Ok, I caved. I started my own blog. It seemed like the next step in life: go to school, get married, have kids, write a blog. So I am getting in touch with my inner-lemming and doing what I believe the masses are doing.
Problem is, the masses (at least the mass that I am in contact with) all seem to have things to blog about. Interesting things (living out kids' lit), unique things (Chinese adoptions), heart-felt things (year-long deployments away from the family). What topic could I write on that would possibly hold any interest for others? As a married middle-class SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) of two small children, my life is anything but extraordinary. On the contrary, I am subsisting purely in the ordinary and trying to see it as that and not as mundane.
As ordinary as I feel, however, I know I am blessed: I am a child of God. I have been created by Him in His image. "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." (Psalm 139:12-14) Surely, then, I have been created with a set of characteristics or circumstances unique to me; God did not create us as clones of one another but as individuals.
It was in pondering this that I began to really think about the unique way in which God created me--my tastes, interests, dreams, those sorts of things. A few things stuck out: first, I love nature. Not any old natural setting--I don't think I would enjoy the desert (for some reason I have Sex and the City II on the brain--I did not see it but have heard several reviews recently. Doesn't make any sense: Sex in the City...in the desert. Hmmm...). I do, however, love the woods. And mountains. And lakes. And rivers. Especially rivers. Were I to live at the top of a wooded mountain next to a running river I would be eternally blissful. Nature. So there's that.
Secondly, I love working out. Not in a treadmill/elliptical/gym way, but in a running/biking/ swimming way. (Admittedly, I do enjoy turbokick, but I do it purely to crosstrain. And because I feel tough doing it). I love sweating and getting my heart rate up and challenging myself to run faster or longer or both. I love getting up early in the morning before the rest of the house and going for a quiet bike ride. Exercising is my way of relieving stress. It's also my drug of choice, as no stimulant I have taken up to this point has matched the feeling I get post-run--love those endorphins! I enjoy being active and get antsy if I have to sit still for too long.
Fortunately, it's not a stretch to combine my two loves: exercise and nature practically go hand in hand, unlike, say, needlepoint and horseback riding. (Ouch!) How fortunate that I live in Hampton Roads, Virginia--one of the best places to raise kids, to be active, etc. etc. So they say. I have differing opinions, which I will touch on later. For now, lets just say that I would rather be somewhere else.
But my life here has been heavily blessed: my husband and I have a nice house, two beautiful children, a steady income, and wonderful friends. As much as I would like to move somewhere closer to my roots of Wisconsin (woot woot!), we are here for at least the next 3 years as my husband finishes up grad school. So I am making an effort to embrace this place, as foreign as it feels. The blog will be my recounting of the juxtaposition of my two loves: nature and exercise and what they look like here in Virginia as a SAHM of two small children. Sounds rather nebulous, but hey! I now have a blog!
Problem is, the masses (at least the mass that I am in contact with) all seem to have things to blog about. Interesting things (living out kids' lit), unique things (Chinese adoptions), heart-felt things (year-long deployments away from the family). What topic could I write on that would possibly hold any interest for others? As a married middle-class SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) of two small children, my life is anything but extraordinary. On the contrary, I am subsisting purely in the ordinary and trying to see it as that and not as mundane.
As ordinary as I feel, however, I know I am blessed: I am a child of God. I have been created by Him in His image. "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." (Psalm 139:12-14) Surely, then, I have been created with a set of characteristics or circumstances unique to me; God did not create us as clones of one another but as individuals.
It was in pondering this that I began to really think about the unique way in which God created me--my tastes, interests, dreams, those sorts of things. A few things stuck out: first, I love nature. Not any old natural setting--I don't think I would enjoy the desert (for some reason I have Sex and the City II on the brain--I did not see it but have heard several reviews recently. Doesn't make any sense: Sex in the City...in the desert. Hmmm...). I do, however, love the woods. And mountains. And lakes. And rivers. Especially rivers. Were I to live at the top of a wooded mountain next to a running river I would be eternally blissful. Nature. So there's that.
Secondly, I love working out. Not in a treadmill/elliptical/gym way, but in a running/biking/ swimming way. (Admittedly, I do enjoy turbokick, but I do it purely to crosstrain. And because I feel tough doing it). I love sweating and getting my heart rate up and challenging myself to run faster or longer or both. I love getting up early in the morning before the rest of the house and going for a quiet bike ride. Exercising is my way of relieving stress. It's also my drug of choice, as no stimulant I have taken up to this point has matched the feeling I get post-run--love those endorphins! I enjoy being active and get antsy if I have to sit still for too long.
Fortunately, it's not a stretch to combine my two loves: exercise and nature practically go hand in hand, unlike, say, needlepoint and horseback riding. (Ouch!) How fortunate that I live in Hampton Roads, Virginia--one of the best places to raise kids, to be active, etc. etc. So they say. I have differing opinions, which I will touch on later. For now, lets just say that I would rather be somewhere else.
But my life here has been heavily blessed: my husband and I have a nice house, two beautiful children, a steady income, and wonderful friends. As much as I would like to move somewhere closer to my roots of Wisconsin (woot woot!), we are here for at least the next 3 years as my husband finishes up grad school. So I am making an effort to embrace this place, as foreign as it feels. The blog will be my recounting of the juxtaposition of my two loves: nature and exercise and what they look like here in Virginia as a SAHM of two small children. Sounds rather nebulous, but hey! I now have a blog!
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