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Why hello! I hope your week is off to a good start.

Sunday morning, Rebecca and I knocked out a huge chunk of our #runlovechallenge mileage. We ran 24 miles! We had been planning that one for quite a while. We were both (at one point) training for New Orleans and both had 24 miles on the schedule as our long run that week, so we were pretty pumped that it worked out like that. Fast forward a few weeks … I decided not to run the marathon in New Orleans, but I definitely still wanted to do the 24 miler with her. We had been counting on that mileage to help us meet our goal of 214.

We got an early start and ran an out-and-back route towards Weeks Bay, with bathrooms and a gas station conveniently placed around mile 10 (on the way out) and 14 (on the way back). Rebecca is pacing the 3:40 group at the Big Beach Marathon in Gulf Shores this weekend, so she wanted to practice that pace on our long run. It was completely dark when we started (the moon was gorgeous!), so we waited until about mile 10 to start trying to consistently hit 8:22 pace. It was definitely harder than it seems, so it is a good thing that we practiced! By the end of the run we were able to consistently hit 8:20 – 8:25 without stalking the Garmins.

We enjoyed some warm post-run beverages at Coffee Loft. Notice the very eccentric table art …

I also got to play tennis Sunday afternoon. I know, pure craziness … but I don’t get to play all that often and I’m going to be playing on a team again this summer, so I want to at least hit every now and then (aka whenever someone asks me to play) and keep my skillz from getting quite as rusty as they did last year.

Sunday afternoon the weather was pure perfection. It was sunny and warm, which is the opposite of what seems to be our regular weather these days. I really enjoyed being out on the court and soaking up some rays. Even though I am outside running quite a bit, it is usually dark out and it sometimes feels like I never see the sun, especially during this time of year.

Since today is Tuesday, I wanted to share a few Tuesday Tangents with you, in the form of things that made me smile recently …

First up is this little guy. I think that he just like a lion king character, but Daniel thinks that he looks like Yosemite Sam. What do you think? Regardless. It’s cute.

And what about this guy!? He was decorated as Santa a few weeks ago and now he is in the Mardi Gras spirit. A regular chameleon!

This sunset … just wow.

Rest! Lots of rest. I took running rest day Monday (a well-deserved rest day, if I do say so myself). Unfortunately I did still have to tend to other grown up activities, such as work, but I gave my legs a break at least. In fact, I think Monday might have been the fewest steps I’ve ever taken since I’ve had my FitBit. I only took 940 steps all day (less than half a mile). Impressive, right?!

Brookser enjoyed my resting as well. Don’t let the slightly annoyed face fool you, he is just in the zen zone (and possibly aggravated at daddy for taking his picture).

I got a Stitch Fix box Monday evening, which was a nice surprise. Usually those come mid-week, so I wasn’t really expecting it.

What is making you SMILE this week?

Hey friends! Happy Saturday!

I hope you are all staying warm. It is quite chilly here in lower Alabama. Not as chilly as the majority of the country, but still chilly for us. It is also super windy, which makes the chilliness seem … well, chillier!

Chilly temperatures just mean that we throw on a few extra layers, get out there and get it done! Rebecca and I got in 12 miles this morning with the Running Wild group. 123 miles done and 91 to go.

After that I headed to work for a few hours. Not ideal perhaps, but totally worth it (in my opinion) to get caught up on a Saturday and be heading in to next week ready to tackle whatever the week throws at you, without being behind from the get-go.

The rest of my day involved grocery shopping, napping, you know, the usual.

I did, however, finally come to a final conclusion on my spring racing schedule.

Here’s the plan …

01/31: Big Beach Half Marathon

02/07: Joe Cain Classic 5K

02/13: Double Bridge Run 15K

02/28: Rock ‘N’ Roll New Orleans HALF Marathon

03/19: Spring Fever Chase 10K

03/26: Crescent City Classic 10K

Woo hoo! Lots of run races! Stay tuned for more information about the CCC 10K. I’m pretty excited to be participating as a “running blogger” this year. I don’t even really know what all that entails, but I’m pretty excited about it.

