Progress

I just realized that this post plus one more will make 12 posts to this blog this year.  This is meager by many standards, but for me it is real progress because 12 is the number of posts I logged in all of 2008, 2009, and 2010 combined!  And if you count my posts to my new blog (my personal journal) then I am already ahead.  Although I never feel like I am doing enough or doing it well enough (a common sin among women I have learned) I think I should celebrate my improvement in this and other areas!  I feel like I should be helping Rustin in the kitchen since that saint of a husband is doing dishes, cooking dinner, and entertaining Evan simultaneously.  But, I also feel like somehow I have to make time to record our history. For example, our posterity may not have known that Rustin does such wonderful things if I didn't take a minute to write about it... right?  So... the progress report (not just mine).

-Logan has been caught up on his homework for 4 weeks in a row now, and is determined to keep it up!  WOW!  I can't tell you how amazing that is!
-Evan is learning more words every day and continually making us smile and laugh.  He is no longer afraid of the sight of dogs, in fact he can't get enough of seeing them as long as they don't make any noise.  Rustin has been trying to teach him that when dogs bark they are just saying "hi" and he does this by mixing barking sounds with the word "hi", so now whenever Evan says "hi," it sounds like he's barking, and whenever you ask him what a dog says, he says "hi"!
-I am steadily increasing my running speed.  I have run several 5k + training runs in the last couple of weeks at about a 10.5 minute /mile pace.  I know, I really can't call that "running", it's still a jogging pace, but I feel good about it.
-I decided last summer that I was going to complete a sprint triathlon this summer, so I started training for the swim a couple of months ago.  I used to be a TERRIBLE swimmer and quite afraid of water (even though I spent a lot of time in it while growing up) and now, I can say with some confidence that I know how to swim.  I have much improvement to make still.  I am quite slow, and still have the occasional panicky moment when I have to break my stroke to catch my breath and calm myself down, but now instead of stopping dead in the water and doggy paddling while gasping for air, I can somewhat calmly roll into my "sweet spot" (a term I learned from my awesome swim teacher and friend Coleen), breath deeply for a minute to steady myself, and then roll back into my stroke.  This would have been unthinkable a year ago.
-I have "kept up" on the laundry for a few months now.  This doesn't mean that the laundry is always DONE because that's impossible unless you make everyone go naked, sleep standing up, and drip dry instead of using towels.  But I have managed to avoid chest high piles of dirty clothes and multiple baskets of clean clothes waiting to be folded and put away.  I don't really know what has made the difference except maybe just consistently doing a little everyday.
-I have done better about managing the kids' chores and responsibilities using progress charts and rewards lately.  Sometimes it is so hard to keep up with who has finished what and who has earned or lost what privilege, but I have devoted enough time to it lately that we have had a somewhat meaningful system of incentives and things are getting done around the house (by the kids) more regularly.

I'd love to keep going, it helps me feel better about myself and my family when I spend time thinking about the good we accomplish, but I really better go help Rustin now so he can feel good about what I'm doing too!