My sister Nora inspired me to start running late last spring when she ran her first 5K on her 32nd birthday. I've always loathed running, never could fathom the concept of a "runner's high" since it always made me feel like I had a knife in my gut and a constrictor around my lungs. But I followed her footsteps through the "Couch to 5K" training regimen that starts you out slowly and then builds on your strength and endurance each week. All along I had the annual Run for Schools as my goal. I actually snuck another race in at the end of August, but this was the first timed race and the one I was really ready for. I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but it did feel great to be out there with all those other runners (and walkers, whose leagues I've joined many times for this event) and to know I could do it.

 John and the boys were busy handing out water at mile marker 1, and I waved as I passed, but didn't stop. They were done with their work in time to get back to the finish line just after I crossed, but my parents, who were visiting for the weekend, were there to cheer as I crossed. My running mantra is "slow and steady finishes the race." Today's time: 36 minutes. The men's 10K winner finished about three blocks ahead of me, and at one point while I was running, I got passed by a guy pushing a double stroller. Well, we all have our own strengths.

Daniel needed a fall picture to share at school this week, so on Tuesday after dinner we raked a small pile of available leaves for jumping. Looking up, we knew it was an exercise in futility.

 By Saturday, the entire back yard tree was bare and almost no grass was visible beneath the carpet of leaves. This kind of surprised me since we've had an extremely warm week (high 70s and 80s--beautiful!) and I usually think of leaves falling in response to cooler temperatures. Guess our overnight lows have been enough to prompt the cycle.


I've mentioned before that we often stop on our way home from school to play on the playground at one or both of the boys' schools. I am amazed a their abilities and determination NOT to use the equipment as the designers intended. Not just climbing up slides instead of sliding down, but attempting to shimmy up over the top of a covered tube-type slide and climbing up over the tops of the railings. These are things that are against the rules during school hours, but we allow a bit of flexibility after hours. I never have a camera to document the acrobatics, but I remembered to grab one for a trip to our downtown playground on Friday afternoon. My brother-in-law who teaches elementary school music and pitches in with playground duty says it's the monkey bars that "separate the men from the boys" in kindergarten.

  Well, let's just say that Ed is still a croaky-voiced adolescent. This set was particularly challenging as it did not go straight across, but had some vertical variance as well. He couldn't quite swing himself up when the next bar was higher, but even as recently as August, he couldn't move from one bar to another in a straight horizontal swing, so there's some progress.

We're looking forward to another beautiful fall week here in Iowa, soaking up every last ray of sunshine and ounce of warmth. The boys are starting another four-week session of swimming lessons, which they love, but have noted the contrast to their summer experience: much colder getting out of the pool these days (even though it's an indoor pool and heated to the point of serious discomfort for the fully clothed and dry!)

Another major milestone for Edward: he's nearly up to current in our reading of his favorite series of books, The Magic Treehouse. With the extra reading brought on by a visit from Gram and PopPop he's now down to just two published books to read. (It takes us about 4-5 days reading aloud 2 or 3 chapters a day to finish one of these books.) After that, the next book won't be published until December, so we'll be on the hunt for a new series.  He really loves the historical characters and time periods he's been introduced to through Jack and Annie's adventures. I wonder if he'll re-read the series when he's a fully independent reader? Right now he can read simple books and will ask about certain words on the page as we're reading to him, but he's not ready to dive in solo just yet.