Read More. Write More.

January.

Cold.

Dark.

Depressing.

Blah.

The holidays are over and now there is January. In the past several years, January and I have become fast friends. What other month gives us a more slower pace of life, gives us time to reflect and gather strength for the coming months. January has become my month for reading, decluttering, regrouping, reevaluating. breathing more deeply. I even have come to prefer running in January versus July. With January also comes goal setting which I gave up years ago. I do think about where I've been and where I'd like to go but that happens all year long, not just in January.

However, this year I'd like to:

Read and write more in 2024. Has kind of a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Reading is hard.

Writing is hard.

Social media is easy.

This is my Goodreads list for books read in 2023.

Not bad. 18 books (although 2 I didn't even finish). 5200 pages. Until I tell you that in 4th grade I read 10,000 pages in one term to earn lunch with my teacher. I was the only student who completed that challenge. I think pages are more important than books when it comes to stats.

So I'm challenging myself to break that 10,000 page barrier this year. It's going to be tough. I have a lot of things vying for my attention and time. Reading takes a lot of mental alertness and focus which isn't easy to come by in the evenings when social media is so much easier to digest.

I challenge my students to read every night for 20 minutes. If they do, they earn a penny (2nd graders still LOVE pennies). If I read AND they read, they get 3 pennies. They love to keep me accountable.

Writing has taken a back seat to . . . I'm not even sure. But I do know that there is a connection between writing and remembering. I need to write more, especially about my scripture reading. I read them. I mark them. I write in them digitally and physically, but I'd really like to write to connect my life to what I am studying. Maybe it will be on this blog. Maybe it will be in my journal. We'll see.

YES to reading and writing more in 2024!

_________________

These are the days of:

Discovering how smart I was as a mom when I finally got to the last child. With all my decluttering, I found Alex's school poster and as I was dismantling it, I found that I had originally created it when he was in kindergarten and knowing he would have another to do in 1st grade, I kept it and simply swapped out the "All About Me" paper and kept the photos in the same place. I did this again in 2nd grade. I guess by 3rd, they no longer did birthday posters. Pretty genius of me and saved a lot of time. Just wish I had figured that out with my first 4.

The Data Doldrums

I began the school year with 24 students. 58% of those students were not reading on grade level and needing major interventions (my reds).

I had my work cut out for me before we tested again in January.

I made reading goals for each student and taped it to the corner of their desk. I created a form that went home to their parents outlining what they could do at home to help their students improve.

I knew together we were going to make some progress.

These students haven't known what a normal school year is like. Their kindergarten year got shut down. First grade was all about masks and really only a 4-day-in-person school week. Some of my students have HUGE learning gaps, and it's become my job to fill those gaps and get them reading on grade level.

Second grade is a crucial year. Data shows that if a student is not reading on grade level by the end of second grade, it is much harder for them to catch up. The reading just accelerates. 

We made a class goal: If 60% of my students could reach the goal on their desk, we'd have a rootbeer float party. That meant at least 16 of my students had to achieve it at testing time in January.

My district had a different goal in mind which was we would achieve 5% proficiency. That meant of the roughly 100 students we have between us, 5 of those students would move from below-grade level to on-grade level or above.

Our testing day came. I was super excited and super nervous. I wanted them all to do well. AND we did!! My number of reds went from 58% to 50% and 18 of my students made their goal. I chose to not include my new students because that wouldn't have been fair to throw them into the mix when they hadn't been with us all year. However, had my new RED students been taken out the data the district shared, I would have been at 46%. That's a 12% drop. That percentage drop means that some of those reds moved into yellow status which is not quite reading on grade level but making progress.

One student went from reading 4 words per minute (wpm) to 42. Another went from 14 to 52. And yet another read 34 at the beginning of the year and read 88 wpm on her test. I couldn't have been happier. All made growth. Some more than others, but no one went backwards.

We celebrated.

We partied.

And then the district people came to discuss our district goal and data.

I felt pretty confident going in to the meeting until they told me I had pretty much stayed the same. Two of my colleagues grew by 4% proficiency (this means they had 1 or 2 students move to on-grade level.). 

Here's the kicker. In that meeting they only seemed to care about who was and who was not on-grade level. I can go down my list and tell you that in 10 seconds. There were no deep dives into what the numbers really meant. There was no looking to see who was super close to moving over that threshold. AND it certainly did not take into account one of my high students who moved in October and the 3 extremely low students I had move in during those few months. Just that kind of movement is going to skew the numbers and disrupt the balance. My colleagues got lucky with their new move-ins.

My grievance is if you're going to use data for measurement, make sure you are looking at the numbers correctly. Don't just look at something and assume you know what is going on. Had my high student not moved and had I not had 3 low students move in, my numbers would have been on target.

I told myself that I need to remember that when we have these little data meetings, I know way more of what is going on with the numbers than they do. I can do math, and I can certainly play the numbers game to interpret what is really going on.

We set more goals for this next half of the year and taped them to our desk. This time we are working for a pizza party. I know they can do it.

They are going to make me proud again. I can feel it in my bones.

Goals for the Year

Goal #1 (these are in no particular order)

Many years ago I came across a blogger who was pretty much in my same stage of life and I began to follow her . . . not literally, because that would be weird, but in the blogging world so to speak. She mentioned how she would pick one word to live by that year. I tried it once and kind of failed. A couple of times in her testimony, my neighbor down the street has mentioned how she and her sisters each pick a word and share it with each other. This year I decided to try again. I had one word I had decided on but then another came to my head, so this year is a twofer.

Hearken and present are my two words. Hearken is the first word to begin the book of scripture known as the Doctrine and Covenants which we are studying this year. Hearken is more than just hearing, but it's also doing something about it, listening and then obeying. How one hears the voice of the Lord can be a challenging thing to discover, but it's something I have continued to get better at. The hard part has been the obeying part. I'll get a prompting and dismiss it. I believe I do it out of fear. Fear of overstepping my bounds. Fear of how people might react. The older I've gotten, I'm getting over that fear. So hearken is a word I need to improve on and was the first word I chose.

The second one came to me as I was in the middle of many things, trying to multitask, and not really "there" for any of them. I am a doer by nature, but I knew that how I was doing things wasn't right. So word number two has become present in mind and body. I am working on being more present wherever I am.

Goal #2

Nate challenged me the other day in an email to study Preach My Gospel. "Preach My Gospel is as much for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as it is for the full-time missionaries of the Church" (found in the introduction to PMG). Over the years since it was introduced, I've casually browsed through it, but now I'm beginning a more serious study. In my study the other night I reread a talk by Elder Richard G. Scott titled Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge and pulled this little nugget out of there:

"Knowledge carefully recorded is knowledge available in time of need. Spiritually sensitive information should be kept in a sacred place that communicates to the Lord how you treasure it. That practice enhances the likelihood of your receiving further light."

Goal #3

"Find something to do that you think about all the time, that you enjoy so much that when you don't have to think about it, that's what you think about." -- Henry Eyring to his son Henry B. Eyring

(Young Henry often helped his dad with physics equations on the blackboard in the basement. One day older Henry noticed that younger Henry was still working through the same problem and asked him if he didn't think about this stuff all the time. Young Henry said no and older Henry gave him the advice above.)

Ah hobbies. I have so many of them that I like to devote my time to and in the last year my job has just become a hobby as I've slowly discovered that I have a passion for early childhood literacy. I can't seem to read enough or watch enough about it. It is the one thing I think about all the time. How do I help my struggling readers to unlock the magic of written words? What is the science behind reading? I have a student who could not read one word at the beginning of the year and only knew about half of his sounds. I have taken him aside, one-on-one, and worked with him at first with just his sounds and then we moved on to very simple books. Oh to see his eyes light up and the excitement he feels when he can read a page all by himself. He has recently gotten to where he will work through a word on his own without my help. It has been so rewarding to watch his growth. Four years ago I didn't understand the trial of unemployment Tyler and I were going through. But today I do. This is where I am to be and I am loving it!

