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Showing posts from 2018

Chicago 2018 // Lessons Learned

Sunday marked my sixth take on 26.2 miles in six years, which is pretty crazy for me to even write because in six years I have been postpartum and breastfeeding (twice), had three jobs, bought a house, celebrated 8 years of marriage, been surrounded by dozens of wonderful friends and yet still have had zero years of prior history with running or being any sort of athlete. But here I am, a marathoner 6 times over, with my most recent being my fastest one yet at 4:15:37, which is at least an hour faster than my first and just over 4 minutes faster than my last. I am happy, for sure. Happy that I have a body that can carry me those miles, happy to have a running club to spend hundreds of training miles with and happy to have a partner and family willing to cover dance class and Target runs and not get mad when I fall asleep before everyone else during movie night after a Saturday long run. Also, so happy to have my "off season" from training. Here is the thing that they don

On Our 8th Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday marked 8 years since we stood in front of everyone that matters to us, during a full mass that I insisted upon, and vowed to do this thing forever. Forever is hard; it isn't what it used to be, they say. But with you, it's easy, seamless even. Forever is not long enough because of the way that you make me laugh, the way you make me think and the way that you love and support me in an unconditional way I had never known could exist between two people. I didn't think it would end up like this for me. A girl from Nevada with a wild streak that tangled around a domestic streak with no real idea of how two people go about making a marriage not just last but flourish . But it did happen. We made it happen. We are doing it everyday of our lives together. Is it all fireworks and passion? Nope . Sometimes the only alone time we get is a quick two minute conversation running down everything that needs to be done and juggled and figured out that day to make all of our li

On Self Care

Self care has become a sort of battle cry of this generation, a reminder that we have to take care of ourselves in the midst of it all lest we collapse in a ball of exhaustion. We are a busy  people living in a busy world. We work, we parent, we volunteer, we engage our community, we social media and on and on and on.  We also very oftentimes forget to take care of ourselves, and thus this idea of self care as a way to keep ourselves able to fulfill all those other roles. As an on-paper sociologist (read: my degrees in psych and criminal justice and also my total nosy-nelly status) I am interested to know ways that we take keep ourselves from burning out, so I thought I could share some of my own methods because maybe they will spark ideas in your brain as others have in mine. I have to add that my dear husband is in Ireland this week on business, the first time he has ever gone out of state (or country) without us and the first time I have been home alone with the pack (two kids, on

Currently // Summer is Flying

Happy Friday before another sunny weekend! Had to say that because my last Currently post was all about longing for summer, the Cape and bike rides to the beach and that is exactly what we have been doing each and every weekend. Awful winters mean making the most out of beautiful summers, after all. Just a light post after my not so light pos t to head into the weekend. We are heading down to the RiverFest near our house tomorrow to enjoy the outdoors and hopefully put our canoe in the water and then Sunday will be all about the beach. Hope your outlook is just as bright! Reading I am almost done with Manhattan Beach , which I picked up after reading an excerpt in Vogue. It started off great - very old New York mafia noir, with a woman at the center of it all (and writing it) but the end has me a little less excited. I'll see how the author wraps it up before a final judgement, but definitely recommend either way! I have I'll Be Gone in the Dark waiting for me in my pile

On Mental Health

Within the span of a few days, two people lost their lives to mental health in a very public way, and I wanted to come here and try and put down the feelings that I have had now that the posts and hashtags and call for more resources have faded into the other background noise of everything that seems to be wrong in our world right now. The feeling of being triggered comes to mind, except that, despite my lifetime of living with an anxiety disorder, I have never once felt the pain of wanting to end my own life. I have been sad and frustrated that I have anxiety; let down in situations and even overwhelmed as a child who experienced trauma and more recently as a young mother trying to figure out my first days with baby but never, ever to the point of suicide. I am lucky, I guess, but that seems like a terrible word in the shadow of this monster. I was gifted my first Kate Spade by my ever fashionable AIL and have since added as many of her bags, pieces of jewelry and whatever else I c

