i run so i can eat: Saturday decluttering and cooking Split Pea Soup

Good Evening everybody. Today was a day that I worked on some of my new years resolutions. I worked on our upstairs desk, putting papers away, and filing them. Cleaned the sheets on the guest bed in that same room. I however did not touch any of the toys in that room. The guest bedroom serves as a playroom and office as well so it has A LOT of stuff in there.

After I went through the papers on the desk I moved on to our desk that is downstairs. This seems to be a dumping ground for our mail, magazines, kids pictures, and barn plans. I don't have a picture of that desk but it is getting cleaner. I have also de-cluttered a full trash bag of clothes and pjs that I just don't wear any more. Every year I get a pair of pjs, so i figured that I should go through my drawers and get rid of the ones that I don't wear or just don't love. The rest of my clothes was a little harder to get rid of stuff. I always feel as though I might want that shirt, pants, or sweatshirt later. So that will be another time. I have been searching pinterest for ideas to help with pairing things down.

As I mentioned earlier I recently got introduced and involved with Young Living essential oils. I am using them for pretty much anything I can think of. I have a jar of coconut oil with lemon, lavender, and peppermint oil for "allergy relief". I have been using that on the kids (back of the necks and down the spine) for runny nose and when Walter had a fever a few weeks ago. They seem to really like the oils. I have been using Thieves oil on our feet, to help boost immunity, as well as in the diffuser (pictured below). With all of the cleaning I have been doing and taking down christmas decorations it has been dusty and I have been sneezing. This helps!

Wally and I ran a 1 mile race on New Years Day. I ran it in 7:50. I think I probably could have been a little faster but oh well. After that mile I ran 2 more miles while Wally walked back to the start with the kids. In regards to running I have always focused on miles and not so much time. I think this year I will start trying to push myself and get faster. I will be focusing on shorter races 5K, 5 Mile, and 10 mile. I have signed up for a race series through Millennium Running, where you get a Series Jacket when you complete 26.2 miles in races.

While I was registering for my races we were also cooking some Split Pea Soup with leftover hambone from Christmas dinner. I started soaking the dried split peas in 8 cups of water this morning and let them soak 6-8 hours. After I drained them, I put the hambone, 1 diced onion, 2 diced carrots, the peas, and 8 cups of water in a medium-large pot and brought it to a boil. I let it boil for about 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally so it didn't burn to the bottom. I served it with grilled cheese made with provolone cheese. yum.