Time to start family vacation

Eric is literally watching the clock and letting me know the time every minute we get closer to boarding time.

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Writing

Noah has the O and H down and is recognizing the letters of his name in other places. He is also asking how to spell certain words. Yesterday he wanted me to spell "glitter "

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Slow and steady

People always look at my little boys and reflect on how big  they have gotten and exclaim the time goes "so quick " . Then they  will follow that up with a comment something like "someday you too will look back and wonder where the time went." I am so depressed by the thought that I have to think there is a better way that doesn't let time just slip away unnoticed.

I was told I would harldy remember our wedding day or my children's birth but it is not true. These moments are imbedded so deep in my remembery that I not only remember the details of the events but I also remember thoughts and feelings. In all their experience and wisdom there IS something they have missed. Our life is a journey and in that journey is story after story. My Grandmother new it and she remembered her stories in such fine detail should could have written a memoir from the homesteader's account.

Time is slow and steady. It is however, always moving forward. It is too easy to let it slip away unnoticed and I am thankful that many perfect strangers have alerted me to that ease.  It is this knowing that helps me stop, pause, and take notice of the many small minutes that give me the totality of time where I am now, a mother to a six year old and three year old who are as young as they will every be right now. In our now increasingly busied-on-the-go-society it becomes more challenging to pause. I must defend against invaders so I am not overtaken by "shoulds" and before I know it saying "oh it goes by so fast". My defense is to block out "noise" and prioritize the musts and limit the shoulds.

I didn't grow from my Grandpa's little Tara to grown-up-mom- career- wife-Tara overnight. Nor have my boys been birthed, nurtured from babies to school-aged children overnight. If we fill our lives with so much busy and too much on-the-go we don't have time to pause and take the journey until ....puff everyone is grown up. I remind myslef to pause, soak it all in and note each small victory, milestone, or conversation. What did I do today? I slowed down the morning rush so we could all watch the garbage truck. We all met the garbage man, Mario, and learned that he worked for Clif Bar some 18 years ago and knows many of the old-timers there. I encourage everyone to slow down just for a second and meet their garbage man!

With that, we are going camping this weekend to isolate from musts and shoulds and just be.

Mommas ridge training update

At the 3 hour mark with 4 miles left back to my car. Then picking up recovery au lait on the way home! Redwood Regional Park is a trail oasis!

Gearing up

Running the Ridge

It's official. I am signed up for the Ed Anacker Ridge Run in Bozeman this summer, August tenth. They have a selection process and after they have hand selected folks based on a 50 word compelling reason, the others are by lottery.

Here were my 50 words:
I run for many reasons. The main reason I run? Because I can. This race is pinnacle. A MT raised MSU grad, this challenge is a stunning celebration of MT running & turning 40. PS: I work in nutrition @ CLIF BAR & have FREE bars,gels, bloks for ALL!

I am fairly certain it was my free product offer that won me one of the 250 spots in the race. At this point my long-term relationship with running I have run four marathons, two under four hours, and more half marathons than I can count. Running and I have broken up for various reasons over the years but always seem to get back together. We have had a love-hate relationship from time to time.

When I was pregnant with the boys I didn't run. My body had far more important things to expend resources on then. I remember my first run after Eric was born. It was February and I ran five full blocks before I had to stop, turn around, and walk back. I set my sights on running the Nike Women's Half Marathon and moved myself forward toward the goal.

After Noah was born and the sixth week of post-partum cleared the calendar I bought my first Nike pace band. I wanted to run Nike again, but this time I wanted to run it faster.

I have never been so grateful to having running in my life since the boys were born. I run for them. I run for me. I run for all those times I couldn't run and for all those who can't run because of struggles in their lives. Running is something you do when things are good and I am thankful to have it. No run I ever do will be more challenging than pregnancy, a preemie, and parenting two active, beautiful, competitive, athletic, and smart boys.

Twenty-miles in the Bridger Mountains supported with aid stations is an attainable adventure for me. It  gives  something to work towards that is all my own, all about me, and my needs. Moms need to have something that is their own, and I love the feeling of having the support of Eric, Noah, and Aaron. Seeing them during a run and knowing Aaron is having his own marathon of getting them all there means the world to me.

The rest of the family thinks I am crazy. A sure sign that it is just the right adventure for me.

A marathon was crazy, back to back marathons were crazy, running at 2am on the side of a road in Oregon after only 3 hours of sleep in 24 hours was crazy. There are loads of athletes who do far crazier adventures in pursuit of personal satisfaction from feats far greater than a mere 20 miles over 6500 feet of climbing and 9000 feet descending in the Rockies.

Call me crazy and I will say to you, I'd be crazy not to.

Pregnancy, childbirth, and becoming a mother have reinvogerated a more balanced love of running. We are all built for it. Train, get good coaching, good equipment, and good support and you can do it.

Let the training begin.

Blue jays

Heart, speed, natural ability, huge smile, and love for baseball. That is what coach Steve had to say about Eric and  his first season in Alameda Farm baseball..

