I'm trying...

To learn to love to run:

This is a hard one for me. Training for this triathlon just might be the death of me. I cannot believe how bad of shape I am in right now! Today I set out for a 3 mile run, I made it 2 and a half and my legs can barely support me with how sore they are. As I was running I got to thinking about when I was in the best shape of my life. Probably my junior year of high school. I was playing soccer in the summer and fall, training with the track team during the winter, then running track and playing lacross in the spring. I was extremely active. I could easily run 3 miles and had to do so at least a couple times a week. However, I still didn't like it. I enjoyed the people I would run with, but never enjoyed running. One run we used to do often in high school during my track conditioning class lead us past a place that at the time was called 5 points mall (it was not much of a mall... I guess maybe sort of an indoor strip mall and has since been torn down). Me and a couple of my friends from the soccer team who were also in this class were always behind the group on the run (we were soccer players... not cross country runners!) and instead of completing the run we would head inside 5 points, get us a cookie at Parsons Bakery, and watch as the runners came back the other way. We would wait the appropriate time and head back. Man I was lazy... and man I didn't like running. But I'm trying...

To be a better homemaker:

I looked around the house today... what a mess it was! I picked up some quarters on Friday afternoon and spent literally the entire day doing laundry! Please let me never get that far behind again! That cute husband of mine was on kid duty and I went to work! I washed, I folded, I hung, I boxed up clothes they had grown out of, and I looked at it all as I was leaving for work and realized that it was going to take a week of doing that to get that place in order. Oh well... I'm trying...

To be a better mom:

Being a mom is a daunting task. One I often get down on myself for not doing well enough. I have to remind myself often that I don't need to be perfect. I just need to be there for my kids and to be the best mom I know how to be. Today I read some pretty amazing quotes about being a mom.

'There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. Many are able to be full-time moms; at least during the most formative years of their childrens lives, and many others would like to be. Some may have to work part- or full-time; some may work at home; some may divide their lives into periods of home and family and work. What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else.' -Elder M. Russell Ballard

'Most of you are mothers, and very many of you are grandmothers and even great grandmothers. You have walked the sometimes painful, sometimes joyous path of parenthood. You have walked hand in hand with God in the great process of bringing children into the world that they might experience this estate along the road of immortality and eternal life. It has not been easy rearing a family. Most of you have had to sacrifice and skimp and labor night and day. As I think of you and your circumstances, I think of the words of Anne Campbell, who wrote as she looked upon her children:

You are the trip I did not take;
You are the pearls I cannot buy;
You are my blue Italian lake;
You are my piece of foreign sky.

You mothers are the real builders of the nation wherever you live, for you have created homes of the strength and peace and security. These become the very sinew of any nation.' -President Gordon B. Hinckley

'You cannot possibly do this alone, but you do have help. The Master of Heaven and Earth is there to bless you. He who resolutely goes after the lost sheep, sweeps thoroughly to find the lost coin, waits everlastingly for the return of the prodical son. Yours is the work of salvation, and therefore you will be magnified, compensated, made more than you are and better than you have ever been as you try to make an honest effort, however feeble you may sometimes feel that to be.' -Jeffrey R. Holland

I have a long way to go and think that may always be the case. But I'm trying...

And lastly, another great quote from the First Presidency of the LDS Church:

'One of the greatest things a father can do for his children is to love their mother.'

I have loads to work on, but how greatful I am for an amazing husband who loves me and shows me that love. What a great blessing for our children! I can't fully express the love I have for KC...

...but I'm trying....