Talk to you soon!

Hey guys!

As I suspected, this week was a tad bit hectic. We made it to the weekend now though!

First let’s catch up on running …

Tuesday morning Daniel and I headed out for a very chilly 8 miles. We were both completely bundled up. The feels like temperature was 25! Brr.

Tuesday evening Rebecca and I got in 6 #runlovechallenge miles, which put us at 111 down and 103 to go. Not our best pic, but probably not our worst either.

Wednesday morning I hit the treadmill for #workoutwednesday. The schedule called for 6 X 1 mile repeats at 6:05 to 6:15 pace. Here’s what I did …

2 mile warm up: starting at 6.6 mph for 2 minutes and increase the speed by .2 every 2 minutes

Mile 1: 6:18 (9.5 mph)

Mile 2: 6:15 (9.6 mph)

Mile 3: 6:15 (9.6 mph)

Mile 4: 6:11 (9.7 mph)

Mile 5: 6:09 (1/2 mile at 9.7 mph and 1/2 mile at 9.8 mph)

Mile 6: 6:03 (9.9 mph)

2 mile cool down: at 7.0 to 7.5 mph

Thursday morning Lizzie and I did 8 miles before the rain set in. It was almost 60 degrees.

Daniel and I got in a very windy 9 mile run this morning.

To sum up the weather, we went from 30 to 60 to windy, which is taking us back to 30! Pure craziness. Such is life weather on the gulf coast.

Now that we are caught up on running, let’s get caught up on some other various pics and topics that I have saved up throughout the week and meant to share before today …

The First 5 devotionals have been so good this week! The first one was about fear. How fitting, since that is the topic of our current sermon series?! I love to see God’s timing in even the smallest things like how a devotional can be so on point with something you are currently discussing at church or small group.

The next one that I wanted to share was about dealing with uncertainties. Life is full of uncertainties, but God’s got this. We don’t have to fear or be anxious, because He is in control.

The actual devotional that went along with this one was wonderful, so I snapped a picture of part of it to share with you guys as well. I feel like someone else out there probably needed to hear this, so here ‘ya go …

I don’t have any other specific things to catch you up on this evening, but I have a few random thoughts for you. Typical.

Obviously I completely fell off the blog wagon this week. Apparently sitting down at the computer after sitting at a computer all. day. long. isn’t all that appealing. Who knew? The only problem is that I have all of these thoughts running around in my brain and I sometimes I just feel like I need to document them before they escape. I might try actually writing in a journal this week and then sharing the high points. I haven’t done that in years, but it seems like it would be a good solution to the technological overload. We’ll see.

I saw this little quote on Instagram and loved it!

Speaking on Instagram … Some of the people that I “follow” on Instagram have these incredible running pictures every. single. day. How do they do that? Rebecca and I are constantly trying to figure this out. People are so creative. Not me though. I’m most definitely a left-brainer (i.e., I focus on logical thinking, analysis, and accuracy as opposed to those right-brainers who focus on aesthetics, feeling, and creativity). It almost just wears me out thinking about all of the creativity. I just googled left-brain vs. right-brain so that I could make sure I was thinking about it correctly. Sigh.

In other semi-exciting news … We have added a new crockpot staple to our diet. Spaghetti squash!

I’m obviously not winning any awards for food photography either. Ha.

Well, that is all I have for today. I hope you enjoyed my little Tuesday Tangents, Workout Wednesday and Thinking Out Loud Thursday smorgasbord post!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Stay warm!

(Singing … ) Hello, it’s me!

Monday is in the books, so that’s good news right?! I had a super productive day at work. I hope you did too!

We started the day off pretty early this morning (like 4:40 early). The First 5 app was so good this morning. It’s a wonderful little summation of the gospel. Seemed like a good one to share!

