Operation Baking Gals – Round 15

I volunteered to be a host for Operation Baking Gals, Round 15! I’m so excited to be a part of this amazing group.

Operation Baking Gals is a group that sends packages to troops serving overseas. When I heard there weren’t enough people to host soldiers, I knew I had to volunteer. It’s hard enough being away from your family and loved ones, but to be so far away during the holidays is even worse. This is just ONE way to help make a difference for our soldiers. Find out more by visiting Operation Baking Gals. The best part is for each soldier, up to 20 people can join and volunteer to send a care packages – it doesn’t have to be baked goods! Most of these soldiers share with their group and it really shows them how much we care about them, even if we don’t know them personally.

Our soldier’s name is Jonan and his super sweet wife, Rachel, nominated him. I’ve traded a few e-mails with her and found that Jonan loves peanut butter and chocolate, which led me to buy the biggest jar of Skippy I could find!

If you’d like to join me, here’s how to sign up:

1. Go to http://www.bakinggals.com/ and Log In or Create a New Account (If you’re creating a new account, it can take up to a day to be approved.)
2. Go to Join a Round 15 Team
3. Join Team Santa’s Little Baker (if the team is full at 20 people signed up, please consider signing up for another team, or sign up for another anyway! You can read about each team’s soldier by clicking on Meet the Round 15 Teams.)
4. Wait for an email with the shipping address

If you have any questions, please visit the Operation Baking Gals FAQ, or leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you.

Please consider helping bring some holiday cheer to a soldier far from home. If you know of anyone serving overseas who’d like to receive packages, please let me know!

And don’t forget, you can get flat-rate shipping boxes delivered from the post office for free by clicking here. They even say “America Supports You.” Plus, they ship for $11.95! (You do have to order a package of 10 – but you don’t pay until you mail them, and hopefully you’ll join us again to support our troops!)

Feline Friday

 

"I'm bored. Bored. Bored. Bored." - Loki

"Just making sure you don't forget about me mom" - Lovie

"Actually, it's quite comfortable, thank you very much." - Lovie

"But really, I just want to be close to mom. And the computer warms my butt. BONUS!" - Lovie

 

"Are you done yet mom? Look how cute I am!" - Lovie

 

"No, no, no. That doesn't work. You have to DO something ... like dump out all your toys. OOH, I've been looking for that." - Loki

 

"I love toys." - Loki

 

"Operation Toy Dump complete. Commence nap time." - Loki

 

 

 

 

When failure isn’t really failure

Anyone else realize that it’s really Day 15 of my 30 days of running and I haven’t updated since Day 6?

Um, yeah, well … lets just call this project a big, fat, failure. *hanging head in shame* Here’s the truth – I’m completely afraid of hurting myself. And hobbling around for 4 days with minor shin splints was enough for me to take a step back and re-evaluate what I’m doing.

One of the things I love about goals is that they’re always open to revisions and tweaks. We’ve all had to revise goals – either making them more or less challenging. And, for a while there, I was really disappointed in my inability to stick with this particular goal. But, then I read these quotes:

“It is on our failures that we base a new and different and better success.” – Havelock Ellis

“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.” – Henry Ford

“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” – Elbert Hubbard

“What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.” – Mary Pickford

So, with those inspirational messages, I’m revising my goal … I’ve signed up for the Festival Foods Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day. My goal is to run the 2-mile course in under 30 minutes. A modest goal, yes, but I know myself, and this is something that isn’t totally unattainable – like the 30 days of running, which I seriously questioned right from the beginning.

I think from now on my running goals will be in milage for the month. Life seems to get extremely complicated whenever I try to do a goal that requires everyday activity. Plus, I really want to start focusing on some other activities too – yoga and maybe Jillian Michael’s 30 day Shred. I think it’s the cooler weather that has me wanting to stay indoors more. (Though I do plan to try getting outdoors more this winter as part of Angela’s Project Snow – thankfully snow shoveling counts!)

So, here’s my question for you: Have you ever had to revise a goal and how did that make you feel?

Days 5 & 6 of running

Day 5 – big fat skip. My shins were hurting pretty bad, so I took that as a sign to take it easy.

Day 6 – I had quite the busy day – a dr. appt at 8 a.m., then work from 9:30-5:30. I made a point to bring my clothes with me to work so I could use the treadmills in the gym at work. This was the first time I’d used our gym, and boy was I disappointed. I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to get the treadmill to do a ‘manual’ setting where I could adjust the speed as I needed. So, about 2 minutes into the run, the speed dropped to 1 and the incline increased. UGH. I did a quick half-mile and then vowed to make sure I drove to the gym on the way home next time.

It wasn’t a bad run, but not a great one either … I was more frustrated by not knowing how to use the machine (or have a place to put my ipod and a bottle of water). I’m planning to hit my gym tomorrow morning for a little longer run.

When I got home, I took a nice, HOT, bath and my shins feel a lot better now – still a little sore, but I’m not limping, so that’s good.

