Empty Headed

My sincere apologies for a postless week.  It seems that my mind has simply been empty.  It's not that we haven't been busy.  In fact, maybe it's that we've been too busy!  Between Jacob and me, I had a doctor appointment to go to every single day last week after work!  The good news is that we are healthy, our teeth are sparkling, and my neck is straight...well, my neck is never quite straight, but it's as close as it's going to get!  And I'm staring off  this week with a dermatologist appointment for Jacob on Monday and ending it with a vet appointment for the cat on Friday!  Sometimes I get really tired of appointments.  It's the chiropractor I see the most (hence the neck reference), and I am generally in and out of the office quickly, but it's still another obligation.  Oh well, as they say, it is what it is.

I need to call this week and get Jacob set up to resume his ice skating lessons.  I'm not sure where the rink's rotation is at this point - they have ongoing 6 week long lesson spans, and I told Jake that we would start back up again when school was back in session.  It's time.  He loves skating.  It is the only activity that he has shown long term interest in.   He doesn't want to play hockey.  He just wants to skate, and really, that's fine with me.  It's about finding something he enjoys - something constructive, without pressure, that is his.  Andrew took part in a partial session in the spring and did relatively well for a 3 year old, but I am not going to sign him up for lessons again right now.  I think Jake needs to have his own thing, and Andrew was really iffy at times, not wanting to go out on the ice with someone other than Greg or me.   Maybe sometime closer to his 4th birthday we will start again.  There's really no hurry.  

Jake also mentioned last night that he wants to take guitar lessons.  I'm not sure how complete his heart is in taking lessons, but I come from the mindset that all children should at least be exposed to music, so I plan to get him connected with a guitar teacher soon too.  If he peters out on practicing, he owes me for the guitar, though.

Yesterday we attended a big back yard bash at our neighbor's house.  It was fun. These two neighbors couldn't be sweeter people.  They are friends with several of my coworkers from a previous job, so it was nice to reconnect with them as well as some of the other neighborhood folk.  They also have a band, so there was lots of "jamming" going on.  One of my current coworkers is friends with our neighbors too, and she has a grandson who is Andrew's age.  The two of them had their toy guitars and stood in front of the stage playing along with the band for almost the entire party.  When the band was on break, the boys were on the stage giving their own little performances.  I wish I had thought to take my camera.  It was very cute.

Other than that, it's just been the same routine day after day.  Get up, drop the kids off, go to work where life is insanely busy (which is good because the days are flying by and I am totally distracted from anything else in my mind except work), pick up the boys, come home, do homework and get dinner, clean up dinner, play with the kids for a bit and then to bed.  Oh, and somewhere in there add in running some errands and doing laundry and other assorted household chores.  Pretty boring stuff, but time consuming nonetheless.

I haven't been running at all.  In part because I don't have time, but more so because I have a displaced sacrum.  It's the bone that sits at the base of your spinal cord and connects the spine to your pelvis.  That is actually what is causing my hip pain during and after runs, not the piriformis muscle.  I've been seeing the chiropractor for it and it seems to be getting better.  I'm not sure if it's better because he is fixing it or because I am not running and putting stress on the muscles around it.  It is still very sore if I sit for a long time.  Like I said, now that I am working full time, time is an issue as far as running is concerned.  But I have always said that if something is important to you, you make time for it.  I could find the time if I wanted, and I do want to, but I am trying to be realistic about my body.  I wanted to run a half marathon locally in October, and I have officially canned that idea.  The next big race I want to run is the full marathon in Pittsburgh in May.  I'm still optimistic at this point.  I have a long time to heal and retrain for it, but time will  be the true tell all.  In the meantime, I am trying my best to heal, feeling pangs of jealousy every time I see someone running, and fighting the cravings that come when I am doing things as simple as running with the boys while playing.  Running isn't just about physical fitness for me, it's even more about mental health.  It's my outlet, my stress relief, my alone time, so getting back to it is important.  But my physical health is important too.  If I push too much I will end up with lifelong injuries.  I've talked to too many people who ruined their ability to run completely with bullheadedness.  So, here I am, adjusting to life without running and focusing on simply being an employee, a wife and most importantly a mother.  Perhaps the break will do me good.  We can all use a little refocus time, right?