I'm not running at 100%.

I don't know what it is exactly. General apathy. Sore feet. A need for large quantities of sleep. All of the above.

We're getting by. I'm getting through the necessities. (It seems I can only write in short sentences. That pretty much sums it all up.)

I'm just not moving forward. All I can do is get by.

On Saturday I thought I was back. I made valentines with Carmen and Chloe. Some persistent clutter got cleared away. And I was looking forward to a week with all the kids back in school. (Jaclyn and Steven have been home studying for finals and midterms respectively.)

I thought I might have a productive week ahead of me.

Till I took a call today and said yes to working an extra shift for a hygienist who has a child in the hospital. Can't say no to that.

And till I reached for the Advil tonight. (Burning eyes, ache-y head.)

Maybe one more week of operating at like 37%. Darn.

Jaclyn spelling me off quizzing Steven on science.

On the bright side, Steven, Jaclyn and I aced exams.

You read that right.

I know you know.

(I thought I was done with studying when I graduated from college.)

My Idol

I've been all-consumed by Young Womens of late. New Beginnings is right around the corner, and I've been furiously writing a script, planning the decorations, food, special musical number. Our theme is The Golden Value Awards, a nod to our new value and its color. We are going to recognize different women from the scriptures for the YW Values they best exemplify, only when the golden envelope is ripped open and the winner for each category is announced, clearly our winner won't be available to accept the award personally, at which point a young woman will accept it in her honor and give a brief acceptance speech. Check out the music I found to play. It will be brilliant or sacrilegious. Which reminds me.

It's currently high school semester break, and I am descending upon my laurels in their weakest moments (the morning) to work on personal progress. On Thursday I was reviewing an Integrity value experience with one of my girls that involved a lot of scripture reading - part of which was the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. You know: they wouldn't bow down and worship King Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue, they were thrown in a fiery furnace, but it all turns out well in the end. Uh-huh. And I started to feel a little uncomfortable about my new house guest awaiting his turn to shine at the Golden Value Awards.

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He's just on loan; he will be swiftly returned to his rightful owner as soon as I'm done with him. And I want to be clear that we haven't had family prayer in the front room at all since Oscar moved in.

(But while I've got my 7' tall golden image tomorrow's FHE lesson is taken care of.)

David & Goliath

Steven's sorta tall for his age. I'm not even kidding.

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But for whatever reason, our junior team played against the senior team of another school Thursday night, and Steven played toe to toe with this big guy. In our b-ball version of David and Goliath, Goliath's team won.

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The good part came later. Steven's coach always takes time with the team after a game (as all good coaches do) and in this wrap-up talk he reminded the team of the skills camp they have coming up on Sunday. Then he turned to Steven and said, "You probably can't come, right Steve?" to which all Steven had to do was reply, "Right." When Steven told me this before he headed to the locker room, my response was, "That's awesome, isn't it nice you got to do that the easy way? All you had say was 'Right'."

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Steve pretty much agreed. Easy.

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Then, in the parking lot (while I was waiting for Steven to come out of the school) the coach approached me and told me, "If Steven can't come to the skills camp on Sunday, don't worry about it. It won't count against him." With that short interaction, Coach D. has bought my ongoing dedication and loyalty to the basketball team. And the nameless, numerous LDS boys he has coached in the past, that have refrained from Sunday basketball, have my gratitude. Thanks for paving the way guys.

This is huge

Sweet! Amy posted a tutorial on how to publish larger pictures on your blog and I think it worked for me. (I won't know till I hit *publish post* now, will I?)
I have tried other tutorials with no luck so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
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One quick note about the picture: Carmen got a paint-by-numbers kit for Christmas, and she actually finished it. In three days. (I've never seen one finished before -ever!)

Sporty Spice

I really did a number on myself at the gym on Monday. Or possibly I've been doing an ongoing number on myself for the past 8 years on porcelain tile floors. Either way, I'm in pain. Pain is really a terrific motivator; I can really see why torture is effective. I'll do anything! I'll say anything! Just take away the pain!

Monday night I could hardly walk: the souls of my feet, particularly my right heel, hurt so badly. I've had mild foot trouble for a year, which I've mostly ignored, particularly because it has been at its worst in the morning and I am too busy at that time of day to pay attention to pain receptors.

Dr. Ken, with the help of his assistant, WebMD, has diagnosed plantar fasciitis, a condition that is most common in the middle-aged or athletes. (I get to choose my own classification here.)

So I bought myself some new arch-support cushioned-heeled running shoes. I'm stretching my foot the way my online physiotherapist has taught me to (WebMD again). Now I just wait and see how quickly I improve. Plantar fasciitis takes about as long to get better as it took to acquire, so here's hoping it was recent gym activity and not 8 years on hard floors that I need to recover from.

There are more options, including splints to wear at night to keep my foot flexed while I sleep. The foot splints could be a nice addition to my carpel tunnel splint for my wrist and my dental splint for clenching and grinding at night, am I right?

(This picture turned out to be the best shot of both my wrist and dental splint.)

There's a first time for everything.

I never thought that sports photography would have been practical training for motherhood. I didn't see Steven coming.

Steve warming up before the game. (I did a little warming up myself.)

He got the first foul,

the first points,

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and the first assist for his team tonight.

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(While I took my first basketball pictures.)

SPT: Edit That

Sometimes I look at an unflattering photo of myself and think:

I don't look like that!

(Then the self-doubt comes in: Do I?)
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It turns out I could benefit from Self Portrait Tuesday in my daily morning beauty routine. I gave today's photo a couple of tries, and then realized that the nude lips thing doesn't work for me like it does for some people. (Edit in red lipstick) The next few pictures were screaming: "Volume! You need volume!" (Edit in hairspray at the roots) It might be a good idea to keep a camera in the bathroom because the mirror isn't showing me everything I need to know. (Do I hear a resolution to take more SPTs?)

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I just discovered a new Picasa trick: erasing the circles under my eyes. (I need to learn how to do this with make-up.)

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And while I'm thinking about photo-editing, here's a preview of how I'd like to do next year's Christmas card photo: an all-white snowy background, bright colored clothes, then max out the highlights & warm up the color temperature in Picasa.