Good news, less good news, remote work in times of illness, one more summer read.

Aubrey the Artist

In good news, Lily is feeling much better today.  She spent most of the day lying down, although she did walk to the store with Andy to get tomato soup for dinner.

In less good news, Andy woke up with a stomach bug at 2am and was out of action most of the day (although he did still help with afternoon kid stuff and dinner, when I started to fade at 3pm due to being up with Lily almost hourly until 2am)

In good news, I went to a cute play group today with the twins (should I be out when people at home are ill? Am I a super spreader? I don't know.  Twins seemed fine) and a childminder told me how amazing our Nanny is.  I think she's amazing, but it's always good to hear from others too.

In less good news, Ezra said he didn't feel well at dinner and proceeded to be sick.

In good news, 50% of my kids can reliably be sick in buckets or toilets and not on the floor!

In less good news, Ezra is off school for two days now.  Lily can go back on Thursday.  Ezra can go back on Friday.

In good news, before Ezra got ill he passed his swimming test and he's now a "green level" swimmer.

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I really have no idea how this week is going to go.  If the twins get this then our life will really go south for a bit.  If the twins have it when I have it then that will be very south.  If I get it after the twins then I probably can't do my half marathon on Sunday.

I'm supposed to be doing some shake out and taper runs this week.  That's obviously not happening (the runs.  I am hopeful I will get to run the half)

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This morning I put up an out of office and haven't checked back at any work stuff.  I didn't cancel any meetings.  I just wasn't there.  Remote work feels so odd sometimes.  I *really* want to be in work and I'm so excited about my new job.  I am terrible at doing things halfway and I knew I wouldn't be able to focus on kids if I allowed myself to check my work computer.  I know work will be there later, but I would love to have more things sorted and arranged before I take a bunch of unpaid leave to cover family illnesses (I'm aware there is potential for me to be off through Friday now, with the quantity of kids and the quantity of sick)

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It's 8pm.  Time to do some more reading and get some sleep, who knows what chaos tonight will bring (hopefully just sleep)

On the plus side, I'm enjoying a 7 day copy of One Golden Summer by Carly Fortune

A Day in the Life - Annual Leave Monday

I was on annual leave today since our Nanny is currently on holiday.  I figured I would do a DITL post but I did not do great at taking photos of the cuter moments... so here goes!

6:05am walk up, go downstairs and have coffee, work on time log, pack kids lunches.  

6:30am Ezra comes downstairs, Aubrey is awake and Andy brings her downstairs, quickly finish the Lily's August photos for her album.

7:00am Andy starts breakfast, I get Clara & Lily up and dressed

7:40am Start laundry and handover kids breakfast from Andy.  Make scrambled eggs because the big kids have each eaten a whole bagel and are asking for more food.  Quickly eat 2 eggs on a bagel because I'm trying to eat protein for breakfast (and also to eat breakfast)

8:00am Tidy up breakfast, everyone goes upstairs to brush teeth.  

8:30am Leave for school on time! Then have to turn around and go home because both kids forgot jackets

8:40am Leave for school again.  Have to hurry

8:55am School starts.  I've arranged a double play date for the afternoon - Lily and Ezra are both having a friend over.  I confirm pick up details with parents and teachers.

I've been working on a project to get rid of clothes and I had a super cute halloween outfit from when Lily was small and I saw a baby at school drop off and gave it to their mum and hopefully she didn't think it was too weird.

Lily was not the most photogenic

9:15am Back home, change twin nappies, get the twins in the car, drive to play group

9:45am I recently found a new Monday play group at a slightly further away church.  It has the absolute best cake of any group and this morning did not disappoint.  I had a cup of tea and a brownie, and then later a slice of lemon cake because I paid for 2 kids so I get 2 cakes right?  The twins played with cars and enjoyed snack and story.  

11:30am Home from play group. Twins play in the house while I make lunch (scrambled eggs, because they didn't have eggs for breakfast).  I also make a list of dreams for what I want to accomplish during naptime, and also add estimates of times because I knew I probably wouldn't have time for it all

11:50am Twin lunch.  I start to make muffins for snack during the play date later

12:15 twins in bed.  Time to tackle this mess:

12:30 Eat a classic mom-lunch: scrambled eggs with siracha.  Yes, this is my second egg based meal of the day. Oops

12:45 Muffins are done, as is the bread Andy put on this morning.

