Taking care of myself

I haven't blogged in nearly a week, which wasn't exactly my plan, but I had good reason; I have been trying to take care of myself.  As I mentioned last week, my anxiety was getting the better of me, but I've been trying to get more sleep and I am feeling much better this week.  Jack spent the night at my mom's last Monday and I was able to take some sleeping pills, go to bed early, and get a long stretch of uninterrupted sleep, which was heavenly.  Thank you again, Momma!  I've also made an effort the past week to go to bed earlier, which has helped quite a bit.  Going to bed earlier has been great, but it hasn't left me much time to blog.  Matt and I have also been trying to spend more time together and in the evenings, we've been catching up on some of our favorite shows that we were behind on.

We had a great Halloween last week.  It's my favorite holiday, but I was feeling stressed out and overwhelmed and not really able to enjoy this time of year.  However, taking the boys out Trick or Treating really brought back the Halloween joy for me.  Nick had a great time and Jack just loved it!  We decided to let him walk around the neighborhood instead of taking the stroller and he had a blast.  He held my hand and put his bucket on his arm and spent most of the night giggling.  He would go up to the door at most houses and let his brother knock on the door, walk up to the bowl, grab a handful (or two) of candy, put it in his bucket, and then turn around to leave, but not before waving and saying "bye-bye!"  He was a little timid at some houses, so he would just hold out his bucket for the neighbors to fill for him.  It was a perfectly spooky Halloween night, too.  It rained nearly the whole day and there were dark clouds in the sky.  Luckily the rain let up while we Trick or Treated, but the leaves were falling around us and there was a few gusts of wind that added to the ambiance.  We all dressed up as the Incredibles and we got a lot of compliments on our coordinating costumes!  It definitely made it worth it staying up late nearly every night for the previous two weeks sewing! 

The Incredibles!

Something pretty neat happened last week relative to my Halloween costume.  The Another Mother Runner Facebook page asked if anyone had participated in a costume run recently and to post pictures of your costume.  I submitted my Mrs. Incredible picture from after my 10K and they used my picture in the post they published (with a clever tagline, too)!  Check it out:  http://anothermotherrunner.com/2013/10/27/great-halloween-costumes-running/ There are some pretty awesome costumes; I particularly love the Energizer battery mommy/child costume!

I definitely need to get back in my groove this week, with blogging, running, and eating better to name a few!  Below are a few things I'm planning for this week:

• Increase my water intake, as I have been really lacking in the hydration department lately (Pepsi and beer do not count, although I had a delicious Belgian Framboise on Friday night. Yum!)
• Resume running; at least 2 runs during the work week on my lunch breaks and a longer run this weekend
• Eat better (i.e. less snacking, particularly late at night.  This means sayonara to my beloved bowl of Raisin Bran before bed.  I didn't even buy a box at the store today, so I don't have it in the house to tempt me.  I realize there are far worse things than Raisin Bran, but I eat a fairly large bowl of it and it's calories I don't need)
• Return to tracking my food on My Fitness Pal.  I have been a super slacker in this area lately and I need to get back on track so I can meet my end of the year weight loss goal
• Work on my stories for Miles of Motivation (http://milesofmotivation.com/).  I saw this link of Facebook a few weeks ago for a book that is going to be published called Miles of Motivation: The Journey Between The Miles.  It's a series of short stories "about the trials and triumphs, failures and victories and everything in between." They've asked for people to submit stories ranging from running, weight loss, triathlons, and more.  I would love to submit two stories, one in the weight loss category and one in the running category and the deadline is November 10th, so I need to get writing! 
• My first giveaway on my blog! I know I teased this a few weeks ago, but getting the stomach flu set me off course.  I need to review the product first and I'm so excited about it, but I needed to build back my strength first! Stay tuned!

Every week on the Another Mother Runner website, they feature a story about a fellow Mother Runner and the most important mile of their life.  There are some really amazing stories and last week's post was one of them. Here is the link for your reading pleasure:  http://anothermotherrunner.com/2013/10/28/important-mile-life-karen-crowley/  My quote for today's post is from last week's most important mile story.  Karen writes about running the dreaded mile in her 8th grade gym class and her evolution as runner in her adult life and, boy, can I relate!  

"I think back to that first mile all the time, and I wish that 14-year-old had been able to see the value in determination, in refusing to give up. I wish she could have known that these qualities are far more important than speed."