Blogging has become such an inconvenient thing to do these days. I MUST get back at it though!

Karen and I ran the Chosen Marathon last Saturday. Everything was perfect, except that I had a tummy ache for the first twenty or so miles. Beautiful weather, gracious volunteers, amazing scenery. We ran pretty well and finished in 4:17:18. 17 minutes off my PR, but not my worst time either. It was a fun experience, and i think Karen had a good time.

This week has been better than the last three, but we've still not done much school. I've felt so overwhelmed with all that we have going on right now, and for me, the easiest thing to let slide is school. Margaret and Samuel have been great this last month and continue their studies on their own without supervision. William and John need constant prodding and oversight, which I just haven't had the motivation to provide.
We've been researching school districts and looking for a house. That, too, is overwhelming. I guess we're too picky, at least about the house.
We have three different groups of people coming to rent our house this month. I was really stressing about it, but I've calmed down. It will nice to make a little extra money just in time for Christmas. We'll either go camp in our trailer or go stay with parents, one set or the other.
Tonight the church is having their second annual Fall Country Dance. I'm the decorating committee, so I've been running here there and everywhere collecting stuff to use. I love to decorate my own house, but it's awfully intimidating to be in charge of decorating a large public space like a church.
Hazel's first birthday party is this Sunday. Margaret and I have been searching pinterest for ideas. I think it's all coming together and is going to be really cute.
Oh, almost forgot, we all dressed up for Halloween. Brian was Uncle Sam and I was the Statue of Liberty. Margaret. William, and John were Indians. Samuel wanted to be Martin Luther, but we couldn't procure a robe in time, so he was either Shakespeare or some other man from the Renaissance. And Hazel was a pumpkin. The whole trick of treat thing was awfully confusing for her, but she got into it towards the end of the night, and would get put of her stroller a s walk up to the doors like everyone else.
Well, that is all I have time for right now. Here are some pics, all mixed up.

I have a few minutes before I head out for my final pre-marathon run. I just finished a big bowl of oatmeal topped with pumpkin seeds, banana, raisins, cinnamon, and raw sugar. I'll be nice and warm inside for awhile.
This week has gone somewhat better than the last. I've spent a lot of time crying out to God for grace to make it through. Sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed with all the responsibilities, all the tasks needed to be accomplished that I just get angry. I was ready to curse at the pile of laundry and the 54 cups in the sink the other night. I've had to stop myself and tell myself to rejoice, to give thanks in all of this. The fact that I get so worked up and stressed about these things shows how childish I still am, how short sighted and lacking in maturity my soul is.
I took the kids hiking at the Barton. Creek Greenbelt on day this week. There wasn't any water in the creek, but it still made for a nice outing, walking up the dry creek bed, remembering the spots where we'd picnicked and swam in the early summer.
Brian's office had their annual Halloween party for the kids yesterday afternoon. I bought a half-finished pumpkin costume at the thrift store for $1.99 and finished it out. She looked adorable in it, if I don't say so myself. Brian took the kids to soccer last night and Hazel and went to Target. She's such a fun shopping companion. I love to watch her face and she takes in the sights and sounds. Ever since she was born she's been very aware of her surroundings. And she is the most curious thing! She is into exploring and discovering anything there is to be discovered. She's kept me on my ties this last month or so.
Margaret has been a huge blessing. She goes around cleaning and organizing, helping out with Hazel, and just being the best little momma ever. She creates her own cleaning supplies from recipes she finds online and makes the house smell so nice. When I gave up on homeschooling last week because I was so burnt out, she went and created a schedule for the month of all the work she needs to do so she wouldn't fall behind. I just don't know where this young woman came from! Surely not from my body!
The Chosen Marathon for Adoption is two days away! I'm getting excited now. It's gonna be tough, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'll have two companions to encourage me which will help tremendously.
Well, times up. Best get out there and run.

It's Sunday morning. I just finished having pizza for breakfast (carb loading for Saturdays marathon, maybe?) and am drinking some delicious coffee. For some reason we currently have five or six types of really good coffee beans in the house, which is way more than we usually have. I feel like royalty trying to choose which one to make each morning.

Last weekend Brian and I had a much needed getaway to celebrate our anniversary. Since we had Hazel with us, we stayed local. Thursday night we left the kids with Brian's parents at their new house in New Braunfels and went to see Willie Nelson in concert at John T. Floore's Country Store in Helotes. I'm so glad we did. The guy is 79, and who knows how much longer he'll be around. We stayed that night with Nonnie and GB, then the next morning Brian, hazel, and I took off. We stayed at the historic Faust Hotel in downtown NB fora couple of nights. We did lots of walking, lots of watching football, lots of talking, and a moderate amount of eating. I didn't get in any running the whole weekend, but I guess that's ok. I'm supposed to be tapering off anyways.

It was back to work on Monday. We had one decent day of school. The next day the wheels came off the wagon. I just couldn't go on. I told the kids I was done homeschooling and fell into a deep state of depression. The rest of the week I just let them homeschool themselves. I just couldn't do it. Brian agreed that we needed a change and that we were trying to do too much. We've been brainstorming different options and praying for wisdom. 

