Every spring, the wooly sheep at Oatland Island Wildlife Center get dragged in front of a crowd of onlookers, unceremoniously tossed on their sides and shaved bald. I can’t imagine it’s a whole lot of fun for them, but it’s probably the only day each year they have to do anything so unpleasant. They really don’t have it so bad.
To celebrate the annual spring shearing, Oatland hosts a Sheep to Shawl festival. This year we met up with buddies to gawk at the poor sheep and marvel at all the ways we can use their gift of wool.
First, there was felting to do. The kids worked at felting wool of various colors before stuffing it in a ziploc baggie, adding warm water and squishing and squishing it, turning the felted wool into a bookmark.
There were cards to lace with woolen yarn.
And then there was the cool rope-making station where Camille crafted a multi-colored rope, and I gained a new appreciation for ropes. Doing this by hand is a lot of work!
I just love this kind of stuff – stripping away modern advances and discovering how to make things by hand. I would’ve been a terrible, horrible, starved-to-death pioneer because I can’t grow a thing and couldn’t bear to kill a thing. But I would’ve enjoyed making some ropes. And felt.
One year ago today, I went for a run. My first run.
It was week 1, day 1 of the Couch to 5K program, and entailed a 45 second jog followed by a 90 second walk. Repeat. It was not easy.
One year and 466 miles later, running continues to be a challenge, but the best kind. I feel so much healthier, physically and mentally. There is a confidence that comes from tackling something that seems impossible and owning it.
Running also makes me feel thankful. Even on days when I’m sluggish and tired, I remind myself that I am fortunate to have a body that is capable of running. I have a home to return to with a supportive family waiting inside. They even write notes for me on the sidewalk in front of the house.
I’m also fortunate to run in a beautiful city. It was in that spirit that Lee and I recently committed to taking at least one photograph on each of our morning runs. The pictures are a celebration of being out there. Not only do we enjoy sharing the pics with each other, but the project forces us to pay more attention on our runs. To really notice the parts that are beautiful or interesting or worth sharing.
Here are few of my favorites.
Happy anniversary, running! I’m glad you came into my life.
“I always loved running … it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.”
– Jesse Owens, Olympian
Camille and I recently saw The Lorax movie. We’ve long been fans of the Dr. Seuss book by the same name so we were looking forward to the film. I wrote a review on HowdyKids.com and Camille recorded her audio review as well.
Happy 68 months my sweet girl! We have just wrapped up another busy weekend during one of our favorite times in this fine city – St. Patrick’s Day and the onset of spring. Last weekend Nana was in town as we officially kicked off the St. Pat’s celebration with a Shamrock race Friday night and then Tara Feis on Saturday. We picnicked in Forsyth Park near the green fountain and ate funnel cakes by the river.
Then the next weekend, we enjoyed the St. Pat’s parade with Mr. Glen, as we gathered with friends on the steps of our church to watch the floats and bands go by.
Then Sunday was a perfect boat day, complete with a steamed shrimp feast. You peeled your own shrimp for the first time and found it wonderfully fun to pull the tiny legs off and toss them in the river. Food just tastes better when you have to work for it a little bit, right?
This month seems to have been a really good one for you at school, as I think you’re more adapted to your Montessori classroom. It took you some time to get comfortable with the process and to feel confident that you knew what was expected of you, but things finally seem to have clicked into place.
There are still days you don’t want to go to school, but I think that has more to do with not wanting to get out of your pajamas and into the car than anything else. When you whine about it, we often remind you why school is important. Apparently, you do listen to us. A couple of weeks ago you were sick and running a fever, so you had to miss two days of school. At one point, you began to fret and said, “Mama, if I miss school, I won’t grow up to be smart like you and Daddy. I won’t do well in college. I won’t get a good job.”
No pressure, right?
I am amazed at how your reading has developed in the past few months.
It’s hard for me to believe we started this school year not reading, and
now you can read stories to us for a change. And you love
math too, not just in the classroom but all the time. You enjoy
randomly pulling money from our change jar to count it, or rushing over
to tell me that the 5 horses you are playing with have 20 legs
altogether.
