Oh, Lydia

While visiting Grammy and Grandpa's house one evening after there had been some afternoon showers, Lydia and Afton discovered a couple of tiny snails. Lydia brought over a little spiral shell to show me (not actually sure if it was occupied or not) and asked if she could smash it. Smash it?

"No Lydia," I answered, "if you smashed it the snail would cry and cry."

"Mo-om," she answered in a somewhat patronizing tone, "snails can't cry if they're dead."

Pinterest dinner success

Thank you Pinterest. You are my new go-to source for delicious meals. Pinterest-fare has become the dinner-hour star more often than not here lately. The masses are impressed. Most of the recipes we have been reveling in are not healthy. When Scott compliments a dish, I'll usually answer with, "Yeah, guess how much butter is in it!" or "Mmm-hmm, the secret ingredient is bacon."

Here are some of our new favorites:

Baked Potato Grilled Cheese
A match made in heaven.

Chic-fil-a nuggets
Scott usually doesn't really like chicken.
He liked these.

Chinese Noodles
Lydia could have eaten the whole thing by herself.

Homemade Hamburger Rolls
I used these for the Philly Sloppy Joes and the Bean Burgers.
Next time I'm just going to make them to eat alone.

Crunchwrap Supreme
There's always room for another way to make tacos.

Cheesy Garlic Bread
It gives us bad breath but we don't even care.

Mac and Cheese
If Martha Stewart says it's the best, it must be.
Bonus: we used the same cheese sauce for the Philly Sloppy Joes.

Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes
Great application for the delicious classic.

Double Crunch Honey Garlic Pork Chops
Just as good as they sound. Maybe even better.

Sweet Potato Veggie Burger with Avocado
These actually are healthy...until you fry them.
I had my doubts about halfway through making them, but needn't have worried.
Don't skip the avocado, YUM.

Twice Baked Potato Casserole
Twice as delicious.

Inexplicably...

...the little girls have asked to sleep on the floor of their room for the past two nights. The unexpected request burst forth as if it were the greatest and most natural longing of any little girls' hearts. I couldn't think of a reason to say no, so we tossed a couple of blankets and pillows down from their bunks and so it was. The first night I fully expected for them each to abandon their adventurous floor-sleeping for the traditional comfort of bed-sleeping sometime before morning. But no, there they still were when I made the morning wake-up rounds--Lydia curled in a ball perpendicular to her pillow and Afton hugging a pink, fuzzy robe. How long will this carpet camping continue?

All I ever do is run

I like it. I love the way it feels to run. I like going a little farther all the time and pushing way beyond any limits I formerly perceived for myself. I feel strong. Empowered. Maybe I can do lots of things I never dreamed I could. I'm still not very fast (not very=at all), but once my weekly milage passed 40 I started to feel like I could call myself a real runner. When I say to the kids something like, "I'm going to run to the store real quick," they now answer, "You mean really run?"

The marathon is seven weeks away. That's close.

The hardest part of training is the time commitment--hands down. I do have days when I'm just thinking about all the other things I could be doing with that time that's devoted to slapping the pavement mile after mile, minute after minute. My long runs are a 2 1/2 hour ordeal now. (That reminds me, I need to google after how many miles you're supposed to replace your shoes.) I'm wondering what I'll do after the race. I don't want to lose the good lots-of-running feeling and nor the ability, but I think I'll feel ready to reclaim some of the time it demands. Where will that happy medium settle? I'm planning on Ragnar again in November and a triathlon in August for something different (just a short one, nothing hard core), so I can't slack too much. I struggle with feelings of selfishness for devoting so much time and energy to something just for me. (Maybe I should have waited until the kids are all older? Maybe I ought to swap running for humanitarian work?)

In any case, I'm starting to feel nervous about the reality of 26.2 miles all at once. Getting enough sleep the night before, eating and drinking the right amount, getting sick, getting injured, getting too exhausted to finish. I'm wondering how feasible it would be to schedule a massage for later that day...

got to run.

Look Mom, I'm a rainbow