Snoozing....and Dreaming....

That's what I have been doing. Snoozing.
I've been taking lessons from my puppies, who know how to snooze HARD.

So, just after my public lament on how I wasn't handling rest well, I became very sick. Not sure what happened. I just completely crashed. I've been sleeping pretty much non-stop since the last post I wrote. I imagine that last week I appeared to be a toddler, throwing a tantrum, screaming, "I'm not tired! I don't want to take a nap!" And then, when no one would listen to my cries and instead rolled their eyes behind my back, I stomped my foot one last time, and then feel fast asleep, exhausted.

I was really sick for several days.

I awoke like Sleeping Beauty--to find my house in shambles and my kids dirty and screaming. It was just like that fairy tale...can you imagine? Anyway, I awoke, and though my head was still pounding with sinus ache, I left the house with the kids. It was the only solution. I took them to get hair cuts, and then we went to paint pottery. We do this often enough (paint pottery) that the majority of our kitchen plates, cups and bowls are hand-painted. It is an escape I use often when my house is too disgusting to inhabit.

I am up today, again. The four Advil I took are somewhat keeping the massive sinus headache I have at bay. I'm not sure what I had/have. A bad head cold. A touch of flu. Whatever it was, it knocked me out.
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One of the things I have been advised to do is to NOT THINK about training in addition to NOT actually training. This is like the advanced version of rest in my book. It requires major dedication.

But I'm trying.


There are things I need and want to get done around the house. But they are very very very very very very boring.
So instead I've been thinking about the BIG PICTURE THINGS I would like to do, like in my life. 

Here are a few:

1. I would like to breed and raise a litter of puppies. This is not something I take lightly. I know it would take a great deal of study and preparation to do it right.

2. I plan to have a vegetable garden next summer. I have a very small lawn, and so the garden will take up most of it. I have been waiting to move to Maine or to a bigger piece of land so that I can garden. But I am too old to wait for such things--things that may never happen. So I will have a vegetable garden next summer.  I have been re-reading Crockett's, The Victory Garden and its successor, The New Victory Garden by Thomson. They are my favorite gardening books next to Crockett's Flower Garden.

3. I want to get certified to teach high school English. I spent my first 15 years in education as a sixth and seventh grade teacher of history and English (actually four of those years were spent as a school librarian). I am certified as a teacher of English grades 5-9, as a middle school generalist, which means I can teach any subject in grades 5-9, and I have the credits to become certified in library. I've always wanted to teach high school, though,so that will be my next journey into the world of education.  In a few years, when my kids are slightly older and more independent, I'd like to find a job as a part time high school English teacher.

4. I'd like to buy dozens of book cases and organize my books as a library--according to Dewey. I started this project last year, but I don't yet have the book cases to pull it off well.

5. I'd like to study for and pass the certification test for high school History teachers. This is less because I want to teach history, and more that I want an excuse to do the studying.

6. I'd like to try my hand at writing memoir.

7. I'd like to get certified as a USAT level 2 triathlon coach and also get ITCA certified. Okay, fine. That has to do with traithlon...

8. I'd like to get a Master's degree in English. I have Master's degrees in Children's Literature and in Education, and I was accepted to do doctoral work in English (I had planned to focus on Victorian Children's Lit) before I got pregnant with Jordan. I now have no interest in getting a doctorate, but I would like to slowly and methodically work at achieving a Masters.  I'd like to take one class a semester for years.... and draw it out. Yum.

I am in a bit of a mood slump these last few weeks, so you'll have to forgive that I am not quite so witty as usual. (I'd like to think I'm usually just witty and wonderful.) It is fall. I love fall, but I always get more pensive and gloomy at this time of year, at least until the solstice. Then I start to come up again. I will try to write at least one witty and irreverent post before the solstice, though, I promise.

Kona and Chicago Marathon this weekend and Jordan has a swim meet! Wahoo! Lots of fun sport watching /tracking to be had...
and next week I will be able to run a tiny bit, and maybe swim a bit too! Thank God.