We're going to get there

"Everyone relax. We're going to get there. Take a deep breath. Now do you feel better Momma?" This was how Eric responded this morning on the way to school when I was stressing out about the stand-still traffic across the island.

You see, as we later found out, the tunnel - which is known to Alamedians as the tube and still after nearly 5 years of living here refer to it as the tunnel - was closed. This happens a few times a year during morning commute and causes everyone to transverse the island to one of the two bridges on the East side.

At first I thought, oh no I am showing my son poor behavior, but then I thought again. He was repeating back to me what I have taught him about handling frustration or overwhelming situations.

We take deep breaths together and practice stillness when we need to calm and take things down a notch. Apparently he recognized Momma need to take a breath and calm her body, AND he new just what to say. Pat, pat my self on the back.

Money

"Mom, I don't need to use my money for an electric train. I am just going to ask Santa then it will be free!"

Bob's

Noah's first trip to the counter of Bob's Donuts. The best donuts in San Francisco and the world.

Silverfish

Eric is making progress towards learning to swim. Today he graduated from Seahorse to Silverfish. Earned a ribbon and everything.

Silverfish

Eric is making progress towards learning to swim. Today he graduated from Seahorse to Silverfish. Earned a ribbon and everything.

Amazed

We have had a stop-start time with Noah and the potty. His recent move from junior preschool in room Mt Rainier to preschool in Mt Whitney has helped to inspire him a bit.

With organic jelly beans as incentive, he eagerly stood at the potty and peed. Eric walked in on the event and exclaimed, " I don't believe my eyes!"

Winding down to wind up

Spring break has come to a close and tomorrow marks the day that we go back to the "routine". We had a week of no routines and it was just the liberation sanity ordered. Everyone has been delightfully happy (so long as Noah is fed every 90 minutes) and my sweet boys could not be sweeter.

I almost feel renewed. Now if I would have just gone to bed earlier I might just feel fully renewed.

Tomorrow it is back to school, back to base camp, back to work, and back to feeding, dressing, and herding these two boys out the door in the morning. The trick is going to be in maintaining schedules and logistics without getting sucked into a routine that stifles our attention to what is really important, each other.

The thing a liked most about my spring break was spending focused and free time with the ones I love.

Spring break

Several weeks of anticipation and the moment Eric (and I) has been saying is "next week" for the past 2 months is finally here. We are in Tahoe for some glorious spring family time, minus Dad who had to work. Don't feel sorry for Dad. He is on a spring break of a different kind. He has been wined and dined by ad men all week.

We are also doubly fortunate to get to spend spring with Grandma Lorraine and Grandpa Jerry and Aunt Karen with accommodations generously provided by Oma and Opa Thies. Their Truckee cabin, that could sleep a small army, was open for the week and has provided us with straight-up luxury: king-sized beds, 24 hour Disney channel, hot tub, workout center,  and trails galore to name a few. Thank you DIL and FIL. This is so good.

Momma, mommy, mom, (all me) feels fortunate to soak up days in the way we are really meant to spend them. Here the clock is of little mattere and we move to the rhythm of our loosely made plans that evolve with the day, that's how we roll.  No expectation other than answering the call of our emergent desire to do or not do something, go or not go somewhere. The biggest question of the day being will we nap or just go to bed early.

Today we found ourselves drinking pink lemonade bubbly in the hot tub all afternoon.

Pineapple

Noah  tasted and painted with pineapple in Mt Rainer with his friends recently. Here are some quotes from the children from the activity. 

Pineapple tasting-

Niko- Yucky

Owen-Good

Lily-Uh yummy more

Jax-I want one

Noah.T-Good to eat

Colt-Good,yummy,dirty

Noah.G-Dirty

Milo-Have,have

Reza-Pineapple

Noah loves his fruit. 

Happy Easter

We even went to church....on our bikes and boys in Giants t-shirts. For some Easter also represents the resurrection of spring baseball!

First lesson

Noah' s first swimming lesson. He cried a little but was very brave and confident.  He has watched Eric enough to be ready for his own hand at it.

Friday fun

Today Noah's school was closed and I had some big things at CLIF to do. He was home with Gina and I had some guilt but the things at work were biggies....career defining biggies. So I sucked it up for several hours. Then headed straight in to a fun filled hang out time with the boys. We went to swimming lessons and came straight home, popped in a movie, snuggled on the couch, all three of us under a blanket, with a box of honey graham bunnie crackers. I even left all out bags of stuff, wet suit and all in the car. It was liberating. And you know what? Everyone was ten times happier then we would have been had we all soldiered through dinner and all. Friday fun day can happen even when Momma has to work.

Friday fun

Today Noah's school was closed and I had some big things at CLIF to do. He was home with Gina and I had some guilt but the things at work were biggies....career defining biggies. So I sucked it up for several hours. Then headed straight in to a fun filled hang out time with the boys. We went to swimming lessons and came straight home, popped in a movie, snuggled on the couch, all three of us under a blanket, with a box of honey graham bunnie crackers. I even left all out bags of stuff, wet suit and all in the car. It was liberating. And you know what? Everyone was ten times happier then we would have been had we all soldiered through dinner and all. Friday fun day can happen even when Momma has to work.