Summer Break, Broke, Broken

With wonderful plans for my summer break, with not many of those things accomplished, and with the summer break almost to the end, I would like to know where the summer break has gone. And even with not making much of a dent on my list of things to do this summer, I have been busier this summer than any other summer before. I've even been busier this summer than I have been during the school year when we spend our days homeschooling while also getting all the other regular life things done.

Why is it that I've been busier during this summer than during the school year, and I have nothing to show for it? I wonder where the time has gone.  Sure, I've been extremely busy finishing up the homeschool year, organizing, decluttering, training for a marathon, and driving the kids all over town for their various summer camps.  Oh wait, that's right, I think it's the driving all over the place that has taken up my time this summer, and my money; have you seen the price of gas lately?

So, instead of resigning myself to a broken and broke summer break, I think that I will be spending what's left of this summer not driving my kids all over town.  I'll be on a  hammock in the backyard, reading a book, with a cold beverage in hand, trying to enjoy what's left of the summer break. But first, I will write that one down on my to-do list.

My Achilles' Heel is My Achilles Tendon

Just like the Greek hero Achilles' weakness was his heel, so too is mine right now; however, my hope is that unlike Achilles, this will be a temporary condition for me and I will be able to heal my heel and continue training for my second marathon. No downfall for me, I hope. Yes, I just recently completed my first marathon about a month ago, and after finishing my first marathon, and while still high on endorphins, and during a moment of insanity, I decided to sign up to run another marathon this year.

Finally recovered from my first marathon race, I started training for my second marathon.  Things were going quite well with my training until about two weeks ago when I injured my Achilles tendon.  It was such an easy thing to do: get injured.  I thought that after two weeks off from running, and another week of very low mileage, I was ready to get back to my normal, pre-marathon training mileage.

Yes, I know exactly how I hurt my heel.  It has something to do with the terrible too's of running: too much, too soon, too fast. Not just that, but running too much, too soon, too fast while training on hills, in other words, I was asking for trouble, but believe you me, I sincerely didn't realize that I was asking for trouble at the time, even after repeatedly being lectured by the Team in Training coaches about how to avoid injuries. Therefore, because of my lack of judgment, I now have to cut back on my mileage, slow down considerably, and avoid running hills.

I applied ice to my Achilles tendon almost continuously for close to a week, I rested my foot as much as possible, stretched my calves all during the day, taped my heel with KT Tape, and used compression socks.  So far, so good.  Right now, I've been training very cautiously.  I make sure to warm up well by walking slowly, stopping to stretch my calves really well, and then I run/walk until I can run continuously for a few miles on the treadmill.  Running on the treadmill instead of running outside makes it easier for me to control my running speed, to control the surface I'm running on, and to avoid hills.

I'll continue to take it easy until my foot starts to feel better, which I'm sure will be soon because my foot only hurts in the morning.  And I'll try very, very hard to be patient.  Hopefully, I learned my lesson about the terrible too's.

The Circular Package Beckons Me

I used to be a soccer mom, you know, the type of mother that lives in her minivan while driving her children around town from soccer game to soccer game.  After years of being a soccer mom, I gave it all up to be, instead, a taekwondo mom.  Now, instead of driving around from soccer game to soccer game, I get to spend my days at the taekwondo training hall. 

Most of the time I like to wait inside the building talking with the other parents, reading a book, and watching the children train.  It sure is boring waiting in the parking lot alone in a minivan during a thunderstorm, wondering if I should wait it out in the van or run for refuge inside the air-conditioned training hall and get soaked.   But that’s just where I found myself the other day.

Stuck in the minivan during a violent thunderstorm, waiting for my son’s taekwondo class to end, unable to open the doors or roll down the windows of the van for fear of ruining the interior by allowing a burst of torrential rain into the van, fearing the gas tank nearly empty and the battery dead, suffocating in the stale heavy air in the van, the allure of a circular pack of mints with the name Ice Breakers® was too strong.

Ice sure would be amazing. Wonder how it would feel in this stifling air to have just one of the tiny mints inside the package actually be made of ice: a tiny ice chip to cool me, to settle the unsettled, to quench the thirst, to help me forget the lack of a breeze in this self-inflicted prison cell inside my van. 

