Life Lately

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. I made a list of 13 things I need to blog, and soon, before I get even more behind on documenting the happenings of our family. I'm going to attempt to catch up, and I may even double and triple post, which is something I never do. But I've got to get caught up!

Before I go on to the posts filled with pictures, here are some tidbits of life lately that don't really warrant posts of their own. 

* Bruce and I completed a "40 bags in 40 days" spring cleaning/decluttering challenge in April. I was inspired by posts from a favourite blogger, Sarah at Clover Lane, who often does this decluttering challenge during Lent. This year was my second attempt at doing the challenge, and my first time actually completing it. It. Feels. WONDERFUL! Over the course of the 40 days of Lent, Bruce and I got rid of 40 large garbage bags of stuff from our house. Some of it was trash, some was stuff that we somehow had ended up storing for other people, but a lot of it was from going room by room and evaluating just how much we needed (or didn't need!) each object in the space. We got rid of so many things that we hadn't used in ages, or that we no longer loved. It feels awesome to have unloaded so much unnecessary baggage from our home. I still find myself picking things up and thinking "do I find this useful or beautiful?". If the answer is no, I have another bag of donation stuff in the garage that I am constantly adding to. I'm planning to attempt the challenge again next year, but probably with grocery store sized bags this time around. I certainly hope we won't have acquired so much stuff over the course of one year that I need to fill 40 garbage bags again.

* The last time I blogged about running, I had just finished my first 7 mile run and was anxious to kick things up a notch. Well, during that 7 mile run, I apparently injured my knee and for the past 5 weeks I have really struggled with running. I haven't been able to go more than 3-4 miles at a time and I was not enjoying my runs at all. (The increasing heat doesn't help with that!) I started doing some strength training, hoping to build up the muscles around my knees. I also gave myself plenty of rest time and started stretching a ton. It paid off, and last Saturday I was once again able to do 7 miles. It felt good and I really enjoyed the run. But what I enjoyed even more is that on Monday I was able to do 5 miles with no knee issues, and I did another 3 on Wednesday. I think I am back on track to train for my half marathon! 6 weeks till race time and I've got an 8 mile run scheduled for tomorrow. I hope it goes well!

* I had kidney stone surgery mid-May. I've had (and passed!) kidney stones 3 or 4 times now. They are awful! My most recent stone was too big to pass but was causing issues and needed to be taken care of. Enter surgery. It was super scary for me as my only surgery experience was my emergency c section when Beebs was born. Needless to say, that was beyond traumatizing and I am realizing now, that I still haven't quite processed the trauma from that event. I was pretty worked up over the kidney stone procedure, but it went off without a hitch. Seriously, it could not have gone better. I had no pain or side effects from the surgery, other than it taking almost a week to feel "normal" again after the anesthesia. I was absolutely exhausted for about 6 days post surgery, but that was the worst of it. The stone was blasted into oblivion so there was no pain passing it. Now we just have to figure out why my kidneys aren't filtering correctly, thus making me a little kidney stone manufacturing plant. Luckily, my Urologist is amazing and he is very proactive. He is determined to figure things out so I can hopefully avoid surgery in the future.

* For as successful as our garden was last year, this year has been a disaster. We have a ground squirrel infestation that is causing all kinds of issues. It has been really depressing, especially when I look back at pictures from this time last year and we were enjoying a great harvest of homegrown veggies. We have tried every humane way of taking care of the problem... Bruce is getting pretty determined to take care of this issue for good. We'll see how exactly that ends up happening...

* Summer is in full swing. Beebs finished up her swim lessons today, Man Cub has one more session. Sunshine is on swim team and has her first meet on Saturday. Bruce and I leave to be Ma and Pa for our Stake's Trek in 2 weeks. I'm nervous as can be about it... I'm sure it will be a great experience and I'll love it once we are in the throws of it, but right now, I just feel stressed as we try to make sure we are prepared. After Trek, the wee ones and I will head to Utah for several weeks, during which I will acclimatize to the high mountain air, and then run my half marathon. Bruce and his dad will continue working on our kitchen facelift. Once we are home from Utah, we have a camping trip planned and then school will be back in session! Summer only just began, and it already feels like it it almost over!

Despite being crazy busy, life really has been good lately. I feel like we are running non-stop, but we are getting a lot done. And over the next week or so, hopefully the lots I am getting done will include catching up on blogging. Prepare for a posting overload! I'd really like to be caught up before we head to Utah, because I'm sure three weeks up there will give me plenty more to blog about.