My Morning Routine

All of the feedback on my last post was so nice and super motivating to share some of the random things I do to find some balance with eating and working and running and mom'ing, so I thought I would share how I try and tackle the mornings. Running This is the cornerstone of my exercise routine and the only thing that I do in the mornings. I have tried to be one of those people that can get up and do yoga or strength training, but it just doesn't happen. As soon as I start moving the kids barge in, someone needs something from me, or the kids want to join and start rolling around on my foam roller like a drunken circus seal. Luckily, I have my lunch hour at the gym every day (more on that another day). I am also not an afternoon or evening runner - there is always so much to do in those hours after work and before bedtime and, really, I just love starting my day with a run to clear my head and feel accomplished before the rest of the world is awake. With morning running, I

5 Things // My Healthy Tricks

Let's be clear that I am in no way the healthiest person I know (more miles = more beer) but there are some easy ways that I try to maintain some balance, which I thought I would share in case it sparks anything helpful in someone else. Meal Planning I am not talking about pretty bento boxes of veggies, perfectly weighed out to by macros and ketos and whatever else the popular bloggers are doing. I just mean I sit down (with Matt) every Friday night and look at our calendars, decide what we will have for dinners, and make a grocery list. We have a weekly cash budget to stick to (more on that in another post) so we check the circular for anything on sale that we can take advantage of, such as chicken breasts and produce, since those are staples. I also like to make things that we can generate leftovers for our weekday lunches, such as chicken to throw in rice bowls or  Thug Kitchen 's delicious roasted beet and quinoa salad that is amazing over a handful of spinach. A few m

For Mother's Day

I became a mama on November 20th, 2011 and a mama of two on March 26, 2015. I can't remember my own phone number or what I had for lunch, but those days I can pull up in my mind and remember with every bone in my body. The fear (mostly mine), the tears (again, me), that newborn smell - it stays with you so viscerally while so much of the daily chaos is forgotten. Years of missed sleep and piles of diapers, when?! Motherhood is such a different experience for everyone, which seems like a no-brainer but definitely took me a few years of doing it myself to understand. For every one kid there seems to be a million ways to mother them, and no one way is the right way, except the way that works for you. I think of all of the things I said I would not do before I became a mom and how those are the very things that are the core of my mothering now. I know now that you have a survival period and a growing period and a smooth sailing period and they all ebb and flow and change as soon as y

Hello, 36

I am spending my birthday eve at Great Wolf Lodge riding water slides and shaking my groove thang at the nightly dance party, so if you are only as old as you feel, 36 should be pretty good! It really feels like I just got used to checking the 35 box off on things and now I have to remember a whole new number, but I guess that is how the years go; so short but so long. This year has been a good one, I feel settled into my roles: at work, for my kids, in my community and I get to wake up every morning married to my best friend and biggest supporter. I slayed my 5th marathon, made some new friends, kept all the old ones and beat my annual reading challenge (the important things in life!). I am hoping to create some new challenges for myself in 36, both physically and mentally and hoping to put it down into words in this space because I so enjoy sharing and coming back to remember and reflect on this life o' mine. I feel really lucky to be living this life, surrounded by these

Weekend Adventure // Peabody Essex Museum

Let me share with you a parenting hack for making sure that you never miss out on an exhibit/special event at a museum: as soon as you see it, look up the day that it ends and put it in your calendar at least two weeks before that date, even if that day is months in the future. Bonus if it is a museum that has free entry days and you can book it for that day. The two week buffer you give yourself allows for a reschedule if absolutely necessary, and sometimes you even get close to the date and are pleasantly surprised about the adventure you booked and may have totally forgotten about. You know, hypothetically, for a friend... This weekend happened to be the one I put in our calendar to visit the Peabody Essex Museum to see Playtime , which is an interactive and super fun exhibit for kiddos and grown ups alike (and ends on May 6th). We went down late knowing the museum closes at 5, figuring it would help us beat the crowds, but this exhibit is a big deal so we had a long line to wait