Thankful. And Full.

I love Thanksgiving and I'm so grateful that we were able to celebrate with all of our family yesterday, but I have to admit there were times I wished it was just the three of us -- I'm exhausted from celebrating!

But let me back up a bit. We did do our turkey trot, which was quite chilly because the temperature was in the low 30s (F) and there was a strong wind, making it feel like it was in the teens. I don't think I started feeling at all warm until I hit the 2-mile mark. Molly and I did wear our matching hats, though we discovered that they weren't very warm:

I wasn't aiming to be especially fast, just to run the whole thing, but adrenaline always kicks in a bit in a race, so I was a little faster than I am on a normal run. Here are my results:

I got a laugh at my overall placement.

The route was different (and much more hilly) than the last time I ran it two years ago, and in addition to being cold, I was annoyed at all the people I kept having to dodge because they were oblivious to others around them. Maybe next year I'll just go on my own run in the neighborhood!

We got home, warmed up with breakfast and coffee, and then gave Ruthie a much-needed bath. Then there were showers for the humans and green bean casserole and Brussels sprouts prep. Ruthie got to nap for about half an hour before my parents showed up with the food to go in the oven, and then everyone else came around 4. Ruthie got one of her leftover sedatives from her surgery recovery, but she was still nervous enough around all the people that she peed inside (fortunately on one of our inexpensive rubber/nylon rugs that we have near the doors in fall and winter). Other than me and Molly, to some extent, the only person she seemed to be comfortable with was my niece:

I have a feeling these two are going to be special buddies as they grow up together!

Today is going to be a much more quiet day. The only thing on the agenda is that I'm taking Molly to get her ears pierced this afternoon -- something that I think is probably more exciting for me than for her! When I was a kid, I begged to get my ears pierced for years, starting when I was in single digits, so it's been astounding to me that Molly hasn't wanted to until now. We've got lots of leftovers to eat, and I've got some laundry and cleaning to do. And isn't it nice that there's still a weekend ahead of us?

I realized I didn't say it in my last post, so I wanted to make sure I include it in this one: Friends, I am grateful for all of you -- for your friendship, for your encouragement, for your book recommendations and crafting inspiration and sharing of beauty. I love that the internet has enabled so many of us with shared interests to connect, and I only wish there was an easier way for us to gather in person!

Less in 2025: September

Dear friends, can you believe that we are almost finished with the wonderful month that is September? It's usually one of my favorite months because of the weather, the holidays, the start of the school year, and all that. It was a busy September this year, but I'm not letting it pass by without checking in on my One Little Word. Thank you to Kat for hosting our link-ups this year.

Less has shown up in a few different ways this month, but the biggest is that there has been a lot less in my checking account -- it's been a very expensive month! First, there was Ruthie's spay surgery, which was planned for and expected but still a big bill. Then, I did something I'd never done before: I dropped my cell phone and smashed the glass. Molly said it was the universe's way of telling me that it was time for a new phone; I'd actually been thinking about getting a new one soon anyway, because my old one was an iPhone 11 from 2020, but this decided it. There was the cost of the new phone plus a new case and new charger (because of course none of the accessories I had for the old phone would work with the new one). Then, about three days after the phone arrived, it flew out of my hand while I was out on a walk and the glass broke in the exact same place. Never before had I broken the glass on a phone and I managed to do it twice in a week! Fortunately, with Apple Care, I was able to get the glass replaced and paid only a reasonable service fee. And that was not the end: The Mister celebrated his birthday last week, and he is notoriously hard to buy gifts for (mainly because when there's something he wants, he just buys it for himself), so when he said he'd found a piece of luggage he really wanted, how could I say no? All of this is to say that my expenses have exceeded my income this month and it's a good thing I'm a saver -- and that I've been knitting from stash this year!

There has also been less running this month. I started having some pain in my left knee several weeks ago, so I pulled out my trusty knee brace. It helped, but the discomfort was still there, so I figured the best thing to do was rest. I've only run once a week for the past couple of weeks and it's helped a lot; I would have stopped altogether were it not for the race this past weekend -- I didn't want to go into it having not run at all recently. I've noticed it's been feeling better, and clearly my reduced running time did not impact me in the least, because I had a new PR in the 5K:

I finished 13th (out of 183) in my age group, 95th (out of 1,318) among women, and 321st (out of 2,399) overall. My previous record for this race was last year's 27:14, so I really blew it out of the water. And I was not at all expecting it! I was hoping to be around 26 minutes, but I guess the adrenaline really gave me an extra boost this time. Now that the race is over, however, I'm going to give my knee more time to heel and probably will be sticking to walking for a while. And here's hoping that translates to Less knee pain in October!

