{Inspired}

Sometimes I feel like shouting at the top of my lungs, "I'm back!!!!!". For months, I have been in survival mode. No hobbies, no creativity, no desire or energy to do anything beyond the basics each day. Two little ones during the day and heading to bed at 8pm each night doesn't leave much time for doing any of the things I love! That mono sure was a bear.

But I think the worst is over! I still have bad days here and there, but I am feeling so great, pretty much bursting with energy! I think it took feeling awful all the time for me to really appreciate the gift of feeling well. I won't soon take that for granted, and I am so grateful to be able to get back to doing some of the things I love.

Top of the list right now...organizing! I don't know what's gotten into me, but I just cannot stop organizing my home. We have taken 5 or 6 trunkloads of stuff to the resale shop, and it is so much easier to keep things clean now that we have purged all the stuff we were holding onto "just in case".

My most recent project - our bathroom closet. I really wish I had a before picture. Then again, it might be just too embarrassing to post online! It was awful, and every time we opened the door something would fall out on us. Very frustrating. But not anymore! Now I love to open the door and easily find what I'm looking for.

Being more organized has helped get me back to something else I really enjoy: scrapbooking. It has been a crazy long time since I've done any, so I just decided to not stress, start with recent pictures, and do what I can. I'm going for quick and simple these days, and I love how these pages turned out.



I am super excited about another passion that is returning to my life - running! After training for the half marathon in May, I pretty much quit completely because of Nathan coming home and the mono. I didn't really have the energy to even miss it, and I knew there was just no way I could keep it up in my zombie-like state. I knew I was getting the running bug again because suddenly I just wanted to read everything I could about it! That's how it always starts for me - I get my hands on a Runners World magazine, and suddenly I'm reading blog after blog written by mommy runners :)

The next step for me is always to choose a goal or a race. I had one in mind, but I wasn't really sure if it was realistic. Last year I ran an 8k race (about 5 miles) in February and loved it (well, not while I was actually running it, but afterwards I felt great!).

I really wanted to do this race again, but it's just over a month away and I haven't run for six months. Usually after that amount of time off I can barely run a mile! This week I decided to get out there and see how it went. I managed to easily do 3 miles! I was shocked. I guess running around after two little sweeties all day has kept me in shape a little bit :)

So, I think I am going to aim for the 8k. I have set up a training plan for myself, and Brad is even considering running it too! He went out and did a 3 mile run right after I got back and I am excited to maybe run this race together (well, not together exactly, but at the same time). I can tell it's been a long time since I last ran - I am SO sore today!!!! But it's a good sore.

It feels good to be getting back to life again!