Bad Mom. Better Mom.

I’ll give you a hint. When I stop posting as frequently, something is in turmoil in my life. It’s been eight days. Turmoil is happening.

Runner Boy has been having some social issues at school on and off for a month now. It reached a head about a week ago. I was mad. I was disappointed. I didn’t understand. He’s a good student. He’s a good kid. He just developed some bad habits. Part of me wanted to shake him. Why was he acting this way? We raised him to treat people with respect. We taught the golden rule. So where had we gone wrong?!

Kids have phases. Parents have phases. Life is a process. We never stop growing and changing. But I also know that a problem with a kid is rarely a problem with the kid. Mr. Neon and I had to face facts. We haven’t been the best of parents lately. We stare at our screens too much. We yell too much. We lose our cool too fast. We don’t eat dinner at the dinner table. We don’t make the every day things fun. We don’t laugh enough.

So what have we done? We’ve been staring at our screens less. We eat dinner at the dinner table. We take more deep breaths. We try to look at the world through our kids’ eyes. We laugh as much as possible. We hug more.

Even my resting HR is liking the changes we are making!

And we are having some success. Everything in life seems to go at a breakneck pace, except when you are trying to make positive changes. The boys are having happier days. Several days out of the week we hear Runner Boy declare “Today is the best day ever!” Let’s hope for more best days ever!

A Mom/Boy date to Jimmy John’s! They wanted to sit on the same side of the table. That NEVER happens.

Running and biking are still happening. I ran 12 miles on the TM this past Saturday. Why does every mile after 10 have to hurt so darn bad?! My hip was mostly ok, but my left IT band was SCREAMING. It actually continued to hurt on Sunday and I skipped my recovery bike/run. I also took full use of my actual honest-to-goodness rest day on Monday and stretched and foam rolled like nobody’s business!

I’m still on this darn weight roller coast. I’ll do really well for three or four days, and I’ll see the scale start to dip in the right direction. Then long run day will happen, I will eat everything within a 10 mile radius and it will begin it’s climb again. It’s a cycle that must be stopped. Ugh.

I wore my 2XU shorts for the first time on my bike today. Oh my goodness…where have they been all my life?! The waist band is wide. The chamois is soft. The leg holes stay put. I am hooked. Too bad they cost $85!! I have now ridden my bike at least once every week for the last 8 weeks. I’d say we have formed a habit. Cycling is getting easier. I’m turning over a higher RPM in the same gear and having to ramp up the gear to get my HR out of zone 1. Neat stuff. I’m excited to see what this will mean for my races this summer. I’ve still got another month before my first outdoor triathlon.

I got my tri bike some new PINK race tires. I can’t wait to put them on her! She’ll be so stylin’ this summer! I’ll definitely post a picture once I put them on. She’s already colorful with her teal and pink bottle holders.