C25K...

moving mountains today.  day 2 of c25k.  that is couch to 5k, a training program designed to get the non-runner off her butt and out the door! :) i live with a family of distance runners.  my running experience consists of one year on the track team as a high school freshman where i thought i was going to die...followed by 3 years of taking stats. i like the idea of running.  i really do.  but when i try it, that same feeling like i'm gonna die fear creeps back in.  
i've tried the couch to 5k before. the program alternates between walking and running.  the first week you run for 60 seconds then walk for 90 seconds, repeating that for 20 minutes.  then it gradually builds up over the next 9 weeks to more running as you build strength.  i figured i could do this...run for 60 seconds at a time.  the program made sense.  i just grew tired of looking down at a watch every 3 seconds wishing for the 60 seconds to move a little quicker.
well guess what?  now there is a app for that!  c25k!  i can listen to my own music (to distract me from feeling like i'm gonna die) and...ding...i hear my virtual coach telling me to walk...or to run.  he even tells me when i'm half way there.

just completed day 2 of my c25k app with my faithful canine friend, sir leo, and the tunes of ingrid michaelson. (my favorite...mountains and the sea..."you can move me, if you want to...you can move a mountain...") i resisted the urge to look down at ol' yeller, cruising by my side in a brisk walk.  no app for that.
i hesitate to post this, but i do, for the universe and for possibly a follower or two, to hold me accountable as i move this mountain!

-lil' miss mya on the right.  is that a hopeful smile?  ...hoping she will get to go next time.

Dreamy...

senior picture time again.  gosh, didn't we just do this?  yep... just last year with daughter #1.  here we go again.  hours staring at a computer screen trying to pick a favorite.  not an easy task. 

we've come along way baby...remembering my senior pic...high neck ruffled blouse, scared smile, permed hair, bangs tightly rolled with a curling iron.

this gal captured my daughter's light, her personality, her smile, her dreamy brown eyes...and she posted it here.  love it!
happy 17th birthday blessings to my brown-eyed girl! may all your dreams come true.

-self-portrait photograph by Lindsay, taken in Savannah where she dreams of going to art school for photography

- Brown Eyed Girl,  Van Morrison ♫

The Middle...

somewhere in the middle is this girl who turned 15, in the middle of the year, in the middle of the crazy spring flurry of activities. she's in the middle, but not forgotten.
this girl, daughter #3, she's a pleaser. she studies hard.  she follows the rules.  before she was born, she tried to come into the world upside down.  the doc was on his last attempt at an external version.  my prayer..."please baby flip."  and with a gulp, she aligned herself in the perfect birthing position. 
i remember this game we used to play.  she'd hold my hand and give me a gentle squeeze.  i'd squeeze back.  we'd mimic in morse code fashion, repeating the number of squeezes.  no words.  just a gentle squeeze, saying "do you see me?  i see you."
gone are the days when she would quietly sit in a corner and line up her crayons or toy cars in an orderly row.  now she wakes early for her morning run.  later she camps out in her room studying, editing videos for her friends, or skyping her best friend. one could forget this girl was home.  but when she's gone off with friends, her presence leaves a void. her quiet, gentle, fun-loving, humble spirit is missed.  

"We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows."

-Robert Frost

-photos by me, my kids, and their friends

-The Middle of the Road, Jonathan Rice ♫

Create with me my little bee...

 
i just discovered this.
how cool would it be to one day feature gracey's blog in this magazine?  remembering the day we sat together and began the adventure of creating it.

Dog Days of Summer...

got a hundred things i could be doing.  got a hundred project ideas running through my head.  and here i sit on my porch swing, browsing for a hundred more magazine ideas, reading a novel, falling asleep between chapters.  i'm learning a lesson of how to rest, from sir leo here... no worries, no guilt...and lovin' it!

also lovin' this new hipstamatic iphone app!  SWEET!

-Dog Days are Over, Florence & the Machine ♫