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February, 2011

  1. Goings on

    February 14, 2011 by Esther

    It’s been a strange week here. Hazel got sick late last week and was pretty run down for almost a week. Once she was over the brunt of her cold John started coming down with a fever and runny nose. I was up next and the week just kept dragging on! Thankfully we all seem to be on the mend, and Jered seems to have missed the bug all together, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t leave us all feeling worn out.

    Yesterday we headed down to Norfolk to check out a running store that carries Newton and Vibram running shoes. I have been ready for a new pair of shoes for a while now and Jered swears by his Vibram Five Fingers so I wanted to at least try a pair on and take them for a little jog. The staff at Running Etc. were very helpful, and in no time I had tried on quite a few pair of different styles and shoes. Long story short, we spent a little of our tax refund on new kicks. It felt indulgent, especially since we’ve cut our budget down to pretty bare bones levels lately, but it was nice to have a little treat- and one that hopefully will help  continue to get me out on runs. I took the new shoes out twice this weekend- a 3 miler yesterday and a nice steady 4 mile run today. I’m not sure if the shoes really are helping me with my form or if it’s just a nice shoecebo effect, but I’ll take it. I ran my fastest 5k to date yesterday and I was able to run 4 miles today at an under 12 minute mile pace (that’s pretty good for me after a very fast run the day before!).

    So here’s hoping for a healthier start to our week than the end of last week. Just for fun, here are a few photos of some of the things we’ve been cooking up at home this week. I’m writing up a cooking/budgeting post for later this week so stay tuned.

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  2. The cake doesn’t stop smelling good just because you’ve decided to stop eating it…

    February 9, 2011 by Esther

    We have made a lot of changes here at home lately. Plenty of them. And not just your typical New Year’s Resolution changes that get dropped about 5 days into January- thankfully these changes seem to be sticking. When I started piecing them together in my head before I actually committed to them I called them my four F’s- Fitness, Family, Friends and Finances. Pretty corny, but I needed something to hold on to. The first, Fitness, is pretty obvious. Jered and I have registered for the Williamsburg half marathon on our anniversary in May. This is a huge step for me. Huge. I don’t really consider myself to be an athletic person, but I’ve decided to break away from some of my premature cognitive commitments and stop that nonsense talk. I can be an athlete if I want to be, I just have to work at it. And working at it, I am. I’ve been running quite regularly and I’m starting to enjoy it. Early mornings, fresh air, starting my day with just a little time to myself. It’s really quite nice.

    So the next “Fs” are Family and Friends. These, too, are pretty obvious. I want to be more intentional about the time and energy I put into my relationships. Not just this year, but from here on out. I am so amazingly blessed with my sweet, beautiful kids, awesome husband and extended family- and I want to make the most of every minute we have together. We’ve recently begun to build some really fantastic friendships, and I want to focus on those as well. For me, friendships are the thing that tend to get neglected most when times get a bit busy. So the plan is to make more of an effort, be more of a friend, because my friendships matter to me.

    Finally, and perhaps the biggest change we’re undertaking is “F”inancial. Fortunately, we’re not in bad shape. But to say we’re in good shape would be akin to calling me thin. We’re taking the Dave Ramsey approach to our finances, working first on getting out from under the student loan debt that has, until recently, felt like it would be around forever. Now, I’m not really a fan of Dave Ramsey’s style- I find him to be a bit cheesy, a little too talk-radio for my liking, but his advice is rock solid. So baby step number 2 is well under way. Once we’re done with the student loans, we’ll be debt free. No payments. Then we’ll be on our way to building our savings and eventually buying a house. Big plans for the future. Thinking about where we’ll be even two years from now gets me all sorts of excited.

    So there we have the four F’s, which brings me, finally, to the title of this post. Working hard is hard. Most of the time it isn’t fun until the day is done and you look back and see what you’ve accomplished. But I’m sticking to these new changes. In the past, I step up to a change and over think every aspect of it, this time I’m stepping up and acting first, thinking about it later. So, that chocolate cake still smells good coming out of the oven, even if I decide I’m not having any. Spending all of our extra income is still tempting. Holing myself up in my house instead of getting out and doing things with friends and family is still my “comfort zone.” But I’m stepping out. Acknowledging that the cake smells good, but that my impulses are mine to reign in.
    And now I’ve put it out for all the world to read. Hold me accountable folks.

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  3. A space for my thoughts

    February 8, 2011 by Esther

    Thanks to my technologically savvy husband I have a new space to collect my thoughts on the web. This post effectively unveils the new and improved estherknits.com. I’ve decided to try my hand at blogging again because I’ve realized that I have things to say and thoughts to share. I’m uncertain how interesting anyone else will find these musings, but I need a space to get all of this stuff out of my head. I’m thinking that by getting these things out I’ll be able to step back from them a bit, gain perspective and learn more about myself, my life and all of the details I so often overlook.

    So what will I be writing about?

    Not entirely sure yet. While I can’t tell you the specific “topic” of this blog, I can tell you what it won’t be. It won’t be a knitting blog. Or a cooking blog. Or a family blog. I’ve attempted those in the past and I while I appreciate all of the fantastic knitting and cooking and family blogs out there I simply don’t have the focus or intent to create another one. But wait… estherknits, right? Well, my friends, I’m trying to come off as clever here, so bear with me. I’m talking about figurative knitting- the knitting of ideas, thoughts, words, and yes, occasionally food, yarn etc. We’ll see where this leads us! I’m not quite sure what this will become, but the destination isn’t quite so important to me as the getting there.  Here we go!

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  4. Hello world!

    February 5, 2011 by admin

    Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!1

    1. This is a footnote [↩]

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