Random Fact Friday ...

1. My kids have only been in school two of the last 14 days. Perhaps the best part of this situation is that the district has 90 or so hours of extra instruction built into the school year (in essence the school day is longer than it needs to be). This means that school could be canceled for another week before the girls would have to make up any of the missed time.  As awesome as I think this is, the impression I get from my Facebook feed is that a lot of my friends want nothing more than for the kids to be back at school. I find myself wishing for the opposite. I was actually disappointed when they announced an hour delay last night. I really love having them home with me.

2. Wanting to have my kids home with me does not mean that I love every minute with them. It fact, it's quite the opposite. For example, just last Thursday, I took them to Jumpology to burn off some energy. When we got home, I asked them to occupy themselves for 50 minutes so I could run. In the first 20 minutes alone, I had to get off the treadmill and discipline them three times. Then there was that time on Wednesday, when Doodle simply did not want to do her homework. She screamed and cried for a good 45 minutes (Note: the assignment should have taken 10), repeatedly telling me that I always make her do things she doesn't want to. I politely reminded her that it was in fact her teacher who was making her do homework, but she wasn't buying it.

3. Those crazy moments aside, having the girls at home with me is awesome. Sometimes, they occupy themselves for hours and do things like this ...

Yes, that is an entire room fort.

4. After a brief lull in December/Early January, J is back to traveling non-stop. He left here on Tuesday, arrives home today around 1 and then is leaving again at dinnertime. It's just awesome. And when I say awesome, I mean completely not awesome. However, at this rate he should earn 1K with United and Platinum with Marriott by the end of the quarter.

5. On Saturday, Dizzle had her first swim meet. Her relay team won and she swam solid times in the 25 Free, 25 Back and 50 Back.

Despite the long hours of the meet, Doodle has decided she wants in on the action. Dilly is considering it too. When you add the fact that I swim constantly and J is dabbling in the sport and you can probably figure out that our home constantly has a hint of chlorine odor to it. Thankful, I have an awesome sponsor, SBR Sports, who make TriSwim and Foggies (my favorite swim related product EVER!). If it wasn't for the TriSwim line, no one would want to be around us. But at the rate we are going, I think it's time to upgrade to the 64oz containers.

6. I try to be a good example to my children. I do my best to speak positively in front of them. I attempt to give them a model to live by. I try to show them that you can live your passions without taking away from the people you love. Like when I multitask, training and playing with them at the same time.

And I always try to show them how to eat healthy. On Tuesday, I learned that my hard work is paying off. I told Dilly we could go eat anywhere she wanted to for her birthday lunch. She told me that she would rather "have a tea party and eat peppers, tomatoes, carrots, hummus, raspberries, chicken and a PB&J sandwich."

It melted my heart.

7. Don't let Dilly's lunch fool you. The girls had cupcakes on Sunday and Monday (Dilly's party and her celebration at school) and we've been finishing off this cake all week.

Gluten free chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting ...

It's all about moderation, right?

8. I am planning on running a marathon this year. In the past, I have been motivated to tackle this distance to prove that I could and to improve my times. However, things have changed. I have already proved I can cover 26.2. I've proved that I can race two marathons in a week. I've proved I can cut almost an hour off my time. This go round (which will be a full three years since my last marathon), I'm not proving anything. I just really miss marathon training. I miss the feeling of accomplishment that comes with it and I really miss bragging that I "just ran 20 miles". Plus, if I am going to continue eating as much cake as we did this week, I'm really going to need to run 20 miles.