MaeLyn's Musings

Some time ago, Steven and I realized that we weren't in as good shape as we would like to be. We had less energy than we used to: running any distance made us feel as though our lungs were going to burst, and it didn't take much exertion to leave us with sore and aching muscles. We resolved to do something to remedy the situation. Steven began jogging during his lunch break at work and exercising with other members of the Elders' Quorum on Saturday mornings. I started doing Pilates and other exercises in the mornings, as well as counting desserts (much to Hannah's frustration). In discussions about what else we could do, it occurred to us that it might be fun to start playing tennis. We looked for tennis racquets at thrift stores, and even found one old wooden one, but finally, this last Saturday, we went to Wal-Mart and bought a couple for $10-$15 each, along with a bag of tennis balls. Last night, John chose to play tennis for our FHE activity, so we piled into the ...

Have I ever mentioned here that John loves to run? He does. He runs or walks home from school as often as I'll let him. Sometimes he walks to school. During recesses he runs around the school's 1/5 mile track 6, 7, sometimes even 8 or 9 times. For every five miles a student walks, he or she gets a "shoe token" (a washer with ribbons tied to it that can be attached to a shoe.) John got more shoe tokens this year than any other student at his school. Recently Steven has been taking him to the nearby middle school after school where he runs the 1/4 mile track, as many as 10 laps at a time. John really loves to run. Every year his gym teacher takes the school's best runners/walkers to participate in the Cottonwood Classic, a 5K race that is put on by our community. John ran it back in 2009 as well, but he hadn't really known what to expect, and wasn't as prepared for it. This time, he had trained, and he was ready. He could do this! Before the race began...