{Life} Morning

 The Story of My Morning

MEEP. MEEP. MEEP. I wake up, roll over, and slap my arm down on the alarm clock, clicking the button to turn off the beeping. It's probably the quickest move I'll make for the next hours. That sound, I just have to get it turned off, immediately. I have a few minutes, due to strategically setting the alarm clock earlier than necessary. So I dawdle down the hall way, and thump, thump, thud down the stairs. Shuffle, slide, shuffle. My feet drag slowly through the living room. I can already see a warm, bright, flickering red-orange light. That's my favorite sight on a cold morning. The house is dark, but the fire has been stoked so it's warm and blazing when I make my way downstairs to start breakfast. Then there's several minutes of blissful nothing. Just sitting in front of the fire, looking at the flickers across the wood floor, waking up slowly.

The clock ticks to 6:00, and it's time to start breakfast. I love the early morning, in the quiet house, all by myself in the kitchen. I put in my earphones and start a book. It might be something I haven't ever read or listened to. But more often, it's one of the stories I've had on my MP3 player for years, so familiar I can quote almost every line. Even if I never loved the book, I've listened to it so many times by now, it's like family. Put away the dishes. Makes a cup of hot chocolate. Get a skillet heating on the stove. Set the table. Cut the banana bread. 6:40, everyone's dressed, and it's starting to get noisy. After the twentieth time I have to say, "What?" when someone asks me a question, I pause my book and pull out the earphones. That action is my resignation the day actually has to start. No more quietness. Get dressed, pick up, chores, school. The story of my morning.

{A Few of My Favorite Things} Seasons

When you look around outside right now, you can see winter disappearing. The snow drifts are being replaced by puddles and mud. Even the wind is warmer. I'm really hoping for a few more days of good winter, just to reconcile myself to the end of cold weather. As much as I love winter, there's really something about every season that just makes me happy.


Summer...
My favorite things about summer are getting to play in water and not freeze, having long days, cool steamy mornings, and stepping into air conditioning. Swimming or playing in the lake makes me think I would really miss summer if I lived in a place that never had it. Long days and cool mornings sort of go together. Staying up late to see the slow stages of twilight is really special. It just doesn't seem as fast as early winter sunsets. I can enjoy it more in the summer, because it's late enough, I'm not trying to do anything else.

Autumn...
After winter, fall is my favorite season. Not ONLY because of volleyball :) But volleyball is definitely one upside! I like fall because it's looking forward to winter. The weather is only getting colder, snow is coming. Aside from that, fall colors are lovely. I like how wind stirs up the leaves that have fallen. There's one tree, right out our door that turns the brightest orange/red!

Spring...
Mud. Which is good. I like mud! It's fun to play in... it's fun to drag in the house (that was a joke!). Spring is when the creek by our house floods. There's nothing that is in danger from the water on our property, so floods are really just interesting. I like to see how high on trees debris can be caught. Aside from the water and mud, things starting to bloom is something I really look forward to after winter.

Winter...
Is my favorite season. It's cold, there's snow, early bedtimes, family movie nights, dad spends a lot of time at home, there's snow :), sledding, hooding, ice, being hermits, there's snow, the fireplace/woodstove are burning, and chili. I love chili. With cornbread! The best part of winter is just that my family spends more time together than other seasons.

3 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

{Life and Pictures} Donuts

Me: Mom, do you have any good blog post ideas? I'm drawing a blank.
Mom: How about sledding?
Me: Yay, I suppose I could. But I don't feel very inspired to write about that... Dad, do you have any ideas?
Dad: (thinks for a few seconds) Donuts.
Me: ?? Donuts?
Dad: Yay

Okay, so that's how this all got started. My dad has some strange ideas :) I think this one was inspired by the leftover donuts from Tyler's birthday.

Donuts? Or doughnuts? Is it "do" and then "nuts", or "dough" and then "nuts"? I can't figure out which way is right! What do you use? Donuts or doughnuts?


My earliest recollection of donuts is these tie-dye, swirly, quite-ugly donuts from Dillons. They were one of those things, as a little kid, I choose Every. Single. Time. I didn't even like them! But they were bright, colorful, and stuck out to me. So every time mom bought us donuts, I wanted a tie-dye one. Do you have a similar story from your childhood?

 One thing that slightly ruins donuts for me now, is making them myself. Mom and I have done it a few times together. It's a day-long project and clean up. I really enjoy it. Choosing a recipe, mixing them up, then frying the batch. It's fun to watch how oil cooks batter. But often, after we make donuts, I loose interest in eating them. A whole day of frying donuts, then cleaning up the deep fat frying mess. Ugh. Usually, I never want to see a donut again by the time they're done. I get over it in a few days ;)
 

Plain, glazed donuts that mush into nothingness are not my favorite, no way. I would choose cookies, or muffins, or pie, or brownies over those. To me, they're just sickeningly sweet. No real flavor... mostly air. A thick, but soft, cake-y donut- now that I like! And one of my favorites? Apple fritters. They are so good! It's like soft apple pie, in your hand! There's an orchard near Topeka that has apple cider donuts that are amazing! (or, they used to. We haven't been there in awhile. Stopping to get donuts on the way to a volleyball game just hasn't happened yet. I keep hoping!)

