More Rainy Days

On February 18, 2026February 18, 2026 By runnergirl02In Family, Lent, Thankfulness, UncategorizedLeave a comment

It’s raining today…quite steady right now actually. I’m waiting for my husband to get off work and our daughter to finish up with her lab so we can all head home. The 99 can be a wicked drive in the rain and I want our daughter to have a little more practice driving around just in town before she tackles that drive. I’m at my favorite little cafe staring out the window watching the rain fall in sheets from a broken gutter onto the outside patio furniture. There’s a little older couple who is looking over at me now and again, can’t tell if they think I’m transcribing their conversation or just looking out the window behind me. It doesn’t really matter.

We were back to school today after a long three day weekend. We have two three day weekends in February back to back, Lincoln’s birthday and Presidents Day. Our daughter’s old elementary school only got one of the two Mondays off so my husband and I used to use whichever Monday she didn’t get off as a fun date day, usually a hike up at the lake where I spent a lot of time as a kid. She gets both Mondays off these days, mostly because she’s in college now and doesn’t have class on Mondays. It didn’t matter this year though because, it’s raining, so we couldn’t go on our hike yesterday, which was a bummer. The Monday before we also had off and the weather was also not great but we were able to go for a run and see a sweet movie called Solo Mio.

It’s been a strange year so far. Many people to pray for who are having health struggles. My sister and other family and friends. I try to be grateful to wake up every morning able to move and take care of myself. I’m still trying to lose some weight to help my A1C and overall health. It would be nice to spend my 50’s active and healthy as I head into the second half of them in about half a year. I’m thankful to be able to pray for my friends and family to a God who is always listening, even when I might not think He hears. Feelings aren’t always a great thing to go by, they have a tendency to ebb and flow, we must trust in God’s word always and Jesus promised us that we are never alone, even on days when that’s exactly how we feel. Alone, concerned about the future, the state of a world where old women are kidnapped from their homes, or teens looking for an easy way to steal someone else’s belongings all die in a horrific car wreck and then there’s wars and the general state of the world. My hope remains in Jesus even when the plan remains elusive.

In addition to a three day weekend, Valentine’s Day was Saturday. I am thankful we got to spend time with the kids so their parents could have a Valentine date. We watched K-Pop Demon Hunters! Lol, it was an interesting movie and we talked about things that were good messages and things that were just weird. In general, the idea of “the accuser” and having to guard your mind from negative thoughts was a good idea. We all seem to struggle with negative, self-defeating thoughts somedays and sometimes those thoughts win and people we love end up places we would never want them to be. Some days we are able to win, push the thoughts away and continue our day. Thank goodness for those days.

On Valentine’s Day we picked up my mom and after our daughter’s practice we headed over to a little beach town called Cayucos. The beach isn’t very big, and neither is the town but they have some cute antique shops and at least two places we like to eat, Duckies and now Schooners. I think my Mom had a nice time and so did my daughter and man it was a beautiful drive!

Sunday we finally had our own Valentine Date, but I picked a bad movie, Crime 101, the plot was crazy, didn’t really make any sense but we stayed through the whole movie. It was nice to have a Valentine Date and for the 32nd year in a row my See’s candy heart made a return. This year it had chocolates, some years it has other gifts but this year mostly chocolate and I also got some flowers and cards 🙂 I have the best Valentine. We went running in the morning and the sky was so pretty, a really nice pink, purple, orange color. I love a colored sky.

Tomorrow is the beginning of Lent. Some years I look forward to Lent, other years, like this year, I wonder why it’s a thing. I’m probably not supposed to write that out loud. It’s not that I don’t think the purpose of Lent is a good one. I do. It’s just that our particular church changes things to Latin and reduces the amount of instruments that can be played and wants the Psalms sung a certain way and they just try to make Sunday’s a lot more somber than it should be. Jesus wasn’t even Roman and He didn’t teach in Latin! Jesus was Jewish and spoke and taught in Aramaic, so the argument that it’s the language of Jesus isn’t valid. Sundays, in my opinion, should always be a joyful day. We commemorate the great sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and hopefully we leave Mass with a renewed sense of gratefulness and thankfulness for the gift of Jesus. Jesus took on all sin on the cross, not some sin, not most sin, all sin. Jesus died so we could enter heaven, including the thief who was crucified with him. A time of contemplating to remember this gift, a time of sacrifice to acknowledge the suffering and our redemption is good and useful but Sundays are special so I don’t totally understand the reasoning behind it all, but maybe it’s one of those things that I don’t totally need to understand. Maybe I should just follow the shepherds God has given us. Our Oblates of St. Joseph are good and holy men who love God’s people, maybe there’s something there that I don’t see?

