Oh baby

Remember your babies' milk-drunk nap-time stupor?

Jane has that too.

Not sure what I'll do when she outgrows it. With each of my babies I used to watch them while they slept, little mouths working away at a dream snack, contentment and peace in a bundle. Now the lamb fills that spot, next prolly a purse dog.

Don't tell my husband.

Pacemaker

Last week I started a little couch-to-5k project.

I hesitate to mention it, you know, since I'm much nearer the "couch" than the "5k."

All my life I've been a dancer, a writer, a horsewoman, a thinker.

And although I play well with others I am not exactly a team sports kinda girl.

So it was with great surprise that I realized I love both the field and track portions of a track-and-field event.

I think I really love the solitude of running... even in my current walk-run-walk-run stage.

And it's not just because my early partners, 

my sweet husband and my super-fit oldest child, 

outran me within 90 seconds of our inaugural workout.

Come to find out, I just (big surprise) like being alone for 20 or 40 minutes.

One can think on a run.

Whodathunk?

(Molly is behind bars because we have a new bottle baby, a lamb, 

and the dogs are not to be trusted with small bouncy creatures.)

Anywhat I have new running shoes and a new attitude.

I run for mental health.

I like the running better in the woods,

where the fir needles and moss cushion paths

and my thoughts are rambling

but loud enough to hear over 

my breathing.

As a horsewoman

it feels a little like that moment when you transition 

from walk to trot to

canter.

It's breathless and slightly uncomfortable, hard to catch your balance, and then rhythm takes over.

So I go into the woods without my camera.

And I come out not a faster person but a person with a better pace.

I run when Salvador's asleep and the girls are
deep into history or language arts -- my favorite subjects and theirs --

and I can't believe I look forward to this exercise.

Do you run?

Do you stretch yourself in some other unexpected way?

(Do you illustrate your blog, your life, with seemingly unrelated photos? Me too.)

The one where the sun came out and we were glad to be alive

Spring break pretty much broke us.

 What with the raining and the flooding and the record-breaking

drench of it all.

 But today we took our barefoot selves down to the still-swollen creekside.

 And we ran through the damp grass in our Easter duds.

(Were you aware boys don't have "outfits?" Me neither.
Alas, after four girls, I am informed of this important gender difference.)

 We climbed the apple trees.

And sat down to soak up some sun.

 Because today, for just today, the sun came out in Oregon.

To remind us of the fleeting nature of any grey mood I suppose.