Back to running - Godparent 5K

In some ways the past 5 months have seemed like both a few weeks and a few years. Thanks to a running pal, whose daughter has and will watch my boys on race days, I am getting back to running. After not really running for almost two months, I am struggling but making some progress. Today I ran in the Godparent 5K with a time that was 1.5 minutes slower than my time in this race last year. The 2008 Godparent race was the last 5K my husband saw me run in. I always enjoyed having my family come to races but they found the waiting a boring endeavor. They came out for the 10 miler last year. I do miss Andy, it is hard to think about those times - sometimes it seems so long ago.

I am still working to get in more than 9 miles running each week. If I can pick up my time, I can get in more miles. The afternoon heat is another thing I am having to work through and the weather is still fairly cool in perspective. I was looking back at my times in races from last year and I did one race in just under a 10 minute mile pace. My goal is go get back to that as I work to drop the 20 pounds I gained as I grieved by eating.

Postings

I am posting on my other blog for a bit---through my journey of grief.

Andy

I am not ready to write of this yet. On his blog our friend, Scott, wrote a loving tribute to my husband.
Like Andy, Scott has a beautiful way with words. Thank you Scott.

Grief

Thank you for your prayers. I am still in shock that Andy is gone. The obit will be in tomorrow's newspaper.

Celebrating Christmas without any money

Here are some of my favorite links for celebrating this joyous holiday with little or no money:

Goshen College -wonderful Advent devotions - subscribe to have them emailed to you daily

How to celebrate Christmas without any money

39 Frugal Tips for Saving Money at Christmas

Dollar Stretcher –Christmas articles

Toymaker –lots of free beautiful Christmas printables along with printables for other holidays & toys

Homemade Christmas Cards

How to make a 3D paper snowflake

Free and Low-Cost Christmas Gifts-Homemade Christmas Gifts that Won't Break the Bank

My Frugal Holiday: Clue Gift

Christmas Gifts that don't cost a dime - Dollar Stretcher

Giblet Jog

Thursday morning was quite a bit colder(22 degrees) than I had planned and actually a tad bit colder that I like for running but after the first 1/2 mile when the numbness in my fingers wore off-I rather enjoyed the experience. I ran in a local Thanksgiving day 5K which was held on a small town high school cross country course. It was not easy, but it was enjoyable. There were less than 150 people running which I liked and it was a beautiful morning on an interesting course. I enjoyed the after race chit chatting and I met some nice runners and their families.

I finished in just a few seconds past 34 minutes. I do not know my official time yet and I forgot to turn off my watch for several minutes after finishing. This finish was not a personal best or even a great time by my own standards. However, considering I had just recovered from an 48 hour intestinal virus earlier in the week and I had not been able to exercise at all for the 5 days prior, I was happy with just finishing in under 35 min. I will probably not run another race for a while now because there are not that many in the winter and to save on cash. I will continue running through the winter as I do love running best in 30-40 degree weather. I would love to do this jog again next year.

Thrifty and simple holiday -freebies from Oprah

This Wednesday on her show, How to Have the Thriftiest Holiday Ever, Oprah has some great suggestions and freebies. (Click here for the link to get to her site about this show.) She has a free holiday album that you can download for the next 24 hours-HURRY--along with a CD cover and label. Among many other ideas she has downloadable notecards for making gratitude notes for loved ones. I love this idea-take the time now to tell those you love what you love about them, what you are thankful for and for what you wish for them! Thanks, OPRAH!

late 11/28/08 UPDATE: The free album is no longer available but you can still get the free notecards for gratitude box gifts.