12:50 Often times I spend too much of nap tidying up so I set a 20 minute timer and manage to sort the kitchen and hall and dining room, including hoovering.  But the living room still looks like this, which is probably fine because it would look like this later.  Not pictured - hanging out laundry

1:15 Go upstairs to do a 30 minute yoga video.  It was great.  My hips were sore from my run yesterday (ill advised 10 mile run where I mostly ran out of steam at mile 8 and totally ran out at mile 9).  I remember that I need to make dinner during nap time as well.

1:50pm quick pick up of Ezra's room.  Bring laundry down from air drier into bedroom

2:00pm Start dinner prep.  Making tuna stuffed shells from my new favourite cookbook of family friendly meals

2:30pm Done!

2:35pm Sit down to have a quick salad before it's time to pick up kids.  Make two boring life admin phone calls. Day take a turn when....

2:40pm School calls to tell me Lily has just been ill in class and needs to be picked up.  I had been warned that there is a virus circulating her class right now.  I ask the school if I can also pick up Ezra (since school ends at 3:30 anyways, and if Lily is ill she's not going to want to walk to school pick up.  The school says they will get both kids.  I quickly wake up twins and walk to school and call both playdate parents to let them know we have to postpone.

3:00pm collect Lily and Ezra from school.  Lily is out for at least 48 hours.  Ezra is very sad to not have a play date today

3:10pm Arrive home. Lily says her stomach hurts, then proceeds to vomit on the kitchen floor.  Tile is such a good choice! I panic and clean it up with dish towels because that was all I could reach.  Lily makes it to the bathroom while I ask Ezra to sort out snack for himself and Aubrey & Clara. He does an amazing job, he's only 6 and managed to get them each a muffin and peel and distribute satsuma slices.  I call Andy and ask him to come home from work.

3:20pm put Lily in the bath.  Try to keep Lily separate from everyone else.  Wash my hands 100 times.

3:45pm Andy gets home and takes the twins and Ezra to the park

4:00pm Lily is still being sick often. She also watches some spider man TV show

4:05pm I tidy the kitchen... again.

4:15pm sort and put away laundry.  Empty kids backpacks.  Put dinner in the oven.  Bring in laundry from outside.  Empty dishwasher.  Light my new autumn candle I got from Homesense (£30 marked down to £9!)

5:30pm Settle Lily upstairs, everyone else has dinner.

6:10pm Twin bathtime.  Andy does twin bed.  I help Lily, who falls asleep around 6:45.

7:00pm Ezra shower and bedtime.  He reads me a story

7:30pm Ezra lights out.  Andy has cycling on a monday, so I go downstairs to tidy up the dinner dishes, lounge, kitchen, and dining room again.

8:30pm Lily is awake again.  I finish the last load of Laundry

Then I reply to some texts and order new stick on labels for the kids school clothes. Lily lays down in my bed while I write this long blog post

9:45 finish writing this blog post.  There were lots of interruptions (Lily's stomach hurts... another water, a slide of toast, the toast was not a good idea, laying down on the sofa, laying down in bed).  

And that was a day of annual leave from work!

I am of course very hopeful Lily feels better soon.  I am also very hopeful this doesn't spread through everyone in the house.  I also think it's highly likely that by Sunday (my Half Marathon) I will be suffering from a stomach bug.  But I'm trying not to worry about Sunday, because there are a lot of other days to make it through first.

When I go back to work tomorrow (Andy has the day off for kids, hopefully Lily will be well enough to have a calm day with the twins) people will ask me how my long weekend was.  I sometime struggle to reply.  I guess... good?

5 on a Friday: messy house, the right order, clothing conundrums, million dollar questions, book of the summer

Last night, we forgot to run the dishwasher before bed.

This meant that it had to run this morning, so it is 1pm now and I have not managed to unload the dishwasher yet

Which means the kitchen is full of breakfast dishes

Which means when the grocery delivery arrived it went on the dining room table.

It's interesting to feel the impacts of being on the wrong size of some Lazy Genius principals.

