Sloppy Joes

If you don't follow this blog, pioneer woman cooks, you're missing out on some of the best recipes EVER. So I randomly decided this week to make Sloppy Joes as one of my weekly meals (I plan my meals out for the week on Sunday before we go grocery shopping), but I knew I wanted to make them homemade, not Manwich. So I googled it, and Ree's recipe came up....which of course, I was like, duh....should've checked her sight first. Anyways, her recipe was AWESOME, but I added carrots to sneak in veggies for my kids. You just dice them and cook them in the beginning with the onions & peppers.

But so here's the best part, we're sitting down to dinner, and Delph is like "what are sloppy joes?" And I'm like, "really? I've never made you sloppy joes?" And I hadn't, Delphie had not had a basic American tradition at 7 years old! Because I'd never made them b/c I've never been a big fan of Manwich. Yet, I grew up on these things! SHE LOVED THEM. Maybe b/c the recipe was awesome. Maybe just because sloppy joes are awesome. And she commented, "I get why they call them sloppy, but why joe?" Good question, my wise sage of the 7-year-old world, good question.

Running Through The Pain

So I haven't blogged about my half-marathon training in awhile....here are the updates:

1) We are officially signed up for the race! $75 in....EACH! So there is no backing out now. Come out and support us if you want, November 13th, you can google the course online to pick a good watching spot. It's early, we start at 7:30, but no worries, I'll be running for a solid 3 hours, so come on down around 9, and I'm sure I'll still be tortoise-ing along.

2) I have shin splints! UGH. If you've ever had them, they are EXTREMELY painful. And you can get all kinds of advice, ice them, brace them, tap your foot, stretch, etc. But the only way to make them go away is to STOP the activity that caused them and let them rest. But I can't and I'm not. So I do all the things mentioned above and I run anyway. It's been terribly painful, and gotten better at the same time. I did lower my training in the past two weeks to try to give them some more significant rest, and that seems to have helped. I only have to run a 10k today.....ONLY, hahaha! But this week I've got to pick it back up for 9er next weekend. The race is only 3 weeks away, so I'm just gonna suck it up and RUN THROUGH THE PAIN (sounds like a good sermon in there somewhere....maybe I'll blog about that as a devotional later.)

3) I've officially reached another mile stone, last weekend we ran 8 miles. So proud of myself, really happy I accomplished it.....and it was the most miserable experience of my life. Seriously! In being retrospective on this whole race thing, I can say honestly, that I'm pretty proud of myself and have learned that I don't totally dislike running. I can see myself continuing to go out and run 3 miles 3-4 times a week, with maybe a long 5-miler on the weekends. I could even see myself training annually for a 10k, BUT I will NEVER do something of this length again. It's so much pressure, our lives are already insanely busy with two young kids, jobs & tons of activities. But each week we also have to fit in hours & hours of running. And then when you do a long run, you're wiped out for days! I literally couldn't walk normally for two days after the 8 miles. So I'm going through with it, but that's it for me, cross it off the bucket list. No Marathons or Triathalons for this gal. Ironically, after running the miserable 8 miles, I went out this week and had the best run of my life, 5 miles faster than ever (for me) and no pain.

4) I'm a sucker for the gear. As you saw in an earlier post, I already have my armband for music, my water bottle belt. And now I'm using energy gels! I need some cold weather running pants, and I get totally a ga-ga about all the great athletic clothes when I walk in REI or Dicks. I love the idea that I could walk into Starbucks on a Saturday morning in my cool athletic clothes and look totally hard core like the other runners I've seen in there in the past. To bad when I'm actually running, I look nothing like that.

I vow to listen

So, I've wanted to write since I was about a senior in high school. When I first went to college, that was my direct goal, I studied English, read all the classic literature, wrote & edited for the paper. But after time, that gave way to other goals. I'm happy with all the things I've done, especially being a teacher and my work now at WEAG. But I still want to write.

These days I dream about my various projects....I'd love to write fiction for teenage girls (not the Gossip Girl stuff), but cool, relevant stories with Christian messages. Or I'd love to write theology books, and die waiting to be published in the oversaturated market. And I have this great idea about a funny devotional book for the working/soccer/crazed/messy house mom, who can't even find a time to have devotions.

But that's the background to my title for this post. I was having a conversation with a friend the other day, and this gal is so much fun. She's got a colorful personality, has great stories and is just really fun to talk to. And I got to thinking, the kinds of conversations I have with her are the kinds of conversations that people write into their books to help make points. You know, all good writers have tons of stories in their books that help them express what they are getting at.

And then I realized, I'm 35, and I'm totally lacking in having paid attention to those conversations, those stories for my whole life. I don't listen enough. I mean, I listen well enough to respond back, even to offer good advice, but I don't listen enough for poignant moments, for conversations or comments that are so good and meaty, that you want to go home and record them for future use.

Not just so I can be a good writer, but so that I can be a better friend, person, example to my kids.............I vow to be a better listener!