Life Changers

Greetings from the frozen tundra!! Today, the high was a balmy 8. However, with the wind chill, it was like 10 below. Lovely. Yesterday we had about 7 inches of snow to boot. Normally I would be all out of sorts about it, but the weather folk had forecast anywhere from 7 to 10 inches in our area...so I'm good with the 7. It wasn't as cold yesterday, so Ben and I bundled up in our winter gear and headed outside for about 30 minutes or so......

It seemed like an occasion for the fur hat to come out. It is a rugged, manly contradiction to the more feminine, powder blue snowsuit.

Poor kid could barely walk because the snow came up to his knees in the back yard. I think he had fun though. At least, as much fun as one can have when they have snow in their gloves and can barely move :-)

Switching gears. In keeping with the whole "beginning of a new year" hoopla, I figured I'd throw out a few fun, random suggestions you might want to give a whirl in 2011. You never know, one of these could change your life.....

READ THIS: I recently finished a book my mom gave me for Christmas. It is called The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven (title is self-explanatory). It is written by Kevin and Alex Malarkey. It is INCREDIBLE. Although I absolutely believe we go to either heaven or hell when we pass, I have always been skeptical of stories from people who said they died and came back. This story is, without a doubt, the real deal. There were parts of the book that completely overwhelmed me. It is just an amazing story that shows what an awesome God we serve!! Read it...you'll be glad you did.

DO THIS: Try a new form of exercise! Perhaps running!! Since I took up running a couple of years ago, I can't say enough about what it has done for me mentally and physically. It is almost like free therapy. Seriously. And anyone can do it....ANYONE!! (Unless you're injured or your doctor says don't do it, of course).

I know it is difficult to get started. When I first started, I thought I was going to die after the first couple of minutes. No joke. But I took baby steps to improve. First, a quarter mile without stopping, then a half mile and so on. Before I knew it, I was up to three miles and it just kept building from there. And the sense of accomplishment that comes with meeting each of those goals is thrilling. Also, if you're looking to lose a few lbs in the new year, there are few activities that burn more calories than running. Not to mention what it does for your health. So, give it a try. A real try. If you hate it, fine. But, you just may love it!!!

LISTEN TO THIS: At the start of the year, the Christian radio station I listen to threw out a challenge to only listen to Christian music for an entire month and see what it does for you. I started listening to Christian music about 3 years ago. Before that, I listened mostly to top 40 music and I had the (false) impression that Christian music was boring and dorky. Then, I found a contemporary Christian station I love (KLOVE) and now I listen to it every day. The positivity and hope that comes from the music and conversations on that station is such an important part of my daily life now. I can be having a horrible day and I will ALWAYS feel better after listening to it. I don't necessarily love every song they play, of course, and I still listen to top 40 every now and then. But if you're looking for an encouraging, clean, kid-friendly radio station, I would recommend giving Christian radio a try. If you want to go all out and give the "one month challenge" a try, by all means...do it! Here are some songs I LOVE....

Get Your Own Free Hypster.com Playlist.

RELAX WITH THIS: More often than not, I am a big, old, ball-o-stress. I think I was born stressed-out. It's something I've been trying to get a better handle on over the last few years because it has really started to affect my sleep. A few years ago, a doctor recommended progressive muscle relaxation as a way to lessen my stress and anxiety. She gave me a 30 minute CD that guides me through the process. Sweet mercy, that thing has been a life saver!! It basically works by guiding your body through a series of tightening and releasing the major muscle groups. The idea is that your body will become more aware of the difference between tension and relaxation so you can better recognize when your are becoming tense and can nip it in the bud before it gets out of control. I don't know about all that, but I do know that I feel like a wet noodle when I get done with it....and then I sleep like a baby. I'm sure there are many other CDs, books, etc. on this method. If you are a stress ball like I am, try it out!!

I could throw out some more brilliant "ideas", but this dissertation would then become a novel. So I won't. I just wanted to share some things that have had a positive impact on my life. Hopefully at least one of them will do the same for you :-)

Have a great evening!!

Things...and also, Stuff

Those of you who have met Ben know that he is very, um, energetic. He is always going...unless he is sleeping, which is becoming a rarity these days. Well, within 15 minutes of waking up this morning, he apparently was ready to go shopping. Personally, I think he should do something with that hair first :-)

When I try to get ready in the mornings, he loves to get in the closet and play dress up. His favorite accessories are mommy's boots and the occasional headband.

Today, one of my tote bags caught his eye....it does compliment the boots nicely.

After "shopping" it was onto Ben's latest addiction. And I'm very,very sorry to say that addiction is Barney. Barney is threatening to take over our television and our lives. Ben doesn't want to watch anything else. If I let him, he would watch the same Barney video over and over, all day, every day. As a result of his addiction, Ben is also becoming agoraphobic....he doesn't even want to leave the house. And when we do leave the house, he just talks about "T.T." non-stop ("T.T."is Ben's version of "T.V."). We will be staging an intervention in the very near future.

Below is a picture of the offender. Sure, he looks innocent enough, but he has big plans, people, BIG PLANS! And those plans are evil.

Below is a picture of Ben eating a snack while watching Barney. In case you are wondering, we do NOT allow him to eat his main meals while watching T.V. But he eats most of his snacks at his picnic table and, yes, Barney is usually on during this time.

Ok, on to more shocking news....I have been cooking lately!! I know....I told you it was shocking. It's no secret that Greg and I are not the best cooks in the world. Now, to be fair to myself, I do "make" all of Ben 's meals. He rarely eats take-out, unless it's pizza....he LOVES pizza. However making meals for a toddler doesn't exactly count as "cooking" in my book. It basically consists of a lot of fruit, vegetables, mac-n-cheese, bologna, yogurt, eggs, etc. I also make my own meals during the day...again, simple stuff...grilled cheese, grilled peanut butter, tuna, chips, salad, fruit, etc. When it comes to dinner, however, Greg frequently brings home take-out for he and I.

