it was a good week - 5, 5, 5, 19.
perfect weather for my 19 yesterday, and it even rained a little to cool me down.
i felt pretty good overall, but i'm still feeling a little burnt out. so looking forward to taper time!

the kids have been collecting pinecombs and pretty little flowers from our yard.
we found the antique bowl and milk jar at a garage sale this week.

this week 5,8,5,12.

thinking fall

fall is my favorite time of year! thought i'd share some fun fall ideas w/you:

a simple and inexpensive, but fun halloween costume

so pretty!

i made these last year and they were a hit.

love the washer idea!

all images from here.

10 miles down this week.
24 to go.

pinterest is one of those places where i can easily spend too much time, so i try to go there only when i'm looking for something specific. lately it has helped me find fall crafts for the kids. so many good ideas. i usually end up stumbling on things i wasn't looking for too. like these:

a fireplace in the kitchen? yes please.
love this leaf art!

• last night we got to meet our new niece rebecca. steve's sister had a baby on his birthday! that makes 13 nieces and nephews for us!

• i've been keeping up with marathon training pretty well. this saturday is 19. i think my friend carol is going to bike by me for part of it, so that will be a really nice way to break it up a little. really hard to believe the marathon is in 5 weeks. 

• steve is getting baptized on sunday!! I'm so thankful for how God has worked in our lives. When we were married 15 years ago, I didn't know the Lord, and Steve wasn't walking with Him at the time. He has replaced our hard, unresponsive hearts with soft hearts that long to treasure Him above all things.

i love how john piper describes baptism here:

"What we celebrate in baptism is the mighty work of God in the hearts of children and adults to bring them to repentance and faith in Christ. When we ask if Jesus is their Savior and Lord, we celebrate the eternally important truth that they have received him for their own. When we baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we celebrate the involvement of the whole Godhead in their conversion and their new relation to each Person in the Trinity. When we immerse them in the water, we celebrate the death and burial of Jesus Christ for our sins. When we raise them up out of the water, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and their participation in it. And when they walk out of the baptismal waters, we celebrate the newness of life in love and joy that Jesus gives.
My prayer is that the baptismal candidates themselves and everyone who witnesses their baptism will experience a rekindling of love to God for all he has done for us in making us part of the new covenant people through repentance and faith."

last night was so much fun. i went out with some girlfriends to dinner and to see this movie. we had all read the book before going. the book was better (which is usually the case), but the movie was really good too. i hadn't seen a good movie in a really long time.

have you read the book or seen the movie?

18 today. i made it, but i questioned why i was doing it. i thought several times about this being my last marathon. i told steve that when i got home, and he said he's heard that before. i remember telling him that after i ran my first one. a few weeks later, i was ready to sign up for another. so, we'll see...

this week is a step down week (thank goodness!) 5, 8, 5, 13.

i did end up getting my 17 in on saturday. i walked a minute after each mile, which still seems to be working well for me for longer runs.
this saturday is 18. i haven't run yet this week, so i am already behind.
i've had more important things happening though...
yesterday my sister had her baby.
a boy - 8lb. 4oz.
mom and baby are doing well. thanks for all the prayers and emails!
it was really neat to be there w/her!
it was a tough day though because we had to say goodbye to our sweet dog maggie that night. ugh. so hard.
i've been in a funk all day today.
i keep thinking she's still here, and i almost went out to feed her this morning.
we had her for almost 15 years. it's going to take awhile to get used to not having her here.

motivation

images from here.

still hot and humid here. it's been brutal for running, but somehow i'm still getting my miles in.
saturday will be 17. i need to buy more gels. i don't feel like i'm ready to run that far, but hopefully i'll surprise myself. friday is my birthday, so i guess i'll have to go easy on the cake and ice cream. ☺ i'm celebrating 36 this year. not sure how that happened so fast.

we've been enjoying lots of this lately.

we picked it up at the farmer's market last weekend after going to a few garage sales. i haven't found much at garage sales this year. my kids are getting too big to find very many clothes now. i used to buy almost all of their clothes at garage sales, but not anymore.

i did find these pressed flowers though. i've been wanting some for awhile, so i was so happy when i saw them for .50 cents each. the frames they were in were in bad shape, so i used new mats and frames and i think they look great! i already had the frames, and the mats were only $2. not bad for a $3 project.

my little sister is going to be induced on monday morning. i'm so excited to be there with her and to meet my little nephew. please pray for a healthy mom and baby.