Running

Tom bought me a treadmill from Costco and on January 1st Mikey who had just come into town, helped him put it together in our sunroom. I was certain I would use it, but I had no idea how much I would LOVE it! I love seeing the readout of how many minutes, miles, calories, etc I've been doing. I love that I can just get on and read a book while I walk along at 3-4 miles/hour. I LOVE the most that I can exercise whenever I feel like it (almost) I don't have to wait for Tom to be home to babysit, or the weather to be warm enough or cool enough, or for it to be light enough (especially the first and last reasons! Even if I feel like running at night when Tom's home, I don't really want to go run in the dark at 9:30pm, but I'm often on the treadmill at that great time!)

Okay, so I wanted the treadmill to start exercising and especially to lose weight. Well, I'm not losing tons of weight, but I'm AMAZED at the other side effects I've experienced.
#1 I feel SOOO much better emotionally
#2 My blood sugars are soooo much more stable (what I've noticed is that if I fast or if I eat a lot, or if I eat junk I don't crash or feel crummy.)
#2a I have a slightly stronger desire to eat healthily before and after running.
#3 I feel so STRONG to be able to really run fast OR far
#4 I feel like "my old self" who used to always walk and run.
#5 A body in motion tends to remain in motion, I get more done in my day
#5a Even if I DON'T get anything else done in the day beyond the regular care and feeding of children, if I exercise I still feel like I've accomplished something

So there you have it. The best part is that my dad is training to run a marathon, and my friend Joy just ran a 1/2 marathon. After talking to them I thought, hey, maybe I can run further than the 5k I have always stopped at. And sure enough I can! It's exciting to be able to run longer or faster, and after reading a lot of running books I am determined to only work on one or the other to save my 35 year old knees and prevent any other injuries. I'm sure you'll hear more than you want of running, but hey, at least it's not talk of kids throwing up (I just finished posting about our vomitous vacation in Florida, see earlier post)

The many faces of Beth

I'll do the whole birthday post later, but I just wanted to get this up. Beth is our child who enjoys the spotlight the most. While she was sweetly looking at her cake with her chin in her hands I took a picture, then when interrupted and told to look up she looked grumpy, then when everyone laughed at her expression she just kept going, laughing in between each face she pulled. Of course these weren't even the best one's, since I was waiting for a flash to charge and messing with the zoom, but she loves to put on a show!

BHBGC

I just want to say how glad I am for the Berwyn Heights Boys and Girls Club. We have Tyra in softball and soccer, Thomas in machine-pitch baseball, and Lily should start tee ball soon. I might be changing my tune further down the season, but so far it is just so nice! The coaches are super patient and just in it for their kids to learn the basics and have fun. Then the weather is just better and better every day. So even though without the tee-ball yet our schedule is 1- 1 1/2 hours every evening Tues-Fri and Sat am, it is so good for me to have something force me to take the kids outside to play for that long every day. Thomas was running around, playing with kids from his school tonight while Tyra played, and yesterday Tyra and a boy in her class chatted and played tag games with Lily and Beth and a new little friend they met. I have yet to meet any "kindred spirit" parents, but everyone's nice enough to chat with, and I'm glad for the socialization for the family. I do wish Tom could be there with us, to be extra eyes (it's hard to watch 3 running kids and pay attention to the one playing the game) and also just to enjoy it with us, but we're glad he's got his nose to the grindstone, and with what seems an eternal "one more program" he'll be done with this computing part of his dissertation :) Then we can all play ball as a family. (Lily and Beth are so cute with their tiny little mitts, catching the ball thrown from like a foot away and getting all excited.) I'll post pictures in this entry if I manage to take some soon.

Why it's worth having kids close in age

I think it's mentally, physically, and emotionally challenging to have children be born close together (even under 2 years.) But I also think it's well worth it, and I am now (have been for a year) reaping the benefits, which are 2 best little friends with everything in common. Watching Lily and Beth do their thing together all day is a joy, a true joy. I should grab my camera more often, but here are some videos where, after they did what they were doing for a really long time I finally decided to get the camera. In the next video you see some of Grandma Linda's awesome hats she gave the kids, and the hoppy toys from Adam, Nancy, and the cousins.

PTA Ice Skating Night

We have a great PTA (no, I don't do anything in it but show up to the fun things) and they have annual skate nights at the local rink. It's really a fun time for everyone, but just a little difficult since all 4 kids need a fully-devoted parent for the night. Lily and Beth are so cute in the smallest available size skates. I am AMAZED how Thomas will go for it, since he skated for his summer camp last summer and got over the huge hurdle of it being an unknown thing. And Tyra was awesome. It was so hard for her to stay up and she hated having other kids keep leapfrogging around her on the wall, and even when she landed really hard, enough to cry, she kept trying and trying. I was so proud of her for not quitting.