AROUND HERE

Lots of things to say / updates to share today, but...

I have a computer issue that is quickly threatening to (greatly) shorten the length of this post.  There is something up with the left side of my keyboard, so the "caps lock, a, q, z and number one" keys do not work most of the time.  But then, randomly they do.  My computer is a combination laptop and tablet, so I can use the tablet screen keyboard to fill in as needed, but that is a pain in the butt.

I quit wearing my FitBit.  My wrist feels weird without it, but I imagine I will get used to the change soon.  After more than two years of continuous wearing, I found that it was no longer motivating me to move.  This is a pretty drastic shift, as it had been hugely motivating to me for a long time.  In recent weeks and maybe even the last couple months, I would ignore the hourly "buzz," rarely check my progress throughout the day and even occasionally go a few days without syncing with the app on my phone.  So, it's stored away for now.  I'm guessing / hoping that I will be reinvigorated to walk and track my steps sometime in the next few months.  For now, it feels kind of nice to just not think about it and not to feel guilty about not getting steps.

The 100 Day Project (see more in this post) is going strong.  I love my creative time.  I love that I find myself thinking of design ideas or seeking them out throughout my days.  I have noticed, however, that I have to really put some limits on how much I let my mind dwell on the "big idea" of the project.  I pretty easily get sucked into the numbers game - counting how many days are left and wondering how in the world I will come up with that many more designs that fit with my project and that I like.  Going down that track makes my brain kind of freeze up and I start to think it will be impossible.  I'm striving to stick with the one day at a time mindset.

Maggie had her first birthday, last week.  We had a party with our families the weekend before and then had pizza and another cake the night of her birthday.  She really started walking in the last week and I feel like she is suddenly growing up so much - handing me books to read, babbling more, and such.  It is just crazy amazing how much they change in only a year.

My mom and step-dad moved from Washington to Illinois a couple weeks ago.  They already tried the drive out once and got here in a little less than eight hours.  Eight hours (or probably more once we add in stops) seems doable and we have our first visit scheduled for June.  Our kids have only been to "Nana's house" a few times - and those times were all when she lived in Phoenix (a cheap and direct flight).  I have felt guilty, these past couple years that we never made it to Spokane, so I am excited for this change.

I took Sam to Kindergarten Roundup, last week.  He REALLY did not want to go.  I had to carry him most of the way into the school.  He cried and had to be led away by the teachers, when it was time for the kids to go check out their future classrooms and do an activity.  And then he came back smiling and happy and excited.  We also went back to the school in the afternoon to get a tour with some of his preschool classmates and he thoroughly enjoyed himself.  This little story just sums up Sam so well.  Novelty is SO HARD for him.  But, once he's done something once, all is well.

Brian and I did the Lincoln Half Marathon with my sister and her fiance, last weekend.  It was a ton of fun.  As we were doing our longest training walk (11 miles, two weeks pre-race), I told Brian that I didn't really want to do another half marathon in the future.  And then race day came and it was pretty great and I changed my mind.  Funny, how that works.

Brian will be done with school at the end of this week.  Woohoo!  That means it is almost summer time!