Faster, higher, stronger - Dingo athletes keep calm and carry on through August! - Page 8

[kerc]

whew. long time no posting. also long time limited formal workout-ing. I did do the 30 day shred for about 17 days. It kicked my a$$, something fierce. Might have to go that route again soon. I got road bike shoes and am loving biking, although I don't love sharing a bike with my dh. I'm so not a gadget girl and he has a bike computer, tri bars, some other do-dad and his seat is totally in the wrong spot. He's wanting to show me all the do-dads and how they work and I'm wanting him to show me how to change a flat (as I've never done it).  Considering a half in september, but we have no cash to register right now. So just considering.....

Geofizz ... childcare? How did the first day/week of school go?  I almost just emailed you to ask about your summer. Also because this friday I rode bikes with oldest dd and unplanned ended up dropping her off at her friends' house, asked the mom, "Can she stay for 45 minutes?" and then told dd, get yourself home. Thinking of your friend who gets flack for sending her dd to soccer or softball or whatever unaccompanied.   

Lord of the flies daycare?  Yes!  Why do we allow this? And 10 is too soon to be home alone. Then again, think, if you never went to another faculty meeting.

Poppy...how is it that my kids are approaching the age where we consider HPV?  (want to stick my head in the sand and pretend like they are still preschoolers, but they aren't).

Bec ... in a discussion at soccer the other night, it came out that my kids are the only kids who can't make their own breakfast. (among the 6 yr old team). I've since been encouraging self-sufficiency. Youngest dd likes toast with peanut butter and a piece of fruit for breakfast. We have kept the bread on top of the fridge (our old dog would snatch bread when no one was looking). They don't have tv issues, but given the choice they might spend the entire day reading in the living room, with a trail of crackers and blueberries to the kitchen.

Nic --- on worrying about feeling adequate. Yes. This. and how to keep your house "up" when you're working?  Well, let me know when you figure that out. My strategy thus far has been to clear it of clutter in a big way right before going back, so that there are fewer piles to deal with and it is easier to clean.

Jo -- I owe you mail. Tomorrow dear friend. Which sounds lame, but my darn dh set all my correspondence in one pile and, well, there it is, hidden from view.

Sparkle -- feeling inadequate on the first day of graduate school? yep. sounds about right. writing assignment? yep.

Plady -- I thought of you when someone on pinterst posted a book about bullying. I'll see if I can find it.

everyone one else

[bec]

Yep - It's mostly toast, with either the spreadable cheese, or cheese sticks or peanut butter.  They will also go for fruit as well.  They like making breakfast burritos by putting PB or cream cheese or laughing cow on a tortilla and slicing banana, strawberries, or whatever else is available.  They usually choose pretty well.  But, the toaster is the only hot thing they use (we are not to the stove yet).  They do watch a little tv in the morning, so I can sleep in, but, that is more a summer thing than a school thing.  When I get up, everything goes off, and they often have noses stuck in books unless I tell them they are children that need to run and send them outside.  Snack independence came when I read a thread around MDC, where a mom had made a snack bowl where everything in it was acceptable, pretty much any time.  I started doing that, and then made a snack drawer in the fridge.  Breakfast is a pretty low key affair here, so it is mostly snack drawer things.

RR:  I did the Pub Run 5k last night.  It was SO much fun!  I'm surprised how well I ran with so much beer in me!  There were 4 different bars that we ran to, where we got a beer at each one.  The first one was a full 16oz beer!  There was a lot of laughing, belching and hilarity!  Good beers, too! 

Tonight, I work, then first day of school tomorrow (not going to be pretty, as I anticipate not getting out of there before 1, and probably much later!).  Tri class tomorrow night, followed by MORE late working.  I thought this was finished!  Ugh! 

[sparkletruck]

Kids and Breakfast: we do stove-top (ds makes his own oatmeal, and dd likes to make french toast), but they got a big lesson/lecture on safety (we have gas/open flame) as my sister (half; grew up with her mom) was burned severely when she was 8: her nightgown [then made w/ flamable material] burst into flames. She was in hospital for 3 mos., skin grafts, etc. I dont let them use knives yet though....