I did not do things yesterday that would have made today easier.

I went to bed too late and now I am tired

I forgot to run the dishwasher and now I'm sitting next to chaos

It's not a big deal, because at some point soon I will get off this couch and stop blogging and start tidying up.

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My Taper week of running has been very taper.  As in, I haven't' run since my 11 miles last weekend.  Oops! I did do two strength workouts and one sprint interval training workout and some yoga.  I also slept a lot this week, with a rolling average of over 8 hours.  

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I am on the hunt for new clothes again.  Last year around this time I feel I achieved my "only clothes. I wear and love" wardrobe, and then I wore the same 5 sweaters for 6 months straight and now that it's sweater season again all my clothes feel worn and baggy.

Also, how am I supposed to pair sweaters with not-skinny jeans?  How do I look chic and not frumpy in sweater-legging combos?  Inquiring minds want to know.

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I've been thinking about things I would spend money on if I had a million dollars (or whatever amount is enough to just spend money without thinking.)  I feel I would spend a lot more on my house and I would hire an interior decorator and organizer to make it pretty and functional.  Right now it's pretty functional and fine, but I would love to live in a space that brought me more visual joy rather than operational joy.  

I realized as I racked my brain on what I would do with a million dollars (yes, I sang the Barenaked Ladies song by the same title!) it was mostly material stuff - I would pay someone to cook and prep food.  I would pay a housekeeper to tidy up.  Maybe I would move to a bigger house.

I didn't immediately think of any massive holidays I would do.  I would not buy a nicer car (although I definitely would buy a electric family cargo bike!).  I would like to give a bunch of money to the kids school.  It would be cool to have someone come and tell me what clothes to wear and how to wear makeup and make me look put together but not uncomfortable.

I wondered, does this mean I don't value travel? Is this showing that inside I am apparently super materialistic?  

Perhaps it's because I know if I wanted to do a trip somewhere I will probably do it, whether or not I have a million dollars.  I don't need to have a windfall to spend money on the things I value doing, because that's how I'm spending my money already.  Maybe "what would you do with windfall money" is more of a question of "What don't you value enough to want right now?"

I'm not really sure what that exercise is supposed to teach me.

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I am going to officially announce that my favourite book this summer was The Other Side Of Now by Paige Harbison.  On a scale from 0 to Wedding People it was close enough to Wedding People that I really really enjoyed it.  It would also make a good Fall/Christmas read!

Now it's time to tidy up this messy house!

What was your favourite book of the summer?  What would you spend money on if you have a millionbillion dollars?  Do you have a fall wardrobe or do you feel like you're constantly topping up your clothing?

Weekend wins, reading updates, Half Marathon in 11 days.

Firstly - I survived solo parenting on Saturday. It actually went mostly well! A friend came over in the morning (not the one I texted, another one) and was so helpful AND her kids and my kids have some sort of calm magic thing where they all just play calmly together.  I don't understand since most of the time both our kids are screaming chaos, but somehow their chaos balances such that 4 kids were sat quietly playing games for almost 2 hours.  I will not second guess it.

During twin nap I got out the new-to-us Playmobil.  I've not experienced playmobil before but wow these toys are detailed.  Ezra and Lily loved the camping set:

It finally stopped raining in the afternoon and we got out for a splash in muddy puddles

On Sunday I did my last long run before the half marathon.  It was a 2 hour run and for the first time ever I hit the mileage target within the time.  I also ran a flat course rather than 1,000 feet of climbing.  I was really proud to run 11 miles in under 2 hours.  From now untl the half (Oct 5th) it's tapering time.  

I've been listening to Stacy Sims interviews and reading Next Level

Her basic argument is that women need to lift really heavy things, and also that women are naturally better at endurance and worse at high intensity which is why women need to do more HIIT (fast twitch muscle).  I'm trying to follow some of her guidance such as doing less fatiguing endurance based workouts and resting more and lifting heavier at the gym (fewer reps of heavier weights).  I've also started eating breakfast and trying to eat more protein.  I know this is all very basic 40 year old stuff but I think it's making me feel better.

I randomly woke up at 3:30 this morning and couldn't get back to bed, so I finished reading It's a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan

I'm dragging out summer romance season!  It wasn't my favourite of hers but a love story is a love story.

