My Brother is HOME (Weekend Recap)
Because of some blog issues > today’s weekend recap is coming to you a little late, but better than never, right? Hope you all have an awesome Thursday!
Hello friends, I hope you all had the best weekend and spent some quality time with the people you love most. This weekend for us was a weird mixture of relaxation and business, but seeing my brother for the first time in like 10 months, made the weekend extra special. (More details on that, below)
Let’s rewind to Saturday, shall we?
Saturday
Saturday morning started off extra special, because I got to have devotions (alone and in the quiet) AND run 3 miles without the stroller. Benaiah and I do most of my running together (which I love) but getting outside and running solo is such a treat. I am hoping to get more solo miles in during the week, as I continue to build back from this injury. My idea right now is to eventually do all my easy running with the stroller (since it naturally slows me down a little) and then do my hard effort/workouts/long runs without the stroller. Anyways, I was able to get out and run three miles and this run may have been the best run that I’ve run post-injury. (Really post-half marathon.) I wanted to run so much faster, but held my pace back, remembering not too push it too much (since it was a easy run) and ran three easy, breezy, gorgeous miles at a 8:21 pace (a little too fast for my recovery pace, whoops!)
Once I got back, Landon, Benaiah and I spent some time hanging out, playing with blocks, eating breakfast, and packing up for the pool. It rained most of the week, last week, but thankfully Saturday was bright and sunny! We spent around an hour or so at the pool, split a pretzel, and Landon and I both swam around 120 meters. Okay guys, I’ve never realized how much of a workout actual swimming is. Landon and I wanted to try swimming around 300 meters back and forth in the pool, but we settled on swimming 120 instead, haha. I’m excited to work on some swimming fitness this summer in our local pool and see if I can become a better swimmer through practicing a couple times a week. Any swimmers reading? Tips?
Once we were all cooled off from the pool, we came home, ate a quick lunch and put Benaiah down while our landlord’s worked on a few projects around the house. The rest of our afternoon was pretty quiet, involving a few errands, some book reading, and dinner prep. Speaking of reading, I’ve been on a reading kick lately and learning to love reading again. I’ve always been a pretty voracious reader, but sometimes I go through phases of reading a ton and then dry spells when I hardly pick up a book. My mission this year is to change that by consistently reading a couple books a month. So far, I am doing pretty good and enjoying a variety of different reading materials. I just finished, “80/20 Running,’ by Matt Fitzgerald. SO good.
Anyways, after reading and dinner prep, we ate a quick dinner of tofu/roasted veggies with guacamole and ended the night walking around downtown and spending time at our town’s Swedish Days festival. I was so bummed to find out that Benaiah was too small to ride any of the rides (I had promised him he could ride the ‘choo-choo’ ride) so instead of riding, he got a soy, ice cream sandwich. He seemed pretty happy about it, which made me feel a lot better. #crisisavoided.
Landon and I capped off our evening with banana ice cream and a movie (which I fell asleep on). Apparently, I am an old lady now? haha.
Sunday
In contrast to our fairly slow Saturday, Sunday morning kicked off on a crazy note with screeching coming from Benaiah’s crib. I raced over to see what the matter was (nothing like waking up to screaming) and realized he was frustrated he couldn’t take his pants off. Somewhat relived and irritated, we made our way to the bedroom, woke Landon up, ate a quick breakfast and rushed out the door to church. On days that I am on worship team, we leave extra early which means less time at home and a longer day for everyone > but we love it.
While I practiced, Landon and Niah went shopping and after church we headed out to my parents to see MY BROTHER! It’s been a long nine months, but finally my brother made it home from the middle east. It had been right around 10 months since I last saw him, which made seeing him on Sunday extra special!
We spent the rest of the day at my parents eating some delicious home cooked food, catching up with my brother and sister-in-law and watching the Benaiah run around the backyard. It was so sweet to see Benaiah interacting with his cousin, Nora. It got me imaging just how sweet and crazy life will look like in about 5-10 years when the cousins are old enough to actually hang out together. It was the best time seeing my brother and catching up with him about the last 9 months. We love you so much Nathaniel and we are so proud of you!
I guess if I had to say what I thought about this weekend it would be ‘thankful.’ I am so thankful to have my brother back safe. So thankful for my husband and my son who light up my life. So thankful for Jesus’ ever lasting love. So thankful for good runs and that my recovery is going well! Thankful, thankful, thankful.
I hope you all had the best weekend ever and that your Thursday is filled with gratitude.