RR: weight circuit this a.m. My prof. was there doing his. Gad is he fit. Its funny b/c he's a soft spoken, a little absent-minded 50-ish Jewish professor with hair that would probably achieve jew-fro status if he let it grow, and yet he has like the physique of a roman sculpture or something. He was doing exercises that I tried later and I cant even do it (side plank, upper leg in the air, upper arm holding weight into the air and then reaching it down and under/around the body and then back up into the air - whew. I cant stay that balanced, and man is it a core work-out)

[JayGee]

breakfast ~ DS makes his own and is allowed to use the stove. He usually scrambles up a couple of eggs for himself.  He's my "go to" person for cooking up ground meat.  I think he likes having an adult responsibility like that.  Plus, I hate cooking up ground meat!   The girls will get cereal or make toast, but usually want me to do it for them.  Luckily, I'm a morning person and usually up at least an hour before anyone else in the family.  Of course, that usually means I crash out on the sofa at 9:00pm, much to DH's chagrin...

bec ~ that sounds like the most fun race ever!  I couldn't run a straight line after ONE 16oz. glass of beer.  I can't imagine four!!!

sparkle ~ whoa, that sounds like a serious plank!  I love your description of your prof .

kerc ~ road bike shoes make a difference don't they?  You can really gain power from "pulling up", not just "pushing down". 

RR ~ yeah, well, not so much...

NRR ~ DH and I are going out to eat tonight.  And after that, I'm doing another Whole30.  My eczema is out of control, and I know food is the culprit, just not sure which food.  The Whole30 protocol followed by the strict reintroduction guidelines in It Starts With Food should shed a little light on the cause.  I just need to climb out of my sugar hole .

[mommajb]

I feel like I have been gone so long that I don't know where to start.

vaccines: in the end we have only done the required ones and as late as possible (for school) and such. Now I wonder if I shouldn't be a little more proactive. For so long I thought I was avoiding risks, now I think I am taking different risks. That said, my older two were old enough for the HPV as it was first coming out and I decided to wait and see what the response was as it rolled out. We haven't done it yet but I did talk to them about what it is and that they can have it and that they haven't had it. I suggest it to them before becoming sexually active along with birth control. I know they may not ask/tell me everything but I am trying to keep open the lines of communication and will probably schedule them to complete the series before high school graduation. Given that we are starting college visits I may need to get on that.

breakfast: I insist on eggs for various reasons. I keep boiled eggs in the fridge and all school age children can fry or scramble eggs though dd7 usually asks someone to make hers when they start to do theirs. Snacks are boiled eggs, cheese sticks, or walnuts. If this doesn't sound good wait for the next meal. They must eat a green vegetable at all meals (green onions, chives or green salsa on eggs at breakfast). They had all slipped into eating constantly a diet of only fruit, pasta, and oatmeal and this was my first step at curing that. Now we go through snap peas at an amazing rate proving to me that my children will do anything for sugar!

running: my training is at a level I want to be at when I start training for the half. The plan I chose is a bit aggressive and starts Sept 11 for a Jan 20 race. If only I could control my eating habits. (I sure talk big in the paragraph above, don't I?)

NRR: big kids are in school, little kids have a water sports camp next week. Ds2 turns 5 over Labor Day weekend, we start back into lessons while dh, ds1 and dd1 go on school retreats. I strongly dislike being home alone with just little people overnight. I am trying to figure out our schedule of activities for fall and am not sure where the sweet spot is between too quiet and too busy.

Now that I have all about me out of the way I may get to personals next time. Please know that I am thinking about you individually and collectively! Big celebrations of family, back to work, back to school, and more. Dingos are such a strong, thoughtful bunch of amazing women!

[kerc]

3 hot miles.

[tjsmama]

DS will get his own breakfast if I'm sleeping and he's hungry, but his preference usually runs to dry cereal. I'm kind of glad he doesn't like milk on his cereal, so I don't have to worry about him trying to pour it. Sometimes he'll get a cheese stick or a banana, but he'll almost always pick cereal.