So I guess Goal #3 is to continue to learn as much as I can about early childhood literacy which encompasses so much more than just reading words on a page.

These are the days of . . . 

*still more science fair competitions. This year the district had to go virtual for the competition and the program they used was glitchy, so not all participants were able to be interviewed. Due to that technicality, all participants at the district level have advanced to the regional level if they chose to. Alex decided he wanted to which means more uploading of materials and getting paperwork signed and taking a day off when he actually gets to present. But it's all good.

*mudstorms and snowstorms. First came the mud that just coated everything. I thought a good rainstorm might clean it all but when we did get some rain it didn't. When it warms up, I will be hosing off sidewalks and pergolas and plants. We did get some good snowstorms that were much needed.

*using the puzzle room florescent light as a grow light as Tyler and I attempt to germinate seeds for the first time. I've never started my own vegetable seeds inside. This is our new little experiment. Just waiting for some black pepper seeds to show up in the mail this week before the planting commences. (I might have to figure out how to clean the mud off that window to let some more natural light in.)

*splitting our stake. We are now part of a new stake -- the Lake Point Stake. It's crazy how this area has grown in the last 10 years. When we moved out here there were two wards, now there are four. Lake Point was becoming a dying town and years ago the ward members prayed and fasted for some new blood. Well, they got it. I don't know that they ever imagined one day they would be their own stake. We got to participate in that special stake conference over a Youtube link from home. Our new stake president is President Robbins. I called that one. He decided to take our bishop for one of his counselors, so we will be getting a new bishop in the new week or two.

*our temple FINALLY coming to fruition. They announced a new location and a new name. It will be called the Deseret Peak Temple, a name a like a whole lot more, and will be located up by Clarke Johnson Jr. High. I'm just excited that it is happening. What a blessing for this valley. The people of Erda really missed out with all their bickering and fighting over it.

*finally finishing the kitchenette 10 years later. There's countertops, a stove, a sink, and a microwave. Erik may never want to move out of the basement now. But seriously, having a sink right there has been so nice. No more carrying water in a bucket downstairs when I need to clean.

A new year, a new decade

2020 was that year that was so far away. So out there in the distance. And now here it is. As a kid I was 100% certain the second coming would be here by now. But here we are . . . alive and thriving.

Christmas has come and gone. My favorite part of Christmas is the slide show we watch on Christmas Eve of the past year and then 10 years past. It is a gentle reminder of how quickly life moves. Alex really helped me put this one together and was a tremendous motivator to get it done.

I also loved Ashlyn's reaction to her becoming an aunt. Priceless. She has been hounding them so much that now I'm not sure what she'll bug them about. 

We rung in the New Year and then I promptly headed to my bed. New Year's Eve can be so painful if I don't get a nap. But between dentist appointments and a late afternoon movie that just wasn't in the works this year.

And tomorrow we're headed back to school. I'm kind of excited. I've missed my students and can't wait to hear about their break.

This was such a good break. I read books, set up a new laptop (that's a tedious process), completed miscellaneous errands I finally had time for, ate too much, caught up with family and friends, and ran A LOT. I've recently discovered a love of running early in the morning when the air bites my nose and stings my toes and there isn't a soul around. It is the most peaceful time of day. I covered 5 miles yesterday, didn't pass a single car or person, and was home before most people were out of bed.

Looking ahead to this upcoming year, I see so many good things in the horizon. I can now say that Erik comes home this year. Nate wants to leave July or early August. A little piece of heaven will make his way to a new home in June. Kiersten will graduate with her bachelor's in psychology. Nate completes his high school career. My parents will be home from their mission. And these are just all things visually apparent on my calendar. It doesn't even take into account all the unseen, beautiful things that are waiting for us.

