Lent....almost there.

Every year I give up something for Lent. Some years are far harder than others. Sophomore year in high school, for instance, I "gave up guys". Believe it or not, this brace-faced, sports-obsessed, terribly bobbed haired girl had no trouble that year. I thought I was so clever. I had an excuse to not have a date. "Um, of course I will not go out with him if he asks. I gave up guys for LENT.  HELLLL-O!" Then there was that second year in nursing school. I gave up all caffeine, including chocolate. Hard enough, right? Well, I hadn't thought ahead to realize I was about to have my first taste of night shift in the form of clinicals in my future PICU home. I remember looking out the window at 2:30 or so in the morning. That's when I always hit the proverbial night shift wall. I thought, "I don't think I have ever been stone sober at 2:30 in the morning. Where is my Coke and Snickers to get me through?" I was 23 after all, life was generally about eating bad and drinking often. Well, this year, I tried something different. Since I found out I was having a girl, I've gone a bit overboard on the whole clothes thing. I think it's because, with E, I was so used to gazing longingly at the millions of girls clothes options and always walking out of the store with a sulk and 3 boring striped Polos. "It is finally my turn to walk over to that girl's section!" I remember thinking. Well, a year later and C's closet is full to overflowing and E still has his lonely Polos. Thus, I actually gave up buying kid's clothes for Lent. Yep and I've surprised even myself. I had to delete all my Facebook "Auctions" and stop looking at Zulily altogether. On Ash Wednesday, while putting E in his tennis shoes, he looked up and said, "Mom, I think my shoes are too tight." I actually looked at him and said, "Sorry, Bud, they'll have to do for 39 days. I advise you to stop growing for a bit." Mom of the Year nomination? Anyone? Anyone? Anyway, I have almost made it through the 40 days with no purchases! Fear not. He has appropriately sized boots. The second thing I "gave up" was a little different. I wanted to physically push myself just a tad. I was getting in a run-same-2-mile-loop-while-hubs-showers-from-7-7:30 rut. A total rut. I would run my 2.1 miles and not even remember doing it. Not that I've ever exactly enjoyed running but I knew if I didn't get out of my rut, I would start to think of reasons not to roll out of bed in the morning. Oh, like C has decided in past weeks that she'd prefer to be nursed again around 2:30, but that's another blog post in itself. Anyway, I decided to make a goal of 15 miles/ week. I work 2 days/week so, on average, I need to run 3 miles/day if I don't want to run after a 12 13.5 hour work day. Well, unless I run my 3 before Hom leaves, I'm stuck with this...

 Yep. That's 30 pounds of stroller and 45 pounds of kid. Let me tell you, hills are no joke with almost 80 extra pounds. I have finally maxed out on running slogging with these two 3.1 miles. That was a doozey and I felt like I'd just run a marathon. Talk about disappointment when I looked down at my little runtastic app and it said, "3.1". Womp. Womp.

Some good has come of this though, I mean check out this bit of awesomeness. We've done two 5K's during Lent. In the first one, I got first overall in my age and in this Color Me Rad, I was first girl overall. There wasn't actually a timer or "places" as it was a total non-competetive race but, in my heart, I knew I was first (and I have NEVER been first.) We were in the first wave and got up at the front so we could see the folks in front of us, none of which were girls. Holla! That being said, it was an awesome, laid back race. In addition, I got to spend about 4 hours with my BFF there while the kiddos got spoiled by grandmas. Win-win for the Home Team.  Now that Easter is almost here, I've come to a few conclusions...I cannot wait to buy some clothes and I cannot wait to sleep in and just walk every now and then.