Inspiration for the Week

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something
when his job depends on not understanding it."
- Upton Sinclair

Extra! Extra!

Guess who I'm visiting right now?!!!

Haven't changed much... have we?!! (Well, except for position)

Fav. Foto Friday

I'm working on a little collage project that I can't WAIT to tell you about (but I'm gonna HAVE to)!

Inspiration for the Week

"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
• Martin Luther King Jr.

Have fun!!

Some close friends of mine (6, to be exact)[not pictured: the littlest-cutest one!]

have headed up north for a college tour (sound like anyone we know?)
So, I thought I'd share with them some of the highlights of Bossy's tour of New England Starbuck's colleges, just for fun. The easiest way I figured to do that was share them here, so they can read them while on the road.
Bossy shared some guidelines and then went to: GWU, Yale/Harvard, Tufts/Amherst/Williams/Cornell, NYU. Here's her summation of NY.

Fav. Foto Friday

Silly chin faces are always good for a laugh!

I Ran 10 Laps!!! (2.5 miles)

As promised, here's the story:
I have always hated running. I was always athletic (played soccer, softball, field hockey, swimming, track, cheerleading, power lifting, water polo, AND lacrosse), but never had that super-fit athletic drive that would have propelled me to being more than simply good at any of these sports, and

I hated running.
My side hurt, I had trouble breathing, and my mind wasn't into it
(I hated it!)

After graduating from high school, I had one month to build up some strength and endurance for entering Air Force Basic Training (read: the ultimate full-body workout program!). Enter "running" - more specifically, my father, sister and I trained to run the Peachtree 10K Road Race in Atlanta. We ran it, more importantly, we finished it! The next day I entered the Air Force.

So here I sit, not doing much of anything. In fact, I haven't done anything athletically strenuous since college (19 years ago). I'm not out of shape, per se - I mean, I have carried babies, chased kids, played games, gone camping, etc., but I can get winded if I have to go up more than one flight of stairs.

Last month, my husband proposed a running program for himself and the older girls, and BOY was I thankful to be left out of that little family project. The girls were excited about it, but returned home from the first day at the track in "high whine" mode. The high drama persisted so long, that that once-upon-a-time athlete in me started getting a little perturbed. All my pep-talking was met with, "You just don't know how hard it was!! (whine, whine, cry, cry)" So, the next day I put on the ol' running shoes, so I could show them I DO now how it feels, and if I can do it, so can they (all the while CRYING inside because - I hate running!!) I ran slowly jogged-walked 3 laps, and it just about did me in. But I didn't give up! I decided to stick with it, mostly because I'm tired of not recognizing the person in the mirror when I catch a "profile" shot.

My husband designed the program:
* on M, W, F we go to the high school track and run laps (we started with 4 and each week we add a lap - right now we're up to 8 laps) and stretch afterwards [the 10 laps was a special "push yourself to see if you can do it" exercise about 3 weeks in]
* on T, Th, Sa we walk a brisk 2 miles (with the dogs) around the neighborhood, and come home to do sit-ups (YEAH!!)
* My husband and I have to wait one hour after exercising before eating (let's our bodies "snack"on themselves for faster weight loss)
* everybody has to eat one serving of raw fruit before breakfast and one serving of raw vegetables before lunch and dinner
* we drink PLENTY of water throughout the day
* we're getting to bed earlier/on-time and taking a half hour nap in the afternoon

It's pretty simple actually, but the effects have been dramatic!! First of all, in the four+ short weeks we've been doing this, my energy level has more than doubled. I'm cleaning, getting things done, multi-tasking more effectively, and just feeling better. Instead of wanting to sit and just watch TV from 8:00pm on, because I feel exhausted (even though I haven't done much); I actually have energy (and time) to be creative, think and read (the fun, fun stuff of life!). It reminded me of something I had learned in one of my many previous lives - ordering the bulk foods for a health food store.

There are two different meanings to feeling tired, and it's important to distinguish between them, becuase they have two VERY different remedies. Being physically tired comes from, duh, exerting yourself physically - solution: rest. BUT, being mentally tired, from the stress and strain of life, requires physical activity to remedy. Resting, doing nothing, increases your feelings of exhaustion, if it's mental. So next time you feel tired, ask yourself if there's a physical reason you SHOULD be tired, and if not, strap on your shoes and meet me at the track!

Inspiration for the Week

"One can't believe impossible things."
Said the Queen, "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I'd believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Fav. Foto Friday

July 4, 1984I hate running. Why in the world would this be a "fav foto"?!!!
Stay tuned - I'll explain on Tues., 'cause Friday is all about the fotos!!

The Harvest

So... what do you do in a family of five when this is the sum total of the blueberry harvest from your garden?!
You hurry up and divide it before Dad gets home from work!

This Just In...

So, two weeks ago, my computer melted - actually, just one of the USB port cables did, but the whole computer "died". Luckily, one of my friends loaned me an old laptop, say "Hi!"

so I could at least get on-line to order some new computer parts and check a few blogs. But for some reason, this snarky little computer wouldn't even let me view my blog, much less post to it. I have my "new" old computer back finally, so I thought I'd catch you up on what you missed during the down time.

We were visited by royalty (happens frequently), this time by the Queen of (and I kid you not) "Chenaeiouyrda" [that's pronounced chi-na-ra, sort of]
Went to the local Rescue Squad open house and got to pretend we had broken our leg at a football game!
Got dressed up to go worship and eat a fantastic meal
at the local Hindu temple.
Celebrated a birthday - OMG Faith is 12!!(and, yes, that IS a chemistry set she's so excited to receive;
apparently my "nerd gene" is dominant - YES!!!!!)

Had a homemade brownie & lemonade stand
...and ate some profits
...and donated a snack to the renovation efforts at a
neighborhood arts camp.
FINALLY cleaned some space in the garage to unleash our creative spirit.
I missed Mrs. G's open house (boo hoo), though I did bake some bread for the event (actually cheated and bought "par-baked" bread from Whole Foods and just gave it the last 12 minutes of baking for crispiness).
Had a great time eating watermelon at the Race Unity Picnic.
Went to an AMAZING gospel choir concert and got spiritually refreshed (I'm still floating!)
Had a momenatry lapse of sanity and adopted two guinea pigs - whaaaa!!

Hope you're having a fantastic summer too!!

Inspiration for the Week

"The primary task of the soul will always be
to investigate reality,
to live in accordance with the truths
of which it becomes persuaded
and to accord full respect to the efforts
of others to do the same."
* Universal House of Justice
(world governing body of the Bahá'ís)
in it's 2002 Letter to the World's Religious Leaders

Oh Yeah!!

Hey Mrs. G, look what I went out and bought today!!

Fav. Foto Friday

Happy 4th of July!!Where in the world do you wear sweaters on the 4th, you may ask?!

ALASKA!! of course
(recognize the glasses, Mrs. G?!!)