My one and only goal is to finish the stack of books on my nightstand without adding any new ones. I am in the middle of so many that just need completing. A second quasi goal is to take and pass the Praxis PLT test. It's not a goal I necessarily want but one that must get done.


* * * * * * *

What's happening in the yard?
DEER! That's what's happening. When we first moved in, we were a little perplexed that the deer just didn't seem to come around. And now they do. And we really wish they'd go back home. Because they are not very kind to our trees. Grrrr! Tyler calls them rats with hooves.

Reading challenge

Last year I gave Tyler a vinyl wall hanging for Christmas and it sat in his office as we meandered through the dark, wondering where life was taking us.

This year I regifted it again for Christmas and had our expert graphics guy, aka Erik, position it and hang it up. Oh, how I loved the finished look it has given our library area. I gave Ash an assignment one day to count how many books we had. She gave up after 1000. I believe I own books I may never read and that is okay. Last year I simply wanted to read more and write more and I came off conqueror.

I finished 40 books in the course of a year. For some that may be a little and for some that may be a lot. For me, I was surprised when I pulled up the number. Especially given this past year and the busyness of it. I read several books devoted toward school stuff. And I began reading more young adult books which don't require as much digestion as adult books tend to. Nor are they as lengthy.

My stats say I read over 10,000 pages. That makes me feel like a wimp as I recall my 4th grade year. I had a teacher, Miss Maxwell, who issued a reading challenge. For anyone who read more than 10,000 pages in a term, she would take them out to lunch.

*Surprise birthday party Miss Maxwell came to.

Well, you didn't have to ask me twice. I was all over it and ended up being the only one who actually accomplished that goal.

So far this year I'm finishing up an audio book (Lone Survivor), trying to complete a book club read that may not happen (The Killer Angels), and have started a novella by an author that intimidates me (The Shawshank Redemption) -- Stephen King.

2016 Stats

My reading stats for 2016 show I read more this last year than any other year since I started keeping track of my books. That goal I made for myself last year to read more seems to have worked.

I look forward to reading even more this next year and delving into different genres. My two favorites to read are historical fiction and biographys/memoires and my book clubs are great in introducing me to books I wouldn't otherwise have chosen to read. One such book was Dreams from My Father, a memoir by President Obama. What a surprise it was to me that I quite enjoyed the book and found our lame duck president to be a decent writer.




Read more.

I've been blogging for nine years now. That's crazy. I never imagined with that first blog post in November 2007 that I would take to it like I have. However, this past year was the third lowest for number of posts. Unacceptable.

Write more.

I was thinking about my weaknesses the other day as preparation for a possible interview question. That's never an easy thing. To think about one's shortcomings. But one thing I do that drives Tyler crazy is I tend to cut in and finish sentences. I'm not listening like I should. I'm concentrating more on what my next sentence is going to be. I've been reading books and watching YouTube videos on how to communicate better to improve relationships. One of the best I've read lately is Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High.

Listen more.

I used to be a die-hard, new-years resolution kind of gal. I made them religiously and broke them just as religiously. I still believe in goals and setting them, but I view it more as projects I work to accomplish. And those I have an abundance of to keep me busy.

These are the days of . . . 
*Fake glasses.

Ash loves to wear glasses so Santa brought her some. Isn't she so cute? Much better than the nerdy ones above.


Although the other photo makes her look a little like Bono from U2? Eh?

Weekend happenings

This weekend wasn't especially eventful. Kiersten left for Boise for a cross country meet. Our house isn't necessarily falling apart, but it's not the new house it once was. Conference began with the women's session. Nate gave his first talk in sacrament. And we got to see a blood moon lunar eclipse that won't happen again until 2033. Awesome stuff.

Every summer I have my kids make goals they want to accomplish for those three months. Some do better than others at accomplishing things, but all achieve something.

Kiersten had a goal to run 500 miles for cross country. That meant running twice a day for a lot of miles.

Nate set a goal of 250. He kind of blew his out of the water.

