Yesterday my family and I ran the Big South Fork 17.5 Mile Trail Race that I mentioned in my last Life Lately post, and it was hard (but fun)! I won second place in my age division and set a new personal best. Yay! =) I only fell once (but stumbled numerous times!). Luckily, it was in soft dirt so no injuries! Unfortunately I didn’t get a good picture of us all. After running 3+ hours, I guess we weren’t in the mood for pictures!
A few weeks ago, my parents hosted an outdoor movie for our church family, and it was a lot of fun. We had hot dogs, popcorn, snow cones, a bounce house, corn hole, horse shoes, and, of course, a movie! We watched God’s Not Dead 2. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should watch it ASAP! So good! (You don’t have to have seen the first God’s Not Dead movie to follow along.)
I celebrated my birthday with one of my favorite cakes! (similar to this one)
And homemade caramel ice cream! Starting the last year of my 20’s off right ;).
A few weeks ago I went to a piano recital with my mom, and I was really impressed by how several of the students could play. The teacher gave a little speech at the beginning of the recital talking about how it was really the parents cracking the whip at home (ie making the students practice daily) that made the recital possible, because seeing progress requires much more than the 30 minutes a week they are at lessons. I took piano lessons for 10+ years, but am not by any means an impressive pianist. I told Mom that maybe I never got really good because she never cracked the whip at home ;). Then she started asking me every day if I had practiced 30 minutes. I told her it was too late to crack the whip now!! Haha I have been trying to play some every day, especially my days off work. It’s relaxing and (mostly) fun =).
I’ve been doing a few woodworking projects. This pallet sign was my first one, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. It looks good hanging beside my piano.
My second project was this simple coat rack. It hangs in my basement (thus the terrible lighting in this picture!). I have a little mudroom area off my garage where I keep my shoes, and it’s nice to have somewhere to hang my coats, bags, etc.
My third project was this mason jar holder. Another quick and easy project. Do we see a theme here?? =) This one will hang on the wall by the sink in a bathroom, holding toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc, but you could really hang it anywhere. I think it would look neat in an office, holding office supplies (pens, pencils, paperclips, etc).
I’ve never been big on burning candles, but this one smells pretty good! I had this one left from last year. I don’t see this scent on their website, but I’m sure this Spiced Pumpkin, Pumpkin Buttercream, or Pumpkin Pie would be great substitutes!
It’s football time in Tennessee! I don’t bleed orange (like everyone else in Knoxville!), but I fly my University of Tennessee Vols flag so my neighbors won’t know ;).
I’ve recently starting listening to audio books, and I’m officially obsessed! I check them out from the library because…FREE BOOKS!! I feel like my nerd status is already well established, so it’s totally okay for me to post that here on the blog ;). They make long car rides fly by, and I’ve even been listening to them while I do chores around the house, like vacuuming and push-mowing. I bought this cheap armband from amazon so I could stay hands-free, and it works great. I wore it running a couple times too without any problems. (P.S. I’m obsessed with Michael Connelly books…so good!)
Happy fall y’all!! What have you been up to?
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