One Thousand Gifts (541-600)

Another day to spend some time cultivating a list of things I’m thankful for…to awaken my sense of contentment, joy, and being cared for by a loving God.  What may become an annual tradition with me and the autumn months.  It changes my heart and life…every time.  On with the list:

541.  This post.

542.  Processing this photo I took on a fall walk yesterday on someone’s porch:

543.  Fall mugs

544.  New pumpkins.  Excitement over them.

545.  Two cups of coffee.

546.  Time to procrastinate.  Ahhhh…

547.  Health (I’ll say it again!)  Thank you, Lord, for every day of it!

548.  Calls from The Hub.

549.  Sweet people on the phone.

550.  Little girl birthday party excitement.

551.  Kids doing community service projects and meeting to pray.

552.  Great Sunday School Teachers (we love Cathy!).

553.  Opportunities to use gifts and talents by grace

554.  Reminders.

555.  Fresh Ideas/Challenges/Inspiration

556.  Joyful people who don’t know any better.

557.  Happy vegetable stand people.

558.  Shovels.

559.  Dirt under nails.

560.  Sore legs.

561.  Herbies for trash.

562.  Husband who empty out the weeds I filled the herbie with so the trash will fit.

563.  Husbands who have learned to fix toilets and can make them stop dripping.  PRAISE THE LORD!

564.  Knowing where the cordless phones are.

565.  Charged up cell phones.

566.  Seeing runners run in more rain than I would.

567.  a good watch.

568.  a favorite silver ring or two for seasons.

569.  comfy jeans

570.  hair growing long…finally.  I might make it this time!

571.  Good hair clips.

572.  a daughter who lets me fix her hair every morning this year.

573.  good office help.

574.  good tennis shoes.

575.  thoughts of buying a new scarecrow…the hub says we need a new one.

576.  hopes of finding pansies to plant.

577.  seeing crab grass go bye-bye, and hopes that it will stay gone a while!

578.  out with the old…

579.  outside lights decorated for fall.

580.  thoughts of my dad coming Monday to fix my treadmill.

581.  seeing the kids devour my chocolate chip-pumpkin bread this year and wanting to take it to school for “treat”

582.  plants that produce chocolate chips in a peanut free zone

583.  new athletic suits on the boys

584.  new sweater for the girl in “smoke” color.

585.  a good tutoring session with Boy Wonder in Geometry basic, Calculus, and Algebra for A-team testing…he asked!

586.  I remembered some of it!

587.  ways to hide paper stacks.

588.  pizza night

589.  Fall festivals.

590.  Anticipation

591.  wire baskets with fruit.

593.  small calendars

594.  functional technology.

595.  lists

596.  patience for photos

597.  family

598.  good books waiting

599.  good authors

600.  round numbers to stop lists on for the morning

One Thousand Gifts (521-540)

521-hot water brewing my whistle tea kettle the kids got me for my birthday last year for fresh tea

522 Field Kentuckiana ham on sale for sandwiches, deli-sliced; a break from turkey {yeah!}

523 preparing to run by doing chores first until it warms, fresh smell of clean kitchen floor

524 low fat sour cream (okay, and a few chips)

525 hopes for clean carpets today, vacuum out and waiting.

526 a fresh-ish head of lettuce in the fridge for my sandwich (always a treat when it’s ’still good enough’)

527 thankful music from Ann’s website preparing me for Thanksgiving…running in the background of chores, emails, facebook, planning, calling…

528 getting to break from Podrunner Interval and use my own music this week (by choice).  Hoping to hit a 5K this week after 11 weeks hitting the trail 3xs a week by the grace of God I’ve not missed my weekly goal yet.  By the GRACE.  OF.  GOD.  Seriously.

529 “hope that does not disappoint because of the love that has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”

530 small steps in the right direction…

531 a disc full of photos to smile about

532  fall leaf photos

533 celebrating

534 quiet baths

535 helps

536 back-up plans

537 sharing

538 finger nail polish remover   (which I need to use)

539 children excited about going to the park on a warm day

540  curling irons (which I need to use)

One Thousand Gifts (491-520)

List of 1000 Gifts: (491-520)

Here’s a link to more about what’s behind the “gifts list”: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2006/11/gift-list-thousand-things.html.

I hope you read what’s on the link, for I cannot say it better, and the heart of the site is so warming.