A few weeks ago we scooped a handful of money from that family change jar to bring to class for a Red Cross fundraiser. We put it in a ziploc bag and tossed it in your backpack, and I explained to you why we were sending it and how it might help people.
As we were headed out the door for school, I had another idea. “Camille, do you want to give money out of your own piggy bank?”
I really didn’t know how you’d respond. You love putting money in your piggy bank, and I honestly wasn’t sure how you’d feel about taking money out and not getting something in return.
But your face lit up with excitement as you bounced up and down. “YES! YES! YES!” you said, and then rushed off to pull quarters from your personal stash.
When we got to school, you could hardly wait to show the bag of coins to your teacher. “I put my own money in there!” you beamed.
Your clear glee at being able to help made me realize that we should be doing more of this. As happy as I am to do math flash cards with you and practice reading to encourage your school skills, I think it’s just as important to encourage your compassion and empathy.
But what to do? There is a lot of charity work we can do together when you’re a bit older, but what’s appropriate for a 5-year-old? I asked the folks at the Senior Citizens Center for ideas, and they had a perfect one: creating cards to be given to the elderly folks served by the Meals on Wheels program.
Thankfully we have friends with like-minded parents who were eager to make this a group project, and one that we hope to repeat and expand as you and your buddies grow. You all spent an afternoon together last week making birthday cards and “Have a nice day!” cards, and we talked about the Meals on Wheels program and about the importance of caring for the elderly.
I wish we could deliver the cards ourselves so you’d have the personal connection, but the seniors’ meals are served at lunch and, well, we’ve already talked about why you have to be in school. But no matter who delivers them, I imagine these cards will be met with smiles.
Thanks for another great month bear and for all the love you give. I couldn’t be more proud of the girl you are, or more excited to see the young lady you will become. I love you.
After a week of gloriously sunny days, last Friday the clouds rolled in just in time for the Shamrock 5K in downtown Savannah. Clouds are fine – even helpful – but the accompanying rain I could have done without.
But the wet weather didn’t keep a few thousand of us from crowding into City Market to run the popular race. The Shamrock 5K benefits the March of Dimes, and has become another of the city’s beloved St. Patrick’s Day traditions. All the fountains in town had been turned green and, predictably, many of us runners donned the color as well. The vibe was good and I was feeling especially grateful that my mom was in town to cheer us on.
Up first – a kids’ quarter miler with our favorite petite runner in her race bib and ready to go. Lee ran it with her and she rocked it. Then lucky for her, Nana treated her to some ice cream while Lee and I began our run.
I had two goals – one reasonable, the other a real stretch. My first goal was just a PR (personal record), and my second was to run the race in under 30 minutes. My previous 5K record was 33:02 just four weeks prior.
I didn’t have any intervals planned, I was just going to run it as hard as I could and toss in a walk break or two when needed. The only thing I’d programmed was for Runkeeper to tell me every time 10 minutes elapsed.
I started the race near a man who had a visible physical defect – perhaps mild cerebral palsy? He didn’t have full range of motion of his legs but was fast on his feet anyway, and I found him incredibly inspiring. When the race became tougher for me, I tried to think of him and just remain grateful for my ability to run and to enjoy this sport.
I was thrilled when I passed the first mile marker and hadn’t heard the 10-minute prompt, although it came soon after. I took quick walk breaks right after miles 1 and 2, but ran the rest of it with all the speed I could muster. It was tough for me, and had me thinking that I may actually prefer half-marathons where I don’t pressure myself to run so hard.
As I passed the second mile marker without hearing the 20-minute prompt, I began to think I might be able to make my big goal after all. I was winded, but kept telling myself I had just 1 mile and 10 minutes to go.
But I ran out of steam. As I rounded the last square and began heading back into City Market and the finish line, I heard the 30-minute prompt. I jerked the headphones out of my ears and finished the race in 31:12.