Well I guess that’s it for now. No running news, trying out some once a week intervals, which are actually kinda hard, not as many miles lately because the weather has not been cooperating. Doing more weightlifting, following a Bill Philips 5X5 plan. We have a treadmill and it’s a new one, but so far I don’t much care for it, might try walking on it tonight if this rain doesn’t calm down, after my weight workout.

So today for pink Valentine skies, time spent with people we love, the gifts of sacrifice, clergy who care enough to try to help us contemplate that sacrifice(even if I don’t like Latin), beautiful skies, days off, and a little time to sit and think in a favorite cafe…I give thanks!

KOR-not sure when we’ll be able to sign up for another race, lots of track meets coming up but hopefully we’ll be able to up our mileage as the weather improves and get a little faster. A plan is in the works!

Green hills and beautiful sky on our drive to the coast…

Forward

On February 26, 2025February 27, 2025 By runnergirl02In ThankfulnessLeave a comment

A few years ago, probably more than a few years, but, it feels like a few years, I started picking a word for the year. I read about it in some article, I don’t even remember where or who the article was written by, or maybe I saw it on an early morning television show? I guess it doesn’t matter.

Earlier this year I was talking to my husband, and I was asking him if he picked a word, sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn’t. One year, he picked kiss for his word. I asked him why, he said, “because I don’t kiss you enough”, which I thought was sweet. He’s sweet like that. Nothing struck him because he hasn’t mentioned a word to me. Nothing struck me either because it’s almost March and I still did not have a word but over the last couple of weeks a word keeps popping up over and over, or maybe it’s just a frame of mind?

It’s not like it was bothering me that I didn’t have a word. It seems sometimes, a thought percolates in the back of your mind and just keeps percolating until something pops up.

Over the last few weeks, the word/idea of forward keeps popping up, in likely places, like church, in unlikely places, like a random conversation with a random person. I think Jesus talked to us a lot about living in the present and moving forward with faith. I think He talked about those things because He knew it was human nature to look ahead, look behind and to get stuck. A friend once told me that when you look ahead, you can feel anxious. When you look behind, you can feel sad. When you stay in the present it is harder for those feelings to attack you. I have actually found this to be very true.

You can find passages all over the bible in the Old and New Testaments with this idea of moving forward. In Philippians 3:13-14, it says, “ forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus. In Isaiah 43: 18-19 it says, “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; See , I am doing something new!” There are many more. I find it interesting that this theme is running throughout the length of the Bible and I find it very comforting.

Today, I had to take my sweet husband to Urgent Care. He woke up clammy and weak, said he was dizzy, and things were spinning. Last time that happened he ended up passing out in the bathroom and I had to call an ambulance, so I called in a substitute and told him I’d drive him over to Urgent Care. I didn’t get a lot of push back, which was unusual, so I knew he was not feeling well. I was worried, we haven’t had much luck this season, it’s been tough. All I could think selfishly was that I needed him to be ok, I needed nothing to be seriously wrong, because through this particular season of loss we have been through, he has been steady and true, comforting and loving and always reminding me that God always takes care of us. He has a steady and sure faith in God, a love for Jesus and I love this about him.

As we get older, I start to worry we have fewer days together in front of us, than behind and since the statistics aren’t on my side, I wonder how I would ever navigate this weary world without him. I hope not to find out anytime soon.

So we have been facing many challenges lately, I think Jesus is telling me to keep a forward mindset this year. To keep this word in front of me. Forward.

“Forward always Forward, God Will Provide”

So today for Jesus who speaks so clearly, for sending me this word, Forward and for my husband…I Give Thanks!

Long run up to 5 miles this past weekend. We want to find a race to run, but my daughter has track meets almost every Saturday in March, so we’ll see. KOR

Running our long run by our River Trail…

Visited a new to me beach…lots of room to run, looking forward to staying over for a run!

Fall

On October 21, 2024March 21, 2026 By runnergirl02In Thankfulness, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Phew…this has been an interesting fall so far….

Fall is not my favorite season, it’s not a hated season either, it just seems if something is going to go wrong in my world, it always goes wrong in Fall. Big things, little things…ALL the things.