Then I did a Peloton ride and a morning yoga session and meditation.  It turns out I can totally have instagram/influencer mornings if I wake up at 3:30am.  This is obviously not sustainable or a good idea, but I should sleep well tonight!

Have you read any Annabel Monaghan? Nora Goes Off Script is my favourite.  What's your 3:30am wakeup strategy, or are you a unicorn sleeper? Did you have playmobil as a kid, or do your kids have it?

Solo Parent Saturday: a mini pep talk

Of course this is the weather on the day I'm watching 4 kids with no car.  I am excited for the rest of the week, but YUCK to today.

I feel I need to write myself some pep talk on managing today.  It appears I rely on car based transport *a lot* when carting 4 kids around.  

Ideas to make today not awful:

• Taking the bus with the kids somewhere this morning.  Hopefully it will be dry enough to make it to the bus.  Maybe we will go to the Cardiff Museum which opens at 10am.  
• Getting out some of the giant box of second hand playmobil I got for the kids for Christmas.  Maybe they can have some of it now and some for Christmas
• Big kids can watch film over lunch/twin nap
• Encourage big kids to finish almost-done dot to dot books and also sticker dolly dressing books
• Get brio down from Ezras room and see if twins can play with trains yet without just throwing them

Things to do today to keep life moving:

• Wash kids white tops for school
• Make (&freeze) a lasagna for Andy's birthday next week (this is super aspirational *but* there isn't another time to make it before his birthday and I feel that making a lasagne is kind of a "happy 40th birthday" minimum)

Things that will make it better for me:

• Doing a 5 minute meditation?
• Eating a brownie (need to buy a brownie)?

I'm no expert here, but I think the total lack of anything in the last list is probably why I'm not so good at solo parenting days.

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Last Monday Ezra had a friend over after school and I managed to get this photo of things not looking chaos, but mostly things were chaos.  

I detest painting and I am not sure why I said yes because this fell apart soooo fast.

Lily has seen me prep for work enough apparently to paint her own eyebrows.

It's paint, not a black eye.

5 on a Friday: Four Day Work week, New Cookbook, Line a Day Journal, Frugal Kids Clothing Win

This week feels weird because I was off work on Monday but I am working today, rather than having my normal Friday childcare day.  I was supposed to take a ladies mountain biking course but it got canceled and since I'm out of annual leave (I had 42 days of holiday to use up this year, don't feel bad for me) I decided to work instead.  I do not feel like taking a biking course today, and I am a little excited to hopefully have a quiet Friday in work.  

I am somewhat considering whether I take Mondays off in the future to get my quiet Fridays every week, but for now I've finally stopped iterating my childcare and I think I should leave it as it is.  Fridays and Mondays off both have perks.

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We got a new (second hand) cookbook that I am loving right now:

The recipes are for toddlers & families, I would eat anything from this book!

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My clothing organization system came in super handy this week.  Lily needed school dresses (not the blue one above, that's the summer dress.  The winter dresses are grey) so  I ordered some dresses and tights online (£50 for 6 dresses and 10 tights) but then remembered we definitely had some in one of the clothing boxes.  I had packed away the size 5-6 clothes (she just turned 5 but is so TALL) and when I got the box out I found so many dresses and tights! I cancelled the order and got £50 back.

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I haven't mentioned my Line A Day Journal in a while.  I am on year 5 of a 5 year journal I have decided that I don't like it right now.  I'm not filling it out at all.  Things I don't like about it:

• It makes me realize that we have been in a tough stage of young kids years for a long time, with a lot of kids
• It makes me realize that certain times I thought were not tough actually were tough
• I don't like revisiting our chaotic childcare situation from this time last year
• I don't like revisiting 2021 covid weirdness (we were basically still in lockdown 5 years ago.  Post-vaccine. that seems nuts.)
• I generally don't feel good or happy when I read any of the previous entries.  Sure, there are tidbits of joy (thought I can't think of any) but it's mostly a slog
• I'm super disinclined to write anything now because I know that future me won't read it.  Previous years I thought I was writing something that might bring out profound life understanding... but this year it just seems pointless.