Rebecca came over this morning and we got 10 miles in before work. We majorly fell off of the #runlovechallenge mileage bus last week, so now we are on a mission to run all. the. miles. together this week! After 20 yesterday, our legs were feeling it this morning, but we got it in. Daniel joined us for the first 5 miles and then he had to get ready for work. My Fitbit read 9.90 for the 10 miles! I am so close to finding the sweet spot of Fitbit stride length for my easy run pace. I’m adjusting it slightly now to 3 ft. 4.5 in. and will report back.

We are holding up 10 fingers for 10 miles, because we are just super clever like that.

You can’t really tell in the above picture, but the sunrise was so pretty again this morning. So was the sunset! I think I am just a little bit obsessed with sunrises and sunsets, but I’m sure y’all probably figured that out by now.

Our banana chips turned out really good. It took them close to 16 hours to get crispy, but they finally did. You can’t really tell from this picture, but I want to show them to you. Just trust me that they are crunchy. I’m trustworthy.

In the past, I probably would’ve avoided buying things like banana chips and dried pineapple because I would have labeled them as a “bad” food (because in my mind they had too much sugar). I’m sure there is processed sugar added to the ones at the grocery store, but fruit itself has sugar and that’s not a bad thing. In fact, we are supposed to get at least 2 to 3 servings of fruit a day. The dehydrator is helping me to “expand” my fruit horizons and stop categorizing foods as “bad.”

I’m going to leave you with a picture of that beautiful sunset I told you about.

See you tomorrow!

Hey friends! I’m linking up with HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin for the Weekly Wrap.

It seems as if the weekend absolutely flew by. How does that always happen? It was a pretty uneventful weekend as far as planned activities go. I was totally fine with that.

Saturday morning I headed over to Running Wild for the group run. There are two half marathon training groups going on right now, and so there were lots of people there for the group run! I love it. It was super foggy out when we started and we could feel dew drops on our eyelashes. People did varying distances. I ended up doing nine miles with Lizzie.

Later that morning, mom and I got in one final walk before she had to head back home. We will sure miss her! My mom is really stylish (thanks to Lizzie’s help) and I had to copy her outfit (Brooks tights, Saucony vest and Lucy long-sleeved top). No shame. Daniel thinks it is really fun to take pictures before we are ready ..

There were better ones, but that one was just too funny. I think we were both getting on to him for taking pictures before we were situated! Now that I think about, I am probably just reinforcing the shenanigans by using that one. Oh well. We set out on a walk with a mission. We walked up to a local cafe and got breakfast. You can purchase a coffee mug for $16 and then every time you go to refill, it’s only 50 cents. We’ve got two mugs. Hopefully we will use them enough to make it worth it. Seems like a pretty good deal to me!

I was pretty lazy the rest of the afternoon (I mean I guess it doesn’t really count as “lazy” since I ran and walked prior to said-laziness set in). We managed to get some grocery shopping done, so that was productive and we watched the sermon that we missed last weekend because of the relay, so that was also time well spent. I got a glorious little nap in. This week wore me out! I needed the extra rest for sure.

We grilled out (steak, grilled chicken and a sweet potato) and made a fire Saturday evening. Has anyone cooked sweet potatoes on the grill successfully? We definitely don’t have that mastered. It didn’t get near cooked enough. I am so spoiled with the crock pot sweet potatoes, though. It would be hard to cook them as good as the crock pot does.

Brooks likes to just hang out under the grill, hoping someone gives him some food!

Daniel built a blazing fire (I know my dad will be proud)! We sat outside and enjoyed the fire for a while.

This morning it was time for second workout slash long run of the week. The schedule called for 20 miles total with the first 16 easy and the last 4 at 6:40 to 6:50. I had really good company for the first 16 miles and the time absolutely flew by. We ended up averaging just under 7:55 for those miles. The crisp air kept us swift.

The wind was absolutely out of control! You can kind of tell from the looks of the bay in the background, but it was crazy. It felt so cold out there, especially right on the water. After we finished 16, I had to resist the urge to call it a day. I’m so glad that I finished up my workout. I needed to prove to myself that I could! I averaged 6:50 for the last 4 (the first two were a little faster and the last two were a little slower) and ended the run at Coffee Loft, to meet back up with the rest of the crew. Whew.

