Inspired

Inspirational quotes keep me motivated and full of energy to accomplish something great! I have sticky notes, ugly ripped up pieces of paper, whatever I could find at the moment stuck all over the walls in my house with a short note scribbled on it, something I found highly inspiring in that moment and to make sure I didn’t forget about it or put it off to make it cute, I just throw it on whatever I can find a put it on whatever wall is closest. Most days I don’t stop and read more than one (except the ones at the kitchen sink, those ones get a lot of attention), but whenever I feel inclined to pause, look at a random piece of paper on my wall, and read it, it is always just what I needed to hear that day and gives me a little boost and something meaningful to think about, thinking about how I might apply it to my life. Led by the spirit, of course. There are probably thousands of wonderful, uplifting quotes by this inspirational man, but here are just a few that are my favorites.

For Me

I really do want to blog regularly.
But I get so caught up in getting caught up with pictures and cuteness of the kids that just MUST be documented and how-dare-I blog about “whatever” when I HAVEN’T . EVEN . POSTED . THOSE . HALLOWEEN . PICTURES . YET . !?!?!
BUT I have two quotes that keep ringing in my ears:

“DOUBT KILLS MORE DREAMS THAN FAILURE EVER WILL.”

and

“WHERE PERFORMANCE IS MEASURED, PERFORMANCE IMPROVES.”

I need to remember that a blog post doesn’t have to be perfectly worded, formatted, pictures processed to the perfect black and whiteness, DOUBT or fear that I don’t have time to make it PERFECT stop me ALL the time.
AND I think this blog would be a great place for me to talk about how I’m trying to be a better person and all that...
So I’m going to give this a shot, just blogging, for me.
Not blogging to show the world that I have the CUTEST kids ever made (which, ahem, I do…and umm I still will blog that…), and not blogging to declutter my hard drive by deleting pictures that aren’t good enough to make the blog cut, and not blogging to try and help others (I don’t even know how I’d do that anyways…), but just writing because I love to write and because I need to spend some time on me right now.
In general, I’m trying really hard to take more me time. As per my husband’s insistence.
I feel that I have made great progress in life lately. And its an amazing feeling. A big part of this was getting into running.
In the last three months I’ve gone from two extremes-

Who I was:

I hate running so much, but I know its good for me so I’m going to do it, I’m going to get all dressed in fun running clothes with my cool headphones, I’m pumped I’m so ready for this run!! And after running for 5 minutes I lay flat on the ground gasping for my life and I just let all the passersby assume that I just finished running a secret marathon. (I could really only run for about .20 miles)

Who I am now:

On days I don’t run, I’m an irritable Debbie downer. I crave a good run. I run 5k (3.10 miles) every day, no stopping to walk, a steady half hour every single time. Once a week I do an hour run, this usually gets me about 5.5miles. I’ve even gotten to the point that I can have a good chat with a friend while running!

What I’ve Learned

I’ve learned that when things get hard, like, really hard, you just gotta push through and it will get better. Have I been told that my whole life, uh, YEAH, but I thought that everybody was just saying that so that I’d keep trying! But guess what…its true!

At first it was literal – the route I run is slightly uphill for a small part. For a while I would run hard and stop right as I got to the top of the hill, thinking I deserved to rest now since I made it to the top! Makes sense right? Well one day I decided to keep running after I got to the top…wow! It was amazing! I pushed and pushed and made it to the top and then kept going!  And guess what…it got easier!! This simple, silly little hill on the path that runs past my house has taught me so much about life.

“The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.”

The first time I ran the 5k loop without stopping, the accomplishment that I felt and the utter joy and self satisfaction ranks right up there with some of the happiest moments of my life.

And since I can’t bring myself to do a post without pictures, here are some strait from my phone- untouched! Most from Memorial Day weekend, some just from life lately.