Fired up the Lil Rambler a few days ago. It was easy to put together. Abby and Luke fit in it well...if I wrap towels around Luke's straps. I'll post a picture of them when I figure out how to do that. Anyways, I remember thinking to myself, "Self, I need to remember to put air in the tires, for they are completely flat." Or something like that. Then I took off running with it. It felt so heavy and I was so tired. I knew I couldn't go long with that heavy thing. I figured 15 minutes was going to be the norm for awhile. Then I got back and realized I hadn't aired up the tires. But I didn't think anything of it until today. Jason and I decided to go for a jog with the kids. I had put the kids in the Lil Rambler and was ready to take off when Jason said, "Shouldn't we air up the tires?" Duh. So this time we did and it rode like a dream. It was so smooth and it cornered so nicely. It didn't add any extra work to my run. I'm quite pleased with it and highly recommend it. We went around 2 miles with no problems. Abby loves it. Who knows about Luke. Good times.

In day 15, Warren says that in heaven we will be "rewarded and reassigned positions of service." He referenced the parable in Matthew 25 about the three servants who are given 5 talents, 2 talents, and 1 talent. If God can trust us with a little, He will trust us with a lot, not necessarily money but all blessings. What do you think this means from an eternal perspective? What do you think we will be doing in God's second kingdom? And, does "the first will be last and the last shall be first" apply to our heavenly duties?

All I know is that The Purpose Driven Life is, once again, the best book I've ever read. He talks right to me in such practical ways. What he says is so simple but it hits me as so profound. Like what I read today. (I'm a little behind the church right now.) Day 16 is about love. I have to say this is one area that I just can't understand. Love alludes me. Godly, sincere, unconditional love for all people. I can repeat what God says about it but I just don't get it. I think it may stem from my inability to receive love but that's a story for a different post. Anyways, I know that God says that the greatest love is laying my life down for someone else. But I think, "When is that ever going to be necessary?" Love seems so abstract. I can't get my self-centered head around it. Warren gave me such a simple, almost tangible way of really absorbing and living what God was trying to tell me. Let me quote him here.

"The importance of things can be measured by how much time we are willing to invest in them. The more time you give to something, the more you reveal its importance and value to you. If you want to know a person's priorities, just look at how they use their time. Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it. You can make more money, but you can't make more time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you'll never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time...Whenever you give your time, you are making a sacrifice, and sacrifice is the essence of love...The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now."

"Your time is your life." So I have the opportunity to give my life for someone else pretty much daily. I knew time was "precious" and "limited." People say that all the time. But now I think of time as love (time=love). I can grasp time. (I guess this is why God is infinite in time...) I can give time. Time is a choice, not a feeling. I get that. And now I see that I have been incredibly stingy with my time. I want it for myself and my family. I hate interruptions, but those are actually opportunities to give my time/love to something other than what I had planned. That's what God wants from me as well, some time/love alone with Him, but not all of it. He wants me then to give time/love to others and time/love by myself. I guess this is also why we don't feel time when we are sleeping. We need a break from the sacrifice. (This may be stretching it.) I love that I now have a practical, concrete concept of love. From now on, I'm going to try to interchange the two words whenever I read, think about, or hear them to see what I can learn.

This kind of touches on Jason feeling the need to volunteer. God may be calling him to give his time/love to others so that God can give Him more. Emptying and refilling of love will stretch him (and me) so we can contain even more and give even more. How cool is that? But Jason, make sure this discontentment isn't God wanting you to give your time/love to Him first, then to others. Otherwise, you will go from one volunteer job to another hoping that longing would be satisified and you would feel better about yourself. But, I'm sure you've already thought of that.