Crazy busy night at work last night. When I left work yesterday morning, there were 10 patients in labor. When I came back in, 7 had delivered but there were still 8 in labor. The admit nurses got their behinds handed to them yesterday! We had two sick calls, so we were short-staffed, which meant that I got an extra couplet. Which actually wasn't so bad, except that it was a fresh c-section that was brought upstairs right in the middle of me trying to do all my 24 hour checks with a baby. Nonetheless, I survived.

Thanks to the busy night, I got home late, and had less than 2 hours to sleep before I needed to get up. Today was the final stage of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, and I wanted to take DS downtown to watch it, since we hadn't been able to get out to any of the other stages. Fortunately, a facebook plea last night resulted in us getting to tag along with some friends and neighbors, which was awesome. They figured out the logistics and picked us up and transported us...all I had to do was pack some water and snacks in a backpack and get us out the front door. It was a lot of fun watching the stage...it was a time trial, so we had riders passing us about every minute, and we were on an out and back section, so we got to see everyone twice. Tons of fun! And amazing to see how fast those guys ride...it's FAST.

I just packed DS's lunch for the first day of school tomorrow, so I need to get off to bed, too, so I can get him up in the morning. It's kind of amazing that I'm still conscious at this point, to be honest...

[bec]

Worked late last night (yes, I thought I was done with those for a while.  Turns out, a while meant one week.  Gah!).  Got home around 2am.  Got to bed around 2:30.  Got up at 6:30 (after having dreams of marking freaking purses on sale) to get kids off to the first day of school.  Heading back to bed as soon as they go! 

I will have tri class tonight, bringing a change of clothes with me.  This will be immediately followed by, more late night work!  I probably could have declined this (it was a last minute add on), but I was only scheduled for 5 hours this week, so wanted the hours.  I was asked to come in early yesterday, and then we stayed late, so my 5 hours has already turned into 8.5 hours.  I am anticipating at least another 5 hours, maybe longer. 

[tjsmama]

Lesson learned today: sleep is not optional when it comes to running. Even though my legs and lungs felt good, I just could not keep going this morning. Turned around early and only "ran" 3.5 instead of my planned 4.5. Oh well. At least it was something, right?

DS's first day of school today. I have to admit that while I am ready for him to go back to school, I did cry a teeny bit. How is my baby a first grader already??

[MelW]

I'm loving hearing about back to school for everyone. Here we don't start until after Labour day, but our new school has the first two weeks alloted for "sparks" (Peter Benson-inpsired) conversations with students and teachers and development of IEPs. We got our welcome package and some pre-assessment activities that she did easily until the one about sparks that resulted in an hour of crying, a trip to the school to allay anxieties and the eventual revelation that she's afraid to say what she's passionate about "in case I change my mind". 

Breakfast: My three year old will happily make herself breakfast (banana, cheese & crackers, cereal & almond milk). The six year old drags her heels a bit, but will make oatmeal, cereal, etc. She's terrified of making eggs and still struggles to crack them without a massive mess.

RR: Hit my time goal today on a new short trail run that I've been working at getting under 30 min. 29:18 in perfect cloudy weather and right before lunch. 

NRR: After delaying/avoiding kid questions about camping all summer long I booked a campsite for Wednesday night. The summer seems to have gotten away and it looked like the last window of opportunity that wouldn't be insanely busy (long weekend), or filled with work. It's within cell range and pretty local so I can still technically be on call and camping at the same time. 

[bec]

Well, work turned out shorter than anticipated, and I was only there 3 hours!  Class was fun, we did zip lining! 

Because we got out by 11:00pm, I hustled home, and was able to drag my butt out of bed at 0'Dark100 this morning to go to bootcamp!  I'm feeling pretty proud of myself having gotten there 2 weeks in a row, and especially on short sleep.  I'm hoping to get to Thursday's spin.  I am thinking that these early, early morning workouts are the way that I am going to manage kids, work and exercise!

[Plady]

Hi Mamas!

