New Year's Eve Plans

What are your plans for New Years Eve? It was a common question asked while visiting with family. To be completely honest, I hadn't even thought about it. I don't work on wednesdays, so that is not a factor. Faelyn keeps asking to go ice skating, so that was a thought. But as far as adult time, dinner, or going out, I hadn't made any plans, and I don't think Wally thought twice about it either. We do typically go to Church service wednesday evening, that might keep us busy until 8ish. The other thing to consider now is the 2 young children.

What prompted this post was this post via email http://daringtolivefully.com/ideas-for-the-new-year. She has some good ideas...

I have already talked with you guys about my goals/resolutions for the new year. I will keep adding to the Bucket List. I like the idea of the Chinese Zodiac as well. I am not sure if I really believe in it but I do find it interesting.

L - Launch a 365 Day Project. I have tried and tried to do monthly ones and have not succeeded. But we will keep trying.

M - I think movies might be the only way that I stay awake until midnight. Wally and I both enjoy movies and I think something that has New Years Eve scenes might be an appropriate end to the year.

In addition to that I would like to make one of those money saving jars via pinterest. My plan is to use this for fun money and maybe a vacation.

I am also starting a discipleship program with my pastor's wife that my husband went through last year. We will meet weekly and have assignments to complete.

As well as learning about my Young Living essential oils and maybe trying to get that going into a business. We have started using the essential oils over the past 3-4 weeks of having them and love them. I will post more about it later, but if you are interested let me know and I will get your more information about what I use and how to get a wholesale membership.

So, all that and work and have 2 kids, 2 dogs, and keep the house clean.

What are your New Years Plans? Do you set goals or resolutions for yourself? How do you keep track of how you are doing?

Thinking about the New Year and Resolutions

As I sit here and make a list of the things that still need to be done for Christmas, just 1 or 2 more gifts to get, I have been thinking about my goals for the new year. What do I want to accomplish? What are my goals and aspirations? There is tons going on in my life right now so I can chose any one thing and run with it.

My husband and I are starting a bison farm, so that is one thing that I would love to put more time into the marketing aspect. The majority of the project his has under control. The fence contractors started pounding posts into the ground this week. As well as plans for a new barn to house the tractor, hay, equipment, and eventually be the home of the farm stand.

Photography - I have a Nikon D3200 and have not explored the full potential of the camera. I am working on taking it out of auto mode and figuring out the other setting. Over the course of the next year I hope to have a better idea of what I am doing.

Running goals - I would love to just say "Run more". But that is just too vague. I am working on a list of races for the upcoming year. My biggest overall goal is a sub 2 hr half.

Organization - I need to find a way to organize papers and stuff on our desk and countertops. Both, Wally and I, keep everything, so the papers pile up quickly.

Other business - I have recently started using essential oils and am starting to love them. They have helped me get over a cold extremely quickly, help my kids sleep and stay healthy, and treating skin irritation behind Walter's knees. So there will be more on this especially as I start learning more and using them more.

And blogging - I tend to keep coming back here. I feel as though I should change the name though. As the years go by the focus of the blog is changing. I still love baking and cooking and exercising/running but it isn't the primary focus of my life since having kids. Most of my pictures are of my kids and dogs. So even though the name of the blog is "i run so i can eat" there will be a family focus as well.

Every other year we are host Christmas at our house, so there will be a lot of cleaning and cooking at our home the next 5 days. I am excited to have a few days off after christmas and have lots of family time.

Hope you guys have a great rest of the weekend!

~ Katie

Funny encounters while driving

Wednesday is a busy day in our household. I work outside of the home 4 days a week with wednesday off. We either stay home and play, go to music class, the park, or a friends house to play. This week we stayed home and played outside even though I had so much cleaning to do inside. It will get done eventually. Then Lunch and nap. After a short nap for the little one we went into Concord to pick up our CSA veggies.

Now I must say that these are some of the best veggies I've had. I also like that it introduces me to new vegetables; like delicate squash and parsnips. I have an abundance of garlic, potatoes, and onions to store for the winter. You can also buy in bulk to can/freeze/or do whatever you do with lots of extra. We also get at least one type of greens a week.

