Super speedy summing up

How about that post title for some alliteration?  I've got to wake up Busy Bee from his nap in a few minutes to bring him to the doctor for an appointment (I'm thinking he may have allergies?  Coughing, running nose, seemingly itchy eyes pretty consistently for a few weeks...not too drastic, but enough to get checked out), but I just have to blog.  I haven't had much free time in the past few days, but when I do I've been doing my best to keep up with all the blogs that I follow, but I haven't taken the time to author any posts.  Now it's my turn.  So, this isn't going to be a very narrative post, but I need to catch myself up on what's been going on around here.

- We joined the YMCA a few weeks ago.  I've been working on being consistent about going.  Yesterday was the first day Busy Bee didn't cry when I dropped him off in the child care room.  Hooray!  (He made it today at Bible Study nursery without crying, too!  Praise the Lord!)

- Because of some inspiration from my friend, Amy, I've started training for a 10K.  There's not a race that I'm signed up for, but it's an eight week program that I'm doing and at the end, I'll run my own 10K.  Amy and I are actually going to be running on the same day - we live about 3 hours apart, but we wanted to train "together."  I'm excited about it, but nervous, too.  Running has never been my strong suit, but I know that it is a very good way to exercise and stay healthy and I wanted to have more of a goal that just "be more healthy." So, a 10K it is.  (Yikes?)  I'm proud to say that yesterday I ran 2.5 miles (okay - ran most of it and walked a few laps of it) at the gym.  I'm on day 3 today, which is 30 minutes of cross training.  It'll be interesting to see how I can fit in Wednesday's workouts, since Wednesdays are a very busy day for us.  I'll do it, though!

- I've started receiving a few craft donations for our craft sale.  (See last month's post for more details - I simply don't have time to do the link, but it's there.  And we'd love more donations!)  It's so cool to see the few things we've gotten already and how many people from different parts of our lives are interested in donating, even if it's only one or two items. 

- I've finally figured out a good time for daily devotions.  My problem was that I wanted to do them in the morning, to start the day, but it's just not a very easy thing to do when your child is your alarm clock - and an inconsistent one at that.  So, I've starting doing my devotions daily right after I put Busy Bee down for his nap.  I feel very good about it, because it offers me a chance to do them when I know he'll be sleeping and the house is quiet, but I also feel like it is a sort of tithe of my time, if you will, because no matter how long my to do list is for nap time (and it's usually quite big) I get to give the first of my free time to God.  I feel like He's been honoring that, and still helping me get done the most important things during that time.

- This past weekend, Busy Bee and I visited my sister and we had a fantastic time.  I'd love to expound on all the details of the trip, but my fingers are flying as it is, and I just have to get this all out...with about two minutes to spare.  So.  The most important thing is that we went and it was great.  We had lots of fun and some good girl time when the kiddos were asleep.  I'm so thankful to live close enough to her that we get to see each other about once a month.  It's a beautiful thing.

- Lastly, we're overhauling the cooking at our house.  In addition to my commitment to exercise, I want to eat better, too.  I know that generally, we've been eating more than we need to and that we've been eating things that aren't completely unhealthy, but also not as healthy as they could be.  In the interest of doing things more healthfully, I found the newest Weight Watchers cookbook at Target the other night.  I don't know much about WW, and I'm not counting points or anything, but there are tons of recipes in there that are similar to the foods we like, but done in more healthy ways.  Also, the recipes are that I can make healthy food but still stay within our budget, which is crucial when you're on a strict budget like we are.  We tried our first recipe last night and it was yummy.  It was supposed to make 4 servings and normally, we would have probably eaten most of it.  Last night, though, I divided it up evenly before we ate and put two servings in the fridge for lunch today.  We each ate one serving (on our dessert plates, because our dinner plates are HUGE and it would have looked like two bites).  We were hungry again later on, but I was proud of the first step of eating what I should be eating.  (Also, I ended up having a snack, but I don't feel guilty about a 100 calorie snack bag of Kettle Korn.  Yum!)

That's where I'm going to have to end today.  Gotta run!