Six days & about 5 miles down …

Day 4 of running

Despite my little injury yesterday, I sucked it up and went out for a quick little 1-mile run this afternoon with the hubby.

My shins didn’t bother me until I got home, at which point I iced them after a shower and now they’re feeling pretty good. (Course, I haven’t attempted to climb stairs in the last 5 hours, so that may change shortly.)

My one-mile loop took 12:30. Pretty darn good considering Scott is just starting to get into running/jogging and he said this was probably the most he’s ever ran. I’m pretty proud of him for jumping into this adventure – and having lost almost 20 lbs in the last month!

I’m actually looking forward to the rest of the week of running. Wait … it’s the beginning of the week. Hm. Well, then.

Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement. It definitely helps keep me looking on the positive side of things!

Day 3 of running

I woke up totally ready to just skip running, but after seeing a sweet comment from my mom on my last post, I knew I had to do it.

Even though it was VERY little running, and a LOT of walking. See, I was feeling the beginning of shin splints. Not cool.

Scott and I did the loop near his place – 2.8 miles total – and we probably ran/jogged about a quarter of it. I had quite the noticeable limp by the end of it. Ooops.

So, stats:

2.8 miles (prob run about 3/4 mile – 1 mile)

Time: about 45 min

Not my most impressive time, but at least I got moving, right? I’m thinking there will be some time during this month that I have to take a break. I don’t want to hurt myself, but I also don’t want to give myself too much slack to hang myself with. So, I’m thinking 3-4 “free” days throughout the month.

This morning (Day 4), I’m feeling much better and don’t feel any real pain in my shins. I’m hoping to make the mile loop by my house without any problems.

As mom would say  - 3 down, 27 more to go!

Day 2 of 30 days running

Yeah, I’m already thinking I must be crazy. I did NOT want to get up this morning. (I’m guessing because I knew I had to go to work at some point today – blah!)

I found a 1-mile route finally – everything I had been doing wasn’t quite a mile. 11:17. My biggest challenge today – other than just getting out of bed – was wet leaves. Come on people, clear off the sidewalks!!

Weather was great though – I think I like running outside in fall. The colors are pretty and it’s nice and cool.

Tomorrow will be the true test of dedication – I have to leave for work at 12:45. And I don’t get done with work tonight until 1 a.m. *sigh*

I must be crazy.

30 days of running

I’m stealing this new challenge from Lisa at School of Raw – from her “Release your inner chubby child challenge”

30 days of running.

*gasp*

Rules are simple: Run every day for 30 days. Doesn’t matter how far, though I’m shooting for at least a half mile each day. I’m even gonna allow myself a little bit of walking in there if I need to.

Why do this? Why not? I’ve slacked off for a while and need to get back to doing something. And I figure now is a good time before the snow makes things very difficult/dangerous.

Stats for Day 1: (Thursday)

1.46 miles (via mapmyrun.com) in 17:20

Think I can do this? (Even if you don’t, please lie. I cry easily.)

Things that make me smile

It’s been a really rough week or so, so I’m taking a page from Tina at Carrots & Cake and listing some things that make me happy.

my favorite tea from Fava - Red, white & blue

farm-fresh heirloom tomatoes

And of course .. my boys

Lovie - *yawn*

Loki - "Too tired to play anymore, mom"

Snuggling with my boys

Yeah, bad hair, I know .. but snuggling with my boys is seriously the BEST thing ever.

Do what you want

Last week, I listened to a speaker talk about how important it is to take care of ourselves and have “me” time. It really resonated with me and I started thinking about all the things I used to do for myself but don’t do anymore.

Now, if you know me, you’re probably wondering what the hell I DO since it seems like I have oodles of time for myself. (Seriously, I ask myself the same question sometimes.) One of the exercises this speaker urged us to do was write down all the things that take up your time and energy and see where you can trim from. I noticed that I waste a lot of time on the internet just putzing around, looking at recipes, get sucked into Twitter, or just randomly checking Facebook or e-mail (I’m really not that popular, so there’s no need for me to check it every 10 minutes.)

So, today, I made a conscious decision to do what I really wanted to do – read – versus what I thought I should be doing – studying, cooking – or the reality of what I would be doing – putzing on the net and feeling like I should be doing something productive, but unmotivated to do it.

I spent 3 hours curled up on the couch with a cup of tea and a book while the rain fell outside. It was perfect. And now, I feel much more renewed and prepared to be productive tonight.

So, what have I learned from this little experiment?

• It’s SO important to do something nice for yourself. You don’t have to always be doing something productive. It’s OK to make time for a relaxing bath, or just an afternoon of reading, or whatever it is that will make YOU happy.
• I must limit my time at home on the internet. It’s so easy to get sucked into things and end up wasting SO much time doing nothing. On my days off, I’m going to try to limit my collective time on the internet to 3 hours a day – and in between uses, I think I’ll actually turn OFF the computer so I’m not tempted to open it up just to check e-mail.

Tell me, what’s something you would do for yourself if you had time and NO ONE to criticize you?