Back to the story - on my way to get the veggies I packed everyone up; 2 dogs and 2 kids. I got coffee  for me and a Chai for Wally. On my way down the hill sitting at a stop light holding my red cup, I looked over to my right. The guy in the car just kind of smiled at me and held up his cup as well. The 2 dogs were also sitting on the front seat looking out the window right at him. He just kept looking, which was a little weird, but whatever. At the next stop light I drove past a lady with bleach blond hair and smoking a cigarette. I look over at her as I was going past. When the light turned green she hurried past me and gave me a sneer. I am not sure what the sneer was for. Was it the 2 dogs in my front seat? did I make a funny face? or was is something completely unrelated. I have learned over the years that you can't judge a person and their comments they make because you don't know what else is going on in their life. Maybe they just had a fight with their spouse/friend, maybe they found out a loved on died, maybe she was just hungry. In any case, I just smile and keep going about my business.

Hope you guys have a great rest of the weekend. Tomorrow in another busy day on the farm. Literally. We are getting the area ready for a barn. YAY!

Hood to Coast 2014

I'm back. At least for tonight. It is 7:30 and both the kids are in bed early so I have some time to my self. I have about 3 different craft projects going that I should probably be working on but instead I am sitting here writing and watching Charlie St. Cloud. I know...i know... probably not a "great" movie but I don't have to think which is what I need right now.

So last weekend was the Hood to Coast Relay. It was an amazing experience. You are pretty much up for 36 hours (our team was slow) not including the travel across the country and back. Our team captain was a friend of mine. We had 2 people drop out the week of the race and had to get replacements. Our main goal was to just finish the race. We are not competitive runners so time was not a goal. We did finish in under 36 hours - well before the 9 pm cut off.

We had 3 legs reach to run. My first and third legs were about 6 miles with half of that uphill with 500 feet of elevation gain. The first run wasn't too bad, difficulty - yes, but I finished feeling good and keeping my pace. My second run was 11 o'clock at night and 8 miles - fairly flat with some mild up and down hills. It was a nice peaceful run. I was mostly by myself and occasionally got passed by faster runners. I could always see a pack of headlamps ahead of me. Amazingly you are running along a highway, in the dark, and not afraid of something happening. Beside a random guy running up to me about 1/2 mile in giving me his number. The third leg was by far the hardest run of the entire race. It was 3-3.5 miles uphill a mountain then 3 miles down. Luckily as my team van passed me they also passed off some much needed water. I finished somewhere around noon time, we went to pick up out last runner (in our van) then headed to the beach to wait for the 2nd van to finish. That last run was incredibly tough but all the support from other teams and runner (as they passed me) were encouraging.

Overall I am So glad I had the opportunity to do this. It was a great experience and I had a ton of fun with friends I haven't seen in years. However, I would probably NOT do this again.

I am glad that I was able to see Portland a little the day before. We got some lunch, went to the rose garden and did some shopping. The roses were in full bloom and beautiful. I forgot how nice they were. When we lived there I only went a couple of times, now I wish I had taken advantage of this and all the things Portland had to offer.

So now, I am trying to keep miles up for my next race, which is a half the end of September. Luckily it is local and hopefully my husband will be home to watch the children, otherwise my father will have his hands full, because Mom is running it with me.

I guess it is time to get back to all the things waiting for me here.

Post #101

So i just realized that my last post was #100. Yay for me :)

So if you don't know me, I am a physical therapist. I see lots of interesting patients on a daily basis and get told all sorts of stories, which I always said that I need to write down because this is stuff you just can't make up. But this isn't about that.

I had a patient the other day whom I am seeing for low back pain from a sledding accident. I saw him a few times and he would get a little better but not completely. He was getting discouraged, I am trying to figure out why my usual course of action wasn't making a much progress as I expected. Then he came in yesterday and said, "I have something to confess, I didn't tell you everything." AHA! I knew there had to be something else. Well turns out he moved furniture last weekend and was significantly worse, but with the exercises I prescribed and ice the pain level decreased. The weekend before he sat in a camping chair while watching his son play baseball (not the best posture for prolonged periods of time). So we did more education on postures to avoid and how to modify what he is doing and he left with NO pain. We also tweaked the exercises a little.

