Yup, I'm still alive. I really hoped to document more of this year than I find myself doing, but it just seems to be flying by so fast and every week fills up with meetings, parties, yard sales, road trips and church events. Today we have a friend over who is finishing our baseboards in our renovated basement, plus I'm supposed to go clean the church soon and get all my yard sale things washed up and priced for our early morning sale tomorrow. Thanks to ridiculous property taxes we are trying to come up with some creative ways to make money to pay it all off. But deep down I dislike yard sales because they are so much work, then you get looky-loos and people who want to argue about paying 75 cents for your stuff because they think that is too much money? Ug. Oh well, at least it's supposed to be nice out and we can hopefully sell a lot of our old stuff and make a chuck of change.
On the running front (which I'll mention first since I'm not sucking in this area), I've been excited to break new personal records and feel good about my progress. Some of my personal goals to beat have been, running 2 miles without stopping, (check), running 5 miles (check), running 10 minutes and walking one for the duration of my 5 miles (check), breaking my 5 mile distance (check), and doing some 10 minute miles (check). Each new goal that I make and break feels really awesome and although the first few months of this were really hard and felt like they could potentially cause death, they have paid off and I'm finally reaping some good benefits! I've also found a great 10K race in town here that supports Pro-Life and I'm so stoked to be running it for a great cause. It will be my first official race and so far the support from my family and friends with pledges and encouragement has been a true blessing.
For a while I was frustrated that no matter how far or fast I was running, there was always someone doing better than me. A friend or acquaintance who could run 8 miles in just over an hour, or friends who would post on facebook how they made it out for a "quick 6 miles" made me jealous. But I'm slowly realizing that I only need to compete with myself and I should be proud of the fact that I can run 6 miles because only 4 months ago I couldn't run 2 minutes in a row.
On the Read The Bible In A Year front (which I'm mentioning secondly on purpose), I've been seriously struggling. And by struggling I mean, not doing. I began to fall behind sadly when I was wrapped up in The Hunger Games and it's been down hill from there. I read all of Joshua in 2 days to try and catch up and I felt like I didn't retain it or enjoy it. The program has been making my devotions feel like failures and the few minutes I get in a day to read scripture feels like homework I'm catching up. I missed reading The New Testament and exploring Jesus who came and abolished the law anyways. Reading days and days of the Law was seeming disheartening. I understand some of those Bible plans now where you read some old and some new testament every day. So my new plan is to slowly catch up while at the same time reading a New Testament book slowly and with purpose. I'm starting in 1 Peter at the suggestion of my hubby and already feel rejuvenated. It sucks to have failed at this so soon, especially since I seem to be on track with my other goals but I'm just being honest. It wasn't going well.
So there's another catch-up blog post... hope to one day write something insightful or thought provoking.
Oh goodness Audrey. Confession, I've been struggling with the readings as well! I like you're plan though, because I agree, rushing to catch up won't help me savor it all.
ReplyDeleteAnd congrats on reaching your goals!! You're killing it and we're sooo proud of you :)