Medicine for the Soul

After a 2 week hiatus from running and exercise it has been a little rough getting back into it because my body does not feel as strong as I would like.  At the same time it does feel good to get back into it, because exercise always feels good, even though it is hard.  So this morning I ran outside for the first time this year, sans long pants and jackets, and it was hard.  But it felt so good.  It was like medicine for my soul.  I love to be out and see the sunrise, the mountains, the other runners (there are a lot around here), flowers blooming, alfalfa fields, the temple (even thought I HATE that hill and I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest from beating so hard), and to hear the water trickling.  And the lastly, it is always so good to make it back to our water when the run is over.  It was great.  I love running outside.  The weather has been perfect lately.  I could do this weather all year long.  I hope it lasts a long time.  

I have still been weighing myself.  I am trying not to gain back the 10 pounds I lost and sooner or later I will get back on my diet.  However, every morning, I was losing weight.  And it was good medicine for the soul as well.  But I knew something was fishy.  It was too good to be true.  I have been enjoying lots of yummy desserts and barbeques.  So I changed the batteries in the scale.  Problem solved.  Not good for me.  But it felt good to weigh so little before I changed the batteries, so now I am motivated to weigh that much for real.

And lastly, we discovered another egg yesterday.  I hope this momma bird slows down.  2 or 3 was ok, 5 babies birds are going to be noisy!  I hope she is done.  This morning we were checking on them and we were back down to four.  But then we saw one had fallen out to the side of the nest.  I slid it back in with my finger.  I was afraid it might fall down to the bottom of my decoration.  I hope the momma doesn't reject it or anything

Growing

Yesterday

Today

This is about as exciting as it gets around here.  

New Additions

Our neighbors recently got this new addition and invited us along for some fun.  We had a blast!

And we feel lucky to have such great friends and neighbors.  

Today we found these in our nest!  We are so excited!

A Bobcat, A Graduation, and A New Find

The twins were awarded their Bobcats this week.  Boy do they LOVE scouting.  They had a little quiz at the end of Pack Meeting and who ever got the most right won a tree, and second and third took home some flowers.  David got 100%, but so did 3 others (he was the youngest however), so they had to pick a number and David brought home some flowers that we planted in the yard.  He was very excited.  They have lots of scouting questions for me and I have no answers.  You would think that growing up with 5 brothers I would know a little more, but I don't.  I guess because I was the oldest and by the time my brothers were in scouting, I was old enough to stay home.   

Tyler graduated from preschool this week.  His teacher provided the cutest graduation gowns ever!  She made hats out of a square piece of card stock and a Styrofoam bowl.  It was so cute!  Tyler is sad that school is over and wants to go back.  I think I would like him to go back too:)

This is what hangs on my front door.  Today I heard birds very loudly on the porch.  My neighbor mentioned she saw some in there.  

After taking it down and looking inside, this is what we found, a nest!  I wonder if the birds will hang around very long with Reggie.  Chasing birds is his favorite pastime.  

Here Comes the Sun, and....

Dandelions-When the sun came out yesterday, so did the weeds.  It was like they appeared out of nowhere overnight.  I spent a little time removing them from the grass and I know I will be doing it again.

Lack of clothing-If you didn't know better, you might think it was a sweltering 100° outside.  When I went to pick up the kids from school I passed all the middle school kids walking home from school.  There were boys with out shirts, girls with their shirts off, proudly displaying camis, and people laying out.  And my boys are begging me to get out the water slide.  "Not yet," I say.  "It's not that warm!"

Eating outside-My boys have been begging me to do this since Sunday.  Lucky for them, they got to eat outside last night with their cousins.  I think they all had a good time.

Grass stains-I am not talking about grass stains on clothes (although those can be messy too) but I am talking about grass stains on knees and bare feet.  As I was bathing my baby last night, I had to make sure the green got washed away.  

I love the sun and I am so glad it is finally here!  Here comes the sun and here comes the fun, I say.  I told the boys I was going to check them out of school for some fun this week.  Any good ideas?