WOW. It's March. I am supposed to be running a marathon (my first ever) in less than 2 weeks! A marathon with LOTS of hills, if anyone cares. But that's not the biggest "hill" or hurdle in my life these days.
I moved 5 weeks ago today; to be more correct, the boys and I moved. But it feels alot more like I moved. It's nice to have my own "space" and peace and quiet, but 50 50 parenting is only "OK" the 50% that the boys are with me... Funny how that works!! I'm not very good at being a Mom without children, at this point. People tell me that it'll get easier with time. Whatever.
I need to go, as my laptop is about to run out of battery and it's getting very late. Anyone out there with advice, feel free to weigh in. Personally I am fresh out of ANY words of wisdom, for the foreseeable future
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
How did it become December??
Surely I am not alone, in my amazement, that it is now Dec 9th?? We have a Christmas tree (not yet decorated) and a wreath on the front door... Maybe the rest of the decorating will occur this weekend! Plus the children have had the annual photography "torture" session this afternoon (where I dress them in coordinating clothes and they smile like they like each other). To add to the winter "joy", we are having the mid-MO icy "specialty" tonight-sleet/icy rain mixed with snow!
We had a lovely Thanksgiving with my mom and sisters; alas, not enough snow for skiing... But we managed to entertain the children for 4 days nonetheless.
There are only 10 more days til Christmas (aka Winter) Break from school. I am still training for the Dec 28th Half Marathon in Springfield, to be followed by a March 15 Marathon in Little Rock! One of my goals is to have finished a marathon by age 50 and hopefully that will not take 2 or 3 tries to accomplish, like the half marathon has. I have been blessed by a great group of running buddies, without whom I doubt I would still be running! I calculated the other day that I have either run or walked about 655 miles thus far (for 2008) and that is just mind boggling. Especially when you consider that I have regarded myself as a "non-athlete" all these years!
Wishing all of you and your families a wonderful, blessed holiday season. May 2009 be a great year for all of us, hopefully with an end to the war,and a better overall economic situation! Take care, hug and kiss someone you love, and drink a little too much eggnog! Why not??
We had a lovely Thanksgiving with my mom and sisters; alas, not enough snow for skiing... But we managed to entertain the children for 4 days nonetheless.
There are only 10 more days til Christmas (aka Winter) Break from school. I am still training for the Dec 28th Half Marathon in Springfield, to be followed by a March 15 Marathon in Little Rock! One of my goals is to have finished a marathon by age 50 and hopefully that will not take 2 or 3 tries to accomplish, like the half marathon has. I have been blessed by a great group of running buddies, without whom I doubt I would still be running! I calculated the other day that I have either run or walked about 655 miles thus far (for 2008) and that is just mind boggling. Especially when you consider that I have regarded myself as a "non-athlete" all these years!
Wishing all of you and your families a wonderful, blessed holiday season. May 2009 be a great year for all of us, hopefully with an end to the war,and a better overall economic situation! Take care, hug and kiss someone you love, and drink a little too much eggnog! Why not??
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Autumnal Musings
The past few days we have been having that crisp, beautiful autumn weather that makes living in MO worthwhile. These sorts of days are why we put up with hot and humid summers, and icy cold winters (with not enough snow to be useful). Fall has always been my favorite time of year, which probably goes back to childhood when I actually LIKED school starting (yes, nerd nerd nerd) and getting out the sweaters, cooking casseroles, the leaves changing colors and so on.
Today I took my youngest son and 2 daughters of friends to a pumpkin patch just west of town. We rode on a hay wagon, fed the animals, did face painting, petted soft baby bunnies, went through the hay maze, and of course, picked out pumpkins! The only criterion was that each child had to be able to carry the pumpkin that they chose. I "used" to do this sort of thing with my boys, at least when the 2 oldest ones were younger, on a more regular basis. It made sad to realize that the youngest has probably "missed out" on this kind of outing, because we'd already "been there, done that" either before he was born or too young to really remember.
Sports are starting to wind down; hallelujah!! Fall baseball is done, there are 2 more RBHS football games and 2 more CYFL games still to be played and then there is a hiatus, unless someone gets on a basketball team (that would be child number 2!!). I am still determined to run a half marathon this year. My plan for the July race was side tracked by a trip to IA for baseball; the race in St Louis in Sept occurred the same day as the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through; so now I am planning for a race in Springfield in late Dec (should we place bets on the likelihood of an ice storm that weekend?).
