Stupid Isaac!!!!

I have a nice 15 mile run planned for Saturday.  One of my last big runs before my marathon.  Since my crazy "injury"/"start marathon training all over ", I have done ALL of my long runs outside.  In fact I can only remember three times that I actually ran on a treadmill in the last 4 months.  And those runs were 5 miles or less.

How is this different than the past.  Well let me tell you, prior to my crazy  "injury"/"start marathon training all over ", I ran ALL of my long runs on the treadmill.  Seriously, I ran 23 miles on...a...treadmill!   At the time I was a treadmill lover.  I enjoyed being able to watch TV, use the restroom, control my pace, and being in the AC.  I "thought" it was ideal for those 4 hour long runs.  When I started my recovery I decided to shake things up in a number of ways, one of them being the location of my runs.  Which leads me to where I am, an outsider runner who dreads running on the treadmill.

But some hurricane hit the south and is now making its way into my neck of the woods; bringing tons of rain and thunderstorms (if it was just rain, I would be running outside!).  Stupid Isaac!!!!!

Life is so good :)

Only 24 days until I run my first marathon!!!

That is not the only race I'm looking forward too.  Aaron just signed up for his very first half-marathon!!!!!!  We will be running the We Care Half together in 31 days! :)

Next month is going to be AWESOME!!!! 

Elliana Ballerina

Elliana went to her very first ballet class today.  She LOVES it !!

And Then There Were Two

Last fall Aaron ran his very first 5K.  Over the last few weeks he has been adding miles to his base distance.  This morning my amazing husband ran 8 miles!!!!  It is safe to say that he has caught the running bug :)  I LOVE having another runner in the family!

Kids of Steel!

This is the third year the kids have participated in the Kids of Steel triathlon.  This event takes place at a park run by Aaron's work and is always a hit with my kids.  Asher requested that dad do the triathlon with him (I had this pleasure last year :).  

Here are the boys heading to the race!

 Asher knows exactly how to set up his transition area.  He even made sure his socks were not inside-out and placed them in his shoes (boy after my heart!).

 Dad and Asher swimming!  Asher is a great swimmer.  He swam freestyle for 50 yards (one lap).

The designated cheerleader!  She is already planning her triathlon debut next year :)

Dad and Asher finishing the swim and then heading to the transition area to start the bike portion.

 Joshua waiting to stat the swim.  He swam breast stroke (his favorite stroke) for 100 yards (2 laps).

 Joshua finishing the swim, caught him mid-stroke.

 Jumping out and heading to transition!

 And he is off on the bike!

 The cheerleader started getting a little tired......and grumpy....

 Dad and Asher finishing the run (they ran 1/2 a mile).

 Asher with his trophy.

 Joshua finishing the bike portion, heading into transition, and then starting the run!

Joshua finishing his 1 mile run!  Go Joshua!!!

Songs that I am LOVING right now, enjoy!!!

Wee-Ball!!

 Elliana is definitely a sporty, active kind of gal.  This summer she enjoyed her wee-ball class with her next door buddy.  Here are some random pictures of our summer playing baseball.

Learning the bases.

Love watching her bat, she gives it all she's got!

Running to first base!

 With the summers heat wave, the kids had lots of drink breaks.

 Running like crazy while playing drip, drip drop (duck, duck goose, but instead of patting someone on the head, you drop water on them :)

 Wee-ball was at a nearby park.  We tried to make extra time for some play time !

Reading

 Isn't she just a sight to behold..such a beauty :)

Elliana and I recently had an entire day to spend together just us girls.  She had a huge list of activities for our day.  In the middle of the day she came running up to me and said she knew one other thing we could do together- SCHOOL!  My boys have never been this enthusiastic about school.  Elliana LOVES doing her school work.  Her favorite subject is math :)

I really enjoy having Elliana be a big part of our school this year.  We have been working on reading and I thought I would share what we are up to and how we are tackling this subject.

We use Sonlight curriculum and it has been a great base for teaching my kids to read.  I also add in Explode the Code and Clues to Meaning.


 During During the school year Elliana has been working through Sonlight's "I Can Read It" book series.  She reads these stories with me sitting next to her (to offer help on the tough words or read the ones that are way beyond her ability).






Lately I have been typing up the stories and color coding the words.  The words in red are those that she can read on her own, the ones in black are the words that I read (until she starts to remember them on her own,- she lets me know when I am reading a word that she knows :)  I even color coded words with the th and sh sound. She can see that those letter combinations make a unique sound; that can't be sounded out phonetically.

 I also keep track of all the words that she can read easily.  When we have a spare minute between subjects or activities I hand her the index card set pictured below.  She can flip through the words and gain confidence in her reading and ability (and get extra practice!).

So that's what we're up to in Kindergarten reading!

No time

No time to blog- way too much going on right now to spend extra time sitting at the computer (school, recovering from Sunday's 21 mile run, children to raise, dinner to make, husbands to care for, dishes to wash, and clothes to launder).  Hope to have a few extra minutes in the coming days or week to update family and friends!

Faith, Focus, Finish