As a mom, I love seeing my kids grow and develop and become friends.

A month ago I watch a neighbor's toddler who tried out one of my kitchen drawers. At the time I thought he merely pulled it all the way out and I simply pushed it back in. But no, this week I discovered the screws holding the box to the rollers had been stripped with nowhere to put new screws. I dropped it off at the cabinet place to have a new box made. 

And then Alex decided to even things up. His shorts caught on the handle, ripping the door off. The miraculous thing about this whole incident is I maintained my cool. I had just walked in the door from attending the temple when Tyler calmly let me know what had happened. All things can be fixed, right?

Nate gave his first sacrament talk today. I may have set him up for it. When he turned 12, he casually mentioned to me one day that he could give a talk in sacrament. Well, a year went by and nothing. So I casually mentioned it to the bishop and Nate was soon on the speaking docket. He did a fabulous job, talking about his conversion story from his baptism to receiving the priesthood to being challenged by a Sunday School teacher to consistently read his scriptures and pray. Cool under pressure. Didn't read it but spoke from his heart. Told some personal experiences. I had many people afterwards tell me what a great job he did. You wouldn't have thought he was only 13.

All evening we waited for the moon to show and finally as everyone was headed off the bed, there it was. Nate got out his telescope and we tried viewing it through that.

My camera, unfortunately, does not take good photos in the dark of objects far away. I'm always grateful for those who do get good shots and share them. This one below was taken by my friend Mindy Memmott.


Good things
a good, caring bishop
walks around the block
*digital cameras

*I am so grateful for those people in my children's lives who take photos of events that I am not able to attend. I feel like I haven't missed much when they are so kind to share either through email or social media. So with that, here are a few more homecoming pictures I got today.

Elevate learning

Last week at seminary graduation (although they don't call it that anymore because they honor all students who have completed the requirements for the year . . . it's more like seminary recognition) Brother Douglas made the comment that this past year was the first year that changes were made essentially raising the bar for the seminary students. It was to elevate learning. Wowzers, I love that phrase.

Elevate learning.

Shouldn't we all strive to consistently elevate our learning.

Every summer for the past couple I've had my kids set summer goals to accomplish. One of Ashlyn's is to start learning the violin. Nate and Kiersten are rubbing off. Nate wants to run 250 miles and Kiersten wants to double that to 500 miles. They both have been running every morning and evening for the past couple of weeks. That will be quite an accomplishment if they do it which of course they will :) Erik has a goal of finishing his eagle project. That would also be quite an accomplishment.

If my kids are being held accountable for their summer, so shall I.

I'm going to follow Kiersten's example of never missing a day of scripture reading. That's right. Did I tell you she hasn't missed a day in over a year since attending EFY last June.

I really want to learn to play the guitar and I've gone a little soft in the middle and want to do more sit ups.

Have a look at my nightstand?

Do you see a problem?

I don't think "elevate learning" means to have an Everest-high stack of books on your nightstand. Seriously, I am in the middle of most of the them and would love to have half that amount sitting there. My Goodreads feed just might blow up if I conquered that goal.

Summer goals

For the past couple of summers I've made my kids brainstorm and come up with some goals they'd like to accomplish.

The first summer was okay and I knew we needed some improvement.

Last summer was a joke. Tyler and I took off for 10 days right from the get go and I don't think I ever got a hold of summer like I wanted to. We were pretty much up to our eyeballs in yard stuff and trying desperately to get grass in the backyard before school started and I lost all my helpers.

THIS YEAR . . . I made sure things were going to be different. The first week of summer was a freebie since we took off for Phoenix immediately. Last week was our first "real" week of summer and I think it went rather smoothly.

First, I am a chart maker. I love, Love, LOVE charts. It helps our family run so much more smoother and frees up my brain cells. We have a

Family Home Evening Chart

a Sunday Dishes Chart,

a Kids Weekly Schedule Chart,

a Saturday Job Chart and Zones Chart.

