Wordless Wednesday

Elise made a bed on the floor with 2 pillows and then called Tesla in to lay with her.

I went to the bathroom and then couldn't find Carter. Finally figured out he went out in the backyard to play Swing Ball by himself.

Carter got a coupon and used it to have mac and cheese for lunch. Elise picked a different coupon and then was devastated she couldn't also have mac and cheese for lunch. She pouted the entire lunch time.

She upped the ante by sitting next to me while I ate lunch.

She finally gave in and picked a pb&j which she wanted to make all by herself.

Elise's set up to read while laying on the couch.

Elise and I were playing kitties. When Elise got up, Tesla crawled in to spoon me. Elise took a picture because it was so funny!

Elise took a picture of herself after she took one of me and Tesla.

She also went in the other room and took a picture of Carter.

I told Elise she had 30 minutes until her art class and then I saw she had everything already all set up. Any guess as to what her favorite class is?

Her Starry Night Snowman she drew during art class.

Carter had a coupon where he could pick anything he wanted to eat for each meal. After he used it, I decided I needed to make some exceptions. He made chocolate covered pretzels for breakfast.

Elise decided Tesla needed a make over and brushed her.

She also put blush on her muzzle.

We are finally getting around to re-doing Elise's room and the kids wanted to help paint the ceiling.

Hiking with friends.

Carter's Starry Night Snowman.

Hiking with friends.

Elise used some of her money to buy an LOL Surprise. She wanted Carter to video her opening it like she sees on Youtube.

My Year in Books

Ever since I started using Goodreads to track books I want to read and am reading I started doing a yearly post to share the stats it collects about my yearly reading. It's fun to look over the year and see all the books I've read. I read way more books this year than I have in the past. I have the Coronavirus to thank for that. Between quitting my job to be home with the kids while they were in distance learning and not having plans on the weekends, I had a lot more time for reading. When I saw how close I was to hitting 200 books for the year, I was tempted to make that my goal for 2021. But I really just don't like having a set number of books to read as a goal because it encourages you to read shorter books for more volume than the longer books you actually want to read! So I didn't make that my goal, although if it were to happen one year it would be pretty cool! And to think this all started because after Elise was born I set a goal to read at least one book a month because with lack of sleep and caring for babies, I had stopped reading as much as I used to! It really took off from there! Read about my year in books last year here and in 2018 here.

I read 56,782 pages across 186 books.
Last year I read 41,911 pages across 132 books.
In 2018 I read 38,074 pages across 128 books.

My shortest book was The Bookish Holiday of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman at 36 pages.

My longest book was Anna Karenina at 964 pages.

The average length of book I read was 305 pages.

The most popular book I read was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn with 3,575,162 other people reading it.

The least popular book I read was The Soloist by Steve Lopez with 117 other people reading it. That surprised me a bit because they made the book into a movie and that usually increases the popularity of a book significantly, as you can see with Gone Girl above!

My favorite fiction book I read this year was a tie between The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner, The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg, and Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid.

My favorite nonfiction book I read this year was Untamed by Glennon Doyle.

My favorite fiction book I listened to as an audiobook was Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver.

My favorite nonfiction book I listened to as an audiobook was Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson.

Overall favorite book of the year: I have no idea how I did this in the past. I can't do it this year.

Honorable Mention (how I read them in parentheses):

• Nothing Like I Imagined by Mindy Kaling (audiobook)
• Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center (audiobook)
• The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal (audiobook)
• The House Girl by Tara Conklin (audiobook)
• Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (book)
• Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman (ebook)
• His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham (audiobook)
• Ordinary Grace by William Kent Kruger (audiobook)
• An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo (book of poetry)
• I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown (audiobook)
• Know My Name by Chanel Miller (ebook)
• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (ebook)
• Shit My Dad Says by Justin Halpern (audiobook)
• What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (book)
• Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell (audiobook)
• Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell (audiobook)
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
• Light Over London by Julia Kelly

My favorite children's chapter books:

• Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
• The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate
• Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
• Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Wordless Wednesday

Walking up to the school parking lot because Elise wanted to try out her bike without training wheels.

Hot chocolate tea party!

We watched Beauty and Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and then put together Elise's new Lego set.

Elise dropped the syrup and it sprayed all over. Mopped the floor 5 times and it's still sticky.

Elise got all smiley faces at school so she picked this coupon and had mac and cheese for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the next day!

I was helping Carter with his math and when I was ready for Elise, she had fallen asleep on the futon. That's one way to get a longer break, haha!

Taking a break from school for swing ball!

2020 Running Review

Well, this year was WAY different than any other in so many ways and running was no different. I had a really strong spring training cycle gearing up for the Boston Marathon in April. I felt like I was in the best shape I've ever been in for longer distances. I got in 5 long run workouts and four 20-22 mile long runs. Then I got a terrible case of the flu mid-March right before Covid-19 made it's way to America. That kept me out for about 2 weeks and left me feeling weak for quite a while! Then Boston was canceled along with all the other races I was signed up for. This fall was pretty blah and my body and mind were just out of sorts. The only real races I ran this year were the Race in the New Year and the Sweetheart Run. The rest of my runs this year were virtual races. In true 2020 fashion, I hit 2,020 miles for the year because I missed so much training while sick with the flu. That seemed to fit with the theme of the year pretty perfectly! Read last year's running review here, 2018 here, 2017 here, and 2016 here.