Lately though, I have been cooking. Greg adores chicken and noodles, so I found a recipe that seemed easy enough and sounded pretty decent and guess what.....he (cue the singing angels) LOVED it!!!! AND I made garlic mashed potatoes (a Wheeler family favorite) and those were delish as well. The only draw-back is that the whole process took about 2 hours and that isn't counting the clean-up time. This reminded me why I rarely cook. It is not easy to keep a toddler occupied (code for "out of trouble") for a lengthly period of time. I guess I just need to find more recipes that don't take so long. I'm thinking more crockpot dishes would be good. I think I'll be making turkey chili tonight. That one isn't new though...I've made it quite a few times. Very simple, pretty tasty and very healthy to boot!

If you are still reading this post, bless your heart. I know this isn't very interesting stuff but tis the life of a stay-at-home mom.

Just one more topic to cover. And it's one you'll likely be hearing a lot about in the coming months. Running. I'm officially "in training" for the spring racing season. And oh my sweet goodness do I hurt!!! I ran a few times last week and felt better and better with each run. And then I decided it was time to add weights back into the equation. Like a moron, I decided to do 2 of my P90X videos in one day. Actually, it was one and a half, but if you ask my body it will tell you I did 7. I am not even exaggerating when I say I feel like I was hit by a truck. And not one of those dinky pick-ups. I'm talking a semi. Every single muscle in my body hurts. Note to self: No more two month hiatuses from working out. It only results in PAIN!!!!!

Alright, I'm pretty certain no one is still reading this post at this point (and I don't blame you), so I'm calling it a day. Make it a great one, folks!!!

Later,

Brooke

And a Happy New Year!!

Ok, so I promised in my last post that I would include some photos from Christmas. I don't have many, unfortunately, but here ya go.....

Our niece, Reagan on Christmas day.....she just turned six at the end of December and during her party, she broke her leg. Poor thing!!!! Sending out prayers for a quick recovery!!!

Ben with Uncle Mike.....

My cousin, Kelsey, helping Ben with his new favorite hobby...trying on adult boots.

Greg, Ben and I at my Uncle John and Aunt Sandy's on Christmas Eve....

My cousin, Sara, her hubby, Patrick and their girls, Savanna and Lorelei (Rory).

Kelsey with the kiddos.....

Christmas cuteness.....

At my mom and dad's house (look at Ben's hands.....when he says "cheese" for a picture, he almost always includes this hand gesture and facial expression that reads "why am I saying cheese?"...it's hilarious.)

Ben says...Happy New Year!!!

Wish I had more pics to share, but I was too busy having fun with family :-) Hope you all have a happy and blessed 2011!!!

Love, Greg, Brooke and Ben

Running Into the New Year

Hello all! Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did. We went home for what can only be described as a "whirlwind" trip. We drove to good old MTZ the day before Christmas Eve, spent Christmas Eve with my family, then drove to Bloomington on Christmas morning and spent the day with Greg's family. Then drove back to Lincoln the next day. Whew! We had a great time though. I took a few pictures but I haven't moved them from my camera to my computer yet and I'm too lazy to do it right now so I'll have to include them in my next post. Sorry!

It snowed about 6 or so inches in Bloomington on Christmas Eve through Christmas morning which made for an interesting drive. The roads actually turned out better than we thought they would be, so that was a relief. I was BEYOND thrilled to find that Lincoln received NO SNOW AT ALL!!! Based on the never-ending blizzard that was winter last year, it is nothing short of a miracle that we received no snow in this most recent storm. I don't want to be a grinch, but since Christmas is over, I'm going briefly embrace my grinchitude :-) I can't stand snow. The only thing I even remotely like about it is that it looks pretty when it's falling and I'm inside, warm and cozy under a blanket, preferably with a cup of hot cocoa in hand. I don't like walking in it, driving in it, touching it, and don't even get me started on what happens when it melts. So, long story short, I am happy as a clam to be back in snow-free Lincoln.

In other news....I decided that my lengthy hiatus from all things exercise had to come to an end. I'm not going to say how long it has been since I have run, but let's just say I had to thoroughly inspect my running shoes this evening to make sure spiders hadn't taken up residence in them. After ensuring they were indeed spider-free, I hopped on the treadmill to attempt a 3 mile run. Yowza!!! I decided going at what I thought was a "slow" pace would be a good way to ease into things. After all, I was running about 15 miles a week at a pretty decent pace not too long ago. Surely my body could handle my new slower pace without a problem. Ummm....no dice. After about 2.1 miles, I had to walk the rest of the way. And when I got done...I was COUGHING like I had developed a black lung or something. What the heck happened??? I almost feel like I'm starting completely over with running again. I'm running in the State Farm 10 miler in March so I really need to get my behind in gear.

I also decided that I'm going to do one more half-marathon in 2011 and then I'm going to do a full marathon in 2012. It actually makes me nervous just typing that. In both of the half-marathons I have run, I distinctly remember reaching the mark where the marathoners and half-marathoners split from one another (at around the 13 mile mark) and thanking my dear, sweet heavens that I did not sign up for the marathon because there was just no way....

Well, folks, there is going to have to be a way because I'm gonna do it!!! If anyone out there wants to do it with me, just let me know!

Ok, well I'm going to throw in the towel on what has become a post quite worthy of the the blog title Babbling Brooke :-) Hope you all have a fantastic evening. I promise to post some Christmas pics in the next post.