This was meant to be a Monday Musings, but I just didn't have the time...

I finished the Capital Area Race Series on Saturday morning.  Saturday dawned warm and steamy up here in the Lakes Region and I wasn't really feeling it from the starting gun on.  I just don't do humidity and with the extra poundage I have packed on, it just doesn't make for a fun morning, but it's a pretty race along back country roads.  I mean we're talking a field of sheep (including one mean looking ram) and no fence to hold them in.  Thankfully they were not surprised or threatened by the two hundred plus runners streaming by.

This weekend also marked the start of the Olympic games.  That means plenty of couch time to get some serious knitting done in the next two weeks.  I finished a pair of socks and got started on some Christmas presents.  I am not going to start on baby stuff until we decide whether we find out what we are having or not.  We have 24 days to decide...

The Barnstead Firefighters Association 5k is also coming together.  I would strongly recommend that you register for this fast paced out and back route!  Do it soon, you definitely don't want to miss out on the awesome t shirt we have put together.  And I have to say the pancakes after the race will be well worth the wait.

WIP Wednesday

My WIP Wednesday is not of the fiber kind.  I have been experimenting this summer with the herbs I grow around our yard.  I am a lover of tea and herbal tea so last Christmas John bought me a tea brewer that looks similar to a French press.  Over the winter, I would brew loose teas in the evening to sit by the fire with.  I longed for the warm summer days when my herbs would bloom in my little garden.  

lemon balm/mint tisane

Last October we visited one of our favorite restaurants on the Eastern Seaboard.  Primo is located in Rockland Maine and offers a unique locally sourced menu.  After dinner, I like to order tea to go with my dessert and our waitress offered tisane instead.  Tisane is simply a herb brewed concoction that is done in a French press.  She topped it off with a warm jar of Maine honey.  I was hooked and could not wait until this summer to try my own hand at this.

I started with a plain lemon balm tisane and tonight I have moved to a lemon balm/mint tisane.  I will add a teaspoon of local honey and then sip away while working on my knitting.  I now look forward to my cooler summer evenings and my cuppa homebrewed yumminess.  

Sunday Thoughts

I ended my running drought yesterday and participated in a 5 mile road race up in Concord.  It was a perfect day here in Central New Hampshire, but the only drawback was there were absolutely NO bathrooms at the start or the finish.  So I had to run all five miles on a very full bladder that had something the size of a lemon pressing against it.  Every time I thought I had found a good place to jump off the road and pop a squat...there would be piles of poison ivy that I would have to wade through.  So I kept going. I am not going to lie, my pace was very slow at 11:55 and I had to walk the giantly long hill up Clinton Street at the beginning.  But the bigger thing was I was out there doing it!  I feel pretty good today despite the sore back and sore knees.  I have one race left in the Capital Area Race Series and that will finish up next weekend in Canterbury.  At least I know what to expect with the Canterbury Woodchuck 5k....hills, lots of hills!

The race was a beautiful course in parts of Concord most people do not see on a regular basis.  I mean we were so close to downtown, but we were running through corn fields and the campus of St. Paul's School which seemed very far removed from the Capital building.

It's been very nice the last few days to leave the windows open and allow the breeze to flow through the house after almost a week of hot and humid weather.  I guess it's going to start to creep back in for the early part of next week.  Ahh the joys of summer in New England.  The weather definitely has it's ups and downs this time of year.  Tuesday we had a nasty storm roll through town and our backyard still has branches littered all over it.  For a few hours it seemed every fire department (ours included) in the Lakes Region was out with wires and trees down.  We were just lucky we didn't lose any large trees that could've damaged the house, shed or our cars.  But that nasty storm knocked out the high temps and the oppressive humidity.

All aboard!