However - I think the concept is good! It has helped me learn some things, for instance illnesses last two weeks (not 2 days like I expect).  I'm generally sad in November.  I did not realize either of these things until I did line a day project.

Where does this leave me? I think I will do a new line a day journal starting next year.  The best year in my line a day is the January when Lily was 2 until I got pregnant with twins... so hopefully starting a journal when the twins are 2 and then *not* getting pregnant will make for better life reading.

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Peloton algorithm made me laugh last week with the following suggestion after my 60 minute run:

A quick 75 minute run? No thank you.

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If you could have one day a week off work what day would you choose? Have you ever tried a line a day journal? Would you take a quick 5 minute stretch or a quick 75 minute run?

Thursday - House things, Budget things, running things, good things.

House Thoughts:

In important updates, we got the rug from IKEA and it looked bad in our house.  Andy took it back to IKEA and now we still have the same old rug.  He did see another potential rug, but shipping is £35 and I am not paying £35 to potentially return a rug.

Someday we will go to IKEA and pick up this rug:

I moved our existing rug under our sofa, because I saw a picture on Elisabeth's blog and her room it looked so nice!  Photos in the future because I just moved the furniture when writing this blog and it was dark and I don't feel like picking up any toys.

Budget Question

I have a budget question, for those who do budgeting. My husband and I share bank accounts and keep track of all our spending in the following budget categories.

Recently, one of us got a parking ticket.  What budget should parking tickets go under?

Feeling Generally Behind on All The Things

This morning I updated our budget for September and uploaded August photos to Snapfish so I could work on photo albums.  Usually I do budget around the second week of the month and I aim to upload photos in the first week of the month.  Also, I am feeling a bit of ennui/dread (there must be a better word) about the August albums.  We did so much in August - there are 177 photos! I can't believe how much we adventured and how many visitors and day trips we did.  But also, I need to corral these all into the 4 kids albums and 1 family album and it feels like a lot.

I also feel like I'm not staying on top of things that make my life easier - for example I went to the office on Wednesday.  On Tuesday evening I went to the gym with my gym friend and got home late and hungry, ate a salad, watched a mountain biking video with andy, took a shower and went to bed.  on Wednesday morning Andy was doing a peloton ride so I had to get kids up and get breakfast sorted, and also pick out clothes and pack for work.  The clothes I picked were not a good combo, because I was tired and getting dressed in the near-dark.  I only realized how silly the dress-tights-trainers look was when I was in the toilet at work and saw myself in a full length mirror.  I could have picked a better outfit if I had picked one the night before.  I also didn't pack food, so spent £7 on coffee and a sandwich.  

Wednesday evening we did our FLOM and I was so tired I could barely think of food choices for the week.  The FLOM finished when we both couldn't focus on anything and went to bed.

Running Thoughts

I am not sure running is very good for me.  I think the net result of my training is that I am tired all the time, I am very hungry, I crave sugar and chocolate, and I have gained 5 lbs.  I'm not doing running to lose weight, I am doing it because I (nominally) like it, but I think I would be much better off not running.

This is kind of good, because the weather has been 100% against me for the last two weeks.  I did 38 minutes of my 45 minute run progression run on Tuesday.  I did not run Wednesday or Thursday.  I will run tomorrow (Friday) and definitely do a long run on Sunday.  

I'm starting to look forward to my post-half marathon sport revamp.  I want to do more Peloton rides and a Peloton Strength programme.  I'll also keep going to the gym with my gym buddy and with my NEW gym buddy (I mean, she's my sport buddy of years but recently we have started to try and lift heavy Sh*t together after she read a Stacy Sims book and I am just keen for any sport all the time.)  I would still like to do a long run once a week, but maybe I will *only* do a long run once a week and keep the rest of my weekly sport more... not running.

Weekend Adventures/Weekend Survival

On Saturday Andy is going biking all day (and taking the car!) which means I've got 4 kids and no car.  It is his 40th birthday present but I am also pretty concerned about how the day will go, but I wasn't ahead enough to make any play date plans, or try to sort out someone taking one of the kids somewhere... so it's me and 4 kids and no car.  

He said one of his friends might be able to drive (he's driving all his friends) but I am fairly sure that all their wives do not want to be left at home all day without a car.