On Friday I discovered part of the reason for my so out-of-character pessimistic view of life: the return of my menstrual cycle. I guess I should've expected that after  going without it for 22 months, that the  return would be rather traumatic.  

I think I'm in a better state of mind now and am able to think clearly about all this, but it has helped Brian and I see that we are in over our heads and that we just may not be cut out for this homeschooling thing. At least not all the kids for all grades. 

Yesterday I took John and Hazel up to Georgetown for the. Vern's No Frills 5K. I paid John to babysit for me while I ran. So he sat there and played Mindcraft on my phone and talked to Hazel.

I can tell that my speed work has paid off some because I ran a comfortable pace, not pushing myself too hard and still finished  in 22:17. Afterwards we drove around old town Georgetown looking at houses. I really enjoy times like that with John. He talks my ear off and shares his heart with me.

We met Thomas and his kids out at Pedernales State Park for an afternoon of hiking and playing in the river. Though we were all tired, it was good that we got out of the city for awhile and took a breather. We came back home and had pizza and wine and the kids watched Chariots of Fire while Brian and I folded laundry and watched the Longhorn-Baylor game.

Well, it's off to the races, time to get ready for church. I so look forward to the this time all week! 

We're all getting tucked in for the night. It's been a full day of activities. I got in an early morning run, about five miles. I got the kids going on school work, then headed down to the hospital I thought my grandmother was in to visit with her a little while she's recovering from surgery. Well, it turned out that she was at a different hospital, one close to my house. Unfortunately i didn't have the time to go to another one this afternoon because I had to get the younger boys to a cub scout meeting in Hyde Park. While they were there, Samuel, Margaret, Hazel, and I strolled through the neighborhood and admired the beautiful old homes. Samuel had his scout meeting this evening. The rest of us dropped in on a neighbor's block party a few houses down. It's Neighborhood Night Out tonight, so there were block parties all over town. We had hoped to host one for our block, but just couldn't get out act together in time this year. I always enjoy when we have an opportunity to hobnob with the neighbors.
I registered for the Austin Livestrong Marathon in February. That should keep me in shape for awhile.
Hazel still isn't sleeping in her own bed and isn't sleeping through the night. I guess it'll happen eventually. Right now it's just easier to have her in the bed with us than listen to her cry in her packnplay for hours.
We posted our home on homeaway.com for short term rental. We've already had one query, but we turned her away because we weren't quite ready for guests. Hopefully we'll get some people for ACL Fest and/or the Formula 1 race.

Well, it's been a long day and I'm beat.

October, how I love thee! This has always been my favorite month of the year.

It was a soggy weekend here. We thought William's football game on Friday night would get rained out, but they shouldered on and had it despite the downpour. The Y did cancel the Saturday soccer games, so we had an unexpected free day. My mom invited us out to Burner for lunch. Thomas was there with his kids and Leah with hers, so it was cousin time, all 11 together. A rare treat these days. We came home in the afternoon and cleaned house, then watched football. I ran the CASA superhero 5k Sunday morning. I signed I for it since it was going to be held at mueller this year, along the same route I run every day. I figured I could do pretty well, and I did. I PRed with a time of 21:31. I placed third in my age division. We cleaned up quick and made it to the second service. I left hazel in the nursery. I left Hazel in the nursery for half of the service. She loves the nursery at church. Ideally she would sit with me in church, but she's just way to noisy. I really want to be in the service. I NEED it. Oh, Hazel already has a boyfriend at church, Griffin.
I did some more baking yesterday. I'm on a baking kick these days. Good thing none of us are gluten intolerant. Yesterday morning I made pumpkin muffins, and yesterday afternoon I base cinnamon sugar bagels. I so enjoy the whole process of crafting bagels!
I took the boys to choir last night and I went to the Sunday evening class for the adults. Brian stayed home to do budget stuff, and Margaret stayed home because her braces are just about killing her. She has cried all weekend, ever since she had her adjustment on Friday morning.
It's Monday again, and I can't wait to start a fresh week of school with the kids!

But first, off to get in my run.

Here are some pics. For some reason iPad sorts them out of order, but enjoy.

It's Wednesday morning and I'm the only one up. I've had a bagel and I'm now enjoying my second cup of coffee. All is good. I had a fever and mastitis for a few days, but i seem to be on the upswing. In all my years of nursing I never had mastitis before. Wow, it's so painful! Flu-like symptoms, fever, headache, achy feeling, not to mention extremely sore breast! Thankful to be through the worst of it, so it seems.

School is coming along nicely. This year has been so much better than last year, and last year went pretty well. We've found our groove and are really enjoying learning together. Margaret and Samuel began taking a science and logic class for homeschoolers at our church, which was a big answer to prayer. I was really wanting to find a group to be involved in, but couldn't find one that seem to fit into our schedule. A mom from church offered to do this class since she was already going to be doing it with her son, and opened it up to other families in the church. They use Apologia General Science and Fallacy Detective for logic. I put aside what we had been using for science and we all use the Apologia book. We're also all working through Fallacy Detective together, and it has been so fun to hear the kids detect bad reasoning in each other's conversation. We also added a Latin and a Spanish program to our curriculum. Having all the kids working through the same books in many subjects makes it so much easier too add all the extra things we wanted to do last year but never could fit in.
I'm so much less stressed about school this year.