Our good friend Emily, like a Great-Grandma to Laina, a Grandma to us is in hospice. She is 98 years old and just wish she would fall asleep and wake up in heaven, but she’s going through some suffering before she leaves this world of ours and it hurts my heart, especially for her daughter. Her daughter is Laina’s God-Mother, sweet lady who I met many years ago through my own mom and now she’s part of our family 🙂

My uncle, who is 82, has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon and Liver cancer. The primary source was the Colon. He’s done one chemo treatment, ended up in rehab because he was in hospital so long he was weak and having trouble walking but he should be coming home this Wednesday and then back to Chemo. We will see how it goes. He was always kind to me and I hope he doesn’t suffer too much.

My sister-in-law’s mother is in ICU in a medically induced coma because she is having seizures that won’t stop. They had to move her up to Sacramento because they couldn’t help her at the hospital she was in. After just speaking with my brother, my sister-in-law’s Mama seems to be on her way from this world, please bring peace and comfort to her family.

My Dad passed away on September 19th, 2020. My Aunt, his sister, one of my very favorites, a big part of our family, passed away September 9th, 2022. Our baby daughter, Lauren Rose, went to heaven on October 23rd. As you can see Fall is not and has not been kind. I don’t look forward to Fall. I was even sick for my birthday this year! I should have stayed home sick but went to work because I only have so much sick leave and I want to save it so I can attend our daughter’s events. Sigh…

Despite all these sad things, I do try to look at the blessings. The weather is getting cooler and the mornings are like I like them, crisp and pleasant. My brother and sister called to wish me a Happy Birthday, and so did my Mom, and while my students did not know it was my birthday they were good taht day! Pumpkins! I love pumpkins, they are fun to decorate with and look for in a pumpkin patch which we’ve done a few times. Fairs, I enjoy the fairs, in the Fall, visiting the exhibits and seeing the animals, eating the food! Cross Country! My daughter is on her school team and I enjoy watching her run, going to meets, and cheering her on to be her best. Fall concerts for choir. My daughter is in her school’s Chamber Choir and man they are a beautiful choir, so nice to sit and listen to them sing God’s praises on a weekday night. Sunday brunch with family, a long-standing tradition, continues. What a blessing to see my brother, sister, nieces, and nephews almost every Sunday! Time spent with family is a treasure to be sure. We were able to drive down to the coast this past Saturday and it was a beautiful day. Playing frisbee on the beach with my love so fun! Attending Mass at St. Angela’s in PG is always a treat, even if we can never manage to attend their SAMDAG fundraiser, it’s fun to hear about it every year around this time.

I’m not really sure if the good things outweigh the bad things or if I’m seeing it all wrong. I’m sure it’s the latter. Do you ever wish God would just give you a little glimpse to see how it’s all going to turn out? I do, a lot. So I try to turn to his word, it doesn’t always help but I try to remind myself of all His promises and even though that doesn’t always work and it doesn’t always fix the sadness, it’s what I have.

Jesus prays for us in John, Chapter 17. In verse 26 he says, “I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.” Jesus desires to be in us and with us, this is what He said. In verse 24 he says, “Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me. He called us his gift. In Mathew 28:20, Jesus says, “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” He’s talking to his disciples in all these passages but He is also talking those who have been baptized in Christ, His beloved. One of my favorite passages in Matthew is Mathew 6:25 where Jesus talks about where to put our trust. He says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear.” Jesus doesn’t want us to worry, but to trust in Him, even when the outcome is uncertain and not what we ever wanted or hoped for.

“Oh my sweet Jesus, hear my prayer to you this day, that you would be with all our loved ones and lead them home to you. If they must suffer, may it be short, and may we unite it to your suffering on the cross as we remember the life you gave for us. We don’t understand this life or where it leads and even when we think we do, we don’t see it all, please guard us from the evil one and keep us close to you always. Sweet Jesus, my brother and God my Father, never leave our side and bring us home to you when our race is run. Amen.”

For Jesus, I can always give thanks….

I’ve been sick. Running was going pretty good until a few weeks back, getting back to it, the schedule got thrown off, but we are still doing what we can when we can. Our long run right now is a pretty solid 6 miles, so hopeful to increase this as the weeks go by. Hoping to run a 5k sometime soon. KOR

My favorite spot to relax in God’s love…