Lunch with Benjamin

Almost every Friday since October, I have been volunteering in Benjamin's class. About every other week I would stay and have lunch with Benjamin and some of his classmates. In April, one of my Friday volunteer time was canceled so I took the two little ones to school to have lunch with Benjamin. Bekah thought the lunchroom was loud, but liked having lunch with big brother. Ryan wanted to run around. Benjamin was delighted to have all of us eat lunch with him. We had a fun adventure that day!

I Have Talents

Last night on the way home from our piano lessons, Benjamin and I had a discussion about his talents. Benjamin started it by saying, "I am a talented artist." I agreed with him and told him he was talented at many other things too. I asked Benjamin if he knew what his other talents were and he said no while shaking his head in a bewildered manner. So I listed as many of his talents as I could think of, and watch him glow brighter and brighter with each new talent I described. Here's the list we discussed:

• reading quickly and correctly
• reading chapter books
• remembering things, place, and events
• being a big brother
• running fast
• sight reading new piano music
• learning to play the piano
• playing soccer
• making friends
• being honest
• singing, especially when he decides to sing
• sharing his testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
• learning the teachings of Jesus Christ
• knowing the rules
• learning new things

Today's Accomplishments

Today I completed a 5k distance with the two little ones. Not a significant distance because I usually keep my walk/run to at least 3.1 miles, but today I did a lot more consecutive running than I have ever done before. I completed two, 1-mile stretches and still averaged less than a 14-minute mile when I was done. And, I did it all pushing my two kiddos in a jogging stroller.

I mentioned about a month ago about how I ran one consecutive mile on the treadmill. Then we went on vacation and I ran one mile at 7,500 feet elevation and again in the Houston area. I haven't done it since or in our neighborhood until today. I've made several attempts in the last few weeks, but between being sick, and tired from taking care of sick kids, I haven't had the strength to do it. But, today I did! I'm getting closer to running a full 5k which is my goal by June 16th when our local youth group (Young Women in our ward at church) is hosting a 5k fundraiser.

Another awesome thing about today, I put today's miles on my first pair of certified running shoes. I purchased a pair of running shoes for Mother's Day (not something Michael could just go pick up for me). I went to the running store, had my running technique evaluated, and was fitted for running shoes to best help me run comfortably and smoothly. Totally awesome! Having the right shoes was one of the things which made today's accomplishments possible. My legs didn't hurt at all, and if I hadn't been congested from the end of this darn cold I probably could have run for longer. I am liking this running thing.

Indexing Update

Our trip was a lot of fun, and I still have a ton of posts to finish describing it all. However, between birthdays, parties, exhaustion from so much busyness, major sickness, a lot of immunizations for my two youngest ones, a baby blessing out of town, and working on a few other goals I have not taken the time to finish posting about our trip. So here is a little update on the progress of my indexing goal (index 75,000 names by the end of the year.)

At the beginning of the month of April I had indexed 8,886 records. Since April I have indexed 12,335, and that includes taking almost 10 days off from indexing because I only indexed like 200 while we were gone. I also passed the 100,000 mark for lifetime records indexed which means I have indexed 102,379 since September 2010.

I asked Michael if he thought I could get caught up on my monthly goals by the end of the month, and he said I would probably get a lot done but didn't know if I could index 15,000 names in one month. (I need to index an average of 6,250 names a month to reasonablly meet my goal of 75,000 by the end of the year which means I need to have indexed 31,250 names by the end of May to get caught up.) I took that as a challenge and figured out how many names I needed to index every day in order to hit 15,000. Needless to say, I have already indexed over 5,000 names this month and as today is the 10th, one third of the way through the month, I am proud to say I am on track to reach my goal.

On a side note, my house and family are not getting neglected in my efforts to index. I index in between cleaning or doing laundry, while we are watching shows together, after bedtime, during nap time, or whenever I have a quiet minute to sit at the computer. Some days I can't believe how much I accomplished, other days I feel like I did nothing (this applies to the house as well as indexing). But, somehow everything seems to get mostly done and we stay clean and fed. Here's to another day trying to move forward and be productive.