Big Girl Runs - Here We Go!

I did it and I invite you to join me in the crazy adventure to learning to be a runner. Yes, crazy you might say.. not a lot of 180 pound girls out there hoofing it for 3.1 miles but at the very least you are going to know one and that will be me! ( "Lord willing and the creek don't rise" as they say in these parts)

The goal will be to run the Disney 5K family fun run just in time for my 45 th birthday in January.  I am sadly out of shape, as in still holding the weight from my first baby almost 23 years ago  - so of out of shape that this is going to be a very steep hill indeed.

During this adventure I am going to whine a bit, brag a bit and generally talk about how I feel, what I wear and how freakin hot it is here in Chattanooga this summer. Fall will come and I hope with that progress on my running ( or as I like to say, not gasping for breath like a trout thrown to the river bank) and  January you will be witness to my angst, packing issues and posts about inner thigh chaffing - sounds fun huh?? Look for BGR updates about 1-2 a week.

Next time we meet - Bras for big girl runners with boobage!

If you want to make sure not to miss an update of this gripping saga pop over to my Facebook page and give it a "Like" or sign up at the top right of the page for e-mail updates.

Solutions for the A.D.D. Homemaker

I ran into my living room this very second and snapped this photo, no primping, no creative angles to obscure a mess, just real life. It is not perfect evidenced by the power saw and pile of stuff to go to donation sitting on the bench but it is a far cry from how you would have found 2 months ago. I did not like the mess but seemed to not be able to rise above it. Let alone I got very distracted in the process!

Something had to change.. and it did!

You see about a month ago the man left town for a week taking with him the youngest boys. I stayed home and cleaned. In fact it was more than cleaning it was rebooting our life in the direction of peace, organization and sanity!

It took a solid week of my cleaning, de-junking and donating stuff we no longer needed. Books and clothes, kitchen items and gifts that never got used. I worked from 7 am till well after midnight most days to make this transformation happen and it was one of the best things I have ever done. 

Along with the purging came a set of habits/ alarms that are now 30 days strong and making a huge difference in how this house feels and my sanity.   I encourage you to create your own basic sanity list this summer and see how it works out. 

I am A.D.D - I use my cell phone to set multiple alarms that ring each day that remind of chores I need to do. I even play a silly game with myself where I try to get my chores does before the alarm - yes I am nuts!

Wake up alarm - 7am

Medication alarm -  8am

Laundry alarm - 9am

Dinner prep alarm - 10am

Lunch - 1pm

Sweep/mop kitchen-2pm ( yes everyday)

Oversee chores/ Tidy house - 4pm

Start Dinner - 6pm

Evening laundry - 9pm

What about you? What do you do to keep you day on track?

The Unprogrammed Summer

So I posted earlier in the week about the idea of a unprogrammed summer. A time to chill and enjoy life without micromanaging every second that your kid is awake with camps and lessons.

But unprogrammed does not mean boring ( but a little boredom can be a good thing). What I am talking about is a buffet of possibilities none of which has to be done but many which might intrigue your children and set them on a path of exploration.

A Great place to start is with 50 Dangerous things. Life today is pretty secure ( DULL) for most middle class kids, no where near the adventure fulled romp in the woods that my childhood was and sometimes I am sorry that my kids are missing out on those sorts of things. This book has lots of ideas to add a bit of thrill/danger into your child's life. ( Don't worry there is no chainsaw juggling involved!)

But if that is too much for you how about Slacklining? It is all the craze, not really all that dangerous, you can set it up in your back yard and the kids will try it for HOURS! This is top on our summer challenge list!

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One of the best DVDs on the subject is Gibbon Slacklines 101 DVD but you can also find a lot of you tube videos!

And if you want to buy some line to try it out Gibbon Classic Slacklines  are said to be the best and the ones used by most of the teens and young adults I know.

The video and line are currently listed on Amazon prime so no shipping charges for a lot of summer fun.. I can't wait to share our  slack-adventure with all of you!

The Semi-Daily Smash Share

One of the things I have really missed about posting at D.A. is sharing creative home inspiration. The flip side being that while away I have gotten a lot done with my house ( go figure).

One of the things I started was a series of SmashBooks to hold my inspirations so that when I am ready for a new project I just have to open it up for a wealth of ideas to tumble out ready for me to work on.

I will talk more about my various Smash Books in a different post and will be sharing images from my Home book over the summer.

I have a pie safe that is similar in scale to this one.. it needs some work but with this image I now have some direction! The color had me from the get-go!

Want sneak peaks of what I will be Smashing in the coming days? Follow me on Instagram I am Maddiemom6.   Need to know how to do that? Follow on Instagram Instructions

Boredom is not the Devil - The Unprogrammed Summer

Keepin it Cool this Summer

Summer officially starts this week. With many schools starting back the first week of August it seems that Summer is shunted into a smaller block of real-estate each year and I for one am pushing back on that notion. 

In fact,  I can't even say that for us summer even feels like it has begun since my kids have had an unusual number of obligations and events that are slated as "summer camps" but they really just feel like more academic obligations to the person who drives them about ( that would be me) And while they have been fantastic classes I am looking forward to the days when there are no places to be and our biggest decision of the day is should we have cantaloupe or watermelon after we take a dip in the pool.

While most people pack their kids into camp after camp each summer I tend to think that time at home is what most kids need. Down time, time to think and lay in a hammock. To stay up late catching fireflies and reading books that don't require a 200 word summation at the end of the last page. Time to eat melty popsicles and make icecream and then eat it for breakfast. To haul out scrap lumber and add another precarious feature to the treehouse.  And yes a chance to get BORED.

Boredom is a invitation to learn something new! Unprogramed joy!

Yes, give your children a chance to be bored. Boredom is not the devil, it is an invitation to expanded thinking, risk taking ( in the best way) and is a time for them to find the resources within themselves to become the kind of children who no longer need to be entertained or who live dependent on the TV, computer or video games - it is a beautiful thing!

 Next time an intriguing list of things your children might enjoy trying!.. in the meantime here is my best summer memory 

You Might be Right and I Might be Crazy

So just maybe I still have a few things to say.. and so maybe I miss blogging here.....  So let's see what happens!