Isn't Miete cute in her Karate get up. The evening that I took this picture was quite an unpleasant and stressful one for my little Miete, but she got through it and it didn't seem to have a damaging effect on her delicate self esteem. So Miete has been doing karate classes for the past 4 weeks as part of her home school's art smarts classes. The class will last 6 weeks in total. The woman who's arm is around her is the person who has been teaching karate to Miete and the small group of other Summit students. The Summit students were invited to attend a karate graduation ceremony at the karate school where she works. I took Miete to it, but she was the only child from her Home school group there. In total there was around 30 or so kids aged 8 to 10 in various levels of karate there to be tested for their next belt level.
      Miete sat with the kids and was called up with 3 other kids almost immediately to demonstrate her karate knowledge. The kids sat in a circle around the room with the judges at the front of the room and the heard of parents off to the side. I felt a bit nervous for Miete knowing how shy she can be. I went off to sit on the floor and started taking pictures and recording, while the teacher called out commands. Miete did the first few moves and then grew very stiff and still. I could see through my camera lens that her face was turning very red. The teacher then told the kids to turn and face their Parents. Miete saw me  and burst into tears, running across the room to me. I tried to comfort and console her, but it was all I could do to keep my own tears from spilling over. I felt her pain. I had experienced similar situations as a child, and we van Gogh's don't do well in stressful situations. Actually it's from my mom's side, the Homes.  Anyways one of the karate instructors came and sat down by Miete and told her how brave she was to get up there and try when she didn't know anyone there and didn't know all the positions. Miete had only had 4 classes at this point. She managed to help Miete to feel better.
       At the end of the evening, after sitting for nearly 2 hours watching all the other kids demonstrate their skills Miete received a medal. The woman in the picture with Miete called her up to the front and congratulated her for bravery, and went on to say how proud of her she was for attending and participating when no one else from her home school group had attended. Miete was beaming. She has always wanted a medal, and I think she quickly forgot about the little ordeal she went through to receive it. In hindsight I blame my emotions on PMS. Nonetheless, it is sad to see our own children suffer through unpleasant situations.

And here are some cuties:

This is a dragon Miete spent hours creating as part of her study of China.

  

     Violet wearing Leif's underwear on her head.                    My beautiful Valentines cookies.

 

I am going to do better. I'll write shorter entries and write more frequently.  I always think of things I want to write about in the day, but by the time I have the kids all in bed and the house tidied I am much to tired to sit and write. Today I am writing instead of taking a nap. Napping generally wins out over everything else, so I am making a real sacrifice today.

So something I've been wanting to write about for a long time is running. Maybe not an exciting subject to some, but I have so much to say about it. There is a local magazine called " I Run". I haven't read it in a while but I like it because it features a lot of regular people and not just turbo athletes. People like myself, that aren't necessary fast runners, but just love running, and whose lives have benefited in some positive way from running. Now the interviews with these regular people always start with I run... and they go on to list why they run.  This has got me thinking of the many reasons why I run. So here goes, in no particular order. I  first ran the Sun Run, a 10km run when I turned 30. It was a goal I had. I didn't really train though, and it was a slow run with a a lot of walking and bathroom breaks. At the end I had such a hight though. I felt so great for completing such an event. The following year I trained a bit more and did it again without any bathroom breaks and fewer walking breaks. I finished 20 minutes sooner then the previous year. After that I decided that  I wanted to learn to love running, because I still didn't. I decided to sign up for a running clinic at the Running Room.  That did it for me. The first time  I ran 4km strait felt like such an accomplishment to me, and every week we added to it. Eventually we were running 8km and doing hill repeats, and I was running longer distances by myself. I was slow but I didn't care because it made me feel so good. that summer I ran another 10km race and did it in 1hr 7min, no bathroom or walking breaks. It was a huge accomplishment for me and I was very proud of myself. After I finished the Running room clinic I continued to run by myself and cut out the walking minutes that is part of their program. I have continued to run regularly since, only missing a few months when I was pregnant with Violet. I really love it. It doesn't take any athletic ability. Any one with one working leg can do it. There are some really fast runners with prosthetic legs. I come from a family of extreme un-athleticism.( I don't know if that's a word but you know what I mean .) Running doesn't take any athletic talent. I am a slow runner and I know that I will never be really fast, but who cares. I Love it as much as those fast people do.  I've learned that it is the fastest way to burn the most amount of calories in the least time. I can get my heart rate up to 160 in about 3min, something I can't do, doing any other exercise, even cycling. Who doesn't love that. It is the quickest way to lose weight. I run to stay young. I'm going to be 35 this year and I am not getting any younger, so running helps with that. I run to alleviate  stress, or get away from my problems. living in a crazy house with four kids can be mentally trying a lot of the time. There are days when Christopher comes in the door from work and I run out it. I need to run to calm myself and clear my head. I come home feeling happier and refreshed. I often feel like I want to preach the joys of running to my family and friends, so they can share in my joy. That could be like a religious testimony. Anyways running is something I highly recommend to everyone. It's cheap, all you need is good shoes. If you only have 20 minutes a day it's perfect and you don't need a gym membership, although  I personally don't love running in a down pour which we have a lot of here. Anyways that is all I have to say about that. I hope I have motivated someone to get outside, go for a run and enjoy this beautiful place we live in, and if you don't live in rainy B.C you should get out and enjoy the beauty of where ever you are.