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Couch to 5k and NaNoWriMo Again, and Again. . . and again. . .and. . .

This is basically a repeat of my previous post “Couch to 5K is My Fitness NaNoWriMo”, except I think this will be attempt 5 now? Maybe? I’ve lost count, but it doesn’t really matter.

In that last post I said I hoped this try would be the one to hit the finish line, but I’m not sure it will be. My colon hasn’t finished being persnickety even though the trouble making part is gone. It’s taking its sweet time to heal, so my ileostomy reversal won’t happen until August at the earliest.  There is nothing particularly tragic about this. It’s only relevant in that I have a second abdominal surgery to look forward to with a second recovery and therefore a second (fifth? sixth?) interruption to my 5k training program.

Still, in the meanwhile, I’m running the program. I ran week 2, day 1 tonight and it went well. Maybe I’ll have time to finish the whole program before surgery, maybe I won’t. It doesn’t matter though. I’ll probably need to restart after recovery anyway. Maybe I’m not a 5k runner. Maybe I’m someone to just tries. A lot.

And connecting these two events for me again – I just learned there is another camp NaNoWriMo in July. I’m outlining right now – something new to me so it’s slow going. I also have some other writing projects I want to move forward right now, but July will be a perfect goal time for getting the novel going. So far I think the outlining process will help me. Some complain that outlining takes the fun and spontaneity out of their writing but that doesn’t seem to be happening to me. Instead it’s making me excited about the story. It has a purpose – a meaning. It isn’t lost and meandering the way it felt. I think I’ve been an outliner trapped in a pantser all this time.

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I Spy Forever

I think I’ve made it clear by now that I love I spy quilts. I’ve loved them since I was a little girl snuggled under the quilt my grandma made. So I don’t know why it should surprise me that my girls love them to. Maybe there is something universally appealing about all those neat pictures and patterns.

I made a twin sized I spy quilt for my first born when she moved from her baby bed to her big girl bed. My second daughter is still in her crib, and will be for quite awhile, but I’m already planning quilts for her too. I’d imagined that I’d make her something different. Couldn’t decide what exactly, but just different.

Then yesterday we were playing on big sister’s bed and she was just fascinated with the I spy quilt. We often play with the smaller I spy security blankets I made for her, and she just loves that. But the big bed quilt was even more amazing to her. She would point at a square and look at me waiting for me to tell her what the picture was. I was surprised how long she stayed focused and kept wanting to play (although I shouldn’t have been).

I think she’ll be getting her own I spy quilt one day too. Different is overrated when the good old stuff still brings in so much fun.

I’m actually working on an alphabet quilt for big sister now. It’s taking a while because I got the hot idea to find fabric with pictures for each letter (apple print for A, Blue fabric for B, etc.) Turns out some letters are a bit tricky to find. So that can be my fun and different quilt to make for now. Baby sister will get a different quilt too one day. It’s fun making new kinds of quilts, and no matter how careful we are, everything still needs to be washed from time to time. But the I spy is a necessity in this house.

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I love Harry Potter, but. . .

Yep, I’m a Harry Potter fan. Love him. We, my husband and I, started reading the book, one chapter a night, during then last months of my first pregnancy. We read all the books this way, I think there were four at the time, and when a new book came out, we’d snuggle as a family in bed and read a chapter each night. It’s become a nice tradition for us.
When we were expecting our second baby, we decided to start the series over again (yes, we liked it that much) Now we just got our pre-ordered copy of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows”, but we’re only about halfway through book six. We aren’t ready for the new book just yet. I admit, I’m tempted to just whisk through the rest of six on my own so I can quickly read book seven to find out what happens. There’s so much hype and peer pressure to read it right away, it sounds like a fun thing to do, but we’re resisting the peer pressure. So even though we may not even start on the new, exciting book for over a week or so, we love our special family story time, and we’re keeping out tradition.
Just don’t dare try to talk to me about book seven for at least a month! I’m doing my darnedest to avoid spoilers.
I do love the Harry Potter books, but I love our special family time even more.