I’m leaning more towards doing the half at New Orleans instead of the full at this point, but I haven’t made the final decision yet. Just coming to the realization that I don’t have to do the full has made a huge difference in my outlook towards training. It even makes me kind of want to do it more. Goodness. What a mess. I know.

Today we continued the series on fear, specifically the fear of failure. Fear of failure causes you to miss opportunities for success. Here are a few more takeaways:

• We are called to take action to advance the kingdom of God.
• A life with no action is a sign of a life with no God.
• We must have a Biblical understanding and definition of success, which comes from studying the Word, surrendering to the Word and following the Word.
• Our lives should emphasize character over achievement. I love this! It’s about the person you are (becoming), not the things that you do.
• Our lives should emphasize management over ownership. The things that God has given us are not our own.
• Our lives should emphasize both weakness and strength. I also love this. I think that transparency with our weakness can open so many doors if we let it and it helps us to learn and grow.
• Our faith must lead to action as we leave fear behind.

It was a great message and Pastor Chris really challenged us to get out of our comfort zone and take action with our faith.

I got in another nice nap this afternoon! I’m ready to tackle week #3 of tax season now. This week is going to start getting a little bit crazy I have a feeling. We’ll see.

Experiment #2 is currently in progress in the dehydrator. We are making banana chips. They’ve been cooking (I guess that’s technically not the correct terminology) for quite a while and aren’t entirely crispy yet. They already taste good as they are though, so I guess it’ll be successful even if they don’t get crunchy.

We just got home from a wonderful dinner and evening with our friends, Molly and Keith and their son, Miles. Brooks got to make friends with their dog, Pacer.

We played life-sized Jenga! It was so much fun.

What was the highlight of your weekend?

Hello!

I’m linking up with the DC area bloggers Mar at Mar on the Run, Cynthia at You Signed Up For What?! and Courtney at Eat Pray Run DC for the Friday Five linkup. This week’s topic is “favorites.” There are so many directions that you can go with this. The possibilities are really endless.

I’ll have to give credit where credit is due here and thank Daniel for idea behind this post. We are going to share our favorite C.S. Lewis quotes. Many of you may know, but C.S. Lewis was an Irish writer and scholar best known for his ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ series and his Christian books.

I hope you like those quotes as much as we do! Tell me. What is your favorite quote (by C.S. Lewis or anyone)?

Hello! It’s Friday-Eve (aka Thursday). Time to do some thinking out loud …

First, a quick update on the Fitbit progress (because I know you are all so interested) … it read 7.8 miles for an 8 mile run this morning. That is some serious improvement! It wasn’t as accurate during my workout yesterday morning, but that makes sense, because my stride length will not be the same when I am running faster. I’m just going to have to accept the fact that it will not ever be exactly perfect. Wait, what?

We will have to save the perfectionism talk for another time. I’ve talked about it before. I’ll talk about it again. The current state of my life is definitely work in progress in that area.

Lizzie and I got in 8 miles together this morning. It was a wonderful start to the day! She texted me to tell me that she was going to be a few minutes late because she had to put on all. the. clothes. I told her that it was 46 degrees, so she probably really didn’t need that many layers. Ha. It was definitely warmer than she was expecting, especially once we got going. We decided that there needed to be a step-by-step instruction guide for how to properly clothe yourself for runs in the winter time.

This got me thinking … I wonder if something like this actually exists. Well turns out … it does! Check out the “What to Wear” tool from Runner’s World. It’s so cool! You enter the set of conditions that applies, whether or not you are going for an easy run or a race (or somewhere in between) and whether or not you prefer to be cool or warm (or somewhere in between) during your run and it gives you suggestions of what to wear.

Summer is so easy. It’s just always blazing hot. Throw on a tank top and some shorts and you are good to go. Unfortunately winter is a totally different animal. There can be so much variation, depending on the dew point, wind chill, etc. that even the same exact temperature doesn’t really feel the same from day to day. It seems like here in LA, it is either hold or cold. We never really have a long season of “in between” weather. It is summer or it is winter. Spring and fall don’t seem to really even exist!

