Stone age or sunrise? You be the judge!

Okay my friends, here goes! One of my resolutions is to share more of my art projects with others. I am such an overachiever, I am doing this on Dec. 31st! I call this one "Running At Sunrise on Brown's Road". Hopefully no bad guys are reading this blog and decide to stalk me on this beautiful rural road. But if they do, I am ready with my mace!

Now back to my painting.I really like how I captured the orange with the blue sky and I also meant for the forground to be shades of black, because that is what the ground really looks like when you are running at sunrise on a crisp winter morning. But I realized the trees do not really look like that. The oak tree needs more thin branches branching out and the pine branches grow more up not out like I showed them. I can fix the oak tree's branches, but oh well on the pine tree. My husband doesn't like the blackness of the ground. My older son loves this painting, he even published it on his music blog. I was so touched! Although I had a fleeting thought that maybe he liked so much because his dad didn't, you know how the son-stepdad relationship can be.

I have realized my blog has hardly mentioned running or chocolate lately. Well, I have been running about 20-25 miles per week, but my right hip flexor is sore so I am not going overboard. I am stretching a lot and working out the lactic acid build up. With regards to chocolate, I have been basically mainlining the junk since Christmas. Being home all week stealing the kids' candy from their stockings has been fun, but I am definitely ready for the routine and regularity work brings to my life. Ask me if I still feel that way on Thursday of next week!! Above is a photo of my running club before our Christmas breakfast celebration. We have just finished our Sat. morning run and the photographer's wife was slaving away making us some awesome french toast and bacon while we were running. I couldn't figure how to make the photo be down here at the bottom. I am the one dressed like Mrs. Claus. It was soooo totally great! Tomorrow we are meeting to run at 8:00am to celebrate the new year. I am not sure what to wear! I'll try to remember my camera!

2006 Resolutions

Well it's that time of year again. The 'do-over' of adulthood - New Year's Resolutins. I have decided I am going write all of my resolutions in a positive word. I hope that will help me keep them.
1. Keep perspective about my fitness performance. Run when I feel healthy, walk when something hurts and feel happy with my race times - no matter what they are. I have concluded that my running obsession must be something that fuels me in a nurturing positive way. I can not allow it to bring stress to my life. My job and family already bring enough stress in my life. My fitness program must alleviate, not add, to that stress. I would like to get out and run/walk 4-5 times a week, with a weekly mile total between 20-35 miles. I plan to run a race/month, focusing on the ten mile races. I have had the most fun and success running the ten milers in the past and have decided it would be rewarding to train for them. I also plan to run one marathon this year. I plan to practice yoga at least fifteen minutes a day five days per week and attend one class per week.
2. Nuture myself and others. I believe that in order provide nuturing care to my family, I first have to nuture myself. I plan to schedule regular massages and other female care; ie manicures or cool hairdos! Then I want to make sure I take care of my marriage and children. Give my husband a loving card weekly, do something out of the ordinary for my kids; ie let them have ice cream before dinner or send them an email to say hello. I have to think of more creative ways to stay close with my kids. They are approaching teenagehood and I want to keep the relationship strong. Also in this resolution, I am including eating healthy. I really want to look at the food pyramid and actually try to eat what they reccommend. That will mean cutting down on the candy, but I know I will feel better if I do.
3. Spend at least one hour a week on my art. This seems so sad that I have to make a resolution about my creative expression, but if I don't plan for it, I will not do it nearly enough. I also want to put my art "out there" for others to see. I have been so shy about my art, I am sick of being so shy. I love what I make and it is selfish of me to keep to myself. I want to show people my view of the world. Actually, I was inspired to paint a picture of the sunrise I saw while running the other day with my two girlfriends. I showed the painting to my husband and he said he didn't like it, it looked like the stone age! But that is okay, that is what he saw and I have to start appreciating the feedback from others and realizing that it can help me to become even more accomplished. I plan on giving the painting to my girlfriends. We'll see if I actually have the gutts to give it to them.

Five Random Facts About Beth

1. I am left-handed and think it is really cool to be so!

2. I delivered all three of my boys totally naturally - no pain belief at all. It wasn't even that hard. My first labor was regular eight hours of hard work, but for number two, the time was cut down by half. My third baby was one of those movie delivieries, he was delivered twenty-one minutes after I arrived at the hospital. The weird thing about that delivery was the labor pains after he was delivered were flippin' awful. My midwife friend said it was my uterus trying to get to its original size, I decided the pain was worth it then!

3. I am an artist, but I often think my artwork looks like a ten year old made it! I have decided that is okay with me!

4. When I was little, I loved when my babysitter read me poetry while we drank tea at her kitchen table.

5. I am afraid of chickens, roosters, and geese, but not ducks. My parents divorced when I was four years old and my father lived on a farm afterward. I basically lived on a farm for half the time and those awful poultry birds always scared the bejesus out of me!!! My fear has sorta turned to hate now!

Back in the Saddle Again

I am recovered from my ailments and love running again. I think I am rejuvenated around running because I have found some very supportive running friends. We meet every Sat. and Sun. morning at 6:30am to run between 6-10 miles. My new running friends are much faster than I am, but they include me and never make me feel like I am a burden. I keep up with them as long as possible (usually till the first big hill, I suck on the hills) and thereafter they just keep doubling back at our turns. They keep me motivated to keep running and they also keep me safe. I am sure many of you have already read about the jogger that was killed while running in the rural area of Woodstock, CT. I enjoy running solo, but for right now I prefer running with a group.

I am also excited about running with some runners that are better than I am because I know I will improve while running with them. About three years ago, I joined another bunch of runners that were better than me and I improved a lot. I ran my fastest marathon after training with them. I am planning on training for a spring marathon. I met with my Boston relatives yesterday to celebrate xmas and I have put them on the job of helping me obtain a Boston "scrub" number from a firefighter or police officer. I know its not the appropriate running way to run Boston, but I don't really care!!! My step-dad qualified last week in a marathon in South Carolina, so hot damn, I want to run the Boston Marathon with him or shall I say way behind him!!

Tonight my friend Deb and I are running a Christmas Lights run in our town. We are meeting at the middle school at 6:30 and plan on running through the streets to see all the neighborhood light displays. Our town running club held a similar run last week at our local soup kitchen. All the members meet at the soup kitchen with our donations and then we ran about three miles together looking at the more award-winning displays. Then we had our club meeting and ate pizza. Tonight we are going to run a little longer distance and check out just the regular joe-smoe decorations. Gotta love the Christmas season!

Sick as a dog :(

I have been sick now for a whole week and it totally SUCKS!! First it started out as a flu type thing with chills that actually kinda hurt and a fever. Then after forcing myself to truck my kiddos around to basketball games and puppet ministry shows, I was really really sick. After about two days of taking it easy, I now only have a nasty cold. My lungs are so full of gunk, I can hardly move. I'll be in the middle of a read-aloud at school and just have to stop reading altogether from the fact I might keel over forwards from hacking. You should see those little sweet very terrified faces when I am coughing so hard that I can't talk or tie their shoes. I have run a little though and I plan on running tomorrow morning.

To end, I have another appreciation for running in the frigid cold and ice, I HAVE to run slowly so I don't fall. It is such a great excuse for doggin' it!! I was having a ball on Tuesday morning when I realized there was no way I could possibly go any faster without breaking my neck!