And so, I begin again where I left off last fall…thanking God, attempting to cultivate a heart of thanksgiving by His grace, in a season of thanksgiving, for all the little things he graces me with each day as I see it…

491. perfect coffee today and time to drink it 492. no fever in the house 493. a 70s fall day 494. surprised by the fullness of color in just two days, having missed driving the kids to school since last Friday with Red having been sick. 495. quiet house 496. children to tend to 497. moist chicken breast, mashed potatoes, green beans, mac & cheese, Sister Shubert rolls and a table full of family last night 498. cleaning the ’sick sheets’…fresh smells in the house 499. lime green coffee cup 500. favorite sweaters 501. comfie jeans 502. field trips 503. goals for the day 504. a slower pace 505. normalcy 506. health: bagdad report, larry pop is okay–home this week for dr. clearance before returning. 507. new tshirt for Nate he’s excited about (Phineos and Furb) 508. Godilock’s pride making academic team captain this meet (yeah!) 509. Boy Wonder’s pride over publishing the yearbook for school on STLP, showing me the software this am. 510. Cinnamon Poptartarts 511. Lucky Charms 512. Golden Grahams Cereal 513. Brownies 514. Football Season-Scrapbooking Season 515. Clean Floors (soon to be, I hope) 516. Blue Skies 517. Fall Scenes 518. Mums 519. Corn stalks 520. Grace–time for everything, a holy pace…by grace alone.

Thank You Fall Break…Now I’m Ready

I’m ready for a “normal” week where I can get back into my routine now.  Thanks Fall Break.  Thank you interruptions.  Now I can appreciate the mundane again.  I would, in fact, welcome the time to get to some spare moments for true leisure that is a reward and not that kind that puts you further behind, making more work for days to come!

Preview Thumbnails of SVG files for SCAL–FINALLY!

This blog post tells all about it:  http://svgcuts.com/blog/?p=1094.

Took me about 30 seconds to download and install it!

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Also, free svgs from this link is worth a look for those of you using Cricut plus SCAL:

http://cuttingtime.blogspot.com/2009/08/another-site-offering-free-svg-files.html

(do a search on the end site “svg” and find even more).

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28 minutes of Jogging

Some say “running”. I think at my pace, I’m still definitely a “jogger”, but I don’t slow to a walk.  The jogging theory means I’m saving some of my knees for my 40s, not that I like to go slow.  (Using Podrunner Interval, free online for those of you just catching up).  The 5K I had in mind for a training goal was canceled, but that’s alright.  I”m almost there now anyway.  It still served to motivate me.

Since I started, it’s great to note little changes in progress.  I used to time my walk-run intervals to see how much longer I had to go…going from one minute to three was a huge jump.  From three to five was a miracle.  From five to eight was downright crazy.  At 20, I lost my mind, and almost vowed to never run again.  I told my husband he could put on my tombstone if it turned out to kill me:  “She ran 20 minutes straight once.”  And I would have been proud.

Today, I ran my first 28 minutes straight.  I don’t know how far it was…I double back, and the trail is only marked every mile.  To see the next mile marker, I’d have to run 2 miles there and 2 miles back.  Yikes.  I’ll do that someday.  But, today, I think I ran around 3 miles.  Which is an all time high for me.  Being back on the trail rather than the sidewalks of Nashville was a nice treat today!  No watching for traffic and waiting on lights!

I had to finish chores at home and wait for the wind to die down from morning.  Ate.  Ran.  Got home, washed off, ran back to school to get the kids, and am now home smelling a roast slow cook.  It’s a good day.  Far to go still, but a great fall day!  Leaves are beginning to wow me, and I just LOVE that time of year!

What’s Up?

It’s Fall Break here.

I’m enjoying a slower pace, less cooking (so I get a break from the routine, too), and continuing to work toward some goals.

Goals:

1.  Getting the kids scrapbooks caught up so I can clear the clutter in the craft room.  Football season is a good time of year for me to tackle this.  We have one TV, and football will be on 3-4 nights a week.  I am next door in the guest room for any “must see” replays, but for the most part, I can let the guys have their time and have some of my own!

2.  Getting back in shape, rebuilding my knees slowly.  I’m running about 25 minutes nonstop now.  How far is that?  I don’t know for sure…I’ll know next week when I can get back to a marked trail, which I will enjoy, considering the current route near my home is uphill the entire last half.  I teared up at the thought of a 25 minute run Monday–two lone tears actually slipped down my cheek after I was really working hard to gear up for another 20 minute effort when I turned on my podcast (Interval Podrunner) and realized it would be TWENTY FIVE.  What???!!!  I yelled. The kids all came running, and I was trying to explain the situation to my 13 year old son.  He said, “Mom, are those tears in your eyes?”  He chuckled.  I kept explaining.  He said, “They really are!  You are CRYING!”

Yes.  I did.  It was a cold day.  I’m not used to being outside in the cold and I was weak.

All the way home I just kept saying, “It REALLY IS uphill all the way home.  I’m dying.  This is killing me.  I’m not sure I can do this.  I can do this.  I have to do this.  I can’t stop now.  What will I tell the kids?”

I did it.

I did it again today.  No tears.  No internal cheerleading.  No thought to the uphill route home.  I just did it.  Amazing what one hard trip made does for the psyche.

3.  Keeping the house on a schedule.  This is a major triumph of my life.  Some weeks I get off, but that doesn’t matter, because I did it last week, and I will do it next week.  I’m trying to add some big projects into this mix, but that hasn’t happened to great extent since I’m cramming in running and scrapbooking.  Soon.

4.  The Love Dare.  I’m not being as consistent with this as I need  to be, but I am trying to keep up with my husband and am, for the most part, enjoying a new sweetness in our lives due to this class.

New Font for Cricut plus Scal

I read this on the Cricut blog and it’s a great font.  Thought I’d share.  Overall, a great way to enhance the punches for personal use.  I have a few I’d like to use more, but don’t because of the lack of variety of size.

The fancy new punches are all rights-restricted but the early old-school punches carried no copyright restrictions. I made a font of some of those to make them easier to use in SCAL or for printing out at other sizes. You can download it for free here
http://cleversomeday.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/a-new-font-from-old-shapes/

_____________________________

Kay
Visit my blog – CleverSomeday

If you don’t yet have SCAL, check it out from the link in my sidebar.  It just keeps getting better.

Fall Leaves SVG file for SCAL2

Okay, so I’m filling my hard drive with SVG files from this talented lady, but here is a link to her blog for this fall leaf season to get you started.  Be sure and look through her site for all sorts of incredible-ness.

http://scrpbooklady.blogspot.com/2009/05/yes-im-little-behind.html

The Weekly: Today

Well, the main floor floors are due for a vacuuming.  The last few weeks, something has come up to either prevent that chore, or it did not make sense to do it.

After I ran yesterday, my knees felt great again.  Not so sure about the wisdom of the 2 mile run last week in the Podrunner Interval series.  I hurt and ached for about four days after that.  However, since I hit another one after the next interval run…I suppose you have to cross that bridge every now and then if you are ever going to run a full 5K.

Not totally sure that is my goal yet, but it is an “aim”…I’m walking in that direction as far as I realistically can.  If I just start Podrunner Interval again somewhere, or repeat the weeks I’ve enjoyed, it’s still an excellent program for more fitness, muscle tone, and calorie burning.  I feel pushed and that’s a great feeling.

I’m taking Triflex Sport 4-5 a day and have noticed a considerable ease in my knees, even in bending to get pans out of the cabinet after the first few days taking it.  I have maintained an Alleve twice a day (for swelling and pain), and added a total B vitamin supplement (have to watch or they increase the RDA by 8000 on those, but the ones at 400-500% the RDA I think are a good start).  Although the body flushes out anything it doesn’t need…I look at it like flushing the toilet a ton of times a day.  No toilet it going to last long at that rate, and I don’t think I will either. B vitamins are supposed to help with stress and recovery…I can tell a huge difference on days I take it in my energy level versus those I don’t.  I was up to about two pots of coffee as school started this year, and now I don’t even need to brew it…it’s back to being a rare treat for cool days.

You should also tell your physician if you are taking supplements…they can interfere with the absorption of some medicines.

On top of that, I’m taking an antihistimine every day to help with running in the cool air.  Also, my regular multivitamin (most days).

That’s a lot of big pills…but, they make me feel so much better, I don’t mind so much, and I remember.

So, right now, I am icing my knees.  They didn’t bother me when I first woke, but after I climbed the steps a couple times, they reminded me we’d worked out yesterday.  So, after the morning alleve and vaccuming just now, I’m taking a break with some joint ice packs.  I’ll have either lunch or a light snack, then hop back to it.

I took a break Tuesday and scrapbooked.  Totally enjoying the challenge of having pages ready to scrap each week…I got six pages done very quickly last week with that goal.  It’s not perfection or the most beautiful pages in the world, but they are scrapped for enjoyment and sharing…and that’s the main thing.  I can always add to them as I can.

I took a spontaneous trip with Mom to Owensboro yesterday because we’ve not had a lot of time together lately.  We had a great time.  We tried on wigs!  I took a photo of myself in one of them I’ll have to post.  But not right now.  I’m resting right now and don’t want to do anything anywhere close to resembling work.  LOL.

I got some new guards for my clippers that had broken…I’m learning to use it pretty well now and am enjoying how much faster I can trim the guy’s hair around here.  I still don’t enjoy it a huge deal, but I like it better than sitting at the barber shop, making appointments, and having to fit another thing into the afternoons.  Unfortunately, that means it’s often 10PM or 6AM when we can fit it in.  Ugh.

Well, all for now.  Hope you all are doing well.  Drop me a line if you like…

Converting Dingbats to Layered SVG Files for SCAL plus Cricut

I just ran across a great svg blog for those using SCAL, who want to learn to use Inkscape to separate out layered items to pieces with various colors.  Here’s the gem of a blog

http://imagesbyheatherm.wordpress.com

I so appreciate her willingness to teach, ’cause there are some things I just couldn’t find or wrap my little pea brain around!

Here’s the post specifically looking is how to paper piece from dingbat fonts:

http://imagesbyheatherm.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/creating-paper-piecing-svg-files-from-dingbat-fonts/

I’m thrilled at this and have just learned how to color the pieces I separate out.

Thank you!

PS:  You’ll need SCAL to cut your own files with a Cricut.  Check my sidebar for linkage if you don’t have it yet.

More Free SCAL files

Check out this gal, she is posting some nice stuff for SCAL plus the Cricut:

Includes:

• adorable clothesline
• cute dresses
• intricate owl
• intricate pear
• scalloped rectangle
• bracket label shape
• intricate Christmas ornament
• ice cream cone
• intricate bird
• frames

Here’s the link again:

http://etceteraetcetera.wordpress.com/sure-cuts-a-lot-scal/

You’ll need SCAL.  If you don’t have it, click here to buy and I’ll get a couple bucks, possibly, but doubtfully.  I think it has to reach a certain amount every few months for me to ever get a check!

Great Shape Font for Cricut Using SCAL with Brackets/Flowers/Scallops

If you have Sure Cuts A Lot for your Cricut, you should check out this post with a great shape font.  She requests you give donations to McDonald House when given the opportunity, which I plan to do.  LOVE this font!  Thank you!

If you don’t have SCAL yet for your Cricut, you can get it here (click my link and I’ll get a cent or two).  There are often coupon codes for SCAL on blog posts on the web, so be sure to check for them before you click in from here to buy. If you look around the site, click back in through here to purchase so I’ll get credit if you don’t care!   That would be cool.  I can buy another SCAL file!  Thanks!

Tuesday Progress

I feel like writing again today.

Chores for Monday were caught up.  Tuesday, I need to finish some irritating jobs (socks still in the living room unmatched after a week of cycling laundry), cleaning out the van (full of stuff I’ve been trying to return/drop-off for a week, items in the garage that need to be itemize before I give them away, vacuuming in the kids “territory” (has anyone learned to spell vacuum correctly yet every time, spell-check still hits me every time!)

Ran Podrunner IntervalWeek 3, day 3 today.  My right shin flared, but not a shin splint.  Both lower legs are strengthening, I felt that most today.  Light mist.  Good workout.  I don’t like how the series ends in a walk and then goes to a cool down on Week 3.  I usually add a 60 second run, then walk out the rest of the cool-down.

Will probably try to run extra days this week to prepare for the 5 minute run segments next week.  The thought of it intimidates me.  Only three days are required, with a recommended break day in between.  I just hate the off days!  Still mulling the healthiest way to handle off days.  May use the same music and do step or something like that.

The Love Dare book is going pretty well.  We both mutually agreed to not do one of the assignments.  We didn’t want to write down things we didn’t like about each other and burn it.  We are both at a place of taking negative thoughts to the cross as they occur, so making a list would be dredging up what had already been cast away.  If we have regular irritations, we try to deal with them, and already had an assignment on the top 3 last week…that was enough of that to work on for now to deal with more negative lists.  The positive directions impact us the most and are lending a freshness, the servanthood, beating one another to tasks, getting up from rest times to assist the other unexpectedly.  We’ve been beating one another to make up the bed all week.  It makes me smile.

I don’t mind doing it, but just the change of pace is sweet.

Podrunner Review 9-’09

So, it’s Monday again.  Day to mop.  It’s 1:15 and I finally got the kitchen clean after making three batches of decorated cookies to try to assist my daughter in her quest for the presidency.  Of 4-H.  And, apparently, there needed to be FOUR H’s on the clover cookies decked in almost kelly green (more like lime), rather than one big H.  On the part at 9:45 where I was scraping H’s off…the fun turned to  cranky and I had to send the kids to bed before cookies.  They did get one for breakfast.  I have one, too.  And one for lunch.  BAD GIRL!

On the upswing, I did get a sort of workable saran-tent made for them and had them delivered by 7:15 this AM.  Did isolations for arms and abs today, dropped off my son, went yard-saling and found a great deal on some Mary Kay makeup I’ll enjoy playing with (no green…the hubby insists I never wear green eyeshadow).

Reviewing the Podrunner:  Interval website and other logged entries on it for inspiration:

I’m starting Week 3 this week.  I was amazed that I didn’t struggle with the second run of Week 2 as I’d feared after not doing well on Day 1.  I went back to week one and repeated it a couple times before trying again.  To make up for having to back down, I fit in four runs rather than three last week, to try to keep building endurance.  I added hills on two of the runs.

It went like this:

Two weeks of walking hard 45 minutes, 2 miles, 5 days a week.

Week 1: Switch to podrunner (10 wks to 5K): 30 minutes, 2 miles, flat track. Walked one min/ran one min with 5 min warmup and cooldowns on the end…it was all I could do.

Week 2: 90 sec/90 second intervals (a 5 min warmup and 5 min cooldown)=all i could do.   (Wore two different running shoes by accident…realized I liked one better than the other, and that I had found GREAT New Balance shoes at a yard sale, like new, before I knew I’d be running this fall.  ELATED.)

Looked for ice pack solutions for achy knees after runs.  Helped.

Week 3: 3 min running spurts…and 3 min walking, with 2 90 second intervals thrown in.  I did well, but I don’t know how.  I added a stopwatch to help me make it to the end of the intervals, it helped.

Week 4:  looks like it will kill me.

I hope not.

Meds: To help repair my knees from over-bicyling in ‘05, I am taking Triflex Sport supplements by GNC…about 4-5 of those a day, and 1-2 Alleve a day until I build up some muscle strength and stamina.  I noticed a change in the first few days at how much easier it is for me to squat without thinking about it.  I really think it’s helping my joints.

Water: hard to get enough in yet.

How Podrunner Interval works: tones alert you when you switch from walking to running and vice versa.  After the first week, musical tones go up to run and down to walk, down, down, down to cool down.  Music switches to help you transition from walk to run and back.

Where you get it: They have a website, but I couldn’t right click to download from there.  I did a search actually for Couch to 5K (marked explic*t), and found it there for download.

Recommend? Absolutely.  I hate to run, always have, and love it.  It’s not just making me run until my legs cramp and my sides hurt…I’m building up slowly so I’m not hurting or getting frustrated.  I miss my days off running and love days when I run.

I like it.  I didn’t care for week 2 music because I was running in the woods and the metal clanging sounds made me feel like I was in a psycho-thriller movie, but I just thought “Nike Rebok step” music and got over it.  Loved Week 3 music, though I was concerned initially about the increase in two bpms on the same week I was increasing distance.  I didn’t seem to notice it in the actual run, however.  Liked the “major tones” of week three.

Someone said they wished he’d talk during the warmup instead of before you start.  I disagree!  I like turning it on while I’m in the van walking to the trail, stretching.  I wouldn’t like talking over the music.

Also did “8 Minute Abs” and “8 Minute Arms” DVD sets today to try to keep myself motivated on my off running days.  LOVE the quick and isolated area workouts–my arms were shaking when I got done.  However, HATE workout tapes that cheer-lead based on physical results instead of health. Hoping it will help me not over-run.  Dying to run today, though.  (Mop, or run.  Mop, or run…?)

UPDATE:  Mopped super fast AND ran Week 3…gotta get ready for Week 4!  Anyone know why there are 3 Week 5 mixes in Podrunner Interval?  I need to listen in and find out…has me curious!