She Runs By Faith

I haven't been as consistent in the She Runs By Faith blogosphere as I would like to be but I will be back to regular writing in 2022! I'm jumping back on to team BibRave where I will be writing race and running gear reviews. I worked with them in 2017, 2018 and part of 2019 and can't wait to join up with the team again. First on the list? Fargo Marathon! I have some big goals in mind for the coming year and look forward to sharing the journey with you here :) Want to checkout all the latest BibRave Race Reviews? View my BibRave profile and search your favorite races from there. My BibRave race singlet and hat showed up in the mail this week and I'm ready to get back into training & racing - more to come soon!

 After a marathon, you never have to tell me twice to "take time off" from running. I'm more than happy to take a break - two weeks is the goal. My current post-marathon cross training is catching up in my insane tornado of a house! The kids and I were gone for nearly a week, came back Sunday, dumped everything here after church and now it's like a pit. No running. Just right back into the school week and then power cleaning on the side. And writing a race report, of course!  ... On Saturday, I had the privilege of running the Blue Ox Marathon for a fourth year - not consecutive - but my fourth year on the full marathon course. It's actually pretty comical. I am at this race every 2-3 years or so and have had a baby boy in between each Blue Ox race...  2013: 7 month old E 2016: 3 year old E + 1 year old W 2019: 6 year old E + 4 year old W + almost 2 year old C 2021: 8 year old E + 6 year old W + almost 4 year old C + 1 year old S Thank you, Jesus, that our family ...

Fargo was my last 13.1 for 2021! I'm making it my goal to write up a race report BEFORE moving on to the next race. Considering the 26.2 is coming up (tomorrow), I better get these race-report-writing fingers in gear. The kids and I took off without Leo to make it to the race expo before the 5k started. The expo seemed so normal! It felt great to be back in the hustle and bustle of the race environment. Even with a "smaller" event this year, Fargo is still a big race for our area. I didn't lose track of the kids and I did pick up my race number - that was a successful trip for me. Afterwards, we found the campground, checked in and Leo drove in with the camper just in time. He set up, we hit the playground and ended the night with a campfire. No s'mores this trip but Oreos did suffice. The Lindenwood Campground was only 5 miles from the race start/finish, which was great, though the interstate was pretty loud all night long. Camping was still a fun adventure for u...

Running has been an adventure this year. That's for sure! And, really, a lot of fun. We're celebrating Baby S' FIRST Birthday this Saturday! It's insane... where did the past year go?! Getting to know this little man and now seeing his toddler antics come out is really a lot of fun. He only stops moving when he's sleeping and enjoys ninja kicking/punching people and random things around the house. Any chance that having three older brothers influenced his behavior? As far as running goes, my body usually takes that first year postpartum to get back to where I left off in the last season - before the pregnancy. If that makes sense. The goal over this past year and running season has been to gradually build mileage, to continue strength training and to not get injured (like after baby #3!). Praise Jesus, I have been more physically "sound" this running season than ever before! Definitely more sleep deprived, definitely more stressed (aren't we all?...

With all the madness going on in the world  —  seems to be getting crazier by the day  —  the curiosity about homeschooling is growing. I often get asked:  Do I write my own curriculum?  — quick answer: no What curriculum do we use?  — more on that below  (I don't often get asked "why" anymore;  must be because the reasons to homeschool are only increasing and are becoming quite obvious.) While I feel like we are still so new to this homeschool life and my kids are quite young, I thought it would be most helpful to write a summary of what our homeschool looks like. There are so many options available now and every homeschool looks a little different. This is just a quick look at what works for us.  Before we jump into curriculum, summer is worth mentioning! It was a blast, loads of fun were jammed into just a few months and I'm looking forward to getting back into the school routine. Mom is tired!  Some highlights were going to the ...

 It's been so long since I've written a race report! I'm actually digging up an old one from my blog to somewhat copy the format. 2019 was the last year of my in-person races. For myself <baby boy #4 was/is well worth it!> and probably for most of the running community as well <thanks, Covid-19>. Needless to say, getting back into the race environment felt A-MAZING!  This was the inaugural Summer Rocks Half Marathon and the race timing was perfect; especially with the Fargo Marathon being moved to the Fall for 2021. A friend and I had planned to run a half marathon post-baby "time trial" on our own but I had a wedding come up - so that didn't work out. Then along came this race. Training was a bit all over the place, as is life with young kiddos. My average mileage was 27.5 miles per week - crazy low but for the half marathon, it was going to work. I knew I could at least finish the race and some solid longer workouts mixed in to that low mileage m...

The school year ended along with the month of May and we made a mad dash straight into summer life!  After a Memorial Day weekend camping trip, our older two boys did enjoy an entire week at Grandma & Grandpa's farm before baseball started. They loved that and I appreciated the time hanging out with our youngest two boys.  I haven't taken the time yet to reflect on the last two terms of our school year - so now is that time! We followed along with A Gentle Feast's Cycle 2 (White Year): Wars, Whigs & Washington. We loved the book selections and were introduced to so many new favorites. The 4th of July Story by Alice Dalghesh was one of my personal favorites - a great read for children and adults.  A lesson I learned is that we need to have all books in-hand, if at all possible. America First and Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans are available free online and I went that direction at first because, well, they're free! But I soon found that atten...