On Monday I texted a friend I haven't seen for ages and in the middle of a longer text I said "if you're around this weekend I'm solo parenting without a car and it would be great to see you if you're free for a catch up/play date?" They hearted the text but I am not sure if that means they are keen for a play date? I need to figure out how to ask again... perhaps I should have been more specific on a time... but also hanging out with me is kind of the worst when I am trying to watch 4 kids so maybe a play date is not a great idea anyways.  Two year old are hard. Two two year olds are extra hard.

There are also lots of good things

• Going into the office was great, and I got to go out to pizza with my new team and they seemed very happy that I have joined them.
• Even though I complain about running, I am so happy I've been strong and healthy enough to run
• Our childcare situation is working so well at the moment.  I did not realize having a nanny could be this good, she is so good with the twins and she also makes kid dinner twice a week and other super helpful things.
• The big kids are doing well with the school routine
• I may have found a cleaner to do fortnightly cleans (fingers crossed)
• My new job is going well (I think) and tomorrow I get to work out what I'm actually going to deliver in the first 3 months
• It might stop raining next week

What budget does a parking ticket go under? Are you feeling behind on all the things (is that just September energy)? Would you have a play date with twin 22 month olds (I recommend not). 

Running - Transitions & Training, morning darkness, new schedule(?)

The Peloton Road to Half Marathon collection is 10 weeks long, but I did a 10k course first as a sort of "Couch to Half Marathon" (Andy's term, not mine).  I started training in around June.  

I would run at around 5:15am, in the glorious Welsh summer sun that comes up at 4:30 (it's not warm, it's just... light)

In August I started my runs around 5:30, and in September I've moved to 6am (as the mornings got darker). 

This morning, I woke up at 5:30 and got ready for my 6am run (45 minute progression) and it was still dark outside.

I don't like running in the dark.  It's weird that 6am dark feels creepy and bad and 6am light feels exciting and fun.  

Even though I live in a generally really safe area of a generally really safe country, I still get icked by running in dark or running by myself in the hills. 

For instance - my long run on Sunday:

See that line that goes to the left and stops? That's because there was a car parked on a gravel path, right before the road I was trying to get to.  I didn't want to run past weird car parked in the woods, so I turned around and ran the other way.

I ran along this quarry for a while, which did not bother me at all

I was hoping to keep my 6am runs through October 5th, but it appears that last week was the official end of my early morning running.  I have to be home by 6:45 to start kids breakfast and wake up etc.  

It's 6:45 now, and it's about the level of light I would like to start a run.

I felt rather annoyed this morning, after my 5:30 wake up and coffee, running clothes on, staring out the window at the darkness.  

It seems exceptionally silly to be mad at the darkness.  I did a 20 minute Yin Yoga instead.  

Schedule thoughts:

• I can do runs during my lunch break, on days I work from home.  
• I need to schedule these in by the week, in my personal planner and work calendar
• I can use the morning for other things I'm not doing, like blogging, yoga, stretching, strength, peloton cycling, life admin like budget and photo albums...  Or more sleeping
• I need to actually *do* my mid day runs (which can only be monday thru thursday)
• I need to make sure I've eaten breakfast or a good snack before the lunch run so I'm not ravenous at run time

Time for some planner work.  And time to actually *do* my 45 minute progression run this afternoon.

Running Update: Half Marathon in 3 weeks

I've realized I'm not very good at sharing info on this blog in any sort of story/narrative context.  For instance, I'm pretty sure I announced I was having twins during a "5 on a Friday" post.

I am currently training for the Cardiff Half Marathon which is on October 5th. It's my first race since 2017.

A bit of running backstory (a running rundown?)

As a kid, I *hated* running.  In middle school we used to have to run a mile which was 3 laps of a local park, but I realized that if I hid behind a bush for a certain amount of time I would instead run just 2 laps and say I had done 3.  I did not understand how anyone enjoyed running, ever.

I got into sport & cycling when I moved to Wales in 2011, and for some reason Andy and I signed up for the Cardiff Half in 2013.

I don't think I really trained, I think I just was 28 and able to do all the sports all the time. I finished in 2hr 33 minutes.  My legs hurt.