I am pleased with the PR, although it sure would’ve been nice to finish in under 30-minutes. I think the only reason I am discouraged about my finish time is that I feel like I ran the race as hard as I could. I’m not sure where the additional 2-minute reduction will come from and whether or not my current speedwork is enough to get me there. Cross-training would help, but that requires equipment (pool, bike, etc.) and an additional time commitment I’m not sure I’m ready to make. Running hills would be good if we had hills around here. Wah wah, excuses, I know.
I think for now I’m just going to stick to the plan I have, because I did manage to shave time off my previous 5K finish. Maybe I just need a few more weeks? Time will tell.
Meanwhile, Lee ran a good race, despite having been so terribly sick with allergies that only the day before he required an injection for his symptoms and began a 2-week course of antibiotics. I can hardly believe he managed to run it, much less finish well. I’m glad he did run though – we stuck together the first little bit and it was nice to share the course with my love. And what a joy it was for both of us as we approached the finish line to hear our names being yelled by my mom and Camille. I don’t think this will go down as my favorite race, but it was made so much better because it was a family affair. Love them.
Last year, all of my training runs had a singular focus – endurance. I just wanted to learn how to cover the miles no matter how fast or slow. My most important speed goal was to cross the finish before the course was closed.
So for a change of pace (ha!), I am focusing my current training on speed. I want to document my training plan here so that later I can look back and re-evaluate, tweak and improve.
I’m following a speedwork plan developed by my favorite running guru, Jeff Galloway. I do one speed session each week, running around Daffin Park because the path is marked at every quarter mile. The basics are this: 5-10 minute warmup walk/jog, then 3 acceleration gliders. This involves running 10 steps really slowly, then 10 steps at normal training pace, and then 20 steps in an all-out sprint before gliding back down into a slow jog. I’m pretty sure the other runners at Daffin think I’ve lost my mind with all the speeding up and slowing back down.
After that, I run 800 meters (1/2 mile) as hard as I can, and the goal I set was to run that distance in under 5:15 minutes (I’ve been averaging about 4:30, so yay!). I do this three times and nearly fall over. Then I repeat the acceleration gliders and call it a day.
The funny thing is, I measure the whole workout (not just the 800-meter intervals), and my overall pace on speedwork days is usually slower than my other training runs. I get so out of breath during those 1/2 mile runs that I have to walk for a while to regain my composure before starting the next interval.
From what I understand, the point of all these gliders and intervals is to help my body learn how to run more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. I get to test the theory next Friday when I run my next 5K. I’ve only been doing the speedwork for a month, so I don’t know if that’s long enough to see any real change. I would really love to run a sub-30-minute 5K this year, but that would mean shaving more than three minutes off my most recent race time. I think that should be do-able this year, but I may not be there just yet. We shall see!
It had been a while since we made a cooking show, and it amazes me how much Camille seems to grow in every way between each episode – how much older, how much more confident, more mature she is. When we began this adventure, I wouldn’t allow her near the mixer. Then last year, I offered to let her turn it on but she preferred to flee the room with her hands clamped over her ears because of the loud noise. This time, she turned it on herself and even used her piggy spatula to scrape the edges of the bowl while it loudly spun and mixed.
We were invited to have Mexican food at our friend’s home yesterday and were asked to bring dessert. I found a recipe for a Mexican Sopapilla Cheesecake and thought it sounded like something Camille could make. And when you see the amount of sugar, cream cheese and butter used, you’ll see why this recipe could be nothing but delicious.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, I present episode #5 of Cooking With Camille!
Mexican Sopapilla Cheesecake
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 (8 ounce) cans crescent roll dough
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
honey
1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat the cream cheese with 1 1/2 cups of sugar, and the vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth. Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough, and use a rolling pin to shape the each piece into 9×13 inch rectangles (lightly flour your surface and the rolling pin if necessary to keep dough from sticking). Press one piece into the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture into the baking dish, then cover with the remaining piece of crescent dough.
3. Drizzle the melted butter evenly over the top of the cheesecake. Stir the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar together with the cinnamon in a small bowl, and sprinkle over the cheesecake along with the almonds.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 45 minutes. Drizzle honey over the top of the cheesecake. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into squares.
