How is it already May!?!

Where has this year gone? Why are we already 5 months into 2019?

Ok so that was a lot of questions all at once, but I'm a little dumbfounded.

I'm also a little dumbfounded at how little I've posted this year, but yet I have more content than I ever usually have. It's getting to the point where I'm going to have a huge heap of backlogged posts!
Today's post is more inspirational calendars for y'all. I made these for myself and my new training plan before I'd even finished the last training plan or running Nashville. I get ahead of myself sometimes. That's ok though. I like to have a plan.

Failing to plan is planning to fail. 

 Ben Franklin

Whatever. I am who I am and I like having a plan. It helps me feel like I'm in control. I also had an inkling that the training I did for Nashville was not going to cut it for what my goals are, so I made a more thorough and comprehensive plan, and by saying I made, I really mean I consulted many, many, many training plans and came up with a 20 week plan that I think is going to really help me and my goals.

Just like the last inspirational training calendar post, I am not going to share my training plan. I made it for me, and I am not a professional. I'm hoping that this plan achieves what I want, but in reality, I know that I need time and to keep working at my goals. Getting back to where I was is not going to happen overnight and it may not even happen this year. Getting back to where I was is probably going to take years, and I'm struggling with that new reality. Some days are better than others, but there are moments and days where I'm frustrated and angry. There are moments and days where I've performed at a level less than what I want but I am nevertheless elated. I don't have a  formula for what's going to work, but I have common sense, experience, and the drive and determination to keep going - to keep pushing until I've either achieved my goals or settled somewhere that's my best and that's all that matters.

All of that led me to a 20-week program that culminates with the running of the Prince William Half. My very favorite race, but there's a catch. Right now I'm slower than the minimum pace time. I have work to do, and it's luckily already started. I said I was going to take two weeks off after running Nashville, but that lasted a hot minute. I've already logged two workouts, and one was focused on hip strengthening which I am sorely lacking. I'm going to do a full write up of Nashville here in the next few days, so be on the lookout for that.

So without any more delay here are the calendars for May - September. Just click on the images and you'll be directed to my google drive where you can download the images.





Thank so much for stopping by!

What is this? I'm posting again? What!? 
So, no, I didn't make these calendars in my sleep and they're not exactly new.

Let me first explain the bad dream. I dreamt that I was going in for surgery again, this time for my foot, and it was going to take 6 weeks to even start moving again. I freaked out in a big way.

What about my running?

The snarky dream doctor retorted back with, "What running?"

Well, eff you dream lady doctor. I woke up in a bit of a state. I was angry, agitated, and annoyed. I think I got all the A's covered, but the stark realization was that my subconscious was absolutely right. I haven't been running the way I know I need to to get ready for Nashville. 

I know I'm scared. I'm scared of so many things, but apparently, the thing I'm most afraid of is never doing it again.

And all of this brings us back to today's post - New Inspirational Calendars.

So these are not "new" in the sense that you've never seen them before. They're not that new, but they're new in the fact that I added color, updated them for 2019, and added a training plan to them that I think I'll be able to stick to. The original post for these calendars is {HERE}.

No, I don't think I can run 5 days a week. I couldn't do that reliably before, so it'd be silly of me to expect it this time around. Not to mention, that my husband might murder me if I put that kind of pressure on myself and have it leak over to the family.

I woke up this morning knowing exactly what I needed to do. 3 runs a week, 2 days of cross-training, 2 rest days. Adjust as needed, but that long run needs to get done. Every. Single. Week.

A quick google search landed me on a doable training plan, that I tweaked for myself. The original plan is from Snacking in Sneakers {HERE}, but like I said, I changed mine. No, I'm not going to share it, because I don't know what works for y'all. I'm not even sure this is gonna work for me, but I'm gonna give it a go.

Here are blank copies of the calendar, in case you want to download your own copies and get started on your own training. Just click the pictures for the full-size version then right-click and save as.

So taper week was a disaster. I ran once, but that one run was pretty awesome. So that's something.

I just didn't feel like running.

Isn't that terrific? 14 weeks of training and I don't feel like running.

I didn't feel great, physically or mentally. I was in a funk.

Did I mention it was taper week? The half is 2 weeks away. Yay! Let's not run! Woo Hoo!

No amount of self-prescribed pep talks or nudging from the hubs was getting me out the door.

Nope. I stayed indoors and worked on projects around the house. I didn't even go to Zumba.

On Tuesday, I shared the full month inspirational calendars that I had made up before realizing that they were not what I wanted when it came time to tracking my winter training.

Luckily, it didn't take long for me to come up with a calendar that I did like.

Then I thought maybe y'all would like to use this calendar too. I can't be the only one who doesn't want a full month calendar, because not all training plans fit nicely into a 1-month box.

So the 8-, 12-, and 16-week training plan calendars were born.

If there was an award for unfinished projects, I'd be in the running for it.

I used to be really good at this blogging thing. Ok, maybe not good, but at least competent.