I love these days when I feel that I can really help someone and I can say "I was a good therapist today." I must admit that there are some days that my heart just isn't in it. Tired. Burnt out. Not enough exercise. Hungry. But yesterday was a GOOD day.

PS. I ran 3 miles today while both kids were sleeping. It is gorgeous outside so I just ran up and down my driveway a few times. Yes, it is a long driveway.

~Katie

Homemade Laundry Soap

So, I like to think that I am pretty good at being ecofriendly and trying to do whats best for my family. We have used cloth diapers on both our kids, sometimes dry clothes outside, eat lots of fruits and veggies and limit the processed foods. I am not crazy, I do still like my sweets. So lately I have seen a lot of DIY homemade laundry soap on pinterest and it peaked my interest. There were many recipes but they all had the same main ingredients so I figured it was worth a shot.

I adapted this recipe by adding 1 bottle of Downy Unstopables for scent.

DIY Laundry Detergent
3 Bars of Fels-Naptha - grated
1 - 5 lb box Oxiclean
1 - 4 lb 12 oz box of Borax
1 - 4 lb box of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda
1 box of Arm and Hammer Washing soda
1 large container of Downy Unstopables

 All the ingredients mixed in a 5 Gallon Bucket

 It made A LOT of laundry detergent. The jar on the left is a 1 gallon jar and the container on the right is a pretzel container. I have heard stories that this will last at least 6 months and sometimes longer.

Today was a lazy, rainy Saturday. We had planned on going to watch Wally in his bike race in Massachusetts then head to CT for a visit and some other to do list stuff. When I found out that we couldn't bring the dogs into the park where Wally was racing the whole plan changed. We had to bring the dogs because we were then headed straight to CT and you obviously can't leave the dogs home alone THAT long. I decided that it would probably be easiest if I just stayed home. Which meant that I had time to get Faelyn's 2 year pictures done. It is about 6 weeks late but thats ok.

 She loves coloring.

 Isn't he happy? He only let me get in a  whole 2 miles before he started crying. I will try and get back on the treadmill later.

  Happy Saturday!! Hope you enjoy your day :)

3 Things I Love - Running Edition

1) The new addition to our stroller collection ;)

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It was bought mostly for Wally as a bicycle trailer. We bought the double before we were even pregnant with Walter knowing that we wanted to have a least 1 more kid. Faelyn loves going for rides with her Dad. She gets her helmet and climbs right in. I got to use this as a stroller for the first time last weekend at Wally's bike race. The large wheels are great on the dirt roads. I am currently using a Phil and Ted Double on our back roads and it is not as easy to push as my Mountain Buggy (which I LOVE) but it is a single stroller.

2) Road ID 

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As I mentioned in the last post there was a very large crash at Wally's last bike race. We both have Road ID's and I was thankful for it at that time. Even though it was needed. You are able to customize it with whatever you want, important medical information, inspirational quote, phone numbers...

3) Foam Roller 

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I think this is probably most athletes favorite tool, once they start using one. It definitely has the hurts so good type feeling.

These are just nice additions to the usual, shoes, socks, shorts, tank, headbands, and jackets.

What are your favorite running tools?

Monthly Update and DIY project

So I am really trying to get into the habit of this blogging thing again. Life has just been a little crazy over here in NH.

Little miss Faelyn is getting big. She turned 2 about a month ago. She got this bow and arrow for christmas and loves practicing with Daddy. She is getting pretty good at it and starting to pull it back on her own.

 Walter is just about 10 months old - he LOVES standing. He is pushing everything around the house and will walk while holding onto your hands.

 When the weather was nice for a few days we got to spend some evenings outside. This little girl did not want to come inside. I can't wait for the weather to get nice again. I really need to drag the patio furniture out from the basement so we can start eating dinner outside.

 She started to really love the dogs. She started giving them hugs. She helps with feeding them too :)

 She is also obsessed with climbing this big rock in our front yard. It is the prefect size for her to try and climb it. Last year, Wally would just sit her on it because she couldn't get down on her own.