This got me thinking about a topic that I have been wanting to write about for a while. Black-or-white, all-or-nothing thinking.

Do you sometimes view people and situations as right or wrong, good or bad and hot or cold? I think this way all too frequently (actually I think that may just be the default setting in my brain), which unfortunately, prohibits me from seeing things the way they really are and fully experiencing everything that life has to offer. I think it probably just makes me feel more secure to think that life is really this simple.

It takes a conscious effort to choose to see some good in a situation that otherwise would’ve only been bad, to let go of preconceptions and start thinking that anything is possible. There is an entire spectrum and everything doesn’t have to fit neatly into a tiny, well-defined box. We have to accept all of the possibilities and allow ourselves enough wiggle room to make some mistakes along the way. Inevitably, we will all make mistakes. This doesn’t make us “bad” people. It makes us human. Don’t beat yourself up about it!

See y’all tomorrow!

Well, hi!

I was |thisclose| to ending my streak today, but I’m not going to do that because I know that writing is what I am supposed to be doing right now. I feel like I am being called to write. It is something that the Lord has really placed on my heart.

Writing is bringing me a sense of fulfillment and purpose that I can’t quite describe. Every day that I post something, no matter how trivial or insignificant it may seem at the time, is a chance that someone out there could read something that speaks to them and makes them come back for more. Then maybe, just maybe, they will read something that truly impacts their life.

Without further ado, let me tell you about my Wednesday! It was #workoutwednesday. After all, this is a running blog and at least some of the people that come here want to hear about training and running … so today, that’s what we will cover.

My schedule called for 3 X 2 mile lactate threshold repeats at 6:15 to 6:25 pace. If you read my post Sunday, you know that I just ran a 10K at 6:09 average pace. The idea of 6 more miles at pretty close to that same pace seemed quite rich, but I figured I would give it a whirl. If you have been following along for a little while, you probably know that I typically do my workouts on the treadmill.

Not this morning! Daniel decided that he wanted to do the workout with me, which I was so grateful for. It’s definitely more challenging to get outside and do the workout on the roads, dealing with darkness, weather, rolling hills, etc., but we don’t race on the treadmill so occasionally it is good for me to conquer these obstacles. Actually, it would be best if I could do that the majority of the time and save the treadmill for the occasional workout, but that’s not where I am right now. Baby steps.

We did and 2 mile warm up and then started the workout. Daniel’s splits were a little bit different than mine, but they were pretty close. When we do workouts together we have a pretty good balance of competition and encouragement. The first two miles were very dark and so I tried to run by feel, instead of constantly stalking my watch to check the pace. The result was an average pace of 6:36. Not exactly where I was supposed to be, but definitely respectable.

We got a little bit more warmed up after the first repeat and averaged 6:21 for the second two miles. I was pretty spent at this point, but knew that I needed to at least attempt the last repeat, which I ended up averaging 6:31 on. Whew. That workout was not easy! I am so glad that I got out there and did it though. My legs were still a little fatigued from the 10K, so it makes sense that I wouldn’t quite be able to hit the paces that I was supposed to. Every workout will not be perfect, but every time you get out there and put in the work, you will reap the benefits.

I’ve been dealing with a stubborn case of plantar fasciitis in my right foot and a tender spot on top of my left foot, so I made sure to ice my feetsies when I got home. We even upgraded from the bag of peas to actual ice packs! Moving on up.

When I got to work today, the office was decorated for Mardi Gras. We are so festive lately! I’m not really big on Mardi Gras personally, but it’s pretty big in our area. I thought this picture was so cute!

At our staff meeting this morning, we got Starbucks gifts cards! Such a fun surprise. Last week at our meeting we pretty much dissected the Starbucks pricing model and so that was the story behind the gift cards. Poor Starbucks, if they only knew the things we said about them. I had to include my Coffee Loft cup in the picture, just so we are clear where my true allegiances lie. I also had to include my space heater in the picture, just so you know what keeps me warm and toasty all day.