Man, I'm a hypocrite. All these thoughts but no action. I need to go look in a mirror. I seemed to have forgotten what I look like. (James 1:23)

Well, it's done. I ran my 5K, thanks to Angela and Shawn. The St. Patrick's Day 5K that benefitted the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Hands on Discovery. I got to tri-state athletic club around 8:30am, found the Collinses right away, and registered. I paid my $20 and got my number: 689. I kept thinking, "What am I doing here?" I wouldn't have gone at all if Shawn and Angela hadn't been running. Anyway, it was cool to see all those people really into running. I saw more spandex there than I did through all of the 80's. Why do they do that? I saw a lot of familiar faces from when I worked out at the club. I walked around some of the boothes looking for free stuff. I got a free USI t-shirt, a coobook, a pen, a local magazine, and a sticky hand for Abby. There were animals there for the kids to pet and soup for after the race. There was no Gatorade. Of course, I got a long sleeve t-shirt for running. It was pretty cold at first, but I had on so many layers that I felt pretty comfortable: 3 sports bras, 2 long sleeve shirts, sweatpants, mittens, and a sock hat. We lined up on the starting line, near the back, and I saw Jason and the kids before we started. Right away, the pack took off much faster than we were going to go. We had gone about 200 yards when I saw that the front of the pack was about 3/4 of a mile ahead of us. Crazy. We ran first behind Burlington, by Dairy Queen, beside Hobby Lobby and then on to Virginia towards Burkhardt. We turned left before we got there and headed back by Los Bravos and over to Vogel towards Green River. We turned left on the street with American General and then back on to Virginia. The finish line was on the corner of Virginia and Tennis Lane. The first mile was a bit tough because it always is and the path was straight into the wind for awhile. I ran that in 10:30 or something. Then the 2nd mile came. It was far worse than the first. I felt like I had slowed to a crawl. My sides ached and I had to force myself to have better posture to breathe better but that hurt more. My hands were sweating, so off came the mittens. I had to carry them. I just kept thinking, "I can't walk. I won't walk. I just have to keep my legs moving. Don't walk!" People were running past me, then I would pass them while they walked, then repeat. The 3rd mile was coming. I had done the second mile in around 11 minutes. That surprised me. The wind was to my back now and I was thinking better thoughts. I realized I was feeling better enough to speed up just slightly. I kept feeling better as I ran. It was weird. I never felt good, mind you, but better. I got within a half mile or so and was praying for God to carry me to the finish line. At around 1/4 mile, I normally speed up, but this time I had no more gears in me. I just kept my pace and watched the people telling me I was doing a good job. They say that to everybody. What would be a bad job? Anyway, I spotted Jason and the kids just before crossing the finish line at 32:48. They took off my number and I walked back to Jason as the Collinses approached the finish line, too. Cool, it was over, and I was glad I had done it even if I had no chance of winning. Too bad we forgot the camera. I would guess I finished in the last 25% of runners or fewer. The soup sounded terrible, but I eventually ate it after cooling down. It was good but I burnt my throat as I swallowed. The rest of Saturday was great because I had already accomplished my goal for the day. Sunday was not so good because Duke lost the ACC tourney for the first time in 5 years and then we both had headaches. The end.

Funny! Jason just reminded me that the 5k is this Saturday. I was thinking next. I probably shouldn't have skipped so much this week. I was supposed to run 2 miles today so I ran 2.5 to better prepare. I have never run 3 miles before. This should be interesting. I just can't think of it as a sport. If I do, I will hate anything but 1st place. I'm just competing with myself. Can I finish close to 30 minutes? How much Gatorade can I drink? Those sort of things. I'm thinking I will dress sort of like Chip from the Cable Guy when he plays basketball. I'll look like I fit in with these people. "Prison Rules" running...I like that.

I was sick Tuesday, so once again, I got out of running the 3 miles. I run 2 miles tomorrow...maybe. I am feeling better.

