My half marathon season is officially over! I ran my last half of the year on Sunday, and I have to say I'm looking forward to some down time.

I still have a few races I want to run, but none longer than a 10k. I'm super excited for The Parks 10k!

I am getting ahead of myself. I want to talk about Diva DC Wine Country

The short of it is - I will not be running this race again.

The long of it includes a number of disappointments.

I was looking forward to this race, because I was running it with my friend and its a totally girly girl race. Who doesn't love tiaras, tutus and medals? Oh and bubbly. They promised bubbly. Of course, I thought, bubbly was champagne. It wasn't. It was sparkling apple cider. Fail number one.

I'm getting ahead of myself - let me start at the beginning. The expo was small, but enjoyable. I picked up some tiny tiaras for the girls and I. Also got some shoe swag. I love the happy skulls!

This week wasn't a total loss. I did get runs in, but not as many as I probably should've done.

This is a new week however, and I'm excited about starting fresh next week.

I need to start thinking about my eating. I've been slacking, but that'll be a post for later.


I did get a lot of walking done this week, so that's something, I suppose. I'm still aching, but really that's just because I have a toddler that likes to be held, and she's just getting to big for that. The week was fairly uneventful, but there's the recap nonetheless.

After the success I had with chalk paint on the console, I decided that my poor laptop desk needed some love. You remember the laptop desk - the one from {THIS} post.

Chalk paint is not a new thing.

Hey guys! So wow, it's been a week since my half, and 2 weeks since I've written a Monday Report.

I debated writing one for the last week of training and ultimately didn't finish writing it, because it was really unremarkable.

So welcome to the Intermediary Training! DIVA is in 2 weeks, and I'm excited for it. There's no pressure. I am going to just have fun.

So this week was pretty decent. I hurt a lot. My shoulder is still giving me fits. Thanks toddler. So without further ado, here's the recap.

You know that moment when your kids become a little less kid-like and little more not-kid?

I am kind of loving that my oldest has started transitioning into a teenager. Not the mood swings or sass, but the good stuff. Like being able to discuss Greek gods. He loves the Percy Jackson series of books, and I love that he and I can discuss the Greek gods like adults. I love Greek mythology, and so does he. I think we surprised my husband one night by how in-depth we got talking about them.

Anyways, I have veered off-track again, so back to him growing up. As his interests have expanded, so have his tastes and his personality.

When the boys shared a room, we labeled their dressers so it was easier for Small Fry to know which drawers were his and out of which drawers he should pick his clothes. Once Small Fry moved back into his own room, the labels became superfluous for Big Guy.

Then I introduced him to Pinterest. It started with his birthday. He wanted a minecraft birthday party last year, so one day when I needed him occupied so I could focus on something else, I handed him my phone and had the Pinterest app opened and told him to do a search on minecraft birthday party ideas. Well the floodgates opened. He had a blast pinning stuff and exploring.

He started pinning things he liked for his room and not just the party. If you look at his board, {HERE}, you'll see all sorts of minecraft stuff for his room. Some of them, we've done. Other's I'd still like to tackle. Like {THIS} desk lamp!

Then he pinned this dresser. Wait. What?

Welcome to another feature! This one will not be nearly as regular as the other's, but I figure I run races, so I may as well add my $.02 about my experiences.

I was super excited for this race. My dad grew up down in Virginia Beach and we still have family that lives down there. I also love the ocean, and visiting the beach always makes me happy.

I was also excited to share this with my family. They haven't been able to go with me to a race since my first half, last October, and the fact that this one was on the boardwalk made it even better.

Now, I will say that I got into my head a little about not making my goal. I've worked hard all year. Conversely, I know that I've skipped workouts and runs, and probably wasn't as dedicated as I've been.

I also know that I've been slacking on my nutrition.

Well race day is on Sunday, and I'm trying not to be a stark raving in-my-own-head lunatic.

I don't know that it's going well.

One thing I can depend on is my go to breakfast for long runs.

Overnight Oats are amazing. They're easy. They look terrible, but taste amazing.

If you haven't tried them out, you need to. Now. Go right now and whip some up. You will thank me in the morning.

I have a favorite jar for my oats. Its a wide mouth pint size mason jar. My husband discovered a while back that you do not use this jar for prepping yeast for a beer batch. It angers the wife. A lot.

He very kindly made me my overnight oats, after he'd cleaned out the yeast, and after I'd gone to bed. They were delicious, and he is amazing.

So here's the recipe for my current favorite go to.

This recipe is one of those recipes where I know I'm not going to get an argument from anyone in the family, and some nights that's super important.

Like more important than what you're actually serving for dinner.

The kids have been in school for 2 days now, and this year is special for us, because my Small Fry is a kindergartner. My big guy is a 4th grader, so this school thing is old hat for him. We've encountered some new challenges with both of them being in school.

Mix in new school challenges and old dinner time challenges and dinner was a trial in patience on our first day. I was not going to repeat that.

Enter our go to Shepherd's Pie. Our pie was inspired by Taste of Home's Simple Shepherd's Pie, but I had to adjust the recipe to fit our family and what groceries I usually have on hand.

This project shouldn't have taken as long as it did. It did, though, because I was taking my time and rationing my time between a lot of projects this last week.

This is the only one I've gotten done. I'm so close on the others.