The Life of a Running Momma: Our Painting Weekend

This weekend Ty's parents came to help us paint our kitchen. We bought a special cabinet paint years ago half price and just hadn't gotten around to doing it. I have also always wanted to paint the walls because the original paint in the room is terrible. It marks up easily and I can't ever get it clean. When I posted my 30 for 30, Leina called to say they'd like to help paint the kitchen. I can't imagine ever having completed it without the help. It took both Leina and me all weekend to do the multiple coats on the cabinets while Rocky and Ty painted the walls. Our entire morning Saturday was spent prepping. We scrubbed everything down, patched holes, filled chips in the cabinets with wood putty. It was quite the undertaking. I couldn't really imagine how it would work out with the kids running around and was pleasantly surprised by how well they did. We had one instance where Carter tried to paint a cabinet door and one where Elise accidentally dropped a Cheerio in my paint can, but other than that they did wonderfully. It helped that the area by the kitchen is our playroom and we had to move all their toys. It's funny how when a toy is in a new spot, it's suddenly a toy they have never seen before. They did great playing on the trampoline, coloring, using watercolors, playing Play Doh, and watching us work.

Playing in the car we moved to Elise's room.

Looking out the window for inspiration as they drew.

We were up until almost 1am Saturday night painting, then the kids were up a little before 7 on Sunday morning. Leina got up to play with them and I headed out for my 12 mile long run which had gotten stormed out the morning before. I will run in rain but ever since becoming a mom, I will not run when there is lightning. I can't stand the thought of leaving my babies without a momma, regardless of how small the chance. I was impressed with how I felt starting my run. I figured with less than 6 hours of sleep and spending most of the day before either kneeling or crouching down to scrub and paint, the run would be a struggle. I felt pretty darn good with an 8:30 first mile which was my slowest. The second half of my run was all under 8:00 pace with my last 3 miles in 7:46, 7:35, 7:05 for an average of 7:59 for the run. I got home sweaty but ready to work. We got so much done, way more than I expected. We even got most of the trim painted. We had high hopes for getting the top protective coat on the cabinets last night after putting the kids to bed, but we had a birthday party at 7pm. We were tempted to skip it, but I hated to skip the party of one of Carter's best friends after he had been so darn good all weekend letting us get stuff done. So we went to the party and didn't get home until after 9. Once we had the kids down we decided we were way too tired to stay up late doing that last coat so we headed to bed and will get it done tonight. It was so worth it seeing Carter's face during the water balloon fight at the birthday party. He had an absolute blast! Now all we have left to do is the protective top coat on the cabinets and paint rest of the trim! Then we will just need to move everything back into the room, rehang our stuff on the walls, and do some cleaning. Even with the room trashed and stuff moved out all over the house, I still smile every time I walk into the room! I just love it. I'll post more pictures when it's finished. Now I'm off to paint some trim before the kids wake from their naps.