I did some traveling in September, first to Albuquerque to visit my mom and sisters, then to Phoenix to give Oral Board exams. The first part was way more fun than the second! Lots more margarita and guacamole consumption, with other forms of relaxation going on, while in NM than in AZ. The boys and I are traveling back to Albuquerque for Thanksgiving week which should prove to be a more inexpensive trip than the last few Thanksgivings, which have been spent in NYC, Hawaii and Cancun. All of these locations were awesome vacations but certainly not the most economical. Who knows, I might even try skiing again this year, something I haven't done since... oh, 1995, I think!
There are so many changes "pending" in our lives, at present. Of course, I (having been short changed in the patience department) want it all to happen NOW. Part of me knows that it will all unfold, in the appropriate time frame, in whatever manner it is supposed to "happen". And all my wishing and wanting and "hurrying" will not change it one iota. Maybe we (I?) need to have this autumn of settling down and regrouping, and then wait for things to be new/different in the spring??
Today I took my youngest son and 2 daughters of friends to a pumpkin patch just west of town. We rode on a hay wagon, fed the animals, did face painting, petted soft baby bunnies, went through the hay maze, and of course, picked out pumpkins! The only criterion was that each child had to be able to carry the pumpkin that they chose. I "used" to do this sort of thing with my boys, at least when the 2 oldest ones were younger, on a more regular basis. It made sad to realize that the youngest has probably "missed out" on this kind of outing, because we'd already "been there, done that" either before he was born or too young to really remember.
Sports are starting to wind down; hallelujah!! Fall baseball is done, there are 2 more RBHS football games and 2 more CYFL games still to be played and then there is a hiatus, unless someone gets on a basketball team (that would be child number 2!!). I am still determined to run a half marathon this year. My plan for the July race was side tracked by a trip to IA for baseball; the race in St Louis in Sept occurred the same day as the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through; so now I am planning for a race in Springfield in late Dec (should we place bets on the likelihood of an ice storm that weekend?).
I did some traveling in September, first to Albuquerque to visit my mom and sisters, then to Phoenix to give Oral Board exams. The first part was way more fun than the second! Lots more margarita and guacamole consumption, with other forms of relaxation going on, while in NM than in AZ. The boys and I are traveling back to Albuquerque for Thanksgiving week which should prove to be a more inexpensive trip than the last few Thanksgivings, which have been spent in NYC, Hawaii and Cancun. All of these locations were awesome vacations but certainly not the most economical. Who knows, I might even try skiing again this year, something I haven't done since... oh, 1995, I think!
There are so many changes "pending" in our lives, at present. Of course, I (having been short changed in the patience department) want it all to happen NOW. Part of me knows that it will all unfold, in the appropriate time frame, in whatever manner it is supposed to "happen". And all my wishing and wanting and "hurrying" will not change it one iota. Maybe we (I?) need to have this autumn of settling down and regrouping, and then wait for things to be new/different in the spring??
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Blogging neglect
To my chagrin, after being prompted by one of the 5 people who actually look at this blog, I realize I have not posted any happenings of the Kellers for almost 2 months! The summer has flown by, school starts in less than 2 weeks and I shake my head in amazement.
The boys have been busy (understatement): Brian just returned from a week at Young Life camp in Georgia. He has been busy working for a friends' landscaping business and umpiring this summer; he starts the challenging 2-a-day football practices tomorrow. Sam's summer baseball season ended the first week of July after a team/family trip to Cedar Rapids, IA for a tournament. He and Jack did a smattering of sports this summer: swim, golf and tennis lessons at various times, but he (Sam) is gearing up for Fall Ball, once he finishes recovering from getting his tonsils out about a week ago. Jack has enjoyed being spoiled by Erica (our summer nanny/babysitter), doing taekwondo and is now starting on a CYFL (football) team for the next few months. Yes, somewhere in the midst of all that, the Kellers DO actually focus on academics and schoolwork, but noone seems really "excited" about that part of the upcoming school year, just yet.
