Old Man Winter

We live in Florida, so I can't honestly say we really *experience* winter. However, this has been a particularly nasty one by Florida standards.

If you live in a northern climate, feel free to just skip right over this post and go shovel your driveway for the 1,045,872nd time this winter.

It has been in the 40s every morning this week and -- gasp -- we've had frost on our car windshields! (Seriously, I had NO IDEA how to deal with this little predicament until The Smartest Man Alive clicked the defroster button on my dashboard and cranked the heat.)

My baby soft hands are now cracked and dry, and I've had a major headache for two days from traveling between the heat and cold. And God forbid it's dreary, cloudy, or rainy!

So, if you live in a northern climate AND you're still reading this, tell me how you survive MONTHS of this. What comforts you during the winter? We've made chicken 'n dumplings and soup this week, but that's getting old -- fast.

I never thought I'd wish for our Florida heat back. Rest assured, I'll be complaining about it come June. (The humidity! The heat! Can't we move up north?!)

Good News/Bad News

Good news: Little Man just took his first "real" steps tonight -- live! on Skype -- for his grammie and grampie to see. Grammie and grampie are getting buried in MORE SNOW and this infinitely cheered them up.

Bad news: I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. Why am I such a baby about these things?

Is this thing on?

Oh, hi there! Blogger tells me that I have written since Jan. 10th. Well, we've just been so BUSY!

*I received my Teacher of the Year award at a lovely ceremony and gave my speech without throwing up and/or tripping.

*The Smartest Man Alive and I booked a Bahamas cruise for next weekend. Just the two of us. Words cannot express my excitement about this grown-up adventure.

*I won a contest! Seriously, I never win ANYTHING, but bless my dear friends Hillary and Michelle at NotRaisingBrats. Love them.

*My parents have been on a Hawaiian cruise. My mom got to swim with a whale shark. Seriously. Fortunately, she lived to tell the tale.

*My sleep problems continue. I'm considering acupuncture. Thoughts?

Run 5K -- Check!

So, I survived the intimidating 5K and did not chicken out at the last-minute. I seriously thought about it after I saw 5,000 people lined up for the race and the weather report said it 39 degrees outside! I'm not sure if I'm going to do another race, but if I do I'll be a little wiser the next time.

1. Running in the cold is seriously difficult. My legs literally felt like there was peanut butter stuck in my joints, making me go in slow-motion. If you're running in the cold, you must warm up A LOT before the race. Disney had these people doing all kinds of crazy dances and activities before the race started. I thought they looked a little silly, but I really was wishing I had done it once the race started.

2. You need to have a plan going into the race. Motivation is one thing; getting from point A to point B with all of your belongings is quite another. We had a hotel room at the Wilderness Lodge and I laid out all my clothes the night before so getting dressed (in the dark, to prevent waking the baby) would be easy. But, Little Man's crib was near the bathroom and I was afraid using it would wake him. So, I had to find another bathroom, a snack before the start of the race, etc. etc. I felt disorganized and it eroded my confidence a bit. Luckily, I was at the race an hour before start time, so I could practice my visualizing and pumping myself up.

3. You can never drink enough water. This is the only thing that hampered my weekend. I thought that I had drank plenty of water before the race, but apparently not. An hour or so after the race, I felt dehydrated and hung over. I kept drinking water, ate half a banana, and some oatmeal, but I couldn't shake the feeling for the rest of the day.

Baby Report Card

Little Man had his one-year well-baby check-up last week. (Whew! That's a lot of hyphens in that sentence!)

He is, of course, perfect.

He is growing well and on the verge of taking his first steps. He is also saying some words: Mama and Dada, specifically. He also will occassionally say 'hi' and 'auntie.'


His newest trick is giving kisses, which are actually just open-mouthed licks. Slobbery, but heartwarming.

Word of the Year: Present

I've been thinking about New Year's resolutions and then I read this and this.

Erin at Mo Mommy decided to choose a word to focus on for her year. She chose Quiet. Sarah at Semi-Desperate Housewife took the challenge and chose Perspective -- two great choices and something I could also work on! But, during the last week I've been thinking about what I could do to be a better mother and create a better life for my family.

My word is going to be "present." I want to live in the moment more. I've noticed that I'm always thinking ahead to the next chore, milestone, or challenge. Our days, weeks, even months are crammed and over-scheduled with to-do lists, chores, outings ... life and it feels so chaotic and squished that we don't even have time to just enjoy each other.

So here's what I'm going to do to be more "present" this year:

1. I'm going to "unplug" at least one day per week. No television, no Internet, no texting. Just us.

2. I'm going to write about my efforts each month to stay focused on my goal.

3. This one is going to be hard, but I'm at least going to try it: I'm going to multi-task less. I'm going to pick one thing and do it. Then, I'll move on to the chore or activity and do that. No more cooking dinner, talking on the phone and facebooking at the same time. (You didn't know I was that talented, did you?)

4. I'm going to prioritize. I don't have to do everything right now. Some things can wait. Some things won't get done. That's okay.

So, there's my Word of the Year. Are you going to pick a word? Did you make a resolution? Post a comment with a link if you wrote about it.

5K Update

The date for my final showdown with fitness is looming. Mark your calendars. I will be running my first 5K on Jan. 8.

Although some of my fitness plans have gotten derailed by my aching knee (and if I'm honest, a bit of laziness), I'm confident I'll be able to finish the race.

The knee still gets sore when I curl up for an extended period of time or when it's really cold out. I've run several times on it and all went well. I think everything will be fine, except for that lingering feeling that I must be getting O-L-D, because I have aching knees.

We're running through 11 countries of EPCOT's World Showcase, Fountain of Nations, Spaceship Earth and Leave a Legacy monument. At least I'll have some nice scenery.

I've been trying to mentally prepare myself for the race. I've been visualizing myself at various stages of the race and anticipating what I might be feeling or thinking. I've also placed some encouraging sayings (like: You can do it! Keep going!) near my desk at work so I can motivate myself. (I'm a cheeseball, I know.)

But, most of all, I'm just looking forward to finishing the race and saying: I did it!