I'm just surfacing briefly to check in.  From the speed of things it looks like we're all busy with back-to-school stuff.  Dd1 started 5th grade today and Ali G starts kindy tomorrow.  I also get Sparkletruck and family tomorrow!!! 
 

We're still on the no sugar no grains wagon although we had some deviation the last week, dd1 while at camp and Ali G and I in California.  My mom is kind of a sugar junkie (although she only weighs 100 lbs and apparently doesn't have diabetes, go figure).  She had not one but two birthday cakes frozen and waiting for us.  One was the smaller 4 or 5" type of three layer cake the other was the identical bigger version, 8 or 9", you know suitable for 16 people or more.  I said we should just have the small one since there were only three of us after all and I only planned to have a token slice.  So that one was inhaled and then she brought out the big one two days later when we visited another older aunt.  We didn't do too much damage to that one but I'd be surprised if she hadn't finished the rest of it by now.  Yikes.  Anyway, the rest of the time I cooked so we were good and I did notice (and point out) the difference in Ali G's demeanor and behavior post-sugar as opposed to the rest of the time. 

The rest of the visit I spent more or less silently while she talked on endlessly about all sorts of familial injustices and retold stories for the millionth time.  I wondered if it bothered her that I almost never responded but now I think she never noticed.

Sorry for no personals today, I've got some farm chores to attend to before my special guests arrive tomorrow!

[sparkletruck]

LOL

...and on my end Im cleaning (for the house-sitter ) and doing laundry for packing, and trying to finish up work for class (BBC podcast on Hericlitus anyone), and just got this email from my mom: "??????? What is the news!" Appropo of NOTHING. Haven't talked to her in 2 months

[MelW]

bec, I'm admiring the drive to get up early for bootcamp. Way to go!

Plady, glad you survived your visit with you mom.

sparkle, tell her you're pregnant, then disappear to Plady's for a few days and let her stew about it.... (or insert whichever other scandalous news would be more appropriate- pregnant with triplets? Having a scandalous affair with a senator? Leaving your husband for the garbage man?) If she wants news, I can certainly supply some

NRR- I have a cold and it's beating on my desire to be organized. I planned to spend the morning at the office getting some paperwork/prep out of the way, and showed up without my keys and had to beg for help to get in. We were going to camp nearby tonight, but I just don't want to and cancelled. Plus the weather is crummy with 40% chance of rain.

RR- Brought my running gear to work for a lunch run, but no shoes (see above re: airheadedness). I'm going shopping for new plant pots instead.

[JayGee]

Plady and sparkle ~ you both have some "interesting" Moms.... Plady, my MIL is the exact same way.  On and on and on and on rehashing the same things that happened ages ago and kvetching about various family members.  All I have to do is nod and throw in a "really?" or "hmmmmmm...." and she's good to go.  Hope you both enjoy your Dingo meetup!!!

bec ~ for me, getting home at 11:00 would be reason to sleep in, not reason to get up for early boot camp !!!

MelW ~ have a good time camping and I hope your phone stays quiet.

tjsmama ~ how'd the first day of first grade go?  It's amazing they're this big already, isn't it.

RR ~ I dragged my sad, weak core to Pilates for the first time since May.  It's wasn't pretty, and I'll certainly be feeling it tomorrow morning.  But I'm so glad I went.  After that, another round of PT with lots of work on my piriformis (OUCH) and IT band (OUCH).  The back is much improved, but apparently at age 44, going for a run and then not stretching at all isn't such a hot idea.  They assure me that once they can work through the knots in my butt and leg, I'll be good to go.  We'll see.

NRR ~ DD1 and DS both tried out for year round swim team last night and were selected .  DD was whining and moaning the whole way there, but the second we were in the building, she was saying, "I can't wait to get in the pool!"  She'll start practices next week, just 2x a week for now.  DS won't start until after soccer season ends this fall.  School is going great.  DS was placed in advanced math and is overall, a LOT more challenged in all his subjects this year.  After his crap-matic teacher last year, it's such a relief to see him enjoying school again.  Not much else new except for the fact that I CANNOT stop eating sugar!  I can't even make it through ONE DAY!  I have got to get this sugar monkey off my back once and for all.  I've put on 10 pounds this summer.  My eczema is out of control.  And I want to nap all the time.  I know, rationally, that taking out the sugar eliminates all those problems, but it's call is so irresistable to me.  Argh!

