Finally – The Forever House!
Oh my gosh. Words can’t even describe how I feel about finally moving into “the forever house”.
Although it is overwhelming to now live amongst boxes and mess everywhere, there is such an awesome, overwhelming feeling of “home”!
![]() |
Organizing the kitchen was difficult (we are still rearranging!). |
![]() |
The “Great Room” |
Box by box, we will get there! I have to remind myself of that often, as I very much like a clean and organized house – and unorganized piles and mess like this stresses me out a bit. Someone gave me the advice: think of it as training! Take it one day at a time. (Thank you, KPW! What a totally true and relate-able analogy!)
![]() |
Greta helping Kristin, a coworker, unpack jackets and shoes.
Kristin says, “Boy, your mommy sure has a lot of shoes!” |
![]() |
You can actually see floor in this picture. Amazing. |
![]() |
Greta on our front porch. Too cute! |
Meanwhile, Jerry has me putting in two big weeks. I loved trying to figure out ways to put in the miles. For example, I knew I couldn’t just tell our move crew that I would be back in about 3 hours because I needed a 20 miler on Saturday. Instead, I took off early from work mid-week and knocked it out. Doubles were finished sometimes in-route to last-minute appointments or to take care of errands.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if I didn’t want this, it would be SO easy to find all sorts of reasons why I couldn’t fit in my workouts.
Instead, I logged two weeks in the mid to upper 80s. Because it is the first time I’ve been logging this many miles, most of my runs were base mileage.
![]() |
Week 1 |
![]() |
Week 2 |
Workout highlights in the last 2 weeks:
Informal 5k as part of a Food Shelf fundraiser – 20:43. This did not go well. It was the first day I felt somewhat normal after another round of mastitis. This infection was the least pleasant of the three I’ve had. I had a fever for over 36 hours and my temp spiked to 104. It still wasn’t super painful (high pain tolerance? IDK), but I was barely functioning as a human in terms of day-to-day activities. I slept a lot. Gross. All things considering, a 20:43 isn’t so bad.
400 meter “repeats” after the 5k. These were terrible! I could not move! They were done in about the same pace as my average 5k mile pace. Yikes.
4 miles hard – 26:10. No paces given, and I was running this solo. I clocked the first two miles in 6:39 and 6:35 and then thought: let’s play a game! Can I continue to drop ~5 seconds/mile for the rest of the workout? That totally changed my attitude and willingness to push and hurt. I would look at my watch (especially the last mile) and think: ahh! I still need to find another few seconds in me! C’mon!
Splits: 6:39, 6:35, 6:31, 6:25.
I ended that workout with a smile on my face. Note that I ran a faster 5k in this 4 mile workout than the 5k effort.
20 mile long run. My longest long run in a long, long time! This was hard to start, mostly because my brain was yelling: that’s a long way! It will hurt! But, I convinced a few friends to meet me for part of it, and then just kept putting one foot in front of the other. 20 miles later, I felt so good about getting this done.
Plus, a few stroller miles, some strength work, and some strides! Taking things one day at a time.
![]() |
Good thing the girls like it in there! Greta sings or talks about the things she sees (A puppy! A bridge! A car!) and Anna screeches. It’s pretty amusing to listen to. |
![]() |
My first strength workout in our home gym. Greta and Anna had to be part of the action.
I am in LOVE with it! I was surprised by how much I missed a workout room while we were in temporary housing. |
All for now, folks! I have some unpacking to tend to!