My First 5K

I’m running my first ever 5K (3.1 miles) this Saturday! My cousin, Lisa, has been running half marathons now for a few years and really enjoys them. Her sisters, Joanne & Karen, are running a half marathon in Dallas with her at the end of March. There’s no way I’d be ready for that!

Lisa & Karen talked about running this 5K and asked if I would like to sign up and run, too. Sure! I had been running just for exercise, but actually having a goal to work toward has really been motivating.

I’ve been running 3.2 miles at least three times a week for the last few weeks. I’ve been using a popular walk/run method where I run for 3 minutes and walk for 1 minute. I’m pretty sure this method is the reason I’m not completely burned out!

I have two more 3+ mile runs to get under my belt this week and then I’ll be ready for my first “race”! My goal is to run it in under 30 minutes…I have about 2 minutes to shave off my time this week, but I think I can do it!

Looking forward to the run!!

Yard Work

Spring is here and we have a long to do list to get the garden ready!

Most of my tomatoes are still in the greenhouse, but we have three little “patio” tomatoes at home. Travis laughed and asked why we needed tomatoes at the house when we’ll have close to 200 of them in the garden! Well, I figured that these would be fun for Elizabeth to “help” take care of. And then she can pick them, too!

I have increased my herb population based on what I’ve seen do well here. Thyme has been one of those things that hasn’t done great in the flower bed, but I’m hoping that it’ll do much better in a container.

I’ve cleaned out the herb bed and planted new transplants that I grew from seed.

Chives/green onion.

Cilantro.

Curly leaf parsley.

I’ve cut back part of the mint bush and cleaned out the day lilies.

I even found some new little lily babies!

Oregano.

And rose cuttings Stephen collected for me!

My paper whites are really looking good and they don’t show signs of slowing, yet!

Travis cleaned out my washing machine drain and dug a better ditch!

He actually did a ton of dirt moving last weekend while Elizabeth & I were out of town. There was a big pile of dirt to the right of Elizabeth, but now it’s along one of our fences, guiding the neighbors’ runoff water away from the garden.

We also dug up loads and loads and loads of bricks…most had been covered with grass. Travis filled in the holes with soil an we planted St. Augustinegrass from the washer drain ditch into the newly fixed holes. It looks much better!

There’s a lot of stuff going on around here and this was just a small glimpse into all of the projects we’ve been working on!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Nothing says “I Love You” around here like chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels! (Or really, chocolate covered anything!)

I hope you and the special people in your life have a very Happy Valentine’s Day!

Elizabeth was kind enough to pose with a chocolate covered pretzel…right before she ate it and nearly all of the other ones I made!

This photo really has nothing to do with Valentine’s day. We started a batch of grapefruit wine last night and she was helping me chop up raisins to go into the mix. She just smiled and posed so nicely, I figured you’d like it, too!