Tip Towing Through The Tulips : Our Journey

A year ago this month....I agreed to join my sister Krisha on a journey to get healthy once again. As a mother-still not finished having kids, it's seemingly an ongoing process. Get fit and healthy, get pregnant, get sick, give up being healthy, have a kid, and start all over. At times, it is depressing and yes, very very hard. A mountain that takes time to climb. But each time I take on the challenge to get back to being healthy, I learn something new! For my first two children, I lived a couple hours away from my family and faced the task alone....but this last time around-I got the privilege of having all of my sisters, and especially Krisha, by my side.

Krisha and I haven't always been the best of friends, in fact, when we were younger, I was the one she picked on most. But as time has gone by, and we grew up-she is one of my most favorite people in the world. I have always seen Krisha as someone equal to a hard challenge-and what most people don't see-is although she is tough on the outside, she is so good on the inside. What I didn't know-is that she didn't know she can do ANYTHING she set her mind to-and that was one of the most rewarding parts of this challenge-seeing her succeed and realize she is capable....we are all capable of doing hard things and becoming who we want to be.

My AH HA MOMENT: I learned this time around that our mind and how we think about ourselves and the world around us-hugely limits what we can accomplish. Negative talk or thinking keeps us from becoming.    All through this process, we shut down the voice that told us we couldn't and showed it that we can! And with the help from each other-and from our sister Kimberly (who has been on the healthy band wagon a lot longer than we have)-when we didn't think we could-we told each other we can. Expand the bounds of your mind, expand the possibilities of your life. We are capable of so much more!

We started with just walking, then jogging a mile, then three, then five, then six and seven, then eight, and finally ten. TEN MILES-yes that is what I said. Each time we completed one of these goals, we thought we were at the end of our capabilities-and then we turned around and blew it away the next day.

THE INFLUENCE OF POSITIVE THINKING~

Another thing I learned this past year is that our bodies are AMAZING and if we treat them right and feed them the right things, we can do amazing things. They are so amazing that we can abuse them for years and years without seeing the side affects of the abuse. But-eventually it will all catch up to you. We need to respect our bodies and the God that gave them to us-by taking care of them.

Some of my favorite quotes on these subjects:

"The food you eat can either be the most safest and powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison." -Ann Wigmore

" Strength: A river cuts through a rock, not because it is powerful, but because it is persistent."

"Every positive thought propels us in the right direction."

"It is not who you are that holds you back, it is who you think you are not."

"Your mind says you can't....it is lying!"

We are scheduled to run our first 10K this Saturday and plan to finish a Half Marathon by the end of this summer. I also have plans with the help of my sisters, to try very hard with the next pregnancy, whenever that may be-to keep fit during the pregrancy-making my next journey all the more easy.

The Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point after Krisha, Kimberly and I ran the 5K-all of us averaging under 10 minute miles-our best times:) And realizing we are ready for more!

My most recent baby joined us for the after race celebration!

Liv helping us out on one of of our other projects this summer-a garden. We love to get our hands dirty! Maybe it is a nurturing female gene/trait-but I find pure joy in creating and taking care of what is around me and my girls prove to have that same love.

We Are Happy Sunny Days Are Hear Again!

"The Earth Laughs In Flowers"

 Summer finally made it's appearance at our house and it was overdo. The first chance we got, we were out and about. Liv's face in this picture represents the happiness we all feel being able to soak up the rays of the sun, smell fresh grass, and pick the colorful flowers. We love to play with side walk chalk and often come away with it all over our clothes!

I LOVE to work outside on our yard and in our garden, I love to pull weeds, and get my hands dirty-it's very therapeutic I guess:) Well lucky for me, since our house was a foreclosure at one point, there is LOTS to be done in our yard. There is something so satisfying about making a once neglected yard-look like an immaculate-well pruned and loved one. While Dan and I work to get things back in shape, the kids often help (especially Katie-I think she has my love for yard work growing inside her) or entertain themselves with games. On this particular day, Dan hooked up the wagon to Tavin's bike and he towed his sisters around and around and around the house. He said he was getting his exercise and making his muscles big:) Liv just loves doing this and often squeals with delight!

Tavin is trying his hand at Baseball this summer and we are all delighted that he LOVES it. He is actually very good at it and we practice outside on sunny days. He can throw the ball straight to you and is awesome at hitting! We are still working on getting the hang of catching-it can be kind of tricky to figure out how to maneuver the mitt. While practicing with Tavin, Dan and I have taken out gloves and bat out of storage and have really enjoyed playing catch and taking turns hitting-Katie and Tavin like to play the outfield and chase the balls we hit. Tuff tries to join in the fun-but we have to bring out a special ball for him-the softballs are too big for his mouth:) We are proud of him and his willingness to try new things. We hope to help him and Katie discover many new talents that they can grow and develop in life.

Oh my miss Katie:) I am sure you are looking at this picture and wondering what the heck it is....well let me tell you: It is Katie's collection of "treasured and special" things she finds outside around the yard while we are working. Each treasure is carefully and lovingly picked and decided upon:)  She chose my black wooden outdoor pot stand to be their home. There is just something about this that describes Katie's personality-and I love it-I love to watch her be so interested in nature and be so eager to conserve the good she finds there.

She is the one you can find, picking "flowers" (dandelions-which at the moment we have a ton of) and putting them in a bucket by our door to give to everyone who comes to visit-and a large amount is given to me-because she loves me:) She doesn't realize that in a few hours, those dandelions will be wilted and shriveled. She is the one you will find, making a big pile of HUGE rocks we found in our flower beds-because she is "saving them" she says from the mud:) She worked so hard to lift every single one of them from the dirt to bring their "safe" new home-all by herself. Every once and a while, she would stop and say: mom this is hard work!:)

And yes, that is a shoe in the mix of all her findings, it happens to be one of her favorite shoes-and I am OK with it being there-cause it makes it easier for me to find when we need it:)

And finally, this picture represents what happens when Summer has not come yet....yes it is a massive rolls of toilet paper made up of 4 rolls of toilet paper that Katie, Tavin, and their two friends, unrolled while mommy and Auntie were exercising one day. They decided to toilet paper their entire room. I didn't want to waste it by throwing it all away, so I had them carefully construct this giant roll while sitting in timeout:) Thank you for Summer-and outside-and the lack of being destructive inside:)

HOORRAYY FOR SUMMER!