catch the moment 365: week twenty-five

Posted on June 27, 2014August 1, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

Let me start this week with an apology. My pictures are not the most inspired. I feel like I’ve been rushing around so much that just getting a picture — not getting a picture I love — was the priority. I’ve overbooked us/myself the last couple of weeks with plans every single night so I’m looking forward to (hoping for) some low-key days in our very near future. I love being busy and having fun but eventually, duty calls. So does the couch.

169/365: June 18th. Lunch date with a friend from work at the historic Willard. Great food and great ambiance.

170/365: June 19th. Just one of a few photos I shared in a previous post about my grandma’s recent visit.

171/365: June 20th. A hurry up and take the picture kind of day. A friend at work gave me her iPhone 4 to borrow until I can get an upgrade in September. I feel like I’ve gotten a HUGE upgrade since the phone I had before (Ryan’s OLD phone) barely held a charge for 5 minutes.

172/365: June 21st. What better way to welcome the official start of summer than spending a day jumping in a lake with my kids? My cousin visited with her sweet little cousin (see day 173) and we spent the whole day maxin’ and relaxin’ on the water. Perfection. By far my favorite day of the week!

173/365: June 22nd. Sweet little J playing on the playground before they headed back home on Sunday. I wasn’t much in the mood to take photos that day but I wish I’d gotten more of her sweet face.

174/365: June 23rd. While I was working really hard to relax and entertain the boys, Ryan and his dad were doing ACTUAL work. Monday night they finished installing our new over-the-range microwave. Now we just have about 2 million other things to do before our kitchen remodel is complete.

175/365: June 24th. Another get-it-over-with kind of picture day but as it turns out, I really love this one. It was raining when I took this so I didn’t even get out of the car. I’m kind of in love with this barn apparently. It always looks different based on the pretties growing around it. Remember the poppy picture? And the snowy winter scene?

Wow, Theo didn’t even make an appearance this week and there’s one measly shot of Dexter. I have taken pictures of both of them, for sure, but for some reason, these are the photos that stood out to me as the ones I wanted to use for week 25. I hope you enjoyed them — at least a little bit. I love day 175 – the barn & day 169 – lunch at the Willard. Which is your favorite?

xo,
~C~

making memories – that’s what matters

Posted on June 23, 2014August 1, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

I have been taking at least one picture a day since starting the Catch the Moment 365 photo project, but sometimes I will go almost a whole week before looking through the photos on my camera. Tonight I started feeling like I was getting way behind on sorting, deleting, and editing photos so I popped my memory card in the computer and starting scrolling through.

Now, I know that last Thursday was…well, just last Thursday. But my heart swelled a little and I got a little lump in my throat as I clicked through the pictures below. My mom drove 6 hours to visit my grandma then drove her another 2 hours in pouring rain and rush hour traffic to my house for dinner. Usually, we are visiting her so it felt like a treat and honor to have her in my home. This sweet lady turned 80 last week.

Their mutual joy… I almost can’t take it.

Our little visit was short and sweet. My grandma became a widow almost two years ago and while she is a healthy lady, it’s impossible to ignore the awareness that every visit with her is precious. I want my boys to remember her presence, be in pictures with her, and have sweet memories of her kind personality. When Ryan and I met, we had all 4 of our parents and 7 out of 8 grandparents. Now my grandma is ‘our’ only grandparent (and the boys’ only great-grandparent) and my dad is gone.

Life is so short. Celebrate. Say yes. The dishes can wait. Spend time together. I’m not going to remember the chores that didn’t get done…I bet you won’t either.

xo,
~C~

a 2014 weight/fitness resolution check-in

Posted on June 22, 2014July 30, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

I had big dreams for 2014. Big dreams for myself in 2014. I got on a roll with running in 2013 and completed Couch to 5k. Running had always scared me because of my less-than-stellar knees. No, I didn’t play sports…no I didn’t have a car accident or an injury. I just inherited really crappy knees.

So I was surprised that the more I ran, the less they bothered me. Maybe getting 25 pounds off was what helped my knees. Who knows. I learned to like running. I won’t say I loved it. I kind of hate it during but love the feeling of accomplishment afterwards. It’s euphoria when I am able to push myself to meet or surpass a goal. I’m not and don’t ever plan to be a long distance runner. The furthest I’ve ever ran continuously is three and a half miles. I was completely okay with that distance, but I wanted to just be consistently getting good, challenging exercise.

For 2014, I planned to run 25 miles per month or a total of 300 miles this year. Unfortunately, in the first 6 weeks of 2014, I also experienced some unplanned obstacles. Like 2 separate stomach bugs, the flu, and 2 separate rounds of strep throat. I ran 15 miles in during the month of January somehow but obviously fell short of the 25 mile goal I needed to hit to stay on track for running 300 miles for the year.

February rolled around and I ran again but there was trouble. Not far into my run, I had a debilitating pain in my left knee. I tried to walk it off and run again but the pain got worse. Nothing popped or snapped, I never knew where the pain was coming from or why it was happening. I gave up after three attempts that day and decided to let my knee rest. That week, my knee hurt… all the time. Standing up from my chair at work. Walking towards the back of the grocery store. I was really worried. I continued to rest it. I ran once in March and it was a little better, but still hurt.

By this point I was wondering if my running days were over. I was debating seeing an orthopedist but didn’t have much luck the last time I went to one. They wanted to do an MRI that would be $1800 out of pocket and we were in the middle of moving so I put it off and eventually my knees stopped bothering me as much.

I fell in April, badly scraping both knees, which gave me another excuse not to run. About a week after the fall, I noticed that I hadn’t had any (internal) knee pain. I waited for another week for the scrapes to heal and could no longer resist the urge to run. I was able to run over two miles and have been running off and on ever since then, but not with the consistency I would like. Some days my knees hurt a little, some days they hurt a lot. Occasionally…rarely, they don’t hurt at all.

I’ve given up on my dream of running 300 miles this year – obviously – but I still like getting some exercise every day one way or another. Lately it’s been too humid for me to run. I’m just not that hardcore and it’s too hard to breathe.

My weight has crept up a little as I haven’t been watching what I eat as well as I used to. Well – I’m still watching. I’m still using MyFitnessPal to log calories and exercise daily. I have just been eating a lot more of what I WANT than what I should. My original goal was to lose 20-24 pounds and last year my weight loss hovered around 25-27 pounds. I’m back to about a 21-22 pound loss, which is okay, but I liked 26 a whole lot better!

So I’d love to hear any ideas people have about keeping motivation high long-term in order to keep the pounds AWAY long term. Maintaining just isn’t as fun or rewarding as losing, ya know? Neither is gaining. If anyone has had long-term success at keeping weight off, please feel free share your tips and secrets. It’s so easy to slip into old habits.

xo,
~C~