I had lists, plans, and a direction. Now I kind of feel like a bag of bouncy balls has been released inside my brain, and they're all clamoring for attention. All of those little ideas wants to be let out now. They want to show the world what they can do, or at least get out of my brain, so its a little less cluttered.

A lot has happened since October last year, but I'm going to talk about my approach to fitness. I actually dislike that phrase a lot. Approach to fitness. Am I stalking it? Is it prey? A pretty bird that needs to be in a zoo somewhere? Is it a disease?

Yay for being in the 2nd trimester. FINALLY.

I'm feeling more and more human, even if my sinuses are now bombarding me. Yay for Virginia! Stupid pollen state. Its so bad this year, that even the boys are asking for help blowing their noses. That's not only shocking, but scary as to the crisis their noses must be in. I, for one, am tired of washing shirts that from shoulder to hem have snot streaks down them.

I am not going to talk about snot streaks or sinuses today though. I'm starting to plan. We will be finding out the flavor of fetus in a few weeks, and with this impending news I've been thinking. About nurseries.

Now I'm not pulling for one flavor over the other. I want healthy. A girl would be a new challenge, but a boy, well a boy would be old hat, and I found the absolute perfect inspiration board and room for our guy, if he is a guy.

{source}

So some back story about why I love this so much. My dad is a rocket engineer, and one of his rockets just had a successful test flight out of Wallops Island. Yay! My boys love space. Dev is fascinated by the solar system and wants to be a meteorologist (who knows what they want to be in kindergarten?). Harrison has decided he just wants to go to space. That will probably change but he said it, so I'm going with it. Steve also likes it, but I secretly think its because he's hoping to sneak in some Star Wars stuff. :)

Visiting LemonDropLife also led me to LayBabyLay, a site I'd never heard of but am totally in love with now!

So here are the inspiration boards I like from LayBabyLay!

This is the same board that LemonDropLife used for her nursery. There are so many things I love here, but mostly I love the happy pop of yellow!

So for a girl, there are a couple of options. I want butterflies. I know. Its been done. A lot, but I like them and all their fluttery glory, but I also like glam, vintage, sparkly and shiny. All those things can go together right?

I love how happy this room is! I also love all the PINK!!!! If you guys remember the rest of my house, there's also a fair amount of orange in it, so obv I love orange too. I don't know that Steve is on board with this, but we're just brainstorming here.

Ok I'm not at all in love with the bunny theme here, but the bunny can get replaced with butterflies. I like the pops of color against a neutral, and seriously.....that dresser is amazing. Love that dresser, and guess who has 3, maybe 4 dressers hanging around her garage and house that are waiting for some love. Steve is so happy about that circumstance. :-/

So there are some of the ideas we're batting around right now. Like I said there are others, but there is a small child asking for hot chocolate and he's probably waited for me long enough to finish up this post. :)

So yesterday I shared my vanity.

Today I'm sharing some finishing ideas that I like for it.

So the first idea is this wonderful mirror mosaic table. I don't remember where I saw this table, but if any of you do, could you please let me know! I really love the mirror!

I love the maps on these drawers, but I don't know that this would fit into my bedroom decor. Still love this look though!

{source}

Miss Mustard seed has a gorgeous French dresser in White and Walnut stain.

{source}

I actually originally planned on doing this treatment to the vanity, but I'm not sure now.

{source}

So there are some of the ideas I have for the vanity. Tomorrow I plan on sanding down the vanity, and hopefully it goes ok.

You guys know I love pinning stuff.

My favorites bar has never been more clutter-free, and as I'm a visual person - let's just say pinterest was made for me. :)

Well in the spirit of pinning and inspiration, I decided to start pinning inspiration pictures for my sister, who is getting married this August. Yay!

She wants a black and white wedding, and I mean - let's face it, there is tons of inspiration for that. :)  Guess what else? From what I can deduce she'd also like an upscale, Hollywood feeling. Yay! More pictures!

So here's what I've been pinning.

{source}

{source}

{source}

I've only picked some of my faves for this post, but you can see the whole shabang of inspiration I've pinned HERE.

Here's to inspiration and pinning it up for the world to see!

So its not like I'm drawing a blank on pillow ideas....I have lots of those, but I'm feeling in a funk about what to do with some of the other spaces in the house, so its time that I found some inspiration for them.

Harrison is ready to go!

One of my favorite things to do is tour all of the model homes in the area. In Northern Va there are a {ton} of new home communities and most of them have model homes. So Mom, Steve, Harrison and I all piled into the car and took a tour of some  homes. Our plan was to hit 5 homes, but that didn't happen. We visited two and got some good ideas. The third we drove by because Harrison was eating, don't worry Steve was feeding him some fruit medley while I was driving down the gravel road. The 4th we never found. Then we decided to drive around Bull Run Mountain, and looked at all the pretty landscaping. The 5th house we stopped by but we didn't stay at long, because while it was open it should not have been. It was not anywhere near ready to be open to the public. We'll go back and visit that house in about a month.


So here are some of the photos we snapped today. I have to thank Steve for snapping these, because I was either talking to the salespeople or carrying H. Thanks sweetie!