And now we have

Summer Dishes and Weeding Charts,

a Daily Jobs Chart,

and their usual Weekly Responsibility Chart that I've tweaked for summer.

Are you a little overwhelmed? I started thinking about this the first of May and didn't really get it to where I wanted it until 6 weeks later. I've put a lot of thought into how to make this summer work the way I wanted it to.

So here's the breakdown of how it works.

GOALS
The previous summers the kids had physical, mental, spiritual, and musical goals they had to accomplish. They earned money for these to go toward school clothes and supplies for the school year.

I still wanted them to do these but this year I cut out the musical and made it part of their daily requirements and added a scripture/journal goal where they have to read their scriptures at least 4 days a week and write in their journal 1 day OR read their scriptures 3 days and write in their journal the other two.

They came to me with goals they wanted to do and how much they thought it would be worth to them. From there we talked about each one and changed some. They can work on these goals whenever they have free time and if they accomplish EVERY goal by the end of the summer, I'm throwing in an extra $20.

DAILY REQUIREMENTS
This part works pretty much like we do it through the school year (I don't think I've ever gone into detail on how this works and it warrants a blog post all by itself.)

Music: Everyone is required to practice music, either the piano or the violin. 

Housework: Everyone has a daily job to do to keep the house clean. During the school year we usually only do jobs on Saturday, but I figured since they're home all day my house is going to get dirtier. I've broken down our "major" Saturday jobs into smaller chunks that should only take 10 or 15 minutes to complete. Between the four kids the house gets thoroughly cleaned about every 8 or 9 days.

Dishes: During the summer I get really tired of always cleaning the kitchen. It seems as soon as I clean it someone comes right behind me and the cycle starts all over. I decided to delegate the kitchen duties so they would realize what a pain it is to keep clean and hopefully learn to clean up after themselves more. The kitchen duties are unloading the dishwasher, loading the dishwasher, wiping off counters, and sweeping. We change these weekly.

Weeding: This summer has been very quiet with no yard contractors. We pretty much have some manageable flower beds that still get weeds. So I divided up the yard into different zones with each kid responsible for a zone. We divide these up every week because I know some beds tend to get more weeds than others.

Alex: This past year poor Al has had me all to himself as a playmate and sadly I have neglected some aspects of his learning. Most of my kids love to read which I attribute to reading to them when they were younger, going to the library A LOT, seeing mom and dad reading. I've fallen off the bandwagon with Alex and reading to him. I tried doing it before naps but didn't do so well. So I decided to have the kids take turns reading to him this summer. SO FAR? He has loved it and most of the time he won't let them stop at just one or two or even three books. It's been a win-win for everyone.

Khan: What's Khan Academy? It's an online non-profit organization devoted to learning. With over 4200 videos on just about anything you want to learn plus practice problems, it is a complete self-paced learning environment. Tyler and I both want our kids to be self learners and think this is a great way to motivate them. To earn a checkmark they all have to earn 5000 points in one day which Nathan said was very attainable within 15-30 minutes. Well, after several days Kiersten was really struggling to get that 5000 points without spending several hours. Turns out she was learning some harder things so we tweaked it and made it 5000 points OR 30 minutes, whichever came first.

Last Item: The last item was what I thought they needed to work on for the summer. For instance Kiersten needs to complete some Young Women goals, so she needs to work on YW every day. Nate needs to work on the R sound for speech; Erik needs to get better at brushing his teeth since he just got braces, he also has a slight lisp he needs to correct for speech, and needs to have better handwriting; Ash needs to work at keeping her bedroom cleaner.

At the end of the day they have to get it signed off by either Tyler or me. This ensures that they are held accountable for doing the items on their list. During the school year they earn money this way, but I didn't want to pay them for goals and for daily requirements. So we made this part a point system.