Hello sweet bear and happy 67 months! We just tucked you in, and you are likely stretched out in your bed right now, enjoying the return of blood flow to your extremities after spending 12 hours in the cramped car – your longest road trip to date.
We traveled this weekend to Cincinnati to visit with Uncle Trent and Aunt Michelle and to meet little Lucinda June, lovingly nicknamed LuJu. She’s brimming with sweetness and loves to coo, and you two enjoyed several conversations that were pretty impressive considering she’s two months old. And I imagine these chats will just keep getting better.
Another major highlight of the trip was our visit to the “Hall of Justice.” It’s really the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal – an old train station that now also boasts a Natural History Museum, Omnimax and a Children’s Museum. But you were most excited about the structure itself because the Hall of Justice in the SuperFriends cartoon is modeled after this building.
Compare:
You were overjoyed upon seeing it from the interstate, and as we walked up to the doors you broke into a run, saying you just had to touch it.
The fact that this special building also contained dinosaurs was some seriously good icing on an already tasty cake. The Natural History Museum was great fossil-packed fun.
But when we asked what your favorite part of the day was, you said it was building a parachute out of a napkin and paper clip in the science lab. It’s amusing to think that of all the great wonders we saw, this stood out the most for you. May science and physics always be so enthralling! If so, you will fare better in your lab classes than your mother did.
The drive home was a doozie that included six states, but it wasn’t all drudgery. In fact, we were THRILLED that a blanket of snow had fallen the day before in Kentucky and had nicely stuck around for us. I really, really love snow and this look on your face as you launched a snowball at your Daddy tells me that you love it too.
We built a snowgirl, ran around making footprint trails and then threw more snowballs at each other.
We still had many, many hours in the car ahead of us so we’d told you not to make snow angels. We didn’t want you to have to ride in the car, wet from lying in the snow.
But during a brief truce in the snowball battle, you dropped to the ground, overcome with glee, and began making a snow angel. While your legs and arms swished in the snow, you yelled, “I AM OUT OF CONTROL!” It was so cute and funny I couldn’t be mad.
Our trip was epic, but it wasn’t the only excitement you had last month. You and your Daddy got to share a very special evening when your school hosted a Daddy-Daughter dance.
First, a bit of fingernail polish was in order. And not just any fingernail polish, but the kind that changes color and has glitter sparkles. Here you are painting your “second course” instead of “second coat.”
Not to be outdone by your nail polish, you picked out your fanciest dress – navy with silver glitter sparkles. Your Daddy surprised you with a tiny corsage of tiny pink roses for your tiny wrist. “Are these flowers fresh?” you asked, and were so pleased to find out that they were.
I made you stand around and pose for too many pictures – something you should get used to at moments like these. Then finally, it was time to dance, and I snuck inside the school for just a few more shots before leaving you two to spin and shimmy.
That Daddy of yours is setting the bar high for your future suitors, just as my Daddy did for me. Your Daddy is a wonderful role model of a father and husband, and we are both so lucky to have him in our lives. I can only hope your future dance dates make you smile like this. And if they don’t make you smile, if they don’t respect you, if they don’t love you for who you are – I hope you think about your Daddy and realize that there are good men in the world. And you deserve a good man.
Your Daddy and I love you so much sweet bear. Sweet dreams to our best girl.
I put a new post up on the Howdy Kids site today in which I confess to being terribly overprotective. And I solemnly swear to back off a bit. (Just a little bit.)
This parenting thing is sometimes fun and this parenting thing is sometimes crazy, but this parenting thing is always best done with good, fun people. Two of my favorite people and favorite parents are Anna and Jason. You remember them. The people who broke my heart by moving to the other side of the continent. Those people.
But I digress.
While we don’t get to talk about our parenting successes, adventures and woes in person over a glass of vino like I’d like, we do still keep in touch. And now Lee, Anna, Jason and I are working on a parenting blog together.
You can join the fun over at www.HowdyKids.com. We’d love to have you.
When I post over there, I’ll link to it here too. Up first – my review of the movie Big Miracle.
