Prayers for Haiti

My thoughts and prayers go out to the country of Haiti. May God bless and comfort them at this time. It was almost exactly one year ago since the earthquake here in Costa Rica.

Complacent vs. Content

I have always prided myself on being "content" with my life. When I had six young children and was home schooling, and not taking care of myself, I considered myself content. When I was doing massage over twenty hours a week with 13 people living in our small house, I considered myself content. When I got married at 17 and people said I had no idea what I was doing once again I considered myself content.

Well as they say, hind sight is 20/20, and boy are they right. I made the mistake of reading old journals and really taking a hard look at my life thus far. I have made a very sad mistake. I have been "complacent" not "content".

Definitions:
Complacent- pleased especially with oneself or one's merits, advantages, situation, etc., without awareness of some potential danger or defect; self-satisfied
Content- satisfied with what one is or has: not wanting more or anything else.

What better time to change things up than the "year of the tiger"? It will be a year of lots of commotion and movement. Time for me to get out of complacent mode and wake up. Maybe I have too much time on my hands, but I like to think it is a gift for the last half of my life!!!

Half Marathon

I can't believe I committed to a half marathon. Not just any half marathon, but the Leadville heavy half marathon. It actually climbs to 13,000 ft. altitude. I am going to be sucking air big time, if I even survive it. I am doing it for my brother. We will be doing it on his 50th birthday, so I relented. So far two brothers and we are still trying to talk the third brother into doing it with us. Is that the sign of one sick family that we celebrate birthdays by hurting ourselves?

There was one hitch in the whole thing. I told my brother that 15 months after we did this run he had to join me in Cozumel for the Ironman on my 50th. His excuse that he sinks just does not hold water, no pun intended. I told him he could just come and watch and eat. He was fine with it as long as he does not have to watch me puke! He did agree to bring the defribulater and we are going to talk my Dr. bro into bringing the oxygen, I should be fine.

Actually I am more worried about the half marathon than the ironman. The whole not breathing thing has me really worried. I am thinking spending the month before the run in Flagstaff might not be such a bad idea. Two of my brothers live at altitude, the other and I are about sea level. I am planning on running up in the mountain here once the volcano settles down. I can probably get to about seven thousand feet running up the mountain. Wow sounds fun.

I have decided to include some track work for this run. Not to increase my speed, though that would be nice, but to teach me how to suck air more efficiently. I am not real good at that since I usually keep my heart rate really low when I work out. In fact my coach brother has reminded me that I need to get my heart rate up while I work out, since it is going to go sky high at that altitude. Man I hope I survive without any altitude sickness!

Lice

When we adopted baby from China we had to check her for scabies and lice. She was clean of both and we were very relieved. Unfortunately a couple of months ago we were not so lucky. The kids here pass lice around pretty regularly, as I suppose anywhere, and now we are fighting a losing battle. I do threaten to shave her head off if she does not let me check her, for hours on end I might add.

The problem right now is she is passing them back and forth with her niece, so we are having to fight two houses and two sets of clothes as well as two heads. One with a ton of luxurious hair and another with wavy brown hair. Both equally hard to get rid of the little nits in.

Today I went on the almighty google search to try and find out what we were doing wrong with the pesky critters. There was site where they sell the shampoo, conditioner, comb and get this, for $70.00 per hour they will come to your home and pick the nits on your kid! That was a scream for me. I can't imagine someone paying somebody else that money to pick nits.

Now it is just part of our home school regime. We finish the school work, check the hair for nits and then we are done. Our school room is outside, so it has plenty of light and I am actually able to see out there. We will keep working on it and hopefully not have to clip babies beautiful locks.

By the way of news, did you know that lice are actually an epidemic in England?

Grandkids and schooling

Today I received in the mail a irreplaceable gift. A picture book of my Costa Rica grandkids. Even though I see them often I highly value hard copy, old fashioned pictures. My daughter did it online and we received it today in the mail. It is soooo cool! My favorite gift yet for sure.

Another gift I received today was that my 6 year old finally got it! I mean it finally clicked and she started putting the sounds together to read words, yahoooo! I am really excited and maybe tomorrow she will forget, but just for today I will enjoy the feeling of success that at least thinking she got it is giving me!

I have taught all six of my other children to read and would never let anyone else enjoy the great sense of joy that we both discover together when we accomplish this goal. There are days, like the past post that I really believe it is never going to click. And then one day they just get this little sparkle in their eye and wallah, they get it. That was our reading day today and I am so excited to get moving with her now. I have a feeling she is really going to take off now that she is reading. Harvard or Yale here we come!!!!