 
 

What are your thoughts on donuts? Cake donuts or soft yeast donuts? Chocolate or cinnamon? Apple fritters? Jelly filling or no way? Have you ever tried a bacon donut?

{Life and Pictures} Running

That title was a bit of a joke :) I don't run, I jog... slloowwlllyyy. You can ask anyone in my family, or on my volleyball team, I don't run quickly!


If I'm actually running... well...

I'll try to stop talking in pinterest now.

I started jogging thanks to Mr. Keeley. He set up a 5k for volleyball training (and anyone who wanted to join) when I was eleven. It was a big deal! There was rest days, and cross training days, and jogging days. Before that, I had really never jogged. I knew Anna was going to run the 5k, and that was reason enough for me to give it a shot! I think the other motivation for me was feeling like I was really training for volleyball. It was my last year of parks and rec, but if CHIEF volleyball players were going to train, so was I. Getting to play on the homeschool volleyball teams was something I was really looking forward to!

So I jogged that 5k. Anna graciously ran with me (so did my dad! He's only raced with me twice, ever.), although I'm pretty sure, being a Keeley, she could have taken off at any time and left me in the dust! I was so wound up from excitement the whole day after the race. :) It was really fun, and made running something I could think on pleasantly. Nonetheless, after the race, I quit jogging for awhile. Several months, I think. But somehow, in the spring I got started again. I think long distance running is a little addictive. There's some point where it becomes really enjoyable. (Getting to that point can be miserable!)

Although running long distance is good for overall physical fitness to some level, it actually is not at all helpful for volleyball. For volleyball, the ideal is short, explosive movements to increase vertical jump and quick movements. *ugh* Short? Fast? I really, really don't like sprinting. It takes so much more focus to push myself for that small space than to just let my mind wander for a few miles!

Which leads to a half marathon in January. I have done a few races in between 5th grade and now. There was a two mile St. Patrick's day race, the 5k dog-n-jog at the vet school, and 5k Turkey Trot at lake elbow. But this year, I really wanted to do a half-marathon. I started last spring when I was trying to come up with some goal to have for jogging. A winter half marathon was my conclusion. So I did some experimenting, and figured out I could probably GO that far, just not quickly. I choose winter for a few reasons:
It's after volleyball season. I can forget my vertical for awhile.
It's not hot!
It's not spring= fewer allergies!

Just if you ever want to know, there's not very many winter half marathons in Kansas. It was handy not to have a whole bunch to choose from! ;) So here's a few things I learned:

• Stretching is really, really, really important. I've read this everywhere, seen it a million times, been told over-and-over, and NOW it's finally starting to sink in. Stretching is good, take the time to do it! (It actually feels really wonderful sometimes to stretch out muscles!)
• Water, Water, Water, Water. Dehydration is easy. I have spent most of my life in a state of constant dehydration. That is not healthy and can cause some serious headaches. << spoken from experience. One week after a long run, a really hard night made me realize I HAVE to drink more water, no matter how much I dislike it. (As a side note, when you just can't stand to drink plain water, try no sugar added cranberry juice with water mixed in. The tart cranberry flavor goes a long way!)
• Sometimes, goals just can't be met. That's okay. Goals are there to help you push yourself, not to help you tune-out legs saying they are too tired to keep going!

Those are my big things. Now, the half marathon. One of my favorite parts was a really sweet lady and her daughter who I ran most of it with. The little girl (yeah, she was twelve) beat me. I'm actually pretty amused over that. Over half the race she kept saying, "Mom, I really just want to run! Can I just go?" Her mom kept saying, "No, just wait awhile." I'm thinking, "Yeah, she just wants to run off some excitement, then she'll be really dead tired." I was SO wrong. At about the 6 mile marker, her mom gave her permission to go. (I was a little bit ahead of them at that point.) She passed me, and I didn't see her until she high-fived me at the finish line. *jaw drops* I was impressed!

Another silly think that just thrilled me was the 12 mile marker. I somehow missed the 11 flag, and really thought that stretch was dragging! When I saw a "12" on the flag instead of "11" I had several minutes of silly, half-crazed excitement. I was a little worn-out and my brain was going strange directions!
So, that was what made me laugh/some of the reasons I really, truly enjoyed the race. The last, BEST reason was my fans! My parents and Hannah made the BEST fans I could ask for. They braved some cold wind and several hours of watching people run, just to encourage me. That was really special for me! I mean who CHOOSES to spend their Saturday doing THAT?! Some very sweet people, let me tell ya'! And at the end of the day, I ended up with sore legs (thanks to a very hilly route), 3rd place in my age group, and a pair of Topeka to Auburn half-marathon socks! :)

I said I wasn't going to talk in pinterest anymore, but that last (rather embarrassing) picture, really illustrates this point: