Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Cinderella Mom

If you think Jesus would have come into your home that day and not issued a strong rebuke to the head of household, you are mistaken. These words of condemnation have been haunting me for days now. They aren’t all that different than the soundtrack I play in my head on an almost-daily basis. It’s…

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This is 40

I am nesting. On Saturday I emptied the refrigerator. Last summer’s homemade pickles in their jars. The bread ends that seem to multiply on every shelf. The eggs. The milk. The fruit and veggies. All of it sat on the floor or the counter as I carefully removed the shelves and wiped them down with…

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Beauty on the Backroads {or Why I Changed the Name of my Blog}

I’ve heard that life is like a highway. And it definitely seems like that sometimes. The pace of life swirls around me at dizzying speeds. We’re all so busy. In such a hurry. Always somewhere to be, something else to do. I’m a get-to-the-point, get-there-quick kind of girl. I don’t like to waste time on…

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One week down

Week 1, Day 3, thereby completing week one. I didn’t feel particularly challenged by today’s run/walk. Is that normal? I’m glad it gets increasingly more difficult, though I may regret saying that. Part of me wants to push it harder, but I definitely don’t want to injure myself, so slow and steady is the way it goes for now. I appreciate the encouragement that anything we’re doing is better than nothing, so even if I don’t feel like I’m working that hard, at least I’m working. Right?

We drove our two previous routes and discovered we’re covering about 2 miles with our warm-up walk, the 20 minutes of alternating running and walking, and the cool down to get us back to our starting point. That’s nice to know, too. I like measurable goals and that sort of thing, so knowing that we’re doing 2 miles encourages me that at some point we can do 3.

Feeling good still. Saturday begins week 2.

Press on!

Hills and flattened caterpillars

Week 1, Day 2. After the soreness of the weekend, I wasn’t sure I was going to look forward to today’s run. But my legs were not as sore this morning as they were yesterday, so my outlook for today’s workout improved.

We tackled one of the giantish hills in our neighborhood but also slowed our pace a little. By the end, I was still breathing normal and I didn’t feel like I was going to puke. I realize these moments may return another time, but I’m glad that I felt good, maybe even great after today’s run.

Isabelle likes stretching with us. It’s adorable. I hope to get a picture soon. She takes good care of us as we “suit up” to run, making sure we have our shoes and socks and do our stretching. “You wanna stretch with me?” she asks after we get back. A fitness trainer in the making?

Phil stayed ahead of me today instead of beside, which was fine except that I didn’t always notice immediately when he stopped after a minute of running. I guess I run with my head down because I noticed a lot of flattened caterpillars on the road. And when I’d look up after running for a time, I’d see Phil walking, unsure of how long it had been since he stopped. In a few weeks, we hope to be running distances instead of times to give us a better gauge of how far we’re going.

We’re taking your advice and applying it as best we can. The encouragement is great. And being accountable to you keeps us going.

Till next time.