[Mel38]

sparkle - I am laughing at that out-of-the-blue email from your mom! Have fun visiting Plady!

jg - Congrats to your DS and DD on the swim team!! And I can so relate to those cravings! I have not been good myself, and recently bought a box of that fleur de sel caramel stuff from Trader Joes. I just couldn't *not* buy it, and last night I could barely get to sleep after inhaling 4 pc of that stuff. Pure sugar, and corn syrup at that.
 

If I wanted to get serious about sugar again, I would do cold turkey. It just takes me getting to a certain point of "I can't take this any more!" and then I'll be ready.

Mel - great suggestions there for the scandal!  Glad you were able to switch running plans to a fun errand, and I hope your cold clears up quickly.

bec - wow, good for you getting your workouts done early! And the bootcamp - that sounds like a great way to start the day.

Plady - hm, is the cake a sabotage kind of thing, or is she not paying attention to what you are telling her about your diet changes? Gosh, you guys have been so good at cutting out sugar and seeing all kinds of benefits from that. Have fun with your Dingo-sister Sparkle!! Fun.

mommajb - I love the eggs for breakfast idea, and keeping them in the fridge hard boiled for snacks. And we, too, are trying to figure out some kind of balance between activities and still allowing enough time for homework, at least one activity-free day, and also balancing between kids. It's mostly about my 10 and 6 year olds, since the 16 yo plans her own afternoons now. In our family, I feel that the 6 yo is getting nothing while the 10 yo has all the cool sports, music lessons, etc, but he just isn't really interested yet. He loves to just tag along and play where ever we are. How young do you start them on the real organized stuff?

RR: My knee has been pretty good lately (knocking on my wooden desk as I write this). I have a half planned on Sept. 8th, which is going to be slow, but I don't mind. I am mostly just shooting for feeling strong throughout and of course being sound of body at the finish.

NRR: Trying to finish up work before a weekend trip to visit friends in NC. Thinking of my dingo friends - have a great holiday weekend, if you have Monday off!

[1jooj]

I humbly beg pardon of all you great women. All about me here.

I am doing OK. Kids and I have started school. I am working on getting into the swing of school with my two. Dh returned home Saturday night, and we had a nice couple of days, working around his schedule for school, though it is going to be overwhelming on both kids, and for different reasons, for a while. Poor ds. I am now seeing how miserably behind he is in LA, and he is going to have to learn a whole new style of test-taking, AND now has to figure out his own study style (written notes for absolutely everything). Dd has to learn how to perform as well for Mom as she might for a third party (ugh). What this means in the meantime is LONG days until they get it figured out.

Then, my friend came home with her kids today, and there is clearly an understanding/priority gap. I keep repeating, for everyone's benefit, school is in session and this is REAL school, with real grades (esp for my MSer), not summer practice. What may end up being the case is that the kids and I leave a LOT in order to get our work done, until everyone else's school starts next week.

And then, a couple days after his arrival, dh has been called back overseas. He leaves tomorrow morning early. We said our goodbyes today. He'll be back in time for the party, we hope.

RR: Ha ha.

[tjsmama]

I love mel's response to sparkle's email.

jo~Ugh. Can you find a "no entry" zone to do your schoolwork in? That's got to be so tough. And DH might not be home in time for the party??? Oh nooooooo.


First grade seems to be going well so far. From what I can tell from what I can drag out of DS, anyway. I swear, I do not understand why I cannot get my kiddo to tell me anything about his day. And then, of course, he calls his dad and grandma to tell them about school and talks his head off. Good thing I'm not above eavesdropping!

