Power Words

Yesterday while I was out for a run I was listening to Another Mother Runner podcast.  One part of the discussion centered on the benefit of having power words when you are running and racing, words like focus, believe.... or for me during Grandma's Marathon, trust.  They also talked about having an annual theme. Immediately I thought about my pseudo new year's resolution = more fun in 2015.  

I travel a fair amount for work, some of it is in state, but several nights a month I find myself in Madison, Springfield or Chicago. Even though the travel can beat me up a little bit, I have enjoyed getting to know Madison and Chicago better (Springfield - meh).  I've found running routes and made some friends. Tuesday night when I was in Madison I went with a new friend to a Badger's game. Even though I had some long work days and I was away from my people - more fun in 2015!

John is an excellent father and more than capable of keeping the trains running on time while I am away, but I know it can be rough on my family. Parenting is a two person job, but when mom's gone, well, mom's gone.  Ellen agrees.....

We are coming to the end of a long swimming season.  Both girls are right on the bubble of qualifying for state and/or regionals, so there's some extra relay practice and renewed intensity for the final push. Friday night Amelia had a sleepover at a friends house.  I picked her up from the sleep over and took her to dance.  Then I picked her up from dance and took her to swimming.  Then she played all day....  Similar schedule for Ava. Saturday night Ava had a party with some friends, so we had a few hours to kill in Des Moines.  We went to dinner at Table 128, then walked around the mall for a little while.  

Amelia - love that sassy pants.  What you can't see in this picture is that Amelia was on absolute fumes. 

I am so proud of how hard the girls have worked at the activities they really care about, but I know yesterday stretched them too thin.  Today we stay home, restore and regroup so we can face a new week.  Ahhhh....