After work I headed over to Rebecca’s for a few more miles of our #runlovechallenge. We got in 6 easy miles this evening and are now 65 miles into our goal of 214 by 2/14.

I came home, ate dinner and Daniel and I finally finished the last episode of White Collar. I was a mess after that. I wasn’t happy with the ending at all. I was so upset because the main character made a purposeful decision to go off to live a life apart from all of the people that he really cares about and that care about him in return. That really hit me in the feels. It made me thankful to be spending life with the folks that I love though, so I guess that was something beneficial that came from it.

My mom texted me this picture of Debs today …

I have never met a cat that likes to ride on the boat and walk on the beach. Debs is definitely one of a kind. I don’t think I’ve told y’all much about Miss Debits (Debs for short). She was my cat originally. I got her my first year out of school (aka my first tax season). She was “on sale.” The lady explained to me that it was because the economy was so bad. Seemed pretty legit to me, so I got me a discount kitty.

Turns out, she had a major case of ring worm, which in turn meant that I came down with a serious case of ring worm. I had to wear band aids all over my face to work during my first tax season. Yeah, fun times. To get rid of the ring worm, Debs had to be shaved and then every square inch of the house had to be disinfected every day. I simply didn’t have the time to do this, as I was working close to 70 hours a week. My parents graciously adopted Debs from me and now they are inseparable. I’m pretty sure I am the second favorite “child” at this point.

Any other only children out there get overtaken by your parents’ pets after you left home?

That’s all I’ve got for today! Good night!

Hello, hello! Time for some Tuesday tangents.

You may or may not have heard, but Alabama won the National Championship last night! I am not a huge football fan, but my husband and parents, well that’s a whole ‘nother story.

Speaking of being the champions … I am singing Queen’s “We are the Champions” in my head now. That song make me the of the Mighty Ducks. I haven’t thought about those movies in forever. I was totally into roller hockey when those movies were out. Ducks fly together!

Speaking of ducks … We had ducks as pets growing up and so I absolutely refuse to eat duck. Ever. If you are ever out to dinner with me, please for goodness sake, don’t order duck. A little part of me will die inside if you do.

For goodness sake … I just googled that phrase to determine if I was using it correctly from a grammatical standpoint (nerd alert). Apparently, there is some controversy as to the placement or non-placement of an apostrophe and whether or not sake is plural. Google directed my search to “for goodness sake I got the hippy hippy shakes.” So now I have another song stuck in my head!

Speaking of shakes … I had this protein shake the other day and it was really good. I am always trying out new brands of protein shakes. They are perfect for snacks or post-workout recovery.

Speaking of recovery … my legs were so sore today! I think I had a little bit of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) going on. DOMS is the gradually increasing discomfort that occurs between 24 and 48 hours after activity that stresses the muscle tissue beyond what it is accustomed to. I’m pretty sure my legs are stressed out.

Speaking of stressed out …

Yeah, never mind. Brooks doesn’t know what stressed out means.

Speaking of Brooks … one of my friends texted me last weekend while she was out shopping for running shoes and asked if Brooks’ name was inspired by our running shoes. Indeed it was! Daniel and I both love Brooks running shoes (we also just really liked the name in general).

Now, I am going to follow suit and see if I can’t get my stress levels to match little Brookser’s here. See ya tomorrow! Thanks for listening to the randomness in my head today. It’s a crazy place up there sometimes y’all.

Hey friends! I hope that Monday treated you kindly.

We woke up to a very chilly morning, the coldest morning we’ve had yet this winter in fact. The actual temperature was 30, but the feels like temperature was 27 when we woke up. I had 4 – 6 recovery miles to get in and so Daniel and I bundled up and headed out early this morning. It really wasn’t as cold as I was expecting, but I was definitely dressed to handle whatever we encountered. I always think of the Friends episode where Joey wears all of Chandler’s clothes when I get bundled up. Could I *be* wearing any more clothes?

