Training Day

As many of you know, I am not the most athletic. I start panting at the idea of jumping on a stair climber or an aerobics class. But I have found myself in a dilemma! Recently my book club group decided that we would "divide and conquer" the Cooper River Bridge Run this April. In one of our drunken escapades, we decided that we would train for the next few months and then make a fun girls' weekend out of it. It sounded good at the time.....4 Sangria's and a 6 pack later. It wasn't until Sunday that I realized that the 3 miles that I had worked up to a couple of years ago was a triumph of the past! Nearly dying after one lap around the high school track, I knew I was in for a long training session and a long couple of months. My friend Barb, who is an experienced runner and holds several marathons under her belt, thought it would be a good idea if I did some sprints! Who were we kidding...my a@# is not in shape and it is looking more like I am going to be registering as a walker/runner with no time limit! Those girls will be looking for me at the back...just call me the caboose! It was funny though as we were training, Princess P was trying to keep up with us. She kept saying she wanted to be like Barb (notice not like mommy) and run! As she was running though, she kept saying "almost there, almost there, almost there!" My thoughts exactly my Princess P...that's what mommy will be saying when she crosses that big bridge of soreness and exhaustion.

Training Session
Week 1: 1/2 mile (9 1/2 more miles to go!)
Speed: Slow

Time Out!

No one can say ever say our life is not busy! We hit the floor running at 6:15 every morning. Then it is non-stop...school, work, homework, football, boy scouts, dinner, bath, bedtime....only to wake up the next morning to do it all over again. So on days like this where our bodies tell us to slow down (unfortunately both Jack Jack and Princess P are sick) we take full advantage of it. Because days like this don't happen very often. It's nice once in a while to take a TIME OUT from life. A time out for movies, coloring, building Lego houses and spaceships, tea time with baby dolls, and dressing up like your favorite Disney princess. Life moves too fast so take a time out today!

Have you smiled today?

I don't normally use the word "hate". I feel it is a strong word that puts a number of limitations on you. But I can honestly say I have started to "hate" the television. Particulary being on at dinnertime. I use to let it slide and allow Jackson and Parsons to watch something educational or at least something with a little substance, but that has even become a problem. The televsion interurpts thoughts and distrupts conversations and turns little minds and bodies into zombies. So for the past couple of months, we have been turning off the television during dinnertime and actually have good conversations. At first the silence nearly killed us but with a little help from our smile moment/frown moment game we are off to a great start. Smile moment/frown moment is where we share a moment in our day that made us smile and a moment that made us frown. Last night, Parsons shared that her smile moment was kissing her daddy when he came home and Jackson shared that he enjoyed his Dr. Doug field trip. Our only rule is you have to lead with a smile moment and then learn from the frown moment. Our game has even inspired us to come up with other questions to ask....like if you could have any super power in the world what would it be? Of course Jackson wanted the ability of time travel, daddy wanted to be able to jump from place to place, and Granna wanted to have strength. And what do you think Mommy wanted.......the ability to eat and DRINK anything I want and be extremely thin! HEHEHEHEHEHE! I hope this makes you smile!

Rough Waters

Lately, the waters of the hurricane of life have been a little rough on the Harper clan. With lots of changes in 2010, life brought a lot of frown moments and at times we couldn't quite pick out or identify the smile moments of life. But looking back it was the smile moments that got us through. Every grey cloud did have it silver lining. Smile moments this year:

Parsons turned 2 and became potty trained!
Jackson learned to ride his bike without training wheels and lost his first tooth!
Daddy took the kids on a 12 hour trip to CT by himself for a week!
Jackson started first grade!
Mommy joined a monthly book club and enjoys the good spirits and new friendships of her neighbors! (I also turned 35!)
And it snowed in SC 3 times!

I learned a lot this past year....that things happen for a reason. Whether we want to accept this reason or not we have to keep moving and forge ahead through the rough waters. I also found it is easy to drown in the rough waters if you don't stay positive and try to find the silver lining. So I am making a promise to my family and myself for 2011 that I will try to not drown and see the positive. So with that being said..I am going to follow suit with my good friend Mary and to blog more often...and to share and record the smile moments of 2011!