Total Miles Run: 

2,020

For Comparison I Ran: 

2,019 miles in 2019

1,918 in 2018

1,546.41 in 2017

1,332.6 miles in 2016.

Average Weekly Mileage: 38.8 

Average Daily Mileage: 5.5

Total Time Spent Running: 

292 hours

For Comparison I Ran: 

283 hours in 2019

271 hours in 2018

223.5 hours in 2017

191.5 hours in 2016.

Total Elevation Gain:

71,963 feet

For Comparison: 

75,483 feet in 2019 

70,513 feet in 2018

Total Active Days/Days I Ran: 319

My friend and I were supposed to end a running streak in November of 2019 but were really enjoying it so we kept going. My running streak stretched from July of 2019 until I got the flu in March of 2020. Then I missed out on 10 days of activity and followed that up with super low mileage as I came back to the world of the living. 

For Comparison: 

338 days in 2019 

308 in 2018

This Year's Stats:

Number of 5ks Run: 4 (10 in 2019, 10 in 2018, 8 in 2017, and 15 in 2016)

Number of 10ks Run: 2 (3 in 2019, 3 in 2018, 4 in 2017, and 4 in 2016)

Number of 15ks Run: 1 (1 in 2019, 1 in 2018, 1 in 2017, and 1 in 2016)

Number of Half Marathons Run: 2 (3 in 2019, 3 in 2018, 1 in 2017, and 1 in 2016)

This puts my total half marathon count at 21.

Number of Marathons Run: 1 (0 in 2019, 1 in 2018, 1 in 2017, and 0 in 2016)

This puts my total marathon count at 6.

Times Under 22 Minutes in the 5k: 2

Times Under 21 Minutes in the 5k: 1

Times Under 20 Minutes in the 5k: 1

Weeks with 20-29 Miles: 3 (0 in 2019, 5 in 2018, 21 in 2017, and 24 in 2016)

Weeks with 30-39 Miles: 20 (23 in 2019, 25 in 2018, 8 in 2017, and 11 in 2016)

Weeks with 40-49 Miles: 21 (29 in 2019, 17 in 2018, 9 in 2017, and 7 in 2016)

Weeks with 50+ Miles: 7 (0 in 2019, 3 in 2018, 7 in 2017, and 2 in 2016)

Highest Weekly Mileage: 57 miles (My highest weekly mileage since college and it happened to be the week leading up to the flu, don't think that was quite a coincidence.)

PRs

None

January

Dec. 31st/Jan 1st- Race into the New Year 5k in 19:57 (6:23 pace), 2nd overall female

Mom, me, and dad ready for the Race Into the New Year.

February

15th- Sweetheart Run 5k in 20:39 (6:38 pace), 2nd overall female

15th- Sweetheart Run 10k in 42:39 (6:47 pace), 2nd overall female

Jeremy and I finished 3rd as a team in the doubler and I was 7th out of 289 in the double and 2nd female.

Finishing the 5k during the Sweetheart Run double.

Running with Jeremy during the10k of the Sweetheart Run double.

March

I missed out on the Chisholm Trail Half Marathon I had signed up for and planned to run with the 1:30 pace group in an attempt to break 1:30 for the first time. The race was canceled but I wouldn't have been able to shoot for my original goal pace if it hadn't been as I was just recovering from the flu when it should have been. 

April

The big one here was missing Boston. I was pretty much into my taper when Boston was canceled.

May

We would have run the Joplin Memorial Half Marathon this month. I wasn't sure if I would be running on a relay or running the half, but didn't need to decide after all.

June

Our summer race series was set to return this summer and ended up getting canceled. We hadn't signed up get so didn't miss out on that.

July 

4th- Run OK Virtual Half in 1:37:29 (7:26 pace)

August

5th- Hope Isn't Canceled Virtual 10k in 44:02 (7:04 pace)

September

12th- Virtual Boston Marathon in 3:46:15 (8:37 pace)

Ty riding his bike with me during the first 10 miles of the marathon.

Blowing kisses to the kids as I ran.

Dad riding his bike with me during the next 10 miles of the marathon.

Finishing the marathon!

October

31st- Virtual Tulsa Run 15k in 1:07:54 (7:15 pace)

Ordered myself a 60/70 mug to hold to the tradition of earning a mug each year!

November

21st- Virtual Route 66 Marathon Relay in 3:52:57 (my 12 mile leg in 1:31:36, 7:38 pace)

27th- Thankful Run Virtual 5k in 21:04 (6:46 pace)

Ready to start my leg of the relay.

Ready for the Thankful Run (I ran the day before and ran the fun run with the kids when the others ran their 5k)

December

5th- Chisholm Trail Half Marathon, not really a virtual run but just to earn my medal in 1:36:49 (7:23 pace)

24th- Running on Wine and Christmas Cheer Virtual 5k in 21:20 (6:51 pace)

With my medal after the Chisholm Trail half.

Showing the bling after finishing my 5k.