A lot of our activities have started up again. Samuel, Margaret, and William are playing soccer, so they have practices on Wednesday and games on Saturday. William is laying flag football and has practices on Monday's and games on Fridays. The boys jones a new boy scout pack and have meetings on tuesdays. We started going to sunday night church where Margaret goes to youth group, the boys go to choir, and Brian and i sit in on pastor Cassidy's teaching. I try to keep hazel with me, but she's pretty noisy and has ended up in the nursery most evenings.

I had a very sweet birthday last week and was treated like royalty. My mom came to town and took me shopping. John and hazel came along, but the others stayed home. That evening we met the rest of the family at Trudy's for dinner. I was showered with gifts, things that the kids had specially picked out for me when Brian had taken them shopping the day before:lots of candles, a bathroom rug, a pillow, earrings, lots of soaps, a back scratcher (from William, who loves to have his back scratched), and other things. Brian gave me a James Avery chain with a Texas pendant and a bottle of wine. It's humbling to know that you're loved so much!

I'm still running. Last Sunday I did a nine miler, but most days I just run four miles. The marathon is a month from today and I think I'll need to get in one more really long run before it.

Hazel will be 11 months in a couple of weeks. She still isn't walking, though she's taken a step or two on her own. She is such a funny little girl. She already demonstrates a sense of humor.

And she's finally eating! She still mostly nurses, but will try all kinds of foods from my plate now.

Well, I need to get out to run.

I've started to blog many times, but have not had time to finish. Let's hope this one sticks.

We had a delightful summer! We didn't do a lot of the things we talked about doing, but still, the days were full and pleasant and many memories were made. Margaret swam day and night the first two months of summer, and the boys played basketball the last month or so. We ran, swam, skied, canoed rivers, jumped waves in the gulf, hosted parties, took road trips, made crafty things, checked out hundreds of books from the library, hosted the cousins for nearly a month of the summer, played, prayed, and worshipped.

School started for us this week. Brian and I are really trying to be organized this year and keep a step or two ahead of the kids. We also attempted to simplify things and step out away from a curriculum for some things. So far things have gone well. Again, we're only in day 4, but I'm optimistic that this year will be better than last.

Here's a run-down of our day:

I get out at 6 to run every morning, four miles most morning's, six on wednesday. I'll probably cut back after I run my marathon in October. Brian runs with the kids in our neighborhood a couple of times a week.
Bible: we read and do memory work. This week our verse is 1 Peter 4:16.
Math: the kids are doing Abeka - Margaret Algebra 1, Samuel 6th grade, William 5th grade, and John 3rd.
Poetry: we're memorizing Shakespeare's All The World's A Stage.
Spelling: I'm not using spelling books this year, but instead and creating my own list each week from our history, science, and art studies. Everyone studies the same words. This has made life so much easier for me!
Grammar: everyone is using Abeka. Margaret is in Grammar II, Samuel and William are both in the 6th grade book, and John uses various
Abeka materials that span 1st to 4th grade.
Creative writing: I'm using a site with daily writing prompts right now.
Literature: this isn't my ideal, but right now Margaret and Samuel are using some literature textbooks, Margaret - English literature, Samuel - world literature. I just have William reading Cricket magazine, and John picks a
book off the shelf to read each day.
Art: this is my favorite subject! I have an American architecture text that were using and we're learning the principal styles of American domestic architecture. The kids have so enjoyed it! They already seem to have an interest in houses like Brian and I. I could really see Margaret being an architect with her interest in math and her incredible artistic ability.bon art were also going to study/create our own illuminated lettering to go along with where we are in our history studies.
History: I combined everyone into one class this year, and we're studying world history. We're starting where Samuel and Margaret left off last year, right at the beginning of the Renaissance.
Science: as with history, I decided to haver everyone work from the same text. We're using the Abeka physical science as our guide and branching out from there. Some of the stuff will be a little too much for William and John (who am i kidding, some of it's too hard for me! when we read about ridiculous notation this week, I was like "huh?"), but we have so many other books and resources, i think I can bring it down to their level and make it interesting for them.
I guess that about covers it. We have not arranged anything for music. Frankly just don't see where we'd fit it in.

Dang, I thought I already publishes this. Must make blogging a priority.

It's Sunday evening now. We've had a nice weekend full of socializing. We went to Central Market Friday night and listened to a jazz quartet. That was pleasant. We worked all day Saturday and in the evening had three neighborhood families from church over. Lots of kids, lots of food, good beer, good conversation. This morning we made it to the early service, then came home and hung out here for the day. Thomas brought his kids by in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day with us. He gave me an Apple tv thing for my birthday. I don't quite understand how it works, but I think we'll get alot of use out of it. He and the kids went to church with us tonight for the monthly dinner thing we do. That was different. A good different. Maybe they'll start coming regularly.

I'm beat. I was supposed to run 17 plus miles this morning, but I've pushed it over until tomorrow so I'd better get some rest.

Until next time.....which better not be a month from now!