I'm pretty wiped out after working 4 out of the last 5 nights. Especially after being off for almost two weeks before that! And last night was BUSY. I am rarely that busy when I'm on postpartum, but I barely sat down. I was chasing blood sugars on a baby all.night.long. I had to poke that poor kiddo's foot so many times. :-( And then I had another kiddo who was a pretty crappy breastfeeder/mom had a flat nipple. So here's me, the new grad, desperately trying to get the ONE nipple shield that I could find on the unit (WHY must lactation lock them down?) to work when I barely know how to use it. It kind of worked, at least. Enough to get them through until lactation could see them today, anyway! Thank goodness that my third couple was totally fine and pretty much didn't need anything all night. I was exhausted when I got home this morning!

I had 25 pounds of peaches delivered tonight, so guess what I'm going to be doing this weekend? It was a fundraiser for the PT students at school, and it was too good of a deal to pass up...so, we will be making peach jam, peach desserts, peach drinks, peach sauces, peach peach peach for the next week or two! Anyone got any good peach recipes?

[bec]

Here I am, sipping my iced coffee, having already been to spin class!  I think I can get used to this early schedule!  I sure don't like getting up at 5, but sure do like being done before 7!  And, this is the best way, I think, for me to have consistency in my exercise, while dealing with kids, school, husband and work.

Gaye - My oldest was like that.  Even now, I have to ask very specific questions in order to get anything out of her.  Abby and Emily will go the other direction and give so much information, it is hard to weed out the important parts!  When I asked Abby how her day was yesterday, she started with waking up.  It took some effort to get her to skip to the part where she was in her classroom with her teacher and go from there!

Jo - That would be frustrating.  I agree with a room you can close the door on?  Although, maybe the library is a good choice anyway.  Nothing like a studious environment to make kids be studious.  And I hope DH can make the party!!!  He's kinda an important part of it!

I really need to get back on the no sugar wagon!  More than that, I really need to get on the fewer grains wagon.  I haven't strayed too far from South Beach yet, but I really need to refocus on it.  Things have been super stressed and tense around my house for reasons that I can't get into in public, so it has been hard to stay on the straight and narrow nutrition path.  I'm hoping that things will be resolved in the next day or two. 

Katie has her first cross country meet today!  I'm really proud of her for doing this. 

[Geofizz]

Jo,  If you can't have a dedicated space to school, I wonder if you could signal school -- both for the kids and others -- by consistently playing quiet music in the background?  How far behind and in what manner for LA?  Just reflecting one year of ho-hum education, or more than that?  I'm sure you'll all settle in soon.  I'm soooo sad to be missing the party.  I hope at a minimum your DH doesn't miss it.
 

RP hurt her foot.  I suspect our half marathon is now in jeopardy, as our longest long run was 6 miles, and that was probably a month ago.  :(

Geofizz ... childcare? How did the first day/week of school go?  I almost just emailed you to ask about your summer. Also because this friday I rode bikes with oldest dd and unplanned ended up dropping her off at her friends' house, asked the mom, "Can she stay for 45 minutes?" and then told dd, get yourself home. Thinking of your friend who gets flack for sending her dd to soccer or softball or whatever unaccompanied.   

We found a sitter.  She's an actuarial sciences major and musician.  So far so good.  She's just 19, so she's a lot younger than the others have been, but at least hopefully that means we'll have her for a while. 

We've started doing that kind of thing with DD as well -- ride your bike to the friend's house, call me when you get there.  A lot of our neighborhood operates that way.  The irony of all this is that it seems socially acceptable for all parents to give their kids free reign like that unless it's a single mom in charge.  Then she's neglectful. 

DD had a rough start to the school year, with not all adults doing their jobs.  I sympathize with her frustration, but not the fact that she's expressed it through rudeness to those adults.  I had a new parenting experience -- getting a phone call from the principal complaining about her behavior.    DS is already bored.  He loves school, but I'm terrified of how this is going to play out.  Math in the new common core will be dedicated to addition and subtraction of multi-digit numbers with carrying and borrowing.  Very little else.  He proved mastery of that with the same teacher last year.  And we're supposed to stick this out through November 5?