Recommitting. Again.

My dear blog friends,

I deeply apologize. I made a promise to keep this blog going, to provide you with information and insights, and I have let not only you, but myself down as well.

I have my excuses. But they are not reasons, so I will not bore you with them. Suffice to say I had access to a computer, at least 10 minutes to type every day, but failed to do so.

So again, I recommit to this blog - to you and to myself. It seems my devotion to writing every day during the previous month provided motivation for me to do it...regardless of how I was feeling. So I am committing to writing every weekday for the rest of the month and, if all goes well, every weekday after that. (Holidays excluded, though I may still try to sneak away on Thanksgiving for a post-race update!!)

I also want to share information in a beautiful format. So I'm committing to myself now to research blog designs, technical how-to's, and to implementing those things I've learned.

Because life has gone on even though my blog went to sleep, I'm anxious to share what has been happening.

On the Creative Front:

Ah, this ship has been hitting some open waters and sailing hard and far, my friends. I have my cricut, my light box, my embossing & stamping tools, and reasons to use them.

My husband recently lamented his loss of me...poor man.

I'll write more on my inner awakenings in another blog, but here's a peak at some of the projects I've been working on:

An inspiration page.

Larger flowers are part of the paper, cricut & markers made the bottom row, some fabric flowers, eyelets, and my crop-a-dile made the embellishment flowers, and the beautiful sentiment was stamped in gold.

The background of a Chrismas card, incorporating stamps, dry embossing, and markers.

A close-up showing the dry-embossing (the raised border on the side). I love dry embossing!

On the Workout / Training Front:

I took two days off in a row and felt so icky about it. Of course, with the 4.5 mile race quickly approaching, I knew I had to get right back into running.

My dear husband had driven a route around our house, saying it was somewhere around 4.5-5 miles but quite hilly. I've driven it several times but as any road traveller (biker, runner, walker, etc) knows, hills are defined differently when in the car vs. on the road. My lack of appreciation for "hills" caught up with me when I attempted this run.

I drove the distance again when I was done and I believe it was right around 4.6 miles. My time? It averaged out to about an 11:25 minute / mile pace. (versus the 10:38 minute / mile pace I had in the 5k) I walked a few times though I did tackle a few hills I didn't expect to. The last few long hills were painful even to walk.

Today was a day of rest. (Appropriate for a Sunday, no?)

Tomorrow, I will again tackle the distance, but have charted a more level course from our home. (Nasty hills to get out of the neighborhood, but ok from there.)

Again, I reiterate: Hills are my teachers. Level ground is my friend. I simply have to keep appreciating both.

Anything to which you are struggling with commitment? Leave a comment and let me know - let's motivate one another!