2:24:25

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I did it! My first 1/2 Marathon! I'm in soooooooooo much pain! I can BARELY walk up and down the stairs. I can BARELY walk. But it was soo worth it!

{insert your most loudest girly eeek here}

Maybe I'll do a full!! Bring it! aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh

Taking my GU! [aka gels]  (and it is GROSS!)

16,000 runners that morning! (5k & 1/2 Marathon)

 .. and I'm off!

My cheering squad! ☺

 

Bringing it home! 

Yeah!  I'm done!

Happy Running! Happy Life! Live it to the fullest!

36 Hours

Yes my 1/2 marathon ticker is wrong.. I don't know why.. the date is correct.. maybe it's the time on my blog - I have no idea!  Regardless... Sunday is my 1/2 Marathon.

I am experiencing the following:

1. Inclined to vomit
2. Excited
3. Tired
4. Not Ready
5. Ready
6. Emotional (wishing my mom could see me ... and that my side of the family actually cared enough to come see me run)

Anyway.. I won't be breaking any world records or anything... but I'll be running it.. and that's all that matters!

I'll keep y'all posted on my time! ☺

School's IN!

Homeschooling 2011-2012 has officially begun in our home!  This will mark our third year homeschooling!  I feel more prepared and excited this year, than I have in past.  I've learned from my fellow homeschooling group, I've prayed, and I've taken note of what works and does not work for us.

I feel so alive for this year.. I pray God will continue to give me the strength, enthusiasm and joy for our upcoming year.

As I mentioned in other posts we are going with themes this year.  The theme will shape our craft time, library visits, and some field trips.  We choose to use Abeka for our curriculum.. and because I am homeschooling two little ones this year I decide to make it 'easier' on myself and just go with the themes that present themselves in Ava's curriculum.  I will veer from it a bit during the holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.. but pretty much I'll stay on course.

This month's theme is "The Pond".. here are just a few pictures of their first day of school.. craft time and a wee bit a face painting!

 Grace.. a butterfly

 Ava.. a lilypad with a frog on it ☺

 Gabriel.. a fish swimming in long grass

Hope everyone is having a great first week back or gearing up for the start of your school year!

Our Weekly Planner

As I've mentioned before Ava is a really good independent learner.  This year I'm really going to take advantage of this as I sit down and focus on establishing good learner habits with Gabriel. 

I've spend hours searching the intern for the PERFECT weekly planner, but I am very specific.  A program that I use for work is called publisher and it's great!  So I decided to design my own weekly planner.

I still have some tweaking to do, but you get the picture.  This is really going to be great!  Each week I can sit down and plan out the next few weeks or a month at a time.  Then each day Ava and take her planner out and see what she needs to do.  I am sure excited to see how this is going to work.  At the beginning of last year Ava was able to read the directions on her own in her work books.  By the end of the year she was recognizing that there were "lesson #'s" at the bottom of each page, and she would ask me: "Mommy what lesson am I doing today?".. this well help both of us stay on track, record what we are doing and give Ava the opportunity to see her work that is being complete each week.

There you have it.. another component of our year.  Happy Learning!