I had a great weekend. Friday we went out to Los Bravos and then to Dick's Sporting Goods for a little shopping. It's expensive there so I got some stuff that was on sale. Saturday, bright and early, I went to a garage sale. Some party supply store went out of business so they were selling what was left over. That was convenient because I needed to buy supplies for the Master's classes' celebration in April. I got a bunch of stuff for $12. Then I had a chiropractor's appointment. I'm already getting better. My headache isn't nearly as often anymore. Then, right after that I got my hair cut. Then I got the oil changed in Jason's truck. All this and I'm back at home by 11:30am. Then we took out Jason's parents and Grandma Mary for Mary's 82nd birthday. We took them to The Triple Dragon in Newburgh that Todd recently blogged about. It was the best chinese buffet I've been too. It was a lot better than my previous favorite, Two Brothers. We ate a ton. Then we went home and relaxed for a little bit before Shawn and Angela came over to watch some basketball and just hang out. I was supposed to run 3 miles but decided that Sunday would be a better day to do it. We had some Freshettas and watched Murray State win(or Mary Stot as Abby called it). We got a call from my parents saying they were coming over tomorrow to help us put in our ceiling fan. Surprising, but cool. We've been looking forward to getting a ceiling fan in the living room for quite some time. Then we watched Duke beat North Carolina to win the ACC. It was close. That made Saturday a great day. We were supposed to go to church in the morning but Abby was still so sick that we decided we shouldn't. She's coughing a lot and is congested. She sounds "fuddy." Then my parents came over and we went to my favorite store, Lowe's. Because there was no light fixture or switch in the living room already, we had to buy all the cables, boxes, breaker, etc. That little stuff added up to more than the cost of the ceiling fan. We ran into three potential project-stoppers along the way, but God worked each one out. I was thrilled. I spent a little too much time facedown in the insullation in the attic but it could have been a lot worse. So we got the fan going with a dimmer on the lights and one on the fan. It's great! It's quiet! It's effective! We could feel the air all down the hall. With the project successful, we and my parents had some take out from Hacienda and then watched 3 episodes of Mythbusters. It was great and I ended up not running once again. Good times.

The cable guy was here today. He was explaining something and said, "Let's say he wants to watch ESPN or some other game, and you want to watch the Home Shopping Network or TLC..." I just laughed.

Five weeks ago (January 27, to be precise) I was painting the bathroom. I was standing on the step stool, which I had placed inside the bathtub to reach those corners. I stepped from the ladder to the side of the tub, but I missed the tub and fell to the floor. I landed on the side of my butt. The paint edger was in my hand and that was my main concern. I kept it up and it even flew out when when my hand hit the floor, but it managed to land paint-side up. So I didn't make a mess at all. I was happy about that but I felt pretty silly sitting on the floor after falling off a ladder. That stuff happens to other people. Anyways, my butt was a little sore where I landed but nothing else hurt...until a few minutes later. My head started hurting very badly. I took some pills to finish the bathroom but it hurt again not long after. The pain gradually went away from being constant to just hurting when I moved my eyes down. Now, 5 weeks later, the back of my head still hurts everyday, but mainly just when I look down. How odd? I can't take it much longer because I look down a lot at my kids. So I decided to call a chiropractor that was in my insurance book. It turns out he is a chiropractic neurologist. I had my first appointment yesterday. He did some weird stuff testing the function of my nerves, like having me smell a candle, putting a vibrating tuning fork on my fingers and head, checking my blind spots, banging on my forearms, and other weird stuff. Long story short, he didn't do anything yet. He's not positive of what's causing it. He said something about a chain reaction that was set off when I fell. There was something about the nerves in the back of my head involved in moving my eyes are being irritated by strained muscles, or something like that. I was a bit confused, but I do like the guy. He gave me a squishy ball (that Abby keeps hiding) to squeeze with just my left hand to stimulate the nerves on the right side of my brain. Then I go back Thursday to see how my nerves have changed. That will help him confirm what he thinks is going on. If he can't start fixing it, I'll go see an eye doctor.

I missed my first running day yesterday. I was supposed to run 3 miles. I didn't get around to it until the evening, but it was right after supper. I was full. I ran about a mile before I finally had to quit because my stomach hurt. I learned my lesson. Don't run on a full stomach.