then proceeded to walk up the hills, and run down and on the flat. 😉 I was not last overall. However, I was the last of the Brick City Running Tribe group. That was a given though. 😉 Last in my age group, too. But I finished. Oh, heck, I went. That was an accomplishment in itself because I woke up sick as a dog. But I paid a registration fee…
Brick City Running Tribe Representing! (Central Carolina Community College photo)
I totally needed all the motivation I could muster, which wasn’t much of my own. I was kind of freaking out about not being ready for it last week, and my good friend Molly kept telling me, “YOU GOT THIS!” and “YOU CAN DO THIS!” So being a bit on the snarky side, I said “I’m going to write “Molly says, “YOU CAN DO THIS!”” on my arm with a Sharpie. She said something to the effect of, “You better,” and so…I did.
Yes, I looked at that every single time I wanted to stop and puke. I didn’t puke, by the way.
Turns out, I was still in the beginning of being sick, and got worse. I tried to run Monday, and didn’t even make it halfway around the track before my run became a walk…because the DragonLady doesn’t run when she’s dizzy. I should have taken Sunday morning as a cue because I got dizzy singing, and seriously considered sitting down…even though I was leading. I think that falls under listening to your body when it is trying to tell you that you are sick. But I guess the antibiotics have kicked in because after the awfulness of yesterday (which is why I didn’t complete this post yesterday), I am feeling much better now, and 4.4 pounds lighter than yesterday morning. Yes, that was all kinds of fun losing that in one day….not. And yes, that was also partially the result of last week’s glutening at Andy’s as I was bloated up so much I looked pregnant before starting the antibiotics. So, yeah, the reaction is delayed, and so is put to rest the mystery on what causes the 1-2 hour runs. *sigh* Yes, Petra, I was in serious denial. 😉
Since my Tuesday Training post is just getting written posted on Wednesday, Wholesome Wednesday post may or may not get done today. We’ll see. I have a busy night ahead, but part of it will be spent waiting on the oven and dryer, so how better to kill that time that blogging right?