First 10k and Marathon!

I am so excited and thrilled for The White Knight and Chef! Last week we traveled to Ohio so they could run in the Air Force Marathon. Chef did his first 10k (finish time: 1:07), and TWK finished the full in 5:22 - that is an average pace time of 11-12 minutes! I am so impressed and happy for them both.

Maestro was going to run as well, but that was a Mom Fail. I had his race time and date wrong (his was the day before everyone else) and so we missed it because we were still driving out there.

At the starting line

The trip out we stopped briefly in Baltimore for a friend's retirement ceremony, and then had a sleep over night and a bit of walk around in Pittsburgh - but that is for another blog post. A little later on, I'll also do more update and put the whole marathon story, what essential oils were used (you know we used them!) on my Three Friends Fitness blog. This post is all about my two Guys sticking it out and pushing through to levels they had not reached before now. 

Way to go, Guys!

About 2 hours after Chef finished,
and 30 minutes after TWK

29 Gifts - Day 22 - A Gift of Faith

There is a new Orthodox chaplain at the base near us. He kind of travels around from parish to parish for Sunday Divine Liturgy but he'd like to start holding mid-week services on base as well. His first effort at this has been to start holding Akathist services three days a week. Well, I took all of the kids on Thursday (day 21, for you who are counting). The Catholic church/chaplain gave him the use of a small side-chapel so we were able to be in a smaller, more close-in setting for the prayers. That is a good thing with restless younger kids around!

Actually this is a window from the back of our last church in Maryland, but it fits in until I can get a better picture of the little chapel.

29 Gifts - Day 21 - Encouragement

Today's gift was an opportunity almost missed. 

As we wandered the narrow aisles of Michael's Craft Store looking for items for Sweet Nuts, Christmas wrapping and gift-giving, and Maestro's magic show/kid drop in tomorrow night, Chef bemoaned his fate of not having a way to earn money. 

*** Interruption for a shameless plug: did you see that I've added two new pages at the top? If you haven't checked them out, please make sure you do! ***

Back to the almost-missed opportunity... Chef went on for some time about not having a way to earn money, and to be honest, he was getting really. really. irritating. (I'm not a perfect mom, just an always-there Mom, and I pray that in the end it is enough!)

29 Gift Challenge - Day 3

Today was a pretty good day. We got up way too late, we spent time puttering around the house (had to skip church because the car window is shattered and it was not safe to drive in it to get there), the kids spent time with their friends and I spent a chunk of the day trying out a different version of a new bread I'm working on (Multigrain Molasses Bread, in case you're interested.)

And then I checked my FaceBook messages. I got a message asking for my Molasses bread recipe.

...

Hmmm... This could present a problem.

Tell It Like It Is

If you follow social networking sites at all (or even if, like me, you are only on Facebook and really don't touch Twitter or MySpace or the like), you've seen the video clip of the high school teacher who gave The Graduation Speech of the Year. This is the guy who told it like it is, the guy who told the graduating students that they are nothing special; that there are so many other high schools out there and each one has a valedictorian, and each one has the prom king and queen or whatever. Basically, he reminded them that there is competition in the world and that even though we parents have told our kids all their lives that every time they pee in the toilet and not on the seat they're winners... well... maybe all that's great, but not so true.

Bowling champion? Not yet, but maybe some day... with hard work!

I saw that guy sometime last week. While his words were true and the kids to whom he was speaking (and so many more of us!) needed to hear the message, they weren't significant enough for me to really comment on them here on my blog until today. You might ask the question: what happened today to change your mind?

Maintaining Focus

First, an announcement: 

After a lot of hard work, time and (ahem) focus, Jeff graduated with his Bachelor's of Arts in History this past weekend. This is a big moment for us - and the best part about it is that his brother also graduated a few weeks ago, just as my sister and I both graduated in 2010. 

What a huge achievement for two wonderful men and their proud Mama and wives!

And now a story... from the every-day "life with boys"...

Praying Through the Day

Sometimes my children are my prayer. 

Aaaahhhh... The first 30 minutes of the day. Remember those moments when you were able to get up early, have a cup of coffee while the birds chirped outside and fall breezes rustled through the trees. A time of peace and quiet, when you could give your mind time to waken slowly and become alert before having to rush into the to-do list of the day.

Raking in the Dough with Doughnuts!

After the dust had settled, we're all still here!

Smeagol and Maestro decided to try their hands at making home made doughnuts and muffins to sell to the neighbors. Rotten home schooling Mom that I am, we turned it into a week-long project! There were many steps involved, but I'll try to condense things a bit.

First Smeagol had to learn to look the recipe up using the index in the cookbook. That took a little more time than you might imagine, but he did manage it in the end. He has done this once before, and simply made a batch then took them door-to-door to sell them. This time, we discussed ways to increase his sales numbers.

Ending 2010 Feeling Blessed

I saw a friend's post on Facebook the other day and she was (seemingly) stunned, excited, and feeling blessed all in one shot. She and her hard-working husband had found out that one of their bigger bills had been paid in full by an anonymous benefactor as a "Secret Santa" gift. I am totally thrilled for them!

Their family and ours have been concurrently working through the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover system this past year and I can think of no better gift to give than to help someone come one step closer to Freedom. Freedom from being indebted to "someone" (whether a large corporation or an individual person) else. Freedom from worrying at night over what bills might not be paid; Freedom from having to delay vacations, get-togethers, and nights out because the money is needed for something else.