I wore tights with a tennis skirt over them. That’s my trademark, it’s really cold out, technique. I figure that since tennis skirts have shorts built in under the skirt, you’re really adding two layers to your bottom half. I wore a long-sleeved shirt and the warmest jacket that I own. It’s a Nike jacket that I’ve had since college. That’s also my trademark, it’s really cold out, jacket. I only wear it a few times each year. Add some gloves and a toboggan into the mix and I was set. We did 5 easy miles and I was even getting toasty by the end.

Random rant for the day … I’m on a mission to make my Fitbit read more accurately. Apparently you have to manually adjust your stride length in the settings in order to make the distance accurate. If you don’t adjust the settings, it calculates based on your gender and height. Unfortunately, it doesn’t show you what the default stride length is. It just shows as 0 ft. 0 in. if you don’t manually calculate it.

Mine has pretty consistently been reading 4.4 miles for our regular 5 mile route. I have a tendency to get geeked out over equations and formulas, so I am determined to get this figured out. Here is what I have come up with:

63,360 * number of miles run / number of steps counted per Fitbit = average stride in inches.

I’ve been taking notes of the average steps per mile on several of my easy runs recently (I’ve calculated it on a 10 mile run and on two 5 mile runs). I am basically taking 1,600 steps per mile, which is calculating to a stride length of 39.6 inches (or 3 ft. 3.6 in.). Once you figure this out, you just go to your dashboard in Fitbit and edit your settings. You need to do it for both walking and running to make it the most accurate. I haven’t calculated my walking steps yet. Running is more important (obviously). I just now, as we speak type, adjusted my settings and so I haven’t actually tested this theory yet. I will report back with the results soon!

I have a few other things to share with you today. First, this picture.

Stop it. Savannah (the artist formerly known as Squishy) has grown up so much! This one year ago today picture popped up on timehop today and the “now” picture was after our relay yesterday. She is the cutest little thing!

Second is a wonderful post by Jen Hatmaker. Here is what she writes …

“I have a counseling appointment this afternoon. Three members of my family are currently in counseling with more to come.

May I send a bit of love and encouragement to everyone who steps into counseling or therapeutic space for your own soul, marriage, family, or healing? Ditto to those of you sending your hurt kids? Whether you go for preventative maintenance or because you are hanging on by a thread, I’ve always said that when Scripture describes “gifts of healing,” I believe counselors are a part of that group. They help us heal. They give us tools. They walk us through recovery. They remind us of our hope.

There is NOTHING weak about being in the care of a counselor. That is STRONG. That tells me that you are not passively waiting for your strength, your healing. You are DOING THE WORK, poking the bear. You are actively working with God and making good use of the gifts He has given someone else to develop us into stronger, healthier people.

Bravo, I say! May we grab onto any tool possible as we pursue healthy marriages, healthy kids, and healthy souls. To abuse and suffering and loss and grief and pain and a horrible enemy: I say, COME AT US, BRO. We’re not going to take this stuff lying down.”

I highly encourage anyone out there who is contemplating therapy to do it. It will change you. It will make you see yourself and other people differently (in a good way). I have seen therapists and counselors along this journey called life at various points and am currently still seeing one. I haven’t shared much about that, probably because in my mind I saw it as a weakness. I didn’t want to be viewed as *that girl* who isn’t fixed yet and still needs therapy. But um hello, isn’t that the message I am trying to convey with this blog? I don’t have it all figured out and I am not perfect, nor will I ever be. But, I am taking steps (dare we say strides) to strengthen myself spiritually, physically and emotionally.

Let’s just all agree to do something worthwhile (for ourselves and/or for someone else) every day. That seems like a good goal right?!

I’ll leave you with this pretty sunset picture from this evening. That is definitely one benefit of the colder air … the sunsets are even more beautiful than normal.

Alabama is playing in the National Championship Game here in a minute, so it’s time for me to sign off and watch at least a little bit of football (before I fall asleep at my normal mee-maw time). Roll tide!