Mother's Day Post

Hooray for Mother's Day! I remember growing up my sisters and I would ask my mom what she wanted for Mother's day and every year she would say the same thing- "a clean house and for every body to get along". I always thought that this was because she was a single mom and knew that we kids probably couldn't do much more than that anyway. Now that this has become my request (or very similar to it. mine is actually a clean house, a nap and a day of food that I don't have to cook. Even if it's out of a can/box/drive thru) I understand that as a mom this is actually all you ever really want for yourself (ok, again close to all you ever want. a new pair of jeans or shoes doesn't hurt either). As a stay at home mom, even more so. I find lately I spend my days in a frenzy of cleaning, cooking, cleaning, diaper changing, cleaning, teaching- only to sit down at the end of the day exhausted and surrounded by a cluttered house. Is it all worth it? Absolutely! Do I always remember that? Not quite. But I try. I also have found that the week leading up to Mother's day is often the most chaotic week of the year, many of the days spent in tears, status updates of the insanity, and finally after the hurricane hits it's peak the calm after the storm is usually a beautiful moment, or two, that reminds me why I love what I do. Luckily that part is a day or two before Sunday. This week it was Friday afternoon. After two separate trips to the grocery store, only to come home and find out that there was no solid evidence that anything we bought could be put together to make a meal. While feeling proud of myslef for sending out Mother's Day cards that will be late but were sent before the Monday after Mother's day, and after dropping off dinner to someone else's home, when I put all three of my little monkeys in the bath together. As they sat in the tub splashing the walls, floors, ceiling, and me, I got to have a moment to think about how great they were. How well behaved they had been all day. How awesome it is to finally have all three of them here healthy, and beautiful and funny. Watching them play together and laugh together and love each other. It was a confirmation that everything Aarik and I have done to get these little people here was worth it. The pregnancies and miscarriages, the sacrifices and the struggles, the stretch marks, and most recently giving up ice cream and cheese and sour cream in hopes that it will help Parker to get no more ear infections for my milk to have no cow's milk in it. Putting ourselves and often our marriage, on the back burner. It is an amazing feeling of completion and accomplishment. As much as I fail in life, I did three things perfectly. Raising them is another story, but we do our best, right?! Other things I learned this year for Mother's Day: if you're a "mother runner" you don't get to sleep in Mother's day weekend AND if you leave it up to your husband to come up with Mother's day food, you just  might end up eating a Cliff Bar for breakfast and whatever he's been craving the past few weeks for lunch (like, I dunno, a Burger King chicken sandwich?!)

A week from today is the Diva's half. It will be my third half marathon, and the first one back since having Parker. Of more importance is the fact that my mom is also going to be doing this race. She has trained and worked hard for it and is getting excited. Some time this week I'll find a little time to blog about all of this.

My gift this year is The. Coolest. My hubby bought me my marathon shoes.

Mckenzie wanted me to know that they were HER idea, but daddy was the one who went and bought them. Bless her heart.

I won't be running in them for the next couple of weeks but I'm especially excited to have them for the last couple of months of marathon training, and of course the day of the big race. Lucky for me Aarik knows how much I love shoes, and how hard it will be for me not to wear heels this year since training in higher mileage equals foot problems for me. Thanks babe for making sure the shoes I will be wearing the most will be hot!

Today I'm grateful for my mother and all of the sacrifices she made to raise her children as a single mom. I'm amazed at her strength. I'm also especially mindful today of the moms, grandmas, and nanas praying and fighting for a cure for SMA. The challenges I think I have are nothing in comparison to the ones they deal with daily. These women are angels, and rock stars and deserve a huge shout out, and loads of respect. Victoria Strong at Gwendolyn Strong Foundation  is an amazing woman, and mom, and has been so wonderful to support me in trying to raise money and awareness for their foundation. I'm equally amazed by the positive attitude that Callie's mom, Aimee, has. She is a wonderful mom, and friend, and one of the main reasons that this cause is so dear to my heart. Thanks to all of the wonderful mothers in my life! Happy Mother's Day all!

No language can express the power, and beauty, and heroism, and majesty of a mother's love.  It shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man faints, and over wastes of worldly fortunes sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star.  ~Edwin Hubbell Chapin

These Days...