Along those lines, I also am excited for our family! We started 2010 with about $17,000 in debts, not including our house, but including my student loan from years back. My goal is to have everything paid off in the next two years so that when Jeff retires in four years we have about two years of savings built up and don't have to worry while we move on to "what's next." I have been working towards this goal all through the year, and will continue to for the next two years as planned.

The bill I received in the mail today is for a now-cancelled credit card that I used when starting up my business. At the beginning of 2010, I owed $3,000 on the card. It is now down to $345 - something I can even conceive of paying off in one month! Jeff is sleeping, after pulling an all-nighter as he completed a final paper for a class he's in, so I get to share the news here first.

In looking back over the events of any given year, I am always amazed at how much we've achieved in spite of spending so much time feeling like I am trudging from day to day to day, spinning my wheels, getting "no where." Our three biggest this year are:

• This year, I completed my Bachelor's Degree in Social Science - something I started eighteen years ago before I was even out of high school!
• Jeff is finally re-enrolled in college classes and working toward his degree. He has been planning, hoping, and wanting this for sixteen years, but has been thwarted for many reasons over the years. Again, I am thrilled for him!
• We are closer to being debt-free than we were at the beginning of the year.

So often it is easy to feel like we have let ourselves down in not achieving every single "New Year's Resolution" that we set at the beginning of each year. I don't put goals like weight loss, etc. in stone, but I do write them down, along with my intended path for getting there. I always end the year closer than I was when the year started, even if I didn't achieve the exact goal. In that, I am able to feel continually blessed as I come to Christmas and to the New Year. I hope, as you look at your achievements - not the ones you feel like you missed (the "should have's") but the ones you really managed to ring the bell on - that you feel as much confidence and blessing as I do entering into 2011. If you're not quite there yet, you have two weeks left to really look at what you've done, and realize it's always more than you thought!

Teachers who Were and Who Were "Almost"

I had it suggested that I create a post a about some of the teachers that I remember from my own school years. As it happens, I made one as a FaceBook note quite some time back. I'm transferring that here now. Enjoy!

This thought occurred to me the other day:

In high school, I had an AP (Advanced Placement - do they still do those classes??) history class. The teacher was a great teacher and the class got into some of the most interesting conversations. The instructor would let it go on for some time - three or four minutes, maybe five? - and then would say, "But we digress..." and thereby bring the class back to the topic at hand. I learned a lot in that class.

But I could have learned more. In large part, I didn't learn as much as I could because of my own lack of effort, and though he was a good teacher, he didn't push us for more. Instead, he gave us lots of room to explore and discuss (helpful in adult discussions and debates, not so much for history!)

I had a Japanese class at the same school. Very nice teacher - one of my favorites. He was a new teacher, still very green and looking to save-the-world-through-teaching. He started a hiking club and I joined - he tried to encourage my vocabulary acquisition by quizzing me as we hiked through the woods and up the hills. The club didn't last long, unfortunately and I am not sure where the teachers is now.

A third teacher - longer in the tooth, taught English, had very definite and high expectations, or gave the appearance of it. She tried to make it so her higher grades were hard to get, but there was still always the feeling of who-were-her-favorites.

These teachers all stand out in my mind and memory - and for me, that is a big leap, I don't seem to have a whole lot of memory space left (can somebody hand me my RAM, please??) But each of these represents something else in my memory - teachers who were "almost."

Finally, my junior high band teacher. Definitely long on the tooth - he was the band teacher when my (ahem...) MOTHER was at the same junior high 20 years before. But he will always stand out for me. He was the teacher who held us to high standards; who expected we had practiced, stopped us in front of the other students and said that what we were doing wasn't what it should have been. Who cared enough to be honest and tell us that we weren't giving it our all; that we weren't. Doing. Our. Best.

My last day of junior high - a place that I would NOT miss being at because of the students, not the teachers (many of whom I really admired and looked up to) - I went to his classroom and, of all the teachers, I went to say goodbye and I hugged him... and I cried. I didn't know where I was going or what was coming next, but I knew I was leaving behind a teacher who really made us feel like he cared about us enough to say that we could do better.

As a home schooling mom, I hope that I will be that teacher - the man from my junior high band (Mr. Sorenson, for those in the know). I hope that my own children - and their friends - will look at Mrs. Edens and say, "She cared enough to hold us to standards and to make us reach for the stars, even as she gave us the stepladder to get there."

Is that too much to ask?

No regrets

I have lived much of my life by one series of thoughts:

Every decision I have made in life,
whether seemingly good at the time
or seemingly poor,
has led me to where I am now.

I have no regrets.

So I've decided to take a sort of "life inventory." Here are the stats for the last 18 years (I'll include pictures where I have them digitized.)

Began taking college classes (18 years ago)
Left high school and college for the Navy (16 years ago)
Got married (11 years ago)


Had our first son - Maestro (10 years ago - born the week before our 1st anniversary)

Left the Navy (9 years ago)
Sold Pampered Chef (8 years ago)
Had boy #2 - Smeagol (8 years ago)

Stopped selling Pampered Chef (8 years ago)
Moved from Georgia to Maryland
Joined the Orthodox Church

Visited Ireland (6 years ago)

Had boy #3 - Bruiser (5 years ago)
Began homeschooling Maestro

Worked as a mystery shopper (3 years ago)
Started a writing business from home
Began homeschooling Smeagol

Had our first baby girl (22 months ago)

Graduated from college after working at it for 18 years (9 months ago)

Now I am homeschooling all three boys, working on baby #5, finishing some big projects for my writing business, and enjoying the process of moving toward the next step in life. Still big on my dream sheet: earning a pilot's license - saving for that now!

This is the culmination of 20 years of work, patience and love from those around me. I can't wait to see what is next!