They get a point for each requirement completed . . . Kiersten, Nate, and Ash can earn 6 points a day, Erik has 8. Potentially they can earn 1430 for the whole summer between the 4 of them. Since I knew that there would be lazy days and weeks of girls camp, scout camp, time at grandma's, I set a total of 1000 points for the entire summer that they ALL have to earn. I then let them decide together on a  fun activity to do if they reached their goal which is a day at Cherry Hill (did this a couple of years ago as part of a family reunion and they all loved it).

With week one down I think this has been a huge success so far. There have been points missed and some lazy days but I like the two-part system that makes them all accountable to each other . . . meaning no one can simply decide to not do anything all summer without hurting everyone but yet they still have their individual goals they're working on.

Be Still

One of my favorite scriptures:

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.

--Psalms 46:10 

* * * * *

What do you do when the world seems full of darkness?

Fill it with light. . . . for every act of darkness, I need to do a thousand acts of light. The only way we win is by living better, by pushing back harder, by loving, and by nurturing in tiny and slightly less tiny ways and then repeating. Darkness only wins when the good people of the world stop generating light.

We will never do that. . . .

If I am part of the light, I need to commit every day to shine brighter, to love stronger. We can never. Ever. Give up.

 --Kathryn Thompson, daringyoungmom.com

* * * * *

Lo, in the silent night
A child to God is born
And all is brought again
That ere was lost or lorn.
Could but thy soul, O man, 
Become a silent night!
God would be born in thee
And set all things aright.

--Anonymous, circa 15th century

May we all become that "silent night" this season.

May we be still enough to let God be born in us to make us the bright lights He needs us to be. 

--Shawni Pothier, 71toes.com 

* * * * *

And a song that is becoming a favorite:

Be Still by The Killers

* * * * *

I've been contemplating next year and what my goal might be for the year. Life is getting busier as my kids are getting older. They are more involved which means I get to be the transportation taxi. Ten years ago my good friend Sharon who is more my mom's age with older children told me to just wait. If I thought life was busy with toddlers, just wait until they're older. At the time I couldn't fathom life being any busier. But I've discovered different stages in life have different types of busyness.

At this stage it's becoming harder for me to find time to be by myself, to experience some quiet revelatory stillness. Even the bathroom isn't off limits when you have a two-year-old and you are his only friend for the entire day. Funny, because I thought this was my life ten years ago.

(not my picture, but one that reminded me of my little Alex)
 
If I'm going to be a light that shines brighter in this world, I need God to help me know how. And for that to happen, I need to BE STILL. This just might the goal I need.

Baby Loaf

turned two yesterday.

We didn't do much celebrating besides presents. Kiersten was just getting back from Brighton beehive camp, Ash and Nate had swimming lessons, and I had to sing a quick happy birthday as Alex attempted to blow out the candles on his cake

because I was heading out of town for my 2nd half marathon with these lovely ladies (minus Katie who ran fast in order to hurry home for a date. Priorities, Kate. Priorities.).

But I think he had a small inkling of what his day was all about, even if his mean old mom made him take a nap. After singing to him to get him up in the morning, he raced to the family room and pointed at the presents. He had work to do!

And if you're ever wondering what a two year old likes, well this particular two year old loved the singing/dancing birthday card. He opened it and opened it and opened it, over and over.

In racing news (which for me isn't really racing; I just run to run) I managed to shave 7 minutes off my time from last year. You knew we didn't get much sleep last night when we all got giggly over stealing safety pins in order to better our chances of winning. I think we were all a little ready to have this race over, but I sure had fun hanging out the night before and while we waited at the start line. I also met up with my good friend Sara around mile 2 or 3 on the course and gave her a quick hug. She has been such an inspiration to those around her in losing around 70 pounds. She looks fantastic and I'm sure she feels that way too.

After the race my children and husband walked and I hobbled around the zoo to celebrate Baby Loaf's birthday. The new Rocky Shores exhibit rocked with its seals and sea lions and polar bears and grizzly bears and bald eagles and a walrus. But after battling hordes of people and 100 degree weather, we were all done and called it a day.

I still can't believe my baby is two. He has been a complete joy to our family.