Popping the lid of the package open, I find a dozen tiny ice chips.  I violently and quickly throw one into my mouth.  The coolness was immediate.  The thirst is gone. The rain slows down long enough for me to open the door and feel a strong cool blast of a thunderstorm breeze blow on my face, or so it seemed.

Yes, I’ve gone certifiably insane, I decide.  It’s time for me to either make a dash for the building, go to the gas station to fill the tank, drive around town for awhile to make sure that the battery is charged, or continue to suffer in the van, being taunted by a package of mints.

Guess which one I chose.

 
 

I Can't Even Hear Myself Think

With Goggie all tucked into bed, with my computer finally working, with Bubba and Hubby at a Boy Scout meeting, it was actually quiet around here for a few minutes, long enough, I thought, for me to sit down and write the most amazing blog post imaginable.  My brain was full of amazing ideas: wonderfully witty words to entertain everyone.  The Great American Blog Post.

Then Bubba and Hubby walk in the door, and the quiet walks out the door.  To make a short story short, the world will have to wait for that great post, that is, if I can hear myself think long enough.

First Harvest

I know, I know, it's been a week since my last post, but it's just been crazy, crazy, crazy at our house these past few days.  Not only has the weather improved (no more rain, no more tornadoes, and finally warmer weather), we're getting to the end of the school year.  And not to be outdone, the garden is off to a great start.

Here you can see our first planting of radishes ready to be harvested.  

And here you see them right after being harvested.

I was never a fan of radishes, that is, until I started gardening, now I love radishes.  They are one of the funnest vegetables to grow, mostly because they can be planted in the early spring, they grow quickly, and they don't get diseases or pests like some of the other vegetables do.

These radishes were amazing in a radish salad of radishes (obviously, right?), orange segments, red onions, fresh mint, olive oil, and salt and pepper.  Yum!

I can't wait for the next crop of radishes to be ready so I can have that salad again.
 
 

Putting Down Roots

This past weekend, before the tornado that hit our area on Monday, during a few minutes without rain, we were finally able to plant the baby plants that were still in their pots, hanging out in our patio. The pepper plants had grown so large, that they were almost the same height as the support ladders.

The tomatoes were already tall enough to be threaded through the trellis netting.

Here's Bubba planting a marigold.

And here you see one of my containers.

The garden made it through the storm we had this Monday without any noticeable damage.  Tomorrow I'll see how the garden survived today's storm.  We are currently experiencing large hail and strong winds.
 
 

It Wasn't a Tornado

Photo courtesy of NSSL

Yesterday, hungry and exhausted after a long day of homeschooling, considering going out to dinner, we instead decided to head out to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner.  The weather forecast was calling for severe thunder storms, but I figured that, one, the storm would not hit (it wouldn't have been the first time the forecast was wrong) or, two, that we could stay ahead of the weather, go to the store, and come back before the storm hit.

At the store it seemed like my plan was working.  It was looking like the storm was either not going to come or that we would be done shopping and back home before it struck.  Then, all of a sudden, as we were almost done at the checkout register, we saw the sky turn completely black on one side of the parking lot, while the sky was still blue in the other side, it started to rain heavily, and the wind started to blow very hard. And just as quickly as it had started, the storm stopped, the sky cleared, and the wind died down.  It was quite eerie.

We quickly loaded the groceries into the car and drove home while listening to the news reports on the car radio about a tornado warning right where we were.  We really didn't see anything strange until we were about a block from our house and found a tree that was partially blocking the road.  The neighbors were out moving the tree from the road, so I decided to turn in the other direction, and that's when we came across this tree.

Obviously, I wasn't going to get through that way, so I had to turn around and go the other way, where the neighbors were clearing the road.

Here are a few of the trees that were destroyed in our street.

And then, we have our beautiful linden tree, may it rest in peace.

 Here's another view showing how it was damaged beyond repair.

We couldn't save the tree, so we had it cut down.

This is all that's left of our tree.

We also lost some shingles off the roof, and limbs from some of the other trees in the yard.  Thankfully, that was all the damage we had.  One good thing that happened was that a toy the children had thrown on the roof and that had been stuck there for quite some time, was blown off the roof all in one piece.

Well, apparently, we had a few small tornadoes hit our area last night, and the weather service is calling for more severe weather tonight and tomorrow.