Many Good Things

Ah, hello there, Friday! It's good to see you. Although work has been calmer this week, it's still been a very long, busy week -- final play rehearsals and performances for Rainbow, a board meeting for me, and the usual weekly stuff. But it's also been a week filled with some good things, and there are more ahead this weekend.

First, perhaps inspired by last weekend's marathon, I achieved something pretty exciting in my running. If you've been following my running journey for a while, you might remember that I had to stop a couple of years ago due to a hip injury. When I was able to start again, I could run without pain, but I was mainly doing a lot of interval training -- running a bit and then walking a little to catch my breath. On Monday, I decided to see if I could go longer before I stopped to walk and was able to run a full 5K (that's 3.1 miles) without stopping. That's the first time I've done that since before my injury! And I did it again on Wednesday. My pace is still on the slower side (somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 minutes per mile), but at the moment I'm focused on endurance rather than speed. I'm also focused on not hurting myself again, so I've been limiting myself to no more than three runs a week and I'm always sure to stretch when I get back.

Last night, I also finished up my sister-in-law's first Mother's Day socks, which I hope she will love:

I used my vanilla sock recipe for these, but I did a tubular cast-on and 1x1 rib for the cuff to change things up a bit. The yarn is Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce in the colorway Cuddletime, which was the name of the tea that accompanied it as part of Lisa's Tea for Two club. If you look really closely you'll see they're not quite perfectly matched, but they're pretty darn close; I don't think anyone would really notice if they weren't lining them up and inspecting them closely.

Good thing #3: Spring seems to finally be here to stay, and we've had some beautiful weather this week. I have seedlings started inside and a new planter put together that we're going to put in the front yard (which gets tons of sun) for our vegetables. I have flowers and some other plants order through our synagogue's annual preschool plant sale (pickup is next Sunday), and I've asked the Mister for a trip to buy some additional plants for my Mother's Day gift. Our lilac bushes are in full bloom right now -- they smell wonderful! -- and yesterday I noticed that our roses have started to bloom.

Finally, there will be lots of good family time this weekend. The gang is going to be all back together for Friday night dinner at my parents', so we'll get to spend time with my nephew -- I haven't seen him in a week, and Rainbow hasn't seen him since the day he was born! And my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are hosting their usual Mother's Day brunch on Sunday. Lots of baby squishing will be happening over the next several days!

I hope you've found some good things this week, and I wish you a lovely weekend. Happy Mother's Day to those of you celebrating, and gentle hugs to those of you for whom it's a difficult day.

A WIP Round-up

Greetings from a foggy Tuesday morning! The sun is just starting to peek out as I'm settling into my workday, and I'm taking a few minutes this morning for a WIP update.

I have two projects that I've been actively working on the past week or so. First there's a hat for Rainbow that I started last Thursday after I shared the yarn. I knit a deep ribbed brim using only the slub base, which I then joined for a double-thick hem, and have now moved on to the stockinette body, joining in the mohair-silk.

The knitting is slightly faster now, but I still have to be careful that I'm catching both strands in every stitch (though, truthfully, if I don't quite catch the mohair/silk, it's not going anywhere -- one nice feature of how sticky this yarn is!).

My evening knitting time of late has mainly been focused on my Radiate pullover (Ravelry link).

Last night I got through the last round of increases, so I believe I have just about a dozen more rounds to knit before I split the sleeves from the body. I know it looks a little wonky here, but I think that's just a feature of the needle it's on. I have tried it on, as best I can, and it seems okay, but I think it will need a good blocking. As much as I like the look of the yoke, I'm excited for it to be done and transition to stockinette because it's a slow stitch pattern -- though I have to give Joji credit for a really genius was of working the increases into the patterning.

Seeing as September has been over for nearly a week (how did that happen already?), I wanted to give a little running update. Usually the Mister and I participate in two 5K races each fall, the city's Great Race and one in our neighborhood that serves as a fundraiser for our local Boys & Girls Club. They're usually about a week apart, happening the last Sunday in September and the first Saturday in October. Neither one happened this year, obviously, but the Great Race went virtual. If you signed up, you got your shirt and medal in the mail and had the option to run your own race at any time during the month of September and submit it online. I did it earlier on in the month and was really pleased with my time, but the other day I remembered to look up my time online to see how I did overall and got a nice surprise:

I shaved almost two minutes off my time from last year (27:54), and I was less than two minutes behind the Mister this year (24:12). I guess all the running is really paying off!