Does anyone remember when I used to blog about my two wonderful children and the creative things we were doing? Like, two years ago?! Well, these days motherhood is a bit different. I have three gorgeous, wonderful, time consuming, funny children.

We now spend a majority of our days in pj's. If we aren't in pajamas, you can bet we are in a rush. The only pictures I get are cell phone quality (android, not iphone). Like this one of my new hair cut that Mckenzie took for me.

                                          We still do fun things, just slightly less creative on my part.

                                                     
                               We do lots of this,

                                                           
                                         make time for this,

and deal with a lot of this,

.

If you've been reading you know that I'm trying to make this a priority again

.

It. Is. Insanity.

But every once in awhile I'll get a glimpse of things that make it all worth while.

I'm hoping since it's mother's day weekend I'll get in a post sometime this weekend. This is also my last longer training run for the Divas half and I'm hoping no ear infections will stop or delay it as it is a much shorter run than I'd hoped to be doing at this point. Also, I'll let you know why an effort to prevent more ear infections for Parker makes looking at this so painful.

Quick Post

Aarik and the big kids are gone for a few minutes and Parker is sleeping so I thought I'd do a quick update.

First off, Mckenzie (4) lost her first tooth. It took forever because she literally waited until it fell out on it's own. But she was super proud afterward.

Last week I wasted two hours of my life waiting for a four minute (not joking unfortunately) appointment with foot and ankle surgeon, who did nothing but look at an x-ray that at least five other people had already looked at, and touch my foot in a few places, and send me out the door with inserts for plantar fasciitis (just started bugging me this past week), some stretches I already do, and an order to call him if the pain localizes again. Oh, yeah, and his permission to run. We also bought a membership to Sci Works last week and spent the day there with a good friend (and running buddy) and her cute boys. The place is wonderful! It's like the best of lots of kids worlds all combined in an organized way and only a mile away from home.

 The picture quality is terrible because it's from a cell, and the kids were all over the place, so I only got this picture of them. As a home school family we should have bought this at the beginning of the school year, but it's great we have it now. Maybe next time there will be more pictures to share!

In other running news: I realized this week that two weeks from tomorrow is my half marathon. Lots of things have changed from the original "girls weekend, girls race" that was planned. I'll spare you all of the changes, but as of right now, Aarik and the kids, mom and I are going down to North Myrtle for the weekend. Mom and I are hoping to meet up with the girls we were originally staying with for some Girls weekend fun and it will be nice to have time away from every day life with the family too. I'm accepting the fact that I'm going into this race very under trained. In the past I've gone into my half's over trained. It will we be interesting to see what the outcome of this race will be. I was planning to run 11 this morning but, not surprisingly, I was up all night with Parker last night and (yet another) trip to the pediatrician this morning revealed (yet another) ear infection. This is frustrating and confusing to a mother of going on seven years and three kids, who has previously had no experience with ear infections and antibiotics for kids. This is exactly why I choose to nurse my children. Isn't it supposed to prevent this kind of crud?! Hopefully tonight there will be enough sleep that I can get up and run my eleven before church tomorrow, and it would be great to get in a twelve next weekend. Here's hoping.

Last, I want to take a minute short paragraph, to thank everyone who has donated money, liked and shared our fundraising page, my blog and any other SMA fighting blogs/charities or pages. It's wonderful that awareness of this fairly rare disease is beginning to share. Social media is a wonderful partner in this type of fight. It was a blog and Facebook & Twitter followers that helped get Ellen involved in spreading SMA awareness. Please continue to share with your friends & family & neighbors. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have and I'll do my best to find answers, or find someone who can find your answers. We are getting close to the half way mark for our fundraising goal. I know that by the end of October we will  be able to look at the money we've raised, and the information we've shared, and be proud of all that we've accomplished!

This is SMA

Some of you guys have been following the story of little Avery, who was diagnosed with SMA type 1. My heart was broken today to see this. She was here for such a short time but made such a huge impact by making SO many people aware of this condition. This is what SMA does and this is why it is SO important to beat this disease. Prayers for her family and gratitude for what they've done. Please be a part of helping us raise money to find a cure!