Andy and I at the 2013 start line

When Andy and I moved back to the states (in 2014) I decided to join a run club, because everyone I know who liked running was in a run club.  It worked! I started to like running.  The club was based at a microbrewery in Portland and I loved running and enjoying a beer after.  

I joined a lot of races with the run club, and became a running ambassador for our local Fleet Feet.  

Beat the Blerch in Washington (2hr 26)

I met some running BFFs.  Juliette was my partner in crime at many of my favourite races - generally Triathlons rather than running

Haag Lake Duathlon in Oregon

Bend Beer Chase relay bus

My favourite half marathon was the Seattle Rock'n'Roll half in 2016.  It was my fastest half at 2hr 26min

We moved back to Wales in 2016, before we came back I entered the Bath Half, March 2017.  

I did not enjoy the Bath Half. Training in Wales in the winter is way worse than training in Portland.  We had a lot of life to sort out, (ie get jobs and find a place to live) and I really missed my Portland running family.   I trained for that half by running about once a week, as far as I could run.  

I found the race itself a major drag - I didn't know anyone there, I ran slower each mile, and I was at the back end of the race where all the fast people with medical emergencies were getting treated on the sidelines while I plodded my way around.

I've run intermittently since then, but I knew I wanted to do the Cardiff Half again when I was done being pregnant and having babies.  Which I am! 

I'm using the Peloton Road to Half Marathon collection, which has 4 runs a week and I tend to do 3 of them

I'm mostly enjoying the long runs.  I have a dream to someday run longer offroad races.  I think if I can harness the relentless energy needed to manage twins / 4 kids under 6 then I should be able to use that same relentless energy to run a lot of miles.

The race is 3 weeks from today.  I have 3 goals

1 - Finish without injury

2 - Finish in under 2hr 10 minutes

3 - Finish in under 2 hours

I've used this moment here to look up pace charts, and goal 3 is almost certainly not going to happen since my current fastest mile is around 9 minutes

However, Goal 1 and 2 are still in the running! (LOL)

Anyways, that's probably far too much writing on running for today.  I still miss my Portland running community.  

I miss running in the sun and training with lots of free time, in a gorgeous part of the world.

But for now, I'm happy I can run.  I'm happy I get 2 hours to myself on the weekend to run as far as I can.  Someday I hope it's more - but for now - it is more than good enough.

Are you a runner? Have you ever trained for a race? Have you done a half, a 10k, or a whole marathon?  Have you ever been in a run club?

6 Random things on a Sunday: Cycling, Running, Gratitude & Planning

Happy Sunday! This was going to be a "5 on a Friday" post and then maybe a "6 on a Saturday" post and now... it's Sunday. Here are 6 things from the weekend and others:

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This weekend we watched the Tour of Britain which went only a few streets away from us.  The cyclists were so fast! The kids loved it, but I couldn't get many photos because I had Clara on my shoulders the whole time. 

We were also on TV!  Right here (there are some faint purple arrows to assist spotting us, although the 7 foot tall toddler helps.)

There was a single american rider so I decided to get my USA flag out because I don't often get the chance, and waving a flag at a bike race seemed really bike race-y.

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The Cardiff Half is just 4 weeks away.  I'm deviating a bit from the Peloton Road to Half Marathon programme, because I can't seem to get the right runs on the right days.  On Saturday I ran our local parkrun 5k with the twins in the pram as a "recovery run" which I 100% do not recommend.  The twins got bored, the running was difficult, I was slow, and I didn't feel very "recovered" after.
Today I did my long run which more than made up for my awful run last week and grumpy recovery this week.   I am still not fast, but I am happy that I can run for 2 hours now.  Also, the Cardiff half is FLAT so I am hoping that the fact I do trail hills in my long runs will mean I'll be moderately faster at the actual half marathon.

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I have a new random hobby which is writing thank you emails to people and companies.  A few weeks ago we went to the botanical gardens and there was a kid circus and I had such a nice time I wrote a thank you email to both the circus and the botanical gardens.  I also wrote a thank you to the local astronomical society for the planetarium show we saw.  And I wrote a thanks to the company that we buy our planner from.  I've been trying to look for people or companies to thank and it's a fun project so far, which hopefully is bringing a bit of joy to places that may get more complaints than thanks.