Wally's race season has officially started - we went to MA for his first race. It was definitely an adventure. It was supposed to be a 20 mile race which would have been 4 laps. Just as the pack was coming around for the finish of their 2nd lap half the pack didn't come around. There was a HUGE crash. Luckily he did not get hurt. He ended up on top of someone. Once he got up he started pulling bikes off of other people to help them. There for 3 major injuries. It took quite some time for him to ride back to the finish. I was getting really worried and actually packed the kids up in the stroller to start walking to find him. I just couldn't imagine what I would have done if he was one that was lying in the street unable to get up.

In the mean time we had a great time running around and playing while Daddy did the little bit of racing he did do.

My current project is going to be this -

DIY Laundry Detergent

I will let you all know how it goes and how it works. I have heard great things about it so I am very excited to try it.

The kids are making easter crafts in daycare today, can't wait to see how they turned out. I am very lucky to have found such as great woman to watch me kids.

Upcoming Races

At the beginning of every year I always get excited about the race season and which races I want to run. I say "race" but really I am just out there for fun. I am not anywhere near fast enough to be competitive, especially in my age class.

So this year, I have already run a 3 mile race and did AMAZING (for me at least) and felt great 27:53!!

I haven't really decided on what else I am doing EXCEPT one big one.

HOOD TO COAST in Oregon.

This is a 199-mile relay with 12 runners in 2 days. I am so excited. One of my old friends contacted me when she got in the lottery and of course I couldn't turn down this opportunity. I am sure it is going to be one of the hardest things I do but totally worth it. This isn't until August however training starts NOW.

I have been working on strength training and I have realized that this race is all about running and even though my 5K time is significantly faster I need the endurance that only comes with practice.

Which means run, run, run.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Happy Monday,

~ Katie

3 Things I Love Friday

So, I really am trying to get on this blogging thing more than once a month. So, I am following in Lauren's footsteps with 3 Things I Love Friday.

1. Quinoa - I have been making a lot of it recently. It is so easy to pair with anything that you are making; chicken, fish, pork, steak. I have added sun-dried tomatoes, craisins, roasted red peppers, and whatever type of cheese we may have. Goat cheese works great because it melts and gets creamy.

2. Coffee - lets not forgot I am a Mom, and Walter is still getting up about once a night. But I can't really put all the blame on him. I have always enjoyed coffee and drink 1-2 cups a day even when I was pregnant.

3. Vacation - We are leaving tomorrow for Florida. This will be our first flight with both kids. I am just a little stressed because I have not packed yet, but I have my list ready for when I get home from work tonight. I am super excited to be getting away and relaxing. I can't wait for Faelyn to see Mickey again. I hope she loves it.

Hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day!!

Walter - 7 Months

Walter is 7 Months Old.

I can't believe that time has gone by so fast.

He is 27 3/4 inches long and 16 lbs 15 oz.
Likes most foods; sweet potatoes, apples, avocados, french fries, pizza crust. I think you get the point.
He sits and plays with most of his toys.
He does not like sharing with his sister.
He pulls himself up onto low toys or my legs when I'm sitting on the floor with him.
He just started crawling 3 days ago.
He has dark hair and blue eyes just like mine. He looks so much like my brother's baby pictures.

People told me that boys were special and I have to agree. I love my daughter but there is something about this little boy that melts my heart. The way they look you in the eyes and have such a genuine smile. I just can't get past it.

As for me - 7 months post partum. I am 5 pounds from my goal weight, which is also my pre-pregnancy weight. Most people will say that you won't lose that last 5 pounds until you stop breastfeeding however with Faelyn I was back to my normal weight at this time. Not to make excuses but I also had 2 babies 15 months apart. I have been working out. A little running. But my main focus has been P90x.

So why P90x? Well, because we have it. I started it before getting pregnant the first time and really wanted to finish it. I am currently on the 10th week of the 13 week schedule. I must say that I am much stronger and leaner than before. I am not following the nutrition/diet plan mostly because I want to make sure I get enough calories with breastfeeding. I must say I am really enjoying it. Just when I am starting to get bored with the workouts it changes.

I can't wait for what the rest of the year has in store for our family. It will certainly be an adventure.