It's about gnat time....

... for a random rambling post.

Some of the thoughts buzzing in my head this past week have all been about time.

And not having any.

As my children attend parochial school, they are already out for summer vacation.

Already.

This sounds great. In theory, it sounds relaxing. No early wake up calls for them. Even though I still need to get up early to return before clock striking 7 so my worker bee, Mr. Spie, can get to the hive, I envisioned myself relaxing when I returned from my early morning workouts. I would be propping my feet up, sipping a smoothie, and reading blogs to my heart's content without remote control negotiations, providing suggestions about breakfast, and reminding littles that we are not a nudist colony.

As we have all learned “in theory” is not reality. This week (I did not have the opportunity to relax uninterrupted in the morning) my poor children did not have the opportunity to sleep in much at all this past week. On Monday, Cheese had speech. On Tuesday, I had physical therapy. On Wednesday, I had a morning planning meeting. On Thursday, speech again. On Friday, I think they were finally able to sleep in, but I believe they were up at 6:30.

It wasn’t just the morning either. The afternoons were taken up with gymnastics, taekwondo, and afternoon meetings.

Tuesday typified the craziness this past week. It was Cheese’s 5th birthday. In the morning, the kids were woken up and rushed to the babysitters for my PT appointment. Upon my return, we ate lunch and because Dad did not come home for lunch, Cheese could not open her birthday presents. We then waited for Dad to come home from work with enough time to open the presents before my oldest and Mr. Spie had to leave for the gym for taekwondo. It did not happen as Mr. Spie was “coming in hot” and I had to have my oldest ready to jump in the car the minute the tires hit the driveway. The girls, Captain Destruction, and I ate dinner and then had to leave the house at 8:00 p.m. to meet Mr. Spie and my oldest at the auto shop (35 minutes away) so we could drive them home after they dropped off the car for its Wednesday morning appointment. So, finally at 9:00 p.m., my very patient 5 year old got to open her birthday presents….

.......aaannnnndddd she promptly had to go to bed and couldn’t even play with them. I kept of saying over and over in my head, I hope she doesn’t remember this birthday, I hope she doesn’t remember this birthday; I hope she doesn’t remember this birthday. (So far we are batting 1/3 for "good" birthdays as my oldest daughter had the stomach flu for hers!)

This week has not been much better and we have been crawling with activity once again as I awoke my children this morning with the task of going grocery shopping. I actually was dreading this as you all know I do not have the best of luck in the grocery store. But, shopping with my four children does have its advantages. The greatest advantage being that most customers and store personnel look as my brood comes screaming down the aisle (literally and figuratively) and turn as quick as a wink on their heels and fly the other way. So needless to say, today we managed to shop without much to buzz about.

The countdown to my race is flying by and I have finally have felt some flutters! I had a personal best time in a swim time trial and I swam my longest continuous swim ever in preparation for an open water race that I insanely signed up for. In addition, on Saturday, I ran a cross country trail after a really windy and hilly ride (kind of a crazy brick I know) and even though I was plodding along at a snail's pace I was very excited about the additional workout that I gained from the terrain and intend to incorporate cross country running in my training to work on my core running strength.

During Sunday's long run, I encountered a flutter of another kind. It is gnat season where I live. It is one of the most annoying seasons ever! Why do gnats travel in clusters at head level? How many facial orifices can a gnat fly into? I am sure that I looked a bit odd as I ran sputtering gnats out of my mouth and waving my arms in front of my face to avert gnat inhalation. After my run, I looked like a windshield after a night drive in the country. I had gnats in my teeth, my eyes, stuck to my face, clinging to my shirt, dangling from my hat. I certainly was "gnatty".

I fear that tomorrow's workout will not bring the futterby butterfly feelings that I am craving, I am fairly sure the only flutter I will feel is the "danger Will Robinson" pit in my stomach, as I have decided to take my children with me to my track workout. My babysitter is out of town..... Here's my thought process... There is plenty of space for them to run around (the track and the inside of the track), it is fenced in, and there are bleachers to play on. The two olders really want to run on the track with me. What could possibly go wrong? (please don't answer as it is truly a rhetorical question)

Finally, I am a buzz with excitement as the week crawls towards one of the best flutters! The MC200 relay is this weekend! The Sandbagger swarm is heading toward Madison on Thursday. I don't know if I grew a strong enough exoskeleton to leave my children, but it is time for me to use my wings and fly off for an adventure on my own. I am looking forward to meeting some great people who share my passion for running and endurance sports. Hopefully, I will emerge from this experience with a few new friends to "bug" in the future!