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I have not been very good about carving out actual planning time.  I have the ideal week template and last week would have been a great time to fill it out for September.  I also haven't done any sort of September goal setting.  I feel like I was doing awesome with the September and back to school transition and all the associated logistics and emotions and planning etc, until Saturday when I just got super grumpy and then stayed super grumpy.  There might be a hormonal aspect to this as well, but I don't think that fully discounts the grump!  This week my goal is to actually do my ideal week and also to continue daily planning. 

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Because I am a super basic human, I picked this background from The Everygirl for my phone this month and it brings me great joy when I see it.  

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Does anyone remember Rachael Ray? Tonight I made Spanikopa-burgers, a Rachael Ray Recipe that 80% of my family eat.   There's a real recipe, but I make burgers from Turkey mince, Feta Cheese, Olives, Spinach, Eggs & Oatmeal.  As a random aside, how very 2000's are the Rachael Ray cookbook covers?  

Can you hear her saying "EVOO"?  She did love the EVOO!

Also, I am glad cook book covers feature food now.  Did we not think food was an inspiring cookbook cover in 2004? I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but lady with questionable shirt and lady with tomatoes doesn't scream COOKBOOK to me.

Do you remember Rachael Ray? Do you have a random 90s/00's recipe you love?  

IKEA Home Improvements, New Rugs, New Drawers, Money and Time Thoughts

I just bought a new rug for our living room.

I have spent far too much time looking at rugs on the internet.  Why are rugs so hard! Why is making a space pretty so hard.  

Our lounge area was kind of fine, but it never really came together for us.  It generally looked nice in photos, but it looked less nice in real life:

There are a lot of colors happening here.  The rug was OK with the curtains, but it was a lot... and the massive fireguard and 1950s fire surround didn't help chill the room out.  

Also, the curtains are cut to that length because when we moved in there was a radiator along the bottom of that window, but when we redid the heating system we didn't replace that one and now we just have weirdly short curtains.

We got rid of the orange bench a few months ago because the twins spent a year wiping their noses on it and drooling on it and it was too yuck for us.

Then we got rid of the rug, for a very similar reason.  Clara probably had reflux as a baby and that rug took the brunt of the gross, Andy and I decided we didn't like it.  I also always thought it was too small for the room, but when we bought it 7 years ago we didn't want to spend more on a bigger rug because rugs are expensive.

We switched it for the rug from Andy's old office (now Lily's room).  I liked it better, but it felt even more obvious the rug was too small for the room:

The grey rug is not in as good condition as it looks in that photo either.

Anyways, back to lounge.  Picking a rug is hard, and finally Andy and I both agreed on this IKEA rug:

Hopefully it will look good in our lounge! The bottom right picture made me think it might... and if not, IKEA has a pretty decent returns policy.

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Ezra is starting to grow out of his little IKEA drawers.  I decided to replace them with slightly bigger MALM drawers.   The little drawers can go to the twins soon, because they are almost in two different sizes of clothes now, and someday they will each need their own drawers (right now Ezra and Lily each have one set IKEA Godishus of drawers)

And then... I decided it was time for new doormats, because when at IKEA.COM you have to make the most of life right?  I am fairly sure the doormat we have came with the house (8 years ago).

Is it silly to be excited for new doormats?

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As I replace these things I remember how much price used to be THE deciding factor on all our house stuff.  Past me would have spent a lot more time looking on freecycle and gumtree and facebook marketplace for drawers.  Right now, I get a huge thrill from just being able to get the things that we want for hour house and to make our life easier.  It does feel scary just *buying* things though.  It's nominally in budget, it makes our life easier, and right now we are more short on time and effort than money.  I'm not sure where that shift happened, and I am hoping at some point we will shift back to having more time/effort... but for now the IKEA truck comes on Wednesday and home improvement projects continue.

Also, we have been incredibly fortunate to have been given things at many points in our life that helped us out.  When we found out we were having twins our friends gave us kids clothes, highchairs, and even the crib that Aubrey sleeps in.  It feel like we are paying back to the world when we freecycle old rugs and household furniture that's no longer serving us.  

What's the last thing you bought for your house? Do you buy new or used or a combination?