five

after the blogging bonanza that was september, i couldn't very well let october slip by without writing a single post.

(oh, yes. i am painfully aware that i did not write a single, solitary post this month. not one. nothing. nada. zilch. void. vacuum.)

it is very important to me that i document somthing about this month, and today seems to be my last opportunity to do so.

especially since today is, well, it's a very special day. it's my blogiversary.

five years ago, i created this little blip in the blogoshpere.
five years ago, i was a working mother with dormant creative tendencies.
five years ago, i didn't know about facebook and twitter and foursquare and pinterest (five years ago, some of them didn't even exist).
five years ago, i didn't know if anyone would read the words i wrote.
five years ago, i embarked on one of the greatest adventures of my life.

i know it doesn't seem like much, this oft-ignored blog of mine. i don't write anything for weeks at a time, i forget to take pictures, i don't do giveaways and i am a HORRIBLE commenter. but, i like it here. it's simple and safe and it's allowed me to stretch my boundaries - just a little - this past year.

if you're a newish reader, please feel free to go back and see where it all began. i like to do that myself, sometimes.

to all of you who swing by from time to time, hello! and thank you! keep coming back. there's bound to be something new to read every now and again!

to all of you who fill the blogosphere with your own words, i say this to you: BLOG ON!!

who's with me for another five years?

five minute friday

interestingly enough, the prompt for five minute friday at the gypsy mama is "rest." funny that i should be talking about "rest" in a week when the insomnia has been in full force.

i am not a person who needs a lot of sleep to thrive. truly, i think i'm good with about 6 1/2 hours a night. this is something that i have in common with my parents, and their parents. i don't sleep like the dead when i sleep, nor do i toss and turn. it's a good rest, though, and seems to be enough to get me through my days.

as i've become much more physically active this past year, i've been intrigued by the fact that my body hasn't required more rest. i truly am more energized and ready to greet the day, without having to get more sleep to compensate for the energy i'm burning. well, except for this transition back into the school year, but we can talk about that later... anyway, all this is to say that i take my 6 1/2 hours for granted, and i get frustrated when i don't get it.

this past week, my bedtime has been met with tossing and turning, pulling covers on and throwing them off, turning off my son's alarm clock at midnight (what the?!?), and generally not feeling like i can shoot out of bed when the alarm goes off at 5:45. this happens about twice a year, and i could probably look back through my journals to see if there are any correlations to be drawn when it happens. but, for now, it's enough to say that i'm frustrated that i'm not sleeping when my body says it should be sleeping.

i went for a run last night, and my gps wasn't working. i had no clue of my pace or, for that matter, how far i went (when i realized the gps wasn't working, i felt almost free to change up my route a little bit.) i had to let go of my OCD about time and distance, and how this run was going to show on my mileage keeper app. (you should really hear my inner dialogues sometimes...) i met some new people along the way, listened to the tree frogs, and spent some time remembering the fifth grade girl who couldn't even run one lap around the school track. and when it was all said and done, i felt good. i felt... rested.

a friend of mine called it a "soul run." i can't think of a better description. i slept better (could just be that i'm nearing the end of this period of insomnia...) (i HOPE!)

i think the soul run is just as important as the speed run, and the distance run. and i'm looking forward to more of them.