November 4

I am thankful for a quiet start to the week, for great co-workers who are flexible and help me rise to the challenge of each day.  I am grateful for the sunshine that greeted me at 7am on my drive to work.  I am grateful for a good spinning class, that I have found a new instructor whose teaching I enjoy.  I am grateful for an easy evening with my children, a swim and a drive and pizza-in-front-of-tv dinner, quality time together just us three.  I am grateful for the excellent family locker rooms at the JCC.  I am grateful that my son enjoys his schoolwork, that he cooperates with homework even at 8:00pm, that he "shows his thinking" on math word problems by writing, "aha!" next to his answer.  I am grateful that Ivy's first parent-teacher conference was a grand success and that my little girl is a joy to have in class, just as she is a joy to have at home.  I am grateful for bedtime snuggles and hot tea, for sugar-maple reds lining South Woodland, for my washing machine and my dog.

November 3

I am grateful for an extra hour on a glorious fall day, for relaxing morning, french toast breakfast, cooking and cleaning and baths for the kids, all before 10:30 in the morning.  I am grateful for golden fall sunshine and intoxicating overlays of red and orange in the blue-sky light. I am grateful for Wade Oval and the Cleveland Museum of Art and Lakeview -- these treasures in my backyard.  Perfection on this perfect day, wandering the sculpture garden, looking at the giant koi, watching wedding photography in action over the glittering reflections in the pond.  I am grateful that my children are at home in  museums, that they know their favorite paths through the galleries, that they move past the art with respect and with joy.  I am grateful for quick kisses in fall sunshine and a happy running spaniel.   I am grateful for early dinners and family yoga and bedtime an hour ahead.  I am grateful for this moment of quiet to type in the quiet of my house, a bit of calm before the week to come.

November 2

Today I am grateful that my husband is so very good at giving a back massage.  And that the leaves are somehow still so brilliant, even in the midst of a soggy grey November day.  I am grateful for a morning spent resale shopping with my boy, an afternoon spent by myself at Starbucks, an evening spent surrounded by friends.  I am grateful for coffee.  I am grateful for the small-town feel of this city I call home, for chili cook-off fundraisers full of neighbors and friends, familiar faces all around.  I am grateful for the funny things my children say.  I am grateful for the comfort and ease of our lives, that we can spend the afternoon at a birthday party, doing nothing but watching a group of beautiful little ones run and tumble and laugh.  I am grateful for time with my mom, for quick lunches and snatches of conversation, grateful we live close enough to take these regular visits for granted.  I am grateful for my cozy new downstairs office, for my laptop to type on, and for my large collection of blank books.  I am grateful for the internet for linking me to friends, for the all the connections I have made in my life and the joy of seeing smiles on their faces even when we are far apart.   Gratitude comes easily on a Saturday.  I'm grateful for that, too.

November 1

Tonight I am grateful for the brilliant splashes of red and gold leaves against the grey of leafless branches.  I am grateful for mild weather and a quiet day.  I am grateful that I had time for a lunch break today.  I am grateful for my wonderful teaching assistant, who anticipates what the classroom needs and steps in seamlessly to cover in a crisis.  I am grateful to be the one who a child comes to in a crisis, the person they ask to see. I am grateful for my strong legs that can run and walk and reach and play.  I am grateful for quiet and comfortable Friday nights, for talking with my wonderful friend as our children play together peacefully in the next room.  I am grateful for princess dresses and fairy wings and the intense beauty of my son and daughter. I am grateful for my dog, her gaze and floppy ears and love that radiates out from her, and the way she puts her paw on my arm.  I am grateful for two-parent bedtimes and the fact that I don't have to fold all this laundry alone.  I am grateful that tomorrow is Saturday. 

May 5

So far so good.   Last week's "training"report:

Weds- 2.5 miles, speed intervals.  
Thursday- walking day!  Three block walk to enjoy the flowering trees on Somerton, waked ivy to ballet, and walked the track with Melinda.
Friday-  my first 5 miler!  Boring, but doable. I have to tell you, I didn't even look at the time, though based on my speed it should have taken around 50 minutes.
 For the first two miles I thought of nothing but stopping, but after mile three I kind of forgot I was running and just got intomthemold episode of Greys anatomy I was watching.  I didn't feel tired until about 2 pm...
Saturday-- got my exercise loading and unloading bins from the van for the baby bargain bonanza in the morning. And  rehearsing for a few hours.  And, my mom and I walked a mile at Lakewood Park. Had designs on a walk through the cultural gardens, too, but tired children meant time close to home instead.
Today-- let's just call it an active rest day, ok?  Concert tonight, wandering the beach today.  A fair amounts of sitting and standing and soaking up the sun.  Back to business at the gym tomorrow.

27 days!

May 1

I could launch into a litany of excuses.

I was tired/busy/not inspired to write because [insert standard excuses here].

Ok.

Moving on.

It's May and the sun has come out and the flowers are blooming and the evenings linger, sumptuous and brimming with the green of new life.

I'm inspired again.

Perhaps overly so.  I've bought paint in 5 colors over the past week.  I've signed up for a 5K. I've got this little girl who is turning 3 in a matter of days.  Jack's soccer schedule adds two more events per week to schedule in.  I have both a concert and a resale this weekend.  The school year is hurtling towards a close, crowded with meetings and much to fit in 4 short weeks.

Life is full indeed and a part of me thinks that just making it through these next 30 days in one piece may be challenge enough.

So for this month I will acknowledge that an every-single-day goal just might not be feasible.

And that to get everything done I will probably need to multi-task.  In a serious way.

With that in mind my challenge this month will be to train, purposely, towards the goal of not embarrassing myself too badly in the 5K Becca and I are running on June 2nd.

This probably won't entail running every day but it might include exercise of some sort every day, and at the very least following a structured workout schedule and plan of increasing distances and speed drills.

It's worth a shot, right?

I'm off to a decent start, with 2.5 miles of speed intervals under my belt this morning.  Friday may be a challenge as my distance days in May are supposed to be at least 5 miles...

Here's to minimal embarassment!  And surviving May!

I promise to take time to smell the flowers....

April!

Well.

Let's just pretend that March only had 19 days, ok?

Between that nasty cold, traveling to Wyoming, and a period of ennui in between, there wasn't a lot of poetry in my heart the last few weeks of the month.

I lie.  There was plenty of poetry in my heart in Wyoming.  I do love it there.  But being on single mom duty, with a time change, and the altitude... Excuses excuses....

A part of me wants to try again this month, as apparently it is National Poetry Month.

A part of me also wants to get my arse back on the exercise bandwagon (illness plus travel is also bad for one's gym routine....) with something ambitious like exercising every day...

A part of me is waiting for inspiration to strike, for a good, meaningful focus to appear before me... Something that will keep me going for a full, life-shifting Thirty Days...

I'm going to blame the time change again, and beg for a few more days to decide...

More later....