As for me, just yesterday I rediscovered my "real" hair color (for the first time in over 10 years)! But I KNOW I wasn't born with all this gray hair, so I don't know if this is really "real" or not... Did that make sense? I am training for a half marathon in St Louis in September and doing a 21 day sunrise yoga session (we meet at 6 am for 21 straight days). We've done 7 days so far, and though you might question the sanity of the 6 am part, I feel like I should do a "commercial" for yoga. It is such a great, relaxing and "centering" activity and I am going to talk my sisters into trying it, even if I have to drag them to a class personally. Work at the VA has been pretty busy; we did not seem to have our usual July slow-down of numbers of cases. Between people taking vacation and being gone due to illness, we have been rather short staffed.
It was 63 degrees out this morning, when I went to yoga, and not humid which is MOST unusual for mid-MO in August. A faint hint of the autumn to come? Fall is my most favorite season and I was always a "strange" child who looked forward to the start of a new school year (obviously the children do not take after me in this regard!) and in many ways, September seems like a "start" to the year almost as much as January 1st is. Wishing you coolness through the rest of the summer and I promise (Donna!!) to figure out how to get more pictures posted.
The boys have been busy (understatement): Brian just returned from a week at Young Life camp in Georgia. He has been busy working for a friends' landscaping business and umpiring this summer; he starts the challenging 2-a-day football practices tomorrow. Sam's summer baseball season ended the first week of July after a team/family trip to Cedar Rapids, IA for a tournament. He and Jack did a smattering of sports this summer: swim, golf and tennis lessons at various times, but he (Sam) is gearing up for Fall Ball, once he finishes recovering from getting his tonsils out about a week ago. Jack has enjoyed being spoiled by Erica (our summer nanny/babysitter), doing taekwondo and is now starting on a CYFL (football) team for the next few months. Yes, somewhere in the midst of all that, the Kellers DO actually focus on academics and schoolwork, but noone seems really "excited" about that part of the upcoming school year, just yet.
As for me, just yesterday I rediscovered my "real" hair color (for the first time in over 10 years)! But I KNOW I wasn't born with all this gray hair, so I don't know if this is really "real" or not... Did that make sense? I am training for a half marathon in St Louis in September and doing a 21 day sunrise yoga session (we meet at 6 am for 21 straight days). We've done 7 days so far, and though you might question the sanity of the 6 am part, I feel like I should do a "commercial" for yoga. It is such a great, relaxing and "centering" activity and I am going to talk my sisters into trying it, even if I have to drag them to a class personally. Work at the VA has been pretty busy; we did not seem to have our usual July slow-down of numbers of cases. Between people taking vacation and being gone due to illness, we have been rather short staffed.
It was 63 degrees out this morning, when I went to yoga, and not humid which is MOST unusual for mid-MO in August. A faint hint of the autumn to come? Fall is my most favorite season and I was always a "strange" child who looked forward to the start of a new school year (obviously the children do not take after me in this regard!) and in many ways, September seems like a "start" to the year almost as much as January 1st is. Wishing you coolness through the rest of the summer and I promise (Donna!!) to figure out how to get more pictures posted.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Mid-Life Musings
It's been an interesting sort of day: work followed by athletic challenges followed by childrearing challenges. It is (I learned a loooong time ago) unrealistic to expect that children (aka siblings) will get along, for any extended period of time. Moments (and I mean MOMENTS) of sibling peace and harmony sometimes seem hard to come by and should thus be savored. I am currently learning, in mid-life, that athletic sorts of endeavors are almost as equally "hard earned" and should be (just as) appreciated. How is it that some people are "athletic" and others are not? Do the athletic "envy" the brainy/intellectual types?? Is this division completely artificial or real? Why am I now trying to be athletic when nearly my entire life has been spent utilizing my brain, intellect, etc? Why am I blogging about this? Does anyone really know what time it is?
If anyone, the five (maybe) of you who read this blog, has any answers, feel free to post them!!
If anyone, the five (maybe) of you who read this blog, has any answers, feel free to post them!!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Napa Vacation
Here's one pic! The start of our fun long weekend in San Francisco and Napa. However, this will be just a teaser, as I will grow old and DIE in the amount of time it will take to post all the photos of our trip. I will work out a different way to get them to you all in NM.
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