So I have been relatively quiet the last two months and if you follow Facebook you now know why.  I have had so much going on with my body over the last 14 weeks that I was afraid of giving it away before we were ready to tell people.  We wanted to make sure things were "cooking" all right and we wanted to make sure our family knew.  John and I are beyond excited to add to our little home.  In fact we are getting ready to make major changes at the house prior to the arrival of our little one.  We are in the process of finishing the basement so we can make a new family room/guest room.  We have been getting estimates over the last week and let's just say...holy crap!!  Our first quote was over $35,000.00.  Now those of you who have been to our house you all know it's not big.  Nope not at all.  So spending over $10,000.00/100 square feet seems a bit steep to me. Ok more than just a bit!

That being said, I have also done very little running.  My boobs just were not about it and then there was the nausea.  It was pretty persistent those first few weeks and thanks to Zofran for making that period a little more tolerable.  But I have managed several days a week on the exercise bike because it's just been too hot to do it outside.  And the pond has been a lifesaver for those after work swims with the little dog.

I have also not started baby knitting.  I want to wait until we decide whether we are going to find out if it's a boy or a girl.  But I have downloaded a ton of quick patterns for hats, booties, blankets, and mittens for my cold weather baby.  Because we have hockey games to hit!

I have to thank my close pals and running buddies for keeping my pregnancy a secret from the rest of the world.  And to my fire family...for constantly giving me crap about "light duty."  The next few months are going to be an interesting ride and I hope you will join me for it!

A good book and a chair in the shade...

I have been reading up a storm the last month or so.  I enjoy sitting out in my yard in a chair with my feet up, a cold drink at my side, and good book in my lap.  I am so thankful for my kindle and it's easy operation.  I have already read a dozen or so books since the beginning of June.  I have been using New Hampshire Downloadable Books for the past six months or so.  Way cheaper than buying everything off of Amazon.  And the way I plow through books this definitely saves the wallet.  So easy to use, you just log into your library with your library card number plus a unique prefix and away you go.  You can search for books that are currently available or find ones that may have a waiting list.  The problem with the waiting list is that I have sometimes waited for months for a book.

So far my top picks for summer are:
Up: A mother and daughter's peakbagging adventure by Patricia Ellis Herr.  It was a quick read about a mom who takes her 5 year old up all the 4000 footers in New Hampshire.  Having done quite a few 4000 footers, I can't imagine doing it as a little kid.

The Fifty Shades Triology by E.L James is also another not to miss read.  Would make a great poolside or beach read!  I think I read all three over the course of a week.

Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts was the first fire book I had read in a long time.  Wonderful book about the Missoula smoke jumpers with a mystery thrown in.  Made me want to pack my bags and head out west for fire season.

Last on my list is Nightwoods by Charles Frazier.  The author of Cold Mountain is back with a murder mystery/love story set deep in Appalachia during the late 50s or early 60s.

Those are it for now, but given that I am finishing a book every three to four days there will be an update or two later this summer.

Busy...

I have been rather quiet as of late.  Only have done one 5k in the last month and having been working my way through a pair of socks for my OT student.  It's been rather busy and chaotic in our lives as well.  We had an impromptu trip to CT to say farewell to John's grandmother and we got to see a lot of family for too short of a time.  I have been hard at work on my 5k that is starting to come together as our sponsors have started to send us check.  We've been busy lavishing attention on our little dog in the form of almost daily swims.  We started softball with the same team we played with last season.  A lot of new faces, but also really great to have the old ones too.

The Fourth of July has come and gone.  I enjoyed a night out with the BFR crew at the fireworks.  John traded in his car for a new one.  Oh the joys of lots of miles traveling between home and work.  John went for a long walk in the woods and I snuck down to Portsmouth to see Jen and Josh.   We have had some wonderful evenings at home by our campfire enjoying our backyard in those rare moments of downtime.

I always feel busier in the summer with the longer hours of daylight that keep me from wanting to stay home and hibernate.  And in the weeks to come, the days will get shorter and then we will be back to the bright colors of fall.  But in the meantime it's time to go to softball and enjoy a beautiful evening out in the lakes region.